You were once two separate people, perhaps siblings or lovers. You might of been sworn enemies. Then some event happened and you became two souls in the same body. This often times confuses other people as you talk to the other soul. If you hate the other soul then just know there is one thing that both souls want. To survive. Even if you have your disagreements with the other soul, you can put aside the differences if a dragon is chasing you.
- Skill Proficiencies: Choose two skill proficiencies that this soul has learned from when they were a separate person.
- Tool Proficiencies: You two have learned to play a game so that you can keep yourselves entertained.
- Languages: Gain two languages of your choice and decide which soul knows that language. Often times, if asked, the soul not running the body will translate to common so the other can understand.
- Equipment: You gain a gaming set of your choice, A large backpack with labeled compartments, and 10gp
Every soul has a story, but your souls combine their stories at some point. How so?
| d5 | Joining of souls |
|---|---|
| 1 | Cursed to be in same body |
| 2 | Magic allowed souls to be in one body |
| 3 | Two souls fought for the body at birth and got stuck |
| 4 | An otherworldly entity tried possessing you but failed |
| 5 | Come up with your own story? |
As you are two people in one body, you can switch between souls when you want. When you do, switch character sheets to the other soul, keeping the Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution scores. This second character sheet may also choose to select a different class. Skills and proficiency are different on the second character sheet. You may also speak to the other soul as if it were a person standing in front of you. In addition when you go to sleep, the other soul comes out, although both souls are subject to spells that cause affects such as sleep and fear.
As aside note, Hit die is always 1d8 with this background despite what your class may say.
Suggested Characteristics
It's interesting having two souls.
| d6 | Personality Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | We always fight and are on oposing sides of an arguement |
| 2 | We usually are opposites of eachother but we do our best to cover eachothers backs |
| 3 | One of us is shy, one of us is bold. Which is which? |
| 4 | We both agree that it's fun messing with other people. |
| 5 | Where one's weekness is, the other makes up for in strength. |
| 6 | It's odd how much you hate it when you are not in control of your body. Although I should ask if it even is my body in the first place. |
| d6 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Even though we are two different people, we believe in the same things. (Lawful) |
| 2 | Too many people confuse us for us to not act completly different. (Chaotic) |
| 3 | Even if we are different, there's no reason to harm others. (Good) |
| 4 | We've got too many things on our minds to worry about others. (Neutral) |
| 5 | Why bother trying to hide who we are? If someone doesn't like us, we'll kill them. Simple. (Evil) |
| 6 | The only reason to hide yourself is if you are scared, and we are not. (Any) |
| d8 | Bond |
|---|---|
| 1 | I would do anything for (Insert other soul's name). I feel that my life wouldn't be the same without them. |
| 2 | We were married before we got "Cursed." It's actually a blessing as far as we are conserned, although we won't be able to have children unless we adopt. |
| 3 | (insert other soul name)! You can shut your trap! |
| 4 | I may hate (Insert other soul name), but I got to admit that they are useful. |
| 5 | We love different things, but we let the other have their fun when they are out. |
| 6 | We are trying to get (Other soul name) their body back. No (other soul name) this is MY body not yours! |
| 7 | Yea, we are two people in one body, but we've made it work |
| 8 | It's a pain, but we don't mind being together |
| d8 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | I hate them, they hate me, we just copperate cause we're stuck. (Was singing that when I made it) |
| 2 | I'll sometimes force myself to go to sleep so that the other one will come out against their will |
| 3 | We hate admitting that we rely on eachother. |
| 4 | One of us is of a different race and doesn't want to admit it |
| 5 | (Soul 1 speaking) We've been together for so long, I'm finding it harder and harder to keep who is who clear. |
| 6 | Somehow we are both on the same weavelength when it comes to wanting to steal stuff. |
| 7 | It is sometimes too easy to tell us apart because of our polar opposite personalities. |
| 8 | It's hard to get the other soul out due to them being incredibly shy and it's hard for me to give control to them at the same time. |
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Posted Jul 10, 2018When you increase their Int, Wis, or Cha through the ability score improvements, would you increase both souls stat or just the one you want?
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Posted Sep 5, 2018Well I guess it would depend on the GM.
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Posted Sep 5, 2018My apologizes for not seeing this earlier, you only increase the Int, Wis and Cha for the one you want.
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Posted Oct 1, 2018Interesting. I don't think you should change the hit die though.
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Posted Oct 1, 2018The reason why I changed the hit die is because you could just end up having a barbarian out for everything but knowledge related things where you would just pull out the wizard. Or at least that's something I would do due to the fact that I tend to min-max. Truth be told, I put in that restriction for myself mostly. You can talk to your GM and see if that's something you can remove. After all, it's homebrew content!
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Posted Nov 4, 2018I actually love this background. I have modified it a bit, by making it not that I can see the other soul....but more along the likes of DID- Dissociate Identity Disorder = or what was originally known as multiply personality disorder. There's this one person I follow on social media about it and introduces some of her 29 alters to the world.
So I play the other soul as an alter.
Honestly it makes me happy playing the background you made along the line like this. Because I'm interested over this mental health condition; and at times in my life I wish I had an alter to not have to deal with super shitty moments in my life. I suffer from Anxiety, Depression and Attention Deficit Disorder. So to play this makes the escape into D&D even more interesting and the back story for them. It's for a homebrew campaign I'm just starting out with.
I'm honestly grateful for you creating this.
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Posted Nov 4, 2018Glad you enjoy it! And yea, feel free to modify it however you wish. After all, it's homebrew!
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Posted Nov 29, 2018wait does that mean you can increase int and cha for one and wis and int for the other?
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Posted Nov 30, 2018Yes you could. The only ability score that affects both at the same time is physical ability scores (Str, Dex, Con). No to mention that they are technically different characters so they would have their own non physical stats (Int, Wis, Cha)
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Posted Dec 22, 2018This may be my new favorite background though my GM is still hesitant on allowing it.
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Posted Dec 24, 2018Is there a specif reason why? If so, point him to me and we can talk about how I intended it's use and how a DM may modify it to better suit their game. After all, it's homebrew, anything can be done to it.
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Posted Jan 18, 2019Question so since one soul is awake while the other sleeps how does taking a rest work do you have to rest for 16 or is it like a mind over matter type thing where even if only one rests both their bodies are rested
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Posted Jan 18, 2019That would be something to work out with the DM, although the whole point of sleeping is so that the body can rest, so I'd argue for normal 8 hours.
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Posted Feb 16, 2019"the second soul can choose it's own class" so then does the body level them together but they level independently? Meaning you could have a level 5 PC: soul A is a Paladin 5 while soul B is a Bard 3/Rogue 2?
How would ASI work? can soul A take a feat that only improves them while soul B takes +2 con which affects both?
It seems like a fun RP idea but that mechanic seems a little exploitable maybe?
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Posted Feb 17, 2019As I've said to many people, this is definitely one to bring to the DM to work out major issues. My plans for level up were that the one that is 'out' is the one to get experience. As for ASI, I personally only get the body upgrades if both could get the upgrade.
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Posted Mar 5, 2019Hi, I'm a new DM and going over characters with one of my players, he noted that he likes this background (me too, a very interesting one indeed). How would you address levels, if the character has two different classes? Do you handle it like multi-classing? Also, can the different characters have separate backgrounds?
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Posted Mar 6, 2019Always good to see DMs asking! For levels, I usually play it as the one running the body at that point in time is the one getting the experience, so let's say that you have a barbarian and a wizard. Barbarian soul is in a fight and wins. Because barbarian is the one controlling the body at that time, they get the xp while the wizard gets nothing. But again, that's how I've been playing it. Other than that, treat them like they were a single character. As for the backgrounds, that's a DM decision. I added the proficiencies to represent that, but if you want to have each soul have their own background, go for it. It is homebrew after all.
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Posted Mar 9, 2019I wanted to ask how the feature duality would work while your in combat. Is the switching between your soul once treated as a free action? When you said that you can switch between souls when you want did you mean as no action required?
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Posted Mar 11, 2019I personally used it as a ritual spell when switching. So anywhere from 1-10 minutes depending on the DM.
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Posted Mar 18, 2019Actually, two classes in one body leveling up together is not overpowered. It's much less power than 2 separate characters, because they have the same hitpoints. About hit dice - I'd suggest using the smaller one. Same with ability score increase - points can be either spent on body stats for both or on mind stats for each.
I'd suggest switching being depending on your internal relationships, either as free action, action, bonus action or ritual. Neither is too powerful, because you still have one action in combat for both.
Really glad to see a background such as this!