So without getting too long in explanation, we have a group of 7, 4 of us rotate taking turns as DM’s and each of our stories influence the same world, sometimes tying together or being independent of each other.
I led the previous campaign, someone is taking their turn now and then I am concluding my campaign with an extravagant second act. During Act 1 the party recovered an artifact they must exchange with my characters captors. Unbeknown to the party though my character has gone off the deep end, he’s a paladin who has truly now started an inquisition of sorts to bring his god to this earth.
So I have a changeling in his ranks (I created 10 character sheets for Kingsguard because he started a group religious guardsmen for the king during a vampire invasion) I plan on inserting this changeling in his place during the swap so they will do the other DM’s campaign as my character.
Does the DM need to know? I plan on keeping him in a separate campaign for rolls to not give away the secret since this DM will be a player in my campaign.
does anyone in the group need to know? Should I tell someone? Or they will just find out if I happen to die. I’m not sure how to explain that my character won’t know specific questions if asked to recall and event or something. There are also NPC’s who have interacted with my character that’ll be in the campaign.
I feel like it would be good for the dm to know, but it’s a difficult call. It would be a cool surprise but if the others planned something else, it could backfire. It’s really up to you, I don’t really know how you would go about this.
Just got the DM on board to not use a previously set wrist curse be used during the campaign, and explained as best I could it’s worth the surprise if we can work around it.
so as it stands the changeling should be able to slip in his place after passing actor wisdom save for voice changing! Then unless I die, or get force morphed, no one will be the wiser leading into my second act!
Keeping secrets from the DM is a bad idea. What happens when someone tries to target you with a spell, and sorry, your creature type is fey, so charm person can’t target you. Or you’re a shapeshifter so polymorph just fails. And keeping these kinds of secrets from the table in general isn’t too great. Other people will rarely gasp at the big reveal like you think they will. It all ends up being a bit main character-y.
A lot of issues can arise from deliberately trolling your group. I for one would not recommend it.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Keeping secrets from the DM is a bad idea. What happens when someone tries to target you with a spell, and sorry, your creature type is fey, so charm person can’t target you. Or you’re a shapeshifter so polymorph just fails. And keeping these kinds of secrets from the table in general isn’t too great. Other people will rarely gasp at the big reveal like you think they will. It all ends up being a bit main character-y.
I would second this opinion. Although it might be cool to surprise everyone, even if you let the DM know, you will still be surprising almost everyone.
The main problem I see here is that you will play the changeling as if they were your paladin and there are issues there.
1) The changeling was part of the King's Guard. However, presumably, they didn't have the same adventures or training as the PC. Is the changeling also a paladin? Is the changeling the same level as the PC? It isn't just a matter of making a performance check to see if their voice is close enough.
2) The changeling hasn't traveled with the party, they don't know how the paladin interacts with the other party members. The changeling doesn't have the same knowledge as the paladin or the same experiences. On the other hand, all of the other PCs have been traveling with the paladin for some time. They camp together, chat, discuss families, relations, goals, objectives - even whatever the usual watch order is. Maybe the paladin always makes coffee for everyone in the morning putting in a twist of cinnamon for extra flavor. What happens when the changeling doesn't do this? What happens when they have no idea what the special ingredient is?
Basically, the changeling has no chance of impersonating the paladin for an extended period of time unless they have had the opportunity to acquire most of the information the paladin would know and also has traveled with the party so that it is aware of the usual interactions ... unless there is some magic involved somewhere.
The problem here is that you can role play the changeling as your paladin with no issues. YOU know everything. YOU can hide it from the party. However, without a lot of knowledge the changeling doesn't have, the PC changeling pretending to be the paladin CAN'T hide it from the party effectively. The changeling would be found out or at least significant suspicions would be raised especially in a magical world like D&D where everyone knows that changelings and magic exist.
Consider that for a second ... you live in a world where changelings and magic could result in your friends being taken over or possessed. The most elementary step would be to choose a particular word or expression you could use to verify your identity with each of the other party members. A different word for each, and if you can't get most of them correct when asked then the odds are good that you aren't you.
3) Finally, there are the mechanical aspects. If you use the PC changeling race which would make the most sense - you are fey. The changeling in the monster manual is humanoid - but the one in the monster manual also isn't a paladin of the appropriate level with appropriate abilities. What type of paladin is involved? An ancients paladin would affect the changeling with their channel divinity. A shapechanger can't be polymorphed. Someone in the party wants to change the character into a T-rex. It won't work. What happens if an enemy spellcaster targets the paladin with polymorph to change them into a bunny to remove them from the fight. It can't work. Do you say that at the table? Do you take the DM aside to try and resolve it privately then have them come back and say it doesn't work? If the DM isn't involved in the plot device then there is no way it can run seamlessly in all circumstances since the DM doesn't have the ability to adjudicate the game interactions.
Also, your premise assumes that the changeling will go undetected so that they plot continues when you DM next. You are essentially railroading the plot. However, if you role play the changeling properly, it could well raise enough questions that you are forced to either fake it and pretend to knowledge the changeling doesn't have or allow the changeling to be found out possibly disrupting your future plot line. As long as that is an acceptable outcome then all is fine, the changeling gets found because it couldn't maintain the deception in close quarters.
Another question, ongoing interactions will require ongoing deception checks. It isn't one and done since the changeling lacks knowledge that will give it away. How do you do these deception checks during the game without either the DM or other players noticing? If you fail, do you point out the suspicious event? Or are you going to pretend that the changeling knows everything, can't make any mistakes and always succeeds on every deception check that might have been required?
TL;DR This is one of those plot devices that sounds cool to the DM that creates it but would appear to be almost unworkable in practice, requires deceiving everyone else at the table and requires assuming the plot goes perfectly with implicit success at every check or suspicious moment which would never happen. When you do finally "reveal" it, everyone at the table will likely stare in disbelief and say "How is it that we didn't notice it during all the close interactions over the last adventure." ... and the DM answer? "Because I said so" ... not ideal in my opinion.
So without getting too long in explanation, we have a group of 7, 4 of us rotate taking turns as DM’s and each of our stories influence the same world, sometimes tying together or being independent of each other.
I led the previous campaign, someone is taking their turn now and then I am concluding my campaign with an extravagant second act. During Act 1 the party recovered an artifact they must exchange with my characters captors. Unbeknown to the party though my character has gone off the deep end, he’s a paladin who has truly now started an inquisition of sorts to bring his god to this earth.
So I have a changeling in his ranks (I created 10 character sheets for Kingsguard because he started a group religious guardsmen for the king during a vampire invasion) I plan on inserting this changeling in his place during the swap so they will do the other DM’s campaign as my character.
Does the DM need to know? I plan on keeping him in a separate campaign for rolls to not give away the secret since this DM will be a player in my campaign.
does anyone in the group need to know? Should I tell someone? Or they will just find out if I happen to die. I’m not sure how to explain that my character won’t know specific questions if asked to recall and event or something. There are also NPC’s who have interacted with my character that’ll be in the campaign.
I feel like it would be good for the dm to know, but it’s a difficult call. It would be a cool surprise but if the others planned something else, it could backfire. It’s really up to you, I don’t really know how you would go about this.
Just got the DM on board to not use a previously set wrist curse be used during the campaign, and explained as best I could it’s worth the surprise if we can work around it.
so as it stands the changeling should be able to slip in his place after passing actor wisdom save for voice changing! Then unless I die, or get force morphed, no one will be the wiser leading into my second act!
Praise the Sun!
Keeping secrets from the DM is a bad idea. What happens when someone tries to target you with a spell, and sorry, your creature type is fey, so charm person can’t target you. Or you’re a shapeshifter so polymorph just fails.
And keeping these kinds of secrets from the table in general isn’t too great. Other people will rarely gasp at the big reveal like you think they will. It all ends up being a bit main character-y.
A lot of issues can arise from deliberately trolling your group. I for one would not recommend it.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Weird. Duplicated post. See the next one for the reply.
I would second this opinion. Although it might be cool to surprise everyone, even if you let the DM know, you will still be surprising almost everyone.
The main problem I see here is that you will play the changeling as if they were your paladin and there are issues there.
1) The changeling was part of the King's Guard. However, presumably, they didn't have the same adventures or training as the PC. Is the changeling also a paladin? Is the changeling the same level as the PC? It isn't just a matter of making a performance check to see if their voice is close enough.
2) The changeling hasn't traveled with the party, they don't know how the paladin interacts with the other party members. The changeling doesn't have the same knowledge as the paladin or the same experiences. On the other hand, all of the other PCs have been traveling with the paladin for some time. They camp together, chat, discuss families, relations, goals, objectives - even whatever the usual watch order is. Maybe the paladin always makes coffee for everyone in the morning putting in a twist of cinnamon for extra flavor. What happens when the changeling doesn't do this? What happens when they have no idea what the special ingredient is?
Basically, the changeling has no chance of impersonating the paladin for an extended period of time unless they have had the opportunity to acquire most of the information the paladin would know and also has traveled with the party so that it is aware of the usual interactions ... unless there is some magic involved somewhere.
The problem here is that you can role play the changeling as your paladin with no issues. YOU know everything. YOU can hide it from the party. However, without a lot of knowledge the changeling doesn't have, the PC changeling pretending to be the paladin CAN'T hide it from the party effectively. The changeling would be found out or at least significant suspicions would be raised especially in a magical world like D&D where everyone knows that changelings and magic exist.
Consider that for a second ... you live in a world where changelings and magic could result in your friends being taken over or possessed. The most elementary step would be to choose a particular word or expression you could use to verify your identity with each of the other party members. A different word for each, and if you can't get most of them correct when asked then the odds are good that you aren't you.
3) Finally, there are the mechanical aspects. If you use the PC changeling race which would make the most sense - you are fey. The changeling in the monster manual is humanoid - but the one in the monster manual also isn't a paladin of the appropriate level with appropriate abilities. What type of paladin is involved? An ancients paladin would affect the changeling with their channel divinity. A shapechanger can't be polymorphed. Someone in the party wants to change the character into a T-rex. It won't work. What happens if an enemy spellcaster targets the paladin with polymorph to change them into a bunny to remove them from the fight. It can't work. Do you say that at the table? Do you take the DM aside to try and resolve it privately then have them come back and say it doesn't work? If the DM isn't involved in the plot device then there is no way it can run seamlessly in all circumstances since the DM doesn't have the ability to adjudicate the game interactions.
Also, your premise assumes that the changeling will go undetected so that they plot continues when you DM next. You are essentially railroading the plot. However, if you role play the changeling properly, it could well raise enough questions that you are forced to either fake it and pretend to knowledge the changeling doesn't have or allow the changeling to be found out possibly disrupting your future plot line. As long as that is an acceptable outcome then all is fine, the changeling gets found because it couldn't maintain the deception in close quarters.
Another question, ongoing interactions will require ongoing deception checks. It isn't one and done since the changeling lacks knowledge that will give it away. How do you do these deception checks during the game without either the DM or other players noticing? If you fail, do you point out the suspicious event? Or are you going to pretend that the changeling knows everything, can't make any mistakes and always succeeds on every deception check that might have been required?
TL;DR This is one of those plot devices that sounds cool to the DM that creates it but would appear to be almost unworkable in practice, requires deceiving everyone else at the table and requires assuming the plot goes perfectly with implicit success at every check or suspicious moment which would never happen. When you do finally "reveal" it, everyone at the table will likely stare in disbelief and say "How is it that we didn't notice it during all the close interactions over the last adventure." ... and the DM answer? "Because I said so" ... not ideal in my opinion.
do not praise the sun it is evil
play hollow knight if you dont belive me
ralsei is peak
buy outer wilds
miku is my gf