Howdy! I'm a first time DM running an unusual game: all of my players' characters have amnesia, and don't remember their lives before a certain point. They got to choose their classes and everything else about their characters, but their backstories are mine to toy with, and will be slowly revealed throughout the story.
Something I've been struggling with for reasons of balance: some of my player characters get a "secret multiclass" -- they may have been a different class in their 'past life' than the one they chose now. They signed on for the campaign knowing that this may be the case, and that I would pick classes that synergize well (e.g. Revised Ranger/Druid, Sorcerer/Warlock, Bard/Sorcerer). Slowly their secret extra class's abilities will be revealed to them, and they will have the option to either embrace their past self by further exploring/taking more levels in the multiclass, or reject their past and continue straight up with their chosen class.
The tricky part is that only half of the party is getting these "secret multiclasses" and I've been trying to figure out how to enact this in a way that's fair to both sides. One thing I'm considering is giving each player a small amount of extra abilities outside their normal class, but the "multiclassed" people only get access to a small portion of Level 1 abilities for their multiclass in exchange for me not taking one of their character levels, and the non-multiclassed people get one special ability that's related to their backstory so they're not left out.
In other words, the Sorcerer discovers the ability to cast a couple of Warlock cantrips, but doesn't get the full benefit of a first level Warlock class unless he chooses to take the class later and eats a character level for it. Meanwhile, the player whose character doesn't know they're some type of Undead, gets the Undead Resilience ability that zombies get once per long rest (at 0 HP, roll a CON save with a DC of 5+the damage that took them to 0, and on a success, stay up with 1 HP).
The one I'm struggling with right now is that one of my players' characters doesn't know they're a magical construct and I'm trying to decide what special ability I can give them based on that. I considered magical effect resistance like a golem, but that's WAY too powerful. Where I'm sitting right now it something like "Once per day, as an action, you can gain resistance to one non-physical damage type for 1 minute."
Does that still seem too powerful an ability to just give away for story reasons? Or is it underpowered compared to access to Warlock cantrips and Undead Resilience?
Howdy! I'm a first time DM running an unusual game
That sentence right there set off alarm bells for me. You sure you don't just want to keep things simple for your first game?
But if you do want to go with this I would just give them the multiclass levels for free as you begin to reveal their backstories, at a rate of 1 per 4-5 regular levels. They can decide if they want to invest more heavily in their backstory class or current class, but get a few backstory levels for free. Just scale your encounter difficulty appropriately.
For the other half- Maybe a free Ability Score Increase, or a free epic boon, at these intervals?
How come only half the party has the multiclass past life?
Have you considered giving every PC a feat for free? That would solve the problem of fairness. I can’t help but think that the Heavy Armor Master feat would be perfect for the construct for example.
You should look at the Paladin (Oath of the Ancient) aura ability:
Aura of Warding:
Beginning at 7th level, ancient magic lies so heavily upon you that it forms an eldritch ward. You and friendly creatures within 10 feet of you have resistance to damage from spells.
At 18th level, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet.
Giving a character permanent resistance to spell damage is strong, but not as strong as some class abilities that exist at these levels.
Just a couple of reference points ... all gnomes start with gnome cunning giving them advantage on all saving throws vs magic for intelligence, wisdom or charisma saves. Yuan-ti purebloods start with resistance to magic giving them advantage on all saving throws vs magic.These are racial abilities, some consider the yuan-ti one a bit strong but I haven't heard anyone object to the gnome one. So although it might be a bit strong, you could give the construct magic resistance. Alternatively, you could give them immunity to poison damage or some other types of damage that don't affect constructs.
However, I would second the comment about this being a challenging scenario for a first time DM though it could be lots of fun and work out fine. Just remember that you are making up all of the rules for this part - it isn't covered anywhere - and the odds are good that whatever you come up with won't really be "balanced" so feel free to tweak as you go along.
In the case of remembering past lives, you could either give them a level in the class to keep it simple or you could give the character the option to take a level in that class at their next level up depending on how you want it to work. An alternative would be to create a custom feat for each character that encapsulates bits and pieces of their past lives and model the capabilities you give with the feat on ones in the PHB and other sources. However, it sounds like some of the characters actually ARE the creature types as opposed to remembering something ... the construct is a construct, the undead is an undead so they have abilities associated with these races as opposed to remembering some class features from the past which might make it harder to balance and keep logically consistent.
How come only half the party has the multiclass past life?
Go big or go home I guess, I ain't scared -- and I'm playing with good friends who will be understanding if I mess up a bit here and there and have to tweak things on the fly. They all signed up knowing both that this game would be a little different and that it was my first time running one, we'll be fine. I'm a seasoned storyteller, it's just the mechanics of telling this particular story through an interactive, player-driven medium that are going to be a learning experience, but again, I have a forgiving group who's prepared to Get Weird.
The reason only half of the party has a multiclass past life is mostly a combination of several factors.
1) Keeping it slightly unpredictable for the players. Everyone will get something from their past life but it won't always be a multiclass. Sometimes it's just a special ability.
2) The decisions for each character were made based on the story I've written for each of them. Not every one of those stories justifies or calls for a multiclass. The idea behind the multiclassing is "you acted as a different class in your past life" but the Construct, for example, doesn't exactly have a past life, just false memories like a Replicant.
3) Just couldn't find a good multiclass for some of them. One is playing a Bloodhunter, another picked a homebrew class that we're probably going to have to tweak as we go for balance, and I'm not confident multiclassing those characters because it's somewhat untested what classes would synergize well with their homebrew classes.
Howdy! I'm a first time DM running an unusual game: all of my players' characters have amnesia, and don't remember their lives before a certain point. They got to choose their classes and everything else about their characters, but their backstories are mine to toy with, and will be slowly revealed throughout the story.
Something I've been struggling with for reasons of balance: some of my player characters get a "secret multiclass" -- they may have been a different class in their 'past life' than the one they chose now. They signed on for the campaign knowing that this may be the case, and that I would pick classes that synergize well (e.g. Revised Ranger/Druid, Sorcerer/Warlock, Bard/Sorcerer). Slowly their secret extra class's abilities will be revealed to them, and they will have the option to either embrace their past self by further exploring/taking more levels in the multiclass, or reject their past and continue straight up with their chosen class.
The tricky part is that only half of the party is getting these "secret multiclasses" and I've been trying to figure out how to enact this in a way that's fair to both sides. One thing I'm considering is giving each player a small amount of extra abilities outside their normal class, but the "multiclassed" people only get access to a small portion of Level 1 abilities for their multiclass in exchange for me not taking one of their character levels, and the non-multiclassed people get one special ability that's related to their backstory so they're not left out.
In other words, the Sorcerer discovers the ability to cast a couple of Warlock cantrips, but doesn't get the full benefit of a first level Warlock class unless he chooses to take the class later and eats a character level for it. Meanwhile, the player whose character doesn't know they're some type of Undead, gets the Undead Resilience ability that zombies get once per long rest (at 0 HP, roll a CON save with a DC of 5+the damage that took them to 0, and on a success, stay up with 1 HP).
The one I'm struggling with right now is that one of my players' characters doesn't know they're a magical construct and I'm trying to decide what special ability I can give them based on that. I considered magical effect resistance like a golem, but that's WAY too powerful. Where I'm sitting right now it something like "Once per day, as an action, you can gain resistance to one non-physical damage type for 1 minute."
Does that still seem too powerful an ability to just give away for story reasons? Or is it underpowered compared to access to Warlock cantrips and Undead Resilience?
That sentence right there set off alarm bells for me. You sure you don't just want to keep things simple for your first game?
But if you do want to go with this I would just give them the multiclass levels for free as you begin to reveal their backstories, at a rate of 1 per 4-5 regular levels. They can decide if they want to invest more heavily in their backstory class or current class, but get a few backstory levels for free. Just scale your encounter difficulty appropriately.
For the other half- Maybe a free Ability Score Increase, or a free epic boon, at these intervals?
How come only half the party has the multiclass past life?
Have you considered giving every PC a feat for free? That would solve the problem of fairness. I can’t help but think that the Heavy Armor Master feat would be perfect for the construct for example.
Professional computer geek
You should look at the Paladin (Oath of the Ancient) aura ability:
Giving a character permanent resistance to spell damage is strong, but not as strong as some class abilities that exist at these levels.
Just a couple of reference points ... all gnomes start with gnome cunning giving them advantage on all saving throws vs magic for intelligence, wisdom or charisma saves. Yuan-ti purebloods start with resistance to magic giving them advantage on all saving throws vs magic.These are racial abilities, some consider the yuan-ti one a bit strong but I haven't heard anyone object to the gnome one. So although it might be a bit strong, you could give the construct magic resistance. Alternatively, you could give them immunity to poison damage or some other types of damage that don't affect constructs.
However, I would second the comment about this being a challenging scenario for a first time DM though it could be lots of fun and work out fine. Just remember that you are making up all of the rules for this part - it isn't covered anywhere - and the odds are good that whatever you come up with won't really be "balanced" so feel free to tweak as you go along.
In the case of remembering past lives, you could either give them a level in the class to keep it simple or you could give the character the option to take a level in that class at their next level up depending on how you want it to work. An alternative would be to create a custom feat for each character that encapsulates bits and pieces of their past lives and model the capabilities you give with the feat on ones in the PHB and other sources. However, it sounds like some of the characters actually ARE the creature types as opposed to remembering something ... the construct is a construct, the undead is an undead so they have abilities associated with these races as opposed to remembering some class features from the past which might make it harder to balance and keep logically consistent.
Go big or go home I guess, I ain't scared -- and I'm playing with good friends who will be understanding if I mess up a bit here and there and have to tweak things on the fly. They all signed up knowing both that this game would be a little different and that it was my first time running one, we'll be fine. I'm a seasoned storyteller, it's just the mechanics of telling this particular story through an interactive, player-driven medium that are going to be a learning experience, but again, I have a forgiving group who's prepared to Get Weird.
The reason only half of the party has a multiclass past life is mostly a combination of several factors.
1) Keeping it slightly unpredictable for the players. Everyone will get something from their past life but it won't always be a multiclass. Sometimes it's just a special ability.
2) The decisions for each character were made based on the story I've written for each of them. Not every one of those stories justifies or calls for a multiclass. The idea behind the multiclassing is "you acted as a different class in your past life" but the Construct, for example, doesn't exactly have a past life, just false memories like a Replicant.
3) Just couldn't find a good multiclass for some of them. One is playing a Bloodhunter, another picked a homebrew class that we're probably going to have to tweak as we go for balance, and I'm not confident multiclassing those characters because it's somewhat untested what classes would synergize well with their homebrew classes.
In any case thank you everyone for your responses! You've given me a lot to think about and some useful ideas to work on.