EDIT: Changed title and wording of post to avoid the discussion of mental illness. This isn't that type of character concept, its meant as one character with two entities in control of one body.
So I am a pretty laid back DM. As long as something doesn't seem to game breaking and the players want to do it as it is part of the characters background that makes sense, I am pretty much down for it. Especially if it is quirky.
So here is the character concept: When the PC was young their mother made a pact with an unknown creature to save her child life. This pact cost the mother her life and attached an unknown entity to the player. The main character is going to be more of this bubbly happy fragile character, while the other was going to be more of a rough in the face character.
She wanted to do two character sheets, which I am not really opposed to, my ideas were as follows:
Characters would have the same physical ability scores, but the mental ones could be different.
Both characters share the same hit points and you would use the lower hit dice from the two classes
I am not sure how to do skills... Also my major worry is this... A player having two character sheets seems a little unfair to the other players because well each character would only ever be able to access their own abilities, it is still twice the amount of abilities other players have to pull from. So that would have to be something the other players agree to allowing.
So what am I asking you guys is this...
Assuming I allow this, how would you recommend handling skills?
Has anyone done this before? If so what would you suggest?
Instead of doing two classes across two character sheets, do you have a class/subclass that might be able to play this concept?
Also, please don't just say, Don't do this, if it is for my currently stated concern of the player being able to have double the abilities to pull from. If you are honestly against this and can provide other reasons, then please speak up. I'd like more information then less. As I've already stated for the player to do the two character sheets all other players at the table must agree to it.
Thanks to everyone's feedback this is what we have decided to do:
We're going with one character sheet and chose Bard with College of Swords. A good balance of spells and Melee fighting. To help my the character feel different, we are going to basically do custom linage race and create a homebrew feat that works similar to the Eldrin Race Feature. Where she would get a different effect when using that feature based on which character was in control.
This keeps the character management down and helps the player feel like each is there own mechanically.
I think your general concept works. I think I would personally make just... all their stats identical between the two personalities. Mostly because of the challenge of what to do when you eventually get to ASI's. Is the player allowed to boost different stats for their different personalities? But I do think that the two personalities should have completely customized skills and features.
I think the best balance to something like this is to not give the player control over which personality is active. If the player can choose to swap personalities at will it essentially just doubles their utility compared to everyone else in the party. I think what I would do is something simple... each morning when they complete a long rest they roll a die, and then whether the number is even or odd determines which personality is active that day. At that point they have all the skills and features of that personality and its class.
I think your general concept works. I think I would personally make just... all their stats identical between the two personalities. Mostly because of the challenge of what to do when you eventually get to ASI's. Is the player allowed to boost different stats for their different personalities? But I do think that the two personalities should have completely customized skills and features.
I think the best balance to something like this is to not give the player control over which personality is active. If the player can choose to swap personalities at will it essentially just doubles their utility compared to everyone else in the party. I think what I would do is something simple... each morning when they complete a long rest they roll a die, and then whether the number is even or odd determines which personality is active that day. At that point they have all the skills and features of that personality and its class.
My idea behind the Wis, Int, and Cha being different is it would at least fortify the idea that it is two different people. Because one personality could be more charming but just because the mind switched doesn't mean that they would get more muscular. But I also see how it would be easier for them all jus to be the same.
As for ASI's I actually already thought about that... If they chose a physical ability it would increase on both, if they chose mental they would get to choose what to do with them. I understand it'll get tricky, but I am willing to work with the player as long as they don't try to break my game. I love the idea of her character background and my mind went crazy thinking of story hooks... But just because I love something doesn't mean I can always get it to work.
My plan for switching was going to be me more forcing the other character into the control and the player would have to roll a Wisdom saving throw to switch or keep control of their current character sheet. I wouldn't really give the player the option to choose who to play when... But how and when to switch is a great question. I hadn't fully thought that out.
Instead of doing two classes across two character sheets, do you have a class/subclass that might be able to play this concept?
To better answer this question, it would help to know more about the two personality types of this particular character as well as what sort of classes does the player envision each personality having. Will the "fragile" personality be more backline and supportive; such as a more traditional bard or cleric? Will the "rough" personality be more frontline and melee combative; such as a more traditional barbarian or fighter? If so, then you might want to have completely separate classes.
Otherwise, with the variety that 5E has created with the various subclasses, I would say that the player could pretty easily go that route as well. For example, maybe the core character is a bard. The "rough" personality gains the College of Swords subclass, since it focuses on the more martial aspects of swordplay. However, the "fragile" personality gains the College of Glamour subclass, which focuses on more indirect magical influences.
Assuming I allow this, how would you recommend handling skills?
If you're going separate classes (or even subclasses), I would allow them to pick specific skills based on each personality type. Different mindsets would potentially mean that they've focused and learned to do things differently from each other. Would even say that the different personalities would also select different backgrounds, which would provide some different skill and tool proficiencies as well as languages known.
Using my previous bardic example, the "fragile" personality might have taken CHA based skills (such as Deception, Performance, and Persuasion) while the "rough" personality might have taken more physical based skills (such as Acrobatics, Athletics, and Stealth). Maybe taking different backgrounds like Entertainer versus Soldier as well.
I would possibly even take it one step further in my example above to allow each Bardic subclass to have different spells known as well. One personality focuses on helping buffs and the other focusing more on damaging and debuffs.
Has anyone done this before? If so what would you suggest?
Yes, I've had a player run a similar character concept in the past, although it was prior to 5E. The character had the same hit points and ability scores for both personalities, but they had different classes and skills/feats/proficiencies to reflect the differences between personalities. One personality was the dominant one, which was in charge most of the time, but they had to make rolls under different circumstances to see if the other personality took control.
I believe the basic mechanics that we used at the time was something along the lines of:
Each morning that the character woke up, there was a 10% chance that the secondary personality took charge (i.e., dominant personality did not wake up that morning).
Each time character took damage that caused the HP total to be below a certain level (i.e., <30% of total HP), there was a 20% chance that the secondary personality broke through and took control.
Create whatever set-up that works best for your player and your campaign, but I absolutely agree with Transmorpher about ensuring the changes are not merely at the whim of the player. Allowing them to switch whenever they want makes having different classes/abilities/etc. much too powerful and unfair to the other players sitting at the table.
I think that it could work, but will require some buy-in from the player (via roleplaying) to justify it. This needs to be a predominantly roleplaying thing - if they put in the RP effort, the reward is the split personalities.
+1 for the idea of taking away the control over which personality they are. I recommend having the following trigger randomisation:
• When they wake up from being unconscious (either asleep or knocked as such) they randomly determine who wakes up. • When they take any psychic damage • When something stressful happens - EG they take a massive amount of damage, or they fail a check badly enough to cause physical or mental trauma • At the DM's discretion, EG whilst raging, when they receive a lot of abuse from someone and aren't standing up for themselves, that sort of thing.
I would request that the player roleplays these switches as if their "new" personality has no idea of what happened between their appearances. This might trigger a round of surprise for the enemy in combat (perhaps have a check of some sort as to how quickly they react to their situation - on a scale of being able to; do nothing; move; move + bonus action; anything. Maybe just make this a straight D4 roll. See how it balances out.
In exchange for this downside of potentially switching character at the wrong moment, they gain the following benefits:
• Any mental effects taking place (EG fear, charmed) do not apply to the second personality, offering them potential to get past this sort of thing. • having 2 classes to work with instead of one.
I would give them a simple rule to work with that they generate their "normal" personality in the usual way for your game (point-buy, standard array etc) and then they generate the second mental stats (wisdom, intelligence, charisma) using point-buy based off the scores they already put in there, with a minimum of 6.
The next thing to consider is your Proficiencies. It would be more immersive if they had different proficiencies, and this would make the change actually feel more natural. I would consider letting them change any INT, WIS or CHA based proficiencies to different ones for the second personality.
Now, for a more difficult thing to run - you could give both of the personalities a "Frustration level". Chaning the fluff so the inactive one is just watching, like a prisoner in their own head, they might gain and lose frustration as things happen. Things go well? frustration drops. Things go badly - taking damage, missing attacks, failing checks - the frustration goes up. If frustration goes too high, the personalities flip over - they shove the other out of the driving seat and have a go themselves.
Best of luck running this, if the player puts the work in it could be really awesome!
Ok the concept for this is great, but, With tashas cauldron out instead of rolling 2 different types of stats/skills treat it as if she is swapping her racial abilities around, So her languages change, she maybe swaps a buff in charisma for a buff in intelligence, she gains proficiency in 2 different skills and loses it in 2 others.
But my real question here is, what is the trigger, what makes her swap in and out, the one thing you want to avoid is her being able to put the best personality on for a given situation. I am in an inn, mrs charisma is out today, I’m in a dungeon searching for traps, I need that better perception.
Let's start out with something nice and simple like the wild firestorm that has gone on in other threads about mental illness. It disrespects people who actually *have* such problems.
Alignment. Also a huge roaring raging firestorm. Two characters with different personalities would have to have different Alignments wouldn't they?
Any mechanical change in the slightest for a purely roleplaying idea needs to be thought about. It makes for a lot of extra work that goes up exponentially for each character. You have other players, right? Why should one of them take up twice as much of the DM's time?
There is no need for a separate character sheet. If the player wants more than one personality, fine. Let them roleplay to their heart's content. Give them Inspiration, or better yet, let the other players do that if there is a need for game mechanics.
If I were to, I’d only allow them to change at the end of a long rest. Otherwise, it makes a mess of abilities, if one personality uses a spell slot, but the other doesn’t have spells, how do you account for the spent resources? And I wouldn’t let them choose which one they were going to be on any given day, too much meta gaming there.
Again, I agree with geann, do it through rp. Some days, their barbarian is oddly bubbly and friendly, or whatever class they go with. It gets to the same place without the mechanical headaches.
Or tell them to play a Druid, and their wild shape is the alternate creature.
RP side, playing two different personalities: yes, totally. Go for it!
Mechanical / Class / Skill / whatever side: No! No, no, and again no! I might accept slight changes in options like the Eladrin offer. But that is it. No, switching around of basic character features.
This is a 100% roleplaying thing and should have 0 mechanical aspects IMO.
My idea behind the Wis, Int, and Cha being different is it would at least fortify the idea that it is two different people.
It is the player's job to make them feel different, and acting it out is massively more effective than pointing to a number on a character sheet anyway. As a DM, I don't rattle off the stats of an NPC to give the party a distinct mental image of that character.
This player is asking for twice as much as anyone else at the table gets. Stats, skills, abilities, spotlight. I am fine with giving my players extra powers because I can just ramp up difficulty to match. What I watch for is imbalance within the party, and I can't see how this wouldn't be problematic in that regard.
Another vote for “let the player roleplay it, don’t change the mechanics”...but for a slightly different reason. This character sounds high-maintenance, and will likely be pulling the spotlight away from other PCs, especially if given the advantage of an extra character sheet. Think about your other players: they probably won’t have as much fun with such a “look at me” character at the table.
Could you run it like an Eladrin? There is already an in-game mechanical precedent for it - the Eladrin can change their "season" with a long rest. Ask the player to choose 2 Eladrin seasons. The seasons don't change stats... they change how ONE ability works (Fey Step), and they change ONE personality trait and ONE flaw. I'd say to them pick the 2 seasons they want, and whenever the personality changes, choose or roll the personality trait and flaw from the appropriate season's table. Sounds like either spring and summer or autumn and summer, maybe.
EDIT: No Fey Step if this is not an actual Eladrin. It's just an example of a small mechanical change the character could have. But the point is Eladrin don't have 2 character sheets, 2 sets of stats, 2 sets of skills, different classes, etc.
IMO, doing 2 sheets, with 2 sets of mechanical stats and abilities, is going to be WAY too complicated. D&D characters are already complex enough.
Let's start out with something nice and simple like the wild firestorm that has gone on in other threads about mental illness. It disrespects people who actually *have* such problems.
Alignment. Also a huge roaring raging firestorm. Two characters with different personalities would have to have different Alignments wouldn't they?
Any mechanical change in the slightest for a purely roleplaying idea needs to be thought about. It makes for a lot of extra work that goes up exponentially for each character. You have other players, right? Why should one of them take up twice as much of the DM's time?
There is no need for a separate character sheet. If the player wants more than one personality, fine. Let them roleplay to their heart's content. Give them Inspiration, or better yet, let the other players do that if there is a need for game mechanics.
Don't do this. It is a bad idea.
Hey maybe read the thread... I went out of my way to describe why there are two personalities so it wouldn't be associated with mental illness because I understand that could be problematic for some people. It's why I described how the two personalities came into existence. Its not a mental illness its more like a possession.
Once again... only two characters... The main character and the unknown entity attached to her... Stated in the Original Post...
The purpose of the multiple character sheets is because they wanted one to be more like a spellcaster and one be to be like a fighter or barbarian. I posted this thread for feedback on how to run this and specifically even asked if a certain class with a subclass focus might better suit this if not 2 character sheets.
As to everyone who responded after about doing something close to the Eladrin race, thank you, that was the type of feedback and input I was looking for.
The purpose of the multiple character sheets is because they wanted one to be more like a spellcaster and one be to be like a fighter or barbarian.
This is the kind of thing that sounds cool until you actually sit down to do it and then it becomes a logistical nightmare, both for the GM and the player. It may not be so hard to juggle the sheets at 1st level but if you go through a long campaign and this character gets to significant levels it will become a management nightmare for the player.
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Mouse? Guess what? Possession used to be one of the many things that was supposed to explain the erratic behavior of the mentally ill. I did read the thread, thank you.
Yeah and possession is something that might occur in a high fantasy world. If you read the thread, you would have realized that it was two entities controlling one body and not a character that had two personalities.
But instead of offering help you decided to get up on a high horse that didn't exist in the first place.
The purpose of the multiple character sheets is because they wanted one to be more like a spellcaster and one be to be like a fighter or barbarian.
This is the kind of thing that sounds cool until you actually sit down to do it and then it becomes a logistical nightmare, both for the GM and the player. It may not be so hard to juggle the sheets at 1st level but if you go through a long campaign and this character gets to significant levels it will become a management nightmare for the player.
This is why I was looking for feedback on how other DM's would handle this matter.
Because even I stated this would seem unfair as the player had more features at their disposal. Its why I loved the suggestion of using a class bard or cleric and use the subclass to distinctly identify the entity.
I like where we came up with a feat idea similar to the Eldrin racial feature and using something like Bard College of Swords. It makes it easy to manage and not more extra features that the other characters would have.
Yeah and possession is something that might occur in a high fantasy world. If you read the thread, you would have realized that it was two entities controlling one body and not a character that had two personalities.
But instead of offering help you decided to get up on a high horse that didn't exist in the first place.
I helped. I told you not to do it, and I told you why. First post I made in this thread.
It cannot come as a surprise to you that people do not agree with you. If you were looking for people to tell you what a great idea it was, you're in the wrong place. You have been here since 2017, have almost 500 posts, and a custom title.
You do realize all of the people who agreed with you, agreed against the idea of doing it mechanically. I don't care if people disagree. My point was you're post unlike everyone else was don't do this because people with mental illness could be offended, even though the concept had nothing to do with mental illness.
Excluding that, even the people who agreed with you, took the time to explain why doing something mechanically would be a bad idea. One guy explained how spells and other resources would be complicated to manage across to character sheets with different abilities. Another explained how that type of character could take the spotlight away from other players and how it might require more of my attention to manage.
The closest to helpful you was
There is no need for a separate character sheet. If the player wants more than one personality, fine. Let them roleplay to their heart's content. Give them Inspiration, or better yet, let the other players do that if there is a need for game mechanics.
I don't care if people disagree with me. I care when people try to turn something into something its not...
And I guess I am sorry for being around since close near the start with a semi active history... Don't try shaming me for being active in the community... Get off of your high horse
EDIT: Changed title and wording of post to avoid the discussion of mental illness. This isn't that type of character concept, its meant as one character with two entities in control of one body.
So I am a pretty laid back DM. As long as something doesn't seem to game breaking and the players want to do it as it is part of the characters background that makes sense, I am pretty much down for it. Especially if it is quirky.
So here is the character concept: When the PC was young their mother made a pact with an unknown creature to save her child life. This pact cost the mother her life and attached an unknown entity to the player. The main character is going to be more of this bubbly happy fragile character, while the other was going to be more of a rough in the face character.
She wanted to do two character sheets, which I am not really opposed to, my ideas were as follows:
I am not sure how to do skills... Also my major worry is this... A player having two character sheets seems a little unfair to the other players because well each character would only ever be able to access their own abilities, it is still twice the amount of abilities other players have to pull from. So that would have to be something the other players agree to allowing.
So what am I asking you guys is this...
Also, please don't just say, Don't do this, if it is for my currently stated concern of the player being able to have double the abilities to pull from. If you are honestly against this and can provide other reasons, then please speak up. I'd like more information then less. As I've already stated for the player to do the two character sheets all other players at the table must agree to it.
I think your general concept works. I think I would personally make just... all their stats identical between the two personalities. Mostly because of the challenge of what to do when you eventually get to ASI's. Is the player allowed to boost different stats for their different personalities? But I do think that the two personalities should have completely customized skills and features.
I think the best balance to something like this is to not give the player control over which personality is active. If the player can choose to swap personalities at will it essentially just doubles their utility compared to everyone else in the party. I think what I would do is something simple... each morning when they complete a long rest they roll a die, and then whether the number is even or odd determines which personality is active that day. At that point they have all the skills and features of that personality and its class.
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My idea behind the Wis, Int, and Cha being different is it would at least fortify the idea that it is two different people. Because one personality could be more charming but just because the mind switched doesn't mean that they would get more muscular. But I also see how it would be easier for them all jus to be the same.
As for ASI's I actually already thought about that... If they chose a physical ability it would increase on both, if they chose mental they would get to choose what to do with them. I understand it'll get tricky, but I am willing to work with the player as long as they don't try to break my game. I love the idea of her character background and my mind went crazy thinking of story hooks... But just because I love something doesn't mean I can always get it to work.
My plan for switching was going to be me more forcing the other character into the control and the player would have to roll a Wisdom saving throw to switch or keep control of their current character sheet. I wouldn't really give the player the option to choose who to play when... But how and when to switch is a great question. I hadn't fully thought that out.
To better answer this question, it would help to know more about the two personality types of this particular character as well as what sort of classes does the player envision each personality having. Will the "fragile" personality be more backline and supportive; such as a more traditional bard or cleric? Will the "rough" personality be more frontline and melee combative; such as a more traditional barbarian or fighter? If so, then you might want to have completely separate classes.
Otherwise, with the variety that 5E has created with the various subclasses, I would say that the player could pretty easily go that route as well. For example, maybe the core character is a bard. The "rough" personality gains the College of Swords subclass, since it focuses on the more martial aspects of swordplay. However, the "fragile" personality gains the College of Glamour subclass, which focuses on more indirect magical influences.
If you're going separate classes (or even subclasses), I would allow them to pick specific skills based on each personality type. Different mindsets would potentially mean that they've focused and learned to do things differently from each other. Would even say that the different personalities would also select different backgrounds, which would provide some different skill and tool proficiencies as well as languages known.
Using my previous bardic example, the "fragile" personality might have taken CHA based skills (such as Deception, Performance, and Persuasion) while the "rough" personality might have taken more physical based skills (such as Acrobatics, Athletics, and Stealth). Maybe taking different backgrounds like Entertainer versus Soldier as well.
I would possibly even take it one step further in my example above to allow each Bardic subclass to have different spells known as well. One personality focuses on helping buffs and the other focusing more on damaging and debuffs.
Yes, I've had a player run a similar character concept in the past, although it was prior to 5E. The character had the same hit points and ability scores for both personalities, but they had different classes and skills/feats/proficiencies to reflect the differences between personalities. One personality was the dominant one, which was in charge most of the time, but they had to make rolls under different circumstances to see if the other personality took control.
I believe the basic mechanics that we used at the time was something along the lines of:
Create whatever set-up that works best for your player and your campaign, but I absolutely agree with Transmorpher about ensuring the changes are not merely at the whim of the player. Allowing them to switch whenever they want makes having different classes/abilities/etc. much too powerful and unfair to the other players sitting at the table.
I think that it could work, but will require some buy-in from the player (via roleplaying) to justify it. This needs to be a predominantly roleplaying thing - if they put in the RP effort, the reward is the split personalities.
+1 for the idea of taking away the control over which personality they are. I recommend having the following trigger randomisation:
• When they wake up from being unconscious (either asleep or knocked as such) they randomly determine who wakes up.
• When they take any psychic damage
• When something stressful happens - EG they take a massive amount of damage, or they fail a check badly enough to cause physical or mental trauma
• At the DM's discretion, EG whilst raging, when they receive a lot of abuse from someone and aren't standing up for themselves, that sort of thing.
I would request that the player roleplays these switches as if their "new" personality has no idea of what happened between their appearances. This might trigger a round of surprise for the enemy in combat (perhaps have a check of some sort as to how quickly they react to their situation - on a scale of being able to; do nothing; move; move + bonus action; anything. Maybe just make this a straight D4 roll. See how it balances out.
In exchange for this downside of potentially switching character at the wrong moment, they gain the following benefits:
• Any mental effects taking place (EG fear, charmed) do not apply to the second personality, offering them potential to get past this sort of thing.
• having 2 classes to work with instead of one.
I would give them a simple rule to work with that they generate their "normal" personality in the usual way for your game (point-buy, standard array etc) and then they generate the second mental stats (wisdom, intelligence, charisma) using point-buy based off the scores they already put in there, with a minimum of 6.
The next thing to consider is your Proficiencies. It would be more immersive if they had different proficiencies, and this would make the change actually feel more natural. I would consider letting them change any INT, WIS or CHA based proficiencies to different ones for the second personality.
Now, for a more difficult thing to run - you could give both of the personalities a "Frustration level". Chaning the fluff so the inactive one is just watching, like a prisoner in their own head, they might gain and lose frustration as things happen. Things go well? frustration drops. Things go badly - taking damage, missing attacks, failing checks - the frustration goes up. If frustration goes too high, the personalities flip over - they shove the other out of the driving seat and have a go themselves.
Best of luck running this, if the player puts the work in it could be really awesome!
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Ok the concept for this is great, but, With tashas cauldron out instead of rolling 2 different types of stats/skills treat it as if she is swapping her racial abilities around, So her languages change, she maybe swaps a buff in charisma for a buff in intelligence, she gains proficiency in 2 different skills and loses it in 2 others.
But my real question here is, what is the trigger, what makes her swap in and out, the one thing you want to avoid is her being able to put the best personality on for a given situation. I am in an inn, mrs charisma is out today, I’m in a dungeon searching for traps, I need that better perception.
Let's start out with something nice and simple like the wild firestorm that has gone on in other threads about mental illness. It disrespects people who actually *have* such problems.
Alignment. Also a huge roaring raging firestorm. Two characters with different personalities would have to have different Alignments wouldn't they?
Any mechanical change in the slightest for a purely roleplaying idea needs to be thought about. It makes for a lot of extra work that goes up exponentially for each character. You have other players, right? Why should one of them take up twice as much of the DM's time?
There is no need for a separate character sheet. If the player wants more than one personality, fine. Let them roleplay to their heart's content. Give them Inspiration, or better yet, let the other players do that if there is a need for game mechanics.
Don't do this. It is a bad idea.
<Insert clever signature here>
I agree with geann, I wouldn’t allow it.
If I were to, I’d only allow them to change at the end of a long rest. Otherwise, it makes a mess of abilities, if one personality uses a spell slot, but the other doesn’t have spells, how do you account for the spent resources?
And I wouldn’t let them choose which one they were going to be on any given day, too much meta gaming there.
Again, I agree with geann, do it through rp. Some days, their barbarian is oddly bubbly and friendly, or whatever class they go with. It gets to the same place without the mechanical headaches.
Or tell them to play a Druid, and their wild shape is the alternate creature.
Also chiming in for the geann/Xalthu opinion.
RP side, playing two different personalities: yes, totally. Go for it!
Mechanical / Class / Skill / whatever side: No! No, no, and again no! I might accept slight changes in options like the Eladrin offer. But that is it. No, switching around of basic character features.
This is a 100% roleplaying thing and should have 0 mechanical aspects IMO.
It is the player's job to make them feel different, and acting it out is massively more effective than pointing to a number on a character sheet anyway. As a DM, I don't rattle off the stats of an NPC to give the party a distinct mental image of that character.
This player is asking for twice as much as anyone else at the table gets. Stats, skills, abilities, spotlight. I am fine with giving my players extra powers because I can just ramp up difficulty to match. What I watch for is imbalance within the party, and I can't see how this wouldn't be problematic in that regard.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
Another vote for “let the player roleplay it, don’t change the mechanics”...but for a slightly different reason. This character sounds high-maintenance, and will likely be pulling the spotlight away from other PCs, especially if given the advantage of an extra character sheet. Think about your other players: they probably won’t have as much fun with such a “look at me” character at the table.
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
Could you run it like an Eladrin? There is already an in-game mechanical precedent for it - the Eladrin can change their "season" with a long rest. Ask the player to choose 2 Eladrin seasons. The seasons don't change stats... they change how ONE ability works (Fey Step), and they change ONE personality trait and ONE flaw. I'd say to them pick the 2 seasons they want, and whenever the personality changes, choose or roll the personality trait and flaw from the appropriate season's table. Sounds like either spring and summer or autumn and summer, maybe.
EDIT: No Fey Step if this is not an actual Eladrin. It's just an example of a small mechanical change the character could have. But the point is Eladrin don't have 2 character sheets, 2 sets of stats, 2 sets of skills, different classes, etc.
IMO, doing 2 sheets, with 2 sets of mechanical stats and abilities, is going to be WAY too complicated. D&D characters are already complex enough.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Hey maybe read the thread... I went out of my way to describe why there are two personalities so it wouldn't be associated with mental illness because I understand that could be problematic for some people. It's why I described how the two personalities came into existence. Its not a mental illness its more like a possession.
Once again... only two characters... The main character and the unknown entity attached to her... Stated in the Original Post...
The purpose of the multiple character sheets is because they wanted one to be more like a spellcaster and one be to be like a fighter or barbarian. I posted this thread for feedback on how to run this and specifically even asked if a certain class with a subclass focus might better suit this if not 2 character sheets.
As to everyone who responded after about doing something close to the Eladrin race, thank you, that was the type of feedback and input I was looking for.
This is the kind of thing that sounds cool until you actually sit down to do it and then it becomes a logistical nightmare, both for the GM and the player. It may not be so hard to juggle the sheets at 1st level but if you go through a long campaign and this character gets to significant levels it will become a management nightmare for the player.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Mouse? Guess what? Possession used to be one of the many things that was supposed to explain the erratic behavior of the mentally ill. I did read the thread, thank you.
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Yeah and possession is something that might occur in a high fantasy world. If you read the thread, you would have realized that it was two entities controlling one body and not a character that had two personalities.
But instead of offering help you decided to get up on a high horse that didn't exist in the first place.
This is why I was looking for feedback on how other DM's would handle this matter.
Because even I stated this would seem unfair as the player had more features at their disposal. Its why I loved the suggestion of using a class bard or cleric and use the subclass to distinctly identify the entity.
I like where we came up with a feat idea similar to the Eldrin racial feature and using something like Bard College of Swords. It makes it easy to manage and not more extra features that the other characters would have.
You do realize all of the people who agreed with you, agreed against the idea of doing it mechanically. I don't care if people disagree. My point was you're post unlike everyone else was don't do this because people with mental illness could be offended, even though the concept had nothing to do with mental illness.
Excluding that, even the people who agreed with you, took the time to explain why doing something mechanically would be a bad idea. One guy explained how spells and other resources would be complicated to manage across to character sheets with different abilities. Another explained how that type of character could take the spotlight away from other players and how it might require more of my attention to manage.
The closest to helpful you was
I don't care if people disagree with me. I care when people try to turn something into something its not...
And I guess I am sorry for being around since close near the start with a semi active history... Don't try shaming me for being active in the community... Get off of your high horse
I really do not understand what you're upset about.
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