I have been pre-approved to play the same character in two different campaigns I am about to start playing. I am a wizard with sage background that has discovered an ancient tome of immense power that needs to bee kept out of the hands of an as yet unknown Big Bad. The big bad either knows this somehow or the tome itself has cast some kind of spell or curse on my Wizard so he now lives in two different realities and he is not 100% sure which one is the real one (or both/neither). I need help on suggestions of what spell/curse/etc could do this to my character. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
As a DM this is the kind of stuff I would be working with my player on directly, if it is something the character would not know then usually my players hand it over to me, maybe with some ideas they have of what they like, to create. Otherwise I will work with them to ensure it fits into my world and the story I have lined out in my head. For instance, if a players backstory as written by them means that we will at some point have ot take an extended trip to the water plane in order to resolve it, and another player the fey wild, and another the 9 hells then I will work with them to tweak them and bring them all into some sort of alignment so it makes telling those stories more likely and slightly easier to fit into a wider narrative. I will say really like your idea but there are a lot of things you and the DM\s (is it one running both games, or one per game) will need to consider (mentioned at the end).
Anyway I digress, in terms of your backstory make it up, the magic in the game is magic that characters can cast that the game designers have created but there is much much more magic out there, DM's and players make up spells all the time, magical effects and impacts far grander then the rules allow players to complete happen throughout the DnD world. Spells that bind gods, or create whole new worlds can happen, so my advice decide first of all do you want to know how it happened, is your character even aware they have been split and duplicated. If you don't then talk to your DM about if they should be the one to make those decisions and let you discover them in game as you follow the story. If however your character is aware at the outset of the adventure I would say make the following choices first before deciding the mechanics. This is how I approach all my aspects of world creation (unless i get a really cool mechanic idea I want to spin backwards into a story lol).
I would ask do you know which version is the one the BBEG wants as that might affect the choices below?
Is this something that was done forcefully to your character/s without consent or involvement, or is it something you actively participated in. It might be an effect of holding the book of power (think Rincewind in the discworld books, he touches the Octavo and then loses all access to all other magics as a result of the great spell entering his mind), that is not his choice, it is forced upon him. Maybe the book itself is sentient and does not want to be misused or is waiting for the right time and so splits you into many versions in order to hide itself throughout the multiverse. Maybe a lawful good organisation enforced this split upon you to protect you/the book, think of it as an enforced version of witness protection, only the way to protect you is to have many many witnesses out there in the multiverse instead of hiding just one. Maybe you where part of a group that understood this was the only way to keep the book safe and you volunteered understanding what was going to happen.
Once you have decided if this was a willing choice you made or not then that helps shape you next question. If willing then is this a spell that was cast on or by you, or is this some curse connected to the book that you went into willingly, spell is probably the most likely option.
If you decide a curse then I would suggest it is linked directly to the book. Maybe as a defence mechanism at this point you can hand wave most of the mechanics to fit the narrative.
If a spell then you have far more options to choose from, you can make many things up, but, if you are looking for inspiration from the PHB then the spell that leaps out to me is a far more powerful version of Simulacrum. That spell creates a construct, a copy of the player that can't be improved and instead of being healed it is repaired.
Now you could imagine a far more powerful version of this creating a perfect physical copy of another living being that can go off and live it's own life developing and growing as it does. Maybe the spell creates a copy not just of the being, but of there equipment and all they hold, however a limit of the spell means that any magic items held by the prime version become mundane and non magical, that would explain a second copy of the book that is not magical. Or maybe the deceit was completed in stages, create the copy first then the book. This would then require some sort of powerful planear spell to then move you to a different reality. Maybe the spell can only be completed once every 1000 years when the walls between realities thins and it required a huge amount of magic to complete, maybe all the other wizards sacrificed their memories or lives to shift you meaning that only you are remaining as evidence of the book and what was done.
Alternatively maybe the Simulacrum variant creates not just a copy of you, but a copy of reality, maybe it needed the power of a god to complete it, the book is powerful enough that the BBEG can threaten the very heavens so one or several of the divine beings helped the ritual to be cast.
That is just one option I can think of many more but this has already become a bit of an essay :).
Now my questions for you and your DM\s to consider about your story thread.
- The first I have mentioned, whatever mechanic you use one of the characters must be the prime version, the version that existed before it came into contact with the book. Someone needs to know which that is, it might not be you, but your DM\s need to agree between themselves. - Are the realities mirror or completely different? - If the BBEG gets the right copy of the book what happens to the other version of you, it is no longer necessary to exist, one of you must be the prime version and the other the copy. - If they are not a mirror universe is there any impact on your characters from having copies of each of you, a linking thread, I would be really tempted to sit down with a player who wanted to do this and suggest we include some sort of madness, nightmare or other mechanic to roleplay, a side effect of an exact copy existing in 2 different realities where no other aspect is the same. It might be that this is how you explain being level 1, the version of you that made the split happen was a powerful wizard, but the act of making the split has meant you have lost your knowledge of the magics you knew, your attributes and proficiencies have weakened and you are a shadow of the powerful wizard you where. Maybe you remember the things you used to do, or maybe you are like a new pup, or maybe Prime you remembers, New you has no recollections? - Your copy, assuming the worlds are not mirror, I guess has no family, no history, he simply popped into existence one day in that reality so your family, friends, no one knows who you are. Do you have a memory of who you are, or has the stress of the journey meant that for you the day you where created is day 1, no memories of a life before. If you do have a memory then how are you handling knowing that this copy will never see your mother or father again, ever. What about your spell book, is it the same book copied over, or did copy you have to find your own spell book, discover your own starting spells? - If the 2 of you meet (BBEG brings you together to figure out which copy of the book is real) what happens? - Are there other versions of you, or just the 2, is there a whole host of you throughout the multiverse?
On that matter that gives me an idea, neither book is a copy, the book has been split, meaning the BBEG needs to get control of both parts to make the book whole again.
All of these are things you and your DM\s need to think about, maybe not answer right away, but you need to be considering them and working with your DM\s to figure out the mechanics of it.
Anyway have fun with it, hope my points above helped you.
That was fantastic advice. It gave me a lot of angles to think about that I had, so far, overlooked. Thank you so much for your time and effort, Scarloc!
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I have been pre-approved to play the same character in two different campaigns I am about to start playing. I am a wizard with sage background that has discovered an ancient tome of immense power that needs to bee kept out of the hands of an as yet unknown Big Bad. The big bad either knows this somehow or the tome itself has cast some kind of spell or curse on my Wizard so he now lives in two different realities and he is not 100% sure which one is the real one (or both/neither). I need help on suggestions of what spell/curse/etc could do this to my character. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
It's called a Plot Device. It doesn't have to be in the rules if the players don't see it happen.
I have a weird sense of humor.
I also make maps.(That's a link)
As a DM this is the kind of stuff I would be working with my player on directly, if it is something the character would not know then usually my players hand it over to me, maybe with some ideas they have of what they like, to create. Otherwise I will work with them to ensure it fits into my world and the story I have lined out in my head. For instance, if a players backstory as written by them means that we will at some point have ot take an extended trip to the water plane in order to resolve it, and another player the fey wild, and another the 9 hells then I will work with them to tweak them and bring them all into some sort of alignment so it makes telling those stories more likely and slightly easier to fit into a wider narrative. I will say really like your idea but there are a lot of things you and the DM\s (is it one running both games, or one per game) will need to consider (mentioned at the end).
Anyway I digress, in terms of your backstory make it up, the magic in the game is magic that characters can cast that the game designers have created but there is much much more magic out there, DM's and players make up spells all the time, magical effects and impacts far grander then the rules allow players to complete happen throughout the DnD world. Spells that bind gods, or create whole new worlds can happen, so my advice decide first of all do you want to know how it happened, is your character even aware they have been split and duplicated. If you don't then talk to your DM about if they should be the one to make those decisions and let you discover them in game as you follow the story. If however your character is aware at the outset of the adventure I would say make the following choices first before deciding the mechanics. This is how I approach all my aspects of world creation (unless i get a really cool mechanic idea I want to spin backwards into a story lol).
I would ask do you know which version is the one the BBEG wants as that might affect the choices below?
Is this something that was done forcefully to your character/s without consent or involvement, or is it something you actively participated in. It might be an effect of holding the book of power (think Rincewind in the discworld books, he touches the Octavo and then loses all access to all other magics as a result of the great spell entering his mind), that is not his choice, it is forced upon him. Maybe the book itself is sentient and does not want to be misused or is waiting for the right time and so splits you into many versions in order to hide itself throughout the multiverse. Maybe a lawful good organisation enforced this split upon you to protect you/the book, think of it as an enforced version of witness protection, only the way to protect you is to have many many witnesses out there in the multiverse instead of hiding just one. Maybe you where part of a group that understood this was the only way to keep the book safe and you volunteered understanding what was going to happen.
Once you have decided if this was a willing choice you made or not then that helps shape you next question. If willing then is this a spell that was cast on or by you, or is this some curse connected to the book that you went into willingly, spell is probably the most likely option.
If you decide a curse then I would suggest it is linked directly to the book. Maybe as a defence mechanism at this point you can hand wave most of the mechanics to fit the narrative.
If a spell then you have far more options to choose from, you can make many things up, but, if you are looking for inspiration from the PHB then the spell that leaps out to me is a far more powerful version of Simulacrum. That spell creates a construct, a copy of the player that can't be improved and instead of being healed it is repaired.
Now you could imagine a far more powerful version of this creating a perfect physical copy of another living being that can go off and live it's own life developing and growing as it does. Maybe the spell creates a copy not just of the being, but of there equipment and all they hold, however a limit of the spell means that any magic items held by the prime version become mundane and non magical, that would explain a second copy of the book that is not magical. Or maybe the deceit was completed in stages, create the copy first then the book. This would then require some sort of powerful planear spell to then move you to a different reality. Maybe the spell can only be completed once every 1000 years when the walls between realities thins and it required a huge amount of magic to complete, maybe all the other wizards sacrificed their memories or lives to shift you meaning that only you are remaining as evidence of the book and what was done.
Alternatively maybe the Simulacrum variant creates not just a copy of you, but a copy of reality, maybe it needed the power of a god to complete it, the book is powerful enough that the BBEG can threaten the very heavens so one or several of the divine beings helped the ritual to be cast.
That is just one option I can think of many more but this has already become a bit of an essay :).
Now my questions for you and your DM\s to consider about your story thread.
- The first I have mentioned, whatever mechanic you use one of the characters must be the prime version, the version that existed before it came into contact with the book. Someone needs to know which that is, it might not be you, but your DM\s need to agree between themselves.
- Are the realities mirror or completely different?
- If the BBEG gets the right copy of the book what happens to the other version of you, it is no longer necessary to exist, one of you must be the prime version and the other the copy.
- If they are not a mirror universe is there any impact on your characters from having copies of each of you, a linking thread, I would be really tempted to sit down with a player who wanted to do this and suggest we include some sort of madness, nightmare or other mechanic to roleplay, a side effect of an exact copy existing in 2 different realities where no other aspect is the same. It might be that this is how you explain being level 1, the version of you that made the split happen was a powerful wizard, but the act of making the split has meant you have lost your knowledge of the magics you knew, your attributes and proficiencies have weakened and you are a shadow of the powerful wizard you where. Maybe you remember the things you used to do, or maybe you are like a new pup, or maybe Prime you remembers, New you has no recollections?
- Your copy, assuming the worlds are not mirror, I guess has no family, no history, he simply popped into existence one day in that reality so your family, friends, no one knows who you are. Do you have a memory of who you are, or has the stress of the journey meant that for you the day you where created is day 1, no memories of a life before. If you do have a memory then how are you handling knowing that this copy will never see your mother or father again, ever. What about your spell book, is it the same book copied over, or did copy you have to find your own spell book, discover your own starting spells?
- If the 2 of you meet (BBEG brings you together to figure out which copy of the book is real) what happens?
- Are there other versions of you, or just the 2, is there a whole host of you throughout the multiverse?
On that matter that gives me an idea, neither book is a copy, the book has been split, meaning the BBEG needs to get control of both parts to make the book whole again.
All of these are things you and your DM\s need to think about, maybe not answer right away, but you need to be considering them and working with your DM\s to figure out the mechanics of it.
Anyway have fun with it, hope my points above helped you.
That was fantastic advice. It gave me a lot of angles to think about that I had, so far, overlooked. Thank you so much for your time and effort, Scarloc!