I'm a fairly new player to DnD (2 years in total with 5e, half of which has been DM)
I'm joining a new campaign at Level 1 and my idea for a character is that I am actually level 20, but I have amnesia.
Before the game (session 0) I will roll a table with all the races and classes and choose what the dice gods deem I should be. Absolutely everything from items, spells, class, background, etc will be randomly rolled. Then each level beyond that will be classed as my character "remembering" that they can do something, like a flashback. Again, randomly chosen from the level up.
I was thinking on level up I roll 1d8 and with an 8 I multiclass? Maybe.
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had done anything similar and whether or not there were any major problems that I could run into. I think the concept sounds quite fun but in reality it might be very underwhelming.
I wouldn't do this if you are new to the game. If you are leaving your character progression entirely up to chance, you are going to get a very unoptimized or downright unplayable character.
Multiclasses are a challenge to manage when you do it intentionally, even for experienced players. You could end up multiclassing every 3rd level or something crazy like that which would leave you with a mixed bag of abilities which might overlap, be redundant, or be unusable together. You could also end up getting all concentration spells, or all Con save spells, or some set of things that just don't match.
Doing this would slow down your table, as you would constantly need to look things up, or check what abilities you have. You might also become a liability to your party. I think using dice to pick your class and race is all well and good, but the progression should be something you have somewhat planned, that is open to changes as the campaign progresses.
I can see something like this happening as well. If you want to leave there progression somewhat random, at least have a subset of chosen spells or feats to roll on instead of the full list. That way you can ensure you won't get a bunch of redundancy or clunkers. Maybe after you get the first multiclass, you only take a level in the other class when you roll an 8. You could roll a d4 early to determine the maximum number of multiclass levels you'd take and possibly only take those multiclass levels after certain full class levels (like after 5th to get extra attack as a martial or 3rd level spells as a caster).
These steps could give some structure to the full on chaos.
The idea of being a former adventurer who, for one reason or another, no longer has access to all their skills and abilities is perfectly reasonable to me. As long as your character is still, mechanically, the same level as everyone else in your party it shouldn't make a difference. In my current campaign I was actually playing as a character who was fairly high level (not max level or anything, but high enough to justify having a reputation), but who suffered a near-fatal injury and had to start over again from level 1.
However, the whole "random chance" thing seems like it would be a huge headache. I think going for a fully random race/class on session Zero is totally fine... even when selecting your subclass at a later level (or at level one, depending) completely at random would still work. Even the worse subclasses are, for the most part, playable. You might not have as much fun being a Purple Dragon Knight as you might with a Battlemaster, but you're not totally useless. But I think beyond that you shouldn't do too much randomizing. If you do want to try the multiclassing thing, I'd recommend, even if you are randomizing, to at least limit your options to stuff that actually works well with your character. You wouldn't want to be heavily invested in a fully-armored Paladin who wields a greatsword and suddenly need to justify taking a level of Monk. I think the other challenging issue is in roleplay... it'd be hard to justify, in-story, how your character suddenly becomes a Warlock without having some kind of forced interaction with a Patron of some kind, or becoming a Cleric out of nowhere despite not being a particularly religious character prior to that.
I wouldn't do this if you are new to the game. If you are leaving your character progression entirely up to chance, you are going to get a very unoptimized or downright unplayable character.
Multiclasses are a challenge to manage when you do it intentionally, even for experienced players. You could end up multiclassing every 3rd level or something crazy like that which would leave you with a mixed bag of abilities which might overlap, be redundant, or be unusable together. You could also end up getting all concentration spells, or all Con save spells, or some set of things that just don't match.
Doing this would slow down your table, as you would constantly need to look things up, or check what abilities you have. You might also become a liability to your party. I think using dice to pick your class and race is all well and good, but the progression should be something you have somewhat planned, that is open to changes as the campaign progresses.
I can see something like this happening as well. If you want to leave there progression somewhat random, at least have a subset of chosen spells or feats to roll on instead of the full list. That way you can ensure you won't get a bunch of redundancy or clunkers. Maybe after you get the first multiclass, you only take a level in the other class when you roll an 8. You could roll a d4 early to determine the maximum number of multiclass levels you'd take and possibly only take those multiclass levels after certain full class levels (like after 5th to get extra attack as a martial or 3rd level spells as a caster).
I can see something like this happening as well. If you want to leave there progression somewhat random, at least have a subset of chosen spells or feats to roll on instead of the full list. That way you can ensure you won't get a bunch of redundancy or clunkers. Maybe after you get the first multiclass, you only take a level in the other class when you roll an 8. You could roll a d4 early to determine the maximum number of multiclass levels you'd take and possibly only take those multiclass levels after certain full class levels (like after 5th to get extra attack as a martial or 3rd level spells as a caster).
These steps could give some structure to the full on chaos.
The idea of being a former adventurer who, for one reason or another, no longer has access to all their skills and abilities is perfectly reasonable to me. As long as your character is still, mechanically, the same level as everyone else in your party it shouldn't make a difference. In my current campaign I was actually playing as a character who was fairly high level (not max level or anything, but high enough to justify having a reputation), but who suffered a near-fatal injury and had to start over again from level 1.
However, the whole "random chance" thing seems like it would be a huge headache. I think going for a fully random race/class on session Zero is totally fine... even when selecting your subclass at a later level (or at level one, depending) completely at random would still work. Even the worse subclasses are, for the most part, playable. You might not have as much fun being a Purple Dragon Knight as you might with a Battlemaster, but you're not totally useless. But I think beyond that you shouldn't do too much randomizing. If you do want to try the multiclassing thing, I'd recommend, even if you are randomizing, to at least limit your options to stuff that actually works well with your character. You wouldn't want to be heavily invested in a fully-armored Paladin who wields a greatsword and suddenly need to justify taking a level of Monk. I think the other challenging issue is in roleplay... it'd be hard to justify, in-story, how your character suddenly becomes a Warlock without having some kind of forced interaction with a Patron of some kind, or becoming a Cleric out of nowhere despite not being a particularly religious character prior to that.
I agree with all said above - although I personally would chose subclass(es) somewhat similar to my original class. (Ex; Ranger with a subclass of Rogue
I think it can work. I used to do something similar in early editions when I couldn’t decide what I wanted to play, but I’d put a couple restrictions on it. Others have mentioned the problems with multiclassing, and I agree to stay away from that. Also, while I assume you are rolling for ability scores, I’d assign them rather than go down the line, and assign after you know your class. Or you could wind up with a 17 str, 6 int wizard. Or do it the other way, roll scores down the line, and pick the class that fits what you rolled. Or at least be willing to switch two scores so you don’t have a minus in your primary stat; you made it to level 20, you should be good at what you do. To me your class not matching up to your ability scores could be the biggest problem (and is another tick against random multiclassing).
And when feat time comes around, whittle the list down to choices that at least make sense. You don’t want your assassin rogue to take elemental adept, or your barbarian to take spell sniper, or wizard to take heavy armor master, etc. Or your fighter to spend 3 feats buffing their charisma. Even narrow it to 4 or 6 good choices and roll from there; again, you made it to level 20, you must have been good at what you did.
I would absolutely not do this unless you have a lot more experience with the game. And would under no circumstances choose a spellcaster's spells known/prepared by random dice rolling.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I'm a fairly new player to DnD (2 years in total with 5e, half of which has been DM)
I'm joining a new campaign at Level 1 and my idea for a character is that I am actually level 20, but I have amnesia.
Before the game (session 0) I will roll a table with all the races and classes and choose what the dice gods deem I should be. Absolutely everything from items, spells, class, background, etc will be randomly rolled. Then each level beyond that will be classed as my character "remembering" that they can do something, like a flashback. Again, randomly chosen from the level up.
I was thinking on level up I roll 1d8 and with an 8 I multiclass? Maybe.
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had done anything similar and whether or not there were any major problems that I could run into. I think the concept sounds quite fun but in reality it might be very underwhelming.
Thoughts?
In general in my opinion your first class can define what multiclass options you take...and taking a complete random roll each level is asking for a lot of trouble.
I like to multiclass if I have rolled great stats if I do not then I pick one class and have at it.
If you want randomness I would roll stats and randomly place them and then pick a class based on that. Note this can make an unplayable PC.
As per amnesia, it is a lot of fun but I do not think that 5e is the right system for this as a lot of things are fixed and do not change a lot. For example you generally do not gain skill increases every level they are fairly basic 1/2 proficiency, proficiency and expertise where in other games you may allocate some type of points every level into skills that increase and you can pick up new skills and other abilities as needed.
In 5e if you want to do what you are proposing I would recommend the GM create your PC and not give you the sheet. And you the player have to figure out what you are good at and not good at. In fact I would have the GM roll for me also so I did not know anything about dice rolls as to not influence what I thought I was good at. But again this is more of an advanced player style then a new player style and does not fit with most games and GM's game plans.
I would also talk to the GM and ask their opinion and thoughts as they know their game and game groups "play range" and see if your idea fits or does not fit.
A few years back i did play completely random characters, once during 5E alpha playtesting sessions and another time last year. Both times the ability scores, race, class, background, hit points, and starting gold were rolled either from tables or to generate value in itself. It was challenging as it was a combination of elements i personally wouldn't have otherwise selected but i liked the challenge of coming up with backstory to support it all and i wouldn't mind do it again.
Thinking about how I would GM amnesia, I would have penalties for most if not every activity as the PC would be trying to learn how to do basic things again (in severe cases even walking) and then talk away the penalties as the PC kept on trying to do things. So may be a -2 and no stat bonus to all skills, tools, weapon attacks and other things they try and then gradually take away the penalty adding proficiency bonus and at the same time go from zero stat bonus (or negative) and add in 1/2 stat bonus then full stat bonus. I would also try and provide the player with some info (if I could) on how long I thought it would take to recover from the amnesia or to progress through the stages of amnesia I had set out to make sure the player really wanted to try and do what they proposed to do.
If you game is mostly RP then the above format might be fine but in a combat heavy game IMHO you would be a liability and other PC would have to protect you.
One thing I have seen in the past is a player wanting to take a penalty at one point for something advantageous in the future, so I would see if I the GM and the player were on the same page as to expiations.
Post #10 above,
I have played in a convention game where they had random PC's and or complete random PC gen, I found it was fun for a 1-2 day con event but I would not want to be stuck with something I did not like for a long term home game.
I like the amnesia idea and I think it could be really fun to play a character like that, but if you are rolling for everything you might get something that you wouldn't want and it would become a very suboptimal character.
Good luck with the new campaign!
I'm actually about to play the 1st session of a new campaign in a few hours as a (wood elf) werewolf druid.
Hollow unbreakable arrows are the most OP common magic item, and my current method of coming up with insane combat shenanigans.
if you make a steel pipe with one end closed and a nozzle on the other, you can enlarge it, fill with any liquid, and then drop concentration, creating a high pressure squirt gun. (or a pipe bomb, depending if it holds)
1) The concept of a character not really levelling up but instead regaining memories is nice.
2)The concept of starting off at random is also nice. Works well with amnesia even. Rolling randomly for INITAL stats, race, initial class, items, etc also makes sense.
3) But continuing to roll randomly when you level up makes no sense at all. That is not you remembering things, that is a nasty curse where your Fighter class that has nice armor suddenly gets a level of Monk and the armor no longer makes sense. That is being CURSED BY THE GODS, not a fun 'I have amnesia' idea. Why would he have gotten the armor if he was really a monk? He would have sold it, not kept it.
4) You can continue to roll randomly for some internal choices. That is, when your fighter gets a new weapon style, he can roll randomly. Same with choosing a subclass, and even cantrips.
5) Choosing Cantrips by random is fine, But choosing which leveled Spells they learn should not be randomly. Too likely to get a 1st level wizard that knows the following 6 first level spells: Alarm, Comprehend Languages, Detect Magic, Find Familiar, Identify, and Unseen Servant. Not a single defensive or offensive spell among them. At worst I might could see having half of all spells randomly choosen, then letting you choose the other spells to fill out your character. That way each level you can be assured of getting at least one defensive or offensive spell.
One problem I see is that at each level you gain hp, so if you are just remembering things then you would still have your hp of what level you were before you got amnesia.
I agree with others that you could have some fun rolling randomly for how you start out. If you're doing everything-everything (spells, weapons, etc.), then, yes, makes sure it's a roleplay-focused group. Groups that focus more on optimizing are not going to like it if you're not at least moderately good at playing your part in encounters (combat or otherwise).
More importantly, I don't see why you can't deliberately pick all of the stuff as you level up. I get why you're suggesting it, but it's unnecessary. You can still roleplay out the amnesia even if you aren't randomly determining your advancement.
(side note: since hp are so easy to gain back in this edition--long rests, short rest, healing feat, potions, spells, etc.--I tend to look at them as mostly stamina, combat savvy, and plot armor. So amnesia reducing you down from your 20th level hit points makes sense to me. You don't know what you're doing and are more likely to end up with a grievous injury, etc.)
This is a character that wants to be the main character in the story - they already have a very long past history, even if they don't have access to their old spells and abilities.
You'd have to work with the DM constantly to regain any old memories.
Randomly rolling for stuff will make you ineffective and a burden on the rest of the party.
One problem I see is that at each level you gain hp, so if you are just remembering things then you would still have your hp of what level you were before you got amnesia.
HP don't represent just solid health, "Hit points represent a combination of physical and mental durability, the will to live, and luck."
One problem I see is that at each level you gain hp, so if you are just remembering things then you would still have your hp of what level you were before you got amnesia.
HP don't represent just solid health, "Hit points represent a combination of physical and mental durability, the will to live, and luck."
Sorry for the late reply, power and net went out.
I agree but again do you simply remember you are more powerful, stronger, healthy or can throw off mental curses? The amnesia plot hook, generally works well in fiction and movies but depending on the system you use often dose not fit the foundation of many game systems.
If you say 50% health and 50% mental and you had 200 HP at 20th level at 1st level you would still have 100 HP if you agree you simply forget you do not take that much damage from an attack or when someone hot you it does not affect you as much as it did when you are at lower levels. Note, there are other systems in which you HP are more fixed in nature and often harder to increase then in 5e they might or might not be better for your idea.
In the way way past I was building an old school bard (10th level in Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, Thief and as a house rule any other class you got to 10th before you took your first level in bard) and for my second class change (thief to cleric) I pretended I had a first levels hp when I had the hp of a 10th level thief as the GM and I built into the story a reason why I just could not be front line and take on all threats as well as other significant penalties if I used any thief abilities before I reached 10th level in cleric. It worked because the GM at the time was a very good GM and put limitations on my PC and significant penalties if I decided I had to do something off class.
I agree but again do you simply remember you are more powerful, stronger, healthy or can throw off mental curses? The amnesia plot hook, generally works well in fiction and movies but depending on the system you use often dose not fit the foundation of many game systems.
I respectfully disagree, since hit points are pretty well established as an abstraction in this game. You certainly have a point, especially if there was a mechanism by which he could regain his memories and abilities from when he was 20th level early (ie: when the rest of the party was 5th level he "remembers" he's 20th!). But that's not an option unless the DM allows (and there's no reason to do so).
The rules are here to help us tell stories. It's not the other way around. It's just not 50 percent this or 25 percent that. I think the hp you have overall give you an idea for how long you can stay alive in combat, etc. It's a universal resource that helps give combat a narrative that's exciting.
I agree but again do you simply remember you are more powerful, stronger, healthy or can throw off mental curses? The amnesia plot hook, generally works well in fiction and movies but depending on the system you use often dose not fit the foundation of many game systems.
I respectfully disagree, since hit points are pretty well established as an abstraction in this game. You certainly have a point, especially if there was a mechanism by which he could regain his memories and abilities from when he was 20th level early (ie: when the rest of the party was 5th level he "remembers" he's 20th!). But that's not an option unless the DM allows (and there's no reason to do so).
The rules are here to help us tell stories. It's not the other way around. It's just not 50 percent this or 25 percent that. I think the hp you have overall give you an idea for how long you can stay alive in combat, etc. It's a universal resource that helps give combat a narrative that's exciting.
i see your point and respect it...but from my experience saying it can be anything in a range of things often leads to problems and is not really making a decision (this often is an issue in games whos focus is simplicity and the longer they are in publication, note IMHO all games have areas that writers and designers do not see as issues until later and often need errata).
To simplify my point above, saying it can be 100% physical and 0% mental to 0% physical to 100% mental (a range that the Gm can ignore or make their own decision) is trying to please everyone and often none as an point of discord. Having said that a couple of paragraphs describing different settings of values Physical (0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%) and their corresponding Mental values would be helpful and allow GM's to deal with a lot of ideas.
I do like games that provide a wide range of RP options (some do better them others and some do somethings poorly but say they do not) and in every game I have played in GM's and players tend to ignore, downplay or simply accept different things and game ideas. I often use the example of a group that is so into the game and the GM that the GM can hold up a with piece of paper, make some wind noises and say it is 0 degrees F and the players put on coats and ask the home owner to turn up the heat. That comment again is simply to explain some players really get into the story and action easily vs others that do not.
Thanks for your comments and thoughts
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I'm a fairly new player to DnD (2 years in total with 5e, half of which has been DM)
I'm joining a new campaign at Level 1 and my idea for a character is that I am actually level 20, but I have amnesia.
Before the game (session 0) I will roll a table with all the races and classes and choose what the dice gods deem I should be. Absolutely everything from items, spells, class, background, etc will be randomly rolled. Then each level beyond that will be classed as my character "remembering" that they can do something, like a flashback. Again, randomly chosen from the level up.
I was thinking on level up I roll 1d8 and with an 8 I multiclass? Maybe.
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had done anything similar and whether or not there were any major problems that I could run into. I think the concept sounds quite fun but in reality it might be very underwhelming.
Thoughts?
I can see something like this happening as well. If you want to leave there progression somewhat random, at least have a subset of chosen spells or feats to roll on instead of the full list. That way you can ensure you won't get a bunch of redundancy or clunkers. Maybe after you get the first multiclass, you only take a level in the other class when you roll an 8. You could roll a d4 early to determine the maximum number of multiclass levels you'd take and possibly only take those multiclass levels after certain full class levels (like after 5th to get extra attack as a martial or 3rd level spells as a caster).
These steps could give some structure to the full on chaos.
The idea of being a former adventurer who, for one reason or another, no longer has access to all their skills and abilities is perfectly reasonable to me. As long as your character is still, mechanically, the same level as everyone else in your party it shouldn't make a difference. In my current campaign I was actually playing as a character who was fairly high level (not max level or anything, but high enough to justify having a reputation), but who suffered a near-fatal injury and had to start over again from level 1.
However, the whole "random chance" thing seems like it would be a huge headache. I think going for a fully random race/class on session Zero is totally fine... even when selecting your subclass at a later level (or at level one, depending) completely at random would still work. Even the worse subclasses are, for the most part, playable. You might not have as much fun being a Purple Dragon Knight as you might with a Battlemaster, but you're not totally useless. But I think beyond that you shouldn't do too much randomizing. If you do want to try the multiclassing thing, I'd recommend, even if you are randomizing, to at least limit your options to stuff that actually works well with your character. You wouldn't want to be heavily invested in a fully-armored Paladin who wields a greatsword and suddenly need to justify taking a level of Monk. I think the other challenging issue is in roleplay... it'd be hard to justify, in-story, how your character suddenly becomes a Warlock without having some kind of forced interaction with a Patron of some kind, or becoming a Cleric out of nowhere despite not being a particularly religious character prior to that.
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I agree with all said above - although I personally would chose subclass(es) somewhat similar to my original class. (Ex; Ranger with a subclass of Rogue
I think it can work. I used to do something similar in early editions when I couldn’t decide what I wanted to play, but I’d put a couple restrictions on it. Others have mentioned the problems with multiclassing, and I agree to stay away from that. Also, while I assume you are rolling for ability scores, I’d assign them rather than go down the line, and assign after you know your class. Or you could wind up with a 17 str, 6 int wizard. Or do it the other way, roll scores down the line, and pick the class that fits what you rolled. Or at least be willing to switch two scores so you don’t have a minus in your primary stat; you made it to level 20, you should be good at what you do. To me your class not matching up to your ability scores could be the biggest problem (and is another tick against random multiclassing).
And when feat time comes around, whittle the list down to choices that at least make sense. You don’t want your assassin rogue to take elemental adept, or your barbarian to take spell sniper, or wizard to take heavy armor master, etc. Or your fighter to spend 3 feats buffing their charisma. Even narrow it to 4 or 6 good choices and roll from there; again, you made it to level 20, you must have been good at what you did.
I agree with most people that it would only work if you had a very patient party/DM
¯\_🤠_/¯
I would absolutely not do this unless you have a lot more experience with the game. And would under no circumstances choose a spellcaster's spells known/prepared by random dice rolling.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
In general in my opinion your first class can define what multiclass options you take...and taking a complete random roll each level is asking for a lot of trouble.
I like to multiclass if I have rolled great stats if I do not then I pick one class and have at it.
If you want randomness I would roll stats and randomly place them and then pick a class based on that. Note this can make an unplayable PC.
As per amnesia, it is a lot of fun but I do not think that 5e is the right system for this as a lot of things are fixed and do not change a lot. For example you generally do not gain skill increases every level they are fairly basic 1/2 proficiency, proficiency and expertise where in other games you may allocate some type of points every level into skills that increase and you can pick up new skills and other abilities as needed.
In 5e if you want to do what you are proposing I would recommend the GM create your PC and not give you the sheet. And you the player have to figure out what you are good at and not good at. In fact I would have the GM roll for me also so I did not know anything about dice rolls as to not influence what I thought I was good at. But again this is more of an advanced player style then a new player style and does not fit with most games and GM's game plans.
I would also talk to the GM and ask their opinion and thoughts as they know their game and game groups "play range" and see if your idea fits or does not fit.
Good Luck
A few years back i did play completely random characters, once during 5E alpha playtesting sessions and another time last year. Both times the ability scores, race, class, background, hit points, and starting gold were rolled either from tables or to generate value in itself. It was challenging as it was a combination of elements i personally wouldn't have otherwise selected but i liked the challenge of coming up with backstory to support it all and i wouldn't mind do it again.
Thinking about how I would GM amnesia, I would have penalties for most if not every activity as the PC would be trying to learn how to do basic things again (in severe cases even walking) and then talk away the penalties as the PC kept on trying to do things. So may be a -2 and no stat bonus to all skills, tools, weapon attacks and other things they try and then gradually take away the penalty adding proficiency bonus and at the same time go from zero stat bonus (or negative) and add in 1/2 stat bonus then full stat bonus. I would also try and provide the player with some info (if I could) on how long I thought it would take to recover from the amnesia or to progress through the stages of amnesia I had set out to make sure the player really wanted to try and do what they proposed to do.
If you game is mostly RP then the above format might be fine but in a combat heavy game IMHO you would be a liability and other PC would have to protect you.
One thing I have seen in the past is a player wanting to take a penalty at one point for something advantageous in the future, so I would see if I the GM and the player were on the same page as to expiations.
Post #10 above,
I have played in a convention game where they had random PC's and or complete random PC gen, I found it was fun for a 1-2 day con event but I would not want to be stuck with something I did not like for a long term home game.
I like the amnesia idea and I think it could be really fun to play a character like that, but if you are rolling for everything you might get something that you wouldn't want and it would become a very suboptimal character.
Good luck with the new campaign!
I'm actually about to play the 1st session of a new campaign in a few hours as a (wood elf) werewolf druid.
Hollow unbreakable arrows are the most OP common magic item, and my current method of coming up with insane combat shenanigans.
if you make a steel pipe with one end closed and a nozzle on the other, you can enlarge it, fill with any liquid, and then drop concentration, creating a high pressure squirt gun. (or a pipe bomb, depending if it holds)
1) The concept of a character not really levelling up but instead regaining memories is nice.
2)The concept of starting off at random is also nice. Works well with amnesia even. Rolling randomly for INITAL stats, race, initial class, items, etc also makes sense.
3) But continuing to roll randomly when you level up makes no sense at all. That is not you remembering things, that is a nasty curse where your Fighter class that has nice armor suddenly gets a level of Monk and the armor no longer makes sense. That is being CURSED BY THE GODS, not a fun 'I have amnesia' idea. Why would he have gotten the armor if he was really a monk? He would have sold it, not kept it.
4) You can continue to roll randomly for some internal choices. That is, when your fighter gets a new weapon style, he can roll randomly. Same with choosing a subclass, and even cantrips.
5) Choosing Cantrips by random is fine, But choosing which leveled Spells they learn should not be randomly. Too likely to get a 1st level wizard that knows the following 6 first level spells: Alarm, Comprehend Languages, Detect Magic, Find Familiar, Identify, and Unseen Servant. Not a single defensive or offensive spell among them. At worst I might could see having half of all spells randomly choosen, then letting you choose the other spells to fill out your character. That way each level you can be assured of getting at least one defensive or offensive spell.
One problem I see is that at each level you gain hp, so if you are just remembering things then you would still have your hp of what level you were before you got amnesia.
It's a fun idea!
I agree with others that you could have some fun rolling randomly for how you start out. If you're doing everything-everything (spells, weapons, etc.), then, yes, makes sure it's a roleplay-focused group. Groups that focus more on optimizing are not going to like it if you're not at least moderately good at playing your part in encounters (combat or otherwise).
More importantly, I don't see why you can't deliberately pick all of the stuff as you level up. I get why you're suggesting it, but it's unnecessary. You can still roleplay out the amnesia even if you aren't randomly determining your advancement.
(side note: since hp are so easy to gain back in this edition--long rests, short rest, healing feat, potions, spells, etc.--I tend to look at them as mostly stamina, combat savvy, and plot armor. So amnesia reducing you down from your 20th level hit points makes sense to me. You don't know what you're doing and are more likely to end up with a grievous injury, etc.)
This is a character that wants to be the main character in the story - they already have a very long past history, even if they don't have access to their old spells and abilities.
You'd have to work with the DM constantly to regain any old memories.
Randomly rolling for stuff will make you ineffective and a burden on the rest of the party.
HP don't represent just solid health, "Hit points represent a combination of physical and mental durability, the will to live, and luck."
Sorry for the late reply, power and net went out.
I agree but again do you simply remember you are more powerful, stronger, healthy or can throw off mental curses? The amnesia plot hook, generally works well in fiction and movies but depending on the system you use often dose not fit the foundation of many game systems.
If you say 50% health and 50% mental and you had 200 HP at 20th level at 1st level you would still have 100 HP if you agree you simply forget you do not take that much damage from an attack or when someone hot you it does not affect you as much as it did when you are at lower levels. Note, there are other systems in which you HP are more fixed in nature and often harder to increase then in 5e they might or might not be better for your idea.
In the way way past I was building an old school bard (10th level in Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, Thief and as a house rule any other class you got to 10th before you took your first level in bard) and for my second class change (thief to cleric) I pretended I had a first levels hp when I had the hp of a 10th level thief as the GM and I built into the story a reason why I just could not be front line and take on all threats as well as other significant penalties if I used any thief abilities before I reached 10th level in cleric. It worked because the GM at the time was a very good GM and put limitations on my PC and significant penalties if I decided I had to do something off class.
I respectfully disagree, since hit points are pretty well established as an abstraction in this game. You certainly have a point, especially if there was a mechanism by which he could regain his memories and abilities from when he was 20th level early (ie: when the rest of the party was 5th level he "remembers" he's 20th!). But that's not an option unless the DM allows (and there's no reason to do so).
The rules are here to help us tell stories. It's not the other way around. It's just not 50 percent this or 25 percent that. I think the hp you have overall give you an idea for how long you can stay alive in combat, etc. It's a universal resource that helps give combat a narrative that's exciting.
i see your point and respect it...but from my experience saying it can be anything in a range of things often leads to problems and is not really making a decision (this often is an issue in games whos focus is simplicity and the longer they are in publication, note IMHO all games have areas that writers and designers do not see as issues until later and often need errata).
To simplify my point above, saying it can be 100% physical and 0% mental to 0% physical to 100% mental (a range that the Gm can ignore or make their own decision) is trying to please everyone and often none as an point of discord. Having said that a couple of paragraphs describing different settings of values Physical (0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%) and their corresponding Mental values would be helpful and allow GM's to deal with a lot of ideas.
I do like games that provide a wide range of RP options (some do better them others and some do somethings poorly but say they do not) and in every game I have played in GM's and players tend to ignore, downplay or simply accept different things and game ideas. I often use the example of a group that is so into the game and the GM that the GM can hold up a with piece of paper, make some wind noises and say it is 0 degrees F and the players put on coats and ask the home owner to turn up the heat. That comment again is simply to explain some players really get into the story and action easily vs others that do not.
Thanks for your comments and thoughts