I have had an idea for a Jekyll and Hyde type character
Light character: Aurelyn- a cleric of sun/light. At times of emotional stress or low HP, she gets amensia and her character switches
Dark character: Velryss- necromancer.
I'm not sure whether to multi-class, create two characters separately and how to get the switch to happen naturally in game play. Whether the switch to or from is dictated by a D6 roll, I'm just not sure. Any help would be much appreciated.
This idea will run into some difficulties in practice, and it'll take either a very permissive or a very experienced DM for this sort of thing. I expect that a lot of DM's would outright reject this concept for being difficult or exploitable.
There are many difficult questions to answer. Such as, what happens if you switch when one form has taken damage? A Cleric uses a d8 hit die, a Wizard (Necromancer) uses a d6 hit die, so even if the damage transfers, you'd have to recalculate it. You'd probably have to recalculate, I certainly wouldn't allow a switch from a "low HP" character to a full HP one.
Do they share a spell slot pool? (Hint: Yes. I certainly wouldn't allow one PC to have two PC's worth of spell slots.)
The amnesia is also troublesome, because a difficulty players have - even experienced ones - is compartmentalizing information the player knows from what their character knows. Now you'd have to further complicate that by compartmentalizing what each character knows separately.
Multi-classing would "solve" the HP and spell slots issues, but it would make both characters half as powerful as their expected level, they wouldn't have access to higher level spells for either class.Plus, you'd need good stats in both Wisdom and Intelligence, which leaves less room for CON for HP/Concentration and DEX for AC.
I have had an idea for a Jekyll and Hyde type character
Light character: Aurelyn- a cleric of sun/light. At times of emotional stress or low HP, she gets amensia and her character switches
Dark character: Velryss- necromancer.
I'm not sure whether to multi-class, create two characters separately and how to get the switch to happen naturally in game play. Whether the switch to or from is dictated by a D6 roll, I'm just not sure. Any help would be much appreciated.
The simplest way to do this, and the one you won't have a problem getting past a DM, is to do it via roleplay
Make one (1) character. If you want that character to be a spellcaster, you can choose some spells that only the "Hyde" side of the character will use, if you want to distinguish them beyond their personality -- i.e. the "Jekyll" side mainly uses heals and guiding bolt, but the "Hyde" side will suddenly start busting out inflict wounds.
Determine what circumstances will trigger the switch, either on your own or in collaboration with your DM. You could use something like the Stress Points system Critical Role used for FCG in Campaign 3, where his circuits essentially overloaded and he turned into a homicidal killing machine, if you want an actual mechanic for it, or you could just do it in high-stress moments when the RP makes sense
If you're going to play the character with two completely separate personalities, I'd also recommend discussing it with the rest of the party in session 0, to make sure everyone buys in
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Active characters:
Edoumiaond Willegume "Eddie" Podslee, Vegetanian scholar (College of Spirits bard) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Peter "the Pied Piper" Hausler, human con artist/remover of vermin (Circle of the Shepherd druid) PIPA - Planar Interception/Protection Aeormaton, warforged bodyguard and ex-wizard hunter (Warrior of the Elements monk/Cartographer artificer) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I'm a game with a player thats doing this with a wizard. His solution is to have different attributes/skils and different spell lists; but all of them Necro Wizards. The innocent man child as summoning spells to "make friends" and phantasm spells for damage, the serial killer has more direct damage spells, and a theoretical 3rd character would use charm spells. The important stuff is tracked on the main character sheet, and only pulls out the other characters during various story beats.
So, dual sheeting with an in the moment trigger like low HP is going to be a very hard sell to DMs, and the particular sheets you describe present some additional issues. In addition to the ones already outlined, you'll be transitioning from a class with Medium to Heavy armor profs depending on 2014 vs 2024 and shield prof to one that doesn't even get Light Armor prof. If you have the armor equipped, you can't cast any spells as a Wizard unless you're being handwaved as getting to keep it, which would be likely to raise eyebrows. So the simplest solution would be to never wear armor or use shields- or possibly just forgo the armor, it's a little unclear if shields count for the "wearing armor you don't have prof in" rule- but you're giving up a sizeable part of your character's staying power in Cleric mode like that.
Honestly, if you manage to find someone who is okay with dual-sheeting, I'd recommend just using a Grave or Death Cleric as the alter. Still very necromantic, but running on the same basic framework you're already using. Frankly, I'd say no prep list swapping for that- your Domain list should already give you a spread of on brand options and it keeps the idea that you're gaming the system with two separate modes to a minimum.
Personally, I don't think this concept works well in a game like D&D, though. The kind of drama you get from an alter taking the driver's seat in a story doesn't play well in a cooperative game where the resulting vibe is commonly that one player is suddenly choosing to act contrary to the group's interests; I've seen DMs manage possession scenarios well a time or two, but that's a different dynamic since the group should be able to trust that the DM is stage managing everything to keep the plot on track and it's already their role to introduce appropriate conflicts to the narrative. And if the character still functions about the same in the group, then it looks more like munchkining/main character syndrome that you have this special stuff going on with your character.
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I have had an idea for a Jekyll and Hyde type character
Light character: Aurelyn- a cleric of sun/light. At times of emotional stress or low HP, she gets amensia and her character switches
Dark character: Velryss- necromancer.
I'm not sure whether to multi-class, create two characters separately and how to get the switch to happen naturally in game play. Whether the switch to or from is dictated by a D6 roll, I'm just not sure. Any help would be much appreciated.
This idea will run into some difficulties in practice, and it'll take either a very permissive or a very experienced DM for this sort of thing. I expect that a lot of DM's would outright reject this concept for being difficult or exploitable.
There are many difficult questions to answer. Such as, what happens if you switch when one form has taken damage? A Cleric uses a d8 hit die, a Wizard (Necromancer) uses a d6 hit die, so even if the damage transfers, you'd have to recalculate it. You'd probably have to recalculate, I certainly wouldn't allow a switch from a "low HP" character to a full HP one.
Do they share a spell slot pool? (Hint: Yes. I certainly wouldn't allow one PC to have two PC's worth of spell slots.)
The amnesia is also troublesome, because a difficulty players have - even experienced ones - is compartmentalizing information the player knows from what their character knows. Now you'd have to further complicate that by compartmentalizing what each character knows separately.
Multi-classing would "solve" the HP and spell slots issues, but it would make both characters half as powerful as their expected level, they wouldn't have access to higher level spells for either class.Plus, you'd need good stats in both Wisdom and Intelligence, which leaves less room for CON for HP/Concentration and DEX for AC.
The simplest way to do this, and the one you won't have a problem getting past a DM, is to do it via roleplay
Make one (1) character. If you want that character to be a spellcaster, you can choose some spells that only the "Hyde" side of the character will use, if you want to distinguish them beyond their personality -- i.e. the "Jekyll" side mainly uses heals and guiding bolt, but the "Hyde" side will suddenly start busting out inflict wounds.
Determine what circumstances will trigger the switch, either on your own or in collaboration with your DM. You could use something like the Stress Points system Critical Role used for FCG in Campaign 3, where his circuits essentially overloaded and he turned into a homicidal killing machine, if you want an actual mechanic for it, or you could just do it in high-stress moments when the RP makes sense
If you're going to play the character with two completely separate personalities, I'd also recommend discussing it with the rest of the party in session 0, to make sure everyone buys in
Active characters:
Edoumiaond Willegume "Eddie" Podslee, Vegetanian scholar (College of Spirits bard)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Peter "the Pied Piper" Hausler, human con artist/remover of vermin (Circle of the Shepherd druid)
PIPA - Planar Interception/Protection Aeormaton, warforged bodyguard and ex-wizard hunter (Warrior of the Elements monk/Cartographer artificer)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
If you get permission, and you work with your DM for mechanics, this sounds like a very interesting, if not particularly original, concept.
I'm a game with a player thats doing this with a wizard. His solution is to have different attributes/skils and different spell lists; but all of them Necro Wizards. The innocent man child as summoning spells to "make friends" and phantasm spells for damage, the serial killer has more direct damage spells, and a theoretical 3rd character would use charm spells. The important stuff is tracked on the main character sheet, and only pulls out the other characters during various story beats.
So, dual sheeting with an in the moment trigger like low HP is going to be a very hard sell to DMs, and the particular sheets you describe present some additional issues. In addition to the ones already outlined, you'll be transitioning from a class with Medium to Heavy armor profs depending on 2014 vs 2024 and shield prof to one that doesn't even get Light Armor prof. If you have the armor equipped, you can't cast any spells as a Wizard unless you're being handwaved as getting to keep it, which would be likely to raise eyebrows. So the simplest solution would be to never wear armor or use shields- or possibly just forgo the armor, it's a little unclear if shields count for the "wearing armor you don't have prof in" rule- but you're giving up a sizeable part of your character's staying power in Cleric mode like that.
Honestly, if you manage to find someone who is okay with dual-sheeting, I'd recommend just using a Grave or Death Cleric as the alter. Still very necromantic, but running on the same basic framework you're already using. Frankly, I'd say no prep list swapping for that- your Domain list should already give you a spread of on brand options and it keeps the idea that you're gaming the system with two separate modes to a minimum.
Personally, I don't think this concept works well in a game like D&D, though. The kind of drama you get from an alter taking the driver's seat in a story doesn't play well in a cooperative game where the resulting vibe is commonly that one player is suddenly choosing to act contrary to the group's interests; I've seen DMs manage possession scenarios well a time or two, but that's a different dynamic since the group should be able to trust that the DM is stage managing everything to keep the plot on track and it's already their role to introduce appropriate conflicts to the narrative. And if the character still functions about the same in the group, then it looks more like munchkining/main character syndrome that you have this special stuff going on with your character.