2 Players for One Character

[servant6]

Main question: Can two people play a single character (one being the "character," one playing the companion)?

Character concept: A summoner who isn't very smart or clever, who obeys the will of his eidolon. The eidolon rarely fights and is the brains of the pair. The summoner is actually the one often fighting. The eidolon will only attack foes in melee if the sommoner is close to loosing consciousness. The sommoner is awkward and nervous when his eidolon is not summoned. Not optimal, but fun :]

So can a friend of mine play said eidolon, knowing that the XP will only be for "my" character? My question isn't exclusive to this specific setup, as it could be enjoyable for any character with an intelligent companion to make the differentiation between the pair more realistic and dynamic.

Thanks for reading :]

[Mahtobedis]

Oh dear, ummm, I'm not sure it has been addressed in the guide to organized play.

*casts summon campaign leadership*

Edit: I think it would depend a great deal on how many people were at the table. At larger table the extra person not playing a full character may be too much of a hassle to accommodate.

[John Compton]

I tend not to enjoy playing 1st-person shooter games, yet sometimes I can have a lot of fun just watching a friend play one. I can see how your friend might approach table-top RPGs in the same way.

At face value, I don't see a big problem with this. It's an opportunity for someone to experience Pathfinder without diving in completely, and after a few games, your friend might decide that it would be fun to try playing of his or her own. I think that would be the ideal result, really.

On the other hand (as Mahtobedis rightly points out above), the quality of the RPG experience can vary based on the number of participants. This isn't just true for mechanics, in which more characters means more actions and longer rounds; it's also true for sharing the spotlight. By having two players playing two parts of the same character, it's effectively doubling the amount of spotlight time that that character gets, which might get tiresome for the other players. In other cases there might just not be space for another body. For example, most of the round tables that show up at conventions get fairly cozy with six players, a GM, and everyone's gear. Adding another player to that tends to involve a lot of squeezing. I don't think it would be fair to show up to a public gaming event without first speaking to the organizer about your intentions.

I don't know that I'm prepared to make a ruling on this one way or another. I'm tempted to say give it a try when you know there will be five or fewer players so that everyone still has plenty of "space" in which to roleplay his character and receive attention from the GM.

[servant6]

Thank you so much for the lightning quick response :] this is very helpful, thank you.

Edit: My takeaway is proceed with caution and respect the GM and my table mates :] I want to do this in a home game, now ^_^

[Sniggevert]

servant6 wrote:

Thank you so much for the lightning quick response :] this is very helpful, thank you.

Edit: My takeaway is proceed with caution and respect the GM and my table mates :] I want to do this in a home game, now ^_^

This little bit right here will get you through 99% of any issues that might come up. Show respect to them, and they're much more likely to show respect back and everything works out in a civilized manner.

Does sound interesting, but I can definitely see the issues John mentions possibly cropping up at some tables.

[♣♠Magic♦♥]

Using this in society, the play would be to have these characters written up as well as both of you having a secondary character to use if you're not able/allowed to use this idea at a given table.

[LazarX]

There really isn't a way to do this in Society play unless one player is happy with the idea of not getting credit for the scenario.

[Chris Mortika]

I agree with LazarX's rules position, if not L's attitude.

The character has a character number, say xxxxxx-3, here xxxxxxis the player number of the player who "owns" the PC, which I'm assuming is servant6. That player must be at the table when this summoner runs, and must be the player running the character. In theory, that player gets final decision-making power over both the summoner and eidolon.

Now, there's nothing keeping that player from inviting a friend to sit at the PFS table and "make the decisions for" the eidolon. Sounds like a lot of fun! The player-of-record could well decide to never play the summoner unless his friend were at the table, role-playing the eidolon. The same could be done with an animal companion, a faerie dragon familiar, or a magical talking sword.

But, to be clear, that friend can't come to the table with that character and run it without the owner there.

So this isn't "two players for one character"; it's something much simpler than that.

[deusvult]

it does open up the potential for abuse of the foreknowledge and replay rules.

Not sure if such abuse is likely enough to merit a rule addressing it.. but then again there's a reason they had to label coffee cups with a warning about what HOT means..

[Chris Mortika]

deusvult, I think that's already covered. If the friend joins the campaign with his own character, he should say "GM, when I was starting out, I sat in and watched a table of this adventure." It shouldn't matter whether he was advising the summoner's player or not.

[servant6]

Good points all around, thank you for the feedback and encouragement :] In a PFS situation, this wouldn't be a long term solution, more a way of helping a friend get comfortable with tabletop gaming. I still really like the idea, and would like to use it in a home game at some point, but I realize that in PFS it isn't as easy as I initially imagined.

For now, my friend will not be playing without me, so we're just having fun coming up with ideas for a pair of characters who would synergize well in PFS, but that's a topic for another thread ;]

[Dafydd]

D20PFSRD wrote:

Casual Observer: Some gaming groups have a casual player, friend, spouse, or child who isn't interested in playing a normal character for the campaign, but likes to watch the game or be nearby when everyone else is playing. That person might be interested in playing a companion for one or more sessions (especially if it's a creature that's funny and cute). This is an opportunity for that person to get involved in the game without the responsibility of being a full contributing member to the group—and just might be the hook that convinces that observer to become active in the game.

If playing a companion goes well, the GM may create a one-shot spin-off adventure in which all the players play companion creatures instead of normal PCs (perhaps because the PCs are captured, incapacitated, or merely sleeping), returning to the normal campaign when that adventure is completed.

Admittadly, this is not from any PFS rules. However, the theory is sound. Personally, I would allow this if I was a GM and there was a player willing to allow their pet to be controlled by someone new.

I would make sure that the new person was aware, if they wanted lasting rewards from the game, they would need a real character. Playing the pet is only for their pathfinder teeth cutting.

[Qstor]

deusvult wrote:

it does open up the potential for abuse of the foreknowledge and replay rules.

Not sure if such abuse is likely enough to merit a rule addressing it.. but then again there's a reason they had to label coffee cups with a warning about what HOT means..

I agree with this statement. It has the potential for say letting a player play a GM's character when the player is a relative or friend of the GM. I played a lot of Living Greyhawk and that happened at a table I was playing at that was IIRC average party level eight. The GM's girlfriend forgot her character and he said just use mine.

(There were no pregens for LG games.)

I mentioned to him that this was a rules violation and he said he did it all the time. So my two copper as a GM would be to *not* allow this. A home game fine but not PFS.

Mike

[Mikey V]

Mahtobedis wrote:

*casts summon campaign leadership*

can I copy this from your spell book?

[TOZ]

servant6 wrote:

Edit: My takeaway is proceed with caution and respect the GM and my table mates :] I want to do this in a home game, now ^_^

Can I have you in my home game?

[Woran]

Once we had a player that had signed up but at the start realized he had already played this scenario.

Because he was already there, we let him play as another players pack animal.
Which was a camel.

It was hilarious! (he never 'spoke', just made camel noises, and made things clear by 'chewing' on other players)

[GinoA]

We're playing through an AP for PFS credit. We play at our local store and there is *usually* a second table running a normal PFS scenario.

One of the regulars who isn't in the AP showed up without realizing no one was running a non-AP table. We let him play the table as a dog that we had just encountered. He had a fabulous time and added a lot of fun.

Recently, one of the AP players has had to drop out of the AP. The dog-player will be joining us as a regular PC next session.

i keep saying he should continue playing as the dog, now with Bard levels. No one else seems to like the idea.

[Finlanderboy]

I had a nature oracle I used to play that was smarter than the oracle and the schtick was that the animal companion wa sin charge of him.

[ARGH!]

That is my druid. Both him and the AC are at 5 int now. Part of the fun of playing that character is that I can switch which character that I am roleplaying in the middle of an interraction, leading to hilarious results.

For instance

library of the lion:

When we were in the first big room investigating, and noticed that the lion statue was watching us, I sent my AC over to have a staring contest with it. When we started talking to it, My AC (a gorilla) started petting it to influence it's attitude. By technicalities, because it does not have the pet trick it could not pet the lion, but the GM ruled that it would allow it to aid another on diplomacy.

[Shasfowd]

1: I have a character JUST like that
2: Technically, yes. It's just the player playing the summoner technically has control over the eidelon.