I'm working on a character. A character with two distinct personalities (a good natured street urchin and a tyrannical priest of an evil diety) and I want each one to have a distinct set of personalities. I want to give them both class levels but I'm trying to design a mechanic for the switching of personalities. I'm thining opposed charisma checks to see who's in power but I'm not sure if that's the route I want to take, sine the tyrant would almost always be in control. Perhaps a Will save from the dominant personality? I'm also thinking about making triggers that force each personality to rise.
Help would be appreciated.
I would use a trigger response for such a character. I would also make one personality dominant over the other, possibly make it so that they are aware of one another and competing with each other. The trigger you choose (I'm thinking one for each personality) should match the type of person that manifests itself.
For example, say one of them is particularly violent and the other is not. When combat ensues, the meek character is in control, as the battle begins, there is a likely chance that the more violent personality shall take over. Then when the fight is over, the meek personality returns and pays for the violent acts of the other, thus they have a love hate relationship with one another. The meek personality may feel responsible for letting the monster inside get out and therefore take blame for the opposed personalities actions.
If your DM allows it (or if your the DM) I would have different alignments for each personality as well, making sure they are opposed to one another. If you go this route be careful about not losing your paladinhood, that sort of thing. Talk to your DM first about it in detail and come to an understanding prior to playing the character. You won't want to have any unhappy conflicts between you and the DM.
If your looking for a game mechanic to be involved in the switching of personalities, I think WIS or CHA are your best choices. Wisdom is good because a high wisdom may prevent the less desired personality from surfacing. Charisma could be an issue because it reflects one's ability to influence others. In the game a high charsima personality would try and talk the opposed personality into going dormat so that it could surface all the way and take over.
You could require a wis or cha check at a specific DC (say 15), which is modified up or down according to the specifics of what is taking place in the game. If the roll is met, the personality either surfaces or doesn't, whichever is applicable. You would also have to decide how quickly you want the personality switches to take place. On TV you'll see switches take place immediately (say 1 round). Having it take place over the coarse of a few rounds would be more interesting when it comes to role playing. If you go with the violent/non-violent personalities your probably better off going with 1 round because you don't want to spend all of the combat rounds waiting for the switch to take place. If your personalities are more role playing based, then I would go with 3-4 rounds for switching because during that time you can begin a shift in personality or have them talk back and forth to one another (roleplaying. You could also have the two personalities make opposed rolls against one another in order to determine who comes out on top.
Example:
Personality #1 An abused child named Cassandra: I don't think we should go to the dungeon, it might be dangerous and mommy wants us home for supper. Daddy will tan our hides if we don't get our chores done in time. Please don't go Bart, I'm afraid of being alone. (At this time, make a Cha check for personality #2, if it fails, the Cassandra personality continues, if it fails, Bart takes over).
Personality #2 A bully named Bart: Shut up Casandra, daddy won't know if you don't tell him and if you do I'll make sure your going to regret it. (PC raises his fist like he's going to hit someone). Your so weak, such a pushover, and so boring. (At this point make a Wis check for Cassandra, if it succeeds she supresses bart and he backs down. If Cassandra fails, she backs down and says):
Personality #1: Don't hurt me please Bart, I promise I won't tell daddy.....
And so personality #2 surfaces over a few rounds of roleplaying. And becomes the dominant personality until it the next trigger occurs.
You'll have to decide for yourself what the different personalities you want based on the type of character your looking for. I would strongly suggest that you create individual backgrounds for each whether the personalities know each other or not. One could be a war veteran while the other is a child. Each is aware of the other. The war veteran may have participated in the last big campaign war while the child is a displaced refugee as a result of the veteran's army. Again, opposed to one another.
The final thing I would consider is the purchasing of skills and feats, even multi-classing. You may want to assign skills and feats you've selected to a specific personality. For example, let's say one personality is very persuasive so you put a lot of ranks in diplomacy, while the other personality is strong in the Intimidate skill. When one personality is being employed, (say the diplomat), the Intimidate skill isn't nearly as good (say using it without any ranks), then when the bully surfaces, the same thing applies to the diplomacy skill. This represents each personality having its own thing they are good at, like individual people are. What your good at, I'm not, and I can most likely do a few things you can't do. The downside to this approach is that some of your skills/feats can't be utilized to their fullest potential all the time. If you decide to take this approach, I would only have 1-2 skills for each personality be affected and the remainding skills be available to both. This gives you something each personality is known for and good at while still allowing fair use of everything else.
Hope this helps.
I was more thinking along the lines of having a seperate character sheet for each personality. The character's physical scores would remain the same, but I would switch the mental scores around.
I'm thinkingthat I'll have the personality not in control make a Charisma check opposed by a Wisdom check from the personality currently in control. When certain trigger events occur, one of the personalities will become domminant unless the current dominant personality makes a Will save (DC 10+HD maybe).
Everytime a personality switch occurs, I'll spend a few rounds muttering to myself.
I'd have to scrounge up where I read it... I think it might be Fiendish Codex I... But you could take a look at the Possession rules. It might serve your purpose.
I think they're in the Eberron core book but I'll take a look at them.
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I tend to play characters with that sort of personality quirk. If you are like me, its the ROLEplaying challenge, not the ROLLplaying challenge that intrigues you. If so, consider NOT using a mechanic.
Personally, I'd flip a coin at "crucial" moments. Heads is personality A, Tails is personality B. Don't Flip the coin at EVERY initiative role, but rather those moments where one or the other personality would be a clear "preferred" choice over the other.
Example.
Personality A is Cliched Barbarian, Peronality B is Cliched Wizard. Personality A is in charge.
During play, personality A is researching a new spell in town. He buys reagents, spends xp, etc... This goes on for maybe a month. All of this is mundane (it has a EL of zero). The DM decides to spice things up, and has the character assaulted by a group of thugs. Since both personalities can handle themselves in such a situation, there is no personality swap. However, the city watch wants to question the wizard. Apparently one of the thugs was a young noble fallen in with the "wrong" crowd. This "diplomacy" encounter ( EL > 0)is clearly best handled by the Wizard personalities. Flip a coin. If it comes up "wizard" you are golden, if it comes up "Barbarian", there might be some interesting dialogue:
"Why did you use Fireball rather than a simple sleep and alert the watch?"
"I don't cast spells you son-of-goat!"