I am sure this type of character has come up in the past, the concept seems like something many people may consider but most would probably argue that it is flawed and not consider it. Today the idea hit me that for my next character I may consider running a multi-class Fighter/Wizard character that has dissociative identity disorder (or multiple personalities) one being the fighter who is pretty much an aggressive attack first ask questions later type of person and the other being the wizard who is more of a calculative person preferring to consider all of the possibilities before making a decision. Now I know that the multi-classing in and of itself would make the character weaker than others as well as the need for two primary abilities and really only 2 possible dump stats. The thought that got brought up by one of my friends who is in the group I play with was possibly having the GM roll like a percentile every now and then to determine when the character changes personality.
The idea strikes me as having an interesting RP aspect to it of having to play two distinct personalities for a single character and having the chance of personality changing at an inopportune time.
The person who will be GM’ing after me who I would most likely use this concept with said that he is letting the characters be gestalt characters, since we only have 3 players and he is trying to think of a way to try and make up for the missing 4th, so if we use that type of character would the character be more plausible then with multi-classing. And what do you all think of this idea as a whole?
~Aod43254
I am sure this type of character has come up in the past, the concept seems like something many people may consider but most would probably argue that it is flawed and not consider it. Today the idea hit me that for my next character I may consider running a multi-class Fighter/Wizard character that has dissociative identity disorder (or multiple personalities) one being the fighter who is pretty much an aggressive attack first ask questions later type of person and the other being the wizard who is more of a calculative person preferring to consider all of the possibilities before making a decision. Now I know that the multi-classing in and of itself would make the character weaker than others as well as the need for two primary abilities and really only 2 possible dump stats. The thought that got brought up by one of my friends who is in the group I play with was possibly having the GM roll like a percentile every now and then to determine when the character changes personality.
The idea strikes me as having an interesting RP aspect to it of having to play two distinct personalities for a single character and having the chance of personality changing at an inopportune time.
The person who will be GM’ing after me who I would most likely use this concept with said that he is letting the characters be gestalt characters, since we only have 3 players and he is trying to think of a way to try and make up for the missing 4th, so if we use that type of character would the character be more plausible then with multi-classing. And what do you all think of this idea as a whole?
~Aod43254
I like it, I could be fun but it could also be extremely annoying for your fellow players. Just a few questions:
-Does the fighter know spells or are they 2 completely separate characters?-Will you keep the feats you take with the fighter when the wizard is the front personality or do you have a separate character sheet?
-Are they aware that the other exists?
You might set up a timer and every 30 minutes or so you change characters or when ever a specific cue or trigger pops up in game you change characters.
I like it, I could be fun but it could also be extremely annoying for your fellow players. Just a few questions:
-Does the fighter know spells or are they 2 completely separate characters?
-Will you keep the feats you take with the fighter when the wizard is the front personality or do you have a separate character sheet?
-Are they aware that the other exists?You might set up a timer and every 30 minutes or so you change characters or when ever a specific cue or trigger pops up in game you change characters.
Allow me to answer them in order:
-The fighter would not know the spells, they would be like two completely separate characters that inhabit one body.-Since I picture most of the fighter's bonus feats being melee oriented I would say the Wizard has access to them but acts as a mage and rarely enters physical combat, so he wouldn't really use them.
-They are aware of the other's existence and actions but can't communicate directly with one another, and both somewhat accept the other (in that the fighter won't throw out the wizard's spell book wondering why its in his possession.) however they both see themselves as the true personality of the body, hating to lose control to the other.
As for the timer, while that would definitely work and if the GM prefers that I wouldn't argue doing using that method to when the personalities swap, I think having the changes be random might offer for some more interesting situations (personality changing in the middle of an argument or even combat) but the randomness may be more difficult to pull off so depending on what the GM prefers.
~Aod43254
The problem with this I see is that if you revert to your wizard side while in combat and you are in armor you will have difficulty casting your spells. If you are starting at a higher level, at least level 5, then you can make some custom continuous items of shield and mage armor. If you take the right restrictions on the items then the cost of those custom jobs would be relatively low in cost.
If it only happens at the start of combat then who would gain the XP, the wizard personality or the fighter? If only one personality was present for the fight then only that personality would gain the XP. Statistics say that you would both go up at the same but then again 50% of all statistics are wrong. If one personality starts falling behind then when that personality pops up it may be un-effective for a given encounter.
If both personalities grow then only half of the XP would go to each personality or the secondary personality could have growth similar to that of a cohort which may not be a bad idea. The other personality belonging once to family might be a solid idea.
Concept wise it is not new but concept wise I would suggest that there was some sort of tragedy in the character's past and he absorbed the personality of the one he lost in order to cope or due to magical reasons and it really is that personality.
Another concept would be that in times great emotional stress the two personalities would combat each other in a mental arena or perhaps on the ethereal plane.
One concept I was told about one time was Barbarian/Wizard combo. Everytime he took a blow to the head he switched. It was done as two separate characters, although I don't know how the XP worked out.
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Another option for this, that would also make the character slightly less weak, is making a vivisectionist alchemist/master chemyst. Though that could take a lot of the randomness out of it.
Some other things to consider for this. Which would be the dominant personality? Would there be any triggers that would cause one to want to manifest itself? How opposed are their alignments? Having two personalities with vastly different alignments could give you some fun RP opportunities if one is trying to do something the other is very opposed to and they start struggling for dominance. Which wouldn't be too strange if they're both aware of the other. I'd definitely suggest doing some research on MPD/DID for this.
I'd run a summoner. Play the summoner, or play the eidolon. You CAN make an humanoid eidolon with armor and a sword, so no problem there.
It'll keep the XP simple.
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I would recommend against this whole idea. You are taking a multi-class that can be very weak and making it much weaker to the point of uselessness.
If you split the levels evenly then your group essentially gets the part time services of a half level fighter or a half level wizard. Now if you favor one class over the other it gets much worse for half the time and slightly better for the other half.
if you want to do this "crazy" person plan then I suggest doing a full level character who periodically thinks he is something else:
The full level fighter who thinks he is a great paladin hero from the past
The full level cleric who thinks he is a great barbarian warrior from the past
The full level monk who sometimes thinks he is a demi-god.
etc.
That way your party gets a full leveled but partially gimped character sometimes and a full power character the rest of the time.
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I am sure this type of character has come up in the past, the concept seems like something many people may consider but most would probably argue that it is flawed and not consider it. Today the idea hit me that for my next character I may consider running a multi-class Fighter/Wizard character that has dissociative identity disorder (or multiple personalities) one being the fighter who is pretty much an aggressive attack first ask questions later type of person and the other being the wizard who is more of a calculative person preferring to consider all of the possibilities before making a decision. Now I know that the multi-classing in and of itself would make the character weaker than others as well as the need for two primary abilities and really only 2 possible dump stats. The thought that got brought up by one of my friends who is in the group I play with was possibly having the GM roll like a percentile every now and then to determine when the character changes personality.
The idea strikes me as having an interesting RP aspect to it of having to play two distinct personalities for a single character and having the chance of personality changing at an inopportune time.
The person who will be GM’ing after me who I would most likely use this concept with said that he is letting the characters be gestalt characters, since we only have 3 players and he is trying to think of a way to try and make up for the missing 4th, so if we use that type of character would the character be more plausible then with multi-classing. And what do you all think of this idea as a whole?
~Aod43254
Way did the party of adventures pick up a crazy person in the first place? Maby they did not know your crazy. Personly if my character learned that you where crazy. Your character wold be asked to leave the group, or be killed if you displayed traits that might get the party killed.
So why are we traviling with the crazy? Thats the first thing you need to over come.
The problem with this I see is that if you revert to your wizard side while in combat and you are in armor you will have difficulty casting your spells. If you are starting at a higher level, at least level 5, then you can make some custom continuous items of shield and mage armor. If you take the right restrictions on the items then the cost of those custom jobs would be relatively low in cost.
If it only happens at the start of combat then who would gain the XP, the wizard personality or the fighter? If only one personality was present for the fight then only that personality would gain the XP. Statistics say that you would both go up at the same but then again 50% of all statistics are wrong. If one personality starts falling behind then when that personality pops up it may be un-effective for a given encounter.
If both personalities grow then only half of the XP would go to each personality or the secondary personality could have growth similar to that of a cohort which may not be a bad idea. The other personality belonging once to family might be a solid idea.
Concept wise it is not new but concept wise I would suggest that there was some sort of tragedy in the character's past and he absorbed the personality of the one he lost in order to cope or due to magical reasons and it really is that personality.
Another concept would be that in times great emotional stress the two personalities would combat each other in a mental arena or perhaps on the ethereal plane.
I am not sure how I will handle the xp and leveling up yet, I originally planned giving one a level then the other which would keep them equal at every even character level they would be equal, but it was also suggested to me by a person in our group to have the personality that is in control at the time of leveling up get the level.
I would recommend against this whole idea. You are taking a multi-class that can be very weak and making it much weaker to the point of uselessness.
If you split the levels evenly then your group essentially gets the part time services of a half level fighter or a half level wizard. Now if you favor one class over the other it gets much worse for half the time and slightly better for the other half.
if you want to do this "crazy" person plan then I suggest doing a full level character who periodically thinks he is something else:
The full level fighter who thinks he is a great paladin hero from the past
The full level cleric who thinks he is a great barbarian warrior from the past
The full level monk who sometimes thinks he is a demi-god.
etc.
That way your party gets a full leveled but partially gimped character sometimes and a full power character the rest of the time.
I knew he would be weaker than a full character but this is more concentrating on how effective he would be, and to be honest I typically make characters more for how I picture the character than what would be most effective. (hell I ran a duel sickle wielding spell casting Druid my very first time playing). Since my GM mentioned possibly having us run Gestalt characters would you think this idea work better then as opposed to the multi-classing?
Way did the party of adventures pick up a crazy person in the first place? Maby they did not know your crazy. Personly if my character learned that you where crazy. Your character wold be asked to leave the group, or be killed if you displayed traits that might get the party killed.
So why are we traviling with the crazy? Thats the first thing you need to over come.
Since this character is currently only an idea I haven't considered why the rest of the party wants to let him join. That seems like something that would come up once we actually begin playing the campaign and not something that would come up when there is no hint as to who the rest of the party is.
~Aod43254
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I was not really trying to make a point about optimizing. Weak but interesting characters can be fun. But splitting levels and not using the abilities of the other class you are essentially useless this gets worse as the levels progress.
Now gestalt would work better but your fighter/wizard combination could have trouble.
I really suggest that you make your concept work better with a full leveled character or at least classes that mesh more effectively.
for example:
barbarian/fighter half the time he thinks he is a wild barbarian who hates magic and soap. The other half he is a prissy fighter who likes to keep clean and keep his armor shiny. No matter which personality is in charge it is still full BAB, HP, AC, most feats. Heck he could even think he was a shopkeeper who got dragged along against his will. But he will still benefit from most of his abilities.
Other combos could be made that work like that but mostly non-spell casters.
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I would look at the following alternatives:
1) Don't split your levels evenly. Either go for Eldritch Knight, or go for the Magus base class. Either way will make a more effective character in the long run that just splitting Fighter and Wizard levels, AND you get to remain moderately effective.
2) This is really subject to DM approval, but ask if you can have 2 character sheets, and then switch them based on the timer, like you said. Give them a disadvantage, like maybe you're dazed or stunned for a round when that happens, and possibly give yourself a reduction in caster level (not Wizard level, but caster level, so you could still cast 3rd level spells at 5th level, but they'd function as though you were a level 3 Wizard), just to keep things in line, but really I can't see being both classes and randomly switching being a problem.
Heck, could you imagine if that happened while you were in the front lines? All of a sudden your beast of a fighter goes squishy Wizard? Seems like enough of a penalty to me.
Also, if you do end up being able to do the 2 character sheets thing, I advise against the "specific trigger" method of personality changing. Otherwise, your party will simply learn the trigger and change you to whatever they need, which would be overpowered (though, really, if the party had a good time doing that, I would probably allow it anyways. Seems kinda fun XD).
I think the idea is fine and pretty funny to be honest.
Have two character sheets with completely different stats. Now, because the two classes will be the same person, as far as experience is concerned, say you had 500 exp from an encounter, add the 500 exp to each character sheet.
This makes the most sense as each personality should have exactly the same amount of experience points, seeing as it's still the same character you're playing as, just with a different mindset.
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Giving each personality its own experience is a mess. it is also a little munchkinny (two n's or one in that?). Because by having two separate characters who are inhabiting the same body then if the group needs a wizard they just need to wait a bit and vice versa. If the DM approves, fine I guess but I recommend against it.
Giving each personality its own experience is a mess. it is also a little munchkinny (two n's or one in that?). Because by having two separate characters who are inhabiting the same body then if the group needs a wizard they just need to wait a bit and vice versa. If the DM approves, fine I guess but I recommend against it.
Yea, which is why I suggested writing down the exact same experience on each character sheet. Making one personality have more exp than the other would be confusing (in my opinion).
Alternatively, to save writing everything down twice, just have a separate sheet for experience.
The only stat that I think should remain as a shared stat for both personalities is Con, as you're changing mentally only, so you wouldn't go from being able to take a lot of hits to being able to take none.
Though, you could go from being a Str based character in one personality, to being a dex based character, as for gaming purposes one personality might be strong and full of confidence (using Str to his advantage) while the other could be wary of everything around him and use his natural reflexes to dodge all threats.
You want to be a Magic user though, so to have an effective character, either stick with a Magus, making your guy use his magic while one personality is around, and then switch to using melee only when the other comes out.....or jump between Fighter and Cleric.
Up to you though.
But the example you gave is that if 500xp is awarded then each personality takes 500xp in a non-gestalt game you essentially have a gestalt charactaer then. I think that is what would be a mess and unfair to other players.
No, I meant it in the sense that it would be shared experience. I thought I explained it clearly enough....
Anyways, like I said, it's two personalities so the experience would not change. Both personalities would have the same amount of experience as it's still the same person fighting, even if he/she has multiple personalities in his/her head.
This gives absolutely no benefits to the original posters character over anyone else.
For example:
Character 1 gets 500 exp
Character 2 gets 500 exp
Character 3 (the schizo) gets 500exp
No change. The character still has the same amount of exp as everyone else.
I think you just misinterpreted it, as what I was actually saying was each personality gets 500exp as they're the same person. I didn't mean it in such a way that personality 1 gets 500 exp and personality 2 also gets 500 exp (totalling 1000exp).
If I did, I wouldn't have followed up saying alternatively you could write exp on another sheet. I was just saying if you use two character sheets, write the same exp for each character as it won't change. One won't be getting more than the other. The character will be getting it as a whole, and each personality will share the characters exp.
I agree with both personalities having the same experience pool. i.e 500xp total for that one character. Because giving 500xp to each personality would be nuts.
Exactly. :p