Hence the "pretty much" qualifier. You can always find something that's worse ^^
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Sorry, but pretty much anything is a better solution than messing with player level. That isn't a solution, that's creating a problem.
To not mess with the math might be better to have it count as 2 characters of the same level, that would keep the APL and CR math mostly in balance. Crazy idea not something I think would ever happen. But it makes me wonder what if a 4 armed creature was the baseline how would two armed creatures be balanced?
How do you make General Grievous? Have 5 players each make an SRO and stacks them together, one plays the legs body and head, as a mechanic that controls drones. The other for players each play one arm, as a Solarian manifesting Solarian sword like weapons. You could move and control a drone and still get 4 full attacks per round without breaking the math.
How about a two-headed four-armed creature that counts as two players, each head controls two arms, and each head acts on a different initiative. Each head might even have a different class, but they would share health, but all the other math Base attack bonuses, skills, and AC would be the same level. As crazy as this idea sounds it could be an interesting way to fill a party at a table short on players.
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The arms aren't vestigial. They are still useful, just not twice as useful, just like how a monkeys apposable feet and prehensile tail are useful, but they can't use either as well as their hands.No species evolves multiple arms without being able to use them. If using multiple arms effectively throws off the game balance built around 2 armed species, instead of penalizing multi-armed species by making them balanced with 2 armed species, have them have a higher level for calculating APL for encounters to adjust for being better at multiple attacks.
I was looking at how multi-limbed animals in nature fight. Octopuses are the only one's I can think of that use all of their limbs equally. Things like crabs, scorpions, and some insects have their two front limbs highly developed for fighting, and all of their other legs are used for movment. Scorpions use their tail as well but that's not the same as having a third free hand. There's nothing in nature I can think of that walks with two limbs and has multiple limbs used as free hands, or at least not free limbs strong enough to fight with. So multi-armed creatures might have 2 arms stronger than the rest to explain being limited to attacking with two arms. Fiddler crabs take it to an extreme and have one GIANT oversized claw. At least that's how things on earth seem to deal with it.
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How about a two-headed four-armed creature that counts as two players, each head controls two arms, and each head acts on a different initiative. Each head might even have a different class, but they would share health, but all the other math Base attack bonuses, skills, and AC would be the same level. As crazy as this idea sounds it could be an interesting way to fill a party at a table short on players.
(respectful) I think you just re-invented the mech combat system :D
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(respectful) I think you just re-invented the mech combat system :DHow about a two-headed four-armed creature that counts as two players, each head controls two arms, and each head acts on a different initiative. Each head might even have a different class, but they would share health, but all the other math Base attack bonuses, skills, and AC would be the same level. As crazy as this idea sounds it could be an interesting way to fill a party at a table short on players.
Kind of but in a way that wouldn't increase the party's APL by 3 levels. Which would allow them to be mixed with normal characters more easily.
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Well, octopi have mini brains in each limb, which is why they can control each one so independently, they control themselves. That is presumable not the case with most aliens.I was looking at how multi-limbed animals in nature fight. Octopuses are the only one's I can think of that use all of their limbs equally.The arms aren't vestigial. They are still useful, just not twice as useful, just like how a monkeys apposable feet and prehensile tail are useful, but they can't use either as well as their hands.No species evolves multiple arms without being able to use them. If using multiple arms effectively throws off the game balance built around 2 armed species, instead of penalizing multi-armed species by making them balanced with 2 armed species, have them have a higher level for calculating APL for encounters to adjust for being better at multiple attacks.
Octopuses also have 3 hearts and can edit their own RNA. But Octopuses don't even have the record for most brains, Leeches have 32 brains. I got curious to see if other species had multiple brains and turns out that Cephalopods, Insects, Annelids, and Gastropods have them, so primates are WAY outnumbered by multi-brained species. That's just on Earth somewhere in a galaxy there's got to be a cross between a Contemplative and a leech. That's biological creatures, constructed cereatures are only limited by their creator's imagination.
If a multi-brain species evolved playing TTRPGs they would likely have one brain for listening to the GM, one for dealing with the other players, one for rolling dice, one for planning moves and moving minis, one for looking things up on Archive of Nethys, and one for keeping track of their character sheet. GMs would likely evolve into a separate species with even more brains, to keep track of NPCs, and deal with multiple players at the same time. So humans are not likely the apex gammers in the galaxy.
