I'd like to play a character with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

[Callista]

For our latest campaign I am playing a character who was assigned a homeland that makes Mordor look like Disneyland. This is the sort of place where nothing is dependable, might makes right, magic goes crazy, there are no rules, and most sentient creatures below a certain power level are unable to think rationally by the time they are adults. To the degree that it's possible for them to think clearly, they desperately want to leave, but can't. It's your basic chaotic evil paradise. I don't know much more about it than that; it's up to the DM.

My character is in her mid-teens and just barely escaped from this place. I had to make her young enough to still be thinking clearly, but old enough to be able to make an escape plan and act on it. Her alignment is currently LG, though she doesn't yet have a firmly established life philosophy. She only knows what she doesn't want, which is pretty much everything she experienced back in her homeland; in a way, she's a rebellious teenager. Currently she's had an apprenticeship with a paladin mentor and is a low-level paladin herself. She has some Knowledge (Religion), but not much. INT is 10, WIS is 13, CHA 14.

But a person doesn't escape from that kind of a situation without some fallout. I toyed with the usual PTSD idea, but let's face it; that's overdone, and it can be a serious hindrance.

My idea for obsessive-compulsive disorder is that it would be a kind of coping mechanism. Living in a world where nothing is certain, you learn to doubt everything, and you desperately want to control at least something. So maybe you start out with a few superstitions--things like favorite numbers, or always touching a door before you go through it. Those things make you feel like you're a little more in control, even though you know it's silly and it won't change anything. Eventually you might be worried that you haven't done it "right", and have to repeat it until you know for sure you have. For my character, her fears would be along the lines of losing control of herself, accidentally killing people, doing something horrible.

I don't want the OCD to define her personality. It doesn't, in real life; people are a great deal more complex than that. I definitely don't want this to turn into some kind of angst fest; there's enough of the "oh, the poor poor crazy person" stuff out there without my adding to it. On the other hand, I want it to be pretty evident that this girl is going to have to get some experience, learn to trust herself, learn to trust her deity. She's young and more than a little inexperienced--if anything, she's a paladin because she needs her deity, not really because her deity needs her. BTW: No, I don't want to make her a germophobe. For one thing, her society doesn't know what germs are...

My questions here are:
Would this be a reasonable thing to have as a character?
In a day-to-day way, how do I play this out?
Would I need to have any mechanical changes, or is RP enough?
Any other tips?

[ExemplarofAvg]

For our latest campaign I am playing a character who was assigned a homeland that makes Mordor look like Disneyland. This is the sort of place where nothing is dependable, might makes right, magic goes crazy, there are no rules, and most sentient creatures below a certain power level are unable to think rationally by the time they are adults. To the degree that it's possible for them to think clearly, they desperately want to leave, but can't. It's your basic chaotic evil paradise. I don't know much more about it than that; it's up to the DM.

My character is in her mid-teens and just barely escaped from this place. I had to make her young enough to still be thinking clearly, but old enough to be able to make an escape plan and act on it. Her alignment is currently LG, though she doesn't yet have a firmly established life philosophy. She only knows what she doesn't want, which is pretty much everything she experienced back in her homeland; in a way, she's a rebellious teenager. Currently she's had an apprenticeship with a paladin mentor and is a low-level paladin herself. She has some Knowledge (Religion), but not much. INT is 10, WIS is 13, CHA 14.

But a person doesn't escape from that kind of a situation without some fallout. I toyed with the usual PTSD idea, but let's face it; that's overdone, and it can be a serious hindrance.

My idea for obsessive-compulsive disorder is that it would be a kind of coping mechanism. Living in a world where nothing is certain, you learn to doubt everything, and you desperately want to control at least something. So maybe you start out with a few superstitions--things like favorite numbers, or always touching a door before you go through it. Those things make you feel like you're a little more in control, even though you know it's silly and it won't change anything. Eventually you might be worried that you haven't done it "right", and have to repeat it until you know for sure you have. For my character, her fears would be along the lines of losing control of herself, accidentally killing people, doing something horrible.

I don't want the OCD to define her personality. It doesn't, in real life; people are a great deal more complex than that. I definitely don't want this to turn into some kind of angst fest; there's enough of the "oh, the poor poor crazy person" stuff out there without my adding to it. On the other hand, I want it to be pretty evident that this girl is going to have to get some experience, learn to trust herself, learn to trust her deity. She's young and more than a little inexperienced--if anything, she's a paladin because she needs her deity, not really because her deity needs her. BTW: No, I don't want to make her a germophobe. For one thing, her society doesn't know what germs are...

My questions here are:
Would this be a reasonable thing to have as a character?
In a day-to-day way, how do I play this out?
Would I need to have any mechanical changes, or is RP enough?
Any other tips?

Yeah, it's more than reasonable, just so long as you don't RP a Hoarder you should be fine, been there and it gets ridiculous (It looked like they Hoarded Bags of Holding, just because they had so much stuff.

In all honesty, just little things, make sure you mention you're cleaning you're armor or what not when you take a break, don't walk into a building without tapping all four corners of the door frame, if you have to carry a lot of items either have 12 or 14 (if you're bad number is 13) avoid words with the letter B (because it looks like a squished together 13).

Roleplay should be enough, it changes a game drastically if you roleplay, You can roll four times to hit a creature, miss three times, get hit badly and Hyper-Crit the fourth time.

Or

You swing at the giant, missing again, and again, but each time drawing nearer, the Giant swings it's club and smashes you up into the air, beyond even where the birds fly. You're alive, barely, through fuzzy vision you spot the Giant below you, line up your blase and use the momentum of your fall to cleave the Giant through.

Tips? Hmm, If you can do something, or do it awesome, always do it awesomely. (Roleplay whenever you can, it's fun, spices up the game and heck maybe your DM will give you some Experience for it)

[Quietus]

If you do this, make it fairly mild. Mechanically I'd just represent it as taking 20 on anything you can, any time you can - making damn sure you've done the best job that is possible, taking the time to be certain it's done right. But do let your fellow players talk you out of spending 20 minutes per square to search a room, and other such ridiculous things - that's just way too much and takes away from the fun.

[ExemplarofAvg]

If you do this, make it fairly mild. Mechanically I'd just represent it as taking 20 on anything you can, any time you can - making damn sure you've done the best job that is possible, taking the time to be certain it's done right. But do let your fellow players talk you out of spending 20 minutes per square to search a room, and other such ridiculous things - that's just way too much and takes away from the fun.

Yeah, forgot about the taking 20, that fits it, I change my answer to a

^ "What they said" ^

[Kenneth]

A very interesting concept you have, i have to say 'awesome!' in regards.

Exemplay put down the big issues so I am just going to touch base with that.

a person performing some action or a thought process that they belive will ward off something. remmbe that the vast majority fo OCD sufferes know fully wel that what they are doing is wholey irrational, but just cannot resist so the can fend off the panic, dread, or the bad happenings that may occur.

also another way to go would be purely obsessional Comulsion, no actualy acts of compulsiveness, but one is overwhelmined with thought of responsibility for others, sexual desires, thoughts of violence etc..

and yes Roleplay should be more than enough though it won't be any fun to just RP it unless it comes into actualy game play every once in a while (i.e. you never do the color blue and your group needs to go through a blue door)

I might be givign you some bad sive here on this tip but blame it on me being old-school. whne it comes down to rule mechanics vs something that would be fun and awesome for everyone.. do the fun and awesome thing.

[Callista]

It would have to be mild, I think. Not just because someone with such a severe case that they spent most of their day on obsessions and compulsions couldn't have enough time left over to be an adventurer; but because of the paladin's fear immunity class feature.

I've never thought of that fear immunity as an inability to feel fear; that would just make the paladin inhuman, and in none of the D&D-based novels I've read (some great, some truly terrible) does it play out that way. Fear immunity stops you from having any mechanical drawbacks from fear effects; it keeps you from being forced to run or cower in the presence of, say, a big dragon. But I would think that you would keep the emotion of fear, otherwise you wouldn't be able to be afraid of losing your honor, or worried about losing a battle, or worried about an innocent in your protection. And, in any case, there's no such thing as courage for a person who can't feel fear.

So this would have to be a mild case--one that, in an extreme situation, she could force herself to act against her compulsions. It would be unpleasant, and she'd feel frightened, but she could do it.

Fear immunity + anxiety disorder... interesting combination. Incompatible? Or just unusual?

[Quietus]

Unusual, if you're interpreting immunity to fear as the ability to override that fear impulse rather than outright not feeling it. That's the way I prefer to run things myself, actually, for the exact reasons you mentioned.