Alternative to the one-man party: The One-Party Man

[bekeleven]

If my party wipes, us players are contemplating putting as many people as we can into the same body. At first I was thinking taking a symbiotic creature and making it multiheaded, which would give only 1 extra head unless we wanted incredible level adjustments. Throw in a (benign) fiend of possession and we're at 4:1.

My questions:


Are there written rules for applying/distributing things like LA, Racial Hit Dice, or stats?
Does anybody have experience with this sort of play?
How can I increase the people inside a body, preferably without increasing LA/RHD too much? Hopefully without making 50 fiends of possession...

[Irk]

You could use Dvati but that's only two.

[limejuicepowder]

Are you all going to have meaningful decisions to make...?

[bekeleven]

Are you all going to have meaningful decisions to make...?

Sure, one barbarian and a crap-load of psions.

[Piggy Knowles]

I once ran a campaign where the BBEG was actually being possessed by five different ghosts, who were all part of the same Cabinet of Faces cabal when they lived and decided to continue their manipulations after death. It actually made for a pretty formidable foe, since he had what basically amounted to quintuple gestalt.

[Jack_Simth]

Are there written rules for applying/distributing things like LA, Racial Hit Dice, or stats?
Does anybody have experience with this sort of play?
How can I increase the people inside a body, preferably without increasing LA/RHD too much? Hopefully without making 50 fiends of possession...

Let's see....

1) Not really, although there's a number of critters that a player can turn into that have abilities they can share.
2) Nope.
3) This one we can do. What level are we looking at? How much are you willing to spend in terms of resources?

If you are willing to keep, say, Shapechange or Greater Metamorphosis up 24/7, then you can look into he symbotes (was it Fiend Folio or Fiendish Codex? I forget... regardless, they're creatures, stated up outside the monster section, that have the ability to bond with someone) for some of the characters, and wearable items for the others.

For the symbiotes, they get Share Spells (both directions!) with their host, making them great candidates for casters in the party. For the wearable items, they don't get share spells, but greater metamorphosis does not hinder manifesting at all, which means it's great for the blasters in the party.

[Slipperychicken]

There a one-page RPG called "Everyone is John" (http://wso.williams.edu/~msulliva/campaigns/john/), where all the players are voices in the head of a single crazy person. I've heard it's really fun, and you could probably rip some ideas (like bidding Willpower points to determine who's in control at a given moment, earning points/XP from completing specialized objectives, only using one character's skills at a time) from that to help coordinate the One-Party Man.

[Psyren]

How can I increase the people inside a body, preferably without increasing LA/RHD too much? Hopefully without making 50 fiends of possession...


1) Fusion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/fusion.htm)
2) Astral Seed (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/astralSeed.htm)
3) Kill yourself
4) Gain a level
5) Repeat

[bekeleven]

1) Fusion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/fusion.htm)
2) Astral Seed (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/astralSeed.htm)
3) Kill yourself
4) Gain a level
5) RepeatWouldn't be a very fun party. Only 1 person can control the body at a time.

[Waker]

How about one of the party members is an Intelligent Weapon? They have Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.

[bekeleven]

How about one of the party members is an Intelligent Weapon? They have Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.

There are no rules for advancement (short of spending money to give them another daily or darkvision or whatever), but I'm sure homebrewing it wouldn't be terribly hard.

That brings my base to 5. The Dvati is sort of the opposite of what I'm going for (1 being in 2 bodies), otherwise it could bring me to 6.

[Waker]

There are no rules for advancement (short of spending money to give them another daily or darkvision or whatever), but I'm sure homebrewing it wouldn't be terribly hard.

That brings my base to 5. The Dvati is sort of the opposite of what I'm going for (1 being in 2 bodies), otherwise it could bring me to 6.

I am aware of the lack of advancement rules. I once dreamt of playing as a sword who possessed the wielder. The party would think I was the swordsman.

[Kuulvheysoon]

I am aware of the lack of advancement rules. I once dreamt of playing as a sword who possessed the wielder. The party would think I was the swordsman.

I made a villain like that once. It was an Intelligent item that was a mid-level Telepath. It just dominated the wielder and used it as a patsy. The party subsequently sells the ring (as it didn't reveal itself to them and looked like a regular minor magical item) and it eventually falls into the hands of another villain.

It took them three cycles to figure it out, and the final time was near enough epic level and the Ring was (finally) working with the bearer. Probably one of my favorite villains, to tell you the truth.

[Waddacku]

Hm, one Dragon mag had a handful of yugoloths (battleloths, I think) that transform into weapons to be wielded by someone else. I don't think they were given ECLs, but at least several of them had low enough HD and no powers that were too crazy to use as a PC.

You could stick in a Fiend of Possession in both that one and the wielder, I guess.

[nedz]

One player plays a Barbarian, or whatever. The rest play Fiends of Possession who posses him, his sword, his armour, etc. You could make the FoPs Psions or any other kind of caster. You could even have the "Barbarian" be some random commoner NPC and have the whole party be Fiends of Possession.

[XmonkTad]

I've sort of played a character like this before. I played a Mychonid Symbiont Storm Druid attached to (before he died after one session) a barbarian centaur. Basically they did movement and beatstick things, and I handled sense motive, call lightning blasting, and healing.
It was working fine, until he charged into the middle of a bunch of homebrew mirror people, I used energy vortex, and failed a bunch of caster level checks. Nuked the communal body.
Which brings me to my point. Playing this way is fun, but the biggest problem is you share HP. One failed save vs. disintegrate and the fun is over. Crowd control becomes 4x as effective against you if you have 4 people in the same body.
Now a symbiont can break off, but it deals damage to the host. Everyone else has to rely on the positioning of "legs guy" until they get teleport, at which point legs guy atrophies.
My advice is try it out, and have fun; the DM has to work 4 x as hard to not kill the party.

[Lord Haart]

Schism kinda works, too.

[Ezekiul]

Have the party members play Fiends of Possession except for 1 person, and have them all possess his gear. humans can be considered outsiders through a ruling in champions of valor to meet the requirements of the otherworldy feat, or just have them play outsiders. Take a level of incarnate or mindbender and and some great telepathy +mindsight fun.

[Fax Celestis]

Wouldn't be a very fun party. Only 1 person can control the body at a time.

That's what schism is for. And/or play a synad.

[Silva Stormrage]

That's what schism is for. And/or play a synad.

Still not the best option that only lets one other player take one action a round.

I think the best option would be to houserule something with your DM.

[Urpriest]

Ghosts and Fiends of Possession are the best options. You need some hard-core high-level stuff to be a symbiote, multiheaded is still only one character, and the symbiote template is just a bad idea all-round. It's worse than tauric. Beyond that, some Magic Jar abuse...oh, and the main character should get the Channel Celestial line so one of the characters can be invited in.

[bekeleven]

multiheaded is still only one character, and the symbiote template is just a bad idea all-round. It's worse than tauric. Beyond that, some Magic Jar abuse...oh, and the main character should get the Channel Celestial line so one of the characters can be invited in.Bah! Multiheaded mentions that heads sometimes fight each other.

And symbiote lets two players get double the point-buy.

[Tvtyrant]

Just play a single qudrastalt character and have everyone vote on his actions each round? "I say we let him go!" "KIll the Infidel!" etc.

[Slipperychicken]

Just play a single qudrastalt character and have everyone vote on his actions each round? "I say we let him go!" "KIll the Infidel!" etc.

Perhaps have each of them roll a d20 to determine how many votes they get each interval?

[Gemini476]

Bah! Multiheaded mentions that heads sometimes fight each other.

And symbiote lets two players get double the point-buy.

Multiheaded Dvati Fiends of Possession.

That should cover almost everything, shouldn't it?

[Urpriest]

Bah! Multiheaded mentions that heads sometimes fight each other.

And symbiote lets two players get double the point-buy.

I mean, you can play both heads with two players just like you can play an intelligent item...it just doesn't get separate character-building resources.

Anyway, someone should check if you can both channel a celestial and be possessed by a fiend.

[Tvtyrant]

Perhaps have each of them roll a d20 to determine how many votes they get each interval?

And now we have a deadpool character! This is actually kind of awesome...