Two heads, two characters? [3.x]

[kulosle]

So two people in my group, who get along famously i should add, want to play a race that has two heads and each head takes levels in classes separately. I'm trying to think of ways this would work. How does controlling the body work, HP?, saves, states, etc. So the ideas so far is that they have separate feats, and separate mental states, but share physical ones. Can't decide on hitpoints, or saves. Does any of this seem doable? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Firest Kathon]

You could use the Gestalt (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/gestaltCharacters.htm)rules to create the character. Then, each round decide somehow who has control over the character (randomly, or switch after each round).

[Der_DWSage]

There's the Ettin race in 3.5, and if you want to incorporate (third party) Pathfinder, the Taddol (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/3rd-party-races/alluria-publishing/taddol) is an interesting choice.

As for the rest...honestly, I think it would depend on what they want to do. I do recommend against Firest's idea of having them switch who is in control every round, as that just leaves one of them being bored every other round of combat. HP should probably go off of whichever class has a higher HP total, while they should likely just pick which head's saves to use. The important thing is not to penalize them for wanting a unique concept-after all, they could simply play two characters, with all the benefits thereof. With that in mind, shared physical stats and different mental ones sound fair, as do separate feats and skill points.

If they both want a martial class, it's a bit difficult to fluff that beyond simply letting their body make double actions every round. But if one wants to be a martial class and the other wants to be a mage of some kind, that's much more doable. I think we'd need more info on what exactly they want to be before the Playground Hivemind can offer a whole lot of relevant advice.

[FrznTear]

One of the heads could play as a psion, then it doesn't really need the body. I strongly disagree with them rolling to see who gets to control the body each round, having to wait two turns for an action would be boring.

For saves they would probably share the highest of fortitude and reflex and each have their own will save.

Hit points you could either add them together, take the highest or something else. Perhaps take the higher and add half of the lower? Same body so they should share, live together die together.

One thing to seriously consider is whether they will share initiative or not, if they make them share improved initiative needs to have only a +2 bonus but each can take it.

If they have separate initiatives you have to decide if each of them can take a move action with the body on their turn. I personally think it would be fine. "I open the door"
"You see another door 30ft away"
"I prepare an action to open the door when I get there" :smallcool:

Player 1 is not paying attention to what player 2 is doing
Player 1's turn "How did I get here? and why?"

Probably talk to the players in question and see what they want.