Multiple Personality Disorder

[cbaidchris]

For a campaign I'm in I'm looking into creating a character with multiple personality disorder and maybe schizophrenia. I was thinking that a binder might be an awesome way to play that. But that's not on the authorized book list so we'll have to see if I can get it approved but other than a binder are there any ideas out there that people think would go well with this concept?

[Ragnorrok]

I had an idea like this before with a barbarian that would be half angry psychopath and half peace lover. The way I thought it would work is that at the beginning of each encounter a dice would be rolled with like a 25% chance of his useless peace loving side coming out and making him act different and not being able to rage and stuff.

[Doc_Maynot]

I actually ran a similar concept to this with a changeling. It was a Factotum/Changeling Egoist/ Changeling Wizard/Chameleon. Had three personalities, each defined by the separate classes and then the Chameleon Focuses. The Egoist part was a "kung-fu master" Dwarf (later used Martial/Divine Focus as well), the Factotum part was a "Robin hood esque thief" Human (Stealth/Arcane Focus), and the Wizard was a n "Archmage" Elf (Arcane/Divine Focus). It was super fun!

[holywhippet]

I've heard of one MPD character used in a campaign. Basically they were exchanging letters with a cleric they knew for the duration of the campaign. But the cleric was actually them. When the character went to sleep the cleric persona woke up, read the letters and wrote a response.

The tainted scholar PrC is meant to be on the crazy side.

[herrhauptmann]

I knew a guy who claimed he played an AD&D game as a giant of some sort. Giant picked one axis of his alignment that stayed constant. The other part varied. It was rolled for when he woke up, or was 'extremely surprised.'

So LG. He could vary between LG/LN/LE, or keep the lawful constant and go LG/NG/CG.
NG? NG/TN/NE or LG/NG/CG.

In his case, I guess that's closer to schizophrenia than MPD. He kept the same memories, just different outlook.
Could do the same thing, and just give the different alignments different names and memories. If all the personalities are the same alignment, it's going to be very difficult to actually role play those personalities. Unless you make them very detailed, it's going to be difficult to convey the different personalities. Especially if they're all the same alignment.
One thing to do, keep track of what's done by each personality, especially if one is generous.
CG Bob is asked to go on a quest, and stays Bob the whole time.
But when he comes back for the reward, it's generous and selfless LG Joe who's receiving the reward. Joe who was never the dominant personality for any point of the actual quest. So Joe refuses the reward because he believes he wasn't there.
As far as I know, most MPD's don't know they have alternate personalities.

[Diovid]

The changeling race (Races of Eberron and MM3) and the Master of Masks (Complete Scoundrel) and Chameleon (Races of Destiny) prcs might be worth a look. In fact, the changeling even explicitly qualifies for Chameleon according to the chameleon's adaptation section.

[herrhauptmann]

The changeling race (Races of Eberron and MM3) and the Master of Masks (Complete Scoundrel) and Chameleon (Races of Destiny) prcs might be worth a look. In fact, the changeling even explicitly qualifies for Chameleon according to the chameleon's adaptation section.

Master of Masks is actually a really good idea.
Different personalities use different masks giving them some mechanical different too. OP, you should do this.

Still going to have to keep basic gear the same, I mean, it's bad enough for a TWF to buy multiple swords. Imagine how bad it is buying different weapons, armors, and wondrous items for each personality.