Dvati rework

[Lost_Hunter]

So for everyone who doesn't know Dvati are a rave from Dragon Compendium Vol. 1. And the entry has a lot of conflicting statments. I am working on sorting out some of the issues in how it was written and braking up the Twins entry to smaller parts. I also plan to rewrite the fluf and other parts of the mechanics to be more clear about how the race works. But before I post that, should I post it here, homebrew or somewhere else? I am also looking for any other perspectives on this race other then my own.

[Zaq]

Honestly? I'm not sure it's possible to write general-use rules for dvati that aren't horribly headache-inducing in one way or another.

I mean, I think a GM working with a player to make a specific character (/pair of characters—whatever the hell you want to call a dvati build) could come up with something that would work for that build and that campaign, but I don't think you can make universal dvati rules that will work smoothly with whatever the hell a player comes up with. They just break too many fundamental rules about how characters work to be able to accommodate for general-purpose uses.

If you're just making minor tweaks, you might be able to get away with making a topic on this board (we have plenty of topics discussing potential houserules without needing to resort to the special homebrew section), but if it's a full-bore rewrite that takes more than a couple sentences, I think that would technically belong on the homebrew board.

[OldTrees1]

Honestly? I'm not sure it's possible to write general-use rules for dvati that aren't horribly headache-inducing in one way or another.

:smallconfused: Given the last thread on this topic, it is easy enough to rewrite that no consensus was formed.

Two Bodies:
Each body has half health and needs to be equipped separately.
Each body has a full round's worth of actions but spellcasting/manifesting requires both bodies to work in tandem(fluff excuse: One Soul).

Two Minds:
Each body has a separate mind to run the body. Mind effecting effects only affect the mind in the body(s) targeted. As a swift action they can telepathically communicate 3 words and 1 feeling to the other body (this is to replace the existing partial telepathy stuff).

One Soul:
The Dvati has only one soul. XP is calculated and handled as if the Dvati were a single creature. Energy drain only effects one body. Unless that drain turns into permanent level loss in which case it effects both bodies. Extracting the Dvati's soul renders both bodies soulless. DM decides if One soul means 1 or 2 deaths before the soul goes to the afterlife (I favor the 2 option but the 1 option is closer to the existing rules).

[MaxiDuRaritry]

:smallconfused: Given the last thread on this topic, it is easy enough to rewrite that no consensus was formed.

Two Bodies:
Each body has half health and needs to be equipped separately.
Each body has a full round's worth of actions but spellcasting/manifesting requires both bodies to work in tandem(fluff excuse: One Soul).

Two Minds:
Each body has a separate mind to run the body. Mind effecting effects only affect the mind in the body(s) targeted. As a swift action they can telepathically communicate 3 words and 1 feeling to the other body (this is to replace the existing partial telepathy stuff).

One Soul:
The Dvati has only one soul. XP is calculated and handled as if the Dvati were a single creature. Energy drain only effects one body. Unless that drain turns into permanent level loss in which case it effects both bodies. Extracting the Dvati's soul renders both bodies soulless. DM decides if One soul means 1 or 2 deaths before the soul goes to the afterlife (I favor the 2 option but the 1 option is closer to the existing rules).How do mental stats work with items? How do buff spells work? If you polymorph any object one body, do both bodies get affected, and how does the Int change work out? How about saving throw items? Ability uses per day? Communication across planes? Do they share spells like a wizard/druid/psion and a familiar/animal companion/psicrystal, or some other way? What's the range on that? Are power point totals and spell slot totals split, or do they draw from the same pool, or does only one have access?

And there are lots more questions beyond those.

[OldTrees1]

How do mental stats work with items? How do buff spells work? If you polymorph any object one body, do both bodies get affected, and how does the Int change work out? How about saving throw items? (...snip...) How are actions divided up?
Already answered in the post you quoted.


Ability uses per day? Communication across planes? Do they share spells like a wizard/druid/psion and a familiar/animal companion/psicrystal, or some other way? What's the range on that? Are power point totals and spell slot totals split, or do they draw from the same pool, or does only one have access?

And there are lots more questions beyond those.
Ability uses per day from class features/racial traits are uses per day.
Ability uses per day from items are uses per day per item. (see Two Bodies)
Communication across planes (either way works, I would say no).
I don't think they would share spells like a familiar.
Power points and spell slots per day are per day (also see the "must cast in tandem" in the previous post that would have answered this question already)

[MaxiDuRaritry]

It mentions mind affecting effects, but nothing else.

How do you calculate power points and bonus spell slots if each body's mind is entirely separate? How does that affect feat and PrC prereqs if each body has different ability scores?

Honestly, it really doesn't cover much of anything.

[Lost_Hunter]

Thanks, everyone I have thought about a lot of the things that were brought up, I think I am going to post a revision to this board, with a lot of rule suggestions.

[Alex12]

Also, how would ToB initiator maneuvers work? Harder to justify those being only one body at a time in terms of souls.

In terms of souls, the way it was handled in the one campaign I was ever in that used them was that if one body died, the other would start taking penalties as per RAW, but that resurrection magic used before the other one died would work without any level loss (even if the spell normally caused it), since the soul didn't go through the trauma of dying and being brought back. However, if both bodies died, you'd have to rez both or the first one would immediately start taking penalties again and thus would die in a matter of days if the other one wasn't brought back. And, of course, if both died and one of the lower-level rez spells was used, then yeah, that's a level penalty.

[OldTrees1]

It mentions mind affecting effects, but nothing else.

How do you calculate power points and bonus spell slots if each body's mind is entirely separate? How does that affect feat and PrC prereqs if each body has different ability scores?

Honestly, it really doesn't cover much of anything.

There are 2 bodies, 2 minds, and 1 soul (those were not random words). Seriously that does cover a lot of your questions:
How do items effect mental stats?: Items are equipped separately(2 Bodies) and only affect that body's mind(2 Minds).
How about buff spells?: Buffs to a body affect 1 body per target(2 Bodies) and buffs to a mind affect 1 mind per target(2 Minds).
Polymorph any object/enlarge person/*other single target body warping spell*? Buffs to a body affect 1 body per target(2 Bodies)

The bonus powerpoints/spell slots was also partially already answered in that the answer barely matters. Since the have to cast/manifest in tandem their casting/manifesting is bounded by the lower stat.

But you asked about different ability scores. As detailed in 1 Soul, everything dealing with XP is kept uniform (this includes things like levels, PrCs, and prerequisites). Therefore the only way to have different ability scores is cases like poison/items.

2 Bodies, 2 Minds, 1 Soul is merely 1 of the various options the previous thread came up with but it has the elegance of having most of the information in those 6 words (provided people read those 6 words) with minimal extra text needed.

[Heliomance]

:smallconfused: Given the last thread on this topic, it is easy enough to rewrite that no consensus was formed.

Two Bodies:
Each body has half health and needs to be equipped separately.
Each body has a full round's worth of actions but spellcasting/manifesting requires both bodies to work in tandem(fluff excuse: One Soul).

Two Minds:
Each body has a separate mind to run the body. Mind effecting effects only affect the mind in the body(s) targeted. As a swift action they can telepathically communicate 3 words and 1 feeling to the other body (this is to replace the existing partial telepathy stuff).

One Soul:
The Dvati has only one soul. XP is calculated and handled as if the Dvati were a single creature. Energy drain only effects one body. Unless that drain turns into permanent level loss in which case it effects both bodies. Extracting the Dvati's soul renders both bodies soulless. DM decides if One soul means 1 or 2 deaths before the soul goes to the afterlife (I favor the 2 option but the 1 option is closer to the existing rules).

What about the fact that it's simply not possible to buy two sets of level-appropriate equipment out of one lot of WBL? How do Binding, Truenaming, Invocations, Maneuvers, and Soulmelds interact with Dvati? What happens if one body is subjected to Sanctify the Wicked?

[OldTrees1]

What about the fact that it's simply not possible to buy two sets of level-appropriate equipment out of one lot of WBL? How do Binding, Truenaming, Invocations, Maneuvers, and Soulmelds interact with Dvati? What happens if one body is subjected to Sanctify the Wicked?

I have played a split WBL Dvati Crusader/Cleric @~9 ECL. While you cannot afford to buy 2 sets of level-appropriate equipment to match your 2 sets of level-appropriate actions, I found it a reasonable cost to balance the extra actions. I suggest creating 2 sets, focus on enablers then defenses. Concentrate the remainder spent on offenses to a primary/secondary division.

I think I addressed Sanctified the Wicked in 2 Minds & 1 Soul. StW traps the soul (1 soul to trap means both bodies are soulless) but by 2 Minds it would only affect one of the minds (unless your DM says alignment with respect to StW is the soul rather than the mind).

Binding, Truenaming, Invocations, Manuevers, Soulmelds were not initially covered but here are my rulings based upon the 2body/2mind/1soul and the ability usage rulings. A DM should sanity check these next rulings:

Binding deals with souls and grants abilities. I would rule the binding must be done together, both would have access to the effects, but the 5 round limits apply to both.
Truenaming ought to follow the tandem casting rule, but we all know Truenaming is not how it ought to be. So I would consider it (at its present needing a buff level) non casting which means it would be tracked by each mind separately(the Laws only penalize the Dvati that caused them). A fixed Truenaming might alter this ruling.
Invocations are tricky since they are casting but are balanced against non casting. I would treat them as I would treat maneuvers.
Maneuvers are not casting but they do have usage limits which are shared. (sidenote: handle WRT)
Incarnum is non casting that has limits. The soul melds bind to chakra points and are enhanced with your soul(essential is your soul right? AFB). So I think it would act like Binding in that they both get the melds and their essential total in unchanged but affects the soulmeld pairs.


Of those rulings I am happy about Binding, Maneuvers, and Incarnum. I don't have good fluff reasoning for the balanced ruling in the case of both Truenaming and Invocations.

[Segev]

Extra Body (Ex): Dvati are one mind in two bodies. They can choose each time they act which of them counts as the "extra" one. Their primary body functions in all ways as normal for a single-bodied creature, having all normal actions and functioning in all ways like a normal creature's body. Both bodies have independent hp totals, whose maximum is that of the primary body. The extra body can take an independent move action every time the primary body takes a move action. It can participate (contributing its additional limbs, for example) in any action the primary body takes, but does not otherwise act independently nor grant additional actions, but it can take free actions on its own.

A dvati whose extra body is able to assist can benefit from an Aid Another action from said body, and can provide a +3 bonus to Aid Another actions on other creatures' actions when the extra body is available to cooperate with the primary body's assistance.

A dvati is at all times perceiving through the senses of both bodies.

A dvati is vulnerable to mind-affecting effects which target either body.

A dvati may share the effects of any spell cast on one of its bodies to the other.

If both bodies are subject to the same effect, the dvati rolls only one saving throw to apply to both of them. Otherwise, bodies save individually (though mind-affecting effects on one hit the dvati as a whole).

[OldTrees1]

Extra Body (Ex): Dvati are one mind in two bodies. They can choose each time they act which of them counts as the "extra" one. Their primary body functions in all ways as normal for a single-bodied creature, having all normal actions and functioning in all ways like a normal creature's body. Both bodies have independent hp totals, whose maximum is that of the primary body. The extra body can take an independent move action every time the primary body takes a move action. It can participate (contributing its additional limbs, for example) in any action the primary body takes, but does not otherwise act independently nor grant additional actions, but it can take free actions on its own.

A dvati whose extra body is able to assist can benefit from an Aid Another action from said body, and can provide a +3 bonus to Aid Another actions on other creatures' actions when the extra body is available to cooperate with the primary body's assistance.

A dvati is at all times perceiving through the senses of both bodies.

A dvati is vulnerable to mind-affecting effects which target either body.

A dvati may share the effects of any spell cast on one of its bodies to the other.

If both bodies are subject to the same effect, the dvati rolls only one saving throw to apply to both of them. Otherwise, bodies save individually (though mind-affecting effects on one hit the dvati as a whole).

Quite complete and consistent. Feels a bit weak for LA+0 though.

[zergling.exe]

I have played a split WBL Dvati Crusader/Cleric @~9 ECL. While you cannot afford to buy 2 sets of level-appropriate equipment to match your 2 sets of level-appropriate actions, I found it a reasonable cost to balance the extra actions. I suggest creating 2 sets, focus on enablers then defenses. Concentrate the remainder spent on offenses to a primary/secondary division.

I think I addressed Sanctified the Wicked in 2 Minds & 1 Soul. StW traps the soul (1 soul to trap means both bodies are soulless) but by 2 Minds it would only affect one of the minds (unless your DM says alignment with respect to StW is the soul rather than the mind).

Binding, Truenaming, Invocations, Manuevers, Soulmelds were not initially covered but here are my rulings based upon the 2body/2mind/1soul and the ability usage rulings. A DM should sanity check these next rulings:

Binding deals with souls and grants abilities. I would rule the binding must be done together, both would have access to the effects, but the 5 round limits apply to both.
Truenaming ought to follow the tandem casting rule, but we all know Truenaming is not how it ought to be. So I would consider it (at its present needing a buff level) non casting which means it would be tracked by each mind separately(the Laws only penalize the Dvati that caused them). A fixed Truenaming might alter this ruling.
Invocations are tricky since they are casting but are balanced against non casting. I would treat them as I would treat maneuvers.
Maneuvers are not casting but they do have usage limits which are shared. (sidenote: handle WRT)
Incarnum is non casting that has limits. The soul melds bind to chakra points and are enhanced with your soul(essential is your soul right? AFB). So I think it would act like Binding in that they both get the melds and their essential total in unchanged but affects the soulmeld pairs.


Of those rulings I am happy about Binding, Maneuvers, and Incarnum. I don't have good fluff reasoning for the balanced ruling in the case of both Truenaming and Invocations.

What happens when you use reincarnate on one of them? Do you have one a dvati and the other a bugbear?

[Segev]

Quite complete and consistent. Feels a bit weak for LA+0 though.

How so? I was actually worried it still came out to "too powerful for LA +0." I didn't lay out an LA for it, I would have pegged it at +1 just to be safe (knowing that LAs are inflated, but with LA buyoff a +1 is manageable).

[OldTrees1]

What happens when you use reincarnate on one of them? Do you have one a dvati and the other a bugbear?

Reincarnate deals with the soul. See 1 Soul. You would end up with 1 bugbear provided the Dvati were willing.


How so? I was actually worried it still came out to "too powerful for LA +0." I didn't lay out an LA for it, I would have pegged it at +1 just to be safe (knowing that LAs are inflated, but with LA buyoff a +1 is manageable).

Perhaps I am misreading your model. However it looks like a simple constant aid another (although it is vague enough to maybe allow extra attacks on an attack/full attack). It also inherits all Dvati weaknesses like split WBL and redundant targets. The first is not comparable to races like Raptorian, Dragonborn, or Human. The second is harder to judge but I would peg it as LA+0 at the highest (comparing the costs to acquire flight vs costs to acquire extra attacks).

[Segev]

Perhaps I am misreading your model. However it looks like a simple constant aid another (although it is vague enough to maybe allow extra attacks on an attack/full attack). It also inherits all Dvati weaknesses like split WBL and redundant targets. The first is not comparable to races like Raptorian, Dragonborn, or Human. The second is harder to judge but I would peg it as LA+0 at the highest (comparing the costs to acquire flight vs costs to acquire extra attacks).

I think you are completely misreading it.

Each body has full hp (I believe I explicitly stated this, as it's a difference from the original).

They take damage separately (not explicitly stated, but as no mechanism for joint damage-taking is given, it's true).

The dvati is only one character (implicit in the design).

The "extra body" is a mechanical representation of the fact that there are two bodies for the one character and his singular mind. I should add a note to the write-up that states that if one body dies and the other does not, the dvati loses the "extra body" feature until the second body is restored to life, and that it doesnt' cause level loss to restore one body while the other is still alive. (Reincarnation shouldn't work because the soul is still incarnate in one body. Using it on a wholly dead dvati should result in losing the Extra Body feature since whatever race he comes back as won't have it.)

The two bodies are quite capable of splitting up. Under most circumstances, this will amount to having the character exist in one body in both scenes. Unless timing is crucial, such as simultaneous fight scenes, the split of actions won't manifest.

If both bodies are present when action economy is important, that's when it most resembles just an extra bonus. It means that the dvati does qualify for multiweapon fighting (he has 4 limbs between his two bodies), but that his full attack action encompasses both bodies' actions.

Having two bodies, either of which can be Primary, means that he can initiate martial maneuvers from either body's location. But he can't initiate more than one per round (unless he has some other trick to).

He does get more efficient use out of buffs: hit one body with it, and both benefit. Doubling up on polymorph could be terrifying. (Since, for example, a hydra gets one attack per head, turning him into a pair of 5-headed hydrae would mean that he can use all 10 heads in a full attack action, since it won't matter which body is the extra one for that purpose.)

Healing, too, is shared. Damage would not be (unless the player wanted it to be, for some reason).

As a side note, the psicrystal share pain/vitality trick would work really well here: manifest share pain on the other body, then use vitality shared with the other body, and you don't even need the psicrystal. Add it into the mix for even more hp-sharing shenanigans.


It's still pretty potent, I think; it's just clearer on what's shared and it keeps action economy from exploding TOO much.

[squiggit]

Segev's is really clean and straight forward and doesn't have most of the issues the regular Dvati have, but it feels kind of dull to me and like it takes away a lot of what makes the original race interesting to try to play as.

[Segev]

Segev's is really clean and straight forward and doesn't have most of the issues the regular Dvati have, but it feels kind of dull to me and like it takes away a lot of what makes the original race interesting to try to play as.

What made it interesting to you, originally?

The goal I had was to capture "one mind in two bodies." That is, in and of itself, interesting to me.

[zergling.exe]

Reincarnate deals with the soul. See 1 Soul. You would end up with 1 bugbear provided the Dvati were willing.

Raise dead also deals with the soul. Does that mean that if one dies, you can't revive it individually because the soul is still present in the other? That doesn't seem like what you are intending to say.

[OldTrees1]

I think you are completely misreading it.

-snip-

It's still pretty potent, I think; it's just clearer on what's shared and it keeps action economy from exploding TOO much.

That was what I was reading. I just didn't think through the potential enough. However even afterwards(your specific details there were useful) I don't think it is worth LA+1 in the end (however I do believe it is good enough for LA+0).


Raise dead also deals with the soul. Does that mean that if one dies, you can't revive it individually because the soul is still present in the other? That doesn't seem like what you are intending to say.

Raise dead also deals with the soul. Thus if (DM rules 2 deaths before soul leaves) then raise dead requires the Dvati to be willing and not have its soul trapped.
Example: A Dvati stands over its other (currently dead) body as the priest casts raise dead. The soul in the living body spreads to revive the dead body.
Example: A Dvati stands over its other (currently dead) body as the priest casts reincarnate. The soul in the living body flows into the new reincarnated body. (causing the previously living dvati body to fall over soulless)

The 1 Soul rule enforces build consistency while 2 Bodies and 2 Minds allows for condition and status changes/differences.

That said, I am liking Segev's.

[Segev]

If it's worth +0 LA (which would thrill me, because hey, lower LA is nice), then it is equivalent, roughly, to a feat and a bonus skill point per level. Does that seem accurate?

I'm half-tempted to redo it as a feat, rather than making it a unique racial trait. At which point you WOULD keep it upon reincarnating, and get two new bodies. (You'd probably have to off the remaining body or something.)


The big weakness of it is a near-unspoken one: it still does split loot. You could argue for a double-share of loot, one per body, but it's likely a hard sell since you're rarely contributing as much as two party members. (A dvati NPC who split himself up and worked two different adventuring parties could be interesting, though. Especially since he could serve as a wonderful conduit for communication, there.)

[OldTrees1]

If it's worth +0 LA (which would thrill me, because hey, lower LA is nice), then it is equivalent, roughly, to a feat and a bonus skill point per level. Does that seem accurate?

I'm half-tempted to redo it as a feat, rather than making it a unique racial trait. At which point you WOULD keep it upon reincarnating, and get two new bodies. (You'd probably have to off the remaining body or something.)


The big weakness of it is a near-unspoken one: it still does split loot. You could argue for a double-share of loot, one per body, but it's likely a hard sell since you're rarely contributing as much as two party members. (A dvati NPC who split himself up and worked two different adventuring parties could be interesting, though. Especially since he could serve as a wonderful conduit for communication, there.)

Given the split loot and given my typical feat selection, I think it would be slightly stronger but comparable to Humans at my table/optimization level (similar to Dragonborn). It would be slightly too strong for a single feat though (add a small additional drawback?).

Edit:
MaxiDuRaritry's suggestion also makes sense since it seems to be as strong as a good level's worth of class features.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

If it's worth +0 LA (which would thrill me, because hey, lower LA is nice), then it is equivalent, roughly, to a feat and a bonus skill point per level. Does that seem accurate?

I'm half-tempted to redo it as a feat, rather than making it a unique racial trait. At which point you WOULD keep it upon reincarnating, and get two new bodies. (You'd probably have to off the remaining body or something.)


The big weakness of it is a near-unspoken one: it still does split loot. You could argue for a double-share of loot, one per body, but it's likely a hard sell since you're rarely contributing as much as two party members. (A dvati NPC who split himself up and worked two different adventuring parties could be interesting, though. Especially since he could serve as a wonderful conduit for communication, there.)A feat would be great, though you could also do it as a short racial progression for any creature, similar to a multiracial paragon class, perhaps?

How about a template?

[Segev]

Hm. A template would probably need a +1 LA, since it would now compound other racial advantages without otherwise costing anything. The concern there being that +1 LA templates usually have at least a cosmetic drawback (you're playing something obviously modified from the base), so even when the LA is bought off, there's SOMETHING. This...wouldn't, because "oh, twins" isn't going to raise many eyebrows and probably won't even be noticed.

As a race, it would self-balance by not compounding other racial features.

As a feat, it would cost a non-replaceable resource.

Maybe make it a feat with a -2 int. Not sure how to fluff that, but the mechanics are to balance out the human +1 skill point, so a human with the feat would be paying essentially all of his racial perks for it. In theory, that would make it worth exactly 1 feat, with no level adjustment. Maybe actually worse, since -2 int stings more than -1 skill point/level. Makes it harder to wizard with it; doesn't impact wis-based and cha-based casters, though.

[Lost_Hunter]

Extra Body (Ex): Dvati are one mind in two bodies.

Hate to burst your bubble but Dvati have two minds. If you look in the book they can use a standard action to determine the direction of their twin and their mental state. The one mind thing was only said once, and in the mechanic section, but there is so much support for having two minds. Like one twin dose not have the perception of the other, a single mind would not support this statement. So to rework the dvati you would ether need to rework the 80% that supports two minds or the 2% that supports one.

[squiggit]

Hate to burst your bubble but Dvati have two minds. If you look in the book they can use a standard action to determine the direction of their twin and their mental state. The one mind thing was only said once, and in the mechanic section, but there is so much support for having two minds. Like one twin dose not have the perception of the other, a single mind would not support this statement. So to rework the dvati you would ether need to rework the 80% that supports two minds or the 2% that supports one.

I think he knows that, it's a homebrew rework sort of aiming for turning the second body into a familiar rather than two distinct entities.

It's a nifty concept but I don't like it as a dvati rework because to me the big appeal of the dvati is being two entities that are still one character.

[Lost_Hunter]

@squiggit, ya I just got that but at a template or feat(cringe) I would not see the downside for what your getting. LA+1 hahhahahahahaha, as a template it would need to be +2 or 3 for what your getting. I'm play testing a dvati swordsage right now under my rework and its about 2 to 3 level stronger then its written level(5) but I am fairly optimized so that is about right anyways with LA 1 which was bought off. It probably just gets stupidly powerful if templateed onto a race.

[Segev]

I'm aware that the original writeup is inconsistent about whether it's one mind or two. I, personally, see two minds as two characters, and don't find much allure in the dvati as such. Mindlinked twins are doable, and I even have played such a concept (mindlinked identical triplets) in a BESM game, and it was fun. They DID function largely as one character. (I used the Companion rules to pay exactly enough CP from the "main" character to have each Companion have exactly as many CP as he had left after paying for the attribute, and then ignored which one was the PC and which were the Companions for all intents and purposes.)

To me, the "one mind, two bodies" concept was more of interest than "play telepathically linked twins who are actually two people as if they were one character." Not because the latter is invalid, but because it just isn't what I would want to do. (Besides, if I wanted to do that, I'd go for Cohort mechanics. They work more cleanly and already state that a feat to get a full extra character who is only one ECL lower than you is worth a feat.)

In fact... here, let me try my hand at that:

Twin Souled [General]
You are one person whose soul is shared between two distinct individuals that are nonetheless one being.
Prerequisite: Level 1 Commoner, Aristocrat, or Warrior; must be taken at 1st level
Benefit: You have a second self, a twin who is physically identical to you and who must share your first level class. You are really the same person, despite having your own minds. As you grow, your minds and experiences diverge, but you will always share this intimate connection. You benefit from a constant mindlink with your twin.

Both characters are under the control of the same player. The twins can use a standard action to determine the direction and distance to each other, and can concentrate (as on a spell) to share the other's senses, as long as they are on the same plane. If they are not, they can immediately tell what plane the other is on (but nothing more specific than that; their mindlink can be used to convey that information, but they cannot share senses across planar boundaries).

The characters may level up independently beyond the first level, maintaining their own experience point totals and other resources. Twin-souled individuals grant their twin a +2 bonus on saves against mind-affecting effects to which they are not also subject, as their dual minds can support the singular soul.

Special: If either twin dies, the remaining one must make a DC 20 Will save or become so despondant that they cannot bring themselves to eat or drink. They may make a new save each day to recover; if they don't, they welcome the embrace of death. Even should they succeed, they suffer a negative level that cannot be removed as long as their twin remains deceased. Many twin-souled will kill themselves in despair when their twin dies with no chance of recovery.






From a balance standpoint, the forcing of a level of an NPC class is meant to keep BOTH one level lower, effectively, than a character who doesn't take this feat. It otherwise gives you a cohort with some special additional perks at level 1.

This could, alternatively, be done as a 3-level class, the first level of which would have to be taken at level 1. I don't know what I'd do for splitting the perks across 3 levels, though.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Prerequisite: Level 1 Commoner, Aristocrat, or Warrior; must be taken at 1st levelTime to pull out my Infested With Chickens cleric build with Fell Animate, Destruction Retribution, and greater consumptive field...

[Segev]

Time to pull out my Infested With Chickens cleric build with Fell Animate, Destructive Retribution, and greater consumptive field...

Fine, fine, Commoner is clearly too OP; restrict it to Warriors and Aristocrats. :P

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Fine, fine, Commoner is clearly too OP; restrict it to Warriors and Aristocrats. :PClucking clerics: the other wight meat.