How would people handle split personalities in D&D?

[CrackedChair]

So I had thought about what a split personality would do for both NPC's and PC's.

I thought say, a quiet person who also shared a personality with a murderous person would have different ability scores, but how would other's handle it?

[bluthunda]

Same body, Same Brain, Same stats imo

[suplee215]

Physical stats should probably stay the same and mental stats change.

[Nifft]

Pass the character sheet to a different player.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

So I had thought about what a split personality would do for both NPC's and PC's.

I thought say, a quiet person who also shared a personality with a murderous person would have different ability scores, but how would other's handle it?

I am not an expert on multiple personality disorder.

IMO the physical stats should stay the same obviously.

The mental stats, I'd say in the interest of fun, that's up to you. Your fellow players may be annoyed if you suddenly create an INT 18 Wizard out of an INT 8 Barbarian though and other scores don't go down.

It may be neat though if the player's skills and abilities changed.

How are you going to decide when the switch flips from one personality to the other? Acting that out seems difficult.

[stollfy]

I have done this and I would honestly say no need for ability switch. Be a warlock at least level 2 and mandate mask of many faces. Now you split personalities with different appearences and you can roleplay each accordingly.

[Unoriginal]

So I had thought about what a split personality would do for both NPC's and PC's.

I thought say, a quiet person who also shared a personality with a murderous person would have different ability scores, but how would other's handle it?

Why would they have different ability scores?

People with split personalities disorder aren't several persons who share one body, it's one person with several "identities".

Someone whose personality is split between quiet personality and murderous personality would have the same CHA or combat skills in either case, simply that the "quiet" personality won't use them the same way than the "murderous" one, or use them at all.

[Civis Mundi]

First off, "multiple personality disorder" is a myth, and something of a harmful one. Many of the "classic" cases were hoaxes or the result of hypnosis or other suggestion from the physician. I wish I could insert links, but I'm still a greenhorn, so I'll just quote a relevant article on psychology today.


DID [Disassociative Identity Disorder] is a disorder characterized by identity fragmentation rather than a proliferation of separate personalities. The disturbance is not due to the direct psychological effects of a substance or of a general medical condition. DID was called multiple personality disorder until 1994, when the name was changed to reflect a better understanding of the condition—namely, that it is characterized by a fragmentation, or splintering, of identity rather than by a proliferation, or growth, of separate identities. As this once rarely reported disorder has become more common, the diagnosis has become controversial...

...DID reflects a failure to integrate various aspects of identity, memory, and consciousness into a single multidimensional self. Usually, a primary identity carries the individual's given name and is passive, dependent, guilty, and depressed. When in control, each personality state, or alter, may be experienced as if it has a distinct history, self-image and identity. The alters' characteristics—including name, reported age and gender, vocabulary, general knowledge, and predominant mood—contrast with those of the primary identity. Certain circumstances or stressors can cause a particular alter to emerge. The various identities may deny knowledge of one another, be critical of one another or appear to be in open conflict.

Possession-form identities often manifest as behaviors that appear as if a spirit or other supernatural being has taken control of the person. Many possession states around the world are a normal part of a cultural or spiritual practice; these possession states become a disorder when they are unwanted, cause distress or impairment, and are not accepted as part of a cultural or religious practice...

...People with DID may describe feeling that they have suddenly become depersonalized observers of their own speech and actions. They might report hearing voices (a child's voice, the voice of a spiritual power), and in some cases, these voices accompany multiple streams of thought that the individual has no control over. The individual might also experience sudden impulses or strong emotions that they don't feel control or a sense of ownership over. People may also report that their bodies suddenly feel different (like a small child, huge and muscular), or that they experience a sudden shift in attitudes or personal preferences before shifting back.


My rule of thumb with roleplaying mental disorders is to do some solid research first to avoid disrespect, or else not go there at all.

[Kintar]

Know the audience. I personally would never do it but for the sake of the question then if you're playing in a private game where you know everyone and know they are actually ok with it, do whatever your DM would let you get away with.

If you were thinking of bringing that char idea to a public game I would hope you would have the empathy to understand that mental health issues may be no big deal to you but to others they can be quite personal, and it's likely your role playing of what you think "multiple personalities" is, would come across as nothing more than enacting a caricature from popular media that you like but is hurtful to others.

Seeing as you mentioned a quiet person with a murderous one, I'm guessing I'm not too far off. If I ventured a guess the next personality you would want to add is a flirty heavily permiscous one. Just the two stigmas people who deal with mental health issues wouldn't particularly be mocked about at a dnd table.

Just my two cents.

[No brains]

First off, "multiple personality disorder" is a myth, and something of a harmful one. Many of the "classic" cases were hoaxes or the result of hypnosis or other suggestion from the physician. I wish I could insert links, but I'm still a greenhorn, so I'll just quote a relevant article on psychology today.



My rule of thumb with roleplaying mental disorders is to do some solid research first to avoid disrespect, or else not go there at all.

I wanted to say basically the same thing. Now myths do have a place in D&D, but it would probably be better to go whole hog on the 'mythic' qualities of 'multiple personalities'. Have a spirit posses someone if you want them to have an inconsistent characterization. Have someone be a method actor doppelganger. There's better ways to make an interesting character than to give them a dodgy diagnosis, especially if their setting may not have a field of psychiatry to call this a 'split personality'.

@ Civis Mundi: You can usually link just by copying the address into your message. If you want to do it fancy, there's a button that looks like a blue-green ball with a chain in front of it next to the envelope button. That can let you post links in a smaller format. Use 'reply with quote' to dissect this rickroll for future use. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ)

[Civis Mundi]

I wanted to say basically the same thing. Now myths do have a place in D&D, but it would probably be better to go whole hog on the 'mythic' qualities of 'multiple personalities'. Have a spirit posses someone if you want them to have an inconsistent characterization. Have someone be a method actor doppelganger. There's better ways to make an interesting character than to give them a dodgy diagnosis, especially if their setting may not have a field of psychiatry to call this a 'split personality'.

@ Civis Mundi: You can usually link just by copying the address into your message. If you want to do it fancy, there's a button that looks like a blue-green ball with a chain in front of it next to the envelope button. That can let you post links in a smaller format. Use 'reply with quote' to dissect this rickroll for future use.[/URL]

Agreed, I would certainly play a "possessed" character -- that's got Warlock or Barbarian all over it. But as mentioned, this behavior would be "accepted as part of a cultural or religious practice." It would be considered supernatural, not psychological. I think I would feel a little icky making light of other people's trauma. These things are distinctly less funny when you see them in person.

And thank you, I'm terrible with tech so I appreciate the guidance. I'm literally disallowed by the forum, though: this post here is #3. I've got to wait 'til #10 to post links. In fact, I can't even quote your post without removing the URL!

[Sariel Vailo]

So someone did this at our table.also this is funny i did it as well.i used different sets o d20s to represent each individual action.one had lewd thoughts about a mindflayer. One danced across rope bridges one choked

[Lord Il Palazzo]

It wasn't exactly split personalities but I once played a character in 3.5 whose personality changed drastically sometimes. She had a prestige class that allowed her to keep the ability to speak while wildshaped. She had 8 charisma which I roleplayed in humanoid form as being very shy and quiet and in beast form I roleplayed it as being overly gruff and aggressive to the point of being bad at dealing with people.

You might do a similar thing where you stats mean slightly different things depending on what personality/identity/persona you're currently in.

[Sigreid]

Eh, I played a multiple personality character once in a super hero game. One identity was a happy go lucky, wouldn't hurt a fly personality. Even learned a martial art in the game that it's literally impossible to damage your foe when using it. The other was "The Demon" A ball of murderous, hate filled vengeance. We went to no effort at all to play up the psychological aspects of it. The rest of the party just treated him as two separate people, even after they realized what was going on. After all, both personalities were useful.

[Jacquerel]

I would never do this but if I did the character would still just have one statblock, and could choose to use a lower modifier for certain mental skill rolls based on personality if they wished.
This is roleplay and isn't meant to be something that makes your character more powerful, so either it provides no mechanical benefit or actually just makes you weaker at something.

Two statblocks is just begging for someone to "swap personalities" based on what skill they need to use right now.
If the player is a good enough roleplayer that this wouldn't be a problem, they're also good enough that they don't need the two statblocks anyway.

[Delicious Taffy]

Kinda surprised nobody has mentioned playing a genasi, yet. A genasi with multiple elemental manifestations (which isn't uncommon) can effectively be multiple people in one body, behaving and thinking in completely different ways depending on their current element, and often even hanging around in different social circles. The genasi are something of a pet race of mine, partially because of this trait.

At least, that's how it is in 4th Edition. I haven't looked very far into them in 5th Edition, yet, so they may very well have changed that part.

[Ruebin Rybnik]

So I am DMing a group of mostly new players except 2 who have played before. They but want to play bu unfortunately work opposite shifts so could never both be there. It works out that one will play one week and then the other guy will play the next week. So we got together and compromised by have them play a character with two identities. They are playing a Youan-ti Pureblood Draconic Sorcerer. One identity is LG and is working to prove that they are not like the rest of their race. the other identity is CE, and when they take over they ruin the reputation of the 1st identity. They is another PC that has the bounty hunter background, who captured the Sorcerer with a binding artifact. But after discovering the good identity, he struggles with collecting the bounty and trying to help the good one take full control. So far it has worked rather well with both players switching out, and has cause some pretty fun encounters.

[MrMcBobb]

First off, "multiple personality disorder" is a myth, and something of a harmful one. Many of the "classic" cases were hoaxes or the result of hypnosis or other suggestion from the physician. I wish I could insert links, but I'm still a greenhorn, so I'll just quote a relevant article on psychology today.



My rule of thumb with roleplaying mental disorders is to do some solid research first to avoid disrespect, or else not go there at all.

This. Also, stop watching M Night Shamalamalamalon movies!