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Lord_Asmodeus
2008-01-09, 06:07 PM
I was thinking about making a split personality Thrall of Demogorgon (for obvious reasons) And I was unsure how to go about it, ideally he would switch between personalities every time the group rested, or if there are more than 2 the personalities would rotate. Now I was confused as to whether I should have like 2 character sheets or just duel class or what, I would like for one (probably the most evil one) of his personalities to be a Warlock.

(P.S. if I already made this thread and it got moved or I put it in a different place sorry, I'm having problems connecting to the site for some reason)

Lyinginbedmon
2008-01-09, 07:02 PM
It would be less game-breaking to make a d% roll in any given situation for which personlity is dominant at any given time.

Frosty
2008-01-09, 07:50 PM
I think a split-personality character should be gestalt :smallbiggrin:

Lord_Asmodeus
2008-01-09, 08:19 PM
Gestalt? whachoomeanbydiseh?

Chronicled
2008-01-09, 08:21 PM
Apparently, it's really fun if you have a different player for each personality. I've two friends who tried it and said it worked really well.

Yami
2008-01-09, 08:54 PM
Works best if the two have pretty divergent personalities as well. ^_^

Lord_Asmodeus
2008-01-09, 08:58 PM
I was thinking like one is evil and one is good and they're oblivious of one another (like they know about the other from when people might have mentioned them, but they don't really know about the other personality in their head)

Forrestfire
2008-01-09, 09:18 PM
I have pulled off an type of split personality character, and this is how it worked:

Step 1: get two players willing to do this
Step 2: have both players create seperate characters with the same physical ability scores and of the same race (chosen as a consesus between the pair)
Step 3: proceed with character creation normally

How to play this: when it is the split-personality character's turn comes, roll a die, if it is odd, the first player controls the character for this turn, if it is even, the second player controls the character.

Volug
2008-01-09, 09:23 PM
Short answer
Done it, it worked really good.

longer answer

I played a character, I basically used one character sheet, but switched to two just so I could have more room to right stuff. I just had them have the same class, but varying skills and ability scores.
They were Good and Evil. I had him switch personalities when he was in a traumatic situation or just random moments.

It works.

Nebo_
2008-01-09, 09:40 PM
Roleplay it.

ZeroNumerous
2008-01-09, 09:57 PM
Step 1: get two players willing to do this
Step 2: have both players create seperate characters with the same physical ability scores and of the same race (chosen as a consesus between the pair)
Step 3: proceed with character creation normally

Don't forget Step 2b: And both players must agree on item selection.

Thyatira3902
2008-01-09, 10:21 PM
I started a thread a while ago about multiple personalities that didn't turn out so well. But i'm going to be playing a character who has a different alignment when he gets substantially hurt.

I worked it out that i'd roll a d4 for alignment anytime my character was hit for 25% of his HP in a single hit. not enough to happen regularly, but enough to still be present without having people just slap me around to change alignments.

the alignments i'm using are NG (the primary), NE, CE, and LG. These are pretty opposite and more extreme. the duration i was using for it was minutes per point of CON. Looks good though.

My other idea was doing a character who was a gish type who had separate personalities and changed similar to what your idea was. sort of randomly. or maybe even every morning when they wake up. every personality had a different way of fighting and a different way of doing stuff. i was even thinking to go so far as every personality had their own bag of holding with their stuff in it. so that when they got up they saw their stuff and put it on. They carried the other bags because it seemed that whenever they woke up in a new place the other bags were there. no idea why, but had an inkling to keep it.

Forrestfire
2008-01-09, 10:22 PM
Don't forget Step 2b: And both players must agree on item selection.

oh, yeah...*slaps forehead*

Wordmiser
2008-01-09, 10:25 PM
If you want out-of-game play-style differences between your personalities, consider entering ToD via a largely Font of Inspiration-focused Factotum (it doesn't require you to have sneak attack as a classs ability, after all).

Also, the first couple posts here (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=880483) really are worth reading.

nargbop
2008-01-09, 11:02 PM
In one game I'm playing this semester, two of my friends are playing a multiple-personality PC, who wakes up on different days with a completely new person in charge.
I think the DM has ruled thusly :
1 ) Physical abilities stay the same, mental abilities can be swapped around. I don't know how skills are being handled (it would be weird to have max Tumble as Bob and have max Forgery instead as Bill).
2 ) The non-participating player is NOT allowed to say things like "It would be a good idea to..." or "Don't forget the Spot check" or "And WHY is there a guard back there?" Players still must make their own mistakes

The fun thing about this is , the different characters will always wake up in a strange place, not knowing why they're there or what situation they're in.

AslanCross
2008-01-09, 11:10 PM
The Hell's Heart adventure from WOTC had a villain who had two personalities. They had different classes and ability scores. One was a CE barbarian and the other was an LE Artificer. The only thing that remained the same was the level.

Icewalker
2008-01-09, 11:25 PM
Well, in the webcomic me and a friend are working on, we are going to have a gestalt character with multiple personalities, who keeps switching at the most inopportune moments.

BRC
2008-01-09, 11:37 PM
I did a split-personalitied character is shadowrun once, he had slightly different stats and the GM said whenever he switched

Paragon Badger
2008-01-10, 01:13 AM
I was thinking like one is evil and one is good and they're oblivious of one another (like they know about the other from when people might have mentioned them, but they don't really know about the other personality in their head)


One was a CE barbarian and the other was an LE Artificer.


They were Good and Evil. I had him switch personalities when he was in a traumatic situation or just random moments.


the alignments i'm using are NG (the primary), NE, CE, and LG. These are pretty opposite and more extreme. the duration i was using for it was minutes per point of CON. Looks good though.

!!!

Split Personalities ≠Homical Alter-ego.

It's hollywoodian garbage, and downright offensive to people with any kind of mental disorder.

That being said, it's thought that most people develop varying personalities to cope with traumatic events, though nobody's absolutely sure why the symptoms pop up, but it is usually preceded by other disorders, like a snowball effect.

A thing to note is that most people's dominant personalities have no recollection of when they slip into another personality. (But non-dominant personalities often do remember the time when they are 'inactive')

From what I've been told, it's like going to sleep and waking up. Even regular people can't remember the very moment they go to sleep. It's apparantly the same way, except the effected person 'wakes up' in odd locations/situations with no memory of recent events.

Now, for actually playing a character like this...?

Well, think of why the character would need another personality. Someone who is normally timid and shy might have a more outgoing personality. Or a different personality to cope with varying circumstances. Someone who has been sexually abused might develop a more aggresive, even sexually abusing personality of their own (A fairly common occurance, even among people without mental disorders... But that breaks the aforementioned Homical Alter-ego rule. :smalltongue: ) One personality might be homosexual or heterosexual opposing the dominant's primary sexual orientation. Some personalities actively try to sabotague the dominant's lifestyle/relationships or they play pranks on the dominant personality (Such as leaving them an unpleasant surprise when they 'wake up.')

It's also been said that some personalities are long-lasting, and others are temporary, being 'absorbed' and 'split' into others frequently.

Overall, it's a big, vague, and touchy subject. :smalltongue:

seedjar
2008-01-10, 08:47 AM
I'm not sure having different character sheets for the various personalities is appropriate. If you're trying to reproduce the personality disorder, I think you should keep in mind that it's still just one person who acts differently at times. While the personalities are distinct, I don't see any reason why they shouldn't be limited to the sum total of any other PC in terms of ability scores, skill ranks, etc.; each personality only has a fraction of the PC's lifetime to develop their class levels. A person who experiences time normally, even a PC, would find multiple personality disorder quite disruptive to their life and pursuits. On the other hand, if you're looking for a more deific approach, like the various associated gods in the Hindu pantheon, then whole separate characters are perfectly justifiable.
~Joe

bignate
2008-01-10, 09:22 AM
i have some friends who wanted to each play the head of an ettin each with their own class. i think one wanted to be a spirit shaman and the oher wanted to be a barbarian. i thought it was a pretty cool idea and was helping him workout what the ECL would be for each person.

we were going to leave of the racial hit dice and just have class levels. they have a good deal of physical benefits as a whole but when you consider it as two characters each one is pretty gimped only having one arm and one leg and having to agree with their partner about everthing. we figured they would only get one move action between them each round

anyway, we thought it was cool but our DM at the time didnt so we never played it.

RTGoodman
2008-01-10, 11:05 AM
A long time ago (about 4 years, now, in fact, and that makes me feel old), we had a gaming group that got together pretty regularly (before we all moved to college), and we started up a game with a new DM. One guy rolled up a Paladin and we started the adventure.

The next week, he showed up but realized that he'd left his sheet at home and didn't have time to go get it. Instead of trying to recreate a whole character, he just rolled up a CN Scout and played that.

The next session, he had both sheets, so he just decided to make his character a multiple-personality guy. Whenever he slept, got knocked out, or got hit by a big crit (for more than X damage, I think), he rolled to determine which personality would show up. It was fun, and not really that complicated, although I'd suggest two players playing the different personalities, just because it sounds so fun.:smallbiggrin:

Lord_Asmodeus
2008-01-10, 07:48 PM
!!!

Split Personalities ≠Homical Alter-ego.

It's hollywoodian garbage, and downright offensive to people with any kind of mental disorder.

That being said, it's thought that most people develop varying personalities to cope with traumatic events, though nobody's absolutely sure why the symptoms pop up, but it is usually preceded by other disorders, like a snowball effect.

A thing to note is that most people's dominant personalities have no recollection of when they slip into another personality. (But non-dominant personalities often do remember the time when they are 'inactive')

From what I've been told, it's like going to sleep and waking up. Even regular people can't remember the very moment they go to sleep. It's apparantly the same way, except the effected person 'wakes up' in odd locations/situations with no memory of recent events.

Now, for actually playing a character like this...?

Well, think of why the character would need another personality. Someone who is normally timid and shy might have a more outgoing personality. Or a different personality to cope with varying circumstances. Someone who has been sexually abused might develop a more aggresive, even sexually abusing personality of their own (A fairly common occurance, even among people without mental disorders... But that breaks the aforementioned Homical Alter-ego rule. :smalltongue: ) One personality might be homosexual or heterosexual opposing the dominant's primary sexual orientation. Some personalities actively try to sabotague the dominant's lifestyle/relationships or they play pranks on the dominant personality (Such as leaving them an unpleasant surprise when they 'wake up.')

It's also been said that some personalities are long-lasting, and others are temporary, being 'absorbed' and 'split' into others frequently.

Overall, it's a big, vague, and touchy subject. :smalltongue:

Well the idea is that he is an insane, psychopathic, Demon Slave, who is Thrall to Demogorgon the 2-headed (and consequently duel-personality'd) Demon Prince and Prince of Demons. The way I worked it out is his Evil personality is madcap kind of insane, but in a dangerous way (like he's "silly" but he's the kind of sick bastard that finds the horrible death of fools hilarious) whereas his "good" personality is a self-hating recluse who hates evil and its corrupting influence because of the way he is and he can't change it.

And while it may not be entirely "realistic", its D&D, it doesn't need to make sense when you worship an insane Demon Prince from the depths of a mad realm. just sayin'

VanBuren
2008-01-10, 10:42 PM
!!!

Split Personalities ≠Homical Alter-ego.

It's hollywoodian garbage, and downright offensive to people with any kind of mental disorder.

Ah, but I'd like to think that somewhere in the DnD world, a mage worked very hard to split a normal soul into two, resulting in a naive and pure half and a twisted evil one.

Or something like that.

Paragon Badger
2008-01-10, 11:17 PM
Hehe. That's good enough for me. :smalltongue:

Kiyona
2008-01-11, 01:58 AM
I have to agree with the other posters. Just roleplay it. =)

I was in a gurps game where one of the characters had an alternate personality. And it worked out great.

When his character was under lot of stress he had to make a "will save" (dont remember what its called in GURPS) if he failed, the alternate came out.

We never played enough to find out wich one of them was the "real" one, but they were brothers. The one who was out most of the time was a callous, bloodthirsty mercenary and assasin, while the one who came out under pressure was a coward. A computer salesman who had no idea his "brother" was a part of him, not a real person. This was hysterical, and a challenge to the other players who sometimes had to deal with the scared brother whilst under fire.

I really recomended playing different personalitys. If done right it can be so much fun, and taking the roleplaying to a whole new level. =)