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Caldarin
2009-11-16, 10:27 AM
So I've got a character in my game who due to a curse is technically immortal (part of his back story) He described his character as having wandered the world for several hundred years before the start of the campaign.
I pointed out that it's hard to explain a 1st level character that's been around that long, so we came up with a bunch of people who share his curse who worship the inevitability of death. They blame him for their problem, so every 50 years, they show up, wipe his memory and dump him somewhere random around the world.
At this point, it's happened 18 times, and so I ruled that some of the memories were starting to come back, and started doing random switches (which kinda sucks in a lot of ways- one of his personalities was a tobacco farmer, another one was a chef neither of which can fight at all). I designed a prestige class that lets him control it (each personality is its own character at the same level he is at).



note: this class is extremely broken and should only be allowed for a player you trust not to blatantly power game and use it to progress the story...


One Who Is Many
Entry Requirements: Concentration 9 Ranks
SPECIAL: the character must recognize that he/she is inhabited by multiple personalities and actively seek to control them.
Skill Points: 4+int. modifier
Class Skills: Bluff, Concentration, Disguise, Diplomacy, Craft, Profession, Swim, Knowledge (History), Knowledge (Arcana)

One Who Is Many
{table=head]Level|Base Attack<br>Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Spells

1st|
+0|
+0|
+0|
+2|Call Forth 1/day, Revert 50%|

2nd|
+1|
+0|
+0|
+3|Call Forth 2/day, Revert 60%|+1 level of existing class abilities

3rd|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+3|Call Forth 3/day, Revert 70%|+1 level of existing class abilities

4th|
+3|
+1|
+1|
+3|Call Forth at Will, Revert 80%|+1 level of existing class abilities

5th|
+3|
+1|
+1|
+4|Gestalt 1/day, Flawless Revert|+1 level of existing class abilities[/table]
Class Abilities: All of the following are class abilities of the One Who is Many

Call Forth: Using this ability, a One Who is Many may subsume his/her existing (dominant) personality in exchange for another one. The existing dominant personality is no longer entirely dormant, however, and may attempt to reassert his/herself using the Revert ability. The new personality remains dominant until a random switch occurs, or it is suppressed using the revert ability. Using Call Forth is a standard action. The personalities (unless dictated differently by the DM) are at the same level as the base personality’s main class, but with the same number of One Who is Many levels.

Example: Errin Vagos (a 6th level rogue/5th level One who is Many) has the abilities of a 9th level thief. Her second personality is a sorcerer, who is also 9th level.

Revert: Revert is used by a One Who is Many to forcibly reassert his/her dominant personality over another one that has taken over either using Call Forth or through a random switch. At 1st level, the chance to successfully revert is 50%, and that then increases by 10% each level until the One Who is Many learns Flawless Revert at 5th level. Revert can be used at will and requires a full round action.

Flawless Revert: At 5th level, a One Who is Many has mastered their many personalities to the point where they can easily reassert their base personality over the others. Reverting is also now a move action.

Gestalt: At 5th level, a One Who is Many can call forth the abilities of one of their personalities, while keeping their own, dominant personality’s abilities active. Gestalt is activated using a move action. This requires an incredible level of concentration to maintain. A One Who is Many makes a concentration check at the start of each round that Gestalt is being used. The base DC of this check is 10, but it increases by 1 every round the ability is maintained. If the check is failed, the ability ends at the end of the character’s turn. The One Who is Many may suppress this ability at any point using Revert (as a move action here). Suppressing this ability does not end it, but neither does it reset the DC of the concentration check. Therefore, the One Who is Many can (in theory) switch the personality used as often as he/she likes until a concentration check is failed. Any limited use abilities are still used if the same personality is Gestalted again

Example: Errin Vagos (a 6th level rogue/5th level One Who is Many) has a second personality that is a sorcerer. The sorcerer currently has 10th level spell casting abilities. When she activates Gestalt, she gains the abilities of a 10th level sorcerer (in this case, 10th level spell casting) for as many rounds as she can maintain concentration. If she suppresses the personality, any spells used are unavailable until she has rested for an entire day (and can use Gestalt again).

The 2 main drawbacks to this class are Hit points (you keep your character's actual hit points) and equipment (your other personalities aren't necessarily proficient in the weapons on armor you have).

TabletopNuke
2009-11-16, 02:36 PM
Here's (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10313) the thread with table instructions. I'll warn you now, it's a PAIN to make them.

This sounds like a fun idea. Are you familiar with the Jade Phoenix Mage PrC from Tome of Battle? It uses a very similar concept. You might want to look into it.

DracoDei
2009-11-16, 03:11 PM
I find working in a text editor with the wrap turned off and spacing things out to make the columns line up to be very helpful in making tables.

urkthegurk
2009-11-16, 04:54 PM
possession is a common theme in my game. So common that my players have found ways to combat it. From the simple protection against evil and Mind Blank to special training involving feats and training, the heroes of this demon-ridden world have learned to deal with the pain of having their character stolen.

For actual multiple personalities, I leave it mostly in the players control, although if they want it as a Flaw, then I have the other personality try to seize control a couple of times each day. (If the alter-ego is super hostile, then once a day, and only under special triggering circumstances.) They can define what that other character looks like, but is never under their direct control, although they may be allowed to play the character if they stay true to its type. Rarely do these character have any special abilities beyond the norm, but they usually have access to most of those of the primary character.
Some characters, like a paladin or monk, might have trouble accessing their best abilities while their alignment is changed, and might suffer long-term consequences if they cannot keep their alter-ego under control. I have a separate flaw for these guys, since all the meditation and stuff is really good at suppressing multiple personalities. Often this isn't even a flaw, just a roleplaying challenge, but if you want to you can impose a flaw. It could be anything, like a penalty to reflex and initiative, or a sensitivity to certain situations, like combat or darkness. Up too you.



Anyone player who really hates having this disorder should of course have the opportunity to remove it, although it might not be easy. Almost impossible if it was taken at first level as a flaw. I do allow characters to remove flaws at later levels through extensive development in-game and burning a feat slot. It's definitely harder then just getting a feat.

Caldarin
2009-11-16, 08:37 PM
Aside from me messing with his personalities occasionally, it really is a huge benefit to him. It makes his character the ultimate in versatility. Since his past lives include a fighter, a sorcerer, and assassin, a cleric (in addition to the a few NPC classes), he technically has all those class abilities available to him.

On the other hand, the first time he figures out a personality is there (his character doesn't know about them all yet) and he brings it out, there's a whole lot of explaining to do, given that their last memories involve different people and different places than they're seeing there.

The rest of the party has finally started being 'understanding' about it, rather than locking him up in their ship's brig whenever he starts talking crazy.

Fortuna
2009-11-16, 09:00 PM
Interesting. I was recently doing some homebrew on multiple personalities as well, although mine was a race (at this URL)
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=131321

This is a huge power boost alright. Perhaps boost the DC on Gestalt for a start, since you won't get that until level 11 and it is a huge boost in versatility, meaning that you can get whatever kind of crazy synergy you can think of. Also, can your other personalities be multiclassed? Can they have prestige classes?

One more thing. If these are other personalities with no relation to the present one, how do you justify the increase (if I read this right) of experience level for your other personalities?

Caldarin
2009-11-16, 09:34 PM
it's hard to justify, true, but at the same time, that would make the class unplayable if they had to level up each class separately; it'd be the exact same being multiclass, only not quite as good.

like I said, this class is wildly overpowered, and the only reason I made it was because the character in question is almost entirely story driven; I kinda made the class as a reward for his extensive and awesome backstory

Fortuna
2009-11-16, 09:38 PM
Hmmm, it would be difficult to get all the personalities going otherwise.

How about you make it so that they are maybe two levels behind? Although I am far from an expert, getting ninth level spells as you hit 20th level in whatever seems nicer in terms of both balance and flavour.

Caldarin
2009-11-16, 10:02 PM
maybe- the only justification I can think of for it is in the case of the player I designed this for, each of his other personalities were nearing epic level before they got their memories wiped. So technically, they're all really high levels, but the way I see it is his current base personality needs to gain power himself before he can use the better abilities of his other personalities...

To give you a reference about this character, he's actually a legend at this point known as "The Traveler". There's a whole bunch of people from different times who all look exactly alike and have all accomplished some pretty major things (he's founded cities in his past lives, ect.)

We're currently using one of his past lives as a driving force for the plot of the campaign; he was once a pirate who managed to unite the pirate vessels in the world into a cohesive force and almost took over the entire coast of the main continent. Unfortunately, the night before he launched his major campaign, the mind wipe people showed up, kidnapped him, and the force fell apart- now it's 500 years later and somebody is claiming to be the "Pirate Lord" reborn.

Fortuna
2009-11-16, 10:09 PM
How do attributes work between these personalities? Do they change, do they stay the same, do the mental atrributes change, what?

Caldarin
2009-11-17, 12:05 AM
He gets to make each character separately, reassigning his ability scores as he wants.
The only ones that I've limited are strength and con, but he can increase those a bit too (call it 'muscle memory' and 'more reserves')

other than that, dex, int, wisdom, charisma, all move around

Fortuna
2009-11-17, 12:08 AM
Upon reflection, I really don't think I can add anything else. It is an interesting idea though, definitely, and kudos for that. I may even steal it myself and see what kind of wierd things happen when I combine it with my race.

The Demented One
2009-11-17, 12:27 AM
I think a more elegant kludge for this would be the Chameleon PrC, with some fancy roleplaying on the player's part when it comes to assigning aspects.

TabletopNuke
2009-11-17, 12:41 AM
Good name. I'd like to see some of the fluff for your character.

I think that the DMG advises against using character level as a PrC requirement. A Base Will prerequisite would fit the theme well, since the main feature of the class is controlling one's mind(s).

Edit: Oh, and with that line of thinking, Will should probably be the class's best save.

Caldarin
2009-11-17, 01:24 AM
I'll think about the idea for the minimum will save- also, it's supposed to get good will, I'll change that

the problem with making it a minimum will save is that it makes it a whole lot harder for anyone without good will save progression to qualify.

Fortuna
2009-11-17, 02:00 AM
Perhaps a Concentration requirement? Or some other skill?

Caldarin
2009-11-17, 02:11 AM
Bingo- concentration check... I'll put that in in place of the level requirement

urkthegurk
2009-11-19, 01:08 PM
You should maybe tie concentration in to one of the class abilities, since its always frustrating to have to qualify for a PrC with one of the more useless skills. I think the only time concentration is useful is when a wizard is doing exactly what a wizard is not supposed to be doing, e.i. engaging in melee. So if it was at least a skill that was useful to the class....

Ashtagon
2009-11-19, 01:17 PM
The chameleon class from Races of Destiny, with minor modifications and some re-fluffing, could probably fill this niche and not risk being unbalanced at the hands of a munchkin.

Caldarin
2009-11-19, 02:27 PM
Urk- The capstone ability is entirely tied to concentration- the better your concentration the longer you can hold onto the Gestalt ability.

Ash- Maybe, I'll take a look at it, but this class is mostly for story reasons (basically, don't tell your players about it UNLESS they decide they have multiple personalities beforehand). I made this class for a guy who's character was based around the theme, and I trust him not to go bat**** insane with it.

dsmiles
2009-11-19, 03:26 PM
I once played a character with multiple personalities (he was possessed by a demon since birth). Basically, the primary personality (a chaotic neutral with evil tendancies warlock), would black out and the demon would control him for a short time. He would always "come to" while doing something that was out of line for him, like pointing a wand of fireballs at a PC's back, and having to use his other hand to disarm himself. It made for a VERY amusing campaign.

Good idea for a PrC, though. I like it, but I've never had a player describe him/herself as having multiple personalities.

Caldarin
2009-11-19, 04:17 PM
My guy has 18 rattling around in there- the result of not aging and having people show up and wipe his memory every 50 years

he ran into somebody from a past life and started talking to them, and it started bringing the memories back from that life

then the dam burst and all of them started coming through, he's got
2 rangers
tobacco farmer
gourmet chef
rockstar bard
city-founding noble
bumbling sorcerer
magic hating cleric
demon hunting paladin
2 mercenaries
an assassin
stoner druid
Pirate Captain
and a few others that I can't think of

he's mostly got under control, but sometimes people pop out when he's not expecting them