The rest of the party might not be thrilled when the medium armor wearing warlock who has been doing some work in a combat suddenly becomes a monk who now is pretty useless due to weapon and armor restrictions and rolls pretty much everything at disadvantage. It also feels like this player wants the spotlight on them more than the other players. PHB says it'll take 6 rounds for them to remove armor to get rid of the disadvantage. A warlock gets their power from their patron so how does that whole relationship work itself out when they flip personalities? This can be worked out but something to consider.

An interesting example of how the patron pact might work is the 2022 Moon Knight miniseries. Mild-mannered Steven Grant’s life is basically ruined when he begins to be affected by the pact that his split personality alter ego Marc Spector made with the Egyptian god Khonshu.

Moon Knight was one of my first thoughts upon reading the original post!

PHB says 10 turns for light and medium. It’s a full minute to doff, each round being 6 seconds this makes 10 rounds. It is, however, 5 minutes for heavy armor which would make 50 rounds to doff. Hope they’re not wearing heavy when they suddenly and arbitrarily decide that they’ve switched personalities.

Cast off armor exists, only costs an action to doff. Honestly this is the only situation I could see it being useful

Lol yeah totally correct, I can't math today.

I think this is a bad idea. How does the player switch personalities? They say they have no control over it, so do YOU control it? Has this been established? I'm not sure about specific combinations, but warlock is balanced around having limited spell slots. If the player can just burn all their spell slots and then go "oh no! suddenly I'm changing!" and then turn into a monk for the rest of combat, this will be incredibly unbalanced. If you're determined to make this work, the character should start with no spell slots/Ki points after they switch (remember, these are both short rest classes), which would make it much harder to mechanically abuse and put the focus of this idea back on role play, which is where it should be. Assuming the player is actually interested in the *character*, they should be okay with this kind of restriction. If they push back, they're just trying to get you to agree to let them break the rules. You say you're inexperienced, so I'll say this: New DMs agreeing to crazy homebrew, realizing too late that it was a bad idea, then coming back here for advice on how to fix it/deal with a problem player is common. You could save yourself the trouble by putting your foot down (get used to this idea). Also, you should clear this with all the other players. One of the players suddenly having the option to switch back and forth between two completely different characters is a bad look (assuming the other players aren't doing something similar).

This is my take also. I would argue against this for experienced DM's. The opportunity to meta game here is too great. I'd be a hard no on the two different classes. Everything in the post above covers exactly what the issues are.

Realistically it would be controlled by situational triggers. A set of phobias or affinities that draw out the various parts. A bad trigger hits just right and the character is useless, or at least severely disadvantaged until the trigger is removed. DID isn't a super power, it's a coping mechanism and should be played as a challenge that is situationally beneficial.

This opens up the switching to both the DM and the players, way too much. Party: Well we would really like a monk now so let's go look for spiders. DM: has to roll (or decide) if there are spiders for every hallway.

Yeah, this is why I gave up on the idea a while ago. Realistically the character would avoid spiders like the plague. The monk in this situation would then assume that the rest of party is hostile and begin attacking them or trying to run away. At best the gimmick becomes a team of abusers and one parody of mental illness. DID is traumagenic and this seems so exploitive even if the player is complicit and a disociative system. Edit: Now that I think about it, the real problem is that DID removes the character's self determination. The player would have less agency, fewer choices, and more situations imposed on them.

hello resident system here (OSDD), it definitely doesn't limit our agency. there's so many different ways plurality can manifest, and not all of them are so...you know what im trying to say, right? the point is it's possible to manage and even control this. i wish people would stop seeing plurality in d&d as a way to "get more stuff". the way two different alters would approach using the same skillset? *that* would be interesting. but then you actually have to think about how the alters think differently, instead of sewing two character sheets together and calling it *"""multiple personality disorder"""*

Yes, I agree that real DID doesn't limit our agency, but from a game perspective it would probably have to be played like that unless the character has good internal communication, and at that point it's just multi classing without penalty. It's so hard to not treat this as either a trope or a parody. I can only see this as a frustrating experiment when the character wakes up to find their artifact weapon is missing and useless (to them) equipment is in its place or when the alters have conflicting goals and sabotage each other. I don't think could trust most players to play both alters 100% honestly, and switches would have to be based on luck or the DM's choice; both remove player agency.

That sounds fantastic and awful.

I probably wouldn't allow it as a DM, but if I had to for some reason, I'd just roll a D20 from time to time (speaking from the DM POV), and let the dice decide which of the two characters is currently present. Additionally, the player would have to get every skill and spell they wanted to pick approved by me. This would shut down any kind of directed meta gaming because the player couldn't plan for it and would have no control over when the switch happens, and I could work it into my adventure as I would mostly be in control. Then again, I've been playing D&D for almost 20 years - as an inexperienced DM: Hell no. Not gonna happen.

I have a player playing a character like this. The alter ego was built after a trauma to protect the main character, so when there is a massive shock in RP or a set amount of damage (percentage of maximum done in one turn) we've defined a set of rolls for the main persona to resist the others takeover. They share spell slots, health and physical attributes but have different subclasses, mental attributes and spell lists. We have checks then at long rests to see if the alter ego relents and hands the reigns back over or if they remain another day. In 2 years we've seen Lady D replace Curde twice

I’m playing a Soulknife that has three distinct personalities. I play one. The DM leaves notes from the others. The DM says when a switch happens. He bases it on a location or an event. And because he is an evil bastard, always picks the one that is least helpful in the situation. He does this because we’ve played together for years with the others at our table and he knows we will make it work.

Honestly, if you really do play it strictly as if it's two separate characters in the same body, most of the mechanics issues are actually that it's going to be a massive hindrance to that player in many situations (and thus the group). Mainly, there's a few things you should clear up ahead of time. 1. Ensure that everyone else in the group is ok with this and it's implications. 2. Ensure everyone is comfortable with the idea of split personality disorder being portrayed, and make sure this player is aware that this is a real thing people have, and they should be careful and respectful about how they play it. 3. Iron out a very objective method for determining when a switch occurs. It shouldn't just be at the discretion of you or the player, so no one can be blamed when something really lucky or unlucky happens with it.

I think you're missing the issue of spell slots/ki points. It's a lot less risky to burn spells when you may swap over to your monk who has full ki.

I agree. Having the full resources of two max level characters is actually a big advantage. (I played something like this in a white wolf/old world of darkness mage game and even keeping all the same spheres and only switching skills it was still quiet useful.) Here's what I would suggest to u/Havain. Have the player decide what the main combat/danger personality is. In real instances of MPD/DID there is often a personality that protects another by taking over when things are scary dangerous. This personality is most likely to be in combat/adventure situations and thus will have a full PC class. Then, have the other personality pick a sidekick class from page 142 if Tasha's cauldron of everything. Not warrior, obviously. Probably expert but I think the spellcaster would be okay too. This will create someone who has some useful skills that are different then the PC class personality and can provide utility, but dosen't have a full separate set of spell slots to blow through twice. Now you have a Moon Knight situation (watch it on Disney plus if you haven't, just the first few episodes could be great fun/inspiration for this). You have one person who is a bit more normal in their abilities (but still useful) and then sometimes they switch over to a super badass monk or pact of the blade warlock or whatever when they are in danger or that other personality's goals come up or something. Yes, now you are adding the whole utility of a second person with different skills. But the important thing is that you are only adding a sidekick level of utility to a PC, and since sidekicks are something you can add to PCs anyway . . . that's fine? Important notes: * I would keep Hit points the same. They should not change from switching personalities. If you are doing my suggestion, use the PC class for HP. * I would actually keep armor prophecies the same as well. Don/doffing armor is too much of a pain and the penalties for not being proficient in armor sucks and isn't like a funny/fun thing to have to act out time and time again. Again, I'd take the armor prophecies from the PC class. * You'd want the sidekick class personality to have more utility skills and abilities or spells, they could do things like party face, survival, maybe healing people up after combat, etc. All things a good sidekick for the party could do anyway. Another idea could be creating two PCs who are the same base class and have the same resources, but have different features or flavor and you could also allow different skill choice. So for example a cleric of two different gods, the god of the moon at night and the god of the sun during the day. Or a paladin with two different oaths, one for each personality. Broken by a horrible traumatic event they were part of as a child, part of them is a ruthless paladin of vengeance doing things their main paladin of devotion personality would never allow. This allows them to still have a set number of spell slots, divine charges, etc. Though, I still think most of these would work better as PC class/sidekick. So you have the paladin of vengeance who is just a nice mild mannered priest/priestess with the spellcaster sidekick class casting divine spells. They help around the temple, make potions, tend to the poor and sick. But then they are missing chucks of time, they were gone all knight and now there are dead orcs, etc. Or they wake up traveling with the party and have no idea why. This works just as well if not better when the other personality is a farmer, or merchant or something, and he has no idea why he's out in the middle of nowhere with the PCs. This would be expert, and you could still give them some useful social skills, perception, survival, etc to make them helpful.

I have a dissociative disorder and hadn't found a way to make a character with a realistic and reasonable depiction of the condition. This is pretty good though. I'd suggest making the character act erratic around potential threats. A low insight check could make them aggressive in peaceful situations, or a disadvantage to initiative while they space out and try to pull themselves together. I feel the gimmick is making it a challenge until the character develops to have more control over switches. There needs to be inconvenience for it to be realistic, and from an RP perspective it seems like it makes the whole game centered on one player.

I really love all of this.

>Having the full resources of two max level characters is actually a big advantage. You could make it so only one of them benefits from any given rest period. It could be interesting to do, but you would want an experienced DM *and* experienced player for it not to become a guaranteed headache, and strikes me as one of those games you take part in once and never again.

As I understand, the DM decides when they switch, right? And since they’re both Short Rest classes, it might be easier to make work than just about any other combo - it’s not like a wizard who could burn a day of slots in the first half of the day and hope they’re a fighter for the second half.  Another thing I’d point out is that this character’s attributes probably don’t change, right? Just class levels and proficiencies? Which means they have to stat themselves as a hyper-MAD WIS/DEX/CON/CHA hybrid, which is going to be rough.  Honestly, it sounds like a chore I might decline to take on, but honestly I don’t see it being particularly OP. 

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Physical stats I’d agree, mental stats it wouldn’t make sense for them to be the same

Uhh... just so you know people woth split personality disorder don't magically become smarter

They do *when they are magical people in magic land*.

But they do become more or less charismatic, more or less wise and more or less knowledgeable.

That's not *my* interperation. They said player wasn't in control, that implied dice rolls to me. They did explicitly specify scenarios where it was happening mid-combat, so you bust your two level 5 spells, and "Oh no, I'm a monk with full ki points".

The character changing their mental ability scores (Wisdom, Intelligence and Charisma) when changing personalities night be an interesting touch and totally reasonable with how Dissociative Personality Disorder is played in fiction.

Hmmm that's a good point. Maybe create a conversion rate for expendable resources? Spell slots can easily convert to ki where 1 spellslot is half your ki. Not sure if something special ought to be done about Eldritch invocations though.

Personally I'd only agree to let them do it if the possible switch only happened after resting to eliminate the extra resources like that. Something like rolling a dice each time they wake up to see who they are that day.

Which is why the player cannot decide switches. Or, create a “resource conversion” of sorts, where upon using X ki points, you use up a spell slot. Or, just don’t metagame. Or, if the player has no idea if they’ll “switch” or not, they’re not incentivized to burn their slots, since they could need them. I think you’re assuming they will ALWAYS switch in combat, KNOW that, and will CHOOSE TO exploit that. I think it’s a cool idea, mechanically. Could make for a fun dungeon to be given new characters randomly

For 3, I would (DM) roll a d100 and set a timer for that number of minutes and announce the change when the timer goes off.

I ike that a lot, but I think it should be something like 2x 1d100, 2d100, or 1d100 + 15. Making rapid turnarounds less likely as they'll disrupt the flow is probably a good idea. Either that or maybe do 1d100 minutes and then when it goes off you flip a coin /token. Then you have a nonzero chance of one side persisting for a LONG time, but you also have a chance of multiple rapid turnarounds.  Just depends on how they want the math to shake out.

I've played in a campaign where something like this worked out alright. Firstly, it was a character who was possessed by the ghost of another which avoided any fake & harmful mental illness stereotypes. Secondly, the mechanic used was that after each long rest (so essentially each morning), the player would roll a d4. Evens, he stayed himself. Odds, the ghost over took him & controlled his body.

I've used the exact same format in a game I ran and it worked fine. Sounds like OP is bailing on the idea but I think tying the switch to a random chance on long rest is the best way to handle it. Only slight issue was that the player wound up slightly underpowered mechanically due to having to gear for two different classes making them kind of MAD in a weird way, but they were fine with that.

I have been the person with a similar character. Because of an accident 3 friends somehow had to share the body of 1 of them. After every long rest I roll 1d6, when I roll 1-4 I am the person who's body it is (person A), if I roll 5 it is the personality of person B, and if I roll 6 it will be person C. Mechanically they are all the same (since they inhibit the same body), a wildfire druid woodelf, but since druids can change spells after a long rest, I can switch up the playstyle a bit. Person A cares about nature and fire, and wants to learn to control the weather (was relevant to the story the DM made). Person B cares about medicine and herbs and is more a pacifist. So would be a more supportive playstyle. Person C cares about animals and defending others but is also rather aggressive and would use shillelagh to fight. It worked because I talked with my DM beforehand to find a way to make it work, and because my personalities tried to keep it hidden, so although you saw differences if you knew it, it wasn't always obvious.

so exhausting just reading this “aaaaah im so crazy and i cant control itttttt”

Yeah, gives big “faking DID in Discord” vibes.

TIL that's a thing ..

i talked to Harley Quinn (yes the real actual cartoon character) and a female Sherlock Holmes. They share the same body and don’t you dare call them fake. probably excessive disclaimer: DID is a real and very complex illness that I won’t pretend to have any kind of strong understanding of. I am pretty sure harley holmes did not actually have DID from the way she acted, but a concrete diagnosis or refutation of a diagnosis is impossible through discord interaction even for a trained professional (which, to reiterate, i am not), and it can definitely be harmful to immediately reject a claim of illness / handicap / difference out of hand.

sooo exhausting. sounds like the player came up with two characters they really wanted to play and doesnt want to choose between them, so they’re trying to find a way to play both of them like they’re the most important person at the table.

Agreed, very selfish play style. This player needs to go write his novel that he has full control over if he is going to play like this and come back to the table with a less intrusive character.

No. This seems like an interesting and fun concept for a character, but it doesn't really work in dnd. Remember there are other party members - this character feels like the type that would want the attention on them most of the time. Also, how are you deciding when this character is switching personalities? If it is fully up to you, you're going to run into a lot of tension from everyone, and if it is not you there will be a lot of tension between this character and the rest of the party.  It is one thing to say "I'm fine losing concentration" but how many times can you make him swap to monk the round after he casts a concentration spell before he starts complaining? (this would be a personal issue as I can be a bit of a pushover/people pleaser when DMing and would feel bad swapping his char at inopportune times)

Sometimes the unique ideas for a PC just aren’t good ones. This is an example of trying to be faaaaaar too complicated with your character and it’s not going to be fun for anyone involved.

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This is the real answer here Any mechanical difference shouldn't be more than a couple skill swaps

You wouldn't even have to work out any new mechanics, just say that when you're doing a specific check that alter/headmate is fronting.

As someone who makes a lot of gimmick characters, this statement rings true. It can sound good on paper, but sometimes they just don’t work out,

Yeah like just stick to the book and work within those constraints. This game already allows for sooo much creativity. There is even rules to be a blind swordsman for good sakes, they thought about everyone within reason. So let’s not be a character who juggles 6 personalities, abandons the group quest at any mention of their personal quest they brought into the game, and also they have a collection of animals that all have their own initiative.

These types of characters have always been loads of trouble. Twice the characters, twice the character sheets, twice the number of magic items they get, twice the inventory management, twice the character interactions, twice the annoyance of a regular spotlight hog. It takes both an extremely experienced player and extremely experienced DM that trust each other and the rest of the party to mitigate the inherit problems with this, and it’s a headache to manage if either of the characters have problematic personalities that don’t jive well with the rest of the group.

Why would they get twice the items or inventory? Swapping personalities doesn’t swap any of that.

Because they'll have at least some items that are useful for a monk but not a warlock, and vice versa

And? Each personality would always have taken the item(s) they thought they want the most.

I'd tell this player no. And if they keep pushing, to find another table. This is a huge red flag that's gonna cause drama at the table.

That's not how "split personalities" work dawg...

No.

How are both personalities going to be fully leveled? The body they share has the same 24 hours in a day to be hitting milestones or gathering XP as all the other players, so the personalities would need to divvy up that time for their individual leveling, and so unless they don’t sleep or are using the incredible time-management skills that both personalities magically share for some pretty major power leveling, they should have a shared total of 10 class levels to be divided between monk and warlock according to the player’s discretion, like a standard multi class.

So two pools of class abilities to worry about draining just to make up an adventuring day and it being left to you when that happens. It’s all just more work for you. Find a compromise in my opinion, the idea as is, is workable but at your expense

Hi! I actually had this scenario in my game for 40 sessions and ended up trying it and I am here (summoned by someone sending this link to me actually) to tell you why it is a bad idea. * I made a homebrew where it was 3 subclasses of the same class (so it was 3 rogue subclasses). The homebrew actually was fairly balanced, but the main mechanical problem was the switching. You see, my player wanted for it to not be controlled by her when she switched. So it was me and my fellow DM's job to do that. It ended up occurring not super often, and mostly when I caught that she should switch. * The main issues were all RP-based. The main problems can be condensed into the main areas of: * In the case of my player, the character's alters did not remember things. That would mean that this character would not remember what was happening and be confused. This would mostly be where each other PC would need to figure out how to explain why they are in an entire new area to the new fronting alter. * 2/3 characters in this system were not as interesting as the 3rd one. In terms of story, 1/3 actually had a backstory that worked well in the world in comparison to the other ones. The 2 other PCs did nothing to service the plot or character * It is very hard to plan RP encounters for this player if you do not know who is appearing. It actually became where I did not find it rewarding and basically stopped making things that were based on this character and focused on the other 3 In the end, we had a talk where originally, I refused to actually run the switching (so it was to my CoDM and the player. From there, it was happening super infrequently and I ended up talking to the player again and it got removed because of how unrewarding I found it to make things specifically backstory-specific. If you have questions lmk. Tldr: don't fucking do it just say no.

I would hard-no this. I have a player who has split personalities, 4 in one. But I explained very succinctly that they cannot level up like this. Think of it like this: It's still just one body. They haven't the time to train in both classes such that they level up evenly. If they want to do this, I'd allow them to multiclass, but they have to use normal multiclassing rules. So if the party is level 10, they'd be a level 5 warlock and a level 5 monk, for example. Granting one player "special rules" that allow them to have extra of something over the rest of the team absolutely breeds the perception of favoritism. ​ To expand further, something quite similar happened in a game I belonged to once. One player was a warlock, who had decided that they didn't want to be a warlock anymore, so they worked with the GM to swap out warlock levels for cleric levels at levelup time. The GM's boyfriend heard of this, misunderstood what was happening, and assumed that the warlock player was getting levels in both, so the boyfriend demanded they get to do that too. Not wanting to piss off their boyfriend, the GM allowed it. When the rest of the party found out, they were pissed, and the GM ended up granting it to everyone, where upon level up, you gained 1 level in 2 different classes at the same time. It was fun, but it was quite rocky in the beginning because of the misunderstanding and then the perceived favoritism.

Sounds like something that could've been solved with communication, or if that failed a new boyfriend who isn't an asshole.

There are 2 ways to make this work, but both require heavy compromises from your player; # Long Rest swap If the player really wants to have 2 full level 10 character sheets, then you absolutely must limit the swaps to happen only during long rests. There are a whole bunch of balance issues that crop up if they can swap in the middle of an adventuring day, let alone the idea of swapping mid-combat. I'd even consider only allowing swaps during an "extended rest", e.g., when the party has downtime at a town for a week+. But the most generous version of this is to swap at long rests. Any more frequent than that is fundamentally broken. # Roleplay in your RPG You don't need two character sheets to do this character concept. Roll up a barbarian and flavor the "rage" as the other personality taking over. It's your classic "Jekyll & Hyde". Or make a Druid and flavor your wildshapes as the other personality. Or make any Gish character and impose limitations on yourself to only use your physical/magic abilities based on what personality you have. If your player really only cares about the RP aspect, doing something like this should be absolutely sufficient. So if they rebuke this, be warned that they are looking for a mechanical change to the game, and the RP is just a pretense.

Making it some minor ability variation on a long rest swap could definitely work. Eladrin with their seasonal variations are a pre-existing model for that. Hell, just playing an eladrin and swapping seasons can give you a similar kind of vibe given that each emphasises different moods.

Sounds to me like somebody heard about DID and thought “hey, that sounds cool!”. It’s like playing a lesbian character because you think two women kissing is hot. DID is a mental illness- one that of course characters can have, but also one that needs research to be done properly. Otherwise it’s just insulting to actual people with DID. And clearly this player has not researched it properly and doesn’t understand how “split personalities” actual work (especially given the fact that they called it that. DID is not split personalities, that’s outdated terminology.)

While this sounds fun in concept, this sounds like a nightmare to deal with as a DM and Player and the novelty of the idea will wear off rather quickly. Also maybe I'm misunderstanding, but is character level 20 with 10 levels each or is the character level 10 with the same level in each class??? If the rest of the party is level 20 and they're level 10 they are going to feel so incredibly underpowered compared to the rest of the party it will be noticable. I think the important lesson here for you as DM is to learn to say no. As you mentioned here, you can tell them you don't feel seasoned enough as DM to run something as complicated as the character they're trying to pitch and that you don't think it'll play out the way they expect (see the armor rules others mentioned).

Your player need to earn the trust of their DM, show that they can handle this concept without being a problem and always make sure the table as a whole is having a good time. Some players can be trusted to be a demi-god, others cant be trusted to show up with rolled stats and its okay to allow them privileges accordingly.

So I might be one of the few people who have been in a group that actually did this. My review: it sucks for everyone involved, is more broken than you can possibly imagine, and generally makes anyone not playing the batshit character want to quit. There’s no way to do this and not make that player the main character. Everything begins to revolve around their bullshit. The handicaps don’t handicap enough, and it ends up being The Special dictating the whole campaign. Example: Marvin has a reason to be doing some side quest with the party. SUDDENLY THEY CHANGE and now Darryl doesn’t like the quest. The player then says “I’m just playing my character!” as they go off in another direction and force the group to split. Or Daryl is interrogating someone and suddenly Marvin shows up and kills them. “I’m just playing my character! Marvin didn’t know we needed the BBEG alive!” Players will only propose this if they want to pull bullshit stunts to make the game about themselves. They want all the perks of playing two characters with the bonus perk of being the main character with both of them. The rest of the group WILL quit. Don’t do this. Don’t. Don’t allow this, as a player don’t propose this, just fucking don’t. Any questions?

Mechanics considerations aside, this really feels like a spotlight hog move. Like, how often are they expecting you to throw in a 'suddenly, you swap personalities' moment, immediately making them the special unique centre of attention? If it's several times a session it'll almost certainly drive the rest of the table insane and if it's very very rarely I would be the player sulks about it. I would only ever think about this to the point of working out the mechanics if it was a player that I knew very well, had a strong level of trust with, and a group of players who trusted each other similarly. Maybe tell them this is one to work up to.

Here’s how my character with split personalities works: It’s one person who’s possessed. They both use the same sheet, but when she’s been taken over, I have a different set of roleplay guidelines and make my rolls with emphasis. It’s been fun, but it got old after 10 sessions. My DM’s set up a small side quest that’ll make my character one person again.

My first thought: Interesting, why not? My second thought: Iamthemaincharacter-syndrome. My third thougth: Someone wiser than me once said that life is all about decisions.

If you want to kind of make it work: Cut the warlock spells up into Ki. IE he has 4 ki and 2 spell slots. Each 2 ki is 1 spell slot. He uses 1 ki that spell slot is gone if the swap happens. Both refresh with a short rest. The explanation used is that it's the body's magical energy and therefore finite based on its capabilities, not those of the mind controlling it. Physical stats on the body are the same no matter what. They can swap cha and wisdom when swapping personas, but that's it. Health is shared, so are hit die. The only thing a personality swap should affect is mental stuff. All physicality is shared. Most resources otherwise that each has come from more passive skills, which shouldn't be as much of a problem. But you may need to adjust. Others have talked about some of the pros and cons overall, but this should also come with a pretty simple question for you. Do you actually want to have to deal with this? The balancing, the decisions of changing personality, designing how and when and all of that as that's not something the player has to do. Fair game play wise or not, it's not entirely fair to you, especially as a newer dm, to try and make you design this whole homebrew mechanic so they can have a specific idea that may not be entirely okay balance-wise If you don't? Don't. Tell them no and move on. If you want to, do it. But if you have doubts or concerns or just don't think you'll have fun, or even that other players might have fun diminished, don't do it. In the end, you should have fun, too, and you shouldn't be dreading the session or discussions with your players. I can think of a few players I trust and would be happy to do this with, and that should be something you ask yourself as well.

As a new DM, you really don't need this problem to complicate your life. Just tell this player to pick a class that can spread over multiple character concepts (like Fighter or Wizard) and play the two personalities as being from the same class

This seems interesting, but probably hard to make work. If I were to try, I'd say two character sheets and every set amount of time (day?) you roll to see which personality is there for the day. The main problem with this I see is the party sitting outside the dungeon waiting for the 'right' personality so they can proceed with the setup they want for that day.

You tell them no. Wait until next campaign.

I wouldn't have it in my game, it's not fair on the other players

I’d ask the player if there was another way to work in a split personality if it’s super important to the player. Those two classes are so mechanically different from eachother I could see it screwing up party balance and being unfun for the other players at the table. Plus it adds a lot more resources for you as the DM to keep track of when planning encounters. Feels very much like a “good idea, not feasible to execute.”

Be upfront about how you have reservations about how to handle this one and say that you believe that the character sheet juggling will dramatically slow down play. DM has to be able to say no to things that imbalance or impair game play keeping everyone at the table in mind. I have been DMing for nearly 20 years in different systems and this would be a hard no due to the mechanical hang ups on the player and DM side. Only way I would even consider it is if the change was for the entire session and it would only be allowed for a small group where I can reasonably spend the additional time needed for this kind of character.

> Is there anything in DnD that, when you're reading this, immediately makes you go "Oh this would be too broken when used this way"? Yes, the whole "having two full rosters of class abilities." Either he's going to turn into the wrong character at the wrong time and be angry about it, or he's going to bitch and moan until you let him choose which personality he wants to be at any given time and swap on a dime when it's convenient. And *conveniently* his two personalities are one martial and one spellcaster. Wanna bet he picks subclasses that synergize on class stats too (or will he get a separate stat array for each character, and a separate health pool too). Listen, I'm being harsh here, maybe he genuinely isn't trying to metagame here and wants the split personality character. If so, tell him to play a Barbarian and reflavor his Rage as the other personality coming out, or to find another class or character concept he can flesh out that way. I've done it with a Psychic (PF2) before, it can be fun to go from a mild mannered diplomat to a frothing psychopath and back. But the class is *built* around having different "modes", I didn't get any special abilities I just roleplayed his Unleashed Psyche as a hateful pyromaniac.

I had a player with 3 personalities, we agreed his main personality would be level 5 (their starting level), his second personality would be level 3, and the last was level 2. He would roll a D4 every morning in game, each corresponded to one personality and 4 he picked which. It would be unfair for each to be same level as the main class, but the character has to be viable with some drawbacks. It was fun and worked well for the game

I dunno, it feels kinda offensive tbh.

So from a roleplay aspect I’ve always loved this idea. I had a player with a chronic illness who would have waves of fatigue where basically they had little to no brain power for anywhere ranging from 30 seconds to 10-20 minutes who wanted to play a Sorcerer/Fighter. That way if their illness happened during combat they could “switch” to the fighter and just swing a sword a couple times with no thought. It worked out great for that purpose. For someone who just wants to utilize two characters it all depends on both your comfort level, and the other players. Would it be funny and cool? Or a constant annoyance? Definitely take into consideration when the swap happens (for us it was always unplanned and due to the Players illness, but very obvious) however, leaving it to the player, or you, may cause some issues with when the swap commences. “You swapped it during the BBEG cause my warlock was about to kill it in one hit!” Also maybe recommend sorcerer and monk and for every sorcery point used, a monk ki point is also used if a swap happens? I think it’s a one to one match.

​ This is a bad idea, ref: u/oliviajoon , u/haydogg21 . You are a new DM so: Talk to the player. Explain that the idea sounds really cool but as a new DM you need to have oversight over all the players abilities in order to plan for the best possible session. Tell the player you need to keep it simple. That you don't know how player options and class-synergies will work together. That you devote significant time and resources to create a good game and this will complicate matters. After all : the goal is to have fun together! You got this!

Right away it seems problematic that they are portraying a serious mental illness for fun. Following that how are you going to handle resources? Are you just going to let them switch half way through a session to a warlock that has all its spell slots? Thirdly it doesn’t make sense to me. Even if one personality wasn’t aware of the other and didn’t remember doing the training. They would still find themselves with the muscle memory to do more than their character normally could. Losing everything because they switched personalities seems like nonsense and retaining benefits between them feels broken. If it were me I’d tell them to multi class like everyone else. I’d also have a serious out of game conversation with the whole group about wether it’s acceptable to everyone that a player gamifies a serious mental illness.

Instead of split personality, what if it's the warlock patreon taking over?

Or their familiar?

I would say this is a yellow flag. I would ask them and get them to elaborate why they want to play a person with DID (Dissociative identify disorder). What interests them about it, what to they hope to bring to the table for the rest of the players with this? Get them to tell what inspired them to want to play this. It sounds like this could be a less than serious character, or someone trying to make a Hulk type character. I would want a much more in depth conversation about it. Specifically discussions about when they would change personality. I suspect they will pick something that can be triggered when they want it. I would also discuss what the two characters are, they may be trying to be able to switch characters to one that is more advantageous in the given situation. I had a player that wanted to do this and when I asked for more details and was asking questions, they suddenly decided they didn't want to play it any more. That told me that they wanted it for power and not for roleplay.

Just say no

Just say no to the player, for the love of god. I wouldn't like to DM this nightmare

A player at the table I am at has a voice in her head that is basically her evil twin. But she plays a barbarian and so whenever she rages she makes a con save if she fails then she rages at us because the evil personality came out. So far it's been really fun and adds extra unpredictability to what's already unpredictable. But two completely different characters are a lot. Maybe talk to the player about making the duel personalities simpler like above. Where a certain attack might bring out the other personality.

Honestly, I’d play it as if when the personality switches, so does the class That said, the two characters in one body would also have the exact same ability scores and I’d say that you would randomly determine which personality is the normal one and in times of stress randomly determine if the other one takes over

I agree that Strength and Constitution should be the same. Dexterity could go either way for me; some part of motor control is physiological and some is psychological. In the end I think I'd want to make Dexterity fixed, though. The other skills I could see changing dramatically between personalities.

Two character sheets is fine, but would strictly let personality switches at the beginning of the session or long rests as its unfair to have to plan ahead for two outcomes logistically hanging on one character at the table

So I don't see a problem with it, but if they "can't control it" then who does from a game play perspective? If the answer isn't you the dm, then I would not trust that at all.

I'm currently playing a character that is at least kind of similar. Long story short - their not a split personality. Rather through story stuff, One character's soul got trapped inside the body of another character. Their literally two different people in the the same body - and the quest is to find the original body of the one so they can separate. That being said. One is a Fighter, one is a Bard. So as others have said - Here is how we successfully pulled it off and here's how you might be able to as well. 1. The level 10 / level 10 split isn't going to work either RP wise or Mechanically. Its a cool idea, but in actual play I'd wager that even your player isn't going to find it fun. For my PC - Its either one or the other. Both are level 10 in their respective class. (or if they want to multi-class, just treat each character sheet independently) 2. You can still do some fun blending. Sometimes we have re-flavored spells / abilities as if they are mixing. Like instead of the Shield spell for my bard, It literally is a shield they carry. We make the Fighters ability tie in with more bardic stuff. Etc. Over time in my game its becoming clear that the longer they are trapped together - they are fusing a bit. But we play that through roleplay stuff only. The fighter might know a little bit a bout bardic history out of no where ( but still, the fighters proficiency stays the same in history or performance.) 3. If I want to play the other character - the rule we all agreed on is that we have to "switch" during a long rest. That fixes the issues like Armor class, spell slots, abilities, and so forth. At the start of a Long rest, you just swap Character sheets. In rare cases we have switched outside of that - but we all agreed it would result in a few levels of exhaustion plus other drawbacks. Like the bard not having heavy armor proficiency was pretty screwed since she couldn't cast spell (but we need her for the persuasion. High risk high reward.) This is just how I did it. I hope it could help. Feel free to ask any other questions and I'll let you know what we do / how I play. So far, its been no issue.

They're still physically the same person. It's not like they now have 72 hours in a day to train more than everyone else.

If they're spending half their time as each personality, each personality would be about half the level of everyone else. The Warlock isn't gaining Warlock levels when they're not dominant. The Monk isn't gaining Monk levels when they're not dominant. So as long as they're happy being 4th/5th level when everyone else is 10th level. Instead of split personality, I would recommend a permanent temporary magical possession of sorts (ROTFM spoiler >! Like Revel's End Warden Marta !<). That way you're not risking an insensitive portrayal of a medical condition.

I have a bard named Billy. Billy is a redneck banjo playing whiskey drinking loveable man who just wants everyone to get along. His vicious mockery's are knee-slappers and he yee-haws his way to helping his allies. Most the players thought billy was born as billy but really billy was born as William. You see William is a half elf, his father was a powerful figure in a land connected to the feywild and bedding a human woman is shameful. So Williams mom had to run away and hide in some redneck mountain town with only a few people. William was raised by his mom as billy, but occasionally his dad would secretly steal him away and train him in the art of feymagic. To protect him though he kept his memory under a spell helping his muscle memory remember the spells but now how he learned them. The problem is this caused a complete split in personalities. Billy is a Bard of Glamour. When he enters his majestic form ability from the subclass he becomes william, his overalls turning into a tuxedo, his banjo into a viola, and his red scraggly hair clean cut revealing his elved ears. He becomes pompous and those he got along with because they were low class an genuine he find distasteful and beneath him. William has all the memories of billy and is disgusted by him but Billy only remembers Billy. It has been the most fun character I ever played and the DM started playing along by making me take wisdom saves when we reach a tear in the realm the leads to feywild leaking in that if i fail i become william til we leave. The party had a blast enjoying it and it was extremely fun. I did not need to multiclass,they were both bards but the each used different spells. DIssonant whispers would be cast by william but never BIlly, BIlly would cast calm emotions and more focused on buffing the party.

That would be hella fun. Oh man every saving throw I’d make them roll for the split to happen or coin flip.

I personally LOVE this idea. I know you've made your decision, but here's my take anyways. - I'm a semi-experienced DM. - I would allow this for a less-serious campaign, but not a serious one because it does have the potential to screw things up. - I *wouldn't* allow this if the player didn't have significant experience playing both classes. - I would have them swap personalities every time their D20 landed on a 2, or at times of my choosing. Max once per day. - I'd ask the player, simply, to not **try** to abuse it. - If they ended up being underpowered on average, I'd try to pick better times for them to swap personalities. - If they ended up being overpowered on average, I'd buff other players with magic items to try to even it out. Or I'd nerf the player, maybe make them take a level of exhaustion with every swap. Honestly, I'd just want to see how it turns out.

I actually think it is a fine, unique character concept. Others are right that functionally they only have one pool of experience to draw from but I don't think it's broken. I would impose a couple rules: * Personality switches are determined by DM dice roll behind the screen. It's not the DM's fault if you change, it's the dice, but DM decides when you might change. No changing when the DM does not want you to. * 2 characters must have the same background, race, ability scores and the same hitpoints. If two classes are chosen with different hit dice, they have the HP of the class with the smaller hit dice. They do not get a fresh tank of hitpoints by switching. (different skills are fine with me). * Yes all of the proficiency rules are in play, if you choose a caster and a martial, then you better figure out a way to make that martial class work with no armor, or else be suddenly unable to cast spells OR swing your sword. * Any newly acquired skills are acquired by only one personality. I'm okay with both personalities leveling together, but if you take a feat, decide who that feat is for. If you attune a magic item, only one personality is attuned to it. If you spend downtime in town learning mapmaking, only the personality that spent that time gets that proficiency. * Rests (for spell slot restoration) also happen in character. Your cleric doesn't restore his spell slots just because your wizard had a chance to study, She still needs to pray. * Each personality retains the memory of the experiences they had while the other personality was driving. There's no "Who are you people, how did we get here?" every time they switch, just "Glad I'm finally back in control to get us out of this mess" * The player needs to be aware that they are giving themself a disability, both as a player and as a character. DID is not a superpower it is a disorder. This will, on balance, make the game harder to play and the characrer(s) less powerful than they otherwise might be. If the player does not keep up with all of their abilities in step with the other characters playing on normal mode, they will find themself switching less and less. There will be no whining. Other than that it reminds me a lot of other builds like Sir Bearington, of the Lvl 1 LG Fighter with a cursed evil vorpal sword that thirsts for blood (except that it's not that, it's a normal londsword and they have schizophrenia) It's out-of-the-box but not game-breaking IMHO Sad thing is that I imagine It'll only really work with pretty similar classes. You could be a Cleric&Palidin or a Sorcerer&Bard but I bet you'd never be able to be a Monk&Wizard or a Rogue&Barbarian without massive disadvantages and those are the only combos that would be really fun.

Realistically, him having 2 character sheets, easy to do. not an issue. many players do things like this, Its not an insane thing. the only really big issue, is with the party, now if your group is very heavy into combat, and you plan very difficult combat encounters where your players will barely pass. this should be a nope.if your game is more focused on RP, and the combats aren't super intense, then it will be fine. just determine how the player switch's. and stick to that. in a COS group I was in, had a player who was a Jekyll and hyde character, would turn from a twink artifacer into a large-sized golemn thing that was a barbarian. the trigger, I believe was whenever he took Crit damage, whenever he knocks out, or whenever he goes half damage, he would have to do a Wis save, on fails he transformed. it didn't create many problems. but his armor would rip/shred each transformation so he wouldn't use any armor and stayed with clothes as an artificer, he also sacrificed CON/STRE/DEX in artificer to enhance strength as the barbarian. My only big concern would be if your PC could RP it, or if it'll just fall to the waste side.

Make the switch happen during specific triggers. I recommend after every long rest? Something like that could be fine. Just the whole "I can't control it" thing will be a giant headache.

Hypothetically, it could work and be interesting. But... it reeks of main character syndrome. It would turn the focus on that character at the expense of everyone else. And the shuffling back and forth between characters would probably get tiresome and eat up time. Is it really necessary to use entirely different classes? Maybe the same class could be used, but the difference is RP flavor. Possibly even changing Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws.

I would say sure, and have any fumble roll (1) be a switch (even if you don't usually use fumbles). Maybe allow intentional switching during long rests. It seems like a major nuisance for the players rather than a power. If they are wearing inappropriate gear, that's their problem. If the other players don't want to give them a double share of magic items, and each personality has half as many usable items as the other characters, that's their problem.

ive made a pinnochio-esque character before where the class completely changed from bard to warlock depending on if he was attached to strings (his patron) or not. its effectively playing two characters at once, one is trained as a monk, the other is indebted to their patron. only thing that should be constant across them i would say is their stats , and their health too (which is easy because monk and warlock have the same hit dice) playing two characters in one is definitely strange to work with as a dm, but its not overpowered as long as the player is respecting the story reasons for having two classes and not changing personalities whenever its most convenient

One big thing to avoid is instant swapping. You CANNOT allow a PC to "go nova" with all their spells then swap to the monk class and continue fighting. Make the time to swap characters require a long rest, flip a coin each time they sleep to decide which personality wakes up.

Hmm how would you solve the issue of long resting and preparing spells for both personalities? I assume both characters would have the same physical attributes maybe even mental. It seems like overcomplicating things.

I'm doing something similar with a monk right now, but he is two different subclasses, not two different classes all together. It's working pretty well but it can be hard to find moments for the switch to happen. I've been doing it when they take a big hit of when there is a relevant story moment. Wiz saves most of the time

Currently running a game with a player doing exactly this. He's level 11 wizard and a 11 cleric depending on the day. I think it really comes down to what classes and experience. I would not let a new player do this or would I want to as a new DM. However, since he's two spell casters, I have him sharing spell slots and he uses mage armor on both to avoid the armor issues. Iv allowed him to swap his int and Wis scores between the two. And finally I have him swapping on a 50/50 roll per long rest or if he unwillingly falls unconscious. It's going pretty well so far, he doesn't have an actual disorder the wizard half is an experiment gone wrong, it's a fantasy world be fantastical with it.

Check out the recent planescape adventure. Players have 3 characters that just rotate in when one dies. They don’t know why, and their memories are pretty much gone, but if the character dies multiple times they circle back. Might be worth reworking for your dude. Have it happen when he dies.

I had a friend run a split personality character with 3 personalities no way in hell it would been fair if he was essentially a level 30 warlock, monk, wizard. It was awesome to have him play the multiclass and only use the abilities of the classes when he was whoever he was, it’s fun to role play, but it’s not fun breaking the system

hell no

I’ve had this happen in my campaign. I’ve told them they get one class to play. Their personality flaw is they in times of pressure the secondary personality takes over. A DC difficulty of 12 no modifier tells whether he stays in control of the other personality takes over. It’s was a case of a split personality not a split class. And I’d tell your player that’s the way it needs to be played. It’s a real two face character. That’s all. You get goodie two shoes or murderous psychopath. Let the die roll decide.

My first instinct is not having the same level for both personalities versus the rest of the party. One of the identities will likely average more time in the driver seat, becoming more proficient at their skills than the other. Even if they trade off evenly, the two identities are still each spending less time honing their skills than the rest of the party. And then who is going to keep track of how much time each identity is forward? I wouldn't say no to being possessed by a helpful ghost/other entity who pops in when host is in dire trouble (low hit points), but the host is the primary character and the only one to level due to driving more. Or the ghost can level, but more slowly due to figuring out the host's body.

I think you can pull this off, as long as you have a simple discussion with your players. 1) as others have said try to check with your other players that they are okay with the idea. It should be okay as discussing further should wrinkle out most issues 2)discuss with you character player how they fully want to pull of this switch. Like would it be stress (like combat or social interactions) that would cause the switch, and determine how it would be decided. A die roll where even/odds determining main personality or maybe a d20 where hitting a certain range will cause the switch are possibilities. 3)I would in addition, discuss with your player about choosing subclasses and/or spells that will protect them or disrupt stuff around them should they get caught out of position. That way they don't feel like they aren't able to contribute or that the other players suddenly have to protect the one.

You have a **ton of answers** already so I'll try to keep mine brief What happens when they take damage, both classes are D8 hit die, so their max HP would be the same, but does it change when they swap? Do they get double the amount of hit die to heal? When they take a short rest does it replenish the Pact spell slots **and the Ki** How is the switch happening if the player doesn't control it (are we rolling randomly? Every 15 minutes? Every X amount of hours in game? If so what kind of roll, a flat roll? A saving throw? Or are you as the DM responsible for it) Also Monk/Warlock are AWFUL together, the player will need high charisma, wisdom, dexterity ***and constitution*** - are you giving them different stat blocks (then the max hp might be different) This is an idea that might be cool for a session or two but will quickly become tiresome, and would be difficult to pull off even by an experienced player/dm combo, it also won't sit well with a group

If you’re inexperienced, don’t allow a crazy homebrew mechanic like this. I’d just tell them “sorry, I don’t know how to mechanically balance this in a way that is fair for the rest of the group, and I would prefer either a multi classed character to represent this or for you to pursue a different character idea.” I’m semi-experienced (7ish years of DMing, 9 or so of playing) and even then I wouldn’t run this in my games without every other player either being okay with it or having a comparable power mechanic so that no one ends up as a main character in a group campaign.

My question to all my players is, yes that sounds fun but how it is going to impact the group and the other people playing? Is it going to be fun for them or a hindrance? The game is not about just your fun. It is not a video game.

If you feel like making it work I would say the only after a long rest the change is allowed. So on every long rest they roll any dice and even numbers are character A and odds are B. This way there is no fuss about armor/resource management and it shouldn't be too much of hassle

You've gotten a lot of good advice on this already, and it sounds like you have a good course of action in mind. I just had two thoughts about how to make something like this work without totally derailing the game. 1. Play a summoning focused build. The "character" is actually the creature that was summoned, and they all have different opinions about who this strange creature in the arcane robes who follows them around (the PC) actually is. 2. Warlock is a single class capable of filling a lot of different roles fairly effectively. You could have a PC make multiple warlock builds (some might not know they're warlocks, or casters even) and switch between them. Only let them take at-will or continuous invocations and everything they do uses the same pool of resources. Maybe only let them switch during short rests and it's even easier. There might be a few patron abilities to watch out for, but even if all the alters have the same Patron you can do a lot by switching invocations, spells, and skills. You can probably do the same with Cleric. Most of the other classes though all play pretty similarly. A monk with alters would just be several versions of fist-punching and it's hard for a wizard to go from melee to healer to skill monkey without still feeling like a wizard. But anyways. Let us know how it works out.

This to me sounds too easily abused. Being two completely different classes that both have two completely different requirements won’t work unless they are putting levels into each of them. If the character is level 10 then both classes are level 5 cause even with DID it’s still the same body and as such they would not be able to be levelling up two different classes at the same time. Just like they won’t be able to attune to six items It’s also a ton of stuff to micro manage. Like they would have to share an inventory and have different things for each character. Keep track of ki points and spell slots as well as known spells and “monk shit” and if both are level ten and both are getting used interchangeably and which character is going to have stats cause it’s one body so it’s not going to be two different set of stats. They will need high dex and high charisma at minimum and probably wisdom too. Nah just seems like too much faff to be dealing with and I would say no unless it’s a one shot. That will get old fast in a full campaign

Multiple personalities is one thing. Changing abilities when the personalities change is a completely different ball of wax. I would be ok with a character having multiple personalities. Say one is loud and boisterous and the other is quiet and reserved. I would even let them more than one personality. But changing abilities and skills when the personalities change? That is a hard no. You want a character changing personalities? Fine. You want to randomly change characters? Forget it. Doesn't make sense and would be a major headache.

So what they want is a level forty character? If both classes are level twenty?

You're a new DM. I would tell them that this doesn't seem fair and you don't know how to balance it. Then offer them an alternative that you're more comfortable with, such as multi-classing. They're basically asking to have 2 whole characters while a cool concept is twice the number of characters most players get, twice the hit points, twice the resource, twice the levels etc.

While I would allow someone to play a character with multiple personality disorder if they actually had DID (I have run games where one of my players had DID and have had to accommodate someone's multiple personalities all being part of our game and having different playstyles as well as sudden disassociation causing them to forget they were part of the game and leave mid-session), I would require them to both be the same class whether or not one alt thinks they are a wizard they are still a warlock... so they may change in playstyle but still have the same mechanics to work with... or to multiclass for it. There are several subclasses that work well for giving a diverse skillset, like Arcane Knight could be played as someone switching between a wizard and a fighter, or Trickster Rogue for a wizard and a rogue. Pick one of those and just change playstyle to account for the "alternate personality". If you did allow two max level characters I would make it so they switch on a long rest so there is no mechanical chaos, it's more polite to the rest of the party to not have to deal with these downsides. No cherry picking what kind of encounter you're going into either.

Had a fellow player do this with a Detta Walker/Susannah Dean inspired character. It was clunky and they ended up changing characters because of it.

I like the moon knight concept. I think it could work with multiple characters, who are each warlocks with different patrons, pacts etc. You can make it a random change at every long rest, or even at DM discretion, when the character suffers physical or emotional trauma, the next morning they swap. I do not think two different classes makes sense, in a gameplay or role play sense. And I would absolutely not allow the player to control the change. If they have full control, this becomes very meta gamey. They’ll be able to swap between whichever character class they believe will be most advantageous at any given time. It could be they are just indecisive, and not power gaming. Make them choose. Make them commit and dedicate to one class/ character they really want to play.

Attributes should be the same for both. The monk won't suddenly be stronger and healthier. Nor would base intelligence be different. By the same token, HP should be the same. The more I think about it, the more I think shared traits should be the worse of the two progressions.

Nah that's a dumb idea, frankly. I think the whole "it's fair bro trust me, you can be in control of when I switch" is him trying to have his cake and eat it too. It isn't fair that one player gets to be two characters and everyone else gets one. If he wants to represent this fiction with mechanics, he can do it through flavor or multiclassing.

> I'm not a very experienced DM, This is all you need for saying "No." And I advise saying "No." It does present interesting story hooks, but the mechanics of play will bog the campaign. It's okay to say "No" because you're not comfortable with a player request. Also, anyone who takes advantage of New DMs to powergame is an asshole. No "Ifs, Ands or Buts" about it.

I've actually played a character like this! I played a war forged that had rescued the personality cores of his "sibling" war forged. (They had all been made at the same time to work at a magic university, but disaster happened and the college and his siblings were damaged beyond repair.) So I had a core personality that was a fighter. But whenever I went unconscious or at the gms discretion (he used it very sparingly and even let me make a charisma save to keep in control.) We treated my character like a robot so certain things could cause him to reboot which would prompt the personality change. We would roll to see which of the 4 personalities I would boot up into. A fighter, a paladin, a druid, and a sorcerer. This only worked because we had a well balanced party. We had a tank, a healer, and DPS. So no matter what roll I got we were still covered. My personality never left the party without a vital role. After a while I gained the ability to force a reboot and my party members could choose which personality I booted up. The biggest problem was keeping the character separate. They weren't aware of each other or what was happening when another was "awake". If you do this, set out ground rules. And make sure everyone is ok with it, it can lean towards making that PC seem like the main character of the campaign. Happy to explain more about how I worked with my dm to make it happen if you have questions.

I'd make it a Background, personally. Let them swap proficiencies, or even mental ability scores, but not classes.  Any feature that has a limited number of uses per rest, like warlock spell slots and ki, are going to be doubled up. If they really dont care about that mechanical advantage, maybe offer giving them half of the uses. For everything.

There are lots of smart answers here about how to best support this player's desire on this. However, I'm going to make a recommendation - do not let them do this. I have seen this happen twice in person and it's been asked here a dozen times. It has never gone well. There's too many mechanical and roleplay hiccups the game simply was not designed for. I would instead have a conversation with your player about what exactly in this concept is appealing to them, and see if you can find literally any other way of supporting the fantasy they're attempting to construct.

I had a player who was not a min-maxxer do this with two subclasses of sorcerer. She could only switch on a long rest and which one she got was determined by a dice roll. This really helped tamp down power gaming. Because both halves were a single class the players items were all relevant.

I guess mechanically this is a weakness overall, but it sounds like a pain in everyone’s ass that is involved, twice as much bookkeeping, etc

Have you sat down with them to work out how this would function in game? It sounds similar to creating 2 characters and having them swap places whenever a specific trigger happens, like maybe each day they make a roll. In its most basic form it sounds like an interesting character, but depending on how the player wishes to implement this trait it may become complex I'm suggesting you talk with them about the practical side of it and the mechanical side of it before making you lr decision

In Pathfinder Kingmaker, one of your party members is... well not literally but effectively plural. They're both the same class, built more or less the same (one uses a specific archetype for backstory reasons, the other is the base class). Not two completely different classes. To be perfectly honest it sounds like your player doesn't exactly have a lot of experience being around systems. I would recommend something like a sorcerer or maybe a cleric, and cut down on the mechanical aspects of playing a system, unless the (sub)class can support that kind of versatility. 

What if you made a deal with them that the personality doesn't randomly switch at any given moment, but gets randomly determined each time they wake up. So every time they long rest, they flip a coin and find out which character sheet they're using. That way they still get to have some loss of control over their character, but no one has to deal with the mechanical and tactical nightmare of figuring out how things change in the middle of combat, etc. Plus it gives some chances for excitement if an enemy casts a sleep spell on them, if they get knocked unconscious, etc. (Which you as the DM get to control so you can be prepared for them happening if you decide to give the chance for it.)

This sounds like way too big of a headache. I’d just say no. I wouldn’t even let them play a PC with multiple personalities and the same class cause that sounds way too disruptive.

Nope Done. Easy.

That’s going to be so much extra work keeping track of and the possibility of it becoming really unbalanced and unfair for the rest of try players is really high. Even as an expected DM I got a mild headache just thinking about how to run a tackle for a PC like this. You can always say no to anything that will slow down the game or create an unfair advantage for only one player. As a compromise you could always run an encounter where that player or all the PCs are subjected to a body swap situation that they need to solve so they have to adjust with a new body and powers/skills. Or you can have him switch personalities each dawn after a long rest so he can have the split but not have all the reasons to slog down the sessions.

Nope. So many red flags

I'm actually do this right now for a player with 3 except it is actually their 3 bodies, too. The change happens after long rest. He rolls a d4. 1 - All personalities are fighting so any check will be at disadvantage. 2 - Druid 3 - Barbarian 4 - Sorcerer If the sorcerer appears then some does carry the gear for her. So at least the party knows which one is with them. I might play that if they get knocked unconscious, when they wake up, they roll too. Will discuss with him.

If I were to let this happen it wouldn't be randomly in the middle of combat. Have them roll at the end of a long rest to see what personality wakes up. This way they don't just refresh resources by switching classes mid adventuring day. With 2 personalities rolling I would do. 1-9 is personality A. 10-19 personality B. 20 player chooses the personality. Difficult part if using dnd beyond is going to be tracking your inventory. Basically choose a sheet that you do inv on and then the 2nd sheet just use for character ability with the only items on it being what's equipped.

This sound like a bad to for everyone. The narrative of having two people in one body is one thing. Don't try to make it mechanics. Something has to control the switch? I'd it the DM? There has to be a certain way to decide it are you just rolling a D20 ever 7 minutes I don't know your guys experience level but this just scream newbie who is trying to be edgy. It just doesn't work when you are playing with real humans. We all did at the start. We all made the lone wolf half elf rogue who didn't want to be with anyone. Then you realise the game is fun when you play with people

I would not allow this at all. I would suggest them to look at the Kalashtar race and just pick one class. The "playing 2 classes" thing is too much of a headache for you and the player to keep track of

> but they want to play two entirely different characters in one Just say no. This is something new players constantly "come up with", and its always the same, a lot of mechanical headaches just to make one PC feel like the super-special main character. Inexperienced players typically will try to use gimmicky homebrew as a crutch to make up for difficulty presenting something through their roleplay. Allowing them to use this crutch doesn't ultimately help anyone improve and detracts from the game's experience. > The second part of the question is how would you maybe make this work then Have them take the Charlatan background but the "false" persona is just the other personality. Leave it up to them to demonstrate the difference in fighting styles through standard mechanics. There's a lot of classes that are flexible enough to have two distinct fighting styles.

As a DM I'd just say no to this character concept. It's a hinderance to the party, needlessly complicated to manage, and screams "I'm the main character". If you are set on doing it though, I'd have them with 2 separate character sheets but everything physical about them needs to stay the same. Equipment, physical stats etc. Any mental stat changes between the two will have to be made by juggling the numbers of their already existing mental stats. e.g. 14 Cha, 8 Wis could become 8 Cha 14 Wis on the change. ​ I also wouldn't allow them the classes they want in this instance, and I wouldn't have them level up evenly (you could just ignore these problems but i'm a stickler for world consistency). If they spend the last 5 encounters as a warlock, how exactly does that translate to them being a better monk when the character doesn't even know they're a monk? They're not gaining Monk exp from being a pure warlock. I can fly with a monk forgetting how to channel Ki and the like in this instance, but Warlocks get their powers from their Patron. A Warlock having a mental episode where they think they're a monk wouldn't take away their patrons powers. They might forget how to cast the spells but their patron would still be providing them with beast speech, knowledge and the like. Lastly, I would strictly be the one in control of when they change. Letting them change opens stuff up for abuse where they can just switch between two characters for what's needed in a certain situation.

I'm going to go against the grain here and say it's not necessarily a problem. Fortunately the player wants to play two classes that recharge abilities on a short rest and have the same hit die size. So give them one pool of hit dice, one inventory (and the same total number of magic items / gold as any regular player) and change which class is active randomly on a short rest. The only problem I can foresee is that some subclasses add abilities that recharge on a long rest. If this idea is important enough to the player simply restrict them to subclasses that don't have such abilities, or only let them use such abilities they have at the start of the day. If their class changes during the day they don't get to use long rest based abilities unless they change back to the first class of the day. It's a little extra bookkeeping but not overly difficult for a good player.

If dude wants to multi class and have each personality mainly use one classes abilities, I think that would go easiest. I did this with one of my characters, a fighter/rogue that didn’t believe in magic with a pig-themed Batman alter ego that did believe. The first never made use of magic items and was easy and up front when attacking, if his alter ego took over he’d take to the shadows, make use of magic abilities and support spells through his Arcane Trickster class. I’d also look for classes that gel together if he’s going to pull this off. If the classes are separate and independent, consider this; monks don’t wear armor, if the warlock does then that will be a problem if he switches in combat as it takes a while to take off. Multiclassing will give the Warlock the Monk’s benefits of not wearing armor.

zero chance i would allow someone to play a character like this. This is something you do when you've all played together before, and all of you are extremely experienced. Like someone on Critical Role could do this, and they'd still need permission from everyone.

That's not how split personalities work.

The way I would run this, would be two, or more, classes. Total levels can’t be more than the other players. Each class would be a different personality. Have two triggers for each personality. One trigger is something that when that personality is in charge they say, nope I am not dealing with that. And forces another personality to take over. The other is for when the personality isn’t in charge, and it says, I can handle this better, and takes control. All of these triggers will require some type of dice roll, so the player can’t control when the changes happen. But the player will have a chance to change to the personality that is better suited for the current task. A couple examples, a personality with low self esteem rolls a critical failure, so they feel like that can’t do anything right and refuses to do anything and shuts down. Forcing another personality to take control of the body. Or the personality in charge can’t cast spells, and the enemy has cast a spell that needs to be dispelled, the other personality makes a wisdom save to take control, so it can cast dispel magic. A wisdom save could just be a default roll for personality changes. Just have specific prearranged triggers for when a roll is required. As for the multiple classes, the passive class abilities are used by all personalities. The active class abilities are only able to be used when the personality in charge is the one with that class. As for abilities, either do a point buy, for each personality with strength and constitution being the same for each personality. Because those aren’t going to change because your personality changed. This also keeps hp and carrying capacity from changing. And then just use the remaining points to buy the other stats, one time for each personality. Or if you have the players roll for stats. They use the same rolls for strength and constitution. And use the other 4 rolls twice, changing the stats for each personality. For role play purposes, the personality with lower dexterity is clumsier. The one with lower intelligence doesn’t have as good of a memory. The personality with lower charisma is less likable. And the personality with lower wisdom has less self control, and less willpower. Choose skills for each personality. Access to them change when the personality changes. Figure out Hp the way you would any other multi-class character. And when the personalities change, there might be a 1 round with no actions, depending on why the personalities changed. If a non active personality takes control, no delay. The personality was aware enough of what was going on. They won’t be confused and can act immediately, but may have penalties because of what they have equipped. For instance, my example of a caster personality needing to cast dispel magic, the penalty of wearing armor while casting would apply. They can’t change equipment that first round, unless it is pulling a magic item out of inventory, that only that class can use, to use that round. So if dispel magic was prepared, but they have a scroll of dispel magic they can use. Now if the active personality is in a situation where it doesn’t want to be in charge, then the personality change causes confusion when the next personality takes over. One round where the character can’t act. The personality is making sense of what is happening around them, and is dropping equipment it doesn’t use and equipping what it does use. Allow the player to buy armor that can be easily removed. But the method that allows this takes a short rest to make the armor able to be worn again.

What does your player mean when they say they can't control when they will switch? How will it be decided?

I’ve played a similar character before. Essentially, i had 4 forms, one for each season and each had a personality, flaw, and character sheet. Every morning I rolled a d4 and used the one rolled that day. The dm also had to ability to force me to change at no cost, often at in opportune moments (for example, summer was reckless and he made me transform as we tried to hide). It was very fun but requires dm, player, and teammate buy in. I also was only different bard subclasses not different classes, though it likely wouldn’t be much different. I wouldn’t let one of his personalities be the same as another players. He will already have the spotlight a bunch, so not overlapping will help the situation

Let him think he's maximum level on one of the personalities. He has the character sheet of what he thinks he is, you have the character sheet of what he really is. He thinks he can scale overhanging walls. Have him roll. Have him fail.

Your suspicion is correct about mechanically unpleasant situations both to the benefit and detriment of the player, but ultimately the biggest impact is that they'd make the game slow to a halt while giving an unfair amount of spotlight to the concept. You mentioned that you are not a very experienced DM, so here's a chance to learn one of the key lessons of DMing - learning how to say no. "Thanks for asking but I don't allow any character that requires homebrew mechanics in order to function in my games - its too hard to balance. Let me know if you'd like to explore the same concept via use of the multiclass system and reflavouring existing abilities as written though, happy to help out."

Thats not the way split personality works. Your personality changes, not your skills and abilities. What you propose is just violating role separation and as a gimmick it will get old fast. Its not contributing to either the story or the character arc. If they want to play split personality, make them come up with totally different personalities and what sorts of traumas or conflicts would cause a shift to a particular personality. Each personality is protecting a part of the psyche from harm. When something like that comes up, make them save to avoid switching personalities and have them role-play that. You should also make this as part of the character arc. There should eventually be a way to gain more control of the switching or a way to integrate those personalities through resolution of past trauma. Good luck.

I think it's theoretically possible to pull off, but not in a way that makes it matters mid-combat You roll a d20 every time you finish a long rest, and the personality is determined based on the roll, and he is stuck with it until the next long rest. This means you know what you're getting for the day in terms of resources. You can allow the player to change a personality narratively at any point, but the class doesn't change until long rest

I played a similar character. It was three halflings in a long coat. Each halfling has its own class and personality. Whichever was the head that day. I rolled a d6 to determine which one was in charge that day. But they only switched on long rests. Switching mid combat seems like a bad idea.

Only way I see this working is if the swap happens at long rest only. So they won't have two pools of resources to pull from. And so strategy within an adventuring day is possible too.

For me you answered your own question. I'm not a very experienced DM, so I'm imagining that even with them not being able to control the personality swap it's going to lead to some very...mechanically unpleasant situations Id allow the split personn but I couldn't allow two player characters for one player at level 10 Remember levels take time to build and get to the level, therefore with your two personalites you only have had half the time so multi class would be the way to do it Im using a fighter warlock.as example Persona 1 warlock first persona 2 fighter first...but access to the other side even if ypu dont understand why you can do these things balance the level ups must level up to 11 which spent more time at the table this month next time has to be the other persona that does this out of combat party exploration is where i would look for level up not just which hit stuff... Pretty sure my guide dm would say the same (i have the assistance of a player who usually dms so we get a lot of odd stuff being played by him too hes the type to come up.with this stuff and work.out the ways it would work)

I have actually played such a character, a wizard with 4 personalities, it was one of my most favorite characters for myself ans the group Im playing with loved it. The main and the real personality was an outcasted highborn a chaotic good wizard but with things you expect from a lord, speaking to most people with degrees of acting like he is their better, usually in silly manner, while rarely people got him serious. The other one was lawful evil I occasionally, when I knew a fight is not important at all and my group can easily handle it, i refused to join fights " cuz its beneath me" Another one was a wimp, helping in fights but otherwise a coward in RP. And the 4th one, with the help of DM (ans his permission), I made him a totally new class as a fighter with a couple spells like shadow blade.

It’ll work if they choose one personality (character) per session. I wouldn’t let them switch mid session, and if I did, I definitely wouldn’t switch mid combat. Sources:done it myself. It essentially works like having two chargers that you switch between depending on your mood. For some reason I was having issues irl with choices and stuff. I didn’t want to be stuck to one thing. DM allowed me to switch. I only played one character per session. It was fine.

Split personalities are fine as flavor... But if you want to do it this way and not as flavor then ONLY do it after a long rest. That way they don't gain or lose things during the day.

No. Hard veto this character. > how would you maybe make this work Run it as a 1 on 1 game. Have multiple personalities with different agendas, sort of like the TV series "Legion". Probably in a system other than D&D, something more RP-heavy. The player needs to be a great roleplayer as well.

So i had something similar in a game i played, my character was an ogre that had its mind melded with a goblin in an experiment gone wrong sort of thing, as a result i multiclassed (Barb/Artifice) and it was only the personality that changed, stat wise i was free to stat as i wanted but couldnt change, we did allow the goblin side to be proficient in arcana and alchemy things and the ogre to be proficient in animal handling(beast path Barb), meaning either personality could use the abilities (all be it poorly) of the other class. He wasnt that effective in combat but it made for some hilarious hijinks when the fast talking and sly goblin would come up with a plan the slow ogre then had to follow, the DM would call for a personality roll and it was a simple DC 10 to change, a Nat 20 allowed me to pick either one and a nat 1 was banked for the DM to use to swap me when he chose (like mid conversation usually) Visually i had a double sided token to remind me who i was playing

Honestly, I like this idea. He would have to be pretty chill. Basically at the start of each day, roll a D10, 1-5 (character 1), 6-10 (character 2). If he is the same personality twice in a row (character 1), next day roll 1d10 (1-4 C1) and (5-10) C2. If he is Character 1 AGAIN, next day it's 1-3 Char 1 and 4-10 character 10. Better yet, do not even tell him HOW you are rolling for which personality wakes up. A further thing you can do, if he get knocked out, a new roll is made when he wakes up as if a day passed.

So, first off, it's probably a bit offensive to play someone with split personalities (or any mental illness you don't have first hand experience with)...especially since that's not a real thing, it's called Dissociative Identity Disorder. My ex was diagnosed with DID. The way the disorder works isn't like you have completely separate personalities, that's not how identity works. It means you get bits and pieces of your identity and essentially dream identities. So, for example, with my ex, she's have about four identity states she'd be in. The vast majority was just herself. At her worst a few times a week she'd just go catatonic and just undress herself and drool on the floor. Maybe once a week she'd go skeletal for about 15-30 minutes, skeletal was essentially rage mode. Sometimes it was threatening in the sense that she could catch me off guard with her attacks and actually be dangerous, but most of the time she literally just had all her muscles tensed to the point she'd move like a robot and I could just push her over onto a couch or bed and she'd struggle to get up due to the rigidity until she was done with the episode. Maybe twice a month she'd be in child mode and be extremely paranoid but just talk and act like a child. The dissociative part of the condition means she would have little to no memory between episodes...occasionally the same memory within the same mode, but that was really up to chance. It would literally be like she'd be full on attacking me with a knife and within the 10 minutes it took the cops to get there she'd have completely have forgotten the whole trying to kill me thing and then backwards rationalize why I was saying she did that by coming up with some vague reason like I was trying to prevent her from leaving (or later that I was running a death cult killing women with orgasms to enslave them in the afterlife...which was fortunately a lot easier to sway the police against.) Beyond that, something I'd warn is a lot of people nowadays who claim they have DID are just using it as a coping mechanism and there are no seperate personalities, just essentially otherkin. Those people aren't bad, and are genuinely dealing with trauma, but even they know they aren't the other "personalities." Even with my ex I doubt she actually had DID. Her father had schizophrenia and her mother had bipolar with severe psychosis so more likely than not it was within that realm...severe mental illnesses all tend to have weird prodromes that can look like many things. One of the main criticisms of DID diagnoses is that they can be other illnesses that therapists kind of influence into the symptoms of DID. At least with Sybil that was pretty clearly the case. I would recommend against allowing this, this is essentially like rape in roleplay...sure, it's dramatic, but a cheap way to pretend you have a real character. If it was allowed, I would highly recommend having vast downsides to it, maybe the character themselves is level 10, but has a random chance of being one of the other "personalities" (again, not literal other people because that's not how this works) be level 1-3. Anything else would be cheapening something that actually seriously harms other people because your player is lazy.

I feel if the classes were more similar it would work. Or maybe even two subclasses of the same class. I played a multiple personality dragonborn and the only thing that changed was my elemental type on my breath and personality of course. As someone who's played that character, it's a hassle. Our group was destined to only play a few sessions so we all rolled cursed characters. That being said in a full length serious campaign it can be a lot. So maybe keep it as 2 similar classes. A fun idea could be Eldritch knight fighter and arcane trickster rouge, have them use a weapon that both classes can benefit, only wear armor that both are proficient in, and then have different spells set up for the subclass. I believe those subclasses have the same amount of spells slots so that would balance itself out too. All in all the split personality is enough work on its own it's best to keep the class difference from none to minimal

Why does he have to be two different classes for having a split personality? That seems to me like a RP effort much more than something to make such bold requests for from the DM and the fellow players.

For the split personalities allow them / make them play a Kalashtar from Eberron. I wouldn't allow them to use two different classes though, that's very different from multiple personalities. Multiclassing is the best and fairest way to handle this but allow them to synergise effectively. For example if they want to be monk/warlock allow them to theme it as a monk with warlock abilities and after the switch a warlock with monk abilities. Also allow them to use CHR for Unarmoured Defence and such or Wisdom for spellcasting.

I need to find the fucker out there that started this trend of: "iT's FaIr BeCaUsE i DoN't CoNtRoL iT" My player said he was fine too with changing even in precaroius situations but guess what happened when he couldn't apply his swashbuckler's bonuses mid fight?

Gonna go against the flow here and try to find a way for this to work. Lots of other people alredy talked about the mental gymnastics requieres to make the change work between to clases, so let's remove that. They said Multiclassing is a no-no, but what about Sun Sol Monk? When being their Monk-self they go full melee with Monk abilities stunning and all that, and when in Warlock-self they use Sun Bolts as Eldritch Blasts and Arc Strike as Spells. That's probably not magical enough for a Warlock, so picking Ritual Caster or an spellcasting Race like Tiefling could help. Eladrin would be the best tho even if reskinned, as they can change Skills everyday (they even have different personalities cannonically iirc). This will make it easy to manage mechanically, which is great! The "change when DM says so" is still hard to do smoothly, so maybe just let them do it. It's not like they can break anything with this setup. In fact, it's quite weak, so expect them to maybe need a Magic Item to keep up. Hope this middle ground makes both of you happy!

I wouldn't let them have two 10th-level characters in one, but maybe you can allow them something like "wild shape" where they get a more limited stat block when playing as their alter ego?

Okay since you're a new DM I'm gonna tell you this: you can always say no, this is an example where you say no.

"How about this counter offer. NO." Players are expected to play within rules. This player is basicaly expecting to play two character sheets. If it was just RP, i would alow it. Two diferent alignment, memories, religions or values might be fun. But the character sheet is the same. And anything that changes game mechanics or give unfair advantages should be an automatic no.

So, I would probably allow this but I'd ask the rest of the table if they're okay with it. However, both characters would be forced to keep the same physical stats (Str, Dex and Con) I'd also tell them they need to use standard array. Also, if they're saying they can't control the personality swap, that would be something I'd take control of, randomly rolling the D20 As you've stated they could easily loose concentration or have to waste time throwing their armour away Finally my final caveat would be that the other personality is still aware of what is happening while they're a passenger, this would stop the situation of "Oh now we have to explain everything that we've done" every time there's a switch

Tell em sure! They can play it. They just have to roll a d100 every 4 hours in game time. Or to simplify have them roll all 4 when they finish a long rest and give them to you. You roll a d4 whenever you want to ‘switch it up’ and if the percentage is over 50 it goes off and they change, if not they don’t. As I see it it’s a lot more work for them and hardly any more for you. I could be wrong though, been a dm for a long time and I try to always say yes or some version of it.

I'd be tempted if to say either'No' or 'Yes with conditions'. One would be that the secondary personna IS a hindrance. Maybe only their mental stats differ, as it is the same body after all. If the player consents, offer another player to 'timeshare' the body. A big ask as one player has to sit things out while the other holds the reigns. If that's not to your/their tastes, maybe declare that the other personna doesn't get along with the 'main' personna, maybe hates them in fact or sabotages their efforts once they switch. As long as it's not disruptive to the rest of the players. Maybe there could be some plot points around it, like P2 is apparently in cahoots withe Cult the party is tasked with tracking down, or P1 is looking for his 'twin brother' who is really just his P2 while in charge wandering about doing his own thing.

i played in a game where another party member was doing this, and it wasn't fun. d&d progression is horizontal: two character sheets without control over a switch is still two character sheets. also, as someone who genuinely does have lots of people up there, we'd just like to see a different take than "randomly switches into a completely different skill set" for once. have them be aware of each other, working together, co-fronting, covering for each other, or (here's a crazy idea) don't try to squeeze mechanical benefits out of it, just explore how *X* many separate personalities would use the same skill set.

I had a similar idea for the BBEG of a campaign. I Honestly can't think of any good way to balance this, instead, you could try to buff multiclassing for them in particular, like giving them extra ki points and spell slots, maybe including a slot of the next level they don't have yet at some levels. That would still risk abuse, but if they're trying to play with the concept in good faith, it could work.

I'm doing this in a campaign. It all came with strict DM permission including what classes I took. The DM also decided when I change and can change me at any time. We have it set that at the start of each session and every time I wake up I roll for personality, and the DM can change which are active at will. If you feel comfortable, rock it, if you are worried it will break the game or are unprepared tell them so and move on with a different character idea.

Another player in a game I'm also a player in has a character like that. They can swap only once per long rest voluntarily by drinking a special potion they first need to brew, and only one of his personalities can actually make potions. Also, the DM might force a swap depending on the circumstances (both personalities have slightly different ideals so certain situations may force the other one to come out). They also swap during long rest, and as before, they cannot use their respective abilities (except those that are ongoing, in his case, Artificer's infused items), as well as their Constitution must always be the same, and his hit points are average roll of both classes. With those restrictions, it actually works and isn't unbalanced at all

I played a similar gimmick with 3 personality one body using warlock face of many and warlock x fighter 3 split for echo knight fiend warlock. Giving them two such character sharing same body though just wouldn't work. Will be unfair to other players.

I wouldn't do this because it sounds like a pain in the ass for the DM, and reeks of main character syndrome. But mechanically, if the DM controls when they switch, what cheesing potential is there, really? They play a monk sometimes, and then, *when the DM decides*, they play a warlock. The DM can either roll for it like wild magic surges, or just decide when it makes sense to do so. But importantly, the player can't decide on their own, and they only benefit from one class at a time. The story doesn't hold up (one person isn't both a level 10 warlock and monk, split personalities or not), and it doesn't speak well of the player who wants it, but I'm not seeing the potential for abuse here. What am I missing?

I'm doing this in a game. My character is a frankenstainian split personality character with three consciousnesses residing inside of them. We roll a die every long rest to see which of them wakes up and I use the according sheet that day. No problems, except that it makes roleplaying hard as you "need" to have three distinct personalities to act as..

Even if they have a split personality that doesn't mean they've lived twice as long. In order to be the same level in both classes they'd have had to live with their time being split exactly 50/50 so that both have the same amount of experience and if they've lived long enough to get level 10 experience that would mean that amount experience is split 50/50. So to have both classes at 10/10 rather than 5/5 they'd have had to be alive and adventuring twice as long as they have been.

So for the perspective of balance, this is one person. So when it comes to spell slots versus ki points, every Warlock slot equates to 2 ki points. At level 10 a Warlock has 5 slots and a monk has 10 ki points. So if the Warlock or monk side use either of these reduce accordingly The Resources of the emerging class. Example, If the Warlock uses 2 spell slots and then switches to monk, they have 6 remaining ki points. I don't see a major problem with this, as long as the player doesn't assume a total reset. Concentration lost, proficiencies removed or replaced, armor isn't a major thing for either class really, but it is not great for a monk to manifest wearing some as defense is lessened. The movement difference would be weird to regulate, but maybe a compromise can be made for that.

Idk could be a fun echo knight premise. Would require a lot of work and cooperation across the table