[Plane]

Originally Posted by malloyd

Berserk is already explicitly ruled out

Berserk (15) [-5] with a high Will is pretty useful as you can Concentrate to do it voluntarily, will rarely do so involuntarily, and can easily pass the roll to snap out of it once you've downed a foe (which is 100% optional, so you can stay in the state until foes are downed)

An interesting combination might be Controllable Disadvantage (Bad Temper) since Bad Temper can trigger berserk automatically without the need to take a Concentrate maneuver, instead you just need to make that Will roll... presumably as a free action since PU2p12 doesn't mention needing to do a Concentrate maneuver to engage your Controllable Disadvantage?

It doesn't actually say it's a free action though, so saying it takes a Concentrate by default might be a good house rule, and make activating Controllable Disadvantages instantaneously (as free actions) a -10 to the usual Will roll?

Originally Posted by malloyd

and I think everybody can see the issue with Controllable Disadvantage (Uncontrollable Appetite)

*checks B159* not really... wouldn't this be useful if you really wanted to be dedicated to eating something and didn't want to be distracted from it?

Like say if the only way to break a necromancer's spell was to drink a wading pool full of blood (kinda channeling Harry Potter here) and normally you would be so nauseated by the process of doing so that you couldn't complete the task, but activating this would allow you to complete the task and overwhelm normal rolls (like Phobia: Blood ?) which might stop you?

Originally Posted by malloyd

Not that the problem is *entirely* the fault of the perk. Split Personality has a fairly fundamental balance problem all by itself. This is particularly highlighted be the fact that there is a worked example (Manic-Depressive) actually in the disadvantage list for less than it would be worth taken as a Split Personality.

While looking this up, I came across B164 quirk "Personality Change" which is described as Quirk-Level split personality. This seems very similar to Controllable Disadvantage, but I think it's [-1] instead of [+1] because the trigger is, rather than a will roll, an act you might otherwise want to do for other purposes, like drinking alcohol or casting Create Fire.

That actually leaves me wondering how exactly PC would be used in play... just how long after casting Create Fire do you suffer Pyromania for? It presumably ends at some point... maybe it just lasts the 1 minute duration?

I thought maybe you could just cancel it early... but then your pyromania would probably stop you from doing that... and in fact you might even be compelled to cast additional instances of create fire, or to pay FP+HP to Maintain the Create Fire spell until you fell unconscious or until perhaps a helpful ally knocked you out or cast "Counterspell" or "Steal Spell" or similar to end your connection to the spell and thus end your temporary pyromania which is tied to it?

I wonder if that should apply to any spells Create Fire is a prereq for, like Flame Jet or Heat or Fireball... I would think Explosive Fireball too, but if we go a step beyond immediate prereq, Heat is a prereq for Cold and having someone casting the spell Cold trigger temporary Pyromania might seem off-concept?

Originally Posted by malloyd

Or consider the fellow who switches between two -5 point disadvantages, claiming -20 points for the combination.

I'm not sure you can. It says you select a package of "mental disadvantages and up to five quirks" so I think you would need to have at least 2 mental disadvantages per personality since it is plural?

If we look at the example of Bob Smith, all three examples have at least 1 quirk, so you could make a minimum of 1 mental quirk a distinctly separate requirement (ie must buy 1-5 quirks, not 0-5)

However I do notice in the case of the "party animal", aside from his quirk he only has one mental disadvantage (Compulsive Carousing) and the plurality requirement would have to be fulfilled by his -2 to Will.

In terms of a minimum "package price", checking B299's list (excluding -1 quirks) the cheapest might be taking a level of Fearfulness (-2, B136) and Sense of Duty: Individual (-2, B153) in combination with a quirk, which actually totals your proposed -5 minimum, except for 3 traits instead of 1.

Where that falls apart though is that you couldn't select fearfulness for the other personality (since they need to be different).

However you might be able to select 2 different pairs of SOD for the personalities?

- - -

*checks B156* Of the [-15] that it is worth, getting -1 to reactions at "all times" is something we could compare to B22's Odious Personal Habits, which is a -1 to reactions to "people who notice your problem" which is less often, since sometimes people won't notice OPH in some contexts, whereas it seems like "shallow and affected" is somehow always noticeable. So this might make it worth more than -5 (maybe -6?)

OPH is also aimed at "members of your own race" while MP seems like it would apply to all races, maybe being worth even more, perhaps -7?

Then there is also that additional -3 penalty for those who witness a change (max once per hour, triggered in ANY stressful situation) for people thinking you're a nutcase. Maybe that makes up the remainder of the -15?

Without those penalties, I don't know what the pricing of the remaining effects would be. Being able to swap mental disadvantages at will would normally be better than having either of those disadvantages fixed... my guess is it might operate something similar to Either/Or Limitations (ie you must swap between a -60 and a -25 disadvantage being worth -15?) pricing...

But with multiple personalities, you don't control it, it's a random roll or the GM's choice.

Originally Posted by malloyd

I suspect there was an essential hidden requirement that the *personalities* are very different - they are *not* just different sets of disadvantages

Well basically, the -3 "he's crazy" penalty to those observing the shift would apply even if all you were doing was shifting between...
Sense of Duty (mom's brother) + Sense of Duty (mom's sister)
to...
Sense of Duty (dad's brother) + Sense of Duty (dad's sister)

Even though all that changes is who you're not willing to abandon, this is apparently just as crazy as swapping packages worth -100 in mental disadvantages. Realistically though, people might not even notice this, and just see you as someone dedicated to protecting family but who doesn't actually consistently protect one parent's siblings during in an emergency, which would otherwise be pretty normal, like not having any Sense of Duty at all.

Probably what might be better is to have tiered pricing levels for Split Personality where reaction penalties go up the more it is worth, but this is tied to requirement for a higher "package cost" so that more mental changes must happen to deserve those penalties.