• The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!

Has Anyone ever played a Doppelganger?

questionmark

First Post
I am playing a doppelganger in an upcomming campaing. I will be starting at level 1. I was thinking of going into mindspy. Is anyone willing to share their doppelganger expiriences?

Thanks
 

log in or register to remove this ad

Tessarael

Explorer
questionmark said:
I am playing a doppelganger in an upcomming campaing. I will be starting at level 1. I was thinking of going into mindspy. Is anyone willing to share their doppelganger experiences?

Doppelgangers have a significant ECL: +4 level adjustment and +4 for hit dice. That's pretty painful. Their supernatural abilities are great for a spy, but you're going to suck at everything else compared to characters that haven't just spent 4 levels on Alter Self and Detect Thoughts. You could do something similar with Sorcerer or Wizard and not have to suck up the 8 LA+HD.

Mindspy is the obvious class for a Doppelganger fighter character. I'd be interested to see what build you intend for your character. Just make sure you have high Charisma to take advantage of being a Mindspy.

I dunno. Personally, I think their LA+HD is going to make them quite useless at everything except Bluff and Disguise, until they get a few character levels. Even then I would stop and think twice about it. Maybe if your DM is using Unearthed Arcana rules to later reduce the level adjustment it would be more worthwhile.
 


Will

First Post
It's like a lot of LA types. Spellcasting is very tough to pull off, unless the caster focuses on personal effects.

A rogue works well because it doesn't require as much, but eh... having an average BAB and being behind the curve 4 levels is pretty damn rough.
 

Greywarden

Explorer
One of the players in my current campaign is running a teenage doppelganger with multiple personality disorder (He hasn't quite got the hang of impersonating someone while keeping their "personality" subordinated yet)... it's been fairly entertaining.
 
Last edited:

Turanil

First Post
Yes! I played a doppleganger once!

However, it was back in 2e, and it wasn't really my character. It just happened once: in the campaign we played at that time, I eventually grew bored of my character (a fun loving halfling thief). As such, the DM proposed me to play a Doppelganger assassin. So, my PC halfling once decided to leave the group, and a Doppelganger assassin who had followed our group for some time took his place. As such, the players still believed I was the halfling.

The funny thing is, that I managed to play the Doppelganger as he couldn't know everything the halfling kenw (of course), saying some strange things, not recognizing some NPCs, etc. Hey, the other players never figured out anything! I had even my new character sheet openly on the table. Besides me was the player of the mage. This (evil) mage was paranoid and had cast detect spells of all sorts on all the PCs... except me!! He later told me that he couldn't possibly see a threat in a halfling.

Hence, as a Doppelganger I did wait three or four adventure, and then, there was a dificult fight. I saw it as my "chance", and attacked the players. I killed two. I failed against the third who was the evil mage, because he had stoneskin then teleported away. I will remember for a long time, how he laughed maniacally for at least half an hour...
 

Kemrain

First Post
[Personal Opinion]

Game mechanics aside, a creature without permanant form, and that can read thoughts, will have a distinctly non-human outlook. It will be a very alien creature, and may well have empathy problems, even though it can read thoughts. It's just hard to accept others as 'as real and important as yourself' when you can read them like a book and confuse them with but a thought. Manipulation and deciet are the standard, and honesty might be something quite akward. It is a very interesting character to play, and I hope you can overcome the level adjustment and have fun playing such a character. You must keep in mind, the whole time you play, that this is not a human, and should never truely think like one. If it does, you've lost most of the charm, and might as well be playing a sorcerer.

[/Personal Opinion]

- Kemrain the Shifter.
 

Dwarf_Paladin

First Post
well i think i will go mindspy from level nine to 13 then invisible blade from 14 to 18. What you all think?

My stats are(36 pt point buy+2 to str,dex,int,char +4 wis)
str 12
dex 18
con 12
int 12
wis 20
char 18

I will get my feats at 3,6,9....(not sure what to pick)

I will use daggers as my weapons.
 


Silver Moon

Adventurer
Kriskrafts and I once wrote a three-part RGPA convention game where one of the playing characters was a doppleganger. He had settled down in a town for over a decade, assuming an original identity that was a composite of three different past personae. Once scene early in part one involved a visiting wizard wearing a "Ring of True Sight" coming to town and identifying the character's race. The town then went up in arms (with the full torches and pitchforks routine) wanting to kill this monster "who had replaced their friend". It was up to the other PC's to rescue him from the angry mob, at which point he then bacame part of their adventuring team for the remainder of the story.
 

Voidrunner's Codex

Remove ads

Top