The Twins: A...Variant Playstyle?

Inspired heavily by Joseph Manola's The Extras as well as Skerples' Many Goblins.

I Wanted to sort of split the difference on the concept of playing "a bunch of dudes" and make rules for a multiple-entity PC that, while not as bumbling, or "novelty" as the Extras, was still thematically and mechanically different enough from standard play that it would feel like playing multiple people, 

AND allow you to still have a specific class 

AND still feel like a legit Player Character. 

A... probably pretty OP player character... 

NOTE: A lot of the specific mechanics in this variant use vocabulary and such from my own Frankenstein ruleset (we all have one). It's mostly just GLOG / B/X with some heavy influence from other blogs and systems and convenient 5e QOL elements. Shouldn't be too hard to extract my specs and insert your own. Season as desired.

 TWINS 

You, Player, are a pair of prototypical movie-trope twins. You are identical, dress the same, have the same hairdo, vocal style, gait. You're pretty much indistinguishable. So close as to be of one mind, you have an almost supernatural sympatico between you. People are always mixing you up, (as though it mattered). You've always been side by side, no matter what. 

Rules: 

Roll up one character as normal. 

Twins share stats, saves, HD, HP, class, (species, obvs.) etc. 

However you would determine carrying capacity, each twin gets half that +2. Keep these inventories separate.

Traits and the like are divided between A and B as desired. Only the twin who has the trait may use/benefit from it. Traits may be taken twice so that both twins have access to it. 

NOTE: It bears stressing that This isn't your class. You still pick as normal. There are just two of you.

I guess there isn't a super compelling reason why they couldn't be magic users, but that's outside the scope of this post, and honestly kind of sounds like a headache.

Mechanically, it is as though you are employing a single hireling (sans pay, morale checks, etc.). Narratively, your twins have distinct Identities. determine what these are and then tag one twin as A, and the other as B. 

In terms of autonomy, A and B can be in two places at once, doing different things. But if they are both together they share an action. (Also, twins are not telepathically linked, so no metagaming.) 

Twins share skill points (if your system has them) and may impart a “help” buff when making skill checks. Should the twins perform the same action together, they share a single roll. 

Unbreakable Bond: 

ALL SAVING THROW MUST BE MADE TWICE; once for each twin. If ONE roll fails, BOTH twins are assumed to have failed the save. Though, in case of death saves, one failure and once success means one twin dies, two failures means they both die.

Twins always share all status effects.

GM NOTE: This save/status disadvantage is one of the only real detriments to playing this sort of character. Be BRUTAL about it.

Combat: 

Twins... 

- always stick close to each other during a fight

- use the same weapon and armor type, 

- and share a combat round and to-hit roll. 

The Twins' default combat mode is to gang up on one enemy (for a +1 bonus to attack). Otherwise they may attack two adjacent enemies and split their damage roll between them. 

Twins get no benefit from dual-wielding (beyond it looking badass) and Special/magic items may only be worn/wielded/used by one twin at a time, and it only affects that twin.

Death: 

Once lethal damage is taken, the death/death-save/death-table roll is applied to whichever twin makes the most narrative sense. Same for permanent wounds/maiming. When in doubt just flip for A or B

It is totally possible for both twins to die by the same circumstance, per GM fiat. 

If the death is due to combat, twin A may decide to sacrifice themself to save twin B, and vice versa.

The surviving twin is now your new character.

No you may not roll a new character. 

You gain +1 to Wisdom and -2 to Charisma (minimum 3). All Traits assigned to the dead twin are lost, however you may roll an Intelligence check to keep one. If your game has XP loss rules, apply them now as per Lich.

You lose any gear the dead twin was carrying unless you loot it (oh and your carrying capacity becomes normal sized). You still may not hire companions: They're not enough like Twin A/B.

You now roll -2 to any save involving depression or despair, and lose any points you had in Performance/Persuasion. Any mind altering substance you try from now on you will automatically become addicted to. No save. 

But, you now roll +2 to any save involving fear or confusion, and once per session you may automatically succeed at intimidating or threatening a standard NPC of up to 2 levels above your own, since you've become all brooding and edgy.

I suppose you could decide to assume the identity of your dead twin if you found that convenient. Heck, keep pretending to be both twins. Why not?

Random Twin Perks:

(to be edited as I think up more)

1. Catch: A and B can casually throw stuff to each other and always make the catch. Even when in turbulent motion/when the floor is collapsing/under vast speed differentials/from vehicle to vehicle/etc. They don't even need direct line of sight.

2. You Mean Me, right?: A and B can easily impersonate each other no problem. No deception checks or anything. They can befuddle an NPC when talking to them at the same time by switching identities and conversation threads, giving them a +2 bonus to their next social check with that NPC. Only works on one NPC at a time.