I am looking for some input: how fair is it to play a pair of characters in a single unit, and what effect does it have on the gameplay?
Essentially my idea is a druid who is inept at using his own magic, who has a faerie partner that channels his magic through her. She will only speak to him so there will be no immersion breaking with the whole dual characters. He fights, she is the one with magical prowess. They can occupy the same space, they share stats, she can cast magic from herself or from him, they can act independently (though she cannot physically attack, short of with a toothpick) and either can shape-shift though not both at once. Our current campaign is short on characters (2) so its not like it will be unbalanced for now but in future with more players would this be too powerful?
I am new to D&D, but I am experienced in playing RPG's — I love play by post forum RPG's and I am used to a variety of characters simultaneously.
Best Answer
I don't see any problem with this from a mechanical perspective. In effect you're just using a custom race for your PC with a significant amount of flavor elements. I would model it on an existing race (probably the race of your druid), and modify the flavor rather than the mechanics (or maybe one racial feature). It's appealing that this is mechanically one PC, and not you playing 2 when everyone else is playing 1 (playing 2 PCs without a specific commission to do so from your group can be problematic)
However, this is a concept that will take a lot of work for both you the player, and also the DM to support, make sure you talk to him (and the other players probably) and that it will be a good fit for the game that you are collectively playing.
One of the important things, I think, is to design this guy to be a functional PC. No one likes a party mate who doesn't pull their weight, especially when he's got a complicated back story that might be difficult to role-play with.
So if you have a race to model your PC after, have DM and player buy in, and build him to be a reasonably effective PC, I see no problem with it mechanically or at the table.