Heroes of the Storm adding a Warcraft character that's played by two people at once

One of Heroes of the Storm's new characters, the two-headed ogre known as Cho'gall, adds a surprising wrinkle to Blizzard's online battle arena game: He's playable by two people at the same time.

Heroes of the Storm introduced The Lost Vikings as playable heroes last year, letting a single player control three heroes at once. But Cho'gall flips that concept by giving two players control of a single conjoined character with two very distinct personalities, Blizzard says.

Each half of Cho'gall — Cho and Gall — has his own set of primary and heroic abilities. Cho is a bruiser, Blizzard says, and controls the movement and basic attacks of the two-in-one hero. Gall, an assassin-class character, is more spellcasting-oriented. The duo's abilities are detailed on Cho'gall's hero page on the game's official website.

Kent-Erik Hagman, senior game designer on Heroes of the Storm, said at BlizzCon today that Blizzard originally thought Cho'gall was "too crazy" for the game. "Think of all the things that will be broken," Hagman said, when Cho'gall was in his concept stages. But Blizzard discovered that "it's actually really fun to ride shotgun" when playing as the second, more passive head.

A team who picks Cho'gall will be limited to four heroes, but Blizzard "tuned him up" to compensate for the lack of that extra hero on the battlefield. Players on the opposing team who kill Cho'gall will always be rewarded with a double kill, Hagman said.

Blizzard also showed off Cho'gall riding a mount — or vice versa, actually. Rather than riding it, the ogre will actually throw it over his shoulder and run at mounted speed.

Heroes of the Storm players will have the opportunity to get Cho'gall for free, if they play with someone else who already owns the hero. That offer is for a limited time, however; Blizzard will be running a special event in Heroes of the Storm, called the Cho'gall Buddy Brawl, that runs from Nov. 17 to Jan. 1, 2016.