While not quite a homebrew topic, I wanted to get your opinion on this:

I want to play an elf that is particularly young. While they mature mentally just as fast as a human, they dont physically. I want to try to find some reasonable penalties to my physical stats for playing a younger than normal character.

This is what im thinking so far:

Toddler (ages 3-5):

Str-8, Dex -6, Con -6)

Child (ages 6-9):

Str -6, Dex -4, Con -4

Pre-teen (ages 10-13):

Str -4, Dex -2, Con -2

Teen (ages 14-17):

Str -2, Dex -1, Con -1

There would be mental penalties as well for being young, but I am just ignoring them since I will be playing an elf.

What do you guys think? Steeper? Lighter? Meh?

Oh, and btw:

Todder (ages unknown):

Str +8, Dex +4, Con +16

Special Attack: Eat Rubber

just on a side note

teen should get -2 int, -4 wis, 'cuz lets be honest... teens are retarded :3

Just teens? lol

touche... 

Only IssueI have is general time lapse.  A level 20 toddler, for example....is a bit silly.

well a level 40 teen/young adult is no less silly  but it happens! It's an imperfect system, but we can figure some sort of standardization out at some point. 

Yea. I'm not thinking about going super little, maybe old child/young preteen, but its just an idea. It makes more sense than rolling in at full stats.

So after talking to Zalon a lil bit, here is what I think I'm editing it to. He made a good point saying that the little bastards generally are no less nimble than we are except at the youngest of ages. Maybe also a bonus to tumble/slight of hand, but I dont care as much about that.

Toddler (ages 3-5):

Str-8, -2 Dex, Con -6, Small Size

Child (ages 6-9):

Str -6, Con -4, Small Size

Pre-teen (ages 10-13):

Str -4, Con -2

Teen (ages 14-17):

Str -2, Con -1

Since I really want to make the character, I'm going to roll with this unless someone gets mad at me for it

What about a "child" class?  Make it general in ability, with the noted changes.  Basically, yolu can't advance until you get older.  Make it a level 1-5 class.  At that point, you can roll into your regular base class.

Personally, I don't see why it would be a class. Making a child have extra HD seems a bit silly to me, seeing as how peasants have 1 hp. 

If you wanted to call it a class, the only way i really see it working (which would solve both the aging going up with power, as well as the class HD issue) is if you were to have it start with X levels of "Child" based on the character's age. (example: 18 - ((Character Age)) = "Child levels" and for each character level the character gains, they lose a level of "child"  

The trick then is balancing the class so that the detriment of inexperience and youth gradually goes away as the character learns more about adventuring and becomes more at home on the road and fighting potentially very dangerous enemies. 

I haven't come up with any examples of possible penalties a character could take for youth, i assume it'd be something like "reverse character class level tree up to child levels" for BAB, Saves, replace all HD with d4's until all child levels are gone (then roll class HP normally, this becomes the character's new HP) 

again, just an out-of-my-ass brainstorm suggestion for a way to make it work. the younger you make the character, the longer it takes for them to acclimate to the hardships of adventuring, but in the end, they become just as battle hardened and ready for war as any other character once their "child" levels are gone. 

Paladin suggested, "Basically, yolu can't advance until you get older."

This suggested system allows advancement to be based on implied maturity of the character as they experience the harships of life on the road.

thoughts? ^_^

I'm not sure I'm sold yet on this notion.  In the PHB< they give a random number of years past 15 for a human that it takes to learn a class.  This represents years required to get to level 1.  Hoiw does that factor in with child characters?

Also, peasents don't just have 1 hp.    They have levels in NPC classes, as far as I knew?

Why does it take 15 years to get level one, but potentially a day to get level 2? And shouldn't everyone alive have HD, even if they were just born? How do you know how much hp a person has at age 6? I understand that the x4 skills at level 1 represent learning done for the entirety of your life before level 1, but when does level 1 happen? at birth? at age 15? Then what about beforehand?

We all know D&D has some flaws. It doesnt take into account a lot of factors. Im not trying to be a dick with this post, just devil's advocate.\

More to come, at work rite now. Can only spend so much time on a post

It's not 1 day to get to level.  It's that you have not advanced far enough in training to have achieved a level.  I'm not trying to fight against the notion...I just want the system to (more or less) make sense.

mkay, going back to my suggestion of "child" levels that would be lost and replaced with class levels. if you did the system as i suggested (with the negatives being equal to intended class level bonuses) at first level, a 15 year old fighter would have  3 child levels, each of which would grant negative what the fighter grants each level. this means at each additional fighter level taken, they lose a child level, effectively jumping twice the amount a regular fighter level would grant (but since they start with the penalties, when all is said and done, it ends up being = to straight fighter, just ads challenge along the way, and flavor to the character.)  we all know that learning things from a younger age in MOST cases means you will pick the skills up more quickly and be more adept than someone who started later in life (languages, art, sports, etc for some RL examples) This suggestion accounts for that.

level and age are TOTALLY independent in my opinion. level is more about maturity and skill base, where as age is years lived. It's the Correlation vs causation thing... while having lived more of life OFTEN means more experience, life lesson wisdom, skill, etc, it is not always the case... age does not necessitate experience, there is just a correlation because they often go hand in hand. 

to answer mike's questions: standard NPC's are 0th level. they have 1 or 2 HP. your average D&D character are the elite extreme cream of the crop from the world that happen to excel and gain power through their experiences. There are stats in the Monster Manual for all sorts of variants, but the standard peasant and tradesman doesn't usually have levels unless they're actively relavent to the environment or plot... which then goes into NPC classes and such.

the point is this: D&D characters are not meant to be 1-2 hp total npc's, they're meant to be the best of the best that are willing and able to combat some powerful foe (or fetch the coffee, depending on the quest). I don't think it's really worth thinking about if you're talking about random NPC kids, but for PC's, it's perfectly legit to just run a character at a young age.

the random starting ages are not restrictions, they're guidelines. we fudge the rules on a shitload of things, and i don't see why this should be any different. hell, if you have to, write down your age as 34 then give yourself that genetic condition where your mind and body mature/age super slowly. it's just a number on a piece of paper. play the character you want to play. 

-Z

So go over these negative levels for me real quick. Im having trouble determining the purpose of them. I get rid of them when i level, i get that. But why have them? How do they function. If im a 5th level druid 5th level child, am i just like a 0th level character?

Oh, and about npc's, everyone in the world is suposed to have 1 level in at least something. You technically dont have anything unless you have a level in a class. Basically, everyone who is no one has 1 level of commoner. Ontrix just make them 0th level because hes a dick and didnt want to give us exp

I'll type it all out after class tonight. ^_^ just heading into class now