"Underage" PCs?

[Plane Sailing]

Star Wars d20 has attribute modifications for children (under the age of 16) and I believe d20Modern has something about it too. here it is

Children
Children (newborns to age 11) are handled differently from other characters. They do not have classes or levels. They begin with the same ability score package as ordinaries (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8), but their ability scores are reduced as follows: –3 Str, –1 Dex, –3 Con, –1 Int, –1 Wis, –1 Cha.

Children have 1d4 hit points plus their Constitution modifier (minimum 1 hit point). They have no skills, feats, action points, or occupations. Their base attack bonus is +0, they have a +0 modifier on all saving throws (plus any modifiers for high or low ability scores), and their Reputation bonus is +0.

Children have a +0 modifier to Defense and a normal speed of 20 feet. Children have no effective attacks and should be treated as noncombatants.
When a child turns 12, he or she is considered a young adult and takes his or her first level in one of the six basic classes. At that point, the character becomes an ordinary (or hero, in some cases).

 

[Plane Sailing]

You could modify this by using the "apprentice level" rules from 3e (not reproduced in 3.5e for some reason) to allow the children to start as 1/2 level in their chosen class.

 

[Maerdwyn]

Yeah, kids definately don't need CHA adjusted. When my neice was 8 she lived in a huge apartment complex with a big pool. So she'd wade out into the pool and pretend she was not a good swimmer (she actually was an excellent swimmer) and call for all the boys to "rescue her". She'd then find herself surrounded by pretty much every 10-14 year old boy in the pool, all begging to be her hero.

I used a CHA adjustment based on the fact that youngsters, while they may indeed be charismatic in the general sense of the word, possibly not so much in the strict sense of the DnD stat - i.e. strength of personality, Diplomacy checks, turning undead, etc. These were kids sitting in on their first war councils, etc. and I felt a CHA penalty was in order to reflect not only the awkwardness of adolescence (which all of my players, including me experienced), but also to reflect others' view of them as "wet behind the ears" and therefore lacking the life experiences which give weight to their opinions. After they lost the CHA penalty by the roll, we did some sort of short adventure which raised the character's staturs within the tribe.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

Star Wars d20 has attribute modifications for children (under the age of 16) and I believe d20Modern has something about it too. here it is

Children
Children (newborns to age 11) are handled differently from other characters. They do not have classes or levels. They begin with the same ability score package as ordinaries (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8), but their ability scores are reduced as follows: –3 Str, –1 Dex, –3 Con, –1 Int, –1 Wis, –1 Cha.

Children have 1d4 hit points plus their Constitution modifier (minimum 1 hit point). They have no skills, feats, action points, or occupations. Their base attack bonus is +0, they have a +0 modifier on all saving throws (plus any modifiers for high or low ability scores), and their Reputation bonus is +0.

Children have a +0 modifier to Defense and a normal speed of 20 feet. Children have no effective attacks and should be treated as noncombatants.
When a child turns 12, he or she is considered a young adult and takes his or her first level in one of the six basic classes. At that point, the character becomes an ordinary (or hero, in some cases).

I know d20 Modern has the stat modifiers for children that you mentioned, though I'm not too sure about the rest of the stuff. I think that kids in d20 Modern could have 1 of the basic classes, though I think they'd have to start off with the Student Occupation only.

I could easily be wrong, though. However, the Star Wars guidelines would seem to work better for D&D, since it's basically ordinary kids who wind up taking on a life of adventure.

However, I think exceptions could be made, though I'm guessing a good way to go at it would be using a modified version of the Apprentice rules from the DMG (originally for playing a 1st level multiclass character, but I think removing the "primary" class & going with the divided one only for kids may work).

However, one thing this doesn't quite cover is races other than humans. Would a elf child gain the automatic proficiency with bows & swords, or would that be a "work in progress" Would dwarf kids gain the Stoneworking racial bonuses? These are a few things to mull over.

 

[Desdichado]

I regularly start PCs in their teens. I think the stats are fine as low as 14-15 without adjustment. d20 Modern does have rules for adjusting characters down to kids; even young kids for that matter.

 

[Synicism]

Star Wars d20, if I remember correctly, simply imposes stat penalties for young children that are pretty similar to the ones in d20 Modern.

Anakin, who's about nine in Phantom Menace, is listed as a first level Fringer (essentially a Rogue), so yeah, nothing says a kid can't have a class level. Besides, a PC isn't really considered come into his own until he's around 4th or 5th level or so, so those first few levels really are something of an apprenticeship or journeyman period.

Also, the GURPS basic book has a very handy chart in it for scaling stats for kids of various ages, which is convenient since GURPS and d20 use a fairly similar ability score progression (3-18, for the most part).

 

[Bloodsparrow]

from your description i'm guessing the adventure was N4 Treasure Hunt

Yup, that's it. See my previous post below, or above (depending on how you list threads), for more info...

 

[Nifft]

Oh, good. Now that the serious question has been answered, I can relay that my first thought on reading this thread's title was: "Barely Legal Elves Gone Wild!"

-- N

 

[Altalazar]

Waaaaaay back in 1E, we played a campaign where the players all started out as teenagers, 0-level, and then adventured a few sessions before making 1st level. In essence, we played out a lot of interesting backstory and had a strong bond between the characters when they made an adventuring band later on. It was an interesting experience.

 

[Greybar]

I'm looking at an experimental play-by-email with two players now where they are starting at age 8. I'm planning to have an "adventure" at that age, then jump to 10, etc. for four "child" steps to reach 1st level.

The stats will be hidden away from the players, but essentially they'll be starting at a 7 point buy (i.e. abilities are 8 to begin with), plus a child template that essentially knocks them down a size class (-4 Str, etc.) As they verbally describe what their characters can do well, I'll buy abilities for them until they run out of points. Next step, they get more points until they end up as a 28 point buy.

I'm taking the mechanism that skills start at 4x base and splitting that out. So if they are heading towards Fighter, they'll get 2+Int skill points at each of the child age steps. Thus when they're done, they have 4x (2+Int). Ditto for slipping in feats (one every other step, as seems appropriate from their descriptions of the kids).

This will almost certainly end up with non min/max 1st level characters, and that's fine. I may end up giving them an extra feat along the way if that seems appropriate, or give both of them a flat 4+Int for skills regardless of what class they're going into.

We'll see how it goes.

john