I have a campaign I run for my wife and my 10 year old son. Ashton had never played D&D before, but loves it. Here are some tips and things to watch out for:
You can encourage him to play a paladin or fighter, but when it comes down to it let him play whatever class he likes, the wizard is no longer that much more complex than a fighter. My son plays a wizard, and he does pretty well, especially against minions.
Give him index cards and have him copy his powers to them. Help him by plugging his numbers in, but let him do most of the work.
I recommend starting at first level. But it will be deadly if he’s by himself. The challenge for you as a DM isn’t only that he’s 10, it’s that he’s solo. All published adventures are set up for 5 players, and you’ll have to do more than carefully design or modify encounters. Death is bad.
I recommend using some house rules to make solo’ing more viable. Solo monsters get a template to buff them, do the same for a solo player.
- Give him an action point after every encounter. Award an extra one if he’s out, so that he always starts an encounter with at least two.
- Let him use second wind as a minor action, or as a free action (once per round) if he’s a dwarf. Let him use it up to three times per encounter.
- Allow a friendly NPC to cast an enhanced Raise Dead ritual. Have it work just like Raise Dead, but make it so that the body and his items teleport to the town, and make the cost affordable for even a first level character. Death is really too harsh a penalty for young players, trust me on this, and the -1 penalty he will take after being raised will be enough motivation for him to try to stay alive, just let it expire after 1 milestone instead of two.
Design encounters so that he always has an edge, or can escape. Encourage him to run away if he should. Use mostly minions for monsters at first level. They are deadly enough. Use regular monsters very sparingly. A level one monster will be deadly enough even when he’s 2nd level.
If you play an NPC to help him, a healer is best, but a defender might work if he’s playing a caster. I would make any NPC helpers into “guest stars” and rotate different ones in, leaving him alone for some encounters. It gives you the opportunity to play more classes and figure out what works best, and puts the spotlight on him. You can also occassionally give him some minions to command. The local townsfolk might be brave enough to help him hunt down the werewolf who is slaying their cattle, or some militia might ally with him to fight off invaders, and he can have fun ordering them around.
I think you’ll both have a blast however you do it, just keep things moving and don’t forget to ham it up. Kids are much easier to entertain IMO because their imaginations don’t need much of a kickstart.
