Children of High Level Characters

[Hammerhead]

Instead of giving them lots of magical stuff, couldn't the parents just True Ressurect the kids whenever they die? That way, they learn how to adventure without lots of cool toys without ever 'really' dying.

 

[Dimenhydrinate]

As someone pointed out, maybe the children won't want all that expensive stuff, and decide to go out adventuring to prove themselves. It's no fun living in daddy's shadow, you know.

AR

This is what my char did. I was kind of insulted that after all the training my parents put me through, they didn't think I could do it. I told them I didn't want or need their help. Hindsight showed this may not have been the best thing for me to say as I got cut off period. I will make it with help from my companions just like they did. I am ME not my father/mother!!!!

 

[JacktheRabbit]

After all, what very powerful, high level player character wouldn't want their child to start out with the best equipment possible?

You have to balance this out. Sure every parent wants the best for their children but parents also know the danger of temptation. A 1st level party would never take on an entire warband of gnolls. It would be suicide. A 1st level party equiped with the best toys Mom and Dad could give them (magic armor, weapons, scrolls, wands, etc) might think they can pull it off only to get themselves slaughtered in battle.

I would say that the characters might start with some bonus items but they would be very specific items. Extra healing potions would make sense as well as rings of protection and claoks of resistance. These will help a young adventurer survive but won't make him think he can go take out the local ravaging dragon.

Also odds are the most powerful item given to a young adventurer is like to be a Ring with Word of Recall on it or something to that effect that allows them to escape to home to save themselves.

 

[Altalazar]

I don't see the problem with this - if you are really about the role-playing experience, it shouldn't matter what items a player has - the requirement to be dirt poor starting off at 1st level is not etched in stone - you could probably have a very interesting campaign centered around a situation where money is no object, and therefore the characters have OTHER motivations.

It just so happens I have explored this in other campaigns back in 1st Edition. There, the high level characters were only up to about level 16 or so, but that was pretty high in 1st Edition. It wasn't children, though, that I played, but the followers. I had constructed a castle and a town and two of my PCs had settled there - the town eventually had other PCs, mine and other player's, settle there as well.

We had followers and such under 1st edition, and so we would end up playing some of those as PCs and go out adventuring with them. The mage made a mage's guild, where we'd sometimes adventure with the apprentices.

Most of the characters, to be sure, did not get much in the way of special equipment or wealth - they were followers and apprentices, not offspring or heirs, but it actually worked out ok. Never ran into any problems, never tried to abuse it.

One thing the guild did have was a mirror of mental prowess, which would be used often for travelling and other purposes. Sometimes it'd even be used for a quick run back to town or just to rest when in a hostile area. One magic item they all did have was a custom built item for communicating with the guild for just such an emergency.

It was just another dimension of play and it was very interesting. I had fun with playing the other characters, I had fun with setting up the castle and the town, and it never degenerated into anything overpowered. In some ways, it was very refreshing - after a while, it can get old to have the standard "you start out with nothing" adventurer schtick. I felt like I was building more than just characters, but a whole society.

 

[drothgery]

A couple of thoughts:
- Low-level characters with highly expensive equipment mean trouble. Sensible people will stay away from them. Shady people will try to steal the stuff. They will attract a lot of attention if they flaunt it. Which can, of course, be lots of fun for the DM...

Apprentice: Boss, she's got a wand of unspeakable doom. Those things are worth a fortune. We're after her, right?

Master Theif: We are not.

Apprentice: Why not?

Master Theif: Do you know who her mother is? If we did anything to her daughter, we wouldn't survive a week!

The point here is that intelligent villians who know who the PC's parents are will probably avoid doing things that would bring an enraged parent down on them (unless they're minions of more powerful villians who think they're up to facing the PC's partents).

 

[hunter1828]

My current primary campaign has several children of the characters. The characters are mostly pushing epic level, but not there yet (I expect all will be, or be close, by the time the storyline wraps). The next campaign will be the children of these characters (there are four children already) and I've already decided that each child character (1st level) will get ONE non-epic magic item of the player's choice from one of the two parents (not one from each).

If this makes them slightly more powerful than typical 1st-level characters (and it will), I'll make the Encounter Levels they face at little more tough to account for it.

"Hey! You guys are the kids of [character name], aintcha! And you got [his/her magic item]! Gettem boys!"

hunter1828

 

[kigmatzomat]

Greetings!
In one of my campaigns, the player characters are epic level, and have started families. In considering their children, as some of them have gotten older, how much treasure do you think they should start the game with? I'm usually pretty "old school" in that I like players to start with nothing special and near poverty, but realism and the circumstances that some of these children have grown up in would seem to demand that they start very well equipped. After all, what very powerful, high level player character wouldn't want their child to start out with the best equipment possible?

Assuming the parents are responsible, odds are the children are more than normal children. Meaning that the parents are aware that they have enemies, many of which can cheat death or continue to fight from beyond the grave, and take steps to protect their children.

They will have tutors and mentors and will be taught by the parents' friends as well as by the parents. Think, do you think that Bruce Lee's son was the equivalent to any other 8 year old asian child? The "tricks" that Bruce would pass on as minor asides alone would give him a distinct edge, let alone the training that Brandon would have access to if he showed a real interest.

Treat them as the child of nobility. By age 10 they will likely be 1st level in *something*, aristocrat if nothing else. By 13 2nd level, 16 3rd level and 18 4th level. To epic adventurers, a 4th level person is still more than wet behind the ears, even if he is tougher than 80% of the populace.

I'd consider running them through these "spy kid" years. Oh, they've got decent gear for their level, but nothing special because they are generally under protection. Have them deal with bullies, thefts within the mansion, poachers, provide help to minor fey who won't talk to anyone who isn't of heroic blood, etc, etc. Think Hardy Boys meets Spy Kids meets Encyclopedia Brown.

Odds are they have the best non-magical gear (mithril armor, adamantine weapons) but few magical toys that aren't purely defensive (protection vs. poison & mind control the most likely) and those will probably have the best "non-detection" spells on them possible to avoid drawing attention. Any armor or weapons that are too shiny will be painted or dyed to conceal it.

Expect them to have an awakened mount or animal companion. Perhaps it's the familiar of the elderly wizard tutor that doesn't get out much, a puppy that was a gift from a druidic ally (What's 250xp to an epic character?), or maybe an infant mimic (size:tiny) the parents tamed.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Apprentice: Boss, she's got a wand of unspeakable doom. Those things are worth a fortune. We're after her, right?

Master Theif: We are not.

Apprentice: Why not?

Master Theif: Do you know who her mother is? If we did anything to her daughter, we wouldn't survive a week!

The point here is that intelligent villians who know who the PC's parents are will probably avoid doing things that would bring an enraged parent down on them (unless they're minions of more powerful villians who think they're up to facing the PC's partents).

I'd think quite the opposite. Villains who want to injure the PCs (in revenge for some slight, or just because they're sadistic) will find that revenge far more easily exacted on the PCs' children. Likewise, villains who might want to, say, gain some leverage on the PCs will have a pretty easy time kidnapping the PCs' childtren compared to targeting the PCs themselves. If they get some decent equipment into the bargain, all the better. In fact, the PCs' kids are actually probably better off hiding their identities than revealing them.

 

[Wycen]

I've played in 1 game where one of my PC's had children, another where me and buddy were children of various PCs/NPC's and finally all of my Icewind Dale 1 & 2 parties have been various mixes of children.

As a "father of NPC children" mostly you worry about random killings while you are gone, though nobody wants to raise their own kid from the dead.

As "children of previous PC's" we only played at Cons or 1 shots where it didn't matter the history of the character's parents.

For Icewind Dale, I used Dalekeeper to modify each character to come up with appropriate stats, race and class combos, and each character started with 2 pieces of equipment appropriate to their class. The wizard got a ring of protection and a wand of magic missiles, while the ranger got +1 leather armor and a bunch of magic arrows.

Personally, the above situation, were death can be overcome by reloading a saved game that works best. This simulates parents or their servants and allies watching over the kids while they learn the ropes and keeping them from making too big a mistake until they "take the training wheels off".

In a paper and pen game the idea of playing children of previous characters really doesn't appeal to me. I would prefer a new campaign completely.

 

[drnuncheon]

One of the difficulties in playing children of PCs comes if the players are not all the same race. That elven mage or dwarven fighter could still be adventuring with his original party's grandchildren (if they were of a mind to), and if you're going to run the kids (or descendants) at various times, you need to remember that they won't be aging at anywhere near the same rate.

The human kids at age 10 and the elven kids at age 50, sure - they're probably at about the same stage of development. But the human kids by 15 are practically grownups by their society's standards, and the elven kids at 55 are probably still thinking 'Girls? eww!'.

J