Zero Level Origin Feat: History is full of examples of child prodigies or highly skilled youth capable of feats and abilities that rival, and in many cases, surpass highly trained adults. This rule set in the form of an Origin Feat provides a character the ability to build their background in heroic fantasy, modern or futuristic role-play.

This is in stark contrast to normal children, who have lives that progress in educational environments at a normal and expected rate. Zero Level play, allow you to role-play the “other kids.” The ones that freak out the adults with their amazing, and unusual capabilities. Normal characters when created don't have this kind of focus. Your character would be akin to real world geniuses such as Beethoven, Newton, Einstein, a physical child prodigy built like a body builder, or a martial artist. All in the frame and mind of a young child.

Zero Level play is a process by which a player or group of players role-play the creation of their characters background. When you take the time to role-play the customized background play of a character, you gain benefits which offer many advantages over pre-established backgrounds. You will retain most benefits throughout the life of your character. While under zero level play rules characters do not gain Experience Points, but instead; earn their Ability Score Statistics, species traits, skills, and apprentice-like class features over the course of play. These rules replace and bypasses the normal limits imposed by picking, a standard background. The benefits you end up with, will be commensurate with the amount of extra time invested by the player in zero level play.

A DM will monitor the provided awards closely to insure that an imbalance in the rules does not occur, making appropriate adjustments as needed.

The Folly and Fascination of a Zero Level Character

Fear

The DM will call for occasional and appropriate ability checks in Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma, to determine if any reasonable challenge, such as an encounter with a creature, a social situation, or events such as a game of 'dodge-ball' in school, denies the zero level character the ability to act without fear, anxiety, confusion or fascination. Appropriate to the encounter or scene, if a character fails an assigned DC, the character is overwhelmed by the circumstances, they might panic, and run away for 1d4 rounds or minutes. They may be mesmerized with awe, grievously perplexed or anxiety ridden due to pressure, and have no control over social interactions for 1d4 rounds or minutes. If the character fails by 10 the zero-level character is incapacitated and unable to act at all, even in the face of a fear-based encounter that would normally panic a zero-level character and permit them to run away. A zero-level character that frequently experiences similar encounters and had previously generated successful checks while dealing with those encounters, might dispense with a check entirely. They would still feel fear, but not be as debilitated by it.

Morality

If morality is tracked in your game, the following might be considered. The influences around a Zero-Level character allow for some pretty quick moral and ethical changes. As a result the zero level characters alignment will swing through the spectrum between law and chaos, while the evil and good pendulum will stabilize much quicker in youth. Of course, a DM can establish a prescribed set of circumstances that would reinforce one moral and ethical framework over another, such as infernal heritage, or a rigid moral parentage.

Age

You can start zero level play at birth, and a character can remain a zero level character well past their teenage years, and into adulthood.

Record Keeping

This feat allows and requires that you keep and alter its record of benefits and notes over time as your character progresses. This information will include which Zero Traits you will retain into your adulthood. When character matures and becomes an actual 1st level character, any one of these Zero Traits in aggregate can serve as pre-qualifiers to acquire other class abilities, or feats. Record keeping will also include your ability score progress, your hit point progress and all other relevant data to track your young life, as it strives towards becoming a first level character.

Zero Traits

As a Zero Level character at any age, at birth or well into being a young adult, you will obtain Zero Traits. You will retain most of the zero traits acquired throughout your characters young life. Some zero traits gained will be altered due to the age of the zero-level character, ceasing alterations once the character acquires its first level. The rule here is "anything can be earned, through quest, through training, and through dedication." If you can spend the time in play, you can gain the fruits of such play.

Your actual Level is zero for purposes of play:

Zero Vigor Trait: All zero level characters start out with 3+ their Constitution modifier in hit points, with a minimum of 3. The DM will reward additional hit points based on circumstances as the child ages, often topping out at 6 points. However if circumstances permit, a zero level character can exceed this value due to extreme circumstances. If the hit points acquired this way exceeds what you would normally obtain from your first level, then the zero level value replaces it. The young benefit from having bodies that heal quickly and are constantly growing. A Zero-Level character has a higher threshold of death, needing to make death saving throws on DC of 5, not 10 as a young adult would. As a person ages into adulthood, they don't gain this specific benefits of the Zero Vigor Trait any longer, and their threshold of their death saving throw becomes 10. An adult heals slower, and finds it harder to adapt to shock, as the adult is not as pliable as they were in youth. A zero level character, because of their pliability, often takes rudimentary damage as exhaustion instead of hit point damage. If they do sustain hit point damage it is very debilitating. This trait goes away with maturity.

Zero Assault Trait: A zero-level character is not very skilled in combat and has a hard time landing a successful strike due to their lack of experience. An “opponent” of a zero-level character is considered to have resistance to all damage dealt by a zero-level character; however, the zero-level character can decide to attempt to do normal damage to an opponent if they decide to make that attack with disadvantage. This Trait goes away with maturity.

Zero Growth Trait: A zero-level character generally rolls a d6 for each ability score when they start out, or they are awarded individual ability points if, say for example, they are starting zero level play as a newborn, it is up to the DM how points are assigned. They will later earn additional d6s or ability points when a zero-level character exhibits a pattern of success in tasks utilizing a specific ability. As a zero-level character ages they will gain enough ability points to reach the normal range of a typical ability score, which is 3d6. A zero-level character may earn the right to re-roll, or retrain, any previously earned d6 due to unusual successes during play. Once a zero level character matures and all Ability Scores are established this trait goes away.

Zero Proficiency Trait: The longer a zero level character plays through events, the more “Zero Proficiency Traits” they can acquire as a reward. There are no limits to their acquisition. These are either skills, tools, languages, Some can be acquired via their species, culture, in school, personal training or via an occupational pursuit. When you first acquire this zero proficiency trait, you have a score of 0, and are considered “Trained”. If some check requires you to actually have skill proficiency to roll it, or the DC is lower as a result of training, you will have met the requirements to make the check. Over time you can increase your proficiency bonus to 1 “Adept” or 2 “Proficient.”Once you mature and take on a class level you will follow the normal proficiency progression for skills you are Proficient in. For the traits you are only ‘trained’ or ‘adept’ at, you will need to acquire further training as a first level character to progress to proficient levels, and progress in them normally; otherwise the bonus for a Zero Proficiency Trait is just 0 or +1 throughout the characters career.

Zero Aptitude Trait: The longer a zero level character plays through events, the more “Zero Aptitude Traits” they can acquire as a reward. There are no limits to their acquisition. A zero aptitude trait is simply an +1 or +2 bonus to an ability check or skill check, or any check, in a very specific circumstance you might have an aptitude towards. An example is making an intelligence check, or picking lock tool check where “math” would be involved, and you have a ‘zero aptitude trait’ or an aptitude towards ‘math’

Zero Feat Trait: The longer a zero level character plays through events, the more “Zero Feat Traits” they can acquire as a reward. There are no limits to their acquisition. You are only able to use one aspect of a normal feat, gained through training, or through some species or cultural process. A feat often gives several benefits. Examples of their benefits are, a physical trick, a magical ability, or a combat bonus.  This trait awards only one aspect of a feat at a time. It is possible to gain a single feats entire benefits, as individual zero feats, but it won’t ever reward you the ability score bonuses offered by those feats.

Zero Save Trait:  The longer a zero level character plays through events, the more “Zero Save Traits” they can acquire as a reward. There are no limits to their acquisition. You can only gain +1 to a specific saving throw as a zero level character. Any specific saving throw bonus acquired by gaining a class level supersedes this bonus, and is not in addition too. However if you should gain a saving throw bonus to a specific energy type, damage type, or circumstance, that bonus does stack with any normal saving throws obtained later in your characters career.

Zero Benefit Trait: The longer a zero level character plays through events, the more “Zero Benefit Traits” they can acquire. There are no limits to the acquisition of such benefits. As the zero-level character reaches milestones due to age, education, or natural growth, these traits will be acquired. Some come from their culture, species, or ancestry, while others are circumstantial, supernatural, or innate to them. An example of this; is the elven proficiency in longswords, or the dwarves stone cunning capability. They will be awarded individually and incrementally during play. Languages are awarded in increments due to exposure and the educational environment. Alternate species traits are optionally awarded based on changes in circumstances and the environment the zero-level character is exposed to. There are some “Zero Benefit Traits” that can be awarded only to go away due to maturity or DM prescribed circumstances.

Zero Size Trait: The size of a youth is considered small, toddlers and lower are considered diminutive. The DM may decide at what point any character changes their size category, or assign them with the change early if the circumstances are appropriate. The DM will evaluate the age, health, cultural training, and their species to determine changes in size. As a zero-level character grows in size they gain all the benefits and drawbacks associated with their size. The carrying Capacity of a child's is 1/4 what a mature adult/teenager can carry, a toddler its 1/6, an infant is 1/8. This Trait goes away with maturity.

Zero Speed Trait: The characters speed is decided by virtue of the characters actual age category, not just size. It’s a minus 10 if they are toddlers, and minus 5 while they are youth. The DM may decide at what point any character changes their speed. If a character is normally the size of adult despite their age, the speed will be adjusted. The DM will evaluate the age, health, cultural training, and their species to determine those changes. This Trait goes away as the character matures. 

Zero Vision Trait: The young have double the visual acuity of an adult barring any abnormalities, so all vision distances listed are doubled. This Trait goes away once the DM determines the character is mature.

Zero Apprentice Features: You gain and lose ANY Zero Apprentice Features incrementally, as you mature, make choices and encounter other circumstances. Eventually you establish the actual 1st level Class features, saving throw proficiencies, Hit Die, Tool proficiencies, Skill proficiencies, you start out with, overriding some zero-traits as appropriate. When a character approaches the teenage and young adult stages of life, they begin to settle into Specific 1st level class features while losing other previously acquired class features that would not apply to their class. For example, the Sneak Attack ability can be awarded as a “Zero Apprentice Feature,” and then other specific zero apprentice features at different times. This trait generally goes away once the class of a character is finally established. The DM may option using any specific 1st level class features as a base set of abilities with no options selected to simulate the disposition of an immature character. A Bards inspiration d2 or d3 die, a rogues d2 or d3 sneak attack ability, a fighter or barbarians base line abilities, a sorcerers innate magic as cantrips. Your zero level character would be classified as a pseudo-1st level character, even though your actual level is effectively 0. Even when a zero level character establishes themselves as a 1st level character, a case could be made that that some aspects of a class previously explored, had a intrinsic effect on your characters history and story of success. The DM might allow the zero level character retain some of those Zero Apprentice Class Features throughout the characters life. One such example is maintaining a d3 sneak attack ability throughout their career.