I'm aware that this has been discussed several times before but I am curious as to how you guys would play a character who's around the range of 15 - 17. Do you think such a character would receive penalties and disadvantages to certain rolls and stats? At level 1, would they be seemingly weaker compared to a normal level 1 character? How would you make playing an adolescent character in the D&D world fun and immersive while implementing some mechanic that constantly reminds you that you're just a young lad/lass?
I am down for some general discussions. Please share your thoughts, I would love to hear them!
Having a mechanical impact ON the character itself should be avoided, imho. Much more enjoyable could be to make the enemies of the appropriate DC for the encounter you want to run slightly stronger, and mos of all make it a social repercussion, in terms of the character being taken less seriously by adult NPCs he might interact with.
Make them feel they are adolescents without giving them a "- x" here or there, it just becomes a nuisance in the long run.
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Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
Actually, in my memory of playing OD&D and 1e/2e, my impression from the books was that PCs were usually in their mid to late teens when they started adventuring. It's really only in the last few editions, and as I've gotten older, that I've made PCs who were older when they started adventuring.
If anything, I'd argue that younger PCs should be better than older PCs where anything physical is concerned, but otherwise just play RAW and assume that age doesn't matter until your PC gets very old (rules in DMG I believe).
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"Orcs are savage raiders and pillagers with stooped postures, low foreheads, and piggish faces with prominent lower canines that resemble tusks." MM p245 (original printing) You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?
At 15-17 they're going to be physically competent but emotionally immature. I would choose to reflect this just by assigning a lower value to Wisdom, regardless of how I'm generating my stats (rolling, point-buy, standard array).
I'm currently playing an adolescent (17yo) fire genasi artificer and rather than imposing a mechanical component, I made it so he's like a high functioning prodigy type but ultimately immature and unsure of what his motivation is. That might make it seem like playing that way is a little light RP-wise, but the way I look at it is that rather than focusing on my character's secret motivators/backstory, he interacts more with the people around him. RP-ing a younger character gives you leave to be more flexible and you can open up to let yourself be influenced by your party members and grow.
I have an 11-year-old Fire Genasi Wizard who is totally not taken seriously by anyone because of her age. She's really really weak and not very wise but is highly intelligent so she's super curious about everything and often blindly runs into danger with her impulsiveness and/or tiny attention span. Also commits so many faux-pas' because she's a kid and just says what she thinks at any given moment - although thankfully they often get ignored because she's just a kid.
For me the biggest factor that comes up for her age is definitely diplomacy but also her strength is often a problem. She's got 5 strength partly because of her age, partly because she was an Urchin and underfed most of her life and mostly just because I rolled terribly and needed somewhere to put it that made sense. She basically can't carry anything and has to give some of her belongings to an adult to carry them for her. Other than that there isn't anything I've done mechanically to make her disadvantaged in most situations.
The way I designed playing my teenage dragonborn is I made him a boy scout. High INT, low WIS. He’s got to have grown ups sign off on his logbook entries to earn his scouting credentials. He’s good in wilderness settings with all his scouting knowledge, and he’s got a lot of hormonal energy, so he’s always keen for a melee. But he’s socially naive, so he’s not going to take charge, especially interacting with NPCs, though he may give his thoughts on a matter whether or not it’s prudent.
I wouldn't change any of the actual stats for balance reasons, but the way the young character acts towards people and how they act towards the character would be different. Just like in the real world, adults often address a younger person differently than they would address a coworker or someone else their age. Maybe the young character's outlook on the world would be different from that of an older character. They might be more optimistic or more naive. The real changes should come from a roleplaying perspective in my opinion. Good luck!
I think anything negative related to an adolescent character of that age should be self-imposed RP related quirks. Way back in Medieval times (granted D&D is more fantasy, and setting vary, but in general draws a lot from the period), you were more than old enough to be sent off to war as a soldier or squire at those ages, and were probably considered a full adult.
Maybe, at worst, you could face some disadvantage at certain deception checks, like a 15 yo claiming to be the master-at-arms would be very hard to believe.
Just put the lowest value at wisdom if you’re playing a teenager (and strength or constitution if you’re playing a child).
I would put a high constitution for a child/teenager, as children's immune systems are better than adults, so they are more healthy.
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So far this session, I have killed three pets, four teammates, and only hit the enemy once, and my fire bolt didn't work against a creature immune to fire. Trust me, you NEVER want to borrow my character or my dice.
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I'm aware that this has been discussed several times before but I am curious as to how you guys would play a character who's around the range of 15 - 17. Do you think such a character would receive penalties and disadvantages to certain rolls and stats? At level 1, would they be seemingly weaker compared to a normal level 1 character? How would you make playing an adolescent character in the D&D world fun and immersive while implementing some mechanic that constantly reminds you that you're just a young lad/lass?
I am down for some general discussions. Please share your thoughts, I would love to hear them!
Having a mechanical impact ON the character itself should be avoided, imho.
Much more enjoyable could be to make the enemies of the appropriate DC for the encounter you want to run slightly stronger, and mos of all make it a social repercussion, in terms of the character being taken less seriously by adult NPCs he might interact with.
Make them feel they are adolescents without giving them a "- x" here or there, it just becomes a nuisance in the long run.
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
Actually, in my memory of playing OD&D and 1e/2e, my impression from the books was that PCs were usually in their mid to late teens when they started adventuring. It's really only in the last few editions, and as I've gotten older, that I've made PCs who were older when they started adventuring.
If anything, I'd argue that younger PCs should be better than older PCs where anything physical is concerned, but otherwise just play RAW and assume that age doesn't matter until your PC gets very old (rules in DMG I believe).
"Orcs are savage raiders and pillagers with stooped postures, low foreheads, and piggish faces with prominent lower canines that resemble tusks." MM p245 (original printing)
You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?
At 15-17 they're going to be physically competent but emotionally immature. I would choose to reflect this just by assigning a lower value to Wisdom, regardless of how I'm generating my stats (rolling, point-buy, standard array).
I'm currently playing an adolescent (17yo) fire genasi artificer and rather than imposing a mechanical component, I made it so he's like a high functioning prodigy type but ultimately immature and unsure of what his motivation is. That might make it seem like playing that way is a little light RP-wise, but the way I look at it is that rather than focusing on my character's secret motivators/backstory, he interacts more with the people around him. RP-ing a younger character gives you leave to be more flexible and you can open up to let yourself be influenced by your party members and grow.
I have an 11-year-old Fire Genasi Wizard who is totally not taken seriously by anyone because of her age. She's really really weak and not very wise but is highly intelligent so she's super curious about everything and often blindly runs into danger with her impulsiveness and/or tiny attention span. Also commits so many faux-pas' because she's a kid and just says what she thinks at any given moment - although thankfully they often get ignored because she's just a kid.
For me the biggest factor that comes up for her age is definitely diplomacy but also her strength is often a problem. She's got 5 strength partly because of her age, partly because she was an Urchin and underfed most of her life and mostly just because I rolled terribly and needed somewhere to put it that made sense. She basically can't carry anything and has to give some of her belongings to an adult to carry them for her.
Other than that there isn't anything I've done mechanically to make her disadvantaged in most situations.
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The way I designed playing my teenage dragonborn is I made him a boy scout. High INT, low WIS. He’s got to have grown ups sign off on his logbook entries to earn his scouting credentials. He’s good in wilderness settings with all his scouting knowledge, and he’s got a lot of hormonal energy, so he’s always keen for a melee. But he’s socially naive, so he’s not going to take charge, especially interacting with NPCs, though he may give his thoughts on a matter whether or not it’s prudent.
I wouldn't change any of the actual stats for balance reasons, but the way the young character acts towards people and how they act towards the character would be different. Just like in the real world, adults often address a younger person differently than they would address a coworker or someone else their age. Maybe the young character's outlook on the world would be different from that of an older character. They might be more optimistic or more naive. The real changes should come from a roleplaying perspective in my opinion. Good luck!
I think anything negative related to an adolescent character of that age should be self-imposed RP related quirks. Way back in Medieval times (granted D&D is more fantasy, and setting vary, but in general draws a lot from the period), you were more than old enough to be sent off to war as a soldier or squire at those ages, and were probably considered a full adult.
Maybe, at worst, you could face some disadvantage at certain deception checks, like a 15 yo claiming to be the master-at-arms would be very hard to believe.
Just put the lowest value at wisdom if you’re playing a teenager (and strength or constitution if you’re playing a child).
I would put a high constitution for a child/teenager, as children's immune systems are better than adults, so they are more healthy.