Hey, so recently I had the idea of making a younger character for a campaign, but as i made the character one thing popped to mind; How would size of the creature work? Are younger creatures automatically small, or do they remain medium? Does it have to do with the height of the character? Lets say my character ended up being as tall as a slightly taller-than-usual dwarf, would that still make it a small creature? Are there even rules regarding this sort of thing?
When I checked the internet, all I could find were homebrew templates for young creatures, but I was just wondering if there was anything about it that is in original D&D.
There are rules for "reduced threat' creatures. I would use those.
"A reduced-threat monster is a less powerful version of a normal creature. This template can be applied to any creature of challenge 1/4 or higher, hereafter referred to as the "base creature."
A reduced-threat monster has half the hit points of the base creature, and all of its attack rolls, ability checks, saving throws, and saving throw DCs are reduced by 2. If the base creature is bigger than Large, its size becomes Large, and the damage of its weapons is reduced accordingly, if applicable. Some reduced-threat monsters might change or remove specific abilities it can use, based on the DM's discretion."
Hey, new DM here. one of my players is making a character and we agreed to let her have a young pet in her backstory, we settled on a dire wolf. My main question is: How do I modify stats so that I am not using the Dire Wolf stats, because it is just a pup, and she will be a first level character. Is there any precedent for downscaling the beast?
Not sure if this is still relevant for you or not, but I use a simple solution for similar stuff.
Decrease size category by 1. This should decrease hit dice size (from d8's to d6's in the case of going Medium to Small). Keep the number of hit dice the same. If it still seems too tanky for something young, subtract no more than 2 hit dice. Damage dice should also be decreased by one dice size.
Reducing Ability Scores is a bit more tricky, especially since the only consistent form we have demonstrating the scaling of power over size and age is Dragons. I usually leave it up to the creature type, but also think in terms of how much a younger creature would be able to carry by comparison to a full-grown one. Strength and Constitution should be decreased by the same number regardless. In the Dragon's cases, they usually gain +4 to Strength and Constitution per size category increase, so you could decrease these ability scores by 4. It's steep, but a minus 2 to damage and hit points by comparison makes sense in some cases, though I try to keep it lower. This usually forces most creatures to utilize their Dexterity for damage and hit rolls. Intelligence should be decreased by 1 per age category. You can decide if the creature is cute enough to gain any Charisma or not; but I usually add a +1.
-1 to Proficiency Bonus regardless. Reduce all speeds by 10 ft. If it only has a speed of 10 ft. in something, only reduce it by 5 ft.
Any Natural Armor it has should be fine, but sometimes it's best to reduce it by 1 if they have any.
CR is adjusted accordingly.
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Hey, so recently I had the idea of making a younger character for a campaign, but as i made the character one thing popped to mind; How would size of the creature work? Are younger creatures automatically small, or do they remain medium? Does it have to do with the height of the character? Lets say my character ended up being as tall as a slightly taller-than-usual dwarf, would that still make it a small creature? Are there even rules regarding this sort of thing?
When I checked the internet, all I could find were homebrew templates for young creatures, but I was just wondering if there was anything about it that is in original D&D.
Thanks for any feedback.
There are rules for "reduced threat' creatures. I would use those.
"A reduced-threat monster is a less powerful version of a normal creature. This template can be applied to any creature of challenge 1/4 or higher, hereafter referred to as the "base creature."
A reduced-threat monster has half the hit points of the base creature, and all of its attack rolls, ability checks, saving throws, and saving throw DCs are reduced by 2. If the base creature is bigger than Large, its size becomes Large, and the damage of its weapons is reduced accordingly, if applicable. Some reduced-threat monsters might change or remove specific abilities it can use, based on the DM's discretion."
Hey, new DM here. one of my players is making a character and we agreed to let her have a young pet in her backstory, we settled on a dire wolf. My main question is: How do I modify stats so that I am not using the Dire Wolf stats, because it is just a pup, and she will be a first level character. Is there any precedent for downscaling the beast?
Not sure if this is still relevant for you or not, but I use a simple solution for similar stuff.
Decrease size category by 1. This should decrease hit dice size (from d8's to d6's in the case of going Medium to Small). Keep the number of hit dice the same. If it still seems too tanky for something young, subtract no more than 2 hit dice. Damage dice should also be decreased by one dice size.
Reducing Ability Scores is a bit more tricky, especially since the only consistent form we have demonstrating the scaling of power over size and age is Dragons. I usually leave it up to the creature type, but also think in terms of how much a younger creature would be able to carry by comparison to a full-grown one. Strength and Constitution should be decreased by the same number regardless.
In the Dragon's cases, they usually gain +4 to Strength and Constitution per size category increase, so you could decrease these ability scores by 4. It's steep, but a minus 2 to damage and hit points by comparison makes sense in some cases, though I try to keep it lower. This usually forces most creatures to utilize their Dexterity for damage and hit rolls. Intelligence should be decreased by 1 per age category. You can decide if the creature is cute enough to gain any Charisma or not; but I usually add a +1.
-1 to Proficiency Bonus regardless. Reduce all speeds by 10 ft. If it only has a speed of 10 ft. in something, only reduce it by 5 ft.
Any Natural Armor it has should be fine, but sometimes it's best to reduce it by 1 if they have any.
CR is adjusted accordingly.