Hi guys,

Would a devil make a contract with a child and how would it happen?  Quite literally, I was thinking that  when the child was young, his family were really poor and a Devil offered him a deal.

His family would become rich and powerful and all he had to do was write his name on this bit of parchment.  

The child was barely old enough to write his name and so was easily tricked.

The child's family did indeed become rich and powerful - seemingly by magic, and the child grew up never wanting for anything again, and forgot about the strange old man that he met when he was five.

Eventually the boy married a beautiful young woman, a distant blood relative of a noble family and soon after they had their first child.  The child's mother and most of her family had were sorcerers who had all shown their natural talent for magic as toddlers - throwing a tantrum and setting fire to things and so on, but the son showed no magical talent at all.  

When the son was five, he was playing in the garden, when a strange old man appeared out of no where.  The son was used to seeing magic and so he wasn't scared, in fact he applauded at the magic trick and said "I wish I could do magic like you and mommy".

"You can", said the old man, "all you have to do is write your name here, and you will be able to do magic just like mommy .. just like me".

The son, barely old enough to write his name, takes the pen and scribbles his name on the line.  A few days later he unwittingly casts his first spell, and with that, and his signature, the contract is sealed, the bargain struck and a Warlock born.  

This process continues.  Not for every generation, but each time the family climbs its way up the ladder, the old man appears again and tricks another child into signing another contract.  Each time creating a new Warlock and each time getting closer and closer to the throne.

So my questions are - does this sound like a Devil, and would a Devil trick children in this way?  I know Devils are tricky and like to make deals, but would they specifically target children?

I don't know whether any Devil would specifically target children.  Devils are LE, so their deals and contracts have to be legally binding, and it seems to me, that a contract signed by a child, would not be legally binding in any court.  It doesn't seem right that a Devil would leave themselves so open like this.

Also, would which Devil would be most likely to create the facade of a kindly old man, who just wants to help?

Thanks

A devil would make a contract with anything that has a soul.

as to what devils would do. Depends on the Devil.

Mephistopheles is a pretty intriguing Devil guy.

Devils don’t give a damn (ha) about mortal courts. If you think for one second that a court in hell wouldn’t zealously enforce a willingly signed contract just because the singer is a kid, you don’t understand how hell works. It’s EVIL.

In the ancient Mediterranean, the amount of magical power a magician could draw from a soul was thought to be directly proportional to the unfulfilled potential of the soul; aristocratic boys who had died young were obviously the cream of the crop. Whether or not you want to base the attractiveness of souls in your D&D game on classical magical belief is up to you, but I think devils would find children’s souls quite enticing.

Generally, devils don’t give a damn about who they make a contract with. They’re evil and don’t care. So, going as written, yes they would. 

However, I tend to alter things like that slightly in my campaign. No child NPCs will be offered contracts by a devil. Nothing in the devil code explicitly states not to target children, however as a code of ethics they generally don’t. This is less for role play purposes and more for my purposes. Children, whether real or fantasy, haven’t had a chance to truly live yet. If they sign a contract from a devil, they’re essentially throwing their life, and their descendants life. Because at some point the devil will call in a favor. And they have to do it. 

However, just because they generally don’t doesn’t mean it never happens. I don’t have it happen to NPCs, but if players want to make a character like that they can. Which can lead to fun role playing opportunities. 

One wonders whether there are angels dedicated to the protection of children too young to know better from this kind of scheming devilish dealing.

Devil: Come on, it's my job to try to get mankind to fall from grace.
Seraphim: *wielding a lance* He's six. He can't tie his own shoelaces without falling over. Try again in ten years. Now get out of here before divine law trumps contract law.

The entire premise behind the WotC published adventure Winter's Splendor is that Asmodeus is tricking a young girl into fulfilling a demonic contract.

Honestly I LOVE the idea of a player character trying to mount a legal defense a la The Devil and Daniel Webster, and getting the argument from the devil's side that by their laws, children are considered legally capable of signing contracts, and that they don't consider the laws of this plane worth thinking about. I mean, and then presumably, the party will discuss just straight up fighting a devil. But it would be a unique starting point.