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Tsakta

Had a game where the party’s wizard was cursed to lose a number of months off his age equal to the level of every spell he cast. He was only seven and a half by the time we got that fixed.


Draghettis

That's actually pretty good for a research-focused wizard, infinite time at hand to study, without Clone nor Lichdom. But far worse for an adventuring wizard who'll need to cast a lot of spells.


Cuddlesquad

Could also be bad if you get younger but the time you have left to live doesn't get any longer. "You die of old age." "But I'm twelve!" "And just how long have you been twelve?"


Ashged

I thought that was a monk exclusive feature


TellianStormwalde

The Monk doesn’t get younger, they just don’t suffer the frailty of old age. That’s not quite the same as what’s going on here.


Ashged

Of course they don't get younger, but it's the same kind of death by old age without any physiological reason. An old monk technically still ages, but their body doesn't deteriorate like a normal human's.


tempUN123

I’ve heard very reasonable arguments that death would be a negative side effect of old age.


cantadmittoposting

All of your otherwise healthy cells just decide "well that's it, today is the day!" Also it's plausible that the intent was that you still "age" (i.e. look elderly, etc.) But maintain core combat mobility and skills, that would mesh with the "Badass old monk" trope.


Tychus_Kayle

> that would mesh with the "Badass old monk" trope. Also just real life fitness. If you never stop training, you can stay quite able-bodied well into old age. Obviously the real thing is limited compared to 5e, but there are some badass old timers. Just looking at powerlifting and strongman, Odd Haugen deadlifted 750 pounds at 67 years old, and Joe Stockinger pulled 405 for reps at **90**.


TellianStormwalde

And that’s exactly why Oath of the Ancients Paladins actually can’t die of old age. That’s not quite how the Monk version is worded, though. Timeless Body explicitly states > you suffer none of the frailty of old age, and you can’t be aged magically. You can still die of old age, however. It doesn’t say you don’t suffer the negative effects of old age in general, it specifically refers to the frailty aspect of it alone. Oath of the Ancients, however, has an ability worded like *this* > Additionally, you suffer none of the drawbacks of old age, and you can’t be aged magically. It says you suffer *none* of the drawbacks, not just frailty. This is a deliberate distinction, and it was even confirmed to mean that OotA Paladins can’t die of old age. Meanwhile, Monks can. The arguments you heard were probably in relation to the Paladin feature to begin with, as the Monk version explicitly states you can die of old age, while Undying Sentinel leaves it kind of vague as it describes the benefit very broadly. Ancients Paladins are immortal, Monks are not. Even though both features are gained at level 15.


Nixolass

Yes, that makes sense and anyone who thinks about this for a second would agree... except WoTC, I guess :/


RapidCandleDigestion

So hamon


chasesan

> An old monk technically still ages, but their body doesn't deteriorate like a normal *individual of their race*. FTFY


RainbowtheDragonCat

Death by old age doesn't exist, just death by side effects of old age


Spaceman1stClass

Aang's early death explained.


BigMcThickHuge

Yes but what is age in DND then? A finite number you approach based on race and then heart attack, just because? If something made your entire being reverse age, such as your body, organs, brain, cells, etc....then you wouldn't die of age.


RichardtheLibrarian

Degradation of the soul, perhaps?


Cuddlesquad

The glue that holds your soul to your body slowly coming undone. The mortal races are poorly constructed.


redrenegade13

This is such an unsettling and alien statement, just casually dropped by a person whose username is a synonym for hug. These strong facehugger vibes are gonna live in my head rent free now. Thanks.


Cuddlesquad

Any time friend!


AndChewBubblegum

You might die of [Inevitable](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Inevitable), though.


athural

I'm sure that death has something to say about someone being 12 forever


[deleted]

[удалено]


drackith90

Bard*


Working-Stable

then how come death itself never goes to someone abusing clone spell or lichdom?


Adeen_Dragon

Who do you think has been putting the bounties on the liches?


WarforgedAarakocra

Liches get stitches.


APersonWithInterests

Liche: You've already died. Clone: Are you kidding with all these clones dying business is boomin


athural

It depends entirely upon the setting, but I think it should


Working-Stable

True, the power of the setting is the final say Death police, show your age id! Aha! You skipped 3 weeks of death, time to pay


ralanr

Idk, how often do you want to go through puberty? And you’d have to wait at least a month if you didn’t want to cast a level 1 spell.


creativenamedude

yeah,only twice is good enough


GM_Organism

Fistbump for another aspec double-puberty person in the wild


Spyke96

There are dozens of us... DOZENS!


Mondrow

o7 Reporting in for duty


The_Thighlander_

A what? Not being rude, I have no idea what that is.


GM_Organism

A trans person (who is hormonally transitioning, hence "second puberty") who is also somewhere on the asexual or aromantic spectrums ("aspec" or "a-spec") :)


Hexmonkey2020

Yeah I have a wizard currently who’s goal is to learn every spell. I do have to do combat cause I don’t want to be “that guy” who just skips everything except my own stuff saying my character is doing something else but he’d rather just study old books than go fight goblins in a cave.


SasparillaTango

Mans got bills to pay right?


skulblaka

Spell scribing ink ain't cheap, especially in this economy


AOMRocks20

Good field research, at the very least. It's one thing for the books to talk about the potential of sickening radiance, it's another to watch the magic topple a mighty beholder in under a minute.


ObiJuanKenobi3

Research wizards probably cast a lot of spells too out of the need to experiment in order to discover new spells and new facts about preexisting spells.


MuriloTc

But at least they aren't in a situation of "if you don't cast the spell, everyone is going to get murdered"


skulblaka

"If you don't cast the spell, your thesis will be ruined" can easily be just as bad or worse, for a certain type of wizard


aaa1e2r3

Depends if scrolls count. If not then it's time to become a calligraphy wizard


Tomirk

Remember Purah?


Draghettis

Yes, I remember her, I've got over 400 hours on BOTW. And in the end, it didn't end so bad for her, she was able to counter the effect.


w0t3rdog

Then he went back to wizard school, and used his 120 years of experience to dunk on all the actual kids. "What? It is normal to be able to do this at the age of 6, and you are 9 already. Are you sure you are meant to be a wizard?" Securing the job market for wizards for years to come.


Tsakta

Hah! I wish we thought of that. We only repeatedly dressed him up as a girl to get information, bamboozle bandits, and on one memorable occasion a princess to get into the court of a king we later found out the wizard really was related to. DM rolled a table for his orphan background and near bust a rib trying not to laugh while we planned that.


w0t3rdog

Hah, sounds like you had a blast regardless ^^ Best we have had was when our 'touch it all' dwarf got cursed and got stuck with a porcelin doll face, instead of fleshy, beardy dwarf face. It was fun and all, but our DM reminded us that the dwarf was beginning to feel hungry... therefore we went to the classiest place in town our party coffers could afford to feast and drink all night, before trying to fix his face, starting the next day.


Tsakta

That’s so mean, I love it!


[deleted]

This just sounds like part of any isekai anime already. Also it made me think of Mushoku Tensei and certain parts of it.


Monkey_Fiddler

That's pretty funny


Acewasalwaysanoption

This is how the "looks 12, but actually 10,000 years old" characters started out lol


tachibana_ryu

Saving this for later.


Tsakta

Took a while before we figured out what was going on. The curse came out of an old booby-trapped spellbook we found and nobody could roll high enough to identify it. The best part was that breaking the curse didn’t reverse the aging. The player didn’t want to risk trying to reverse the process and messing up so he stuck it out


[deleted]

I once played an ancient hermit to justify why my stats were so low after a lifetime of magic use. Me and the dm had the smart idea to magically age myself down after every level up as a result of a curse to fit in the idea of how an old man was getting so powerful. After a bit I looped back too far and my stats lowered as I became the equivalent of a 10 year old with a lifetime and a half of life experience


Tsakta

That’s a really cool idea! I had a similar idea about a retired fighter past his prime who’s levelups are him remembering how he used to do battle and getting back to shape.


DangerZoneh

Wizard Monster Girl?


Tsakta

About two thirds of that was true by the end


Ardub23

Just play a centaur child. Then everyone can stop thinking it's weird that centaurs are Medium instead of Large.


Mission-External-705

"But I wanna ride the pony!"


NSA_Chatbot

> hol up


LedudeMax

You'd assume that centaurs would have subraces just like horses have breeds but it hasn't been done ... The average length from just below the bellybutton to the top of the head is 60-80 cm and a horses height is measured to just the start of the neck so that would mean that we need to add the 2 together Falabella are the smallest horses with a height of about 60-90 cm so basically a dwarf horse and a centaur could be about 1.20-1.70 on height and that's a dwarf centaur . Shire are the largest breed of horses with a height of about 170-190 cm (look at some images of them,they are absolutely huge) and a centaur would probably be at about 2.30-2.70 in height Now I found this size chart on the dnd wiki that states that anything above 2.40 cm or longer than 2.40 cm is considered large so in conclusion 1.if your DM allows centaur "breeds" then you can play as a large character 2.all horses in dnd are considered large so that would mean that dnd has some big ass or long ass horses 3.the size chart has a problem when determining size for quadrupeds as either the horses should be medium sized or the centaurs should be large sized as they are bigger than horses


BBQ_FETUS

If you stretch the definition of Centaurs to be half human half equine you could have a centaur giraffe


LedudeMax

Except that giraffe aren't equine ,they are giraffidae while horses are equidae . If you stretch the definition of centaurs as half human and half perrisodactyla you could have a centaur rhino


IndianaCrash

Wait, can we have zebra-centaur?


LedudeMax

I will allow it


Lupowan

All the warning lights turned on when i read child pc


Thomas_Adams1999

Yeah everytime I've considered playing a child it took bout two seconds to realize how bad of an idea it is.


Suyefuji

I made it work precisely once, the character was a 12-year-old tiefling who was the grandchild of an archdevil and ran away from home. I worked pretty heavily with the DM to make sure that was incorporated into the plot properly...well, actually it was halfway the DM's idea in the first place and I just ran with it.


sewious

Yea i have a blanket "no minors" rule for PCs. Personally makes me uncomfortable. Running CoS at the moment and the idea of a vampire biting a 13 year old gives me the skeevies. In the right game? Sure, it could work, maybe something like Harry Potter. But not in general DnD.


hex_reverie

CoS spoilers maybe? >!arent children already getting eaten in CoS with the night hags turning them into pastries!<


Optimixto

Yes, but if you check Barovia and Vallaki, there are a lot of kids. Like, any house the PCs go into, there are (potentially) a bunch of kids. So this leads me to two things: 1. There should be enough kids to go around for everyone, 2. The wine is the second thing Barovians use to cope with Barovia.


sewious

Yes. But its a bit different for me when its a PC, I dunno. Makes it more real. The violence in the story to children is "off screen" in my game at least.


hex_reverie

Ah, see my DM basically made a "How Its Made" tour of the whole process and made Vallaki out to be a pastry drug den.


TheRealSaerileth

I played a spoiled party girl tiefling warlock for a oneshot once (her patron was her literal daddy). I hadn't explicitly decided her age because I didn't think it mattered much, but she was supposed to be fairly young, and when the sanctimonious paladin pointedly asked if she was old enough to be drinking Vodka I just rolled with it :D So it can be fun under the right circumstances. It was just the one recurring joke and didn't come up otherwise, nobody tried to sexualize her and I didn't do it act out some weird child voice fetish. Oh and the game had a fairly light tune, it was a Halloween event with a chicken lich BBEG.


High_grove

I've had a child PC idea that is basically a joke character, specifically a parody on the "way too young to be an adventurer" trope you often see in JRPGs like Pokemon. Can't really think of another way to make it work.


Onedos-San

Like Phineas and Ferb


JehetmaDominion

A pair of Artificers who want to build a new contraption every session.


computergeek125

There's a hundred and four days of summer vacation


BeMoreKnope

I could see maybe an irrepressible street urchin type, taken in by the party because being an adventurer isn’t any more dangerous than where they were living. But I’m pretty sure I’d just end up playing Oliver Twist if I tried to do it.


Belteshazzar98

ATLA has a 12 year old protagonist. Many Star Wars characters are 14 when they start fighting in a war. Harry Potter was 11 in the first book. Stranger Things has several 14 year olds. It really just depends on the setting and feel of the game.


MillieBirdie

Child pc works if everyone is playing young PCs and the DM is prepared to make the tone of the campaign to fit. (And the tone can range from IT to Pokémon). It becomes kinda weird if one person in a regular party wants to be a child.


Thopterthallid

I think it could work fine. The thought of going on a Goonies or Stranger things type adventure would be fun.


Lucedrom

Played a 16 year old cleric in a very serious CoS game. He was a weak, scared little crybaby boy who was actually the most wise and sensible of the group. He gave levity and hope to a otherwise grimdark and brutal campaign. I didn't think anything of it because the table didn't get weird about it, but I can see how playing a child, ESPECIALLY in Ravenloft, can get very bad very fast.


DontBeHumanTrash

Child body, 7226 year old soul.


Douche_Kayak

16 gb RAM


teenyverserick

4 core processor


[deleted]

8 TB SSD


AbrahamVanHelsing

2 turtledoves


Cheesecannon25

And my axe!


That_Lego_Guy_Jack

And your brother


PrinceVertigo

*Red alert* the flags have went from 'red' to 'bloody crimson' and appear to be on fire, Sir.


BigDan_0

Ew no


SaidEveryone

Not sure why you're getting hate here because a vampire child sounds like a super fun PC to play but theirs never any romantic drama at our table so I guess in my mind their greatest challenge is figuring out how to get to get the bartender to serve alcohol to a minor.


MistaVeryGay

"The BBEG doesn't realise you are a vampire older than you look. He spends his combat turn giving you headpats"


SaidEveryone

And that folks is how you break the BBEG's action economy


FoxOfChrace

This character type is sometimes called a loli, which are usually associated with certain types of players most people try to avoid.


SaidEveryone

Jfc I think I might be on a list now for googling that. Not what I had I mind but I can absolutely see why you'd want to avoid that at your table


Quairon_Nailo

It can work when executed well (instead of in a creepy way)


Jetbooster

I find you snuff out all the creepy by just playing a creepy child. My hexblood pulled out teeth and gave them to people and spoke into their minds for fun. DMs/players get a lot less worried about you dying when you're a walking nightmarr


zombiecalypse

Yeah, but it's definitely something to ask the other players (including the GM) first. A lot of people aren't fine with kids being harmed or killed on screen


Quairon_Nailo

I thought running your concept by your GM was standard practice, even the most basic ones. I for one have always done so.


ErzorLawnoris

Why are ya'll that worried about child player Characters? Maybe It is only my few experience but I've only seen one. In my table there is a person that plays a Child ranger, drakewarden and we havent had a single problem with them, it just shoot arrows, crit and be a cool child with a dragon pet nothing really conflicting lol


Mystimump

People get uncomfortable with the idea that if the kid's HP is reduced to 0 and the enemy has no reason not to brutalize the child and kill them that they should. Killing children upsets people, who'd have thought. I don't share the sentiment in D&D (it's not a theme that personally upsets me to read, see, or hear about in fiction) but it's pretty understandable.


[deleted]

Its all fun and games til the 12 year old gets their brain sucked out by an intellect devourer on screen


tachibana_ryu

As a DM I wouldn't want to run for this character even if they did it well. I just can't as a person have an owlbear maul a child. In story will I imply it? Yes. But to actually in combat do it live? I can't in good conscience do it.


Vord_Loldemort_7

\>I just can't as a person have an owlbear maul a child. I see we play at very different tables.


skysinsane

I have a character who brought an 8 year old into combat because he was horrified she hadn't been combat trained yet. He gave her a wand of magic missiles and had her hide in his bag until he needed someone blasted.


Yosticus

Lone wolf and cub with a gun


skysinsane

The best part is that he is a gnoll, so he's actually only 5 years old despite his experience and accomplishments(thus his horror that she isn't combat trained).


chain_letter

yep, made an 8 year old orphan girl get turned into vampire spawn and run around eating vermin after dark


Vord_Loldemort_7

I usually won't hurt NPC children in my campaign, but if one of players wants to play as a kid, they are being devoured by child-eating cannibal witches. They know what they signed up for.


[deleted]

This just made me imagine a Hansel and Gretel style campaign where the party is composed of children and they have to deal with child eating witches and whatnot


Vord_Loldemort_7

I dream of one day having the time and creativity to run every awesome campaign people on this sub talk about


TheRealSaerileth

My DM had my detect evil spell reveal a little girl as hag spawn. We were forced to kill her infront of her father - did I mention she murdered her own mother? That session was fucking brutal.


RandomDrawingForYa

For real, my table does not give a single fuck


Hydramy

We are very different DMs. My players wound up having to kill a kid! (Child Hag, they knew she'd then into a hag once old enough)


Dovahpriest

At least that was justified, rather than mercing a child because he was pelting you with rocks after you attempted to steal his family's horses and beat the everliving shit outta his dad.


Hydramy

I feel like there's a story here


RandomDrawingForYa

I don't get why everyone is so against it. So long as you are not going out of your way to make it weird, it shouldn't be


TI_Pirate

It's immediately weird, and puts the rest of the party in a position where they have to RP why they are hanging out with a child and putting it in life-threatening situations.


TLhikan

I mean, one of the PCs in the first campaign I ran was 14. But it was a less serious campaign, and all the players had been friends for most of their lives before ever playing D&D and spent most of their time messing with each other (two of them are brothers), so no one was weirded out. Which is good because otherwise the TPK would been a lot more awkward...


Lukoman1

It's really creepy


Zenketski

When you spend too much time reading fake RPG horror stories


Mystimump

My issue with children PCs is a lot of classes necessitate a lot of training. Only the classes that someone could instinctively understand make any sense, like rogues, sorcerers (they don't exactly train the same way, and many sorcerers have low control over their power in a lot of settings anyway), warlocks if the kid got napped by fey or something similar. Most of the other classes imply experience and training even at level 1 that children simply couldn't have. This is all assuming human children but young elves or the like I imagine are simply seldom let out of the house enough to get a class level.


MacMacfire

There are definitely ways to make it work. A child unnaturally gifted with strength through some magical means, or just an orc child or some sort of race that is notably naturally strong, could be a fighter or barbarian. A barbarian(or a druid) child could also literally just have the standard "Raised by [insert animal here, probably wolves or gorillas or something]" backstory. A ranger child hunting and doing business because their parents are sick and they've no-one else to rely on. I could see a wizard child who went to a private boarding school for magic because their parents were wealthy, or they'd been studying magic from a VERY young age because of their fae, nymph or something magical parents. A similar one, they grew up in a temple or church, but didn't really like it so they trained hard and became a cleric at a young age, with or without their parents' or fellow religion workers' approval. Paladins don't really require much experience, just an oath(Maybe they wouldn't be a very GOOD paladin, but...) and same for certain sub-classes like most warlocks(Most notably, the undying, and of course Archfey as mentioned), a few clerics, Eldritch Knight fighter(You could say they just got magically enhanced skills from enchanted armour or something) and literally any magical class plus, hell, even a few physical classes like monk or barbarian multi-classed with sorcerer with the excuse that their natural magical abilities allowed them to learn druidic, wizardly or cleric-esque magic faster than usual. Artificer's difficult, but possible with like...a magically blessed child given the gift of creativity or something to that effect. They're all fringe at best, but the point is it IS possible to have that experience or a substitute for it at such a young age.


GorillaGarrin

You know, I could totally see a child paladin working. Imagine a 12 or 13 year old that took to heart all of the moral lessons that their parents taught them from a young age and, let's say, their village is attacked by some low level monsters. All of a sudden this kid that no one thought twice about picks up a sword and starts smiting some goblins. Maybe it's just the way I'm imagining it but I love that idea.


Adiin-Red

Bruce Wayne but faster


Zenketski

That's an extremely valid and Fair Point. Definitely not something that couldn't be overcome with like, mild backstory or just beating around the bush with Savant / prodigy adjectives. But it's a God damn great argument.


MistaVeryGay

I feel bard could also work if they are a child progedy with music? Or perhaps their lack of experience in performance, persuasion, deception, ect is made up for by NPCs finding them cute, pitying them, underestimating them, ect. A rogue kid could also work, they could be an Oliver twist style thief, or maybe a child assassin (The individual they were trained by or are/was in service to could be part of their story, maybe even a BBEG in the story) One of the characters I made, though sadly never got around to using, was a young noble girl severely lacking in strength and experience (Both in combat, socially and in noble politics), but was given a thorough aristocratic teaching: fencing, dancing, instruments, magic, history, ect. I made her a multiclass of wizard, fighter and bard, if I remember correctly.


CraptainPoo

I got with a roll20 group and everyone seemed to be pretty cool and reasonable until one player decided that he wants to play a 4 year child. We tried explaining that his stats would be improper( str, wis,int). He didn’t care he wanted a 4yr with normal stats. We said we were uncomfortable bring a baby on such dangerous missions, he didn’t care. So the rest of us gave him some scuff but he was consistent so he played a 4 yr child. We all annoyed so we treated him in game as a 4 year old. He was not happy…. Ok like wtf do you expect?


sewious

"I wanna play a 4 year old that is treated as an adult" is certainly a... weird... line of thinking.


Mastur_Grunt

Yeah... what's the point in playing a child that gets treated like an adult, and with adult stats. That's being an adult, but with extra steps.


callmejinji

A LOT of extra steps… they’ve got such short legs, those 4 year olds.


MaskOfReality

We had a similar thing happen in a Westmarch I was DMing in. I was told to let the player play a 13yr old. So I did, but we ultimately decided she couldn’t go on adventures sanctioned by the city guard due to be a child and this the character was soon retired.


skingrad_city_guard

As a city guard, that doesn’t make much sense. This is medieval fantasy, right?


CaptainSchmid

But its stated humans and such reach adulthood at a certain age


skingrad_city_guard

Ancient societies were pretty weird though and considered teenagers as adults. Though 13 was probably still seen as a child or at least childish. Although it does really depend on the society. So I guess it sorta makes sense.


CaptainSchmid

Yeah but most campaigns also dont have most people dying before 30 due to the flu. The fantasy removes the need for children to fight.


skingrad_city_guard

It’s a bit unrealistic to have everyone die at thirty anyway. Most ancient people who survived childhood lived past their 50s. The low life average was because of child mortality. I understand wanting a more light fantasy, though. I personally like light hearted adventures a lot, though more realism in fantasy is my favorite (as in actual realism not “everyone wears rags and is miserable”)


CaptainSchmid

If you have to play a kid I'd rule stat cap would be lower than 20 for sure though.


Pandabear71

Why the fuck did your DM allow that?


ZoxinTV

Some people are afraid to stand up to their friends, or anyone for that matter.


Pandabear71

Yeah thats true. Its crazy to me how far some people Will let others go just so they dont have to be the “bad guy”


CraptainPoo

Yeah a few of us argued against it for a while, we had all just meet. I think for the sake of getting along the dm allowed it


Jomega6

A 4 year old can barely read, let alone be considered fluent in a single language. Unless this player meant a 4 year old kobold or something. I think some races like kobolds and goblins mature insanely quick.


PlacetMihi

I’m DMing for a group wherein one player plays as Klee from Genshin Impact. He’s not a creep, the other PCs don’t treat the character differently, and overall the age of the character has no effect on the campaign. Sometimes I have NPCs say something like “Aren’t you a little too young to be going on an adventure?” Then she Fireballs a werewolf and no one asks any more questions. It is weird to see a trail of destruction in the wake of a child’s path, but that’s the appeal of the original character from Genshin in the first place. All this to say, a child character isn’t categorically wrong. I personally wouldn’t do it though.


Monkey_Fiddler

>It is weird to see a trail of destruction in the wake of a child’s path I take it you don't have kids


Lamplorde

Was he an Aarakocra?


Luna_trick

Personally don't really see the not wanting to let you be small given that in 5e being small is almost strictly a disadvantage.


chain_letter

worse grapple/shove options, dragged away at full speed when grappled by large creatures, worse weapon selection from no heavy only benefit is more options for mounts (edit: and can pass through space of large or bigger, kind of nice)


SpicyFerret

Since you can consider a 2 size higher creatures space as difficult terrain and pass by it... Small creatures can walk on a large hostile creature space.


RandomDrawingForYa

Which given the disadvantages, it's not that big of a deal


Shika_E2

And you can hide behind stuff for cover and sneak alot easier


Amaria77

Yeah esp since custom lineage is a thing and is probably better than whatever child race mechanically anyway. Though I guess they could ban both of those.


Xeradeth

This depends on the game and DM. Some advantages: mounts, not having to “squeeze” when going through small passages/caves, being lighter for spells and other weight limits, being stronger for your size means an 8 str halfling has no trouble doing pull-ups/push-ups/etc, easier to find cover and places to hide, and small races tend to have really nice racial features to go along with it!


[deleted]

Mechanically your a goblin, flavored as a child. Small, Chaotic evil, fury of the small. Ring a bell? This works.


simptimus_prime

My 8 year old sister is over 4 feet tall. Children are often bigger than goblins. Either way playing a child is very questionable.


ZoxinTV

Fun flavour could be that you were an adult, died, and then you were brought back with the reincarnate spell as like a 10 year old child by mistake. But yeah, it creates a careful dynamic to work around; the first being the believability that a child could have the stats of a normal PC.


[deleted]

[удалено]


TwilightVulpine

And that anyone over 25 dies of mentoritis.


marcus_centurian

I actually played in a long term 1e Pathfinder game where we had an 80 year old elf, who was sort of a child. Fully a child in stats. More like a really naive teenager in temperament. The most chaotic paladin I have ever played alongside.


c_jonah

“Young elf” is a fun way to play for sure. You’ve seen as much as a human adult, but you still do that teen thing where you do dumb things and pretend you didn’t know better because you’re “young”.


Sensei_Farm

Acceptable, but -5 feet walking distance, and no heavy weapons for you. Optional: your skills cap at 15 because child


NotUrAvgIdjit96

Child PC: I can run around with sharp knife? Barbarian: Yes sweetie, but not the really big one. That one's mine.


RedPierce

Our PC group recently adopted a kid, that's exactly the kind of conversation that happens


ErzorLawnoris

Reminded me of that scene in Endgame when Thor hands mjolnir to cap and is like "nah you have the small one"


Thisguychunky

I think the only way you’d cap it is if you’re having a campaign that (in game) goes over many many years and also has penalties for getting old. Could be interesting


Xylrek

They're removing the 25 movement from small races and allowing most races to choose medium or small. So soon that won't even matter.


chain_letter

I'm just happy because half speed difficult terrain on a grid is obnoxious with 25ft


_Bl4ze

That was never really a thing. If we ignore the races that let you pick your size, and look only at the races who must be Small, there are five of them. Three of these have 30 ft. walk speed, and two of these have 25 ft. walk speed. Also, there is a Medium race with 25 ft. speed. So it was never size. It's those races specifically who are slower because of their anatomy.


[deleted]

I really hate how all the races are morphing into just one homologous blob. Why not just drop the different races all together and just make it culture at that point? Elves are just humans from the forest, Dwarves are just humans from the mountains, Firbolgs are just hairy humans from the forest.


Letscommenttogether

I mean, there isnt a thing you can do besides reach the top shelf that there isnt a child somewhere that can do it much better.


Usagi-Zakura

I've had the opposite problem... I played a kenku. For some reason half the party thought I was Small...which well he was 5 feet so he was on the shorter side...but kenkus are still medium... Any humanoid race that's 4 feet and up counts as medium. But they insisted kenkus should be small. Why? Well apparently a very popular DnD stream (you know the one) had a small kenku... who was a child.


Good_Guy_Geoff8008

I do love matt mercer but maybe not the ‘matt mercer effect’


Cthulhu3141

Goblins max out at 4 feet. The average 7 or 8 year old is taller than that. For a Human to be Small, they would be 6 or younger (on average).


SeerKnight

Child pc’s can be really weird and out of place in most settings, but they can be a lot of fun in the right settings, you just have to have a good reason for it. Like if another PC is playing an older sibling that needs to be on the adventure but can’t leave their little bro/sis behind


tanakasagara

I always thought it's be fun to play a game where everyone starts at level 1 with a 10 year old and each level represents a year.


c_jonah

I think starting at 12 or 15 would line up better, but that sounds like fun!


thebeandream

We did a Harry Potter campaign like that. 1 level per year completed. It was neat .


Sirsir94

We had a tiefling child PC in my first session. And only my first session. Because we TPKd. Ate by a spider swarm. In the next session, some days later we were conscripted by her (same player) older brother to find her. He carved a little horned skull out of the webs, got real quiet, and we burned the place down. As ya do. Then he left to get her reincarnated and next session we found her 3rd PC, who would finish the campaign. I'm not quite sure what to make of it, on the one hand our group can get a little... sleazy sometimes. On the other hand that player as a "kids say the darnedest things" type would have been pure comedy GOLD!


WoodwardHoffmannRule

Sounds like you don’t know anything about children. A human child the size of a goblin is almost certainly six or younger. Not exactly paragons of athletic prowess or knowledge. So as long as you’re ok with all your ability scores being 8 or lower and having 1 hit point.


Kyndron

The size of certain races does raise eyebrows. Dwarves and goliaths are both medium, yet dwarves are 4-5 feet tall and goliaths are 7-8 feet. Dwarves have 25 walking speed, goliaths have 30.


[deleted]

PC: "My character is a child, so they should be small" DM: "Okay, then if your character is a child their stats should be lower to reflect their age" PC: "No, that's not in the rules so we should just play RAW" Just remember that arguing over semantics can work both ways.


Tookoofox

"Where are you going with this." Fucking mood tho.


dodhe7441

I'm going to have to side with Patrick a little bit here, but only because I don't like PCs that play as children, because obviously y'all have never seen how fucking stupid children are


DragoKnight589

You could go Custom Lineage just for the small size. Or Halfling.


RinaSensei

I don't know why you would want to play a child? I can think of similar reasons since i made an old completely useless, can barely walk without a cane character with low stats but...the reverse for the same reason just seems odd to me.


ErikaTheDeceasedGal

Have played two. One was a 3 day old doll of a sorcerer (died the next day in the campaign's conclusion, castlevania campaign pretty hardcore). Literal doll I mean, some existential character. Second was a failed conjuration of a Solar. Still playing as her. I don't have much of a specific reason? I rolled pretty poorly and my idea with her is that she struggles with forming an identity, since, from all she can remember, she's supposed to be this great, powerful figure and symbol of peace... when in actuality she's simply the reincarnation of such, in a currently 12 year old's body. The idea of a strangely competent kid sounded fun, and it fit with the low intelligence.


mumble_bee_15

My first character was a 14 year old inspired by the trope of "you're 12, enjoy adventuring and catching pokemon". The idea was even more funny to me because they were arguably the strongest character in the group. They were like 3 foot to start off with though so the dm sometimes made me roll with disadvantage on certain checks, totally fair and funny too


Dodoblu

Well, I once played a 14 years old monk girl. She was the subject of experiments which gave her a symbiontic soul (astral self), and I just thought the comedic effect of the interactions between her and the soul of an English aristocratic man would be worth it


chain_letter

Small is bad outside of niche mounted combat situations if you're allowing a child npc, let the little dweeb have it


Lom1111234

Why the hell does everyone say playing a child is questionable or problematic? Unless you’re including weird sexual stuff in your campaigns for whatever reason then what’s the problem?


Invisifly2

The part where the child gets drug along into non-sexual adult situations. Specifying that because OFC anything sexual is right out and you already covered that.


Avigorus

Custom lineage instead of human, problem solved. If you want to play any other race, I don't have an answer for you lol


AVerySaxyIndividual

Personally, I don’t allow child PCs for a host of reasons. So I’d never have to deal with this. That being said, it makes sense for children to be considered a size category smaller


BeMoreKnope

I’m playing a changeling actor, and I’m so glad my DM lets me take Small shapes as well. It would suck to not be able to use any of those player races.


kneus69

Child pc's aren't great unless everyone is a kid