Gosh, What Am I Getting Myself Into . . . ?

[Golden-Esque]

One thing you always see in movies, TV, and popular culture in general is younger children who (by some obscure chance) are forced to go out and explore the world, going on dynamic adventures and all around emotional heartstring-pullers that, in the end, make you want to throw the movie out of the window and into the nearest furnace.

So, imagine my surprise when I realized that, as far as I am aware of, none of my DnD source books gave any information whatsoever on modifiers for Humanoid Races at ages below their adulthood.

I thought it was weird, so I took a ten minute journey to scour the internet for anything that could give me the information I was looking for. Well, I found it. Sort of. I stumbled onto the D&D Wiki and this was the best I could find.

The child template is considered appropriate for creatures below the age of adult for that race. The abilities here are adapted from the ability modifiers for children in d20 Modern.

"Child" is a template that can be added to most aberration, animal, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, ooze, outsider plant or vermin.
Individual creatures may be inappropriate for the child template; many giants have specific statistics for children, while some outsiders or aberrations may not have children at all.
While undead are generally not appropriate for the child template, the zombie, skeleton or vampire templates may be added onto children, though good taste may or may not forbid this.

Size and Type: The creature's type remains unchanged and does not gain the augmented subtype. It does gain the "child" subtype. Size is reduced by one category.
Hit Dice: Hit dice are halved, rounding down. In many PC races (human, elf, dwarf) as well as other creatures of 1 HD or less, this may result in fractional hit dice; see below for standard rules concerning creatures of fractional hit dice.
Speed: The base creature's speed is halved, rounding down. Unusual speed modifiers (the Dash feat, the expeditious retreat spell, caltrops, etc.) are handled normally for the new speed.
Armour Class: The creature's natural armour is reduced by 1 (minimum 0). Remember to adjust AC for the new size.
Base Attack: A child has a base attack appropriate for its new hit dice total.
Attacks: Children are weak, but not helpless - especially children of powerful creatures. A child retains all the attacks of its base creature. Remember to adjust natural attack damage for the new size.
Damage: Normal, as adjusted for the creature's size.
Special Attacks: A child retains all of the base creature's special attacks. Remember to adjust level-based benefits for the new HD value.
Special Qualities: A child retains most of the special qualities of the base creature. Its damage reduction is reduced by 5 (minimum 0).
Saves: A child has normal saves for its hit dice.
Abilities: The base creature's strength and constitution scores are decreased by 3. Its dexterity, intelligence, wisdom and charisma scores are reduced by 1. If the base creature's size has been reduced (all creatures except those of Fine size by default), reduce strength by a further -2 for a total of -5. Remember that creatures of an intelligence of 2, 1 or - default to that number despite such adjustments.
Skills: Racial modifiers are unchanged. A child's skills are adjusted for its new HD and intelligence score.
Feats: A child's feats are adjusted for its new hit dice value. Remember to adjust feats the child no longer achieves the prerequisites for (due to changes in HD, abilities, etc.).
In addition, a child does not receive bonus racial feats (human's bonus feat, elven weapon proficiencies, kuo-toa's Alertness) as long as it retains the child subtype.
Environment: As base creature.
Organization: Creatures of an intelligence of 2 or higher usually stay with their parents, while creatures of an intelligence of 1 or less are usually left for themselves or with other children.
Challenge Rating: As base creature -3.
Treasure: Usually none.
Alignment: Often neutral. Children's minds are still growing and are generally more plastic than adults, though more extreme alignments are not unknown.
Advancement: Special, see text.
Level adjustment: N/A; see text.
Advancement: Children do not gain hit dice with experience and cannot be advanced. A child's only way to progress is achieve adulthood. Adulthood occurs at a set age (15 for humans; other races vary wildly), though highly unusual magical or genetic effects may cause a creature to reach adulthood sooner or later.
Once an adult, the child loses the child subtype and all the effects of this template. Its hit dice return to normal and its reduced or disabled abilities are restored.
Level adjustment: Children are inappropriate for player characters due to their inability to advance in levels. If for some reason, a PC wants to play as a child prodigy, the character should be treated mechanically as an adult. Due to the highly unusual nature of the situation, any adjustments to ability scores, size, speed or other factors should be carefully judged by the DM on a case-by-case basis.

Needless to say, this wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but at the same time I feel like the Template itself has a lot of merit.

Well, if you've made it this far through the backstory of my question, then I salute you. Here's the actual question. As a Player and / or a Dungeon Master, how would you handle adding the Child Template to a PC if one of your players was interested in it?

To specify, I'm not looking for "I'd tell them to go $%#^ themselves and make an uber leet character like everyone else" type responses. To be honest, I was always kind of surprised that there wasn't rules for something like this already, given that Popular Culture has a strange way of making children the heroes of their own adventures.

More then anything, I'm trying to come up with ways to counterbalance the perfectly logical penalties that having the Child Template would incur. I'm not looking to reduce Ability Modifier Penalties or anything like that; to be honest I was thinking of major bonuses to various skills against creatures without the Child Template. For example, perhaps bonuses to Bluff (Oh, that darling child just couldn't possibly be lying!), Tumble, etc.

Also, I'm toying with the idea of adding bonuses to the Child's class as they level. Psychologically, Childhood is the best time for anyone to learn something new, so perhaps bonus skill points or the removal of some ability penalties as they increase in level.

Any thoughts?

Edited because Editing Shows You Care.

[Baron Corm]

Have them stat up a halfling and say it's a child? I've seen that done before. If you want a child from a different race than human you could possibly apply their stat penalties on top of halfling. For an elf child, for example, it would have -2 Str -2 Con +4 Dex. The other halfling racial bonuses seem to fit children pretty well though.

[DracoDei]

I think it was Fax Celestius who did an entire thread on this subject.

[mr.fizzypop]

Star Wars Saga Edition gives the stats for a young character:

Child: -3 str and con, -1 dex, int, wis, and cha.

Young Adult: -1 to all.

[Golden-Esque]

Have them stat up a halfling and say it's a child? I've seen that done before. If you want a child from a different race than human you could possibly apply their stat penalties on top of halfling. For an elf child, for example, it would have -2 Str -2 Con +4 Dex. The other halfling racial bonuses seem to fit children pretty well though.

I don't know : /. Halflings get some bonuses that are much more tailored to Halflings; stuff that wouldn't make sense giving to every child. Who's to say that every child is automatically good at climbing, swimming, and jumping, right? :P.

I think it was Fax Celestius who did an entire thread on this subject.

Do you have a link to said thread? Is it on GitPG? I'll start searching myself to see if I can find it.

Star Wars Saga Edition gives the stats for a young character:

Child: -3 str and con, -1 dex, int, wis, and cha.

Young Adult: -1 to all.

This is from Star Wars? Really? Wow, Mr. Lucas I just may forgive you for ruining my parent's childhood memories of Star Wars!

This looks a LOT like the Ability Modifier rules I found above. Are there any other rules on Children in this Stars Book? Would you perhaps have a link to a site that has some complied information on the Star Wars Saga Edition rules?

[Eighth_Seraph]

It'd be nice if people could get the names of one of GitP's prides and joys right. It's Fax Celestis. Just Fax works, though. Mr. Celestis is available from nine to 5 on Tuesdays, though he likes to have a quiet coffee break in the afternoon.

Anyway, it was Neek's Complete Commoner thread that you're thinking of. Great thread, great ideas. Gets less use than it deserves because DM's generally don't like going into that much detail for creatures that are essentially scenery anyway.

[ericgrau]

This is from Star Wars? Really? Wow, Mr. Lucas I just may forgive you for ruining my parent's childhood memories of Star Wars!

This looks a LOT like the Ability Modifier rules I found above. Are there any other rules on Children in this Stars Book? Would you perhaps have a link to a site that has some complied information on the Star Wars Saga Edition rules?

You can thank Wizards of the Coast for the game. Lucas mainly gave permission.

But I second those stats. Just use those, nothing more, and keep it easy on yourself. I'd also add a small size to child (but not young adult), and you're all done.

The Star Wars SAGA edition rules are not available online. You have to get the book.

[Draz74]

Here's a rough idea I came up with a while ago.

Infant

* -3 size categories
* STR -10 (min. 1)
* DEX -6 (min. 1)
* INT -10 (min. 1)
* WIS +6
* CHA -2 (min. 3)
* Likeability +5: (whenever a roll is used to determine a creature's attitude towards an infant, (e.g. Friendly, Indifferent, Hostile))
* -4 to all skill checks.


Toddler

* -2 size categories
* STR -8 (min. 1)
* DEX -4 (min. 1)
* INT -8 (min. 3)
* WIS +4
* -3 to all skill checks.


Child

* -1 size category
* STR -4 (min. 1)
* Dex +2
* INT -4 (min. 3)
* WIS +2
* -2 to all skill checks.


Adolescent

* STR -2
* WIS -2
* Rebellious: Diplomacy and Intimidate checks used vs. adolescents take a -5 penalty.
* -1 to all skill checks.

The main modification I would make at this point deals with the way I've redone mental ability scores ... long story.

[Golden-Esque]

It'd be nice if people could get the names of one of GitP's prides and joys right. It's Fax Celestis. Just Fax works, though. Mr. Celestis is available from nine to 5 on Tuesdays, though he likes to have a quiet coffee break in the afternoon.

Anyway, it was Neek's Complete Commoner thread that you're thinking of. Great thread, great ideas. Gets less use than it deserves because DM's generally don't like going into that much detail for creatures that are essentially scenery anyway.

Sorry, I'm still kinda new around here :(. I probably brought the guy his morning coffee and didn't even know it .

I read the Complete Commoner thread and wow, it had some good stuff! Definitely need to look through it. I might make some changes to it though, I like the idea of Likability for younger characters (though I don't think even with my general easy going attitude that I'd like Toddler and Infant characters, haha). Thanks for finding the thread .

You can thank Wizards of the Coast for the game. Lucas mainly gave permission.

But I second those stats. Just use those, nothing more, and keep it easy on yourself. I'd also add a small size to child (but not young adult), and you're all done.

The Star Wars SAGA edition rules are not available online. You have to get the book.

Good, I wasn't quite ready to forgive Lucasarts for Jar Jar yet. Also, are you aware that your name is one letter shy of epic?

The main modification I would make at this point deals with the way I've redone mental ability scores ... long story.

I think that everyone who uses these forums will fudge everything a little bit based on their beliefs . For example, I want playing with the Child Template to feel viable, if a little fragile, so I'll probably add some interaction bonuses (like I said before, I'm feeling likability). I'm also thinking about altering Youth Feats so they are available to the Children and Youth age groups. I figure if you've been out in the wilderness or fending for yourself in the city, you've probably gained a few tricks that people who've lived a typical life until they decided to start adventuring haven't.

Thanks for all your help everyone :D.