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This is a typical example of letting the rules get in the way of flavor. Even if there's rules for how to play young characters, that doesn't mean you have to use them. Just play a normal PC, and say that they're young.
Problem solved.
The ability score modifiers for Young age (-2 Str, +2 Dex, -2 Con, -2 Wis) are IMO appropriate, but they make a young PC weaker compared to an adult PC.
Yes. That's intentional.
Yep. Flavor only.
Call your character any age you want them to be, but make them mechanically the same way you would any average character.
By the rules a human reaches adulthood at age 15. Since everyone matures at different rates that can be assumed to be the average age of maturity. Environment will also affect how rapidly someone matures. If you grew up in a harsh environment where you have to fight just to survive you will mature much faster. Having a character that is 12 years old but has reached maturity is not that much of a stretch.
The young template was designed more for small children than teenagers. Unless the character is an eight year old it is probably not appropriate anyways. If you want to play something that young, your character could have some non-human ancestry form a shorter lived race to justify maturing more rapidly.
Ignoring mechanics for flavor is nice and all if you don't care about them. We do. We also care about the flavor of a kid being weaker physically than an adult. All we're asking is ideas for balancing the penalties somehow, preferably in a way that makes sense for a kid.
Well, you're starting off with a total of -6 to ability scores. That's a huge thing to balance. If you're not willing to handwave the ability scores, then yeah, clearly younger characters have a massive disadvantage. As written? There isn't really much that can offset that.
Do you use Hero Points? Maybe young characters earn Hero Points faster. That was the balancing mechanic used in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG to balance Heroes and White Hats. I'd suggest that if adults start with one HP, kids start with 3. That would help.
Another option could simply be XP. Kids are sponges - they learn FAST. As adults, we don't learn as quickly. So, maybe the kid characters earn XP at 2x or even 3x as quickly as the adults?
You could give everyone the childlike feat for free. It would basically let everyone "play dumb" in a convincing manner when they get caught doing something they shouldn't be.
Alternatively, you could come up with a handful of feats to let them pick from which they only get to benefit from so long as they are children.
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Ignoring mechanics for flavor is nice and all if you don't care about them. We do. We also care about the flavor of a kid being weaker physically than an adult. All we're asking is ideas for balancing the penalties somehow, preferably in a way that makes sense for a kid.
Okay, so if we're reading through the mechanics for Young Characters we encounter some serious limitations.
a young character does not have access to the same classes as adult characters. Not yet trained in the advanced techniques of war, arcana, faith, and varied other pursuits, a young character is a squire, apprentice, acolyte, or student on the path to expertise. As such, you can select only NPC classes while in this age category, beginning play and advancing in level as an adept, aristocrat, commoner, expert, or warrior, according to your interests and social background. As soon as you reach adulthood, though, you may retrain those NPC class levels as levels in any base classes of your choosing (see Retraining).
Young characters aren't meant to be balanced. They are meant to be inferior, and whatever you implement as balance is already disregarding the mechanics as you venture into homebrew.
If you want to roleplay a "bring your girl to work day" at the gladiator arena, be my guest. Just don't expect your girl to have a chance of defeating Min-Maximus.
Min-Maximus.
I love it, definitely gotta remember that one.
Just build a young character like you’d build any other, but dump STR and WIS, and maybe even start with only twelve CON. Then spend your points on having a higher than average DEX.
Now you have a character who is weak and foolish. That seems to fit what you wanted, without having a low point buy or an NPC class. I’m
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Okay maybe my campaigns are a little "realistic" and gritty, but why would a kid be balanced with an adult?
