Child wizards

[Anarchy_Kanya]

What kind of impact on a person's psychology/personality could learning wizardry at a very young age have, in your opinion? Would a wizard who begun studying at age 8-10 (with the assumption that they already mastered reading, writing, counting and other basic skills children need to learn) be any different than a wizard who started at age 15 or more, other than the age difference of course?

[Name Violation]

Depends.
Are they a child prodigy like Doogie Howser?
Is it because of overbearing parental expectations?
Other reason?
Most kids aren't going to have the patience to actually buckle down and do real wizardry. Harry Potter is a sorcerer.

They might even grow to resent it. Rebel. Be a fighter or bard.

[Kimera757]

Elves probably teach wizardry to children at young ages, which is why wizard is a favored multiclass for them.

I think it's a bit like having a kid who does well in spelling bees or baseball. Pressure from parents could have serious effects especially if the child is not that talented. I suspect the issue isn't as serious unless the parent is a mage, because the typical parent has to "hand over" the child to a mage, almost like a boarding school. (Of course, this assumes the mage isn't abusive.)

[Scott Wilhelm]

There are plenty real-world and fictitious examples of child prodigies who get engineeering degrees when they are pre-teens. You seem to be talking about the heroic fantasy version of Doogie Houser M.D. or Wormser from Revenge of the Nerds, or maybe one of those star science students in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Oh, wow, I would LOVE to teach a science class on the Hellmouth! Sunnydale's projects are the best!

[Anarchy_Kanya]

Name Violation wrote:

Are they a child prodigy like Doogie Howser?

Specifically in wizardry or in general? They're very smart, like most successful adult wizards.

Quote:

Is it because of overbearing parental expectations?

(...) Most kids aren't going to have the patience to actually buckle down and do real wizardry. Harry Potter is a sorcerer.

They might even grow to resent it. Rebel. Be a fighter or bard.

And if the child is interested and patient? A Lawful type with a knack for learning?

[Mark Hoover 330]

Anarchy_Kanya wrote:

What kind of impact on a person's psychology/personality could learning wizardry at a very young age have, in your opinion? Would a wizard who begun studying at age 8-10 (with the assumption that they already mastered reading, writing, counting and other basic skills children need to learn) be any different than a wizard who started at age 15 or more, other than the age difference of course?

Ok so as others mentioned, if you're talking child prodigy here then we're probably talking about a kid with the mental fortitude for the work as well as the force of personality not to let it change them too much. In this case I'd say just roll up/stat up a standard wizard, put them at age 15 and roleplay as normal.

On the other hand, let's consider that at age 8 a mortal, human child, even in a fantasy setting like Golarion, has neither the brain development nor the maturity to do much more than understand and survive through their immediate surroundings/present tense. A little boy or girl COULD learn magic, certainly, but they would really be at a detriment due to their emotions and reactionary nature.

Without much capability for future planning they wouldn't be able to self-motivate, keep to extended schedules without lots of reminders, or get long term projects done. Also, 8 year olds aren't generally known as being the most stalwart in the face of terrifying ordeals.

Can you imagine an 8 year old learning that there are people walking around with the ability to disintegrate you, set you on fire, turn you permanently into a lamp, etc? Think of the nightmares creatures like evil dragons or chimera might induce (if they learn 1 rank in Knowledge: Arcana). I imagine that learning magic for the first few years would be absolutely terrifying.

Terror breeds trauma.

The future effects of trauma from a young age are varied and unpredictable. 2 kids surviving the same magic training might become wildly different adults. One may become aloof, detached and nihilistic, wanting to consume every threat in eldritch fire and thinking their best option in life is to die young and gloriously. Another may get stuck in a pre-pubescent mindset and continue acting like a 9 year old the rest of their lives; tantrums, childish tics (thumb sucking and such) or refusal to accept certain realities imposed by their changing adolescent bodies.

Worse yet, a child surviving years of trauma may internalize this. In the face of overwhelming fear they harden, steeling themselves against the horrors of the world. Unfortunately this reaction might also cut them off from healthier relationships as well. This type of adolescent might develop narcissistic behaviors, privately hating themselves while publicly being unable to accept that they are anything less than exceptional.

Internalized trauma might manifest in self-harming behaviors, the need to self-medicate and growing addictions, rage and anger, etc. And don't get me started on things like phobias, stutters, nervous tics and other behaviors that might actually be causes by neural pathways corrupted in development by exposure to such intense fears.

Name Violation brought up Harry Potter and sure, those are sorcerers, but it doesn't change the fact that Ron Weasley, despite being in an extremely magical family and raised primarily in the wizarding world, became deathly afraid of spiders early in his childhood due to one near-death experience.

What if our young PC, at age 8, was practicing their Spark cantrip and accidentally set their own clothes on fire? Such an event might, if not dealt with in a healthy way, might convince the PC that fire = bad. Now look at how many Fire spells there are! Can you imagine being traumatized by fire at 8 and then having to sit through lectures and demonstrations on Burning Hands, Fireball, Flaming Sphere, Firebelly, Fire Breath, Scorching Ray and so on?

Now of course, I'm purely talking about human kids and of course, I'm applying real-world thinking here. This is a fantasy game. It might be that your PC is an 8 year old ratfolk, learning magic within their home warren with a vast network of mental and physical supports in place. In this instance the kid might get frequent breaks from lessons for socializing and such, minimizing their exposure to fear and trauma. Perhaps their teachers are more like the Lupin types from the Harry Potter franchise; personable, sensitive and willing to take extra steps for each student to learn at their own pace in a supportive, yet challenging environment.

TL/DR; I guess it comes down to what impact YOU want there to be on the character.

[Anarchy_Kanya]

@ Mark Hoover 330's tl;dr
Well, this is more about general ideas rather then a specific character.

[Quixote]

Anarchy_Kanya wrote:

Well, this is more about general ideas rather then a specific character.

In that case, the answer is simple: it varies. What kind of impact could it have? Any. Some people would crack. Some would quit. Some would flourish. Any and every result is possible.

What are you looking for, exactly? Not ideas for a character concept, apparently. So...what, a magic school?

In my settings, people with PC class levels are rare (1 in 50, if I had to put a rough statistic to it). People with spellcasting class levels are significantly more rare (1 in 1,000). Wizardry requires an especially brilliant mind, astounding memory and a monumental level of dedication, discipline and effort. "Young" (teeanger) wizards in my setting would be exceedingly rare compared to other wizards (maybe 1 in 5,000?), so, if we assume 20% of spellcasters are wizards, we're looking at 1 person in every 5,000,000 in a medieval world. A character like that would be almost entirely defined by this trait.

[Anarchy_Kanya]

Quixote wrote:

Anarchy_Kanya wrote:

Well, this is more about general ideas rather then a specific character.

In that case, the answer is simple: it varies. What kind of impact could it have? Any. Some people would crack. Some would quit. Some would flourish. Any and every result is possible.

What are you looking for, exactly?

Examples, ideas and suggestions for results that you think are likely or interesting.

[David knott 242]

The Principalities of Glantri gazetteer for BECMI D&D had rules for child wizards, as the nobles of that country were wizards who had their children trained in wizardry at a young age in order to ensure that they had qualifying heirs. The main feature of these rules was an age-based check for unexpected spell results.

[ErichAD]

There's the standard savant stuff. Everyone thinks of themselves as being at the 70%-80% level of expertise in their field regardless of where they really are. Savants don't really get that they are exceptional, and will tend to treat incompetent people as deliberately obtuse, or lazy, rather than simply ignorant. If they've known a spell that could solve a common problem since they were 10, they are going to be really dismissive of people with that problem.

They'll also be pretty hard on themselves. They learned to do something really hard early on, and they've been working exclusively on the hard part their entire adult life. Other people appear to make faster progress while they feel like they're spinning their wheels. Some kids end up focusing on really odd or niche skills at this point simply to make progress against fewer competitors.

I'd expect that the kid spoke primarily to adults since their only real peers are adults and that they'd dress in adult fashions. I'd expect them to be weirdly dismissive of mundane problems. I'd expect them to take their failures very personally, to count qualified successes as failures, and to count the failures of others as their own failure. I'd also expect them to have at least one weird hobby or area of study.

[Mudfoot]

Letting children loose with any spell about 2nd level is asking for trouble. You just have to hope that a tantrum causes a failed concentration check, or there will be a lot of collateral damage. Given that wizards don't know Cure Light Wounds and Heal is a Wisdom-based non-class skill, I can see a lot of fatal injuries coming.