DM Q & A: What is the minimum age for PC

[Masterbard Alyster Darkharp]

What are the minimum ages for player characters? I know this is kind of a weird question, but is it 14, 16, 18? We are talking strictly human here, other races will have to be compared to that as in what is 18 in elven or dwarven or hin terms.

[DM Sauron]

Sept 13, 2020 13:13:09 GMT -5 Masterbard Alyster Darkharp said:

What are the minimum ages for player characters? I know this is kind of a weird question, but is it 14, 16, 18? We are talking strictly human here, other races will have to be compared to that as in what is 18 in elven or dwarven or hin terms.

I'm 99.9999999999% sure it is 18 years for human characters.

[Munroe]

Sept 13, 2020 13:13:09 GMT -5 Masterbard Alyster Darkharp said:

What are the minimum ages for player characters? I know this is kind of a weird question, but is it 14, 16, 18? We are talking strictly human here, other races will have to be compared to that as in what is 18 in elven or dwarven or hin terms.

The Dungeons and Dragons 3.x rules list adulthood as 15 for humans. However, a number of years past minimum adulthood are required to gain level one in an adventuring class, either +1d4 (for barbarian, rogue, or sorcerer), +1d6 (for bard, fighter, paladin, or ranger), or +2d6 (for cleric, druid, monk, and wizard).

With that in mind, the minimum age in D&D 3.x for a human character at level 1 would be 17 for a cleric, druid, monk, or wizard, or 16 for a barbarian, rogue, sorcerer, bard, fighter, paladin, or ranger.

If the character is going to participate in ERP, which is hard to predict ahead of time, the human character should be at least 18 years old at the time, as well as old enough to satisfy the player's local laws concerning such things, so FRC and its players are not placed in a legally compromising position.   

As for the adulthood of other races, the age table is as follows:
(This information is from the tables on page 31 of Player's Guide to Faerûn. I've omitted deep gnomes and planetouched.)

Race	Adulthood	Simple Class Level 1*	Moderate Class Level 1**	Complex Class Level 1***	Middle Age	Old Age	Venerable Age	Maximum Age^
Human	15 years	+1d4 years	+1d6 years	+2d6 years	35 years	53 years	70 years	+2d20 years
Dwarf (any)	40 years	+3d6 years	+5d6 years	+7d6 years	125 years	188 years	250 years	+2d100 years
Elf, Sun	110 years	+4d6 years	+6d6 years	+10d6 years	210 years	315 years	420 years	+6d100 years
Elf, other	110 years	+4d6 years	+6d6 years	+10d6 years	175 years	263 years	350 years	+4d100 years
Gnome, rock	40 years	+4d6 years	+6d6 years	+9d6 years	100 years	150 years	200 years	+3d100 years
half-elf	20 years	+1d6 years	+2d6 years	+3d6 years	62 years	93 years	125 years	+3d20 years
half-orc	14 years	+1d4 years	+1d6 years	+2d6 years	30 years	45 years	60 years	+2d10 years
halfling	20 years	+2d4 years	+3d6 years	+4d6 years	50 years	75 years	100 years	+5d20 years

*Simple classes are barbarian, rogue, and sorcerer.
**Moderate classes are bard, fighter, paladin, and ranger.

***Complex classes arecleric, druid, monk, and wizard.

^Maximum Age is added to Venerable Age to determine when a character dies an age-related death.

Note: There are usually ability adjustments associated with Middle Age, Old Age, and Venerable Age but I haven't listed them here.

I've been typing this response for like an hour. I never could get my table borders to show up right. I think I finally got it. I hate the way each cell must be individually defined on here.

[Masterbard Alyster Darkharp]

Thank you, oh Rhapsodist of Rules. I would have just screenshotted that table and linked it though. I appreciate the prompt and thorough answer.

[maeglhachel]

To add one more request for clarification along that line: The age of adulthood per race in the PnP lore does not necessarily have to be the same as the minimum allowed age for characters on the server. I know of other servers who strictly enforce 18 as a minimum character age for purely RL legal issues that can come up depending on RP.
Not saying I advocate that, just asking if the above post really means I can play a 15 yo half-orc girl?

[Masterbard Alyster Darkharp]

Not to split hairs but the problem technically wouldnt be a legal adult roleplaying as a minor, but a minor roleplaying as an adult, that would be the real legal issue. My question was one that was strictly innocent and concerned with 3.x rules not legalities. It is perfectly legal for either of these situations to happen until *coughs* the obvious 'legal concerns'happen. when you look at that angle the illegal part is a minor claiming to be an adult (forced to be actually) IC. I know that characters needing to be 18 seems like the obvious solution but its actually not, it's the players that need to be required to be 18 or a legal adult to sidestep the alluded to shenanigans.

I guess I should have specified I was referring to NPC graduates of Alizarin and what age they could be first level in character classes, as opposed to NPC classes. The question had nothing to to with ERP.