The Child Beyond the Witchlight

Characer Building Guide

elcome to the Witchlight Carnival... Herein lies a handy character building guide to my special scheme for this campaign!

The Wild Beyond The Witchlight is a fairy tale-style adventure set in the fairy realm of D&D, the Feywild. In our version of the game, the players take on the role of a group of children exploring the mysterious Witchlight Carnival and the realms beyond in an effort to set things right in a Feywild that has gone very, very wrong...

All characters start at Level 0 and are children, which come with a few mechanical limitations to add to the realism of the situation.

At Level Zero

Hit Points: 4 + your Constitution modifier
You have no class features or traits
You may choose a race and a background (NOTE: we will come up with a suitable background together, there will be no child “Soldiers” for example)

Proficiency

Your Proficiency Bonus is +1
You have no proficiency in any saving throws

Equipment

You begin with only the equipment granted you by your background

Child Traits

You gain the following benefits and traits when you choose to play a child character in addition to any traits granted to you by your race.

Ability Score Decrease. Your Strength score decreases by 2.

Size. Since you aren’t fully grown, you are smaller and lighter than an adult member of your race. Your size is Small.

Speed. Your base movement speed is 5 ft fewer than the movement speed provided by your race. If your race has a climbing, burrowing, or swimming speed, the same penalty applies. If your character’s race has a flying speed, that speed is halved.

Unformed Scales. If you are a child of a race that provides Natural Armor, the AC bonus granted by those sources is reduced by 2.

Childhood Traits. Being a child comes with some limitations, but children can also do some things adults can’t. Choose one trait from the Negative Traits list and one from the Positive Traits list AND take one trait from the mixed traits list (or work with your DM to come up with traits that fit your kid!).

Negative Traits

Illiterate

You cannot read or write.

Monolingual

You can only speak, read, and write Common.

Sickly

You have disadvantage on saving throws against poison.

Scared

You have disadvantage on saving throws against being frightened.

Short Legs

Your movement speed is lowered by 5 feet.

Stage Fright

You have disadvantage on Performance checks made in line of sight of other humanoids.

Problems with Authority

When someone who claims authority over you attempts to give you or your party orders, you must succeed on a DC 12 Wisdom Saving Throw or treat this figure with belligerence, potentially lowering their attitude towards the party by one step if the offense is grievous enough.

Butterfingers

You have disadvantage on checks to catch thrown items or hold onto items and creatures have advantage when attempting to disarm you.

Gullible

You have disadvantage on Insight when determining whether a creature is lying to you.

Creepy

You unsettle those around you. You have a -2 penalty to Persuasion.

Bad Liar

Be it an overactive imagination, lack of self confidence, or too much of a conscience, you cannot tell a lie. You have disadvantage on Deception rolls and must roll before telling said lie. On a result of 10 or below, the lie you tell becomes outlandish or otherwise utterly unconvincing. Rolling above a 10 allows you to attempt to lie as normal.

Positive Traits

Agile

You have advantage on Acrobatics checks made to escape a grapple.

Innocent

You have advantage on Deception checks made against adults.

Light Weight

You have advantage on climbing checks.

Nimble

You can move through the space of any creature that is of a size larger than yours.

One with the Crowd

You have advantage on Stealth checks made to hide in large groups of people, and your movement isn’t restricted when moving through crowds.

Slippery

You can disengage as a bonus action.

Sticky Fingers

You have advantage on Sleight of Hand checks made to steal or pickpocket.

Just Sticky

You have advantage on grapple checks made against a furry opponent.

Naturally Curious

You have advantage on Investigation checks not made under pressure or time constraints.

Without a Care

You have advantage on saving throws against Charm effects.

Artful Avoider

After taking the Dodge action, the first attack you make on this or your next turn has advantage.

Mixed Traits

Adorable

You have disadvantage on Intimidation checks and advantage on Persuasion checks made against adults.

Adopted

You and your family are a different species! You gain proficiency in one language associated with your family’s race as well as a +2 bonus to History checks related to your adopted family’s culture and +2 to Persuasion checks with other members of their race. However, you suffer a -2 penalty to History and Persuasion checks associated with your own race’s culture.

Amateur Climber

You gain a climb speed equal to two-thirds of your base movement speed (rounded up to the nearest 5-foot increment), but you are vulnerable to fall damage.

Animal Lover

When encountering a new and/or appropriately adorable animal (or what your character perceives to be an animal), you must make a DC 12 Wisdom Saving Throw. On a failed save, your excitement overwhelms the animal (or insults the non-animal), giving you disadvantage on Animal Handling (or Charisma) checks made against the creature for the duration of the encounter or until you make amends. On a successful save, you manage to show just enough restraint to please the animal (or flatter the non-animal) granting you advantage on Animal Handling (or Charisma) checks against the creature for the duration of the encounter or until it becomes irritated. If you fail this save by 5 or more, the animal flees or becomes hostile, depending on its starting disposition. Non-animals just treat this as a failed save.

Class Clown

Your naturally goofy nature makes you a joy to be around when there’s fun to be had. You have advantage on Performance checks when the performance is comedic and Persuasion checks when the person you’re speaking to is in an amenable mood. You don’t always know how to read the room, however. You have disadvantage on Insight checks to determine a creature’s attitude toward you. If you enter conflict with a creature whose ire you’ve drawn with your comments, they go out of their way to target you first.

Growth Spurt

Your Strength score increases by 2 and you count as Medium for the purposes of grapple checks and carrying capacity. You have disadvantage on all DEX saving throws as you’re not quite comfortable in your new body.

Jittery

You just can’t sit still! You have disadvantage on stealth when staying in the same spot, and creatures have disadvantage on opportunity attacks against you.

Comfort Item

Designate one item as your comfort item (you may change this item when you level up); it must be mundane and unusable as either a weapon, shield, arcane focus, or armor. As a bonus action, you may grab or stow this item. You have a +2 to your Wisdom Saving Throws while using at least one hand to hold this item. You have disadvantage on attack rolls while holding the item in this way. Once per day, you may use an action to hold the item close and end one fear effect on yourself.

Old Soul

You are wise beyond your years, but having trouble relating to your peers. You have a d4 bonus to Insight and Charisma-based checks relating to those you perceive to be older than you, but a d4 penalty to the same checks with those you perceive to be your age or younger.

Overactive Imagination

You have an imaginary friend! Or is it just luck? After each long rest, you gain a d4 that you may add to or subtract from any d20 roll (as long as your character is present for the roll) until your next long rest. In return, you have disadvantage on any checks made to discern or disbelieve illusion magic.

Special Interest

You have one topic you know a LOT about. Gain expertise in one skill of your choice from: Arcana, History, Nature, Religion, Animal Handling, Medicine, or Survival. When rolling any other skill check, if you can justify its relation to your special interest (DM’s discretion), add double your proficiency bonus to that roll. Upon taking this feature, you have a permanent -2 to all other WIS and INT-based skills.

Springloaded

You have advantage on initiative. You must move at least 10 feet each turn. After moving at least 10 feet in a straight line, you must make a DEX save DC 12 or move an additional 5 feet in the direction you were moving and your movement ends. If this occurs after you have already used your full movement speed, you instead fall prone at the end of your movement.

Backgrounds

Altar Attendant

You’ve found yourself in the service of a temple to a specific god or pantheon of gods. Whether you’re the child of churchgoing folk volunteering at your weekly service or an orphan taken in as a ward of the church, you are called on to perform basic, sometimes menial tasks in the service of the upkeep of the temple and its congregation. Choose a god, a pantheon of gods, or some other quasi-divine being from among those listed in "Fantasy-Historical Pantheons" or those specified by your GM, and work with your GM to detail the nature of your religious service.

Proficiencies

Skills: Insight, Religion
Languages: One of your choice

Equipment

A plain holy symbol, a prayer book or prayer wheel, 5 sticks of incense, vestments, a set of Common clothes, and a small box meant for tithing containing 6 SP

Feature: Alms, Alms

As a steward of the church, it fell to you to collect donations from the patrons in the name of your god. That included collecting coin during services as well as taking to the streets to enlist aid from local townsfolk to volunteer to help with the monthly soup kitchen or with repairs to the church’s roof. You have an easier time obtaining aid and favors from people when you appeal to their better nature or convince them it’s for a good cause. Some people are even willing to put themselves in harm’s way to help you and your party.

Apprentice

It is not unusual to have a child be heavily involved in the family business as they grow up. For many working families, it is assumed that the children will take over the business when they become an adult. If a family has the right connections, they may choose to place their child under the teachings of a craftsman or artisan so they can learn a skill and trade.

You got your apprenticeship at a young age and have been working hard to learn the intricacies of your craft. You might be working as an assistant in a store or shop, or work the bellows at the local smithy where you are being taught how to work on tools, weapons, or just simple horseshoes. Regardless, you are tied to a specific profession and are on your way to be fully trained with the craft of your master.

Proficiencies

Skills: Choose two from Animal Handling, Athletics, and Nature
Tools: Two types of artisan's tools

Equipment

A set of common clothes, a small knife, a sewing needle and a spool of thread, a set of artisan’s tools, and a pouch containing 3 gp

Feature: Working Familiarity

You have an easy time talking to people of the working class, especially with those whom you share a trade. These people are more willing to share information with you than they otherwise would be, and you can make a modest living by offering your working experience to relevant stores and sites.

Variant: Farmhand

You grew up on a farm, working with and around animals. You spent your days tending the nearby fields and orchards of a farmstead, either your family’s or your master’s, and befriending and feeding the animals giving life to your home.

Caregiver

Growing up in a family with a lot of children, or maybe being raised in an orphanage alongside many other kids of varying ages, the eldest will often be given additional responsibilities. As a caregiver, you looked after the younger children who you grew up with, taking on a more parental role of authority and control. Your days spent with these youngsters has helped with developing leadership skills, as well as a dominant and unwavering personality.

Proficiencies

Skills: Insight, Medicine
Tools: One type of gaming set and one type of musical instrument

Equipment

A set of common clothes, a gaming set, a handmade toy, a worn book of stories, and a pouch containing 2 gp

Feature: Parental Aura

Children, especially younger children, are very comfortable with you and act much more calmly than they usually would when you are around them. You are able to quickly discern how a child is feeling, and the child will be more willing to trust you and do what you say, as well as help you by answering questions or doing minor favors.

Heir

You were born into wealth, power, and privilege. Your parents carry noble titles which you will one day inherit and your family owns land, collects taxes, and wields significant political influence. You might be the child of a pampered aristocrat unfamiliar with work or discomfort, a former merchant just elevated to the nobility, or a disinherited scoundrel with a disproportionate sense of entitlement. Or your parents could be honest, hard-working landowners who care deeply about the people who live and work on their land, keenly aware of their responsibility to the community.

Are you spoiled by wealth or have your parents taught you to be humble and graceful with those less fortunate? Are the circumstances of your birth a blessing or a burden? Do your parents expect far too much of their heir apparent or you just a normal kid like everyone else?

Proficiencies

Skills: History, Persuasion
Tools: One type of gaming set
Languages: One of your choice

Equipment

A set of fine clothes, a pendant bearing your house’s sigil, and a purse containing 15 gp

Feature: Position of Privilege

Thanks to your noble birth, people are inclined to think the best of you. You are welcome in high society, and people assume you have the right to be wherever you are. The common folk make every effort to accommodate you and avoid your displeasure, and other people of high birth treat you as a member of the same social sphere. You can secure an audience with a local noble if you need to.

Variant: Younger Child

While the circumstances of your birth remain the same, you are not in fact the next in line to inherit. That belongs to your older sibling. Are you relieved to avoid the pressures of responsibility or are you upset that your parents’ attention has turned toward them? Perhaps they’re everything you aren’t and you’re constantly in their shadow? Or perhaps seeing the pressure exerted on them by your parents makes you feel the need to comfort them? A tough position to be in for a younger sibling, to be sure.

Messenger

When news needs to travel from one part of the city to the next, speed is of the essence and small children have talent for diving in and out of alleyways and can push through crowds with a speed and ease not found in adults. You made a living running all over the city you grew up in, taking orders and news from store to store and street to street.

As a messenger, you are quick of both mind and body and have a knack for remembering important information. People trust you to keep their messages and deliver them accurately, and you may even have been employed by a member of the nobility or a wealthy merchant to carry their messages from the city’s upper avenues to its underbelly and outskirts.

Proficiencies

Skills: Athletics, Persuasion
Tools: One type of musical instrument or one type of gaming set
Languages: One of your choice

Equipment

A set of traveler’s clothes, a pair of worn shoes, a notebook with information about local stores in your home city, and a pouch containing 2 gp

Feature: Out of My Way!

While you are in a large settlement and you are traveling alone, you can move at a fast pace no matter how many people are crowding the streets or how well you know the city. In addition, you can get into places and sections of the city that are usually off limits for the common populace, as you put on the guise of having important messages to deliver.

Variant: Town Crier

When news and announcements are relayed to the citizens of a city or township, you were given the responsibility of delivering this information. You’ve spent hours of your younger days in the town squares and busy streets of your home city, bellowing about local events, news, and rumors. This information was provided to you by the city’s officials, whom you were also employed by.

Servant

When a noble family or a wealthy merchant takes on staff to work at their estate, it often ends up being entire families they take into employment. One parent might work in the stables, while the other makes their living in the kitchen. The children of such couples are given responsibilities equal to a servant, and are expected to help out with minor tasks around the estate.

As a child of these circumstances, you grew up alongside the children of the family you were serving, striking up friendships or rivalries with them as you got older. As you grew up, this relationship might affect how the family that once employed you now sees you and responds to you.

Proficiencies

Skills: Choose two from Animal Handling, Insight, and Perception
Tools: One set of artisan’s tools
Languages: One of your choice

Equipment

A set of ragged fine clothes, a small knife, a set of fine but heavily used cutlery, and a pouch containing 2 gp

Feature: At Your Service

Having spent a lot of time around the upper classes, you know how to properly address them and communicate with them. Likewise, you are comfortable with talking to the serving staff of a noble family, and can strike up conversations with them more easily, and potentially make them reveal some gossip or information about their wealthy masters.

Variant: Stable Hand

While others were working the interior of your master’s house, you spent your days in the stables, taking care of the horses of the estate. You were charged with grooming and feeding them, as well as cleaning out their stalls and keeping their tack and saddles in good condition.

Squire

If you were born into a noble lineage, your family may have decided to place you into the service of a knight or other military figure as a squire. As a squire, you were given the responsibility of keeping your knight master’s equipment in good condition and to act as their servant when it was required. In return, the knight was charged with teaching you the ways of war and battle, and would train you in the ways of combat.

They would also teach you how to behave when addressing people of various social standings, and teach you the laws and history of the land you traveled. Depending on the knight you were serving, you might have spent many years wandering the roads of the nation, or you might have accompanied your knight master to royal feasts and galas, meeting different people as you took on your training as an upcoming knight.

Proficiencies

Skills: Athletics, History
Tools: One type of gaming set or vehicles (land)

Equipment

A set of fine clothes, a token from your knight master, and a pouch containing 4 gp

Feature: Knightly Manners

You know how to act and talk to people of most social standings, having traveled both among the common folk and mingled with the higher nobility. You have learned to carry yourself with a grace and elegance that demands the attention of people who see you, and you are treated with respect by both the upper and lower class, as long as you don’t insult or threaten them.

Student of Magic

If your family had the funds or the right connections, they could have chosen to send you away at a young age to be taught the art of magic. You were put in a school away from everything you knew to be taught the intricate ways of the arcane. You grew up surrounded by talented spellweavers and arcane casters, learning about the lore and life of magic through studying and practical lessons.

Proficiencies

Skills: Choose two from Arcana, History, Nature, and Religion
Tools: Calligrapher’s tools or herbalism kits
Languages: One of your choice

Equipment

A set of common clothes, a quill and inkwell, a notebook, and a pouch containing 3 gp

Feature: Arcane Pupil

Having received training in the magical arts and the lore hereof, you are able to identify various symbols and signs pertaining to different kinds of magic. If a symbol is tied to a specific school of magic, you know which school it belongs to.

Urchin

You grew up on the streets alone, orphaned, and poor. You had no one to watch over you or to provide for you, so you learned to provide for yourself. You fought fiercely over food and kept a constant watch out for other desperate souls who might steal from you. You slept on rooftops and in alleyways, exposed to the elements, and endured sickness without the advantage of medicine or a place to recuperate. You've survived despite all odds, and did so through cunning, strength, speed, or some combination of each.

Proficiencies

Skills: Sleight of Hand, Stealth
Tools: Thieves' tools, one type of gaming set

Equipment

A small knife, a token to remember your parents by, a set of common clothes, and a pouch containing nothing

Feature: In and Out

Growing up on the streets is a harsh existence, and finding a place to sleep was a constant challenge. You’ve learned to make do and find the safest spot to lay your head, even in potentially dangerous areas. When you are not in imminent danger or being pursued, you can find a hidden spot to rest for the night in any settlement that is relatively safe from prying eyes, making it easier to avoid detection.