Age penalties for PCs... ever make an aged character?

I've decided to make my next character an old halfling. Level 1 wizard... has decided to go out and meet death head-on instead of sit around waiting to die in his bed.

I'm wondering how many of you have ever rolled up a middle-aged, old, or venerable character for the CHARACTER CONCEPT, not for the bonuses to Int, Wis and Cha.

The adjustments for being old are: -3 to Str, Con, and Dex; +2 to Int, Wis, and Cha.

I'm excited about the idea, and can't wait to play him.

i've played characters that have gone through age cartagories while in play, but i've never been a huge fan of the adjustments, the allways seemed a bit harsh, especially on the fighter.

harsh on fighters and a boon for Wizards and Clerics...

What I find interesting is that in some of the latest rules books they've started to turn it into an advantage. Timeless body and abilities like it now specifically say you get the bonuses for aging, but not the penalties. Of course this sort of hoses the elves because it takes forever for them to take advantage of that.

Hey Doc, how's it going?

I haven't tried this personally, but I play in a small group that games once every 8-10 weeks using PCs that are "flawed" in some very clear manner. One of the players in that group has an aged adventurer, and he seems to love the challenges the character presents. I think it's a great concept, and I'll wager you have a ton of fun with it!!

In a 2nd ed. game i had old wizard who was around 60 starting at first level. Basically he had been a very powerful archmage, and had been working on something that concerned an ancient prophesy and was trying to preempt the coming of an evil being. The problem with that was that he was tricked and instead ended up releasing it. The council of mages caught wind of what happened and his enemies in the council immediately called for his execution for dabbling things he shouldn't have been. A couple of staunch allies where able to get the sentence to commuted to stripping him of his power. So they more or less level drained him back to first level, the trauma of the event left him with huge gaps in his memory (which was a lot of fun in the game, meet a noble "Finius!" they would exclaim to which he would look confused and go, "Huh?....uh...er....hello"). He spent a few years crawled into a bottle, until one day a mysterious stranger pressed a spellbook in his hands and told him to get his act together. And so his adventuring career was born anew.



This character was a real blast to play, someday I might give it another go. He was kind of the stereotypical befuddled old man, but he was great.

"I am a great and powerful archmage....er....well I was"

"Why thats a ....a ....um....its nothing"

"hehehehe.....KA-BOOM"

I actually encourage my magic using players to play old farts.
one of my players whose command of the Rules wanted to have an uber-character similar to the other rules-lawyer created characters.
I came over told him to be an old old old man dual class ( this is in the 2E days) Cleric. Mage....heck i think he may have been a psionicist too.
The guy never moved once a fight started taking place. With his extra spells and large PSP pool he enver needed to.

I have always been a proponent of aging characters. I love the concept. As a matter of fact, I have a character that was rolled out for me on Halloween day 1980, a fighter. I now use him as an NPC. The DM, my friend, passed away and I couldn't let the character go. So, I aged him about 20 years, adjusted his stats, and made him 13th level, he started out at 1st. He is old, cranky and all his bones ache. He is without a doubt my favorite charater.

The druid my username is taken from (Amergin Liath) was started at age 48 (at 10th level, though). I played up the generational differences with the rest of the party -- turned out quite cool.

A generation and a half later, he's still around at age 83...

Yeah I had a thief who once grave robbed from a tomb.
Aged all those years from the ghosts.

Fun times playing a 75 year old 1st level thief.
Made it to 7 level before the game died...for the record he didn't though.