Should potions of longevity be put back in the game?

[Turjan]

I don't mind that potion. Personally, I'd probably make it very rare and the recipe hard or impossible to come by. But I don't think that the necessity for that potion would ever come up in one of my games.

In principle, I prefer the approach of becoming a mojh like in AU. It's not as drastic as becoming a lich or a vampire, but it demands a serious sacrifice. And it makes for an interesting story .

 

[KB9JMQ]

I would like to see them back. I loved the aging effects the game used to have.
I also grew up playing being terribly afraid of ghosts.

 

[Dr. Harry]

I say nay!

Immortality should require a heavy sacrifice: lichdom, vampirism, etc..

If you can pop longevity potions whats the point of becoming a lich?

I said yes.

The ancient wizard who loves some form(s) of physical pleasure too much to give them up using magic to extend his/her life, is a fantasy staple. Especially if it takes the form of some deal-with-death-unholy-bargain.

My chioce in campaign flavor right now is that there should be options than just more and more undead. Why make life too easy for the PC's? After all, the undead "heavy sacrifices" come with little flags to tell the players "I'm Evil (pronounced eeeee-vil)! Kill me for the XP!"

It is not 99 separate 1% chances, it is a cumulative 1%/potion drunk, so your 99th potion has a 99% chance of undoing all the effects.

The question of drinking your 99th potion presupposes your succeeding at your previously succeeding at 98.

Starting with a 1% failure rate, this first potion has a 99% cahnce of succeeding. The second potion has a 98% chance of succeeding, presupposing that you made the first role, for a total probability of (0.99x0.98) 97%

The survival chance for you surviving by the time you get to your:
fifth potion : 91%
tenth potion: 86%
fifteenth potion: 28% (.99x0.98x0.97x0.96x0.95x0.94x...x0.85)

This drops off a lot more quickly than you might think. Consider once you get to about ten potions that if you round off the odds of failure as 1/10 instead of 10/100, the odds of rolling three, four, or even five ten-sided dice without rolling a one gets lower and lower.

twentieth potion: 10% chance that you survive this long
twentieth-third potion: 5% chance that you survive this long

The odds of getting to the ninty-ninth potion are one in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

 

[Three_Haligonians]

Even if I was sure I'd be able to reduce my age soon, the physical stat penalties would not make it a safe gamble at all. -6 Str, Dex, and, Goddess help you, Con? No, I would not do that for a measely +3 on the mental stats.

I think Old age; -3, -3, -3, +2, +2, +2 ain't too bad especially since odd mods are a little easier to hide.

-6, -6, -6, +3, +3, +3 is too costly.

Dragon Magazine #334 has an article on various types of alcohol you can include in your game. One of these is an elven wine called Evermead that removes the physical penalties old age for twelve hours per glass consumed. It doesn't make you younger, and it doesn't save you from death when "your time is up" but it would let you get away from those -6's for a while. Provided you can spend 200gp per glass, or learn how to make it yourself (the requirements are in the article as well).

I've often wanted to play a venerable elven wizard who carefully chooses the "right time" to drink a glass.

J from Three Haligonians

 

[Dr. Harry]

Dragon Magazine #334 has an article on various types of alcohol you can include in your game. One of these is an elven wine called Evermead that removes the physical penalties old age for twelve hours per glass consumed. It doesn't make you younger, and it doesn't save you from death when "your time is up" but it would let you get away from those -6's for a while. Provided you can spend 200gp per glass, or learn how to make it yourself (the requirements are in the article as well).

I've often wanted to play a venerable elven wizard who carefully chooses the "right time" to drink a glass.

J from Three Haligonians

Thanks! I missed that article. I'll go look it up now ...

 

[SilverAgent]

I voted 'Yes'--they should be brought back. I don't really agree with the logic that if such things existed, Liches and Vampires wouldn't exist. This isn't entirely true by any means. I look at Lichhood and Vampirehood as the 'quick way' to power--they can be done relatively early. If you assume that a Potion of Longevity requires say, Mind Blank (to shield the mind) and Limited Wish (to preserve the body) then a wizard would have to be at least fifteenth level to make one.

Thus you have the people who rush towards immortality, or who simply aren't good enough ICly to reach the heights in a normal lifetime being tempted towards evil, and the ones willing to wait or end their lives gracefully if they can't do so, not.

I think that's a more interesting choice than 'if you want to be immortal, you have to be an evil being, take the sacrifice'.

- SA

 

[Evil Monkey]

The question of drinking your 99th potion presupposes your succeeding at your previously succeeding at 98.

Well, yes, of course. What I was meaning was that if, by some amazing series of lucky die rolls, you managed to get that far, the chance would be 99%.

I am no math whiz, so I have no idea what the probability of actually MAKING it to that 99th potion would be, but I'm sure you're better off trying one of the other ways to immortality before chugging that keg of longevity sitting in your wine cellar.

 

[Psion]

I'm happy to leave life extending magic left in the DMs hand.

I see a lot of interesting consequences coming from the scarcity of such magic... the temptation of lichdom, the pursuit of life extending magic for other reasons, etc.

In fact, there's a villain in RDP's Dragon Drop that is designed just for such a reason. It's a fantastically cool idea for a villain, too...

 

[Sejs]

Life-extending magic should return.

Never understood why it was removed in the first place.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Screw potions of longevity! Just take 5 minutes to whip up a mid to high level spell, or 15 minutes to make a progression of them, and there's your immortality.

And really, balancing the aging mechanic is just unnecessary...unless of course you decide to continue with those rediculous mental boosts past the venerable category. By then of course, you've already thrown balance to the wind.

Oh and life extending magic doesn't make liches implausible. As a lich you don't need to worry about all those little things like eating, sleeping, breathing and general health.