D&D 2E What if your starting age...

[le Redoutable]

... gave you stats points ( like 27 points for a 27 y o pc )
Then, furthermore tells how much XP are required to climb to level 2 by multiplying stats points by 80 ( so a 25 yo citizen needs 2.000xp to enter level 2 )

 

[le Redoutable]

Of course stats points are more dnd than ad&d

 

[Andvari]

How many stat points does my 164 year old elf get?

 

[le Redoutable]

How many stat points does my 164 year old elf get?

Well, it isn't here a matter of stats points, but rather an xp issue : xp required to climb to level 2 equals 164 x 80 ===> 13120 xp...

 

[le Redoutable]

Well, it isn't here a matter of stats points, but rather an xp issue : xp required to climb to level 2 equals 164 x 80 ===> 13120 xp...

Then, your chr may have godlike stats, but he will climb so slowly that the typical barbarian jumps of joy ( hem sorry I had the 1st ed barbarian from unearthed arcana in view )

 

[le Redoutable]

Just a note: x 80 is for the fighter class;
Dealing with thieves gives a x 50 ( because 50x25 = 1250 XP )

 

[le Redoutable]

How many stat points does my 164 year old elf get?

Or else, get away from the age and assign the amount of stats points that suits your needs, with the reminder rhat the more points you assign, the slower you will climb levels

 

[Celebrim]

Balancing characters across different ages and different life experiences is always hard for any system, especially since you are introducing two competing paradigms - balance and simulation. The game generally wants to make starting characters balanced with each other to avoid spotlight stealing and predict correctly how much challenge starting characters can face. But logic dictates that a 6 year old and a 32 year old are probably not equal in skill and ability.

Traveller's character burner system is probably one of the stronger attempts to simulate life experience but even then it has problems. Point buy systems generally run in to hard versions of the same problems that all point buy systems face in pricing out point, which in this case is "How much benefit do you assign to growing older?" How many points does each extra year of life add, and what exactly are you risking? Quite often, in point buy this has to be a wash as if you aren't risking anything then being older is simply straight advantage, but if you are risking something then essentially, it's color (points lost here match points gained there, so you could have built the character that way without explicitly saying you were aged). In class/level-based systems, the problem tends to be throwing off the power curve where for different levels the ideal age would differ and so it turns into a metagame choice.

Plus, rarely in an RPG (except maybe Pendragon that is built around dynastic play) do you see the in-game story cover multiple years of play so aging rarely has an in-game effect.

I've played around with allowing players to start as higher level characters with the cost being they've aged but there is just no great way to balance it, even using NPC classes. As such I tend to stick to all starting characters are young adults with no significant prior life experience.

 

[Mannahnin]

Yeah, point buy is always really tricky to balance. There was a pretty good + thread on character aging a couple of months ago. Here was my contribution:

A relatively simple system for starting ages I saw someone suggest recently was basically to have the player select at character creation whether the PC is Youthful, Mature, or Aging. Note that this was for a simpler version of D&D without a full skill system. I think it might have also been in a context of a rule where every time you fail a death save, your death save value permanently goes up by 1.

Youthful characters get a base death save of 8+ and +10% to earned experience.

Mature characters get a base death save of 10+ and to choose a professional career they had before adventuring. They get one pricy/valuable item or set of gear related to that profession (could be a horse, a small smithy or workshop, or the like) and are assumed competent and knowledgeable in relation to their profession. So they can use those skills and knowledges during play.

Aging characters get a base death save of 12+, the professional career stuff, and a useful NPC relative or servant. The equivalent of a henchman or sidekick character.

As for aging during the game, I'm a bit leery of setting any arbitrary break points. I think what Pendragon does is pretty good. IIRC every year after the character turns 35 you make a check* to see if any of your ability scores degrade. It's a 2d6 table, IIRC. More extreme rolls result in more stats going down. Once you know how many are degrading, randomize which ones and they each decrease by 1. Of course, you can also increase ability scores by training in the winter phase in that system, so you can offset decrepitude, albeit at the cost of not putting those advancement points elsewhere.

D&D 5E - Simple Rules for Aging (+)

Personality Traits "You youngsters need to get off of my lawn." and “Though much is taken, much abides; and though We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will...

www.enworld.org

 

[Celebrim]

Yeah, point buy is always really tricky to balance. There was a pretty good + thread on character aging a couple of months ago. Here was my contribution:

It's an interesting take, but it's also just a really good example of how hard it is to do this even if you understand the system and have thought hard about it.

Objectively, you'd always take 'youthful' because not only does the character get longer natural life from the point you begin playing them (rarely comes up, but can especially if magical aging happens), but also you get advantages of real merit that can't easily be taken away in the course of play and which remain useful no matter how high of level you attain. Whereas the advantages you gain by being anything but youthful not only can be taken away in the course of play, but become less and less meaningful the more you age.