Search for Eternal Youth: Spells Alter and Polymorph Self

[Empirate]

From the Book of Vile Darkness comes Steal Life (Sor/Wiz 8, Necromancy [Evil]): basically, you need to chain a person up, then with this spell you can drain one point of one ability score from them each round until they die. You grow younger by one week for every ability point drained. Uses up a lot of... 'volunteers' over time.

 

[Jack Simth]

From the Book of Vile Darkness comes Steal Life (Sor/Wiz 8, Necromancy [Evil]): basically, you need to chain a person up, then with this spell you can drain one point of one ability score from them each round until they die. You grow younger by one week for every ability point drained. Uses up a lot of... 'volunteers' over time.

Note that there's a few other restrictions when using that spell for longevity. As to victims, it's about one a year, and you can stop before killing them if you so choose (and then get a half-dozen Restoration spells for them).

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Note that there's a few other restrictions when using that spell for longevity. As to victims, it's about one a year, and you can stop before killing them if you so choose (and then get a half-dozen Restoration spells for them).

Yeah, with care this could be used in a non-evil fashion on a consenting subject. Drain them but not all the way, restore them and they're fine but the caster is younger. With a well-rounded commoner you'll get nearly a year's youth out of this for a cost of 600gp (+whatever you have to pay the cleric.)

 

[James the Newbie]

Just out of curiosity, what would you do about the growth of intelligence, wisdom and charisma for a human who has lived as long as an elf? or a dragon? Or longer?

Would you let it keep growing uncontrollably, or put a cap on it earlier?

 

[Greenfield]

Longevity potions? I haven't seen them in 3.*.

But they had their limits. Each one added a D10 years to a person's life, but each one consumed included a cumulative chance that it would undo the effects of all previous Longevity potions.

As for stat changes: They aren't given for years but for age categories. If you extended a Human's life span to resemble that of an Elf, or even a Dragon, you haven't changed the number of age categories in their life.

As far as the Reincarnate path is concerned... They can reach Venerable age as many times as they like, and yeah, they'll keep accumulating Wisdom and Int. But for that to mean anything in a campaign setting the character would have achieved deity-like levels of power anyway. At some point they'll simply start taking the Epic feat that extends their current age category, giving them nigh immortality without having to die and come back over and over again (losing a level each time).

 

[Samloyal23]

Yeah, with care this could be used in a non-evil fashion on a consenting subject. Drain them but not all the way, restore them and they're fine but the caster is younger. With a well-rounded commoner you'll get nearly a year's youth out of this for a cost of 600gp (+whatever you have to pay the cleric.)

Where is the fun in that?

Lol... Does the target even have to be humanoid? Could you not drain a herd of cattle?

 

[Jack Simth]

Where is the fun in that?

Which is going to attract more people who'll try to kill you:
The commoner that goes into a bar, buys beer for all his friends, and says "Hi, yeah, there's a guy who wants to live forever, and found a way to do it that doesn't kill anybody. Hurts like the dickens, but hey, he fixed everything up after, AND paid me enough to feed my family for a year!"
The town sherrif who comes into a bar, and posts a help wanted sign that says something to the effect of "My husband was killed on the night of the full moon. We found his dessicated husk. A different person has been killed every month in this manner. Reward for making this stop."

Lol... Does the target even have to be humanoid? Could you not drain a herd of cattle?

Target is "One living humanoid", so the answers to your questions are "yes" and "No", respectively.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

The commoner that goes into a bar, buys beer for all his friends, and says "Hi, yeah, there's a guy who wants to live forever, and found a way to do it that doesn't kill anybody. Hurts like the dickens, but hey, he fixed everything up after, AND paid me enough to feed my family for a year!"

That.... doesn't sound that evil really when you put it that way actually. Awesome! That's like paying college kids for doing medical experiments.

 

[Empirate]

Yeah, well, the spell has the [Evil] tag, so technically it'd still be an evil act to cast it.

We know how the [Evil] thing crops up from time to time: Sap Strength, also from the BoVD, makes the target exhausted. Big deal, but apparently that's evil (unlike Ray of Exhaustion). Friggin' Deathwatch is [Evil], though it only helps you keep tabs on your team and the opposition!

 

[Samloyal23]

The Immortalist 3.5e Prestige Class) eventually allows a character to become not just ageless but incapable of being permanently slain. Even beheading or disintegrating an Immortalist does nothing but banish them for a short time. It is an interesting approach, but I think there should be a suite of spells that add up to the same effect...