D&D General Death due to old age

[Salthorae]

3.x & PF both still had age charts, so it's not like it's been THAT long since we've had the concept.

I just use those tables and any other 3.x ones I can find.

		Barbarian	Bard	Cleric
		Rogue	Fighter	Druid
		Sorcerer	Paladin	Monk
Race	Adulthood		Ranger	Wizard
Human	15 years	+1d4	+1d6	+2d6
Dwarf	40 years	+3d6	+5d6	+7d6
Elf	110 years	+4d6	+6d6	+10d6
Gnome	40 years	+4d6	+6d6	+9d6
Half-elf	20 years	+1d6	+2d6	+3d6
Half-orc	14 years	+1d4	+1d6	+2d6
Halfling	20 years	+2d4	+3d6	+4d6
Table: Aging Effects
Race	Middle Age1	Old2	Venerable3	Maximum Age
Human	35 years	53 years	70 years	+2d20 years
Dwarf	125 years	188 years	250 years	+2d% years
Elf	175 years	263 years	350 years	+4d% years
Gnome	100 years	150 years	200 years	+3d% years
Half-elf	62 years	93 years	125 years	+3d20 years
Half-orc	30 years	45 years	60 years	+2d10 years
Halfling	50 years	75 years	100 years	+5d20 years

 

[Nebulous]

Also, maybe, aging and leveling in D&D makes no sense. You can go from 1st to 20th in what, a year? The simulation game can't convey the years of experience it requires over a lifetime to master skills.

 

[Salthorae]

Also, maybe, aging and leveling in D&D makes no sense. You can go from 1st to 20th in what, a year? The simulation game can't convey the years of experience it requires over a lifetime to master skills.

I would say that depends entirely on how you play the game at the table and the pace you put PC's through their challenges.

You could go 1-20 in roughly 85 days of adventure as seen in this post by @BlivetWidget if your pace is highe enough in-game.

You could also have years of gameplay and game time where you don't gain a level for months and years of real and game time, but you experience the time at a level "growing" towards your next abilities.

Just depends on the game.

 

[Nebulous]

I would say that depends entirely on how you play the game at the table and the pace you put PC's through their challenges.

You could go 1-20 in roughly 85 days of adventure as seen in this post by @BlivetWidget if your pace is highe enough in-game.

You could also have years of gameplay and game time where you don't gain a level for months and years of real and game time, but you experience the time at a level "growing" towards your next abilities.

Just depends on the game.

That's true, but I do wonder how many DMs run their games with months or years between levels? Running any of the official modules, this would be nigh impossible. In a homebrew, you could cultivate it however you want.

 

[Salthorae]

That's true, but I do wonder how many DMs run their games with months or years between levels? Running any of the official modules, this would be nigh impossible. In a homebrew, you could cultivate it however you want.

Depends on the DM's and tables I guess. Many of those I play with just take the published modules and expand them with more time, they spread out the pacing of the encounters and timelines to more slow-burn type stuff... shrug at least the ones we've done from official adventures.

 

[Nebulous]

Well I don't use XP at all, I gave that up in 3e and transitioned to milestones. That certainly helps to some extent, but the nature of the stories are immediate and subsequent, in that plot points immediately follow the last one, without huge gaps of time in between with no explanation. You know I'm fine with that, I don't play D&D to simulate real life, but it's easy to make comparisons sometimes

But @Salthorae that's an interesting approach, to purposely build in time as passing, something I haven't really thought of before. That would also work well with the subsystem of having to train to level up.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Apply age changes implies to me that you want some "realism." I am not opposed to that; however, IME, Intelligence, wisdom, charisma to do not continually increase. Nor is it consistent from person to person.

For example, I am more knowledgeable than when I was younger, but I am not smarter (Intelligence) In fact I think I am less so (and I think science backs me up on this). My charisma is a bit better (I was shy as a child), but my Wisdom is relatively flat (I always contended I was a wise child, maybe wise-ass is a better description). However, most old people (upper end of your old and beyond) I know show a reduction in charisma and wisdom (their filter really seems to vanish) as well. So, if you want to model aging I think you should look at all facilities going down, but perhaps at different rates, after middle age.

Yeah, I thought about that too and initially had a more complex variant. I never fleshed it out completely, but it was basically the idea that you rolled a d6-3 and added that to INT, for example. You could roll well, and add to INT, or roll badly, and lose some INT. You just never know what biology will do to you.

Each ability score would have its own roll, like maybe d6-4 for STR (you are more likely to lose it than gain it, but gaining it is still possible...).

If you want them all to go down, maybe do d4-4. At best, it doesn't drop. At worst, you could lose up to 3 points.

Anyway, you can play around with the idea if you like it.

 

[dave2008]

That's true, but I do wonder how many DMs run their games with months or years between levels? Running any of the official modules, this would be nigh impossible. In a homebrew, you could cultivate it however you want.

I can’t speak for others, but in one of my groups we have had the same campaign since 5e started and they are only 14th level now and it has taken them about 10 yrs (in game time) to get that far. That pace is actually fast for me as a rule of thumb I say it takes 1 yr to level up (quicker at lower levels and longer at high levels).

 

[Lanefan]

That's true, but I do wonder how many DMs run their games with months or years between levels? Running any of the official modules, this would be nigh impossible. In a homebrew, you could cultivate it however you want.

Yes, the flaw there is with the official modules, and by extension the game design they're written to suit.

Problem is, the best answer is some sort of downtime mechanic (either enforced by the DM or done voluntarily by the players/PCs); and particularly in 5e that runs smack up against a very big problem: to make the resting rules work properly the party have to be somehow encouraged or forced to keep going beyond when they'd otherwise stop for the day (see the ongoing 5MWD thread), and the best way to do that is in-fiction time pressure.

Hard to have in-fiction time pressure and lots of downtime running side-along without it feeling very contrived.

 

[Nebulous]

I can’t speak for others, but in one of my groups we have had the same campaign since 5e started and they are only 14th level now and it has taken them about 10 yrs (in game time) to get that far. That pace is actually fast for me as a rule of thumb I say it takes 1 yr to level up (quicker at lower levels and longer at high levels).

So how does that work in actual play? Are you 1st level for months of real time before reaching 2nd? Do the players enjoy the slow leveling? I think it is cool that the game can do that, but it seems contradictory to the rules that encourage fast leveling (which I ignore myself). I wouldn't mind if players were stuck at 3rd level for a long, long time, but they like the sense of progression and getting better. For that matter, I wouldn't mind ending D&D at 9th after a long progression, and leave all the high level stuff alone.