Aging, unaging, and "...you still die when your time is up"

[Kahuna Burger]

I was flipping through some official PrC's today and a bit caught my eye on one... Its that old "unaging, but not" shtick that the druid and monk get. Basically, you don't age, but you still die of old age. Why? Who knows? Apparently there's some not well spelled out core assumption that life spans of the humanoids are based on their spirits and not their bodies, but if that was true, I think we'd get a little more to work with...

I guess it could be a balancing rule... but then I try to think if I've every seen aging penalties or bonuses used to begin with. So a few questions for the crowd...

Have you ever, as a PC or DM, enforced or seen enforced the bonuses and penalties for aging characters, or had a character age to the point where (s)he could not adventure? Have you ever had a sufficiently long running campaign that it was an issue? Did you actually keep track of character ages?

Then there's some more rhetorical questions... Would any DM actually let me make a 263yo elf in order to get the aging benefits if I took the penalties? How do these +/-'s interact with the stat boosts you get from leveling? Has WotC told the social security admin that a human is 'old' at 53 and do they enforce this in their retirement age? Why do elves get the shaft on proportional time spend as adults?

Thoughts?

Kahuna burger

 

[seasong]

Actually, I've spent time working up aging rules that were meaner, and enforced those. I like seeing characters through different ages, as they shift from bright-eyed youths to seasoned veterans to aging adventurers. Old wounds, too...

 

[Breakstone]

Actually, it's not WotC that enforced the "you still die when your time is up" rule- it was the old folks homes- can you imagine just how many druids would be filling the places if they never died?

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

I need a bumper sticker for my cart that says:

"Old Druids Don't Die; They Just Turn to Mulch"

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Actually, it's not WotC that enforced the "you still die when your time is up" rule- it was the old folks homes- can you imagine just how many druids would be filling the places if they never died?

Silly, rabbit, they don't have aging penalties - They're RUNNING the old folks home and laughing at the fighters from their old adventuring party... "oh yeah, you were right all along, weren't ya Hank? Magic may be nice, but your devotion to your strength and physical power definitly made for a better life... Say, I'm gonna go kill some orcs this afternoon, you wanna come? Oh, yeah, dunno if we can get that wheelchair up the path, sorry..." *walks away laughing*

Kahuna burger

PS, WHOA! my first word for laughing (indicating a mean but quiet laugh) was turned into a few letters with 's stuck in the middle!

 

[Hypersmurf]

PS, WHOA! my first word for laughing (indicating a mean but quiet laugh) was turned into a few letters with 's stuck in the middle!

Ha.

-Hyp.

 

[Uvenelei]

I use the aging penalties/bonuses in my games, but I've never run a game for so long that they've come into play for aging characters. In my current campaign, however, one of the characters is a 63 year old human who began the game at 63. He has the physical penalties and mental bonuses, and it isn't unbalancing at all, even for a wizard. He has a 19 Intelligence, but his 6 Strength and love for entering melee combat way more often than a 63 year old wizard should make up for that.

As for the unavoidable expiration date stamped on all mortals, again, I've never had a PC live so long as to reach maximum age. Then again, I pay very little attention to maximum age: I have several human NPCs who have lived looong past the maximum age. I assume magic can fix things like that, but I've never made a spell for it.

 

[Steverooo]

Eric's Granny...

PS, WHOA! my first word for laughing (indicating a mean but quiet laugh) was turned into a few letters with 's stuck in the middle!

Yeah... that old woman once kicked out my post talking about an -ite of Gruumsh, because Grumme has that four-letter-word in the middle of it... Someone should really look into modifying the censor-sensor!

 

[Hypersmurf]

I personally loathe the ruling that Reincarnate can circumvent death-by-aging, and apply the druid precedent.

If you're scheduled to die at 89, and at 87 get killed and reincarnated as an 87-year-old in a 21-year-old body, then two years later you'll die of old age as an 89-year-old in a 23-year-old body.

And I don't care if MotW says otherwise.

-Hyp.

 

[Piratecat]

I absolutely apply aging penalties. there's an old character in my game, and he has something like a 6 strength. Maybe 4; I forget. But he doesn't carry much, that's for sure.

Amusingly enough, in the original playtest rules for 3e, druids simply stopped aging - period - when they hit 13th lvl. I was at a loss as to why cabals of deathless druids didn't rule the world. I decided that druid brains were a key component of potions of longevity, but luckily they changed the rules.