D&D General Death due to old age

[jasper]

Back in 1E you could die due to old age. Ghost aged you 10 to 40 years. Haste I think aged you 3 years. Before I was told I could not do in Adventure League, I created an age chart. It is base on 1E charts. I made guess from the information in various players handbooks.
Max Age Chart 5E Note "," are use to shown columns.

Max Age

%Dice ,Age Category, Variable
01-10 old, lowest age +d8
11-25 old, highest age -d8
26-60 venerable lowest age +d6
61-90 venerable highest age -d6
91-00 venerable highest age +d10
Under 200 years 1 year interval
Over 200 years 10 year intervals

Race, Old, Venerable
Aarakocra, 25-30, 31-35
Aasimar, 155-160, 160-175
Bugbear, 70-80, 80-90
Deep Gnome, 200-250, 250-300
Dragonborn, 60-80, 80-100
Dwarf, 300-350, 350-400
Elf ,700-750, 750-800
Firbolg, 400-500, 500-600
Genasi, 110-120, 120-130
Gith, 75-100, 100-125
Goblin, 50-60, 60-70
Goliath, 75-100, 100-125
Gnome ,300-350, 350-500
Halfling, 200-250, 250-300
Half Elf, 140-180, 180-220
Half-Orc ,60-75, 75-90
Hobgoblin, 75-100, 100-125
Human ,75-100, 100-125
Kobold, 110-120, 120-130
Kenku, 50-60, 60-70
LizardFolk, 50-60, 60-70
Orc, 40-50, 50-60,
Tabaxi ,75-100, 100-125
Tiefling, 80-110, 110-130
Tortle ,50-60, 60-70
Triton ,180-200, 200-220
Yuan-Ti ,75-100, 100-125

To find final age, roll d12 -1 for months.
Roll d4 -1 for weeks. Roll d6 for days.
2016= 1492 DR Faerun.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Yeah, I don't know why aging was removed. I suppose it was too complex for WotC to deal with..

Here are our house-rules for age, height, and weight. I have been thinking about adding ability modifiers due to age like in the 1E DMG.

We like the variation for height and weight better than the PHB, and adding the Strength weight really makes sense if you consider that stronger characters should weigh more. Now, if you think of the Strength score as more your ability to apply strength, don't add weight for it.

The rolling maximum rule creates more variation. You can also apply this idea to the rolling minimum to reduce weight for the other end of the spectrum.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Here is an updated age table, with categories and suggested modifiers for when the character reaches a new category. Adjustments should be cumulative.

An ancient character would have STR -3, DEX -2, CON -3, INT +3, WIS +3, CHA +2.

When you pass from one category to the next, roll for the Death Factor. If you roll the number, your character will die of natural causes (old age, accident, disease, etc.) in the bracket you just entered.

So, if you roll your age and begin as an Adult, when you enter Middle Age you roll a d10. If you roll a 1-3, you will die naturally sometime in the Middle Age category. When you enter Old, you roll again and this time a roll of 1-7 will indicate death by natural causes (likely old age or an accident).

Of course tweak anything you like.

 

[LordEntrails]

I think it was removed because most of the time, dying of old age is not fun. It's not heroic and it's not adventurous. Besides, even when I used aging back in 1E etc, except for magical aging, I never had a character, or knew of one, who died from old age. And, loosing strength or con because the campaign went on wasn't enjoyable.

There are many "realism" things we ignore in D&D because they don't add to the enjoyment or are not worth the bookkeeping. Of course, if they are fun for your table, go for it

 

[Shardstone]

Death through old age is a save or die mechanic, which is essentially absent in 5E except for Power Word: Kill, which has very specific limitations around its casting and is a 9th level spell.

 

[jasper]

I think it was removed because most of the time, dying of old age is not fun. It's not heroic and it's not adventurous. Besides, even when I used aging back in 1E etc, except for magical aging, I never had a character, or knew of one, who died from old age. And, loosing strength or con because the campaign went on wasn't enjoyable.

There are many "realism" things we ignore in D&D because they don't add to the enjoyment or are not worth the bookkeeping. Of course, if they are fun for your table, go for it

Their names are Bob Bola King, and Robin. I forget their pcs names. Bola failed vs a ghost and since he only had his current age but not max age we rolled on the chart. His pc aged 6 days pass his dead due date. Robin was about 10 years. Others during 1E and 2E used the age chart to their advantage since it help with spells know etc.
My campaigns due to moving at most lasted 3 game years.
Son of Serpent in another thread asked for this.

 

[Lanefan]

Death through old age is a save or die mechanic, which is essentially absent in 5E except for Power Word: Kill, which has very specific limitations around its casting and is a 9th level spell.

Much as we might like it so, death through old age isn't a save-or-die mechanic.

It's just a die mechanic; with the only variable being how long it takes.

That said, radical and sudden aging is yet another Bad Thing That Can Happen To Characters that, sadly, doesn't any more.

 

[dave2008]

An ancient character would have STR -3, DEX -2, CON -3, INT +3, WIS +3, CHA +2.

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.

 

[Celebrim]

There are many "realism" things we ignore in D&D because they don't add to the enjoyment or are not worth the bookkeeping. Of course, if they are fun for your table, go for it

Certainly true, but one important caveat to this is that part of the reason that magic in 3e blew wide open and lead to the imbalances it did was 3e AD&D was 1e D&D stripped of a lot of its seemingly weird and unfun restrictions on the uses of spellcasting.

For example, when 3e first came out, one of the things that I noticed was they nerfed the heck out of fireball in almost every way except the major intended balancing factor in 1e D&D - it was almost impossible to use successfully in a dungeon without frying your own party. But they also broke 3e Haste wide open by removing its main restriction in 1e AD&D, which is every time you cast it you got closer to perma-death. These little odd ball rules might not have been fun or they might have been, but they didn't exist for no reason. They evolved into existence as a response to problems that had been encountered in play.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

If I recall, 5e ghosts actually still can age your character (and I think it's still 10-40 years).