D&D General Does Character Lifespan Even Matter?

[Alzrius]

Only with ghosts and the haste spell(back in the day). If you weren't an elf or dwarf, ghosts and haste wrecked you.

Well, one thing to remember is that, in AD&D 1E and 2E, any form of magical aging – including from spells such as haste – required a system shock check, which if you failed caused you to die instantly. The percentage chances of survival were usually in your favor if you had a decent Constitution score, to be sure, but you didn't want to make that particular roll too often if you could help it.

 

[jmartkdr2]

I try to factor it in when roleplaying; for an elf character laying low and waiting a few decades is totally an option and barely an issue, so they'll suggest it when it makes sense (from their point of view.)

But it's rare that any of the things we're dealing with have that kind of timescale - usually the world-ending threat is going to happen at the end of the month if we don't stop it. I could play a race with a maximum lifespan of 1 year and it wouldn't matter.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Mechanically? Not really.

But it has a big impact on how we play our characters.

My forest gnome is quite young, only in his mid thirties, not even so old that anyone expects him to settle down any time soon. His closest friend is a Goliath. Dresden will, assuming no one gets killed, watch Thumi’s great grand children grow old.

So, he makes the most of the time he has with her, and her family, and he refuses to play the long game or take his time with the mission they’re on, because he knows that in 30 years Thumi won’t be fit to adventure.

 

[el-remmen]

It doesn't really matter mechanically, but it can matter in the abstract and plot-wise. For example, recently my group found two Potions of Longevity. One player was very skeptical, considering it "useless" because "we aren't going to play that long."

However, later when they thought to trade those potions to an aged politician with lots of influence in return for an important favor they had their weebay moment.

 

[Maxperson]

Well, one thing to remember is that, in AD&D 1E and 2E, any form of magical aging – including from spells such as haste – required a system shock check, which if you failed caused you to die instantly. The percentage chances of survival were usually in your favor if you had a decent Constitution score, to be sure, but you didn't want to make that particular roll too often if you could help it.

Yes. That's true as well, but as you said the chances of death were low. Generally we ended up aged into a new age category and occasionally dying of old age(if ghosts were involved).

 

[lall]

When I first played in 2e, I chose to be an elf because of their lifespan and because they didn’t show signs of aging until late in life. It mattered because I wanted my character to maintain his good looks for as long as possible after he retired. Why try to save the world if you’re going to be ugly or dead soon? In 5e, I just ensure I take Clone, so it matters less.

 

[Azzy]

No. Even back in the day, where there were aging effects from monsters and spells and stuff, it rarely mattered. Nowadays, it would have to be an important part of the campaign (skipping decades or centuries) to really matter.

 

[Charlaquin]

That is, our party Bard has, for legitimately only heroic reasons, absorbed a bunch of devilish power originally coming from his powerful devil ancestor on his father's side (identity remains undetermined, but the narrowed options are scary), and also a bunch of demonic power from his now-former-succubus great-grandmother, who is his maternal-line ancestor. As a result, he is now effectively half-human, half-devil, half-demon.

My partner has a Dhampir character built using the lineage from Van Richten’s Guide on a half-elf base, whom we like to joke is half-human, half-elf, and half-vampire. And then I usually add “and stronger than both!” in my best Bill Nighy impression.

 

[rgoodbb]

It only mattered once for my 60 year old Goblin facing the aforementioned ghost.

Shawky the Goblin was brave
I, as a player S&*t myself!
I suppose you would call that a meta-S&*t

 

[Blue]

But has this ever been an issue at your table? Has anyone ever taken this into consideration when creating their character? Has your campaign ever run long enough for lifespan to matter? Has a character ever been artificially aged by magic so much that they were worried about their expiration date? Has a player ever deliberately shortened their lifespan (by choosing to play a venerable-aged character) just to get a better Wisdom score (back in 3rd Edition)?

Absolutely.

In the current campaign I run I have an Eladrin Bard who has been making appearance in the material plane for close to 100 years. She is exceedingly well known, and equally hard to disguise or sneak around with. I have a 700+ year old High Elf at the end of his life who remembers back to when the High Elven Houses had power before they scattered during a civil war, which is a major influence in the current campaign arc. He's also old enough to remember before the dwarves were genocided 640 years ago and has provided insights to the magic ritual that was used to do so, leading the dwarf-out-of-time character to realize that she can perhaps undo the effects of that ritual.

In another campaign I was running the shorter lived Dragonborn had multiple cultural details around how quick there maturation and old age was.

Back in AD&D & 2nd, Haste used to age you a year. This got to be a big deal, and we had multiple adventures where potions of longevity were rumored to be found, even though each one you took had a cumulative 1% chance to undo all of the previous ones. I think eventually we came to an agreement with a number of elves for some of their blood so we could brew them ourselves. (Our DM often required blood from multiple for item creation recipes, such as a girdle of giant strength needed the blood from one giant of that type for each point of STR it granted.) Also had a friend cast Haste on a bunch of giant bugs so they all died of old age since their lifespan was less than a year.

I've run campaigns in the same setting. Last was an 80 year gap. So there were plenty of dwarven and elven NPC who were still alive (and often more powerful), vs. the decedents of other races.

It definitely influences my cultural design as part of setting building.

So it is very rarely a sessions-to-session matter in these days were Haste doesn't age you, but a sentence or two in the racial information can more than pay for that minimal weight if you incorporate it, same as any other lore.