GreyShadow
Explorer
Flumps rule the world.
Elf lifespan, XP, level limit issues...
- Thread starter (Psi)SeveredHead
- Start date
LoneWolf23
First Post
Paradigm's Eldest Son: The Essential Guide to Elves discusses this subject matter, and gives some reasonnable explanations as to why Elves act the way they do.
First of all, Elves have a -2 to Constitution, which makes them somewhat more frail then other races. They have one less Hit Point, and have a penalty to Fort saves. This means they have to be more careful about potential dangers, as a blow that would wound a human could cripple an elf, and one that cripples a human could kill an elf.
So Elves tend to avoid going into dangerous situations, like a fight, unless they know they can win. Which means they don't go out to collect experience more often then Humans do.
As for Elven mages... Do remember that most "Mighty Archmages" are members of short-lived races who take short-cuts to gain high levels of magic power in a short time. Elven mages have the time to slowly develop their powers over time, and not take shortcuts.
This means they have a different attitude about power and life: they're not as interested in taking big risks for collecting great amounts of power over a short period of time, and prefer to take it easy.
The same goes for other Elven characters: When you're frail, but can live a long time, you're not as prone to taking a whole lot of risks unless you really have to.
First of all, Elves have a -2 to Constitution, which makes them somewhat more frail then other races. They have one less Hit Point, and have a penalty to Fort saves. This means they have to be more careful about potential dangers, as a blow that would wound a human could cripple an elf, and one that cripples a human could kill an elf.
So Elves tend to avoid going into dangerous situations, like a fight, unless they know they can win. Which means they don't go out to collect experience more often then Humans do.
As for Elven mages... Do remember that most "Mighty Archmages" are members of short-lived races who take short-cuts to gain high levels of magic power in a short time. Elven mages have the time to slowly develop their powers over time, and not take shortcuts.
This means they have a different attitude about power and life: they're not as interested in taking big risks for collecting great amounts of power over a short period of time, and prefer to take it easy.
The same goes for other Elven characters: When you're frail, but can live a long time, you're not as prone to taking a whole lot of risks unless you really have to.
wizardoftheplains
First Post
Psion said:
--
With 3e level progression it doesn't take years and years (of a character's life) to progress to extremely high levels. Any race. So unless the GM purposes slows advancement down by having characters take time to train, study (as in Ars Magica), an 1st level wizard can advance to extremely high levels in a pretty rapid fashion. Age in 3e seems more of an atmosphere thing. It also allows elven players to have been around long enough to have witnessed history...a great roleplaying asset. Anyone agree or disagree with this?
wizardoftheplains
First Post
'purposes' should read 'purposely'
i'll spell check next time
i'll spell check next time
jester47
First Post
Another thought on elf achievement:
Time is relative.
Remember when you were a kid and a year seemed like a very long time? Does a year seem all that long now? Chances are probably not. Why? Because one year of your life if you are 30 is 1/30 of your memories. So, if an elf is 300 years old then one year is 1/300th of his experience.
So lets set up a comparison...
A 15 year old human percieves 1 day as 1/5340th of its memory.
An elf aged 110 will percieve 7.3 days as 1/5340th of its memory.
So imagine the weeks feeling like days, and you have the experience of an elf.
A good view on "significance in memory" is to take these two and compare them at the Venerable age using years.
A venerable human percieves a year as 1/70th of his memory.
A venerable elf percieves 5 years in the same light.
Time gets faster for the elves as they age, and memories that might have seemed significant in their youth dwindle in thier relation to what they have learned since then.
For the dragons, eventually years pass like hours....
Aaron.
Time is relative.
Remember when you were a kid and a year seemed like a very long time? Does a year seem all that long now? Chances are probably not. Why? Because one year of your life if you are 30 is 1/30 of your memories. So, if an elf is 300 years old then one year is 1/300th of his experience.
So lets set up a comparison...
A 15 year old human percieves 1 day as 1/5340th of its memory.
An elf aged 110 will percieve 7.3 days as 1/5340th of its memory.
So imagine the weeks feeling like days, and you have the experience of an elf.
A good view on "significance in memory" is to take these two and compare them at the Venerable age using years.
A venerable human percieves a year as 1/70th of his memory.
A venerable elf percieves 5 years in the same light.
Time gets faster for the elves as they age, and memories that might have seemed significant in their youth dwindle in thier relation to what they have learned since then.
For the dragons, eventually years pass like hours....
Aaron.
RangerWickett
Legend
Orcs do rule my world. They die faster, and breed faster, and are stronger, so they had the manpower, willpower, and drive to band together and overcome their lower technology level, to conquer the world. Most of the Elves opposed them, and got killed, but the smart Elves realized that a few hundred years under Orc rule isn't that bad, so they formed alliances with the Orcs like they'd had with some humans before. Other Elves who found the Orcs morally repugnant fled to the only safe place they could, underground.
The halflings were all killed. They're always mucking things up, so good riddance! *spits on the scorched lands once home to the wee folk*
Gnomes ran like hell and hid in the hills, using illusions to protect themselves. This worked well for a while until Orcish magic-users developed their inquisitorial tradition, focusing on anti-magic and counterspelling, and then the only gnomes who survived are those in extremely distant areas beyond the Orcs' desire to go hunting. A few gnomes still live as slaves or jesters, or as test subjects for inquisitors and biomancers who want to know how to best thwart illusion magic or infuse second-sight into other living creatures.
I never had Dwarves in the first place, so we can ignore them.
Humans did what they've always done: fight for a little while, then get assimilated and start trying to outdo their conquerers at their own game. At least they generally don't suffer as much as the other races, as long as they fulfill their role and are nice serfs.
The few Dragons that were alive were smart enough not to take sides. Thus it was easier for the Orcs to track them down and kill them.
Most monsters alive now have been created as warbeasts or novelties by Orcish biomancers. There are only two academies of human magical knowledge, Yen-Ching and the Lyceum. Yen-Ching is loosely allied with the Orcish Empire, while Lyceum is distantly neutral, too small and too far away to be a threat.
So no, Elves don't rule the world because of their great lifespans. The huge amounts of conflict that was required to conquer the world guaranteed that those who survived were supremely skilled at warfare and combat, meaning the average military soldier is at least 4th level. The leaders of each sub-kingdom within the empire are all at least 15th level, with the Emperor himself possessing such great power and experience that he seems to have transcended the brief life of his Orcish
blood, and has lived for over 200 years.
Those Elves who did survive the great purge became great warriors from the experience, but there are only perhaps twenty thousand Elves still in the world, so they go to great lengths to make sure they don't get themselves killed. Though they do go on missions for the Empire, they travel in groups of at least 15, and more commonly 100 to 1000. They've had 200 years to perfect their tactics, so even the grunts of their soldiers are 5th level.
Sadly, in my game last night, they learned that humans do indeed learn faster than Elves. A small scouting party of 15 Elves were overconfident and took on the PCs (4 PCs and 6 NPCs). The battle ended with 10 dying Elves and 5 in retreat, but only 3 PCs left alive (the PC illusionist was supremely convincing in his illusion of arriving reinforcements, which drove off the rest of the Elves).
Now the Elves are feeling vengeful that they lost 10 of their kind and did not actually manage to kill any of their opponents (though dang they came close). When they go to take their revenge, they'll attack with a hundred warriors or more.
The halflings were all killed. They're always mucking things up, so good riddance! *spits on the scorched lands once home to the wee folk*
Gnomes ran like hell and hid in the hills, using illusions to protect themselves. This worked well for a while until Orcish magic-users developed their inquisitorial tradition, focusing on anti-magic and counterspelling, and then the only gnomes who survived are those in extremely distant areas beyond the Orcs' desire to go hunting. A few gnomes still live as slaves or jesters, or as test subjects for inquisitors and biomancers who want to know how to best thwart illusion magic or infuse second-sight into other living creatures.
I never had Dwarves in the first place, so we can ignore them.
Humans did what they've always done: fight for a little while, then get assimilated and start trying to outdo their conquerers at their own game. At least they generally don't suffer as much as the other races, as long as they fulfill their role and are nice serfs.
The few Dragons that were alive were smart enough not to take sides. Thus it was easier for the Orcs to track them down and kill them.
Most monsters alive now have been created as warbeasts or novelties by Orcish biomancers. There are only two academies of human magical knowledge, Yen-Ching and the Lyceum. Yen-Ching is loosely allied with the Orcish Empire, while Lyceum is distantly neutral, too small and too far away to be a threat.
So no, Elves don't rule the world because of their great lifespans. The huge amounts of conflict that was required to conquer the world guaranteed that those who survived were supremely skilled at warfare and combat, meaning the average military soldier is at least 4th level. The leaders of each sub-kingdom within the empire are all at least 15th level, with the Emperor himself possessing such great power and experience that he seems to have transcended the brief life of his Orcish
blood, and has lived for over 200 years.
Those Elves who did survive the great purge became great warriors from the experience, but there are only perhaps twenty thousand Elves still in the world, so they go to great lengths to make sure they don't get themselves killed. Though they do go on missions for the Empire, they travel in groups of at least 15, and more commonly 100 to 1000. They've had 200 years to perfect their tactics, so even the grunts of their soldiers are 5th level.
Sadly, in my game last night, they learned that humans do indeed learn faster than Elves. A small scouting party of 15 Elves were overconfident and took on the PCs (4 PCs and 6 NPCs). The battle ended with 10 dying Elves and 5 in retreat, but only 3 PCs left alive (the PC illusionist was supremely convincing in his illusion of arriving reinforcements, which drove off the rest of the Elves).
Now the Elves are feeling vengeful that they lost 10 of their kind and did not actually manage to kill any of their opponents (though dang they came close). When they go to take their revenge, they'll attack with a hundred warriors or more.
MeepoTheMighty
First Post
LoneWolf23 said:
Okay, so the elves might be pacifist hippies and not too interested in ruling the world. What's stopping the drow then? Certainly a drow wouldn't be above taking a shortcut to gain power. Guess it's a good thing you can't get two drow to agree on pizza toppings, let alone the proper way to rule the world.
jgbrowning
Hero
Thats why i always favored hobgoblins.
joe b.
joe b.
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