Mortality and age..

[painandgreed]

Good point. Why the heck did it go away in the first place?

I would guess that it was because to have such a potion would be to suggest that there is a spell to turn into such a potion. Since they didn't want the spell, they nixed the potion. Sort of how Guantlets of Ogre Strength became +2 rather than an automatic 18/00. Ruels got changed and things that didn't fit into the rules got dropped.

I had one campaign where we pushed the limits. In fact, I had to roll for my death age and rolled about the bare minimum and had to do some quick drinking of aformentioned potions on my deathbed at 40.

 

[Andor]

But given that it so rarely comes up in any game, why do all the 'stop ageing' effects explicitly leave the clock running on your life span? The designers seemed to have a real point to make about this, and it works out to be an important point in DnD cosmology, so why is the reasoning behind it never discussed?

 

[William Ronald]

There are some spells in Arcana Unearthed that deal with reducing a character's age or granting immortality. (Immortal in the sense, that the character does not die of old age. I imagine it would be easy enough to come up with a spell that restores a character to a youthful condition.)

I felt puzzled that the anti-aging magics were left out of 3rd edition, as anti-aging magics would probably be one of the things that most societies would research. (Consider the quest for immortality in historical cultures, especially the medieval alchemists.) Of course, I suspect that an immortal character would have a fair share of responsibilities.

Of course, since the current "default" cosmology has the souls of dead mortals transformed into petitioners, which can become outsiders, I suppose that this could explain some of the rationale. I preferred having outsiders arise from the planes themselves, or being separate from mortals. It made them more mysterious and other worldly. The default cosmology may have solved the "Where do the souls go?" issue, but not in a paricularly interesting way, IMHO. (For some belief systems, this model does NOT work. See some of the real world belief systems modeled in Deities and Demigods.) Of course, DMs are free to ignore the "Great Wheel" cosmology which is now only one of many possible cosmologies.

 

[Agback]

That's actually the one thing about LoTR that bugs me.

Let me add to the list. In the final chapter (The Grey Havens), Círdan has a long beard and is 'grey and old'.

 

[Alzrius]

As far as actually discussing what a mortal character can do to extend their lifespan in D&D, probably the best article on this that I saw was in the 2E The Complete Book of Necromancers. It talked about how much life you could expect to get from a successful wish, from careful use of potions of longevity, and from careful use of certain spells.

 

[Agback]

Why is it so difficult to gain immortality…?

Well.

I sometimes uses as a plot hook a villain who is prepared to do, and in fact preparing to do, who who is in the habit of doing, something absolutely dreadful in order to extend his or her life and youth. Personal survival is ahead even of religious and political fanaticism as a credible motivator of horrific deeds. I want these villains to be something special, not just a routine feature of the setting.

But a BBEG who sucks the blood from the veins of still-living babies to preserve her youth, and each year has to drain one more baby than the year before, looks stupid, not horrific, if regular magic provides a morally hygienic route to perpetual youth.

 

[Yair]

To the best of my knowledge there are three ways to escape the clock in DnD.

1.) Have Druid friends who keep reincarnating you.

2.) Become undead.

3.) Use a soul gem to become a body hijacker, and it's arguably that this wouldn't work either.

4) Be an Elan (an XPH race); they are immortal, in the "no death age" meaning of the word.