Old Age And The Game

[the Jester]

This was directed at the OP, but as for the OP....yes, aside from Table 6-5. If a character is 50 years old, gains a level, and picks up a new Feat, shouldn't that Feat selection be conditional to the character's age?

This works two ways in my opinion (assuming your system of levels representing age and experience):

1. Age penalties to stats mean that eventually you no longer qualify for the more physically demanding feats. "You're too old and frail to Power Attack!"

2. As you age, you gain the experience necessary to take the feats with base attack or save prereqs and the like. "You aren't mature enough to learn that yet, sonny!"

 

[Water Bob]

IMO D&D doesn't really need to accomodate rules for aging because PC's have so VERY rarely aged.

But what about when the PCs meet aged NPCs?

And, there are campaigns, like mine, where the PCs begin at a very early age, and as the campaign progresses, time is skipped. We play a bit with the characters at 15 years of age and level 1. Then, we skip to a few years later, and so on, eventually playing the entire character's life.

2. As you age, you gain the experience necessary to take the feats with base attack or save prereqs and the like. "You aren't mature enough to learn that yet, sonny!"

You are right on, but I think the prereqs for something like this should be limited to pre-1st level. In my game, we'd be talking about someone who is 12 years old or younger (or there abouts).