Old-Fogy Characters

[ptolemy18]

Hello everyone,

Has anyone ever played or DMed a character who started out using one off the "elderly" ages described in the PHB? It seems like an obvious choice for a spellcaster character to start out with a penalty to physical stats and a bonus to mental stats.

One person did it in my campaign, playing a middle-aged wizard. It seems to be very rare, though -- I've never done it myself, even though I like the idea enough to start a thread about it.

Jason

 

[Nellisir]

My current character, Toad, is a vigorous 91 years old -- though as a member of the ruathar prestige class, he's physically only about 65. He's a human wizard6/ruathar3/initiate of the sevenfold veil3, and he, quite frankly, rocks. With a strength of 7, I've never bothered righting down any sort of attack routine for him, though.

 

[Corsair]

I've got a middle aged grey elf wizard7/loremaster3. She spent most of her life as a glorified librarian prior to beginning her adventuring career at level 7.

 

[jgbrowning]

I had an old guy called Eb. He started adventuring after a long life of shopkeeping. He'd made a bargain with his god that is she spared his wifes life from a terrible disease he'd dedicate himself to helping others. His wife died. He took up adventuring, knowing it would result in a quick end.

joe b.

 

[Imret]

I've played alongside one; Father Graythorne, High Cleric of The Fane of The Unconquered Radiance, was a middle-aged Pelorite Cleric 12. His concept spoke more of elderly, but our DM at the time had a dozen gratuitous penalties for older characters; besides the physical stat penalties he wanted to impose reduced speed, half as many hit points as anyone else, etc...for the interest of realism, rather than fun of the players. We don't play much with him anymore.

With age penalties, Father Graythorne needed an extended Bull's Strength (old duration) cast right after his morning prayers to carry all his gear. He was a great character; waxed nostalgic about his old crusading days, muttered to himself, took Spell Focus (Abjuration) solely for Sanctuary, and had the complete confidence and respect of my Pelorite paladin. When there was a disagreement in the party, Sir Gavin always sided with the Holy Father, aka Father Badtouch. It's not the story you think it might be; Heightened Sanctuary (DC 22), crossed a crowded battlefield without damage, and Slay Livinged the BBEG of the moment.

 

[Kid Socrates]

While I like the idea for flavor, I don't like the idea of having my Con modifier go down when I only have a measly d4 hit die. I'd rather not die from a single crossbow bolt.

 

[Zen]

I'm playing a middle-aged cleric who used to be a high-level mage... until he got all his levels burned away by a vampire (it's a dm-approved backstory, so he didn't really miss 17 saves in a row, and he also didn't become a vampire-spawn for some reason...) So now he's a 42-year old 2nd level cleric out for revengs against all undead.

Fun stuff to role-play.

--Z

 

[Bloodstone Press]

Yeah, several PCs in our games have been middle aged or older. It has got to the point that if anyone starts a new game with an aged character, we assume he's some sort of spell caster, which is why I'm thinking of creating an aged knight who is a little senile.

 

[ptolemy18]

Here's a related rules question. Are the penalties for the "3 stages of aging" cumulative or separate? I'm not sure how to interpret the rules as written. I've somehow always assumed it was cumulative (-1, -2, -3... so if you played a Venerable guy you'd get a whopping total of -6 to your physical stats, but only +3 to your mental stats, which makes being aged actually an overall bad thing as opposed to something every wizard would want).

Or is this a difference between 3.5 and earlier editions?

Jason

 

[Aaron L]

My oldest running character, Malachi, a ranger Ive had for 12 years, was in his 50s when I started him, and got up into his 80s before he started using potions of longevity.