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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cthulhudrew" data-source="post: 3232902" data-attributes="member: 4090">As Cyberzombie noted, I too haven't ever seen any designer commentary or anything explaining the rationale behind their removal. It is baffling to me. For my own part, I can see why- given the removal of aging effects, etc.- they were removed. With the addition of ability drain/damage, the aging effects were seemingly not needed (and possibly overpowered, as they would affect 3 ability scores in one shot!). Additionally, there is (and always was, IMO) the problem of ability score affects- if I'm aged to Old Age, I take the Physical Stat damage (Str, Con, Dex), but do I get the Mental Stat bonuses? Seemingly not, as they are supposed to be (I think) the accrual of experience, but it is sort of complicated when you add in Potions of Longevity, which will remove the damage to the physical stats (or will it?), but would it likewise affect the mental ones? The biggest problem with the removal, IMO, is not the items themselves, but the aging system. Frankly, as others have commented, the aging effects rarely if ever come into play during the course of a campaign- really, who has PCs that play for 40+ years? And, if they do, they are unfairly biased against humans (and similar low-age races). That's not terribly game-balancing (and 3E has made major strides to try and balance choices as much as possible).There's the additional factor of NPCs in existing products not really following the aging rules themselves, despite the seeming fiat against PCs having to do so. How many NPCs look like their statistics really reflect their age? Do they all get some kind of exposure to wishes and other permanent stat boosters to offset the aging penalties?As for the problem of uber-high level characters never dying if potions are allowed, I don't really see this as a problem myself- has the removal of them from 3E really affected the landscape of high-level/ancient NPCs in the published campaign settings at all? They seem pretty much the same to me.I'm all for revamping the aging system, or just booting it wholesale. It doesn't really seem to be a factor to me.</blockquote>

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