D&D 5E Simple Rules for Aging (+)

[DND_Reborn]

Though in that case, you'll find aging physical characters making poor life decisions in order to keep their Strength!

Not necessarily, as I mentioned upthread the full idea was you got the +1 for a -1 only if you wanted to. Otherwise, it is assumed you are working to keep your "weakness" from developing into a weakness.

Either way, you might increase STR but lose DEX or CHA or whatever. You might increase INT but sack WIS as you lose touch with the world around you but study more, or how ever you want to work it.

 

[James Gasik]

Yes sorry, was being humorous. Certainly you can find examples of aging warriors who have lived lives where they made very bad choices. Cobra Kai's Johnny is a good recent example.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Yes sorry, was being humorous. Certainly you can find examples of aging warriors who have lived lives where they made very bad choices. Cobra Kai's Johnny is a good recent example.

While I didn't realize you were being totally humorous, I figured you were being a bit anyway. My response to you was more in thinking of the example in my prior post:

A PC might become wiser, but lose strength, for example.

 

[James Gasik]

While I didn't realize you were being totally humorous, I figured you were being a bit anyway. My response to you was more in thinking of the example in my prior post:

Just because it's funny in my head doesn't mean it's funny in real life. You know, like the Bard class!

 

[Laurefindel]

Though in that case, you'll find aging physical characters making poor life decisions in order to keep their Strength!

They’re adventuring D&D characters. Around my table, that usually means making poor life decisions is what they excel at!

 

[MGibster]

It can make an interesting adventure,
a bunch of “has been“ meeting in a fancy inn, and force into an adventure they just don’t want!

It's a campaign idea after seeing the movie RED (retired extremely dangerous), about a bunch of retired spies who become active again. I'd have a bunch of old adventurers come out of retirement for one last adventure. As a red herring, I was going to have the group go after their former nemises to find that he is genuinely happy to see the group and has himself retired as well.

 

[dave2008]

I'm not entirely convinced that stat modifications are really the best way to represent aging. I wonder if it might make more sense for older character to do something mechanically similar to choosing additional backgrounds to represent their additional experience. Or, perhaps, choosing skills to gain expertise in. That's really what has happened. You've had time to burn through a lot of downtime activities.

I'm not sure how best to represent the effects on the body of aging, or from just being out of shape and out of practice. Flat penalties are simple, but they don't seem like the most accurate solution. I would almost go for something like atrophied class abilities. In fantasy stories, we often see things like old fighters who are still very deadly, but they can't do everything they used to. Or old wizards who can cast many spells, but no longer have a grasp on their most potent spells. Maybe you keep your proficiency bonus and your hit dice, but everything else starts to fade after decades of disuse. You're still a 13th level Fighter, but you've only got the class abilities through level 5.

At the venerable stage where you're so old that you need dedicated care, I kind of feel like that would best be represented with steadily progressing permanent exhaustion.

I think this is a great idea actually.

 

[Krachek]

It's a campaign idea after seeing the movie RED (retired extremely dangerous), about a bunch of retired spies who become active again. I'd have a bunch of old adventurers come out of retirement for one last adventure. As a red herring, I was going to have the group go after their former nemises to find that he is genuinely happy to see the group and has himself retired as well.

For once, players can write background as silly and complex as they wanted!

 

[Horwath]

So while people usually use Aging to stack penalties in characters, but here's one that's the opposite:

I often find myself referring to other hobbies and careers I used to do but no longer. Maybe an older character can gain the ability to use a skill as if they were proficient or even has expertise in that they don't have due to things they did back in the day, kind of like the past life stuff the Deva had.

sounds like getting the Skill expert feat.

 

[MGibster]

I understand that not everyone gets wiser when they get older, but for this to work, I think we need to simply recognize that statistics in D&D aren't reflective of real life. So we shouldn't expect againg in D&D to represent with any great degree of accuracy aging in real life.