Turning XP Costs into Aging Effects...

[Pbartender]

I was toying with the idea of switching over to an experienceless game. Essentially letting all the characters gain a level when we, as an entire group, felt ready to do so.

The trouble is that a few game effects, including some spells and all magic item creation, require an expediture of experience. The question is how to regulate that requirement without having any XP to draw upon.

I haven't nearly worked out the details, so bear with me...

Ignoring the exceedingly long-live elves for a moment, what if we substitute aging effects for XP costs? Maybe for every 1000 (or some other arbitrary amount... 100? 500? 365?) of cumulative XP expended the character is considered one year older for the purposes of age-induced physical penalties only.

So, a spellcaster that uses up too much XP-cost spells or crafts too many magical items gets old before his time, collecting penalties to his physical attributes long before he gains any of the mental benefits.

Whaddya think?

 

[Victim]

Undead. Dragons. Constructs (like Warforged). Elves (and to a lesser extent Dwarves). Those spells can be used by more than just PCs.

 

[kolikeos]

if i was playing in this kind of game i would dearly want to turn myself into a lich so i could make as many magic items as i want

 

[Goblyns Hoard]

As long as you make it a percentage of their remaining lifespan rather than a set number of years it should work. So it ages half-orcs 6 months, humans a year, elves a decade etc. (just examples... not worked out properly).

And yes this is what makes becoming a lich attractive - I always wondered why anyone went for lichdom myself but this actually gives them a reason. With my group it wouldn't be a problem but depending on your players it may require a no lich house rule

 

[Sejs]

So... dragons go out and make a few magic items and bump themselves up a few age categories then?

 

[Angel Tarragon]

if i was playing in this kind of game i would dearly want to turn myself into a lich so i could make as many magic items as i want

I agree.

 

[Li Shenron]

I was toying with the idea of switching over to an experienceless game. Essentially letting all the characters gain a level when we, as an entire group, felt ready to do so.

The trouble is that a few game effects, including some spells and all magic item creation, require an expediture of experience. The question is how to regulate that requirement without having any XP to draw upon.

First of all, letting all PC level up in a free-form way doesn't necessarily mean that they are always at the same xp We've done this before, and there's no problem in levelling up when the whole group feel like, as long as the players are not childish gamers. But you could still keep track of the xp spent by the casters, which eventually turns into one or more levels behind the rest of the group.

OTOH I am also thinking about getting rid of xp completely, freely levelling up when appropriate and not bothering about xp costs.

For magic item creation I will have a different system which I am discussing in another thread, but it is definitely not what you are looking for here... In your case you should either convert the xp cost into extra gp cost, or consider a different kind of limitation by level.

For spells I was thinking about using a minimum time interval between casts. For example, a spell with a cost of 10xp might need a 10days delay before it can be cast again. I'm still very unsure if a 1xp=1day is a good amount, since it basically means about 13.5 years before you can cast the next Wish

 

[Li Shenron]

...and by the way, if you go the ageing route, you'd better rule a % age advancement rather than a fixed amount of years. That's the easiest way to balance the cost between races with very different life spans.

 

[Pbartender]

Ignoring the exceedingly long-live elves for a moment...

Well, since no one seems to be able to ignore this...

I'm not certain it's entirely a problem.

As someone else mentioned, if the only people who can craft powerful magical items without premature aging are Dragons, Intelligent Undead and Elves, then what better reason for those races to excel at magic... Dragons are supposedly inately magical, many spellcasters aspire to be Liches, and Elves are described as having a talent for arcane magic.

And looking at it, a character would have be very close to the border of an age category, or create a lot (or very very powerful) magic items to actual see an effect. Even at 1 xp/day gained, it'd take 91,250 gp worth of crafted magic items to age a 25 year-old human wizard into middle age (10 years). Spells would be harder on casters... Your average wish spell would age a spellcaster 13.7 years. That's pretty rough even for an elf.

% of years sounds like a good idea, but it be a pain to implement. There's too much difference between life expectancies, and it wouldn't soplve the undead problem.

Hrm...

I dunno... Maybe this isn't it, but there's got to be a better alternative to XP costs.

 

[Tonguez]

personallu I love the idea - it fits the concept of many novels which portray spellcasters as old and wizened

'twisted and withered the socerer hobbles forth, a sibilant hiss pouring from his lips Only then did Bob the hero realise what stood before him
"my god brother" he gasped " what has happened to you, you have become old before your time"'

and like pbbartender said making dragons, elfs and liches the major source of magic items isn't a bad thing