PDA

View Full Version : [3.5] So you want to live forever?



AvatarZero
2009-06-20, 07:05 PM
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0652.html

Assuming alignment isn't an issue, how do you get a character to stop aging? This being DnD true immortality is the domain of those without stats, but some measure of invulnerability to go with would be nice. I'm more interested in the storytelling side of this, but bonus points if a PC could do it. Further bonus points if it isn't unpleasant. No scaled ones of Toril. :smallyuk:

Flickerdart
2009-06-20, 07:09 PM
Any undead. Elan and Warforged are immortal out of the box. Reincarnation brings back the character as a Young Adult. The Timeless Body Loop.

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-06-20, 10:35 PM
Dragonwrought Kobold. Max age 120+10xCha mod, and once you hit Venerable, you can take Epic Feats like Great Charisma or Extended Lifespan. Venerable Kobold Sorcerer 1 has a max age of 170. At level 4, that's boosted to 190. Not immortal, but you'll definitely not die of old age.

Tsotha-lanti
2009-06-20, 10:42 PM
Lich and vampire are the obvious ones. You come back if "killed," cant't age, and don't need sustenance.

Gralamin
2009-06-20, 11:13 PM
Any undead. Elan and Warforged are immortal out of the box. Reincarnation brings back the character as a Young Adult. The Timeless Body Loop.

Elan has a maximum age of 1,000+10d% Years (XPH page 16). Warforged have no known maximum age, and are theorized (but not confirmed) to have no maximum age (ECS 27).

Cedrass
2009-06-20, 11:15 PM
Elan has a maximum age of 1,000+10d% Years (XPH page 16).

It's an error. They are immortal. Go and download the Errata.

Altima
2009-06-20, 11:19 PM
Find a weak god, kill it, eat it, and gain Divine Rank 0. All the bonuses of being divine (mostly) with none of that pesky I need worshippers or I fade from existance shtick.

tyckspoon
2009-06-20, 11:28 PM
Dragonwrought Kobold. Max age 120+10xCha mod, and once you hit Venerable, you can take Epic Feats like Great Charisma or Extended Lifespan. Venerable Kobold Sorcerer 1 has a max age of 170. At level 4, that's boosted to 190. Not immortal, but you'll definitely not die of old age.

If ~200 years is enough lifespan for you, just be an Elf or a Dwarf. No special tricks needed; a 200 year old Elf hasn't even broken Old yet.

Gralamin
2009-06-20, 11:33 PM
It's an error. They are immortal. Go and download the Errata.

Ah, apparently when I did most of my Errata, I somehow missed that one entry.

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-06-20, 11:40 PM
If ~200 years is enough lifespan for you, just be an Elf or a Dwarf. No special tricks needed; a 200 year old Elf hasn't even broken Old yet.But you continue to gain years as you level, and obscenely quickly if you use Extended Lifespan rather than the more useful Great Charisma. Yeah, you're 200 at level 4. Spend a feat on Extended Lifespan, and you're 300 at level 6. 450 at level 9, if you burn 2 feats. Level 12, you're 690 after 3 feats. It keeps growing, and other than feats, all you're doing is investing in Cha, which a Sorc would do anyways. It's not no max age, it's that you will never resonably reach your max age. If you can't level 3 times in 10 years, there's a problem.

Mewtarthio
2009-06-20, 11:50 PM
Be a telepath and just keep switching minds with someone younger every time you feel you're a bit too old.

Jack_Simth
2009-06-20, 11:53 PM
Any undead. Elan and Warforged are immortal out of the box. Reincarnation brings back the character as a Young Adult. The Timeless Body Loop.

There's also a rather lot of creatures with a listed level adjustment that have no aging tables at all. Whether they're agless, or not, is up to the DM.

Likewise, theoretically, assuming aging is a factor of the body rather than of the mind, a "simple" Polymorph Any Object spell can make you ageless, by turning you into a younger you, Permanently. Just, you know, watch out for Dispel effects, antimagic fields, and so on, because you might crumble to dust when exposed to them, after a point....

mostlyharmful
2009-06-21, 02:57 AM
Outsiders, Elementals and anything with Divine Rank is immortal, both in terms of aging and (if you can get a perminant summon effect) in terms of being killed.

Turn yourself into one and designate your inaccessible demiplane as your homeplane, then craft a 9th level spell that summons you to the prime material... bingo, actual unkillable without an astral projection silver cord to worry about.

Or else take one of these fun and funky prestige classes. (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=632562)

Augmented Lurk
2009-06-21, 03:09 AM
Become a Green Star Adept.

Gralamin
2009-06-21, 03:17 AM
Become a Green Star Adept.

I don't think anyone wants to be immortal that bad.

ZeroNumerous
2009-06-21, 03:23 AM
1) Go to the Astral Plane. Done.

2) Be a Killoren Wizard. At level 17, Genesis a plane. Transplant your tree there. Done.

3) Be a Dvati Druid. Any time one half of you dies, have the other Reincarnate him/her. Done.

4) Pazuzu, Pazuzu, Pazuzu...

Tempest Fennac
2009-06-21, 03:28 AM
ZeroNumerous, Killoreans reach Old at 100 and then they stop ageing, so they can't die of old age. They don't need a tree either. (Their stats are on page 43 of http://crystalkeep.com/d20/rules/DnD3.5Index-Races.pdf . The race was basically created by nature to fight against civilisation).

Glimbur
2009-06-21, 03:31 AM
Be a Cloud Anchorite. It's a monk themed PrC from Frostburn.

Dagren
2009-06-21, 03:45 AM
Lich and vampire are the obvious ones. You come back if "killed," cant't age, and don't need sustenance.They aren't really feasible for a PC though, due to the massive LA. The Necropolitan from Libris Mortis is +0 LA, and gives the ageless thing, but as you might expect from a 0 LA it kind of sucks compared to the ones you mentioned.

SadisticFishing
2009-06-21, 04:00 AM
Not inherently evil, and no LA? Makes sense to me, somehow...

JellyPooga
2009-06-21, 04:03 AM
They aren't really feasible for a PC though, due to the massive LA. The Necropolitan from Libris Mortis is +0 LA, and gives the ageless thing, but as you might expect from a 0 LA it kind of sucks compared to the ones you mentioned.

Necropolitan sucks? Hubba-da-wha? Pit against equal ECL I'd back the Necropolitan against the Lich or Vampire...any pre-Epic level, the Necro has 4 class levels on the Lich and 8 on the Vampire; for a Wizard that's 2 and 4 Spell levels respectively (or the difference between Magic Missile and Fireball/Fireball and Limited Wish). Sure the Lich and Vampire have conditional immortality via certain means, but they are bypassable.

mostlyharmful
2009-06-21, 04:03 AM
They aren't really feasible for a PC though, due to the massive LA. The Necropolitan from Libris Mortis is +0 LA, and gives the ageless thing, but as you might expect from a 0 LA it kind of sucks compared to the ones you mentioned.

Vampire I agree with you but Lich can be done. You can buy off your first LA at 12 and then 3LA is playable with a non-optimized group, plus it cuts down the amount of defensive buffs you need so just don't try to rely on Save or X since you won't have the slots and be prepared to die over and over to make use of your one advantage. Plus Spellstiched goes a long way if you choose the right feats, oh and wait around in a tomb till you get your aging +3 to all mental stats as well, those two between them can pull you back to playable.

Dagren
2009-06-21, 04:16 AM
Necropolitan sucks? Hubba-da-wha? Pit against equal ECL I'd back the Necropolitan against the Lich or Vampire...any pre-Epic level, the Necro has 4 class levels on the Lich and 8 on the Vampire; for a Wizard that's 2 and 4 Spell levels respectively (or the difference between Magic Missile and Fireball/Fireball and Limited Wish). Sure the Lich and Vampire have conditional immortality via certain means, but they are bypassable.I think you misinterpreted me; I wasn't saying the Necro sucks per se, but that it doesn't get the awesome abilities that the others get. Like I said, they aren't feasible due to LA; did you miss that? Maybe I just worded it wrong, I don't know. Personally, I think that a +8 LA is just ridiculous; it would take until something like level 50 to buy it off, and how many games go that high? Give it +4 like the lich, and then I might consider it.

Kobold-Bard
2009-06-21, 06:29 AM
I can't remember where (if someone else knows it please post a link) but I've seen an attempt at a Psychic Lich fluffed as a Greater Elan. It was a +4 LA, but you weren't undead since Psions don't do that type of thing.

But Elan is probably your best bet, no undeadness to deal with, and no having to eat a demigod to do it.

Devils_Advocate
2009-06-21, 12:33 PM
If actual invincibility is unavailable, your main obstacles to living forever are

1. Other sapient beings (Someone else could try to kill you. Do try to avoid giving anyone a reason to do that.)
2. Boredom (If you stop wanting to live forever, you might try to kill you. Plus, if you reach this point, eternal life hardly seems like a good thing anymore.)
3. Statistical probability (You need to continually decrease your annual (or monthly, or daily, or weekly; look at it however you want) odds of dying fast enough that your odds of survival don't go to zero as time goes to infinity.)
4. Metaphysics (Exactly what is this "you" that you're trying to preserve? Without an answer to that question, you may unthinkingly wind up not actually preserving anything.)

If you're going to live forever, you need to avoid death from old age, obviously, but that's just a part of avoiding death in general.

ZeroNumerous
2009-06-21, 01:43 PM
ZeroNumerous, Killoreans reach Old at 100 and then they stop ageing, so they can't die of old age. They don't need a tree either.

1) I believe the question is: Do you want to live forever? Killoren meet the criteria for being functionally immortal. If I recall, they do need a tree from the forest of their birth as per Races of the Wild or they begin wasting away.

JellyPooga
2009-06-21, 01:56 PM
If I recall, they do need a tree from the forest of their birth as per Races of the Wild or they begin wasting away.

Guh? Where'd you say you found this snippet? You sure you're not thinking of Dryads? I'm fairly sure Killoren have no such requirement...:smallconfused:

AvatarZero
2009-06-21, 06:02 PM
Elan and Warforged are immortal out of the box.

Neat, but I was more interested in a character who wants to live forever than one who already does. Your classic evil wizard who can slay anything but time.


The Timeless Body Loop.

You get the class feature, reach venerable, and then reincarnate? Pretty cool. You'd actually want to reincarnate as an Orc or similar so the generations would be shorter.


3) Be a Dvati Druid. Any time one half of you dies, have the other Reincarnate him/her. Done.

And the prize for weirdest solution to mortality goes to ZeroNumerous, and the notion of reincarnating half of yourself. (I'm sure it makes sense if you look it up, but why ruin the fun of being utterly confused.)


The Necropolitan from Libris Mortis...

I like this one, especially if your CON was your dump stat. You could get some roleplaying out of that transformation as an end to your poor health. (Necropolitans have no CON score, and d12 for every hit die. Lv10 CON 6 wizard goes from ~13 HP (:smalleek:) and a Fort save of +5 to ~70 HP and immunity to Fort save based effects).

Zeful
2009-06-21, 06:27 PM
Reincarnate-Wish Loop.
1: Romance a Druid (or a Wish capable caster if you are a druid).
2: Forge two Major spell storing rings (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/rings.htm#spellStoringMajor) as wedding rings ('cause I'm a romantic)
3: Cast Wish into the Druid's ring and Reincarnate into the Wizard's ring.
4: Live together until venerable.
5: Kill your spouse
6: Reincarnate your spouse.
7: Have your spouse wish themselves back into their previous body (note: that nowhere in the reincarnate spell does it state that it must be the body at the age you died at, nor does wishing yourself back into your previous body render any part of the spell void).
8: Have your spouse kill you.
9: Have your spouse reincarnate you.
10: Wish yourself back to you previous body.
11: Return to step 3.
12: Watch out for Inevitables.

I've thought of this extensively.

aivanther
2009-06-21, 06:35 PM
There's also the Risen Martyr prestige class from Exalted Deeds (die, come back as Deathless type, the good "undead). Of course, if you get to 0 hp, it's over for you.

Waspinator
2009-06-21, 06:54 PM
Flesh to Stone. Hard to do much, but you technically never die.

shadow_archmagi
2009-06-21, 06:54 PM
Didn't the Life In A Box trick have rules for a psion mind-swapping with an inanimate object to become a living fortress that flies around, maintained by his cohort an artificer warforged?

aarondirebear
2009-06-23, 11:27 AM
I've thought of this extensively.

Three Words:
Pet Rust Monster.

Does the timeless body loop actually work by the book??
I'm wondering what happens if a human monk managed to live past his maximum age that way would his AC continue to rise?

Zeful
2009-06-23, 12:14 PM
Three Words:
Pet Rust Monster.

Does the timeless body loop actually work by the book??
I'm wondering what happens if a human monk managed to live past his maximum age that way would his AC continue to rise?

By timeless body loop you mean a druid/monk repeatedly reincarnating themselves to gain ever increasing mental stats? Because timeless body still has you die on your max age.

And if you don't wish yourself back into your previous body (which still has you benefit from reincarnate) then yes it does.

Delaney Gale
2009-06-23, 12:54 PM
There's also the Risen Martyr prestige class from Exalted Deeds (die, come back as Deathless type, the good "undead). Of course, if you get to 0 hp, it's over for you.

Ok, can you clarify this one for me? We have a Risen Martyr in our party and he's got some sort of feature that allows him to keep going until he's at negative his hit point total. (I'm not surprised, he also qualified for the Saint template through in-character actions without intending to, and we've established that when he "passes on" he BECOMES his god.) What happens to normal Risen Martyrs at 0 hp?

ghost_warlock
2009-06-23, 01:10 PM
Ok, can you clarify this one for me? We have a Risen Martyr in our party and he's got some sort of feature that allows him to keep going until he's at negative his hit point total. (I'm not surprised, he also qualified for the Saint template through in-character actions without intending to, and we've established that when he "passes on" he BECOMES his god.) What happens to normal Risen Martyrs at 0 hp?

IIRC, it's destroyed like any other deathless/undead that reaches 0 hp.

ChaosDefender24
2009-06-23, 01:58 PM
dry lich...

Southern Cross
2009-06-24, 04:37 AM
Arcana Evolved has the immortality spell...

Yora
2009-06-24, 04:40 AM
Flesh to stone can keep you from aging for, well ages. ^^