Old Age Inducement

[Chilingsworth]

An idea I got from the "Assassins and Ressurections" thread:

We all know that nothing (short of a Deus Ex Machina,) can bring someone back from old age. What I'd like to know: how can a typical PC accomplish this, and what's the earliest level such a thing is possible?

The only thing that comes to mind for me is the method suggested in the thread: baleful polymorph the victim into a mayfly. To that, I'd add trapping the victim in a jar wih adequate ventilation (adult mayflies don't need fod or water, they don't live long enough and don't have functioning mouthparts anyway, iirc,) to prevent them from dying from something other than old age. Then wait a day or so.

Any other ideas?

[Urpriest]

Book of Vile Darkness gives rules for Bestow Curse aging the target. This gets cheesy on Dragon PCs.

[Demonic_Spoon]

The epic monster the Phane Abomination has this little neat ability:

"Time Leach (Su)

For every round of apparent time experienced by the phane, it automatically absorbs the “future” from any creature it has successfully encapsulated in static time via its stasis touch (not its null time field), no matter the distance separating victim and phane, and no matter the number of victims. Of course, to the victim no time passes at all, but each apparent round experienced by the phane ages the victim 1d4 years, at the same time healing the phane of 20 hit points of damage. A victim who is not somehow released from static time by a friend who can cast dispel magic, greater dispel magic, or some other likely spell, eventually ages to death. Victims killed in this manner automatically fall out of static time as desiccated husks that disintegrate to a fine dust with even the lightest touch. Victims who are released prior to death immediately apply the physical effects of aging, but not the mental effects. "

[Kogak]

Book of Vile Darkness gives rules for Bestow Curse aging the target. This gets cheesy on Dragon PCs.

Specifically, pg. 28 states has a list of alternative curses:

When a spellcaster uses Bestow Curse, the following curses can be substituted for those given in the spell description:


The Victim effectively ages, moving him or her to the beginning of the next age category


I do not know that this would be able to kill a person outright via age, however. It does not give a set number of years an individual would age, merely moving them up a category. It depends upon what your DM feels should happen when you are at your top age category already.

[Silva Stormrage]

Wait why are you not able to resurrect someone who has died of old age?

Create Undead -> Bone creature
Polymorph any object -> Living version (Repeat until permanent)
Kill the target
The target has no died of sword wounds instead of Old Age
Reincarnate.

I am probably missing something though.

[Chilingsworth]

Wait why are you not able to resurrect someone who has died of old age?

Create Undead -> Bone creature
Polymorph any object -> Living version (Repeat until permanent)
Kill the target
The target has no died of sword wounds instead of Old Age
Reincarnate.

I am probably missing something though.

You could do that, but the creature you killed would be a different individual from the one that died of old age. You might even be able to skip the create undead step. Basically, the rules state that death from old age = final death. Barring Deus Ex Machina/DM Fiat, there's no way to return that individual to life.

[BlackestOfMages]

wish/miracle the person back to being 20 years of age, as opposed to old. ressurect as standard.

to add more macguffin to the plan, use epic magic to create a creature that grants wishes, bind it to 7 artifcatcs that need to be combined together, and go to town :smallbiggrin:

[Lateral]

Well, you can create a demiplane with the accelerated time trait using Genesis (a scroll is affordable by mid-levels, and you can hire a high-level caster to cast it), and have it have the flowing time trait set so that one round on the Prime equals five hundred years on the plane, the air-dominant and objective directional gravity traits set so that there's nothing but air and the gravity pushes you away from the edge of the demiplane, keeping you held in the center.
You also have the demiplane have the magically morphic trait set so that whenever a plane shift, gate, or other [teleportation] spell is cast going to the plane, the plane casts feeblemind, mind fog, hold person, and power word: stun on everyone in the demiplane individually, surrounds each creature with a windowless cell forcecage and a resilient sphere, and casting dimensional lock over the entire demiplane, all one microsecond after the spell is cast, and recasting all of those spells instantaneously every time they wear off for the next five hundred years (one round on the Prime).

Now, you can cast plane shift on someone, kill them via old age, with pretty much no hope of escape, and be ready to do it again in the next round.

[Chilingsworth]

Well, you can create a demiplane with the accelerated time trait using Genesis (a scroll is affordable by mid-levels, and you can hire a high-level caster to cast it), and have it have the flowing time trait set so that one round on the Prime equals five hundred years on the plane, the air-dominant and objective directional gravity traits set so that there's nothing but air and the gravity pushes you away from the edge of the demiplane, keeping you held in the center, and the magically morphic trait set so that whenever a plane shift, gate, or other [teleportation] spell is cast going to the plane, the plane casts feeblemind, mind fog, hold person, and power word: stun on everyone in the demiplane individually, surrounding each person with a windowless cell forcecage and a resilient sphere, and casting dimensional lock over the entire demiplane, all one round after the spell is cast, and recasting all of those spells instantly every time they wear off for the next five hundred years (one round on the Prime).

Now, you can cast plane shift on someone, kill them via old age, with pretty much no hope of escape, and be ready to do it again in the next round.

Wouldn't the character die of thirst/starvation, or failing that choose to commit suicide before this he died of old age?

[Lateral]

Wouldn't the character die of thirst/starvation, or failing that choose to commit suicide before this he died of old age?

For the second, he can't. He's got an INT and CHA of 1, an incredibly low Will save, and can't move; even if he makes the Will save for the Hold Person, it's immediately recast, he's also Stunned, and he's too stupid to do anything, ever.

You're right for the first one, though. How about it also creates a ring of sustenance around every living creature's finger?

Edit: The text for Magically Morphic is extremely vague, but upon rereading it, I don't think it allows for casting spells. It does, however, allow for creating magic items, so it could create spellcasting traps the size of motes of dust that do the above effects.

[Errata]

wish/miracle the person back to being 20 years of age, as opposed to old. ressurect as standard.

There are limits to what the Wish spell can accomplish, and at least in 3rd edition, I don't believe functional immortality via rejuvenation falls within that category, unless you have an especially generous DM. If it was that easy, you'd have countless generations of ancient wizards still hanging about, and why would anyone make such an extreme sacrifice like becoming a lich?

[Ravens_cry]

If you die before you die of old age and get reincarnated, you come back a young adult, so that's basically immortality as this can be done repeatedly.
Also, depending on your reading of Reincarnate, you get to keep the bonuses to mental stats from Venerable, but lose the penalties to physical.

[Socratov]

i think the mayfly method works... however, has anyone thought of a planar shepard who channels the plane where he can take 10 actions before you can take 1? will he age faster? basicly he will live 10 times as fast while channeling the plane (or even beïng on it). If he doesn't age of it because of his awesome classpowers, how would someone handle it when hes there and he can't get back?