Question about Elans

[DwarfInTheFlask]

I know they where widely abused a few years back but I don't know much more then what is hinted at online in various posts that date around the time(Internet Anthropology should be a college course I am serious).

So Elans are immortal right? It is hinted at strongly in EPH that they do not age. Saying they live for thousands of years, their bodies are constantly being renewed by their psionic energies, that they must hide the fact that they are in truth Elans or else people will flip because they are immortal humans.

So how do you rule them when it comes to the aging up of a character? I mean by Raw you could make a Thousand year old Elan and since they are just humans with an immortality shouldn't their mental stats go up and their physical stats remain the same? It does not suggest at all that their bodies age to old age or anything. Its even commented that Elan from earlier then 200 years ago just look different and then go on to comment on how the newer gen has pale skin, red hair, and more youthful then before. But this does not state they age.

So how do you lot rule?
As a psionic fan a race that allows me a +3 to all mental stat for free seems wild but awesome.

[Juntao112]

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicRaces.htm#ageHeightAndWeight

[limejuicepowder]

From an entirely meta-perspective, I'd say Elans never gain the mental bonuses. Age is not just about experience; the way the brain works actually does change as we get older. It seems reasonable to me that "not aging" is more suitable than just "I keep my youthful appearance." Once they reach a mature state, Elan don't age in ANY sense of word - they continue to have the brain process of a 20-something, forever.

Edit: Forget what I said....even though I like that interpretation of immortality.

[DwarfInTheFlask]

Then what is the point of the Elan at all? Just give humans the options to trade their bonus feat for psionic points.

So a 1000 year old 20 something looking Elan is as frail and brittle as a 70 year old normal human?
How does that make any sense at all?
So what it comes down to is they are a useless race that WotC made up to make look cool but then gimped to make humans look even better. I mean you can make humans immortal through other means but the Immortal Human Race is utter fail?

[urkthegurk]

Pretty easy. After 1000 years, the psionic energy coursing through them has made them light and brittle. They are like spun sugar coursing with mystical energy. The only reason they've not gone to dust ages ago is their immense power, but now it is bursting out of them, threatening to go into melt-down, like the false sun that they are.

The interesting fact is that they don't get any pluses for their maximum age. Apparently they get 1,000 years to the day and then they fade out of existence.

[DwarfInTheFlask]

Actually they have no maximum age meaning they don't die unless they are killed via some unnatural death method. That is an understood of the Elan as it openly states in their entry in EPH that they do live longer then 1000 years.

But to your other point. It says nothing of the sort in their entry. It says they renew their body via psionic energy. Meaning they heal themselves everyday via their psionic energies.

They are stated as looking the same age forever. So why would an Elan who looks 23 forever have the physical weakness of an elderly human.

Is it just for balance purposes? I mean why not do what the Killoran do then.

[urkthegurk]

They only LOOK like a 23 year old human. They are, in fact, and aberration. They don't have the same organ structures, blood, nervous system, they've been hollowed out and given a psionic equivilent. Slice one that's 1000, and the energy comes pouring out, widening the wound. Their hands tremble from the rush of the energy, their limbs shake, their reflexes dull.

I'm just saying, that's a reasonable interpretation of the rules. As you point out, something is happening to age them.

[DwarfInTheFlask]

Well in fact they are Humans first then turned to Abberations through the use of a template. I think the confusion comes from what happens which has been left unknown.

I doubt it really does hollow you out and fill you with psionic energy since that would basically mean it kills you and turns you into a shell for something else and this is especially states as not happening as it possesses your memories and stuff.

Its more like a Template race then a race alone.

But I like the fluff reason but again it doesn't suggest anything like that.
If you are gonna build a race with all its fluff being that they are literally immortal humans who can use psionic energy to renew their body why stick them with the same thing as humans if almost their entire fluff is around them being immortal.

It just seems stupid to fluff them as immortal and especially non aging immortal, repeating again and again that they do not physical age and then impose physical restrictions on them.

Just seems silly for a race fluffed that way.
With the exception of maybe that their abberation type.

Just give humans the info to refluff themselves it would make them overall better giving up the bonus feat for PPP if they are going a PP class or something.

[Juntao112]

http://wizards.custhelp.com/

[Maginomicon]

When a quori (a spirit-like creature in the Eberron setting) commits a heinous crime against its own kind, it receives a terrible punishment: It is bound into a human vessel against its will. Unlike in the normal process of Inspiration, the bound spirit has no power or influence over its host. Condemned to eternal powerlessness, the quori's energy sustains and empowers the host, transforming it into an elan. No elan council exists on Eberron, and no one undergoes the process voluntarily.

Elans are exceedingly rare. Most are found in Riedra, serving in the Harmonious Shield. Elans know what they are — living prisons for evil spirits. An elan has been granted great power with which to serve the Inspired, and the potential to redeem the il-altas imprisoned in its body. Many elans rise to this challenge, becoming champions of the Path of Inspiration. Others stray from the path. Some hear messages from the spirit within or at least believe that they do; the life of an elan often ends in madness. Others learn the truth about the Inspired — with a potential lifespan of centuries, an elan has a great deal of time to put together the pieces of the puzzle.
Granted, that's Eberron lore, but there's no reason the fluff of Elan can't stay the semi-eternal prisons of the il-altas. Presumably, it's like a lifelong version of Sanctify the Wicked.

[EugeneVoid]

By the way.
The cheese of Elan involves Rapidstrike, methinks.