Immortality & Eternal Youth for Gestalts

[Deepwood Sniper]

I'm currently in a campaign at the moment with a total of 7 gestalt characters. I know that's rather high but the DM will make plans accordingly. Anyways, the prime goal of the group is to obtain immortality and eternal youth. The DM has forbid confronting liches, and any undead means, and Elans. Feats, Epic Level seed spells, and just about any other way is fine. Starting at level 1 i know that the epic spells will be a ways away, but this will be a very long campaign. What would you suggest for a character seeking immortality and eternal youth without being an Elan or confronting undead/liches/demons/etc? This is a 3.5-based Campaign. Any books are allowed and a few 3.0 are as well.

[Kraken]

Polymorph any object can explicitly turn a pebble into a human. The Book of Vile Darkness has a spell called steal life, which allows you to drain stats from a victim to extend your life. Cast PAO on a pebble and turn it into a human (or whatever), and steal life from it.

[Deepwood Sniper]

Hes looking for something more "One-time-only-ish" something all the characters in the group could achieve. and most being neutral good, i doubt he would let that fly.

[Red Fel]

The cheap way is to use any class that has "Timeless Body" as a class feature. It stops you from aging, but you still die when your time is up.

Solution? Your DM has ruled out becoming an Undead or an Elan. He hasn't ruled out other methods.

For example, swap minds with a construct. Constructs are ageless and undying. Enjoy eternity in your shiny new robot body.

Another option is to become an Outsider. They don't age, and technically, they don't completely die - if destroyed, they return to their plane and gradually reform. (Or whatever the fluff says. Go ask AfroAkuma.) One method of becoming an Outsider is Planar Shepherd's capstone, Planar Self. Similarly, Alienist 10 has Alien Transcendence, which makes you an Outsider. Or, if you could find a way to PAO into an Outsider (although I can't see you accomplishing a perma-PAO as a non-Outsider). Wish or Miracle might do it, though.

[rmnimoc]

I believe it only takes a few hundred worshipers to give you a divine rank of 0, which means you no longer age (I think).
If that doesn't work green star adepts can become constructs at level ten (which are immortal) http://dndtools.eu/classes/green-star-adept/

Edit: Brilliant gamologists compiled a list here: http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=5996.0

[Deepwood Sniper]

If becoming something as simple as a construct or a warforge would solve the problem im pretty sure it will also be done away with as well. the team has a dwarf, a star-elf, and i believe the rest are humans. necromancy is not allowed.

[Emperor Tippy]

Crystal Master prestige class. Take 4 levels and grab the Jade crystal. It's basically Timeless Body. Age up to Venerable to get +3 to every mental stat. Then get a wizard who can cast 9th level spells to cast Kissed By The Ages on you. That gives you the Endless (Ex) special ability. That stops you from aging any more.

Buy a scroll of Hide Life and cast that. Now you are immune to death by HP damage and pretty much every effect that just says "die".

The above is one of the cheaper and easier immortality combinations.

There is also just True Mind Switching with a Shadesteel Golem to get your robot body.

[cakellene]

There are some rules for immortality in Dragon 354 I think was the issue.

[Uncle Pine]

Elans, Warforged and killorens all net you immortality (although it's a bit boring to be immortal from the beginning if this is the campaign's goal).
Wedded to History in Dragon #354, as already suggested, it's a feat that makes you immortal as well as other minor benefits (unless you take Golden Ager as your ancient background, then you always consider UMD as a class skill). You can only take it at 1st level though, so it's still boring. However, the same Dragon issue has the Kissed by the ages 9th level spell that makes you immortal as long as you keep your phylactery beloved ring/amulet/whatever with you.
Turning into a ghost, a necropolitan or a gravetouched ghoul would make you all immortal. Sadly you said no epic fights against filthy undeads.
Cloud Anchorite (Frostburn) has a capstone that makes you immortal. Minimum ECL 16.
Beloved of Valarian (BoED) nets you "immortality" at 1st level. However, you lose it if you have sex and/or you lose the unicorn mount you also get at 1st level. Doable at ECL 8 if you can get the 3 feats before 7th level.
The Green Star Adept has already been mentioned.

EDIT: I almost forgot about Steal Life (BoVD), which is strange since it's my favourite way to gain de facto immortality whenever I play a character obsessed with dying of old age. Have a look at that!

[Kraken]

Hes looking for something more "One-time-only-ish" something all the characters in the group could achieve. and most being neutral good, i doubt he would let that fly.

Sure, it's kinda creepy, but you're functionally taking life from a pebble. Assuming you use a human, each casting gets you 55 weeks of life, so you're only needing to do upkeep once a year. Anyone can cast PAO to create pretend humans, and then the people wishing to benefit can use a scroll or staff containing steal life.

Alternatives to PAO numerous if you use your imagination. Captured foes make excellent fodder. You could also simply bargain with someone to be a victim, with the agreement that you'll not kill them, and cast restoration on them when you're done. You could also simply agree to do it to each other, using restoration on each other when you're done. And again, you only need to do this once a year. Less if you're draining from a subject that has high ability scores across the board.

[Uncle Pine]

Hes looking for something more "One-time-only-ish" something all the characters in the group could achieve. and most being neutral good, i doubt he would let that fly.

I missed the "One-time-only-ish" part when I was writing my post. With this condition on the table, Kissed by the ages is a nice option because it'll become available only when you'll reach 17th level and could add that "you must defend your newly acquired eternal life at all cost" flavor to the campaing, because if you ever lose the item that grants you the endless quality you're no longer immortal.

[mabriss lethe]

Several carefully worded Craft contingent spells of Last Breath (SpC) and a spellblade keyed to Dispel Magic.

Congrats, you're just a police box shaped personal demiplane away from being a Timelord.

[Psyren]

Elans, Warforged and killorens all net you immortality (although it's a bit boring to be immortal from the beginning if this is the campaign's goal).
Wedded to History in Dragon #354, as already suggested, it's a feat that makes you immortal as well as other minor benefits (unless you take Golden Ager as your ancient background, then you always consider UMD as a class skill). You can only take it at 1st level though, so it's still boring. However, the same Dragon issue has the Kissed by the ages 9th level spell that makes you immortal as long as you keep your phylactery beloved ring/amulet/whatever with you.
Turning into a ghost, a necropolitan or a gravetouched ghoul would make you all immortal. Sadly you said no epic fights against filthy undeads.
Cloud Anchorite (Frostburn) has a capstone that makes you immortal. Minimum ECL 16.
Beloved of Valarian (BoED) nets you "immortality" at 1st level. However, you lose it if you have sex and/or you lose the unicorn mount you also get at 1st level. Doable at ECL 8 if you can get the 3 feats before 7th level.
The Green Star Adept has already been mentioned.

EDIT: I almost forgot about Steal Life (BoVD), which is strange since it's my favourite way to gain de facto immortality whenever I play a character obsessed with dying of old age. Have a look at that!

Why'd you cross out Elans? They are indeed immortal.

[Waker]

Why'd you cross out Elans? They are indeed immortal.

OP said they weren't allowed as character options.

[7th son of sons]

The First Level of "Beloved of Valarian" explicitly states you stop aging altogether. Its rather weak otherwise, but perfect for a gestalt who can take a real class at the same time

[Necroticplague]

You can try sucking up to your gods enough to become a Divine Minion. That makes you an outsider (non-native, to boot), meaning that your body and soul are now the same thing. Thus, as long as your soul goes on, your body will too. Hence, you are now immortal. Even if you die, as long as it isn't in the realm of your god (now your native plane), you just become re-formed from the essence of the plane to recollect your physical shell. Might take a while, but short of lichdom or demilichdom, this one of the easiest ways to get "keep coming back" immortality.

[Jack_Simth]

Hes looking for something more "One-time-only-ish" something all the characters in the group could achieve. and most being neutral good, i doubt he would let that fly.

Most of the options have been mentioned. There's also a rather bad PrC called Green Star Adept, found in Complete Arcane.

[Deepwood Sniper]

Thanks guys, these are some really great ideas. Thanks for the help! If you have anymore ideas, just let me know if at all possible.

[Hangwind]

Have the end of the campaign be a trap set to turn people into half celestial or half feindish versions of themselves based on alignment or DM fiat in the case of nuetrals.

[Ganorenas]

Gather the Dragon Balls 7 Wish blades from Namek Dungeons that contain Great Wyrm Dragons and wish for Immortality(Ex) (find out what the DM would say about using good old wish, some would let it slide)...

Play a very long living race, work your way to epic, then waste your epic feats on many more years of life.

Hop into a vat of Quintessence.

Loop Reincarnate for the rest of your immortal lives.

Make a Pact with a Devil and become their torture/pain slave for a long long time before a group of Goblins eventually free you.

Be so Amazingly Good that your names shall be remembered forever in the ages as the Heroes of Lore that all other heroes shall look up to (Tarquin is fine with this on the Villain side). :smallbiggrin:

[cakellene]

Outsiders normally are immortal? Stonechild has an age chart with a max age, weird.

[Jack_Simth]

Outsiders normally are immortal?Sort of. Thematically, yes. Most Outsiders do not have any ageing charts at all, which *most* take to mean that they don't participate in the whole Middle Aged / Old / Venerable / Maximum age thing, and just live until something kills them. For the ones where it's thematically appropriate (like with most outsiders), that's fine.

However, most nonstandard base races do not have any ageing charts at all; it's not just Outsiders. If the lack of ageing tables means no ageing penalties and no maximum age, then you've got some funny thematic issues with things like Troglodytes. Likewise, as templates only change the things they mention, you've got thematic issues the other direction with things like liches and vampires, who technically age to death because no rule mentions the template changing their ageing tables. And, of course, that also leads to the funky issue that a vampire spawn made from a human doesn't have an ageing table (a Vampire Spawn is a base creature, and doesn't inherit anything from the original), and is thus immortal, while the Vampire of a human (vampire is a template, and doesn't explicitly alter ageing tables) eventually dies from old age.

I generally take that to mean 'the developers didn't really think about old age much when they were making the rules, so the DM should treat such things as a blank spot in the rules which needs to be filled'.

[Chronos]

Why does everyone keep mentioning Green Star Adepts? Renegade Mastermaker does the same thing, but much better.

[Necroticplague]

Outsiders normally are immortal? Stonechild has an age chart with a max age, weird.

Well, normal outsiders have a soul and body as one unit. Souls are literally immortal, as they can continue on after most creatures (those with dual natures) has shuffled their mortal coil (at least in the form of petitioners, if nothing else). Thus, being a non-native outsider (because native outsiders have dual natures) makes you immortal. The only other option is that souls aren't immortal, thus people that have already died will die of old age as petitioners in heaven, hell, the abyss, or whatever other afterlife you end up in.

And actually, being undead does make you immortal, as does being a construct. When a person reaches their maximum age, they die. However, Constructs and the undead do not die: they are destroyed. This is especially poignant for undead, as they are already dead (while constructs were never alive to begin with (though their parts may have been)). of especial relevance is this:

. Death causes the character's soul to leave the body and journey to an Outer Plane. Dead characters cannot benefit from normal or magical healing, but they can be restored to life via magic.
Constructs and undead both already follow this, they can't benefit from normal healing (with the exception of necropolitans, who have a special trait allowing such), or magical healing (the whole cure line doesn't work on either, and all construct-healing interactions are all cases of specific overiding general (repair lines specifically do repair constructs, while warforged partial healing is specific to warforged). Meanwhile, magic can return these to life: using resurrection-type spells on undead brings them back to life, while constructs can be Incarnated. Notably in most respects, warforged are major exceptions to the reason constructs are immortal, being living, and healable by normal magic (albiet at reduced effectiveness).

[holywhippet]

Keep a preserved clone of yourself somewhere safe so if you die you'll drop immediately into your reserve body. I think. The rules say you occupy the body immediately if you are already dead when the clone is made, it's a bit vague on if it works when you die later.