An Ageless player race...

[atemu1234]

I'm curious as to what the ramifications of a race that does not age would be in D&D. This doesn't mean one that simply doesn't have physical aging, but has no aging whatsoever, no middle, old or venerable age.

I've never really met a DM who is "hard and fast" about aging rules (at least, none keep track of in-game time lapse) so I wonder if it would impact gameplay at all.

[Giddonihah]

You mean Elans? Though I suppose they have age categories.. So Warforged then.

[Silva Stormrage]

Warforged or just Undead. Think about how an undead civilization would impact society. Though I suppose they can't reproduce on their own so that limits them somewhat in their influence.

[Phelix-Mu]

No DM you've played with tracked (even approximated) in-game time passage? That's always on my list of big things that affect plot, but particularly subplots relevant to specific characters, as, rather predictably, people care about time spent on things (in-game people, I mean).

[atemu1234]

No DM you've played with tracked (even approximated) in-game time passage? That's always on my list of big things that affect plot, but particularly subplots relevant to specific characters, as, rather predictably, people care about time spent on things (in-game people, I mean).

I've never met one who keeps specific track. Sometimes they'll retcon it into being something like "ok, it's been two years since you started adventuring together so that this villain's son has time to come of age..." but it's very rarely "this mission was two months, this one takes place a month later, this next one three months later..."

I personally keep a decent amount of track on it, but tend to bend it a little to make better sense.

[bekeleven]

Warforged hit middle age at 150 years old, which is funny since in-setting none can be that old. They have no further age categories. Elan hit middle age at 200, old at 400 and venerable at 1000 years, and have no further age categories.

See also the list of ways to ignore aging penalties, so that you can play a 50000 year old Elan with no con hit. Comes from the List of Stuff:


Timeless Body - or immune to aging, or can't die from age, or something similar
Monk 17
Druid 15
Soulborn 17, Magic of Incarnum
Sapphire Hierarch 8, ecl 13, Magic of Incarnum
Cloud Anchorite
Alienist 9, ecl 14, Complete Arcane
Contemplative 9, ecl 19, Complete Divine, don't take penalties for aging, still die of old age
Tattoed Monk 5, ecl 10, Complete Warrior, don't take penalties for aging, still die of old age
Master of Many Forms ?
Henshin Mystic
Eldritch Disciple 10, ecl 15, Complete Mage
Zerth Cenobite 10, ecl 16, Complete Psionic, same name but completely different ability
Holt Warden 9, ecl 14, Complete Champion
Dragon Prophet 10, ecl 15, Magic of Eberron, "ageless", gain the bonuses but not the penalties, see text
Initiate of the Draconic Mysteries 9, ecl 14, Draconomicon

[jiriku]

A race that doesn't age would have an interesting society. Assuming that the birth rate is reasonably low, advancement and status would probably depend on experience and seniority, since almost no one is new at whatever they do and people don't suffer the debilitation of old age. It would be a very conservative, traditional society, since the people who developed the policies and traditions of several thousand years ago are still around and probably still in charge. People who bring change (such as adventurers) might be regarded as potentially dangerous and subversive.

A lot would depend on the culture of the race. If it's traditional to battle your foes to the death for the right of rulership, as orcs do, then there might not be a lot of high-level folks around. If powerful people have learned to get along in a nonlethal way, as with most races of good demihumans, you'd see a LOT of higher level people who've had centuries to perfect their abilities. If this race was outward-looking and involved in the world around them, their goals and actions would shape the entire world. If they're more retiring and avoid contact with other races, they'd have wonders and mysteries that would be inexplicable to lesser races.

[CIDE]

Wedded to history feat would accomplish this on an individual basis. Technically the same article the feat came from (and the Ageless effect) could even be applied widespread to an entire civilization and almost any race. There's even a spell that can do it.

As for ramifications... well, we could discuss that at the high risk of slaughtering millions of cat girls.

[Phelix-Mu]

Oh, here's a good place to mention Time Lords that came up in another thread. They are essentially ageless, as they just swap bodies when one is getting old (and may or may not have the tech to do it ad infinitum). Downside is that their society, after hitting a huge peak of technological superiority (culminating in stellar engineering and time travel), became extremely insular and conservative, and they basically shut themselves away on Gallifrey to pursue their own esoteric goals and research, traveling sometimes, but always in secret and always under a kind of Prime Directive to "never interfere." Otherwise they are/were quite xenophobic and arrogant.

But, after a billion plus years of history, that is to be expected. Especially when coupled with perfect defenses* like the time shields that surrounded the planet. They barely paid attention to the rest of the galaxy, viewing the rest of reality like some kind of half-serious soap opera playing on mute in the background.

[Feint's End]

Warforged hit middle age at 150 years old, which is funny since in-setting none can be that old. They have no further age categories. Elan hit middle age at 200, old at 400 and venerable at 1000 years, and have no further age categories.

See also the list of ways to ignore aging penalties, so that you can play a 50000 year old Elan with no con hit. Comes from the List of Stuff:

Only some of those things make you immortal (like cloud anchorite). Most of them like monk or druid only stop you from advancing further through age categories but you still die when your time has come (timeless body). Granted that's what we want for an Elan but there should be a distinction on this list.

[bekeleven]

Only some of those things make you immortal (like cloud anchorite). Most of them like monk or druid only stop you from advancing further through age categories but you still die when your time has come (timeless body). Granted that's what we want for an Elan but there should be a distinction on this list.

That is literally what I said they did.

[Chronos]

Even if a DM does track time elapsed, age categories are decades at least even for the shortest-lived races, and centuries for the longer ones. When was the last time you ever had a campaign run that long? The only way that age categories ever really come up is in backstories.

[Fax Celestis]

Thri-kreen would like a word, Chronos.

[Segev]

As a counterpoint to the assertion that such a society would be very conservative and staid, let me point out both the Q Continuum (which, while largely unchanging, had Q in it...and until he started embarassing them by losing regularly to lesser beings, they didn't care about his antics) and the Raksha from Exalted.

Both appear highly chaotic, verging on the anarchic. Their social structures are whatever they feel like today, and they generally do whatever they want.

[Phelix-Mu]

Well Raksha barely have a society, though, due to the weird way in which the Wyld works. Add in that stagnation is literally lethal to them (if indirectly), and I'm not sure they are the best counterexample. Even if they were quite young or infinitely old, they are what they are. Add in that they aren't born so much as spring into existence at the whim of the Wyld, and they behave more like intelligent observer-dependent quantum particles than like a society (though the various Courts approximate the societies of Creation).

Otherwise I think your point is pretty good. Normal societies similar to human society might stagnate, but fantastic ones run by thoroughly inhuman creatures might be different.

[Yael]

I don't know, but there's an elven variant for every situation.

[...]

I don't know, but there's an elven variant for every situation.

I think you're confusing elves with demons.:smallwink:

Honestly, in my opinion, the most interesting immortal race is the Maugs, from the Fiend Folio.

[Zombulian]

Warforged or just Undead. Think about how an undead civilization would impact society. Though I suppose they can't reproduce on their own so that limits them somewhat in their influence.

Well doesn't LM talk about the city of the dead that the Necropolitans live in? I can't remember what it's called but it was always interesting to me.

[Leviting]

Well doesn't LM talk about the city of the dead that the Necropolitans live in? I can't remember what it's called but it was always interesting to me.

just checked, the city is called Nocturnus.

[torrasque666]

I think you're confusing elves with demons.:smallwink:
There's a difference?

[Zombulian]

There's a difference?

But didn't you know? The Doctor is an elf! If you call elves demons then you're calling the Doctor a demon. HOW DARE YOU.

[atemu1234]

There's a difference?

I never understood the elf-hate, at least in the later editions. Maybe originally they had a bit too much popularity which led to some mary sue-ish traits but throughout third and 3.5 edition they had a lot humanizing them, too. Comparing them to demons just seems vaguely wrong.

[torrasque666]

Nononononono...... I'm a Dwarf Fortress fan, been playing it longer than D&D. Tis joke.

[Gavinfoxx]

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=5996

That stuff already exists in D&D??

[ThatKreacher]

I'm away from book right now, but I think I remember something interesting about Kiloren, from Races of the Wild I think. I think they dont have a maximum age or something like that.

[Zombulian]

I'm away from book right now, but I think I remember something interesting about Kiloren, from Races of the Wild I think. I think they dont have a maximum age or something like that.

Yeah in the venerable section it says "N/A" and then a footnote says that they can naturally age to the old category, but never make it to venerable and can choose to live indefinitely if they so please.