Venerable Mule

[LordOfCain]

Would age categories work on animals? For example at age category venerable would a mule have an intelligence of 5 and be sentient?

[legomaster00156]

They do not have written age categories, so by RAW, no. By RAI, no. By any kind of logic, no. By Rule of Funny, sure, why the hell not?

[AvatarVecna]

...I don't think it works that way. Without getting into the real-world logic of it, age categories of the kind that grant attribute bonuses only exist for the creatures they're stated to exist for. Thus, the only extremely unintelligent creature they theoretically exist for is that one Spider PC race.

So age categories exist for Anthropomorphic Mules, but not regular mules. This also means that AMs grow weaker and slower with age, while regular mules don't; D&D RAW is funny like that.

[ExLibrisMortis]

In fact, death by aging is impossible for most creatures, except most PC races, and dragons.

[LordOfCain]

So animals are immortal???? I so want to play an awakened donkey now! ;)

[Draconium]

I...

Um...

:smallannoyed:

Yet another reason why RAW is so silly.

[SkipSandwich]

They do not have written age categories, so by RAW, no. By RAI, no. By any kind of logic, no. By Rule of Funny, sure, why the hell not?

Actually, isn't there some sort of old asian myth that creatures and objects that get to be 100 years old acquire a soul and gain mystical powers?

[RolkFlameraven]

So animals are immortal???? I so want to play an awakened donkey now! ;)

There can be only ONE!

[ShurikVch]

Age categories for Animals were described in Dragon #108 (1E):
Instead ability scores, they get HD and natural AC - increase up to Middle Age, decrease at Old and Venerable
Also, damage of their natural attacks: while base damage dice gets bigger, damage bonus is maximal at Mature, and decreasing since it

[sovin_ndore]

Actually, isn't there some sort of old asian myth that creatures and objects that get to be 100 years old acquire a soul and gain mystical powers?
Yes, this is prevalent in Japanese mythology. Objects that have gained sentience after gaining their 100th birthday are referred to as tsukumogami. In similar vein, a cat may transcend to become a bakeneko (a two tailed cat yokai) through a number of methods including a similar 100 year rule. Some legends indicate that nomal (one tailed) foxes gain a second tail and become Kitsune (fox demon) after a century then continue gains an additional tail for each 100 years of their life until it ascends to a 9-tailed fox, completing its transformation (at 800+ years old). There may be other examples of animals ascending through 100 year rules but they don't have a blanket term like tsukumogami and their mechanics are less cohesive.

[Aetol]

Actually, isn't there some sort of old asian myth that creatures and objects that get to be 100 years old acquire a soul and gain mystical powers?

Wait, any object ? Are these unexploded shells that keep popping up in old WW1 battlefields sentient ? :smallconfused:

[sovin_ndore]

Wait, any object ? Are these unexploded shells that keep popping up in old WW1 battlefields sentient ? :smallconfused:
Today it is generally believed to apply to most any object, but studies of the original sources of the legends do not provide difinitive proof. Japanese folklore had a reasonable list of examples of items that explicitly fall under this umbrella (Kasa-obake? :smalltongue:), but the term Tsukumogami was not even applied to all of the original legends that seem to follow this '100 year rule' in their original documents. Thus this remains somewhat a point of contention.