SirNibbles
2017-03-28, 07:49 AM
What happens to a body as it ages?
The Player's Handbook discusses numeric effects of age on page 109:
"With age, a character’s physical ability scores decrease and his or her mental ability scores increase (see Table 6–5: Aging Effects). The effects of each aging step are cumulative. However, none of a character’s ability scores can be reduced below 1 in this way."
At Middle Age, a character gains +1 to all mental ability scores and -1 to all physical ability scores.
At Old Age, a character gains +1 to all mental ability scores and -2 to all physical ability scores.
At Venerable Age, a character gains +1 to all mental ability scores and -3 to all physical ability scores.
This is fairly straightforward. An older character will have lower Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution, thus having: less physical power; worse coordination and reflexes; and decreased health and stamina.
These physical changes would be visible as well: wrinkled skin; diminished muscle tone; grey and thinning hair; etc. It's noteworthy that, in D&D, due to hearing and eyesight being keyed to Wisdom rather than any physical attribute, these senses would be increased, rather than decreased, by age.
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Let's examine the effect of immortality and aging immunity (such as that granted by Timeless Body), starting with the latter.
"Timeless Body (Ex): After attaining 15th level, a druid no longer takes ability score penalties for aging (see Table 6–5: Aging Effects, page 109) and cannot be magically aged. Any penalties she may have already incurred, however, remain in place. Bonuses still accrue, and the druid still dies of old age when her time is up." - Player's Handbook, page 37
If we operate under the assumption that the physical manifestations of aging are a direct result of the ability score penalties, or perhaps that they are caused by the same internal factors, we can also assume that these manifestations would be absent in a character which does not suffer aging penalties. That is, a Druid (or Monk or other character with Timeless Body or a similar ability) would appear at the peak of their youth regardless of their age: their skin would be firm and smooth; their muscles strong; their hair thick and colourful. Accumulated scars and other indications of injury may betray their true age, but they otherwise look the same as they did when they were in the Adult age category, even at Middle Age, Old Age, and Venerable.
We'll assume the following two things contribute to aging and dying of old age:
1. Genetic Maximum Age- from birth, your body is coded to last until a certain date (represented by the die roll made by the GM when a player becomes Venerable)
2. Cell Division Limit- your cells can only divide a certain number of times due to DNA loss. Your cells gradually become 'weaker' (for lack of a better word), leading to physical deterioration.
Timeless Body removes the latter restriction on your body, allowing your cells to divide without DNA loss, and thus divide until you die.
True immortality, such as that granted by the Cloud Anchorite's (Frostburn, page 52) Immortality of the Mountain removes the first restriction. However, it does not remove the second restriction and you continue to accrue penalties for aging (and your body shows signs of aging as normal). However, if this is how it worked, your cells would still eventually become useless and you would die of multiple organ failure caused by old age without technically dying of old age. In order for immortality to actually function, we must assume that its effect also changes the cell division limit in some manner. At some point after reaching venerable age, the cells change the manner in which they divide in order to prevent their death. This allows the Immortal to live forever, albeit in an elderly state.
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What happens in regards to fertility and virility as characters age? It's common knowledge that a woman's fertility declines significantly after her 20s and continues to decline in various ways until menopause.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/Age_and_female_fertility.png/400px-Age_and_female_fertility.png
Additionally, the risk of birth defects, miscarriages, and the death of the mother increase with age.
Virility has similar issues to fertility. Males are able to produce offspring pretty much until they die but the quality and volume of sperm decreases. This, as it does for older women, leads to an increased chance of birth defects and greater difficulty in conceiving a child. The oldest known human to father a child is 96 years old.
_
There is certainly no rule in any first party material regarding this issue that I've been able to locate. Even going to third-party material such as the Book of Erotic Fantasy doesn't help much. It mentions that (most) races become fertile upon reaching adulthood and simply mentions that age is among the factors that affect conception but does not go into detail about any of those factors (Book of Erotic Fantasy, page 49).
Assuming you were in a campaign where this would come up, how would conception be impaired and how could this be overcome? Are there ways to reduce the effects of aging?
For an example of when this might be relevant to a campaign, let's say that the 35 year old queen is having trouble producing an heir- something which could lead to other major political forces in the setting trying to take the throne for themselves.
Would it be necessary at all to have a system for this or could you just whip it out when you want to use it as a plot point for an NPC? (I must add, using this as a plot point would be rare- I'm not saying everyone should base campaigns on decreased female fertility as a result of aging). Giving a PC trouble conceiving a child just seems unnecessarily mean.
_
I would posit that an immortal 3000 year old human male could possibly conceive a child if he were to mate with a young woman. The child would have an increased risk of birth defects and conception would be more difficult. The reverse situation would not be possible due to the woman becoming infertile even though she is immortal. A Timeless Body (or equivalent) effect would allow both to easily conceive healthy offspring regardless of their age, assuming the effect was acquired before aging took place.
___
Why is this important?
It's not, really. I forgot my reason for writing this halfway through. Something about liches.
___
If I made any typos, let me know. It's 6 AM so it's likely I messed up somewhere.
The Player's Handbook discusses numeric effects of age on page 109:
"With age, a character’s physical ability scores decrease and his or her mental ability scores increase (see Table 6–5: Aging Effects). The effects of each aging step are cumulative. However, none of a character’s ability scores can be reduced below 1 in this way."
At Middle Age, a character gains +1 to all mental ability scores and -1 to all physical ability scores.
At Old Age, a character gains +1 to all mental ability scores and -2 to all physical ability scores.
At Venerable Age, a character gains +1 to all mental ability scores and -3 to all physical ability scores.
This is fairly straightforward. An older character will have lower Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution, thus having: less physical power; worse coordination and reflexes; and decreased health and stamina.
These physical changes would be visible as well: wrinkled skin; diminished muscle tone; grey and thinning hair; etc. It's noteworthy that, in D&D, due to hearing and eyesight being keyed to Wisdom rather than any physical attribute, these senses would be increased, rather than decreased, by age.
___
Let's examine the effect of immortality and aging immunity (such as that granted by Timeless Body), starting with the latter.
"Timeless Body (Ex): After attaining 15th level, a druid no longer takes ability score penalties for aging (see Table 6–5: Aging Effects, page 109) and cannot be magically aged. Any penalties she may have already incurred, however, remain in place. Bonuses still accrue, and the druid still dies of old age when her time is up." - Player's Handbook, page 37
If we operate under the assumption that the physical manifestations of aging are a direct result of the ability score penalties, or perhaps that they are caused by the same internal factors, we can also assume that these manifestations would be absent in a character which does not suffer aging penalties. That is, a Druid (or Monk or other character with Timeless Body or a similar ability) would appear at the peak of their youth regardless of their age: their skin would be firm and smooth; their muscles strong; their hair thick and colourful. Accumulated scars and other indications of injury may betray their true age, but they otherwise look the same as they did when they were in the Adult age category, even at Middle Age, Old Age, and Venerable.
We'll assume the following two things contribute to aging and dying of old age:
1. Genetic Maximum Age- from birth, your body is coded to last until a certain date (represented by the die roll made by the GM when a player becomes Venerable)
2. Cell Division Limit- your cells can only divide a certain number of times due to DNA loss. Your cells gradually become 'weaker' (for lack of a better word), leading to physical deterioration.
Timeless Body removes the latter restriction on your body, allowing your cells to divide without DNA loss, and thus divide until you die.
True immortality, such as that granted by the Cloud Anchorite's (Frostburn, page 52) Immortality of the Mountain removes the first restriction. However, it does not remove the second restriction and you continue to accrue penalties for aging (and your body shows signs of aging as normal). However, if this is how it worked, your cells would still eventually become useless and you would die of multiple organ failure caused by old age without technically dying of old age. In order for immortality to actually function, we must assume that its effect also changes the cell division limit in some manner. At some point after reaching venerable age, the cells change the manner in which they divide in order to prevent their death. This allows the Immortal to live forever, albeit in an elderly state.
___
What happens in regards to fertility and virility as characters age? It's common knowledge that a woman's fertility declines significantly after her 20s and continues to decline in various ways until menopause.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/Age_and_female_fertility.png/400px-Age_and_female_fertility.png
Additionally, the risk of birth defects, miscarriages, and the death of the mother increase with age.
Virility has similar issues to fertility. Males are able to produce offspring pretty much until they die but the quality and volume of sperm decreases. This, as it does for older women, leads to an increased chance of birth defects and greater difficulty in conceiving a child. The oldest known human to father a child is 96 years old.
_
There is certainly no rule in any first party material regarding this issue that I've been able to locate. Even going to third-party material such as the Book of Erotic Fantasy doesn't help much. It mentions that (most) races become fertile upon reaching adulthood and simply mentions that age is among the factors that affect conception but does not go into detail about any of those factors (Book of Erotic Fantasy, page 49).
Assuming you were in a campaign where this would come up, how would conception be impaired and how could this be overcome? Are there ways to reduce the effects of aging?
For an example of when this might be relevant to a campaign, let's say that the 35 year old queen is having trouble producing an heir- something which could lead to other major political forces in the setting trying to take the throne for themselves.
Would it be necessary at all to have a system for this or could you just whip it out when you want to use it as a plot point for an NPC? (I must add, using this as a plot point would be rare- I'm not saying everyone should base campaigns on decreased female fertility as a result of aging). Giving a PC trouble conceiving a child just seems unnecessarily mean.
_
I would posit that an immortal 3000 year old human male could possibly conceive a child if he were to mate with a young woman. The child would have an increased risk of birth defects and conception would be more difficult. The reverse situation would not be possible due to the woman becoming infertile even though she is immortal. A Timeless Body (or equivalent) effect would allow both to easily conceive healthy offspring regardless of their age, assuming the effect was acquired before aging took place.
___
Why is this important?
It's not, really. I forgot my reason for writing this halfway through. Something about liches.
___
If I made any typos, let me know. It's 6 AM so it's likely I messed up somewhere.