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  1. - Top - End - #1
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    OrcBarbarianGuy

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    Default Roleplaying a 2000 year "old man"

    The recent talk of cloud anchorites made me wonder about playing one in a high level tier 5 campaign. Something like frostblooded half-orc paragon 3/orc paragon 3/cloud anchorite 10/monk 4 (but starting at level 16 for actual play). I would use the apprentice feat from DMG II to get the knowledge religion requirement. So, a warrior-type in his youth, but one who followed a human philosopher, and then heard of a rumour of a secret to living forever . . . but only as a very old (nay, venerable!) man. I could get snatch arrows (for the cool factor) and cold endurance and x3 improved cold endurance (my DM lets all the different sources of cold resistance stack and 35 is pretty nice). Eventually would get combat reflexes and stunning attack (monk) and water splitting stone (hey, the name sounds cool). He might still carry around a mighty composite longbow (even at venerable he likely would have a str bonus).

    Again, this is Tier 5. I recognize that this guy is not that powerful. It is kind of cool that he is one of the few monks that can rage. He might feel guilty about his very early youthful warrior raids vs. elves (the philosopher might have cautioned against it, but he only listened later), and have converted to LG after all this time.

    So most immortals tend to be "young in body" by one trick or another or else "irrelevant in body" (via being undead, construct, etc.). Very few would have to worry, not only about getting food (remember Yoda going through Luke's food rations in The Empire Strikes Back?) and water, as well as not getting stabbed, burned to death (especially since he is vulnerable to fire), etc. but also about the typical aches and pains from simply being that old.

    So the character might not wear armour anymore because, dammit, it chafes! And might complain about it being "too damned hot" all the time if anywhere below 12 000 ft.

    I just wonder about what it would be like to role-play someone that not only was really old, but felt really old in their bones for almost the entire time. This is not just a 2000 year old man; this would be a 2000 year "old man".

    I could assume the character pretty much retired from adventuring at level 16 for 2000 years, until something brings him out of retirement.

    Anyhow, what are some ideas of roleplaying someone who lived for millennia, but with the body clock perpetually stuck at "venerable"?

    Note, I am not looking for for loopholes to find youth. More on how to roleplay being old.

    Light the lamp not the rat LIGHT THE LAMP NOT THE RAT!!!

  2. - Top - End - #2
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    MaxiDuRaritry's Avatar

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    Default Re: Roleplaying a 2000 year "old man"

    I just hope you never encounter an AMF or anything that even looks like one.

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    Planetar

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    Default Re: Roleplaying a 2000 year "old man"

    Quote Originally Posted by Particle_Man View Post
    So most immortals tend to be "young in body" by one trick or another or else "irrelevant in body" (via being undead, construct, etc.). Very few would have to worry, not only about getting food (remember Yoda going through Luke's food rations in The Empire Strikes Back?) and water, as well as not getting stabbed, burned to death (especially since he is vulnerable to fire), etc. but also about the typical aches and pains from simply being that old.
    Worth noting here that Yoda's whole schtick of going through Luke's stuff had an ulterior motive attached to it: it was to test Luke's patience and his emotional maturity. It's only when Luke loses his temper and starts shouting at Yoda in his own home that he drops the artifice and starts saying to Obi-Wan that Luke can't be taught because "the boy has no patience."

    So maybe that's the simplest roleplaying suggestion: the old guy looks ancient and weak and feebleminded because he goes out of his way to promote that appearance. It conserves his resources, allows him to move around as an anonymous old beggar. Also indirectly saves lives; because nobody knows who he is, he doesn't have to kill or injuyre young hotheads who'd otherwise want to challenge the legendary Lord of Cloudy Mountain.


    As for actually roleplaying old:

    - a good trick I've heard used by investment/personal achievement scam artists is to get a short rope, tie one end around your neck (loosely) and the other around your belt buckle, making sure you can't stand up straight. Right there, you've got what it feels like to be old. Do that for a few minutes and you've got the physical sensation of what it's like.

    - There's a great line from the second season of The Crown, where Charles Dance as Earl Mountbatten asks his ageing, dying sister why he shouldn't try harder to intervene or do something about what he sees England becoming. Her answer's poignant and cuts to the bone: Because it's not our problem. That's the one good thing about being this age, it's not our responsibility anymore. This is a good reason for 'virtuous' apathy: I don't intervene as an old man because the young need to grow up and have their place in the sun.

    - Druss the Axeman, in the book 'Legend' by David Gemmell. Don't read any of the other Drenai books, this one is the best. Gemmell's passed away, but Druss is one of his best characters ever, and he's a legendary warrior at the end of his life, feeling the pangs of age. It makes for brilliant reading, especially when you keep in the back of your mind that Gemmell had in mind his father's slow fight and death from cancer. The whole book is something of a meditation on terminal illness (leaving aside it's a beautiful, old-school, low-magic fantasy read.)

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    Maat Mons's Avatar

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    Default Re: Roleplaying a 2000 year "old man"

    I feel it may be worth noting that Timeless Body doesn't keep you young. It just makes you a deceptively-fit wrinkly old man.

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    OldWizardGuy

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    Default Re: Roleplaying a 2000 year "old man"

    The question that immediately occurs to me is: why does he want to be an old man for 2,000 years? He's got to have some pretty strong reason for living to put up with the pains of old age indefinitely. Is he afraid to die? Or conversely, has he achieved such inner peace that he accepts pain with complete serenity? Does he have a mission or obsession which keeps him going? Or what?

    I think once you decide on the answer, quite a large part of how to roleplay him will flow naturally from that.

    Quote Originally Posted by Maat Mons View Post
    I feel it may be worth noting that Timeless Body doesn't keep you young. It just makes you a deceptively-fit wrinkly old man.
    Cloud Anchorite doesn't give you Timeless Body, it gives you Immortality of the Mountain.
    Last edited by Biggus; 2021-06-21 at 01:32 AM.

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    Maat Mons's Avatar

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    Default Re: Roleplaying a 2000 year "old man"

    I'm aware of that. I was addressing my suspicion that the OP was including Timeless Body among the methods of being "young of body" that he intends to eschew.

  7. - Top - End - #7
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    OrcBarbarianGuy

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    Default Re: Roleplaying a 2000 year "old man"

    Interesting note on timeless body but I would assume that the lack of physical stat losses reflects the “no pains of old age” idea even if one cosmetically looks old and wrinkly. While immortality of the mountain has the physical stat losses. I mean I could be wrong but I assume the physical stat losses due to age are a simplification of real world physical effects of old age. Although the mental stat boosts don’t always reflect the real world in that way so I could be wrong.

    And usually it won’t come up because people who start at level one won’t have immorality of the mountain and it would be a rare dm that at level 16 says “ok, 2000 years pass and your character once again decides to adventure”. In fact usually characters advance in levels so fast the they start as young adults and finish about a year or so later in game time as young adults, either stopping pre-epic or having some epic or divine transformation where the pains of old age will never come up. The “old man who feels like an old man” cloud anchorite gives me a window into something new to try.
    Last edited by Particle_Man; 2021-06-21 at 03:04 AM.

    Light the lamp not the rat LIGHT THE LAMP NOT THE RAT!!!

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    Bugbear in the Playground
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    Default Re: Roleplaying a 2000 year "old man"

    Adopt an attitude of extreme acceptance. From your perspective, people don't live very long and a lot of problems really can be solved by waiting a few decades. You are a little (or a lot) jaded from your slow wander through eternity.
    Compensate by taking special care to enjoy the simple things in life and take pleasure from its regular rituals. You've been everywhere and done everything, but just because nothing surprises you, doesn't mean that the familiar holds no comfort.

    With regards to people, make new friends easily and often, treat each goodbye as though it will be forever and treat friendship as a transient thing to be cherished like a sunset but not pined over because it doesn't last.
    Most friendships, even most of your friendships end because people change and drift apart or circumstances conspire to make them untenable. Most people aren't aware of this fact but you are. you have the benefit of experience.

    With regard to history, pick a few major events and famous locations you were involved in, approximately what you did and when. Make reference to these sparingly to remind people just how old you are but remember that most of your time was spent doing fairly mundane stuff in places no one has ever heard of.
    You may have seen Myth Drannor before the fall but you've seen lots of places and in all honesty, it wasn't that great.
    I am rel.

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    Default Re: Roleplaying a 2000 year "old man"

    Quote Originally Posted by MaxiDuRaritry View Post
    I just hope you never encounter an AMF or anything that even looks like one.
    Why would they have to worry about Amulets of Mighty Fists?
    ,,,,^..^,,,,


    Quote Originally Posted by Haldir View Post
    Edit- I understand it now, Fighters are like a status symbol. If you're well off enough to own a living Fighter, you must be pretty well off!

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    MaxiDuRaritry's Avatar

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    Default Re: Roleplaying a 2000 year "old man"

    Quote Originally Posted by Vizzerdrix View Post
    Why would they have to worry about Amulets of Mighty Fists?
    He doesn't.

    I'm surprised you don't know what an antimagic field is by now.

  11. - Top - End - #11
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    OrcBarbarianGuy

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    Default Re: Roleplaying a 2000 year "old man"

    Actually the nice DM house ruled immortality of the mountain as an extraordinary ability, in any case. Gave me a bonus starting feat too.

    Light the lamp not the rat LIGHT THE LAMP NOT THE RAT!!!

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