Age troubles

[Thistle]

I am wanting to create a character that is around a 200 year old "witch"/druid. The problem is I also want them to be human and be no more than middle age. And all this at level ten. I'm just not sure how I can pull it off. Any suggestions would be appriciated.

[DementedFellow]

lich template?

You can be human and undead. And live for centuries.

[Thistle]

The unnaturalness of undead doesn't really mesh well with druids unfortunately.

[Fax Celestis]

Well, if you're high enough level druid, you can get the Timeless Body feature. Alternatively, you can have been reincarnated multiple times. Your body is middle-aged; your soul is ancient.

[Collin152]

Well, if you're high enough level druid, you can get the Timeless Body feature. Alternatively, you can have been reincarnated multiple times. Your body is middle-aged; your soul is ancient.

Timeless body won't keep a human alive for 200 years.

[Tequila Sunrise]

Just ask your DM to make it happen; it won't unbalance the game if he just decides to ignore the silly age-related ability adjustments. Maybe you got cursed/blessed by your god with eternal life; maybe you traded souls with a dryad and will live as long as her tree does; maybe you just know a spell that you use every few years to keep your body young, or have a mage do it. There are a million ways to become immortal. If your DM isn't into house rulings, there was a Dragon mag sometime last year that had feats and other goodies for being immortal. (sorry, not home right now or I'd give you the exact issue)

TS

[Fax Celestis]

Timeless body won't keep a human alive for 200 years.

Well, it should, dammit. //shakes fist at mechanics that make no sense.

[Collin152]

Well, it should, dammit. //shakes fist at mechanics that make no sense.

Yeah, that ability doesn't really do anything. What kind of Druid even uses their physical stats?

[Fax Celestis]

Yeah, that ability doesn't really do anything. What kind of Druid even uses their physical stats?

Monks get it too, you know, and it's just about as useless for them.

[NaYoN]

Doesn't being a chosen of a god grant you immortality? The druid can be chosen of some god, or even mother nature.

[Fuzzy_Juan]

Druids believe in the cycle of life, while they may retain vigor and strength like the trees and dragons...they all must rejoin the cycle eventually...thus, they become timeless, but must remain mortal.

Reincarnation is really the easy answer...to have been through several reincarnations might be explainable...even though they might believe in death as a natural part of life, in a world where druids might be more scarce, the order might have each druid returned to the cycle in a more complete way to gaurantee a certian number of experienced watchers.

maybe your character died after a long life and was returned to life by a fellow druid through reincarnation...because he had something he needed to do and it was important...but then he got killed again...now he gets ressed by a priest to complete whatever it was that he was doing so long ago...(a ressurection at minimum can be on a 130 year old corpse.)

Explains the old age and gives some good story hooks. Or you could just be reincarnated over and over or have access to lots of oil of timelessness (though that is not very druid like.)

[Collin152]

Monks get it too, you know, and it's just about as useless for them.

Yeah! What kind of a monk gets that high level/lives that long?

[Fax Celestis]

Yeah! What kind of a monk gets that high level/lives that long?

I know. Most of them are put out of their misery long before that time.

[Zenos]

Just say that you accidentaly got a Wish from a Efreet and got the aging table of [insert proper race here, I don't want to go check my books].

[Collin152]

I know. Most of them are put out of their misery long before that time.

Dieing of old age is harldey a pressing matter for them.

Anyways, does the Druid need to have been concious and active all those 200years? Temporal Stasis prevents aging.

[Fax Celestis]

Dieing of old age is harldey a pressing matter for them.

Anyways, does the Druid need to have been concious and active all those 200years? Temporal Stasis prevents aging.

Ooh. That'd make a good hook: "I lost a fight with a wizard who ravaged the lands, and he put me into stasis so that I could watch as he destroyed the nature around me. Now that I have been freed, I want revenge."

[NaYoN]

Dieing of old age is harldey a pressing matter for them.

Anyways, does the Druid need to have been concious and active all those 200years? Temporal Stasis prevents aging.

or imprisonment? doesn't that work that way too?

[Collin152]

or imprisonment? doesn't that work that way too?

It does, but it's less feasible to reverse.
You could be like Gaia, the spirit of the Earth as seen on Captain planet!

[NaYoN]

Maybe the druid ate a true mind switch from a prodigal 1 year old psion while he was on his deathbed? So the druid was around the age of 100, and he gets a new very young body? :D haha this is a stretch :D

No wait, he ate multiple true mind switches from young psions, but why would a young psion want a broken elderly body is beyond me, or how a young psion would cast true mind switch :D

[DementedFellow]

The unnaturalness of undead doesn't really mesh well with druids unfortunately.

Well, that's not quite true. In Sandstorm you have the idea of a Dry Lich. Basically it's a lich that spreads the desert around wherever he goes. It is built with clerics and druids as the base creature.

It can make sense to have a druid so in love with the beauty of the desert that he wants to spread it as far as he can.

I understand why you wouldn't want to go lich. I just adore the Dry Lich idea.

[NaYoN]

Which book is that Dry Lich in? Sandstorm? never heard of it...

[Fax Celestis]

Which book is that Dry Lich in? Sandstorm? never heard of it...

Yup, Sandstorm. It's one of the better books out there, IMO, but that could just be because of the ability in it that allows you to turn hippopotami as if they were undead.

[Collin152]

Yup, Sandstorm. It's one of the better books out there, IMO, but that could just be because of the ability in it that allows you to turn hippopotami as if they were undead.

Hipopotami? I thought the plural was just Hippopotamus.
Well, at least it isn't Ponii.

[Fax Celestis]

Hipopotami? I thought the plural was just Hippopotamus.
Well, at least it isn't Ponii.

Octopus : Octopi :: Hippopotamus : Hippopotami :: Cactus : Cacti

[martyboy74]

Moose : Moosii :: Goose : Goosii?

(That was hardly a usefull analogy Fax ).

[DementedFellow]

Moose : Moosii :: Goose : Goosii?

(That was hardly a usefull analogy Fax ).

Moose : Moose, actually.

[Idea Man]

How about a Greater Curse, or a dying curse from BoVD? Both are really powerful, and leave lots of room for special effects (like no bonuses or penalties from aging, because you won't age). Hard to just drop or get rid of at level 10.

[Fax Celestis]

Moose : Moosii :: Goose : Goosii?

(That was hardly a usefull analogy Fax ).

":" = is to
"::" = as

Octopus is to Octopi as Hippopotamus is to Hippopotami as Cactus is to Cacti.

[Collin152]

How about a Greater Curse, or a dying curse from BoVD? Both are really powerful, and leave lots of room for special effects (like no bonuses or penalties from aging, because you won't age). Hard to just drop or get rid of at level 10.

Curses don't typically do good things.

[Idea Man]

Define "good things". Things like watching all of your family and friends die of old age? Being called a lich or dragon or somesuch by the locals 'cause you just don't get any older? Even if you isolate yourself, you're the crazy old hermit, and 150 years away from the world will mean a huge number of changes. I don't see any major "mechanical" benefits. It's just supposed to be fluff, in this case, right?

I'm assuming the curse prevents the benefits of aging as well as the penalties. Sure, you're immune to ghost-aging. Even the worst curse can have an up side, small as it may be.