Elven Age Categories (as per Tolkien)

[Andion Isurand]

from Morgoth's Ring, pg. 209

The Eldar grew in bodily form slower than Men, but in mind more swiftly. They learned to speak before they were one year old; and in the same time they learned to walk and to dance, for their wills came soon to the mastery of their bodies. Nonetheless there was less difference between the two Kindreds, Elves and Men, in early youth; and a man who watched elf-children at play might well have believed that they were the children of Men, of some fair and happy people. For in their early days elf-children delighted still in the world about them, and the fire of their spirit had not consumed them, and the burden of memory was still light upon them.

This same watcher might indeed have wondered at the small limbs and stature of these children, judging their age by their skill in words and grace in motion. For at the end of the third year mortal children began to outstrip the Elves, hastening on to a full stature while the Elves lingered in the first spring of childhood. Children of Men might reach their full height while Eldar of the same age were still in body like to mortals of no more than seven years. Not until the fiftieth year did the Eldar attain the stature and shape in which their lives would afterwards endure, and for some a hundred years would pass before they were full-grown.

Given the above passage...

...If you were asked as a DM or designer, how many of you would take the average of 50 and 100 and reset the adulthood age of elves (and spiritfolk) to 75 years of age?

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Another thing that drew my attention to including this passage is that I found it as another basis to correct the fact that Dwarves enjoy an adulthood "in their prime" that is 20 years longer than a standard elf.

I'm not trying to match Tokien's immortal elves, just using their background influence to help justify a modification in existing D&D 3.5 elves.

[Bogardan_Mage]

Going by that passage alone, Elven adulthood should be 50, with the random starting age being of significant varience to push some over 100. Perhaps 3d20, for example. The adulthood score isn't the average, it's the lowest (as evidenced by Human adulthood being 15, and, well, the way it plays really). Of course, all this assumes that D&D elves ought to be identical (or at least more similar) to Tolkienian elves, which isn't necessarily true.

[Andion Isurand]

Well, I think a mortal race should mature at least as fast as its immortal counterpart... although given that the dwarves and gnomes start at 40... starting elves at 50 might be putting them out of relative proportion.

[Ophiel]

Variable 50 + 3d20 adulthood looks good to me.
We must also remember that even the youngest elves Tolkien wrote about are several thousand years old and several (such as Galadriel) are older than sun and moon. Also Tolkien elves are immortal, they departed west when they became too wary from mortal world affairs if they aren't killed so probably other than that age categories should be completely ignored when it comes to them.

[Morph Bark]

Variable 50 + 3d20 adulthood looks good to me.
We must also remember that even the youngest elves Tolkien wrote about are several thousand years old and several (such as Galadriel) are older than sun and moon. Also Tolkien elves are immortal, they departed west when they became too wary from mortal world affairs if they aren't killed so probably other than that age categories should be completely ignored when it comes to them.

The youngest elf I recall in the Lord of the Rings is Legolas, whom I read somewhere to be around 300 years of age. That's still really old when compared to humans though.

[Andion Isurand]

Heh.. Drizzt was born in 1297 DR and is given stats in the FRCS 3.0 (which starts in the year 1372 DR)... which gives him 16 class levels at 75 years of age.

Not that it has much influence in setting an average biological curve.

[Ponderthought]

Personally ive always thought elven age spans shoud go somewhere from true adulthood at 100 to middle age at 350 and the very oldest elves reaching nigh a millennium of existence. I always figured such long lives would make the elven mindset very, very alien to humans. But thats just my two cents.

[Andion Isurand]

Personally ive always thought elven age spans shoud go somewhere from true adulthood at 100 to middle age at 350 and the very oldest elves reaching nigh a millennium of existence. I always figured such long lives would make the elven mindset very, very alien to humans. But thats just my two cents.

As per Races of Faerûn, sun elves actually live a bit longer than other elves... some surpassing a millennium if going by the numbers alone.

middle aged @ 210
old @ 315
venerable @ 420
maximum age of +6d%

[Mongoose87]

The youngest elf I recall in the Lord of the Rings is Legolas, whom I read somewhere to be around 300 years of age. That's still really old when compared to humans though.

You'd think he would've learned how to act in 300 years.