I am curious and want to find out the various methods a character could use to live longer than their race's normal lifespan. I think it could make a great story element for a player character or an NPC. The first thing that comes to mind is becoming a lich. However, lichdom seems to be mostly reserved for evil spellcasters. If anyone has any other thoughts, I would live to hear them.
An elven druid who reaches level 18 early-ish in life can live several thousand years. Any character lucky enough to "level past" 20 in a campaign with Epic Boons could be granted the Boon of Immortality (presumably by a deity to allow a powerful champion to continue their duties).
Beyond ascension to lichdom or godhood, this edition has drastically cut down on immortality. Monk and Transmuter abilities that maintain youth, for example, grant no benefit in lifespan - when your time's up, it's up.
Beyond ascension to lichdom or godhood, this edition has drastically cut down on immortality. Monk and Transmuter abilities that maintain youth, for example, grant no benefit in lifespan - when your time's up, it's up.
Well, you exclude basically many high level spells from that description, including, but not limited to, clone, reincarnate, and raise dead. While the latter two require someone else present, if you are worried that much about death, then you find a way to overcome it.
But wanting to stave off death can go from a feeling of pure survival to a more villainous craving, as what is more selfish than never wanting to die?
"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
Well, you exclude basically many high level spells from that description, including, but not limited to, clone, reincarnate, and raise dead. While the latter two require someone else present, if you are worried that much about death, then you find a way to overcome it.
But wanting to stave off death can go from a feeling of pure survival to a more villainous craving, as what is more selfish than never wanting to die?
Only the clone spell lets you reset your age, which effectively makes you immortal. raise dead I don't think will do much more then keep you not dead, but won't stop old age... reincarnate doesn't specify what happens with age... like if an Elf who is super old becomes a human... does he die because he's 700 years old or does he becomes effectively 80?
Also, why would immortality be a villainous craving!? Who doesn't aspire to be immortal? Villainous would be to go all Countess of Blood on innocents to gain it, and maybe being villainous is the "fastest" way to immortality. In a world of Gods, and Magic what sane person isn't trying for immortality?
Well reincarnate make you an adult. So no children and not elderly. Effectively with donations to the druids, setting up a few stands of forest as long as you 'live' you can be immortal with the added bonus of spicing up your live with a new body when ever you get bored of begin male, elf, human, brunett, black, white, tall, short or even gods forbid ginger.
So adventure hard, pile up the gold and make a deal with the hippies of the woodlands for your ever living soul!
Also, why would immortality be a villainous craving!? Who doesn't aspire to be immortal? Villainous would be to go all Countess of Blood on innocents to gain it, and maybe being villainous is the "fastest" way to immortality. In a world of Gods, and Magic what sane person isn't trying for immortality?
Even if it doesn't start out as a villainous craving, that tends to be where it leads. Pretty much every story of someone vying for immortality ends up leading down a very dark path. That's just part of the territory. It always comes with a massive cost, and you pay that either by losing a lot of your own humanity, or by taking what you need from others. If it were ever free or easy then everyone would do it. Then people living that long just tend to lose touch with the life of mortals - leading towards yet more evil as these insignificant insects mean less and less to you...
Immortality (defined as simply being unaging, rather than outright unkillable) is essentially a flavor trait. I can't remember age EVER mattering in any D&D game I've ever been in. I would just come up with some plot-oriented (rather than character-mechanics-based) way of doing it.
Well, you exclude basically many high level spells from that description, including, but not limited to, clone, reincarnate, and raise dead. While the latter two require someone else present, if you are worried that much about death, then you find a way to overcome it.
But wanting to stave off death can go from a feeling of pure survival to a more villainous craving, as what is more selfish than never wanting to die?
Only the clone spell lets you reset your age, which effectively makes you immortal. raise dead I don't think will do much more then keep you not dead, but won't stop old age... reincarnate doesn't specify what happens with age... like if an Elf who is super old becomes a human... does he die because he's 700 years old or does he becomes effectively 80?
Also, why would immortality be a villainous craving!? Who doesn't aspire to be immortal? Villainous would be to go all Countess of Blood on innocents to gain it, and maybe being villainous is the "fastest" way to immortality. In a world of Gods, and Magic what sane person isn't trying for immortality?
All of them? Immortality would 100% suck. You have to find some way to keep yourself entertained for eternity; you would be literally endlessly BORED. You have to watch all of your friends and family die around you. If you get chronically sick, your suffering never ends. If you're there long enough, you'll watch humanity evolve around you, reducing you to, effectively, a neanderthal by comparison. You'll have to suffer through every natural disaster and mass-killing event around no matter how world-weary it makes you. Your brain can only hold so much information, so you're going to start eventually forgetting important things.
No SANE person. But what makes you think my characters are sane? I am still for the reincarnate option as it lets you rebirth literally without diapers every 20 - 40 years or so. No boredom either as you get to explore the life of a brand new body. As for family and friends well to them you just die and when you are reborn buy them a drink from the corner of the pub every so often, pay off a mortgage or be the general good Samaritan. No worries about evolution either as you get to avoid that pitfall.
The more this thread goes on the more I'm loving the idea of a reincarnate spell going wrong and the 5000 year old body hopper having to 'rediscover' him/her/it's self.
Start 1st level, in a grove, with senile druid, have title, have dark tower.....no memories. YAHOO ADVENTURE TIME!
someone might have said this b4 me but becoming a half dragon doubles your natural life span and gives some nice bonus'. paired with the clone spell that lets you go into a clone when you die (the clone can be younger then you where when you made it i think) so theoretically, you can become a half dragon (look it up and talk to the dm cause it is not naturally built for PC's) and then make a clone, and then when your now doubled life span gets used up,you just jump lnto a younger version of your half dragon self and have a even longer life span,rinse/repeat till you want to finally die (or just use a wish spell?).
also becoming a lich ls not a good idea cause lf the thing you put your soul in breaks you die ( kinda like a harry potter horcrux),and you have to constantly feed it people so you would have to be super evil to go this route. because of these reasons l dont recommend becomeing a lich.
Not all liches are bad. Elf characters can become baelnorns, which are liches without phylacteries who can be any alignment, but are usually LG. Not sure about 5E rules on that, though.
all offspring of a steel dragon in humanoid form and a human are either steel dragon /steel dragon Or Steel dragon/ humanoid.
no homebrew needed. So you just human with draconic heritage and have vaulting near the end of your life expectancy, there is a grey steel colored mark, hair, eyes, or birthmark or scales on your every life.
Unless I have missed something, "steel dragon" anything is by definition homebrew. Same for "dual type lineage". But if you can cite a official 5E book & page, please do.
Back to the OP topic, a Sphinx can use a lair action to de-age people by 20 years at a time.
"The effects of time are altered such that every creature in the lair must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or become 1d20 years older or younger (the sphinx’s choice), but never any younger than 1 year old. A greater restoration spell can restore a creature’s age to normal."
This wouldnt have much of an effect on longer living races, but for a human befriending a Sphinx and de-ageing potentially 20 years at a time sounds like immortality to me.
Back to the OP topic, a Sphinx can use a lair action to de-age people by 20 years at a time.
"The effects of time are altered such that every creature in the lair must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or become 1d20 years older or younger (the sphinx’s choice), but never any younger than 1 year old. A greater restoration spell can restore a creature’s age to normal."
This wouldn't have much of an effect on longer living races, but for a human befriending a Sphinx and de-ageing potentially 20 years at a time sounds like immortality to me.
That is 1d20 years per rest. Even for elves, that would add up pretty quick at 31.5 years per day, 220.5 years per week...
But honestly, anyone who has something similar to "you suffer none of the drawbacks of old age" is effectively immortal. No one dies of old age, they die when those drawbacks (which don't exist for you) are more than your body can deal with. So until someone separates your head from your neck, you're all set.
Just have women and luxury that gets refreshed every few decades and wield immense political power. And stay in the elven and dwarvish circles with other spellcastwrs
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I am curious and want to find out the various methods a character could use to live longer than their race's normal lifespan. I think it could make a great story element for a player character or an NPC. The first thing that comes to mind is becoming a lich. However, lichdom seems to be mostly reserved for evil spellcasters. If anyone has any other thoughts, I would live to hear them.
An elven druid who reaches level 18 early-ish in life can live several thousand years. Any character lucky enough to "level past" 20 in a campaign with Epic Boons could be granted the Boon of Immortality (presumably by a deity to allow a powerful champion to continue their duties).
Beyond ascension to lichdom or godhood, this edition has drastically cut down on immortality. Monk and Transmuter abilities that maintain youth, for example, grant no benefit in lifespan - when your time's up, it's up.
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.
But wanting to stave off death can go from a feeling of pure survival to a more villainous craving, as what is more selfish than never wanting to die?
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"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
Well reincarnate make you an adult. So no children and not elderly. Effectively with donations to the druids, setting up a few stands of forest as long as you 'live' you can be immortal with the added bonus of spicing up your live with a new body when ever you get bored of begin male, elf, human, brunett, black, white, tall, short or even gods forbid ginger.
So adventure hard, pile up the gold and make a deal with the hippies of the woodlands for your ever living soul!
It's not Magic its Science
Even if it doesn't start out as a villainous craving, that tends to be where it leads. Pretty much every story of someone vying for immortality ends up leading down a very dark path. That's just part of the territory. It always comes with a massive cost, and you pay that either by losing a lot of your own humanity, or by taking what you need from others. If it were ever free or easy then everyone would do it. Then people living that long just tend to lose touch with the life of mortals - leading towards yet more evil as these insignificant insects mean less and less to you...
You can always play an Elf warlock with an Undying Patron which would give a life span of 7500 years
or maybe the easiest way is Magic Jar (only a 6th level spell) a warforged.
Immortality (defined as simply being unaging, rather than outright unkillable) is essentially a flavor trait. I can't remember age EVER mattering in any D&D game I've ever been in. I would just come up with some plot-oriented (rather than character-mechanics-based) way of doing it.
All of them? Immortality would 100% suck. You have to find some way to keep yourself entertained for eternity; you would be literally endlessly BORED. You have to watch all of your friends and family die around you. If you get chronically sick, your suffering never ends. If you're there long enough, you'll watch humanity evolve around you, reducing you to, effectively, a neanderthal by comparison. You'll have to suffer through every natural disaster and mass-killing event around no matter how world-weary it makes you. Your brain can only hold so much information, so you're going to start eventually forgetting important things.
No sane person would want to be immortal, IMHO.
No SANE person. But what makes you think my characters are sane? I am still for the reincarnate option as it lets you rebirth literally without diapers every 20 - 40 years or so. No boredom either as you get to explore the life of a brand new body. As for family and friends well to them you just die and when you are reborn buy them a drink from the corner of the pub every so often, pay off a mortgage or be the general good Samaritan. No worries about evolution either as you get to avoid that pitfall.
The more this thread goes on the more I'm loving the idea of a reincarnate spell going wrong and the 5000 year old body hopper having to 'rediscover' him/her/it's self.
Start 1st level, in a grove, with senile druid, have title, have dark tower.....no memories. YAHOO ADVENTURE TIME!
It's not Magic its Science
someone might have said this b4 me but becoming a half dragon doubles your natural life span and gives some nice bonus'. paired with the clone spell that lets you go into a clone when you die (the clone can be younger then you where when you made it i think) so theoretically, you can become a half dragon (look it up and talk to the dm cause it is not naturally built for PC's) and then make a clone, and then when your now doubled life span gets used up,you just jump lnto a younger version of your half dragon self and have a even longer life span,rinse/repeat till you want to finally die (or just use a wish spell?).
also becoming a lich ls not a good idea cause lf the thing you put your soul in breaks you die ( kinda like a harry potter horcrux),and you have to constantly feed it people so you would have to be super evil to go this route. because of these reasons l dont recommend becomeing a lich.
Somebody's been spending too much time on D&D Wiki's homebrew pages...
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.
i think they were talking more about becomeing a half dragon.
Not all liches are bad. Elf characters can become baelnorns, which are liches without phylacteries who can be any alignment, but are usually LG. Not sure about 5E rules on that, though.
Unless I have missed something, "steel dragon" anything is by definition homebrew. Same for "dual type lineage". But if you can cite a official 5E book & page, please do.
Back to the OP topic, a Sphinx can use a lair action to de-age people by 20 years at a time.
"The effects of time are altered such that every creature in the lair must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or become 1d20 years older or younger (the sphinx’s choice), but never any younger than 1 year old. A greater restoration spell can restore a creature’s age to normal."
This wouldnt have much of an effect on longer living races, but for a human befriending a Sphinx and de-ageing potentially 20 years at a time sounds like immortality to me.
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That is 1d20 years per rest. Even for elves, that would add up pretty quick at 31.5 years per day, 220.5 years per week...
But honestly, anyone who has something similar to "you suffer none of the drawbacks of old age" is effectively immortal. No one dies of old age, they die when those drawbacks (which don't exist for you) are more than your body can deal with. So until someone separates your head from your neck, you're all set.
18th level druid elf makes that happen too, 18th level in druid is just, your lifespan x10
Characters with the spelljammer background astral drifter have stopped aging. Doesn't help after character creation but something to think about.
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Just have women and luxury that gets refreshed every few decades and wield immense political power. And stay in the elven and dwarvish circles with other spellcastwrs