There is a specific example of immortality as a boon from the gods given to people in the dmg. The requirements are 20th level and doing a solid for a god (who would probably have something to do with time or longevity. If it was a god of fiery explosions its just less likely now isnt it?)
With 9th level True Polymorph there's nothing stopping you from using that to change into a younger version of yourself every 50 years or so. And if that's the case, any spellcaster who gets that spell would work.
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
If you are looking to be a Wizard anyway....Clone+Demiplane. With Wish you can cast Clone with no components and no risk, store it in a demiplane using the the spell of the same name.
When you are not adventuring do this everyday.
I suppose someone or something could track each and every demiplane squirreled away but at that point the real question is "Why does the DM want you dead?".
It's been suggested but... Spells needed: Wish, Demiplane.
Step 1: Open a Demiplane.
Step 2: Use Wish to create a Clone. You do not need the components or anything and it takes an action: the spell wll create the sealed container in which your Clone will grow. Unfortunately, the incububation period isn't something you can bypass, so it will still take 120 days to mature.
Step 3: Place a unique item, something you created that nobody else has ever seen. This prevents anyone else from ever using planar travel to access this Demiplane since in order to do so they must know the precise demiplane - either by name which it does not have, a fork attuned to it which doesn't exist or by knowing the specific contents which, due to the unique item, nobody will know about.
Step 4: Repeat steps 1-3 every day.
After 120 days you'll be safeguarded. Every day after that there will be a new layer of safeguarding. There is no limit to the number of clones you can have. Normally when you die your soul goes to the oldest mature clone. Even if the death is from old age and the clone can be any age you want it to be. There is lore in the D&D books of this and previous additions where some famous wizard used this exact method to achieve virtual immortality. It also describes that a great event interfered with the process so when he died his soul split into all the clones awakening them all at once, but that was a "lore event" not the norm and is unlikely to happen to you unless your DM is mean.
It's been suggested but... Spells needed: Wish, [Tooltip Not Found].
Step 1: ...
...but that was a "lore event" not the norm and is unlikely to happen to you unless your DM is mean.
I have to say that, on the contrary, in pretty much no story ever written has a quest for immortality ended in any way except in disaster and evil. That is kind of in the nature of the quest. As such, a DM is not being mean if they let things end poorly or get complicated - they are being completely appropriate. I mean, how did this story go for Dorian Gray, the Sith, those corrupted by the One Ring, Tom Riddle, those who searched for the Holy Grail, or any of infinite others who quest for immortality. The corrupt nature of the quest is the very raison d'être of Liches and Vampires.
All that said, I would welcome a player taking this on as their character's driving goal no matter their class, alignment or background, because what a grand tale it will make! But whether they try to use some tricksy combination of RAW spells, or they search for eternal undeath, or they quest and research for some other way - this quest always leads to similar places: corruption, evil and disaster. When you declare war on Death, don't expect the Reaper to take it lying down.
Races: In addition to the undead races mentioned, there are also the Necropolitans. They don't exist in 5e, so you'll need to ask your DM to add them to the world, but then again, explicit DM-fiat will be required for nearly every form of immortality. There are also other immortal races such as Elan, Jellyfish, Killoren, many outsiders (outsider = not from the material plane) and more. Not really a possibility if you want to stay human. True Polymorph is one of the ways to change race.
Spells: Clone was already mentioned, but there are others. Magic Jar is a risky way. You'll probably need Sequester, imprisonment or some some other kind of suspended animation to keep your real body safe. There are other spells in older D&D editions where you can steal someone's lifeforce to lengthen your own (like Ensul's Soultheft). Homebrew territory again, because I don't think they exist in 5e. True Polymorph can also be used, just keep changing into a younger version of yourself.
Items: Ambrosia, Fountain of Youth, Philosopher's' Stone ... There are many items that are said to give immortality, and an epic quest in search of them could be the base for a great campaign.
Other techniques: Planar Travel. As far as I know you don't age in the Astral Realm and some other planes, I've heard the Far Realm is a lovely place to visit. Become a god, even the lowest ranking gods are immortal. I'll leave the way to become a god as a trivial exercise to the reader. Sell your soul to a devil. Though this might be even more dangerous than wish, because now the Devil has a reason to want you dead Become part of a demonic cult. Sacrifice more and more of you humanity to slowly turn into an abomination of nature. Have a good set of friends to keep casting reincarnate you when you die (all other resurrection spell don't work if you die of old age I think). ...
20th level mystic stops aging, and there's an archetype literally called immortal. However, mystic is an Unearthed Arcana class, so your DM might not allow it.
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"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
Since no one has mentioned it yet, going strictly by the PHP, the Paladin Oath of the Ancients allow you to live forever.
In the Undying Sentinel feature, the last part of it reads: Additionally, you suffer none of the drawbacks of old age, and you can’t be aged magically.
Jeremy Crawford had the following thing to say about the feature:
The Undying Sentinel feature protects you from the drawbacks of old age, including dying of old age. You can still be killed, but not by the accumulation of years. Twitter link for 5:45 PM - 7 Dec 2017
Spells: Clone was already mentioned, but there are others. Magic Jar is a risky way.
Are you kidding! magic jar is awesome, and not in the least risky. (If you spend a lot of money and time, and do it correctly)
Step 1: Create a contingency that triggers when you cast magic jar, plane-shifting your body to a pre-made demiplane.
Step 2: Have a trusted friend scoop up your container and go hunting for hosts. Some great ones would be a king or queen. They fail the save, you have an instant kingdom!
Step 3: Cast glyph of warding so that in the event of your mortal host being killed, your body is plane shifted back to you.
Thats still risky, If your current host dies you trigger the save or die against your own spell DC if your body is in 100' its a charisma save so thtas not something a wizard is usually proficient in.
Glyph of warding wont function unless the trigger occurs in it, its a glyph not a general purpose distress beacon although your DM might allow it (and if they do more power to you for getting that one past them!) Planeshift works on the caster and 8 willing creatures, a soulless corpse / coma patient is an unlikely 'willing creature'. Again make the persuasion check with the DM :) Finally if the trigger is death the spell begins at the same time the save is required, which in absence of the body would mean automatic death.
Now if you wanted to risk it a little less, swallow your magic jar and continue to wash it of and re-swallow it so its always in 100' of you. (and unlootable unless you have some rogue cut you open like a loot pinata) Also be a diviner and risk combat only when you have a portent number high enough to guarantee a save success.
None of this allows you to have achieved immortality through long life as your body is not age proof, Im not even sure it could be considered rot proof. Catatonia is not suspended animation - so if you want to complete this risky strategy then you need to sequester your original body.
The swallow and switch method is a nasty effective way to move through enemy strongholds and city's, after all the soul you trap doesnt know what you did and what their body swallowed, coming back to their senses momentarily when you return to the gem. On finding a new host, you then kill your previous host and the serial killer wounds you have to inflict to reclaim and reswallow your gem will add to the pervasive feel of terror building in the city as bodies pile up. Its still risky but this kind of seemingly insane killer moving with purpose can also make a good villain for a party to identify and chase.
I would say Voldemort is closer to a lich than someone using the clone spell, as he anchors his soul to the physical world by encasing it inside objects, much like a lich's phylactery.
I actually had an idea for a human wizard trying to achieve immortality using the clone spell. What they would do (and this wouldn't be possible until level 17, minimum) would be to begin growing a clone of themselves and then, once it's fully grown, cast imprision on the clone, trapping the tank with the clone in it inside a gem. That way you know that the clone itself is safe for when you need it, and you can give the gem to someone that you trust, telling them something along the lines of "if anything every happens to me, break this gem."
It'd be costly for the material components for both spells, but I'm sure by level 17 you'll have enough scratch to set up the spells after any death.
Charles - no need to imprison, use demiplane and store your 'back ups' there. (and a spell book with demiplane in or planeshift for you to memorise when you emerge so you arent stuck there)
Or, give a dragon a present, spend some money on cloning it, and you. It gets to admire itself and you in its treasure hoard. How many dragons can say they have themselves as treasure? How many dragonslayers are ready for round 2 immediately after round one? its win win. (unless your a dragonslayer in which case bye bye)
Someone above suggested using True Polymorph to morph yourself into a younger version of yourself every so often. Would that work? I feel like that's too easy of an answer.
What about casting contingency and reincarnate? Then you kill yourself and reincarnate takes effect, and reincarnate gives you a new, potentially younger or longer lived body? It's a little more of a risky, madcap kind of way to do it if that's your character's speed.
True, and I just realized no character can cast both reincarnate and contingency even with multiclass I don't think. Have a friend cast reincarnate on you I guess
I have a character concept you might be interested in, he's was a priest in a small village (not a cleric). Plague struck his town and though he prayed to his deity he was unable to help any of them. Friends, family, so many died. Those that survived came to blame him for failing them and chase him out of town. He turns from his former god and becomes an undying warlock. He's a good guy but he just wants to stop people from having to die. And to bring back those who do.
While you obviously would want to make your own character, I just thought I might put in a mention of the undying warlock class as another necromancy based option you might consider.
As for strict mechanics, some classes as you noted can extend your life as do some races like elves live a very long time. In previous editions there was supplements on becoming a lich and things like that which are an option that could be imported if your DM is ok with looking into that.
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There is a specific example of immortality as a boon from the gods given to people in the dmg. The requirements are 20th level and doing a solid for a god (who would probably have something to do with time or longevity. If it was a god of fiery explosions its just less likely now isnt it?)
With 9th level True Polymorph there's nothing stopping you from using that to change into a younger version of yourself every 50 years or so. And if that's the case, any spellcaster who gets that spell would work.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
If you are looking to be a Wizard anyway....Clone+Demiplane. With Wish you can cast Clone with no components and no risk, store it in a demiplane using the the spell of the same name.
When you are not adventuring do this everyday.
I suppose someone or something could track each and every demiplane squirreled away but at that point the real question is "Why does the DM want you dead?".
Abide.
It's been suggested but... Spells needed: Wish, Demiplane.
Step 1: Open a Demiplane.
Step 2: Use Wish to create a Clone. You do not need the components or anything and it takes an action: the spell wll create the sealed container in which your Clone will grow. Unfortunately, the incububation period isn't something you can bypass, so it will still take 120 days to mature.
Step 3: Place a unique item, something you created that nobody else has ever seen. This prevents anyone else from ever using planar travel to access this Demiplane since in order to do so they must know the precise demiplane - either by name which it does not have, a fork attuned to it which doesn't exist or by knowing the specific contents which, due to the unique item, nobody will know about.
Step 4: Repeat steps 1-3 every day.
After 120 days you'll be safeguarded. Every day after that there will be a new layer of safeguarding. There is no limit to the number of clones you can have. Normally when you die your soul goes to the oldest mature clone. Even if the death is from old age and the clone can be any age you want it to be. There is lore in the D&D books of this and previous additions where some famous wizard used this exact method to achieve virtual immortality. It also describes that a great event interfered with the process so when he died his soul split into all the clones awakening them all at once, but that was a "lore event" not the norm and is unlikely to happen to you unless your DM is mean.
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I have to say that, on the contrary, in pretty much no story ever written has a quest for immortality ended in any way except in disaster and evil. That is kind of in the nature of the quest. As such, a DM is not being mean if they let things end poorly or get complicated - they are being completely appropriate. I mean, how did this story go for Dorian Gray, the Sith, those corrupted by the One Ring, Tom Riddle, those who searched for the Holy Grail, or any of infinite others who quest for immortality. The corrupt nature of the quest is the very raison d'être of Liches and Vampires.
All that said, I would welcome a player taking this on as their character's driving goal no matter their class, alignment or background, because what a grand tale it will make! But whether they try to use some tricksy combination of RAW spells, or they search for eternal undeath, or they quest and research for some other way - this quest always leads to similar places: corruption, evil and disaster. When you declare war on Death, don't expect the Reaper to take it lying down.
There are a lot of options.
Races:
In addition to the undead races mentioned, there are also the Necropolitans. They don't exist in 5e, so you'll need to ask your DM to add them to the world, but then again, explicit DM-fiat will be required for nearly every form of immortality. There are also other immortal races such as Elan, Jellyfish, Killoren, many outsiders (outsider = not from the material plane) and more. Not really a possibility if you want to stay human. True Polymorph is one of the ways to change race.
Spells:
Clone was already mentioned, but there are others. Magic Jar is a risky way. You'll probably need Sequester, imprisonment or some some other kind of suspended animation to keep your real body safe. There are other spells in older D&D editions where you can steal someone's lifeforce to lengthen your own (like Ensul's Soultheft). Homebrew territory again, because I don't think they exist in 5e. True Polymorph can also be used, just keep changing into a younger version of yourself.
Items:
Ambrosia, Fountain of Youth, Philosopher's' Stone ... There are many items that are said to give immortality, and an epic quest in search of them could be the base for a great campaign.
Other techniques:
Planar Travel. As far as I know you don't age in the Astral Realm and some other planes, I've heard the Far Realm is a lovely place to visit.
Become a god, even the lowest ranking gods are immortal. I'll leave the way to become a god as a trivial exercise to the reader.
Sell your soul to a devil. Though this might be even more dangerous than wish, because now the Devil has a reason to want you dead
Become part of a demonic cult. Sacrifice more and more of you humanity to slowly turn into an abomination of nature.
Have a good set of friends to keep casting reincarnate you when you die (all other resurrection spell don't work if you die of old age I think).
...
Your travel agent must have rolled a crit success if you believed him for a microsecond :)
20th level mystic stops aging, and there's an archetype literally called immortal. However, mystic is an Unearthed Arcana class, so your DM might not allow it.
"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
Trap yourself in Mirror of SOul Trapping.
I stole my pfp from this person: https://mobile.twitter.com/xelart1/status/1177312449575432193
Since no one has mentioned it yet, going strictly by the PHP, the Paladin Oath of the Ancients allow you to live forever.
In the Undying Sentinel feature, the last part of it reads:
Additionally, you suffer none of the drawbacks of old age, and you can’t be aged magically.
Jeremy Crawford had the following thing to say about the feature:
The Undying Sentinel feature protects you from the drawbacks of old age, including dying of old age. You can still be killed, but not by the accumulation of years.
Twitter link for 5:45 PM - 7 Dec 2017
Are you kidding! magic jar is awesome, and not in the least risky. (If you spend a lot of money and time, and do it correctly)
Step 1: Create a contingency that triggers when you cast magic jar, plane-shifting your body to a pre-made demiplane.
Step 2: Have a trusted friend scoop up your container and go hunting for hosts. Some great ones would be a king or queen. They fail the save, you have an instant kingdom!
Step 3: Cast glyph of warding so that in the event of your mortal host being killed, your body is plane shifted back to you.
"Halt your wagging and wag your halters, for I am mastercryomancer!"
Check out my Expanded Signature
Thats still risky, If your current host dies you trigger the save or die against your own spell DC if your body is in 100' its a charisma save so thtas not something a wizard is usually proficient in.
Glyph of warding wont function unless the trigger occurs in it, its a glyph not a general purpose distress beacon although your DM might allow it (and if they do more power to you for getting that one past them!) Planeshift works on the caster and 8 willing creatures, a soulless corpse / coma patient is an unlikely 'willing creature'. Again make the persuasion check with the DM :) Finally if the trigger is death the spell begins at the same time the save is required, which in absence of the body would mean automatic death.
Now if you wanted to risk it a little less, swallow your magic jar and continue to wash it of and re-swallow it so its always in 100' of you. (and unlootable unless you have some rogue cut you open like a loot pinata) Also be a diviner and risk combat only when you have a portent number high enough to guarantee a save success.
None of this allows you to have achieved immortality through long life as your body is not age proof, Im not even sure it could be considered rot proof. Catatonia is not suspended animation - so if you want to complete this risky strategy then you need to sequester your original body.
The swallow and switch method is a nasty effective way to move through enemy strongholds and city's, after all the soul you trap doesnt know what you did and what their body swallowed, coming back to their senses momentarily when you return to the gem. On finding a new host, you then kill your previous host and the serial killer wounds you have to inflict to reclaim and reswallow your gem will add to the pervasive feel of terror building in the city as bodies pile up. Its still risky but this kind of seemingly insane killer moving with purpose can also make a good villain for a party to identify and chase.
I would say Voldemort is closer to a lich than someone using the clone spell, as he anchors his soul to the physical world by encasing it inside objects, much like a lich's phylactery.
I actually had an idea for a human wizard trying to achieve immortality using the clone spell. What they would do (and this wouldn't be possible until level 17, minimum) would be to begin growing a clone of themselves and then, once it's fully grown, cast imprision on the clone, trapping the tank with the clone in it inside a gem. That way you know that the clone itself is safe for when you need it, and you can give the gem to someone that you trust, telling them something along the lines of "if anything every happens to me, break this gem."
It'd be costly for the material components for both spells, but I'm sure by level 17 you'll have enough scratch to set up the spells after any death.
Charles - no need to imprison, use demiplane and store your 'back ups' there. (and a spell book with demiplane in or planeshift for you to memorise when you emerge so you arent stuck there)
Or, give a dragon a present, spend some money on cloning it, and you. It gets to admire itself and you in its treasure hoard. How many dragons can say they have themselves as treasure? How many dragonslayers are ready for round 2 immediately after round one? its win win. (unless your a dragonslayer in which case bye bye)
Yeah but with imprison you don't have to worry about blowing a spell slot immediately upon revival to cast demiplane again and get out.
Someone above suggested using True Polymorph to morph yourself into a younger version of yourself every so often. Would that work? I feel like that's too easy of an answer.
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What about casting contingency and reincarnate? Then you kill yourself and reincarnate takes effect, and reincarnate gives you a new, potentially younger or longer lived body? It's a little more of a risky, madcap kind of way to do it if that's your character's speed.
Contingency requires the spell you cast to have a casting time of 1 Action.
Reincarnate has a casting time of 1 Hour.
True, and I just realized no character can cast both reincarnate and contingency even with multiclass I don't think. Have a friend cast reincarnate on you I guess
I have a character concept you might be interested in, he's was a priest in a small village (not a cleric). Plague struck his town and though he prayed to his deity he was unable to help any of them. Friends, family, so many died. Those that survived came to blame him for failing them and chase him out of town. He turns from his former god and becomes an undying warlock. He's a good guy but he just wants to stop people from having to die. And to bring back those who do.
While you obviously would want to make your own character, I just thought I might put in a mention of the undying warlock class as another necromancy based option you might consider.
As for strict mechanics, some classes as you noted can extend your life as do some races like elves live a very long time. In previous editions there was supplements on becoming a lich and things like that which are an option that could be imported if your DM is ok with looking into that.