Elven ageing and Long Life Bloo

[Olesens]

Sindre Cools Berg wrote:

> I've started wondering about some fine points in this immortallity
> debate. This is about full elves though. The rulebook says they are
> immortal, fine no problem, my problem comes to how they age then ? How
> long time does it take before an elf is fullgrown ? Does this
> immortality mean they remain young (equal to human 20-30s) forever will
> they age like the PHB elves and simply get longer and longer beard (if
> you see what I mean ) ? Anyone has though about this ?

My way of doing it is this: BR elves age like normal elves. A hundred year old
elf is about 17 or 18 in human aging. I think that elves have a very long
middle years period (for looks & body integrity) most elves die during this
time. The elves that live beyond that start to become more oldish and get the
white hair and stuff. IMO, older elves do develop typical old-people problems;
such as high colesterol, weak bones, etc. Don't forget that elves have no
priests and thus no healing magic. I'm sure more than one elf has died from a
broken leg resulting in crippling or fatal loss of blood. I guess high
colesterol isn't really a possiblity because elves are vegetarien. Elves are
immune to disease but that doesn't include physical weakning. Immortatlity is
just not possible (from an AD&D standpoint). OK, gods are immortal but Adurias
and his pals are certainly dead (not thier essences but they are DEAD). Elves
are immortal but thier bones weaken over time just like ours and thier systems
degrade (if not to the human level). In 551 MR I think that elves aren't
really immortal. Thier lifespan is reduced due to the number of humans
crawling around. Back in the Golden Age of elvendom a really old elf could
survive in the peaceful elven cities. Nowadays things are too rigerous for the
old. Just my opinion on elven immortality. Perhaps their immortality is tied
to the meghable.

>
>
> Second question is the Long Life Blood ability. Isn't this a real curse
> for a blooded human ? You are born with your full bloodline score (yes
> you can increase it later but..) and as a tiny human baby with the long
> life ability as major or great would he/she be drooling the next 25/100
> years ? I play it so that the physical body ages as the minor ability
> until 5 appearant years (i.e. 25 actual years) and then the ability
> kicks in properly, though this little "5" year old might already know
> several languages etc.. This makes for very interesting roleplaying as
> the parents of this child probably only lives for 50 years after the
> birth, while the child then looks like a 6 year old...

You could take this approach but it is stated in several places that the blood
abilities don't fully kick in until the end of puberty. I'm sure the exact
timing varies with blood ability. Heightened ability might be apparent when
the child in six or seven but Long Life would not appear until they were at
least 16. It might be interesting to throw a fourteen year old into the party
to illustrate this (and allow some interesting roleplaying). Scion teens have
to deal with growing up like all teen but they've also got these blood
abilities to deal with. A young scion might not have full control. The blood
abilities might just activate without any concious intent (Basaia's Enhanched
Sense, the rays of sunlight, going off during English class). I was thinking
of have an NPC wizard join the party with an apprentice. With them I could
teach my somewhat BR-ignorant players about the finer points of Cerilian magic
while in charachter. Perhaps I'll make the apprentice into the 14 year old
scion as well.

- -Andrew

[Pieter Sleijpen]

Sindre Cools Berg wrote:

> Second question is the Long Life Blood ability. Isn't this a real curse
> for a blooded human ? You are born with your full bloodline score (yes
> you can increase it later but..) and as a tiny human baby with the long
> life ability as major or great would he/she be drooling the next 25/100
> years ? I play it so that the physical body ages as the minor ability
> until 5 appearant years (i.e. 25 actual years) and then the ability
> kicks in properly, though this little "5" year old might already know
> several languages etc.. This makes for very interesting roleplaying as
> the parents of this child probably only lives for 50 years after the
> birth, while the child then looks like a 6 year old...

In my campaign blood abilties do not come into being before the end of
puberty (for easiness sake at 18 years). Saves a lot of other problems
that could potentail rise from bloodabilities and childeren.

Pieter Sleijpen

[DKEvermore@aol.co]

In a message dated 5/18/99 2:50:24 PM Central Daylight Time, cobos@saers.com
writes:

> How
> long time does it take before an elf is fullgrown ? Does this
> immortality mean they remain young (equal to human 20-30s) forever will
> they age like the PHB elves and simply get longer and longer beard (if
> you see what I mean ) ? Anyone has though about this ?

I perceive them as aging normally at first (until adolescence) and then
slowing. Gradually, as centuries press on, the elf would apparently stop
aging altogether in general.

>
> Second question is the Long Life Blood ability. Isn't this a real curse
> for a blooded human ?

No. I think Blood Abilities are meant to manifest during or after puberty.
My opinion, of course, I don't believe the rulebooks say one way or another.

- -Dustin Evermore