D&D (2024) Aging penalties and new exhaustion rules.

[Horwath]

Now that we have new exhaustion rules that give -1 penalty per level on all d20 rolls(I would also add -1 to all DCs(not just spells) and -1 to AC and -5ft speed per 2 levels(min of 5ft speed).)

we can now return the 3.5e aging penalties with exhaustion levels:

I.E.
Humans

middle age: 40+ years, one permanent exhaustion level.
old age: 60+ years, one additional permanent exhaustion levels. 2 total
venerable age: 80+: one additional permanent exhaustion levels. 3 total

now, this would probably not play part in most games, but it would be a nice description of aging.

optional: new feat;

Young at heart:
+1 any ability,
you reduce your permanent age exhaustion levels by one.

 

[jasper]

NO. I did aging in 1E and 2E for about six session. Group comment "BEEP"

 

[AnotherGuy]

NO. I did aging in 1E and 2E for about six session. Group comment "BEEP"

The problem my dear Jasper is you didn't sell it well enough and instead promulgated agists.
The way to sell the Banshee curse is that it turns the characters into silver foxes and silver vixens.
You may be old(er) but you're hot AF.

I'll let you know how it goes down at my table.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Character age is one of those things that just work better and have more impact on the game from a roleplay perspective, rather than a mechanical one.

If a player specifically decides to make their character very old or very young... the way they portray their character and the actions they do or do not take based upon their age will be more meaningful and have more obvious ramifications than any sort of +1 or -1 they could apply to their stats.

A -1 to stats for being old means nothing if they player plays their character no differently than how they'd play it if they weren't old.

 

[ECMO3]

Now that we have new exhaustion rules that give -1 penalty per level on all d20 rolls(I would also add -1 to all DCs(not just spells) and -1 to AC and -5ft speed per 2 levels(min of 5ft speed).)

we can now return the 3.5e aging penalties with exhaustion levels:

I.E.
Humans

middle age: 40+ years, one permanent exhaustion level.
old age: 60+ years, one additional permanent exhaustion levels. 2 total
venerable age: 80+: one additional permanent exhaustion levels. 3 total

I do not think that idea has aged well (pun intended) and would not go over well in 2022 or the mindset of most players.

We played with an old human (80ish) PC in one of my campaigns and he certainly would not have appreciated rules getting in the way of thematics and nerfing his character.

 

[the Jester]

I'd love to see a robust system for the effects of old age as an optional rule in the DMG for those who want them. I'd love them, for instance, and have struggled to come up with a good system of 'infirmities'.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I think one of the big problems about aging rules in previous editions was that 35 was Middle Aged for Humans...

 

[tetrasodium]

I always kind of liked the aging rules & how it tended to encourage old wizened casters with younger martials. With
age. If it gave a perm point of exhaustion though it might need to carry a bigger bump & maybe an increase to the cap itself to at least offset the penalty to one or more of the score(s) it raises. No it didn't penalize martial types because it added room for the GM to give out +2/+4/+6/+8 attrib magic items & tomes that 5e mostly did away with in it's quixotic pursuit of simplicity on top of bumping those other stats for extra skill points & such.

1 At middle age, –1 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha.
2 At old age, –2 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha.
3 At venerable age, –3 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Character age is one of those things that just work better and have more impact on the game from a roleplay perspective, rather than a mechanical one.

Call you Hammer, because you nailed it.

 

[Lojaan]

I think the rules should be that if anyone manages to play a campaign for long enough that this becomes an issue then WotC has to send them a cupcake.