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Long story short, I want to make a Tiefling who's only about 20 years old for the sake of the timeline of his backstory (adopted by a human ranger, I don't want him to be like, halfway through early childhood when his father dies of old age).
Can I make this choice in Pathfinder Society? or is the "Age of Adulthood" an ironclad rule for PFS characters?
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Pathfinder Society uses the “purchase” system for generating ability scores, as explained on pages 15–16 of the Core Rulebook. Pathfinder Society uses the “High Fantasy” choice of 20 points, allowing you to build a solid PC at 1st level. Please remember that no score can be reduced below 7 or raised above 18. Racial modifiers are applied after the points are spent, so it is possible to begin play with a low ability score of 5 and a high ability score of 20, depending on your race choice. A character can not be younger than the minimum age listed on Table 7–1 of the Core Rulebook, or listed on Table 5–1 of the Advanced Race Guide, and must be younger than venerable, as listed on Table 7–2 of the Core Rulebook and Table 5–4 of the Advanced Race Guide. A character that ages past venerable, for whatever reason, dies of old age and is removed from the campaign. Characters do not alter their ability scores as a result of this choice.
Race Middle Age1 Old2 Venerable3 Maximum Age
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Tiefling 150 years 200 years 250 years 250 + 6d% years
*snip*
The odd thing, though, is there's a James Jacobs post about his discontent with the ARG tiefling block, being that it breaks a centifigal plot point in an AP whose name I won't bring up (in the exact same way it breaks the OP's backstory.)
EDIT: Agh, ninjas! But I have links!
I'd say you can leave it to the DM to decide.
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Until Mike/Mark/John chime in, we're theoretically should be going by the RAW of 100+ years, though Age is one of the few things that aside from access to a few feats and the aging bonus (which is explicitly not used), that has no mechanical benefit (especially in PFS.)
I suppose the ever-present "Expect Table Variation" should be applied here as well? It'd be my "safe" answer for this inquiry.
I'd say you can leave it to the DM to decide.Very hard to do in PFS, where some table judges get real upset when a player is "trying to pull something" by making their PC younger.
Then maybe they should regulate the number of jerk DM people around in PFS? ;D
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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"My tiefling deformities include appearing to age at 6 times my actual age. So, although I'm only 20, I appear to be 120. It's a terrible freakish thing."
"Um, you look like a young adult, albeit with purple skin and a row of bony knobs down your arms."
"Well, yes! 120 is 'young adult' for those of my ilk. Most 20-year-old tieflings are still in diapers."
My thought is that most "can I reflavor this?" questions are easily handled: write the rules-as-written value down on your character sheet, and know in your heart that your character sheet is wrong.
My character sheet may say that I have a 120-year-old tiefling riding a horse, but you can't stop me from believing deep down inside that he's really a 12-year-old balor riding a giant pig! :-)
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Mike posted awhile ago when I asked about Aasimar, referencing a James Jacobs post, let me see if I can find it.
Since there has been no official errata however...
The thing is, James Jacobs is not a rules guy, until there is a rule that says they age as humans, the guide restricts us from playing them at younger ages.
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My thought is that most "can I reflavor this?" questions are easily handled: write the rules-as-written value down on your character sheet, and know in your heart that your character sheet is wrong.
My character sheet may say that I have a 120-year-old tiefling riding a horse, but you can't stop me from believing deep down inside that he's really a 12-year-old balor riding a giant pig! :-)
This is exactly right. Don't tell the GM the back story and everybody is happy.
I have an Aasimar who should be about 16 years old. That is her age in my mind. But her hero lab character sheet says she is 65 odd. I always introduce her as "she appears to be about 16". She also has the Scion of Humanity trait so it makes even less sense that she is 65 odd.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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I have an Aasimar who should be about 16 years old. That is her age in my mind. But her hero lab character sheet says she is 65 odd. I always introduce her as "she appears to be about 16". She also has the Scion of Humanity trait so it makes even less sense that she is 65 odd.
I always thought that would be the best way to balance the two. Take scion of humanity, now you age like a human.
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I always thought it was varies. Some aged like a human, some are long-lived.
Given that some people seem determined to take the word of a rulebook (already acknowledged as in error) over that of the main person responsible for Golarion lore, that's probably the best way to go.
Personally, all my tieflings/aasimar will follow human ages...
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I actually rather enjoy their (very appropriate given their heritage in my opinion) longevity. It would be a shame to see it revoked.Who's going to toilet train hellboy until he's 30 though? A cute lil angel, sure. A tiefling? No way.
After spending about 15 minutes flipping through blood of angels, blood of fiends, and elves of golarion, I have been unable to locate anything that mentions if they remain infants longer than their shorter lived peers, or if the mature at largely the same rate but their society treats them differently, or if they mature through some stages at a fairly standard rate and then slow pace for other aging stages.
So unless I simply missed that information in my skimming, I suppose it falls to the GM to decide such things. So on that note, if we use your thoughts, all PFS plane touched must be of human ancestry. Do you know anyone who would potty train anything for 30 years? F that lol.
I personally prefer to go with such races maturing at a fairly normal rate, but lingering longer in the mental state of adolescent and teenager before "growing up". To each their own though unless we can find a reference to correct us.