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I posted this way back in beta under the races category but with it being shut down, I'm still curious if something set in stone has been decided about elven age in pathfinder.
Of course what I mean is how do they age? Does it work like 3rd edition elves where it's stated they age at about the same rate as humans until they hit about age 18-20? Or is it different?
Our game has always been littered with younger elves in the age range 90 something all the way down to earlier 20's. This was possible before, but what about now?
So any new news on this?
Regardless of game system, I've always played it that all long-lifespan races grow and mature to adulthood at about the same rate as humans.
From an evolutionary standpoint, even 18 years is too long to be relatively young and still developing full size and strength, given the constant danger of the many various D&D worlds.
From a mechanical standpoint, the concept of elves remaining children for decades, maybe even a century or longer (depending on system) is almost ludicrous.
Look at real-earth humans. We educate our children until they're mature.
It's hard to imagine elves doing any different. Serene, erudite, wise elves would almost certainly educate their children to be wise and knowledgeable like their parents.
It would therefore be inconceivable that a 90 year old elf finaly reaches the age of maturity and goes off to adventure, yet he only has 2 or 3 skill points spent on skills. Or even 8 or 10.
After 90 years of education by their brilliant and knowledgeable parents and teachers, even the laziest elf in the world would have invested dozens, maybe scores, of skill points into just about every conceivable knowledge skill known to elvenkind.
The alternative, that elves train and educate their children for roughly 10-12 years like we do, then then them run around their villages like little tyrants, as small and frail and fragile as anorexic gnomes (they're still 6 or 7 decades from full growth), without any further attempt to offer them ongoing education (and the kids don't seek it out on their own, either) for what amounts to 70+ years, is utterly ludicrous. Orcs might do that, if they had the lifespan of elves, but no way elves would do it.
So I cannot rationalize or justify the idea of an elf entering the game as, say a level 1 wizard with 80-90 years of being raised and educated, yet a level one human wizard at age 18 and with the same INT score, with a mere dozen years of education, actually has more skills thanks to that human bonus skill.
Inconceivable, illogical, and indefensible.
For me, I'll houserule it every time that all the sentient races mature to adulthood, full size and muscle mass, at roughly the same rate, regardless of their lifespans.
With one exeption - any race that matures faster than humans is fine in my book. I like that explanation for why everyone is exterminating orcs left and right and yet there are still vast hordes of them out there - they breed like rabbits, single and twin births are rare (triplets and quadruplets are more common, mothers who bear a single child are put to death, and so is the child if it's a girl) and they hit maturity in a decade or so, rather than requiring nearly two decades. But that's just my take...
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Regardless of game system, I've always played it that all long-lifespan races grow and mature to adulthood at about the same rate as humans.
From an evolutionary standpoint, even 18 years is too long to be relatively young and still developing full size and strength, given the constant danger of the many various D&D worlds.
From a mechanical standpoint, the concept of elves remaining children for decades, maybe even a century or longer (depending on system) is almost ludicrous.
Look at real-earth humans. We educate our children until they're mature.
It's hard to imagine elves doing any different. Serene, erudite, wise elves would almost certainly educate their children to be wise and knowledgeable like their parents.
It would therefore be inconceivable that a 90 year old elf finaly reaches the age of maturity and goes off to adventure, yet he only has 2 or 3 skill points spent on skills. Or even 8 or 10.
After 90 years of education by their brilliant and knowledgeable parents and teachers, even the laziest elf in the world would have invested dozens, maybe scores, of skill points into just about every conceivable knowledge skill known to elvenkind.
The alternative, that elves train and educate their children for roughly 10-12 years like we do, then then them run around their villages like little tyrants, as small and frail and fragile as anorexic gnomes (they're still 6 or 7 decades from full growth), without any further attempt to offer them ongoing education (and the kids don't seek it out on their own, either) for what amounts to 70+ years, is utterly ludicrous. Orcs might do that, if they had the lifespan of elves, but no way elves would do it.
So I cannot rationalize or justify the idea of an elf entering the game as, say a level 1 wizard with 80-90 years of being raised and educated, yet a level one human wizard at age 18 and with the same INT score, with a mere dozen years of education, actually has more skills thanks to that human bonus skill.
Inconceivable, illogical,...
I tend to agree with you completely. I've always been a fan of the thought of elves maturing at the same rate as humans myself. It never made much sense to me how it would take so long for them to mature as stated at the age of 100 or so.
I'd sooner houserule it myself as well so that they age at the rate of humans, but I suppose I'm still curious what the official ruling on this is going to be.