| HappyDaze |
As the title says, I'm considering removing the mechanical side of aging effects. my group thinks that they benefit casters too much and are a real pain to the 'physical' characters. Since my group already sees casters as being considerably more appealing to play, removal of this feature helps to make the physical characters more attractive. In effect, aging will be a totally cosmetic effect. If your wizard is old, then feel free to make him with lower physical stats and higher mental ones, but an old fighter need not be weaker nor smarter than a young fighter.
OTOH, we have considered an upgrade for characters in a high-power game. With each ability score increase (4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th levels) the character gets an inherent bonus in the same score the ability increase is placed into. The value of the inherent bonus for any given ability score is equal to the total number of ability score increase points placed into that ability score. Thus if Intelligence is raised by 1 point at 4th level, it gets a +1 inherent bonus. If the same character raises Intelligence again at 8th level, the inherent bonus is replaced with a +2 inherent bonus. If the character would rather place his 8th level ability score increase into Strength, then it also gains a +1 inherent bonus and intelligence remains with the +1 inherent bonus it has had since 4th level. As usual, these inherent bonuses do not stack with other inherent bonuses, and cannot be 'built into' a string of wishes even if the character casts the wishes at the moment of leveling.