You are aware ofSo! I worry about my characters dieing of old age.
Could an alchemist with the Doppleganger discovery extend his life by residing mostly in his Doppleganger form?
Rules question: when using Doppleganger (or similar spells), does the original body cease aging when not being used?
Evidence for "yes" (see bold):
"The alchemist learns how to create a soulless duplicate of his body, into which he can project his consciousness. As a full-round action, he may shift his consciousness from his current body to any one of his available doppelganger simulacra, which must be on the same plane as the alchemist. If killed in a simulacrum, he transfers to his own body automatically; if killed in his own body, he is dead. Unused simulacra (including his abandoned original body) appear to be lifeless corpses, though they do not decay. Creating a duplicate costs 1,000 gp in alchemical materials and requires 1 week to grow. The created simulacrum is a creature, not a supernatural effect.
SO what do you think? I figure you could extend your life by something like 10x by only residing in your original body for 10% of the time.
The trade off?
-If your original body is destroyed, it looks like you die as soon as the doppleganger form dies. So it is not true immortality.
-You will lose time to aging at minumum for every time you have to create a new doppleganger
-It takes two discoveries to get the Doppleganger ability (as opposed to the level 20 discovery: Eternal Youth)Thoughts?
EDIT: actually, this discovery is pretty cool if one starts really thinking about it. You can instantly teleport to any body you have stored anywhere, you can die as a doppleganger and simply wake up in your old body...
Also, it creates a pretty fun high level arch-enemy NPC scenario.
Eternal Youth: The alchemist has discovered a cure for aging, and from this point forward he takes no penalty to his physical ability scores from advanced age. If the alchemist is already taking such penalties, they are removed at this time.
, right?
I recall reading somewhere that abusing Clone+Magic Jar did not stop your body from aging... still looking for where I saw it.
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Reincarnate starts you in a new, young adult body. Surely a variant of that could be made that simply resets your counter at a high cost (probably 10k+) to offset the normal disadvantages. Probably a spell level or two higher, as well.
EDIT: By "a variant could be made", I mean creating your own spell or having a magic type do it.
My first thought was reincarnate as well. Yes, sure your race becomes randomly determined but you're young again.
Heck if you don't mind you could have yourself reincarnated a few times till you end up in a body you like. Elves for example live pretty long.
Of course that has the disadvantage that you have to die first, not from old age, so suicide and you need someone you trust that can reincarnate you.
The negative levels can be removed with a simply restoration scroll/spell that shouldn't be a problem when you have someone to reincarnate you already.
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That's an awfully generous interpretation of "do not decay." Ordinarily 'dying of old age when your time is up' is the presumed default - even true resurrection, which creates an entirely new body for you, does not reset the Death Clock.
It'd probably have to be a GM call. Is aging primarily linked to the physical body (as flesh to stone suggests, since your spirit never departs even if your body is frozen beyond your normal lifespan) or is it primarily linked to the time allotted to your soul (as the absence of a resurrection 'reset' would suggest)?
Well... I read the rule as the body is effectively held in stasis. If it is not decaying it should not age. Of course, I defer to any body of rules that someone can quote where this is not the case.
Resurrection can be easily distinguished: your body is being resurrected as it was right before you died. You aren't saving any days of life by being resurrected.
Here, you are living out your days in another body. The two are fundamentally different. Rules for resurrection are therefore not persuasive.
And I don't understand why the age of your soul determines death. This makes no sense in the light of biology. Yeah, yeah, fantasy game etc. Such a rule would break my ability to believe.
I might be persuaded by any official ruling which rules against life extension through a magic jar trick. But I would like to see the reasoning.
As for why I care about this... a Master Chymist does not get to take a level 20 discovery (and therefore no Eternal Youth)... hence the work around.
I would like to add to this that while resurrection does not reset your clock, you are effectively on hold while your dead. Lets say a character dies at age 20, then a powerful cleric true res' him 20 years latter, he's still 20, not 40
he will die at the time he's suppose too, not when he was originally suppose too. Its the concept that when we are born, we live to a certain age, not a certain date. That being said, if held in stasis for say 100 years in a human body doesn't kill the human, then the clone effect should work.
-also, i would ask your GM as he/she should be the final arbiter of how life and souls work in their universe.