Alternate ageing rules

[G-Monkey]

Hi everyone

I was wondering if anyone had come up with alternative ageing rules.

The current ones appear to be overly harsh on non casters
I also don't feel they accurately reflect experiences. Specifically this is referring to someone who wishes to start at level 1 but not be in the youngest category?

Or is there an unwritten rule that all adventurers start early?

The current rules pretty much force people to play young characters even if it does not fit a concept.

[Jeraa]

I just ignore the ageing rules entirely. The penalties hurt non-casters, and the bonuses only help casters (who really don't need the help.)

Besides, the bonuses screw around with what is "normal" anyway. The elderly in the real world tend to lose some vision and hearing, while the elderly in D&D actually get better (+Wisdom). The elderly tend to start losing their minds, not the other way round.

[Weirdo]

My group has never had characters age to the next category in-game, since all our campaigns resolve within a year or two of game time.

We have had characters start as "middle aged." We handwave away the aging modifiers for these characters and assume that the generated stats are already age-modified versions of the character's "original young adult stats."

[Bwang]

There are several 'corrections' out there, but in 38 yrs I have only had one character actually change age categories. I did have a mage choose to START as 'mature'. The character, not the player.

[Ciaran Barnes]

My half-orc in Kingmaker could reach middle age. It depands. I'm a little worried, as even though advancing a character's age categories has never come up even once in my life, my DM just might enforce it if it does!

[Can'tFindthePath]

Jeraa wrote:

I just ignore the ageing rules entirely. The penalties hurt non-casters, and the bonuses only help casters (who really don't need the help.)

I know right, I'm a non-caster and the age penalties are kicking my ass! But, I DO feel wiser...