Age and point buy question


Rules Questions


OK, if a PC has an age where he gets some -'s and a + to his stats does this add and subtract from from his points buy?

IE does this age stat thing apply before or after his basic buy??

Looked around the rule books and on the forum here and i found nothing on this.

Thanks

Tom


The age modifiers are applied at the end, like racial modifiers. You pay your points for the initial stat block. Then you apply all modifiers.


I thought so, it does'nt specifically say but as you said point buy first then apply race stat mods.

Thanks for the quick reply sir!!

Tom


Yeah, age modifiers aren't taken into account with the initial point buy.

However, I strongly suggest you talk to your GM about age modifiers before you use them. As a rule I disallow them as a GM. At least to start a character with them. Yuo can be as "old" as you want for RP purposes, but you don't get to play as a venerable wizard with a +3 bonus to int, wis, cha and penalties to strength, dex, con.


I can understand you view, but don’t see what the problem is. The +3 INT is great for a wizard, but having to take -6 on DEX and CON more than make up for it. You are getting at least a -3 penalty on HP per level, AC, and on your worst two saves. The +1 to will saves and some skills don’t really make up for what you lose.


It usually doesn't matter, since if you use the age rules en toto, your starting age will be far too low for that to ever come into effect.


I've removed aging effect entirely, both negative and positive.

PCs are supposed to be special. If they want to play 90-yeard old human barbarians with an eyepatch, long white beard down to their waste, and dentures made of troll teeth, they should be able to.

As for NPCs, I don't need aging modifiers. As the DM, I can make NPCs have whatever ability scores they want. I don't need some table telling me what they should have.

Plus, getting rid of the aging tables means you could also get rid of the stupid starting age table. Want to play a 30 year old elf? Fine. Don't need a stupid table saying you can't set foot on an adventure until you are at least 114 years old.


Aye, but paying for that 11 Con and 17 Int (14 pts) then bumping yourself to middle age will save you points over paying for a 10 Con and 18 Int (17 pts)... ymmmmmmmm, cheese.

Liberty's Edge

Jeraa wrote:

I've removed aging effect entirely, both negative and positive.

PCs are supposed to be special. If they want to play 90-yeard old human barbarians with an eyepatch, long white beard down to their waste, and dentures made of troll teeth, they should be able to.

As for NPCs, I don't need aging modifiers. As the DM, I can make NPCs have whatever ability scores they want. I don't need some table telling me what they should have.

Plus, getting rid of the aging tables means you could also get rid of the stupid starting age table. Want to play a 30 year old elf? Fine. Don't need a stupid table saying you can't set foot on an adventure until you are at least 114 years old.

Yay Cohen!


I usually keep the aging rules including the starting ages. To me it gives the various races different world views. Elves should be more than just humans with pointy ears and a list of racial abilities. Since PC are supposed to be different I have no problem if they want to change things around a bit.

If you want to start out as a younger elf that is fine with me and I do not require you to take the young adjustments. But if a player wants to start out at an older age and wants the stat adjustments I am fine with that too. I would even let someone take the aging adjustments without actually being older as long as they had a backstory to explain it. For example if someone wanted to play a character like Elric or Raistlin I would be fine with them taking aging adjustments.

Shadow Lodge

Is not a good idea, there are many ways to circumvent age penalties, aasiamars can evade them as early from level one. There are also magic items which take away the penalty forever


Indeed, it's a terrible idea to allow the age bonuses since the spell Greater Age Resistance completely ignores it. They just need to reach a level where they can cast it.

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