A small but positive change - Age

[CNichols]

On trying to read the Playtest rules more closely, I noticed a change that I found quite positive and which I have not seen any comment on. On page 16, we have the following sentences:

Pathfinder Playtest wrote:

Your character’s age is a major factor that shapes how she interacts with the world. There aren’t any mechanical adjustments to your character for being particularly old, but you might want to take it into account when considering your starting ability scores and future advancement; for instance, an old and wise character might have a higher Wisdom score, so you might want to make sure to put one of your free ability boosts in Wisdom.

Which is far more player friendly and inclusive than the PF1e rules on aging.

Pathfinder Core Rulebook wrote:

With age, a character's physical ability scores decrease and his mental ability scores increase (see Table: Aging Effects). The effects of each aging step are cumulative. However, none of a character's ability scores can be reduced below 1 in this way.

1 At middle age, –1 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha.

2 At old age, –2 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha.

3 At venerable age, –3 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha.

Which left venerable characters with a cumulative -6 to all physical stats! This made certain character concepts, such as a grandmother cleric of Andoletta for instance, difficult to play.

Edit: Also, this removes the need for the age resistance line of spells, so less clutter in the spell lists.

So I found this change very positive. Personally, I'd like information on playing young characters too, for adventures that try to capture the Steven Spielberg preteen adventure movie feel. However, I realize such a section would necessarily be several times longer than the current paragraph on age and aging, so it seem unrealistic for inclusion in the PF3e rulebook.

[RangerWickett]

I agree.

I also like that now elves mature physically at the same rate as humans, but other elves don't *think* they're mature until they're in their 60s at least. I never liked 20-year old toddler elves.

[The Narration]

I'm glad that the age category rules are out. In my experience the only purpose they every served was to let spellcasters cheese higher mental stats. If you want to play an older character who's got less Strength and more Wisdom, you can just assign your ability scores appropriately.

[MaxAstro]

Also it's now much easier to appropriately stat Cohen the Barbarian. :D

[Arachnofiend]

I like it. Adventurers are fairly unusual people in general, just because most 70 year olds are relatively frail doesn't mean you should be prevented from playing Muscle Grandma Ozen the Immovable entirely.