I'm planning on playing an Old aged character for my next campaign and thought it'd be fun if he's a martial despite the physical penalties.
What are some easy ways to overcome the penalties of old age?
I know Barbarians get Spring Rage, which is very good (& comes online super early to boot!)
Well, if you want to truly overcome the penalties of old age, there is always the Reincarnate spell. Nothing like a nice, new healthy young adult body to get rid of those age penalties, right?
As someone who has played (is playing) a venerable barbarian with the Spring Rage power, serious thought would have been given to the reincarnate spell if dying at all wouldn't have resulted in eradication. But that is campaign specific, so not generally applicable to the general situation.
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There aren't any low-level ways I can think of other than Spring Rage.
Mantle of Immortality is easy but not cheap.
Age resistance works but it is a self-only spell. And requires at least a 11th-level wizard to cast the version that protects against old age. You can have a party caster stick it in a ring of spell storing for you, but that works out to be more expensive than just buying the mantle. A friendly 10th-level alchemist can hand you an infused extract of age resistance.
Hmmm, one of the more melee-oriented alchemists (beastmorph, ragechemist, etc.) might be a pretty good fit if your campaign is going into the higher levels where you could actually make use of that extract.
A 5th level reincarnated druid can just die and come back in a new (younger) body.
Typically older martial characters will be high level characters. I don’t think this type of character is well suited for a typical pathfinder game. Unless you are starting out at high level the character does not make sense. A first level character is supposed to be relatively inexperienced character. I am not sure how a 80 year is supposed to have survived to that age without learning anything.
In a point based system like Hero System the concept works better. There you would be spending your points on skills levels and martial arts instead of stats.
Ah, darn. I was planning out making him a Deep One Hybrid. :P
Seems like barbarian is the way to go!
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Unless you are starting out at high level the character does not make sense. A first level character is supposed to be relatively inexperienced character. I am not sure how a 80 year is supposed to have survived to that age without learning anything.
Pedantically - for a human old age is 53 years. 80 years would be venerable. I do get your point, though. This would be a little easier to swallow if you are starting out anywhere other than 1st level. Even a few levels of commoner would make more sense.
I actually think this could make for an interesting character concept. Examples: a widow turns the family farm over to the kids and decides to finally indulge in the curiosity she's not been able to express her whole life (Investigator). Or a poor, lonely, old charcoal-burner has his life saved by a woodland creature and joins the ranks of the druids.
I picked those classes because they can have a martial bent and do get access to age resistance. What makes it interesting to me is that as they level up they would gradually get the spells that let them ignore the effects of the life they have lived. Most powerful character? No, of course not. But because you will have some time before you get those spells and wouldn't be starting the campaign with "old age and Spring Rage, free +2 to my mental stats!" as a GM I'd be a lot more willing to allow the older character.
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After a little more thought, this could make for a really fun campaign base. Every party member starts out at old age. So what you have is a group of retirees who got bored of playing shuffleboard and decided to go off adventuring. No 9-level casters or Spring Rage allowed. (Probably no summoners either. Basically: No cheese)
Are they going to survive through the low levels? Probably not. But if they do get up to level 7+ (and have at least one alchemist or investigator to hand out extracts) they'll start to kick the butts of those young whippersnappers thanks to their life experience and magical fortification. Look out for dispel magic!
I can see great role-playing potential in that concept.
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The seeker of secrets book apparently has a nacreous gray cracked ioun stone for 3,400 that allows protects the wearer from one type of ability damage (such as Strength or Constitution) caused by natural or magical aging. It otherwise functions as a normal nacreous gray sphere ioun stone.
Unfortunately...
This stone protects you from ability score penalties from aging and you cannot be magically aged. Any penalties you have already incurred remain in place. Bonuses still accrue, and you still die of old age when your time is up. If you lose the stone or its abilities are negated in some way, all age and penalties apply immediately.
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The seeker of secrets book apparently has a nacreous gray cracked ioun stone for 3,400 that allows protects the wearer from one type of ability damage (such as Strength or Constitution) caused by natural or magical aging. It otherwise functions as a normal nacreous gray sphere ioun stone.Unfortunately...
This stone protects you from ability score penalties from aging and you cannot be magically aged. Any penalties you have already incurred remain in place. Bonuses still accrue, and you still die of old age when your time is up. If you lose the stone or its abilities are negated in some way, all age and penalties apply immediately.
Ah yes I misread that and thought it was the flawed stone it functioned as not the normal one.