More Ways to Die: Getting Old

 You wanna see the most messed up class feature in all of 5e?

 

 

"Timeless Body (Monk feature)

At 15th level, your ki sustains you so that you suffer none of the frailty of old age, and you can't be aged magically. You can still die of old age, however. In addition, you no longer need food or water."

 

You know what rules there are in 5e for "frailty of old age" and "dying of old age"? That's right, none.

 

Ever since I ran a Traveller campaign I feel like a system is just incomplete without rules for aging and dying. It's especially relevant to my group because not only do we have a monk in the party, we also have an awakened cat. Cats don't live very long, you know.

 

So, here are my rules for getting old in 5e. They assume the use of my other house rules for dying, though you could just attach them to vanilla 5e.

 

The species table uses "official" lifespans as far as I could find them. The exception is eladrin, elves, sea elves, and half-elves, who have Tolkien-style immortality. If you prefer the official lifespans for these species, use the values of shadar-kai for eladrin, elves, and sea elves, and use the values of minotaurs for half-elves.

 

Old Age
To determine your birthday, roll 1d12 for month and 1d30 for day.

When you reach a certain age, you must start making aging checks regularly at a certain interval of years. To pass an aging check, you must roll 4+ on 1d6. If you fail, your exhaustion limit (the amount of exhaustion at which you die) is reduced by one. If the limit reaches zero, you die. At a certain age, the difficulty of the aging check increases to 5+, and later to 6+.

If you succeed on an aging check, roll 1d4 on the Aging Effects table below.

1. Your life experience grants you XP equal to your age times your level times 5.
2. Randomly determine three different ability scores. Increase one of your choice by 1, and decrease another one of your choice by 1. The one you decrease has its maximum value reduced by 1.
3. You gain expertise with one skill or tool you have proficiency with.
4. You have entered the golden years. Until you fail an aging check, you gain inspiration on each of your birthdays. This effect can stack, granting you several instances of inspiration.

Your starting age, the age at which you must start making aging checks, the ages at which the difficulty of the check increases, and the interval in years between the checks, are all determined by your species.

Species	Starting age	Interval	Aging 4+	Aging 5+	Aging 6+
Aarakocra	2+1d3	2	6	16	26
Aasimar	15+3d8	8	64	104	144
Bugbear	13+3d6	4	32	52	72
Cat	1d4	1	5	10	15
Centaur	15+3d6	4	36	56	76
Changeling	13+2d6	4	36	56	76
Dragonborn	13+2d6	4	36	56	76
Duergar	15+3d8	24	120	240	360
Dwarf	15+3d8	24	120	240	360
Eladrin*	15+3d8	40	40	-	-
Elf*	15+3d8	40	40	-	-
Fairy	15+3d6	4	60	80	100
Firbolg	15+3d8	28	140	280	420
Genasi	15+3d6	4	72	92	112
Githyanki**	15+3d6	4	36	56	76
Githzerai	15+3d8	8	56	96	136
Gnome	15+3d8	28	140	280	420
Goblin	7+1d6	4	14	34	54
Goliath	15+3d6	4	36	56	76
Half-elf***	15+3d8	4	40	60	80
Halfling	15+3d8	8	40	80	120
Half-orc	12+2d6	4	28	48	68
Harengon	15+3d6	4	36	56	76
Hobgoblin	15+3d6	4	36	56	76
Human	15+3d6	4	36	56	76
Kenku	11+1d6	4	20	40	60
Kobold	5+1d6	8	24	64	104
Lizardfolk	13+1d6	4	20	40	60
Loxodon	15+3d8	28	140	280	420
Minotaur	15+3d8	8	100	140	180
Orc	10+2d6	2	26	36	46
Satyr	15+3d6	4	36	56	76
Sea elf*	15+3d8	40	40	-	-
Shadar-kai	15+3d8	56	180	460	740
Shifter	8+2d6	4	24	44	64
Simic hybrid****	?	?	?	?	?
Tabaxi	15+3d6	4	36	56	76
Tiefling	15+3d6	4	40	60	80
Tortle	13+2d6	2	32	42	52
Triton	15+3d8	8	100	140	180
Vedalken	36+4d6	28	140	280	420
Yuan-ti	15+3d6	4	36	56	76

 *Eladrin, elves, and sea elves are immortal. When they fail an aging check, their exhaustion limit is not reduced. Instead, they incur a cumulative -10% penalty to all XP gained. This can eventually prevent them from gaining XP entirely. Successful aging checks do not grant a roll on the Aging Effects table.

**For a githyanki, time spent in the Astral Plane does not count towards their aging. They still use their full age and actual birthdays for effects from the Aging Effects table. A starting githyanki character is assumed to have spent half their life so far in the Astral Plane.

***When a half-elf reaches age 40, they must choose whether to accept or refuse immortality. If they accept, they age as an elf. If they refuse, they age normally using the given values.

****Simic hybrids use the values of their origin species. The ages at which they must start making aging checks, and at which the aging check increases in difficulty, are reduced by a number of years equal to the origin species' interval. This does not apply if their origin species is eladrin, elf, or sea elf.