[RPG] How does an elf’s appearance translate to their actual age

agingdnd-5e

I want to make a young-looking wood elf who appears to be 19 in human years. I've had some major problems and arguments in the past with how elves age in relative terms to human age appearance. How old would a wood elf be, if he just started to look 19 from a human perspective?

Best Answer

They would be 19

Although elves reach physical maturity at about the same age as humans, the elven understanding of adulthood goes beyond physical growth to encompass worldly experience. -phb

So at 19, they would look 19 in human years. They would be a litte over a hundred to be considered 19 like a human.

An elf typically claims adulthood and an adult name around the age of 100 -phb

Related Solutions

[RPG] Strategies for handling age of maturity dissonance for Aasimar (or other plane-touched) born to humans

Aasimar are addressed in Blood of Angels. "Women that carry an aasimar child report easy pregnancies and deliveries..." There's an entire page of info on Childhood, another on Adolescence, etc. They don't come out and say it explicitly but there's no sign of any time disparity; they are described as maturing to age 5-6 like other human kids and having some issues during puberty with their peer group. BoA says, "An aasimar might spend a good portion of her childhood thinking of herself as human." This is odd as the Advanced Race Guide indicates that the adult age of an aasimar is 60, which would seem to indicate there's some kind of slowdown between birth and there... Same situation for oreads etc.

Bastards of Golarion has nothing to say about this for the other races, it's more of a crunch book really.

I think this falls into the general category of "poorly thought out things in the D&D cosmology," which are manifold. Just like the high intelligence of many aberrations, it's an interesting note trotted out every once in a while as a plot point and then conveniently forgotten 99% of the time.

So your playbook:

Decide if you care - it's a magical world and these are magical crossbreeds, there doesn't have to be one answer and you can be as inconsistent as you want
Decide if you just want to say "they mature at the same rate as anyone else" and ignore the adult age listed in the books
Decide if you want to let players decide based on their own concept of their PC's background

[RPG] Making aging relevant: How to translate premature aging into a mechanical effect

Ah yes, the effects of age, I could tell you a lot about that. But I’ll try to keep focused on in-game effects.

“I’ll regret this later”

Penalties to abilities that simply make the character weaker (like those found in older versions) are frustrating for a player, and they are bland, and don't really evoke the feel of old age. These rules simply never provided any fun, or much depth. It’s no wonder they didn't come forward to 5e.

Effects that limit the endurance a character has, that come into effect after some initial exertion, evoke the effects of age more poignantly, while letting the character still “relive past glories” in brief but glorious combat.

So very tired

The rules for exhaustion in the DMG can be utilized to simulate the fatigue of advanced age, and they come pre-play-balanced for you. A venerable character (depending on age, at the discretion of the DM) may gain a level of exhaustion from a single combat, and require a short or long rest to recover from it.

I just can’t seem to rest like I used to

Speaking of rest, an older character needs more. Simplest thing would be to double the amount of time needed to attain the benefits of the rest, but it doesn't add much color to the game, if the players are simply obliged to say “OK, then we rest for 16 hours.”

I find it’s better to “nerf” the effects of the rest, granting back fewer hit dice, hit points - or even fewer spell slots, if mental ability has been affected. That allows the oldster(s) to “try to keep up” while providing a nagging reminder they are really too old for this sort of thing.

(If you ever played 4E, this was like a non-heroic NPC taking a rest. Unlike the PC’s, the NPC would not wake up in the morning fully healed of all wounds.)

Another nice surprise

I would also suggest that these or any effects of old age should come as a surprise (especially for the prematurely aged). They always do.

My (game) experience with old age effects

I’ve used these rules for adjunct NPCs - I haven’t prematurely aged a PC. The players thought they were fair and interesting rules. It accentuated the power of the (young) PC’s, without making the NPC useless. The oldster slept/rested while the characters did ancillary stuff. It might be different for a PC. I suspect a player won't be overjoyed with having to “take it easy” but it's similar to other “curses.”

Since initially answering this, I spoke with one of my players about the age rules we used. She commented the rules made her feel protective of the NPC.