D&D 5E Role Playing: Elf Age/Maturity

[Fractal Rabbit]

So, I'll be playing a Wood Elf Paladin (Level 10) in our ongoing campaign. And I want to play him something like John "Hannibal" Smith from The A Team (George Peppard, not Liam Neeson...).

My question is what should his age be? I was thinking maybe 350 years old. But I'm really not sure. I don't want him to be too old, but I want him "experienced": Not a spring chicken.

 

[Hriston]

Well let's see, Peppard was in his late 50's when they made The A-Team. In the First Edition DMG, Gygax puts a human of that age at the upper end of the 'middle aged' age category. The equivalent for a wood elf is given as around 725 to 800 years old, keeping in mind that the average wood elf would have a maximum age of 1141 years under this system. How long do wood elves live in your campaign?

 

[Fractal Rabbit]

We haven't determined their life span yet. Do the any of the 5E books give a maximum lifespan? And is there a table like in previous editions that show middle age and old age?

Do they suffer attribute pluses and minuses? I don't have my books with me right now to check.

 

[Hriston]

The racial entries in 5e give a maximum possible age for each race. For elves it's 750 years. There are no age categories or score adjustments given. For comparison, the absolute maximum age for a wood elf in 1e is 1549 years.

 

[Fractal Rabbit]

Hmmmm. Thank you. I may go with 600 years old. And he may even puff on cigars.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

I prefer to interpret things in such a way that, while they don't rush because they know they have plenty of time, most things that someone is talking about when they say "maturity" or "experience" come to the long-lived races just about as fast as they do humans

So an elf that is 20 is just about the same as a human that is 20 - both are physically adult, and reasonably emotionally mature. So an elf that is meant to seem like they are "experienced" like a 50 year old human would be really only needs to be around 50... maybe add a few years or a decade to account for the elf being able to take more time with things (i.e. "I'll take a year off" being about like a human saying "I'll take the summer off" and the like).

The whole idea that an elf somehow doesn't get as worldly and wise as a 50 year old human until they are 700-and-something sounds like a severe learning deficiency.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

We haven't determined their life span yet. Do the any of the 5E books give a maximum lifespan? And is there a table like in previous editions that show middle age and old age?

Do they suffer attribute pluses and minuses? I don't have my books with me right now to check.

The 5e books do give maximum lifespans, and each racial entry tells about how fast they reach adulthood.

I would advise against looking at the age categories of elves in prior editions, as they were frankly just stupid. Basically, elves took forever to get to adulthood, and then rapidly descended into middle and old, and even older age. Most elves would be children or elderly under that system, in contrast to the way elves have generally been presented in D&D, which is much like Tolkien's elves in that they seem to be forever young adults. Just go with the 5e PHB (or Basic Rules) info which is far superior and believable. Elves physically mature at about the same rate as humans, but aren't socially considered adults until sometime after they reach 100*, and can live up to about 750. While I can't find it, I'm positive that 5e said they have an ageless look about them and don't appear to physically degenerate even when they get older. (Does anyone know the reference for that?)

If you want a suggestion for an age that seems thematically appropriate in 5e, I'd say somewhere in the range of 350-450.


* I think this was a minor design mistake, as it can leads to the problematic example of being a great-great-great-grandparent while you're still considered a child. My personal solution is to just add in a note saying that elves aren't fertile until they get to around 100.

 

[Blue]

The whole idea that an elf somehow doesn't get as worldly and wise as a 50 year old human until they are 700-and-something sounds like a severe learning deficiency.

Or it could be a genetic adaption to their lifespan. If they need to partition a brain of about the same size to be able to handle 750 years of memories perhaps they don't store "incidental" details into long term memory nearly as easily. That could be why they are so focused on beauty - that gorgeous sunset might stay with them for 600 more years, while they will remember nothing of the rather mundane around-the-campfire chat the next morning and will laugh at your jokes again unless they were so good they kept them.

But along the same lines, "dropping" much of what you experience before it gets to long term memory would potentially allow them to learn skills (something they are working on retaining) but not gain all of the incidentals and wisdom that the same amount of time would afford others. Especially when they don't have changing physical drives and needs over such a short course as decades to give them insights via differing viewpoints.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Perhaps Young elves prefer to just frolic in the Woods for a few centuries before they get serious about life? That would explain why wise and experienced elves are far older than equivalent humans.

That doesn't really work in a typical D&D world though. Wood Elves will have to fight constantly to defend their Territory from monsters and evil humanoids, so military service rather than frolicing will be the norm for young elves.

 

[Horwath]

I cannot comprehend to play someone aged 2-300 years or more.

That is why I play elves they are in mid 20s or 30s. maybe if I would be 15th level high elf wizard I would play around maybe 100 years.