An interesting predicament

[randomhero00]

Would you rather live a 100 years with impunity from death (but not status effects or pain or going unconscious or getting disease) BUT die no matter what at the end of those 100 years?

As a DM I just propossed this interesting quandry to one of my elven players. And we have downtime, lots. Sometime in game time decades may go by before the reunite to kick some monster butt.

so #1 would you take it for your character?
# 2 would you take it in real life? Remember medical technology is really increasing.

[Innis Cabal]

Yep, then I'd become a lich.

[randomhero00]

Yep, then I'd become a lich.

You'd still die in a 100 years...

[Amnestic]

Death is a small bump in the lives (heh) of many D&D characters. I'd probably take it for my character.

And for reality too. 120 years of healthy living is probably more than enough for me.

[FMArthur]

You'd still die in a 100 years...
Right. And continue on being conscious as an undead.

[Vonotar]

Plan to have the 100 years coincide with your Lich ritual then, I don't think it is ever really specified WHAT the ritual involves, but I presume dying is in there somewhere. So you die after 100 years, then get better.

[Rin_Hunter]

Yep, then I'd become a lich.

This.

Plenty of time to gain 11 levels of Wizard or Sorcerer of become a Lich. Then there's so much fun with Spellstitching and such... *Day dreams of perfect Unlife*

[Tyndmyr]

Would you rather live a 100 years with impunity from death (but not status effects or pain or going unconscious or getting disease) BUT die no matter what at the end of those 100 years?

As a DM I just propossed this interesting quandry to one of my elven players. And we have downtime, lots. Sometime in game time decades may go by before the reunite to kick some monster butt.

so #1 would you take it for your character?
# 2 would you take it in real life? Remember medical technology is really increasing.

Elven changes a lot.

I would take it for my character only if I were fairly certain I could cheese my way past it.

I would take it in real life, since it's significantly longer than the average lifespan. If it were not, I would not take it.

[FMArthur]

This topic is starting to make me feel bad for my gamer attitude, when all the coolest stuff is [evil] and [super-evil]. :smallredface:

[Rin_Hunter]

This topic is starting to make me feel bad for my gamer attitude, when all the coolest stuff is [evil] and [super-evil]. :smallredface:

Becoming Undead isn't Evil and anyone who tells you otherwise is a bad, bad person. I hate the way 3.5 was written in that respect.

I think I'd take that in real life.

[Kyouhen]

Becoming Undead isn't Evil and anyone who tells you otherwise is a bad, bad person. I hate the way 3.5 was written in that respect.

I think I'd take that in real life.

Personally I'd probably classify Undead as being 'evil' just because it's kinda not supposed to happen and spits in the face of the way the universe is supposed to work. You could still be a perfectly fine fellow and an upstanding citizen, but the magics keeping you standing are going to make you register as 'evil' no matter what. :smalltongue:

In-game I'd probably take it. Then I'd become an Alienist. Totally helps to know the exact time when the Horrible Things will come and get you, so you can prepare for them and see if you can catch/stop them. That's right, I'd take it for the sole purpose of finding out exactly what Horrible Things take an Alienist away. :smalltongue:

In real life I'd probably take it too. Assuming you won't age. People who tend to be around 100 years old are kinda creepy looking, and I'd rather not end up like that. :smalltongue:

[Rin_Hunter]

Personally I'd probably classify Undead as being 'evil' just because it's kinda not supposed to happen and spits in the face of the way the universe is supposed to work. You could still be a perfectly fine fellow and an upstanding citizen, but the magics keeping you standing are going to make you register as 'evil' no matter what. :smalltongue:

We clearly have different but similar views on Necromancy. Unnatural, yes. Evil, no. That is the key difference.

Yes, I'd like to rephrase that I'd take it in real life only if there was no aging.

[Unrest]

IC: Well, if it suited the character (lichdom, defending some cause, accumulating lore), then why not.

IRL: Sweet gods of the Netherworld, sentencing someone to living for a century FOR SURE? At the same time not making him immune in any way to harm? Curiosity as to how the world is going to change is the sole reason to go on for such a long time, and not one weighty enough.

No. Not for a million barrels of oil. Not unless I had some guarantee I'd get a REALLY good life out of that.

[Kyouhen]

We clearly have different but similar views on Necromancy. Unnatural, yes. Evil, no. That is the key difference.


Negative energy isn't 'evil'? :smalltongue: I'm not so much saying that being undead causes you to register as evil as I am that the amount of negative energy keeping you up is going to override whatever alignment you would normally detect as. :smalltongue:

[Amnestic]

IC: Well, if it suited the character (lichdom, defending some cause, accumulating lore), then why not.

IRL: Sweet gods of the Netherworld, sentencing someone to living for a century FOR SURE? At the same time not making him immune in any way to harm? Curiosity as to how the world is going to change is the sole reason to go on for such a long time, and not one weighty enough.

No. Not for a million barrels of oil. Not unless I had some guarantee I'd get a REALLY good life out of that.

There doesn't seem to be any clause against just offing yourself if you don't want to continue with your century-long existence, just that you're guaranteed to die at the end. why not take it IRL? What is there to lose?

[Dr. Steve]

Negative energy isn't 'evil'? :smalltongue: I'm not so much saying that being undead causes you to register as evil as I am that the amount of negative energy keeping you up is going to override whatever alignment you would normally detect as. :smalltongue:

I agree with that, I've always thought that something charged with "Negative energy" was usually fueled by evil. Barring of course the exceptions that always float around in D&D (e.g. Lawful Good Lich)

[Rin_Hunter]

My thoughts on how Positive and Negative energy should both have been Neutral not Good and Evil and therefore Undeath is not meant to be automatically Evil will derail this thread.

I subscribe to the Playing With Fire (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19527634/Tome_of_Necromancy) view and I think I'll end this here.

[NichG]

There are some very dark ways this can go, if it doesn't grant you immunity to things happening to you, just the death part.

I.e. trapped in a landslide, buried alive, unable to die.
Burned to ash, existing only as a faint skein of thought hanging amongst motes of endless pain.
Severe aging, to the point that every waking moment is agony, and one can barely act, but still hanging on.
Decapitated but still alive as a disembodied head.

It'd be good for a character that generally has a way to make themselves a brand new body if the worst happens, but it could get pretty awful otherwise.

For what its worth, I've got a character in a campaign where beings sentenced to things like these were briefly the primary antagonists (and all the more pitiable because they didn't ask for it, and they involuntarily spread it to others). We ended up all being very very paranoid to NOT be infected by it, going to pretty extreme measures when we got even a little of it (my character permanently burned off about 200 hitpoints in exchange for partial immunity to it, in the form of 'you can never remove this magic item again, but as long as you wear it it won't get worse')

For that character, immortality was one thing (and he had it, since he was an Outsider), but being assured of one's eternity, either yea or nay, was bad. He wanted to have the potential to live forever, but also to have the tension that comes of knowing that something could actually kill him. Essentially, to ride the razor line between being truly unending and being doomed to one day die.

[randomhero00]

no the rule is you are gone and dead in 100 years. No chance of ressing, raising, or becoming undead. You are ultimately gone 100%. Sorry thought that was clear before.

[Yukitsu]

Depends on elf type. If it's one of the "true" elven archetypes that lives thousands of years, absolutely not. If it's a D&D standard elf, then yes, as they don't like very long anyway.