Longest-Lived Race?

[Palanan]

What race in Pathfinder has the longest lifespan? Elves can live for several centuries, but I’d like to know if there are other races that can live for longer. I’m open to all first-party sources—the more obscure the better, as long as they’re official Paizo content.

I’m not looking for ways to achieve immortality per se, and I’m especially not looking for clever tricks with the rules; I’m just looking for which race tends to live longest on average. The elves seem to reach five hundred or so as an upper limit, and I’d like to know if there are any races which can exceed this—preferably to a thousand or older if possible.

[noob]

ioun wyrds are immortal and due to low CR do not involve ecl increase(a level 1 cleric ioun wyrd is considered as level 1 for purposes of gaining xp) and they are super wise and dextrous.(the lack of a constitution might be annoying but you can increase your stats(other than life) indefinitely by spending gold at a constant cost per bonus to a stat)
It gets flight too.(and I do not remember any crafting rule saying that you need limbs for crafting so an ioun wyrd civilisation could produce new citizens for 1500 gp per new citizen(and three days of crafting) thus allowing fast expansion as long as a good portion of them are spell-casters(the advantages of a construct is the lack of need to eat and sleep and that they do not die so as long as you have enough materials to produce them it is nearly never a bad idea to do so(humans are way more expensive you need to get them food(which in the long run is super expensive) and houses(which have silly super high costs))))
The only catch is that they do not start with the ability to speak common but there is ways to bypass(for example one level 1 spell can do the trick)

[ChrisAsmadi]

Just from going through the maximum age table on the srd, the oldest possible races on there (with 250+6d%, for a max of 850) are Aasimars, Tieflings, the elemental races and Samsarans. Elves, Drow and Dhampir are next at 750 (350+4d%).

(If you actually do want immortal races, Dreamscarred's 3PP stuff has a few - Elans in their Psionics stuff and Houri and Spring Children in Bloodforge.)

[Magelyte]

Shabti from Bestiary 5 are immortal. There's also Wyrwoods who are constructs.

[Slithery D]

Yadithians in the new Bestiary 6 are a very long lived 0-HD race.

[legomaster00156]

An android is technically immortal. They choose when to "die".

[Mechalich]

Gathlains, from Bestiary 4, are Fey, and therefore are effectively immortal. Ghorans, from Bestiary 5, don't really die so much as clone themselves with full access to their memories, which also makes them effectively immortal.

[Florian]

Technically speaking, all 0-HD races with a type and subtype that is generally seen as immortal by lacking age categories and corresponding tables. Being constructs and fey, so lacking table entries, probably Wyrwoods and Gathlains.

In a spiritual sense, all self-reincarnating races are effectively immortal, so Androids, Samsaran and Ghorans.

Going by templates, everything that is changed to an immortal type is also immortal, so Half-Fey, Half-Fiend, and so on.

Below that might be the "touched" races, from Suli to Dhampir, with probably the hlongest possible lives, but not immortal.

[Mechalich]

Naiads (bestiary 6) are also Fey and so presumably immortal.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by ChrisAsmadi
Just from going through the maximum age table on the srd, the oldest possible races on there (with 250+6d%, for a max of 850) are Aasimars, Tieflings, the elemental races and Samsarans. Elves, Drow and Dhampir are next at 750 (350+4d%).

This is really useful, thanks. I hadn’t realized the Dhampir were that long-lived, but that could be very useful indeed.

Originally Posted by Slithery D
Yadithians in the new Bestiary 6 are a very long lived 0-HD race.

And this is extremely interesting. Do you have the new Bestiary, or have you seen this race in a sample somewhere?

Originally Posted by Florian
In a spiritual sense, all self-reincarnating races are effectively immortal, so Androids, Samsaran and Ghorans.

I’m familiar with Samsarans and Ghorans, but I know virtually nothing about androids. What’s the best source of information on those?

[Florian]

And this is extremely interesting. Do you have the new Bestiary, or have you seen this race in a sample somewhere?

If you don´t own it, then you´ll have to wait for a while.

The race has "Long-Lived (Ex)" as a feature, simply stating that they live for thousands of years, don´t use the aging rules and are immune to aging effects.

I’m familiar with Samsarans and Ghorans, but I know virtually nothing about androids. What’s the best source of information on those?

Ecology of the Android. It´s in one of the Iron Gods books.

[ChrisAsmadi]

And this is extremely interesting. Do you have the new Bestiary, or have you seen this race in a sample somewhere?

Yaddithians are on the SRD already. They're just not on the main page for whatever reason.

[Mordaedil]

According to the Draconomicon, dragons don't actually die of age, they just go elsewhere.

[noob]

According to the Draconomicon, dragons don't actually die of age, they just go elsewhere.

They are not of a CR inferior to 1 and so they probably do not interest the op: he wants to be immortal not to be bad at everything forever.
Also is this manual in pathfinder?

[Psyren]

I’m familiar with Samsarans and Ghorans, but I know virtually nothing about androids. What’s the best source of information on those?

Ecology of the Android. It´s in one of the Iron Gods books.

Inner Sea Bestiary and Inner Sea Races also have info on them IIRC.

[Florian]

Inner Sea Bestiary and Inner Sea Races also have info on them IIRC.

Info, yes, but the Ecology article is the one explaining how android reincarnation works.

[TiaC]

A gnome with the Zealot trait is immortal as long as they remain faithful.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by noob
They are not of a CR inferior to 1 and so they probably do not interest the op: he wants to be immortal not to be bad at everything forever.

Your syntax, puzzling it would be to Yoda, even.

But the fact is, as I mentioned in the OP, I’m specifically not looking for ways to become immortal; I’m looking for which races tend to have the longest natural lifespans on average.

That’s more or less been answered, but I’m still interested in hearing about oddball races with unusually long lifespans—the Yaddithians being a perfect example.

[Arutema]

A gnome with the Zealot trait is immortal as long as they remain faithful.

Incorrect. Zealot only prevents the Bleaching (death from boredom), death from old age is a separate process from the Bleaching.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Arutema
Incorrect. Zealot only prevents the Bleaching (death from boredom), death from old age is a separate process from the Bleaching.

I think this must be a common misconception, to conflate these two processes. In the last Pathfinder game I played in, the DM told us that gnomes were immortal unless they lost interest in life. He didn’t mention death by old age, and I was actually surprised when I saw the gnomes included on the age table that ChrisAsmadi linked above.

I’m not really clear on the distinction myself, but I’m not a fan of gnomes so I haven’t looked into it. That same DM played up the First World nature of the gnomes, and like a lot of things in his game I was never sure if that was canon or something he developed on his own.

[Doctor Awkward]

You can Elan to your naturally immortal list too.

They have no maximum age listed on the table.

[zergling.exe]

You can Elan to your naturally immortal list too.

They have no maximum age listed on the table.

OP's looking for first party Pathfinder races, so Paizo only. Elan's are 3.5, or by Dreamscarred Press in Pathfinder.

[Psyren]

Bleaching is not universally fatal. A number of gnomes have survived it, and they are called Bleachlings. There's a little bit about it in ISWG, and probably more in Gnomes of Golarion.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by ChrisAsmadi
Yaddithians are on the SRD already. They're just not on the main page for whatever reason.

Do you know if Bestiary 6 has more information on the Yaddithians than the SRD?

The SRD has the basic stats, but it only has a couple brief sentences about the race, and I'd love to know more.

[the_david]

I think this must be a common misconception, to conflate these two processes. In the last Pathfinder game I played in, the DM told us that gnomes were immortal unless they lost interest in life. He didn’t mention death by old age, and I was actually surprised when I saw the gnomes included on the age table that ChrisAsmadi linked above.

I’m not really clear on the distinction myself, but I’m not a fan of gnomes so I haven’t looked into it. That same DM played up the First World nature of the gnomes, and like a lot of things in his game I was never sure if that was canon or something he developed on his own.

The Bleaching is a thing that is specific to the Golarion setting. So Gnomes might not be able to die of old age on Golarion, and they might not be able to age at all. As the Core Rulebook is not part of the campaign setting, the publishers would have skipped on the Bleaching and just added the gnome to that specific table.

I know that James Jacobs wasn't happy with the longevity of the Aasimar en Tiefling. It's one of those many things that the editors missed.

[TiaC]

Incorrect. Zealot only prevents the Bleaching (death from boredom), death from old age is a separate process from the Bleaching.

This is a retcon of earlier works.

The Pathfinder Chronicle Campaign Setting says:

Due to the effects of the Bleaching, a gnome’s age is not tied to the passing of time. Instead, every year a gnome lives without experiencing new wonders takes a toll on her physiology, advancing her one age category.

However, in Gnomes of Golarion, this has changed to:

If allowed to age naturally, most gnomes can live for hundreds of years. Yet in addition to the normal barrage of accidents, illness, and violence, gnome longevity is limited by the unique affliction known as the Bleaching

[Florian]

Do you know if Bestiary 6 has more information on the Yaddithians than the SRD?

The SRD has the basic stats, but it only has a couple brief sentences about the race, and I'd love to know more.

Nope. But it´s one of the Lovecraft races, so that is the primary source for it.