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I'm trying to make my warlock character ageless, is there any option to prevent death by aging without divine intervention or a Wish spell?

I've seen What magic extends life or grants immortality?, but concluded that the warlock (Great Old One) as a class does not have access to most of the spells mentioned.

Glorfindel
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Isaac
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3 Answers3

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I find mechanical options less interesting than roleplaying ones

As a result this answer isn't going to focus on how you can earn this kind of thing with rules, and more on how you can earn this kind of thing through your DM.

Essentially this boils down to telling your DM you have a cool idea, and asking them to help you achieve it. You can add your own input into the how if you like, or maybe just leave it to the DM and then when you see them offer that opportunity it is your cue to get your RP on and go for it.

As an example, one of my characters is just a memory rather than a real person, as such I agreed with my DM that the only way they can really die is if their patron forgets about them. This leads to interesting RP, a change of mindset when playing the character (death is now even less important than ever, so my wizard tank can be even more reckless), and given how easy resurrection magic is and how uncommon dying of old age is, the only mechanical benefit is not having to hand out money for diamonds (which is just DM intervention anyway).

Whenever you plan a character it is good practice to have an end goal in mind and discuss that with the DM, then you can both work on having the story achieve that, and the surprise is the how rather than the what. You can RP the character growth to get there and tell a great story.

SeriousBri
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    I wrote a long list of all the mechanical ways of how you can do it within the rules, but I think this is a better approach for it, if the DM agrees to do it. +1 – Nobody the Hobgoblin Oct 05 '22 at 13:44
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    The mechanical approaches don't make that much sense anyway, because the majority of campaigns don't span enough in-universe time for aging to become relevant. So a character that does not age is really just fluff. There is no point in having the player expend ingame resources on a pure fluff aspect of their character. – Philipp Oct 06 '22 at 12:57
  • Well there is a point. It means you can be old. I always enjoyed playing elves because it meant they had tons time on this plane for backstory. No mater how much history the party knew about my character there was always room to add more. – candied_orange Oct 06 '22 at 18:26
  • @candied_orange The older you are the more your backstory has to explain how you are still level 1. I struggle with elves specifically because of this. My character being a memory was my solution, because he only knows what the patron who remembers him knew about him (and they only really met for a few hours), and each time he is remembered it resets his memory. – SeriousBri Oct 06 '22 at 18:31
  • @SeriousBri oh that's easy. Monsters drain levels, high powered spells consume XP, Gods decide you need to learn a lesson, and sometimes you lose a bet. I've played the same wizard for years. His level goes up and down all the time. But I always play him like he remembers all the previous groups that he played with. – candied_orange Oct 06 '22 at 18:58
20

You have many options, but all have some drawback

There are multiple ways. You have plenty of spells and options, all with their own little catch. Pick your metaphorical poison.

  • Long-lived races. For starters, you can pick a race that does not age fast to sidestep the entire issue, like a Warforged, but I think in you other warlock question you ask about the Forgotten Realms, and warforged are not normally an option there. An Elf might be your best option there.

  • The Undying patron, from 10th level gets you Undying Nature which states "you age at a slower rate. For every 10 years that pass, your body ages only 1 year, and you are immune to being magically aged." The downside is that this is not quite not aging at all, but it is going a long way towards it, and takes very little extra effort on your part.

  • Potion of Longevity, these can also help, but they are no long term solution as there is increasing risk drinking several of these.

  • Ring of Winter. This dangerous artifact stops you from aging outright, and has lots of other interesting powers. Gollum however should be a warning to you when it comes to messing with such rings. Also, good luck obtaining it.

  • Pay a wizard for clone. They say money is useless in 5e, but not if you can find and pay a high level NPCs arch-wizard to make a young clone of you. You can then transfer into that young body when your old one dies. The downside: costly, and depends on others.

  • True Polymorph. As a warlock you can learn True Polymporph at level 17. Casting that on yourself, you can pick a form that does not age, like a devil. However, you would then not be a Warlock any more so that may not work for your plans.

  • Astral Projection, again available from level 17, makes it so your body won't age. Living on the Astral Plane has its own difficulties, though.

  • Imprisonment, likewise lets you not age and is accessible from level 17, and you can pick something like hedged prison, so you can at least be active there and do something. But of course, you will be locked up.

  • Boon of Immortality. You may get the Boon of Immortality as an epic boon on level 20, this will do it without any negatives, but unfortunately it is quite unlikely that you ever will play to that level, and even less so that you will play an extended campaign on that level.

By the encounter XP math, it would just take you a bit more than a month to get to level 20. Even at a more realistic pace, the in-game time of most campaigns I have played is only a few months or maybe one or two years of game time if there are narrative pauses. Monsters that age you are very rare. I once had a character who had exactly this ability, and it was great for roleplay, but otherwise irrelevant.

So, while immortality is an old and understandable human desire that you may want to experience through your character, in a normal D&D campaign not aging is not going to give you any significant mechanical benefit. With this in mind, and if your DM is game, I think SeriousBri's answer to this may be the best option -- just negotiate with your DM for this instead of some other small advantage or for some narrative drawback.

Nobody the Hobgoblin
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The Undying patron gets you pretty close.

The Undying patron seems to be already built around the theme you are looking for. In particular, the 10th level feature Undying Nature states:

In addition, you age at a slower rate. For every 10 years that pass, your body ages only 1 year, and you are immune to being magically aged.

If you are a race that naturally lives to be hundreds of years old, this extends your lifespan into the thousands.

Nobody the Hobgoblin
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Thomas Markov
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