One of the players in the game I'm going to run on Sunday

>>49884726

How about the character doesn't actually know he goes back thousands of years. Like he's some kind of perpetual who every time he "dies" actually gets resurrected with no memories of what happened.

Keep it a secret from the rest of the party. Then one day your players enter some castle where a tapestry from a thousand years ago depicts an oddly familiar looking figure fighting monsters...

>>49884726
They are immortal, but things like Alzheimer's can still affect them.

I've never in my life have seen a character that's lived 1000s of years done well if it was also a main character (as in a book) or the player character. They always feel like they're a smartass 20-something years old. Thus, I am disinclined to allow such characters in my games that start at low levels. A thousand years is a lot of life experience to accumulate, and it can't be adequately represented by a player without the help of levels.

Anyway, as far as player characters go, the standard explanation that I've seen is that the character someone lost his powers or had them sealed, but that's pretty run of the mill and can be very Mary-Sue-ish. Memory loss is another way to go. Or maybe they spent their life sealed away somewhere or of somewhere by themselves, thus don't know much about the world.

If you want the character to be thousands of years old, and have been active for those thousands of years, you better make sure the player is very familiar with the world and you might find yourself telling the player things his character would know, having lived a long time, or coming up with reasons why his character wouldn't know something, having lived such a long time.

>>49884726
He has a lifespan of thousands of years, but a normal human memory. Thing is, he can't choose what he remembers, so he can tell you what the Battle of Camorr was like 300 years ago, or what his first lover's hair smelled like, but can't tell you what happened last week/

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They don't really remember.

>>49884726
I played a character who was trapped in a fey pocket realm for centuries. Worked great.

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>>49884792
Pretty much sums up my thoughts exactly. I don't even let elf characters (or other long-lived races) in my game start out at more than 100 years if they're only level 1.

>>49884726
As far as D&D goes, it's nonsense. They cannot spent the thousand years learning anything, or else they'd have levels in Expert or something. Or have a ridiculous quantity of skill points/proficiencies/whatever edition equivalent. True and lasting immortality is extremely difficult in all D&D settings. Divinities would not curse someone with living immortality, but simply smite them and torment their immortal soul.

Whatever his circumstance is, thousands of people will be trying to replicate it as no matter how malign it is, it offers an escape from Baator's clutches.

What if the character has lived that long as a lich but in his last fight his opponent cursed him with life or hit him with a powerful resurrection spell? Not sure if that'd even work on a lich but you could fluff it up as something special.

That way the former lich is now alive in a sense, with much of his memories and experiences intact but the fact that hes alive is blocking his power or making him a lot weaker. That's why he joined your band of adventurers, to reclaim his lost power.

>>49884887
>True and lasting immortality is extremely difficult in all D&D settings.

Agree with everything you said except that. Unfortunately immortality is pretty easy to achieve in DnD, almost trivial. Then again this is a setting where dying means nothing f your party has 5,000 gold to blow on a ressurection spell.

>>49884726
Maybe he's really really lazy? Think about it, if you know you're gonna live forever then you'd be putting off doing and learning things forever. Why do anything hard, ever, when you could say "I'll do it tomorrow instead" and goof off being a lazy fuck? You'll get around to it eventually, it's not like you're going to run out of time.

they are a huge coward, and spent all their life writing books on obscure and useless subjects, making bank every century or so with a "new" philosophical idea. they could tell you the precise details of trade routes between ancient city states or the mating cycles of now extinct pygmy Minotaurs but they don't know anything useful, which is probably why they're hanging with adventurers now.

>>49884792

I'd expect them to become so stoic, by simply living that long, that they'd be unplayable.

>>49884726

He is actually a god dammed to living as a human as his punishment for a cosmic crime he committed. Later on in the adventure, he'll leap into a volcano to prove his godhood.

>>49884726
He spent 1000 years reading adventure books

>>49885806
So kinda like if a guy spent 1000 years playing CoD and other war FPSs and then joined a group of operators?

Sounds like it could be fun, if only for the hijinks.

>>49885386
Seconding this suggestion. Hell, make it so they lived a heroic life, got to level 20 barbarian, the peak of physical fitness to achieve their goal of immortality.

Then all desire to achieve anything left them. They spent thousands of years eating cheetos on the couch or whatever the equivalence of that was.

Alternatively, they were seen as too powerful and some group of adventurers sealed them in another plane, a la Garlic Jr.

Now something dear to them is in danger (or, if you want them to have a character who can die, their immortality suddenly ran out) and they're back to level 1, because a thousand years of a sedentary lifestyle isn't going to leave you very strong.

>>49884726
Whenever someone questions it, just go with "I've been ill".

>>49885447
Probably more like nihilistic.

>>49885136
Depends on edition. 3E, 4E, and 5E all have a virulent hatred for extending one's lifespan indefinitely. Stretching one's lifespan more than 10x is phenomenally difficult, requiring powerful (epic) magic, great sacrifices, or divine ascension. (Amusingly, there is also a single, terrible prestige class in 3.5 which has true immortality as its capstone.. and basically nothing else. Like, Commoner-tier.)
2E had potions of longevity you could buy at any magic market though.

>>49885973
Just get a Reincarnation when you get old. Makes you young again.

Or be an elf.

Or become undead.

Or a drakeblooded kobold or whatever they're called.

It wouldn't surprise me if there are more ways.

>>49884726
character needs some magical mojo to recharge his batteries, otherwise power and even memories simply seep out of him over time. he was deprived of said mojo for a long time, leaving him a shadow of his former self. he still retains his memories, but they are cloudy, so he has about same chance to remember something as other characters have the chance to "have always known".

>>49884726
He is thousands of years old but spent most of them dormant.
I used this in one of my games. My PC is two hundred years old but raised as an undead only a couple months ago in game time

A powerful demon forced to share a body with a weak and pathetic mortal as punishment for his failures. Could be an idea for a warlock I'd allow. Fluff it as a reverse pact thing or something, where the guy you're playing is actually the demon and as he levels he gains back his demonic powers. The human he overtook is either dead or a niggling voice in the back of his head or what have you.

>>49884726
He lost all his power because of reasons. Make a character arc for hin to overcome those reasons and reclaim his power. Maybe a redemption story or something

>Memory loss
>Stolen shit
>Slept the whole time in a cave
>From an alternate dimension where it's normal be live for millions of years as a mundane cow hand
>Making shit up because no one respects the stock skeleton ;-;
>Isn't actually a skeleton, just thinks he is

>>49886083
>Just get a Reincarnation when you get old. Makes you young again.
Reincarnate requires one to be dead. It does not offer any freedom from Baator, because someone trapped in the nine hells is not a valid target for Reincarnate.
>Or be an elf.
Elves have long, but not endless lifespans.
>Or become undead.
Becoming undead is one of those "difficult" options I mentioned. Your life becomes one of evil, and you risk being shunned and hunted for the rest of your eternity.
>Or a drakeblooded kobold or whatever they're called.
Dragonwrought kobolds do not take penalties for aging, but age nevertheless.

>>49884726
Instead of lived thousand years make it 1000 years old.
His ascension into lich failed miserably and not only the once curious young mage that discovered forbidden necromancy art lost barely any power he had anyway but the resurrection spell took nearly 1000 years to kick in and now he's just a skeletal whimp that needs to get his shit back.

>>49884726
A lich placed their memories into the mind of the player character just to see what would happen. The lich has done this to several hundred NPCs because they want a good sample size. This means at some point the player who thinks they are a lich should meet an NPC or group of NPCs who think they are also the lich.

>>49884726
Didn't you just do this thread for "one of my players wants to be a vampire, but level 1".?

Regardless, just say no unless he comes up with some way to not have it be game breaking. What system are you playing even? Why does he want to be this character, and what's his plan for it?

General idea, have him be cursed by God to never learn nor grow and he has to adventure with the party to level up by adhering to a specific moral code or doing specific acts for his god.

Hard mode: have the acts his god require cause some conflict with the parties goals or other characters.

>>49886209
>Reincarnate requires one to be dead. It does not offer any freedom from Baator, because someone trapped in the nine hells is not a valid target for Reincarnate.

What.

>Your life becomes one of evil
There are good liches now, and there's always Necropolitan.

>>49886400
>What.
To be a target for Reincarnate, one's soul has to be willing and ABLE to return to the mortal plane.
Guess what? A damned soul isn't able to go anywhere. By the laws of the Pact Primeval their soul belongs to the devils and is no longer free to roam.

>There are good liches now
Archliches existed in 2E too, they're not only rare but an extremely difficult path of life to take. To become a lich without the ultimately-evil Ceremony of Endless Night requires untold magical power and knowledge.
>Necropolitan
You have to be accepted by the undead of Nocturnus and suffer the pain of the Ritual of Crucimigration, as well as submit to the will of the evil gods who make Necropolitans to begin with. It's not a good path. Perhaps a very strong-willed neutral could come out of it intact. I would still not consider this easy.

>>49884792
I've had it done, mind you it was a super's in fantasy game so the players were regardless of experience quite unusual to begin with.

His shtick was that he (a living suit of armor made as the physical avatar of a now long dead cult's god) slowly died as the last cycle of magic faded, low and behold we're at the beginning of the new cycle. Without this context I doubt it would work as easily.

So powers are returning, he's a bit rusty (literally), and most of his former experience can be summed us as knowledge that's outdated by a few centuries. Constantly gave him different names for things and places, brought up threats and ideas that literally nobody else would consider or have ever interacted with as if they might still be out there.

>>49886599
>A damned soul isn't able to go anywhere.
Show me where that is in the rulebook.

>>49886749
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/reincarnate.htm
>With this spell, you bring back a dead creature in another body, provided that its death occurred no more than one week before the casting of the spell and the subject’s soul is free and willing to return.
>and the subject’s soul is free

>>49886973
Where does it say souls in hell aren't free?

>>49886986
Fiendish Codex II.
"The diabolical right to claim lawful evil souls, punish them, and ultimately convert them to divine energy stems from the Pact Primeval. This agreement between Asmodeus and the primal deities of law dates back to the hazy days of early mythology. Although accounts of its signing differ, the Pact is demonstrably real. A copy of it can be found in the impregnable citadel of Tabjari on Nessus."

>>49887017
Yeah the massive pile of every splat book ever published that we totally have access to, that certainly is a completely normal rule accessible and used by everyone who plays the game.

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I played a character like this once. I was an legendary master thief in our last campaing, but in the time between the old party parting ways and the new party forming, i tried and stole the lord of all vampires. Bitch had level drain, and now i'm level 1. And he's level 34. And really pissed off at me since i still got away with the loot and my life.
My character being a dingus spent the priceless gem in boat tickets, parties, a shit ton of goats and a farm that he donated to a homeless girl because who the fuck carries that much gold when you can just steal again?

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>>49884726
Give him a bonus to Lore. He's been a Librarian/Caretaker in the bowls of the Government/University for most of his Unlife.
Also, really shy, because character hook

He was really interested in the ocean, and once he achieved immortality, he put on steel boots and dropped into the deepest part of the ocean. He only just came back.

>>49885472

>Empedocles

My nigga right here. Thanks for the idea, I'll definitely put an Empedocles NPC in my current campaign.

>>49887131
have him be a lich whose phylactry was shattered, but not destroyed. the only way for him to level up is to find shards of his phylactry and bond them together in a standard magic item creation setup using gold, xp and time. give him 19 shards to find and have him find them just as he would be leveling up.

>>49885876
More like Nietzsche. Eternal Recurrence and all that.

He was cursed to live forever and after a few hundred years realized that having that much knowledge is painful to maintain in such a small fleshy brain, so he learned a spell to wipe his memory every so often and is the only thing he actually remembers how to do.

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Make it a hermit, living in a very secluded area. He has never had real contact with the world, so doesn't know it's not normal to have lived so long. Could result in some really funny situations.

>Immortal: "hey, you know what was going on in the world right? What was that military campaign quite some time back about?"
>Urist McDorf: "What're ye talking aboot? There's been peace here foor over two centuries, since Baelar's Eradication."
>Immortal: "Guys waving red-and-white banners with eagles. There were hundreds lf them, and even more of those Yellow-and-Black guys. Fought for some days and in the end all those blackies were gone."
>Urist McDorf "Seven bloody hells how long have you been up there!"

I had a warforged barbarian who was over 120 years old but level 1. My work around for that was he was built by some famed blacksmith to stand over his grave and be a living tombstone, reciting his epitaph for anyone who came by.

After over a century of standing in one spot and reciting the speech to exactly zero people, he didn't have much understanding of the world or axe-swinging.

but that is admittedly pretty narrow in the ways you can use that.

Maybe make someone try to be the next Buddha. Some jackass monk sits under a tree for two hundred years trying to reach nirvana and just doesn't, even though he believes he has.

>>49885094
Wouldn't curing a vampire do the same thing?

And with a vampire they loose all their powers; if they were a level 1 commoner when they were first bit they go back to being a level 1 commoner. A lich would likely have a few wizard levels.

>>49885447
I expect them to either behave like 90s hardcore nilhists
NOTHING MATTERS! Thats SOO Radical!
I honestly expect immortals to go in cycles of nihilism and stoicism, than to actually be distant.


>>49885973
Then again, D&D is the game where Monks become immortal as a natural ability progression.

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I actually enjoy the trope of "hero of old who was thrown through time/frozen/sealed and returned with no power/memories/connections". Of course, you need to have a player who is content to roleplay them as the same power level as the rest of the party, but you can easily fluff your powers you gain by leveling up as remembering old techniques, and passing knowledge checks as sudden recollection of ancient events lost from your memory this works best if the player is only infomed vaguely about their character's "past life", and the DM can do things by looking at their character and how they progressed and write in things that the character did before that they no longer remember, and might disapprove of after having gone back to the drawing board, so to say.

>>49887527
Hermits are even worse.
Hermits still have to feed themselves, to hunt, to make tools.
They still engage in meditation, relaxation, and dealing with wild diseases.

When a 1000 year old hermit walks out his isolation, D&D can't even do a good stat of him, because it doesn't allow +20 or +30 to attack rolls without breaking the system completely

>>49887910
>Be a hero, legend tells I defeated a Great Evil and sealed myself for 1000 years to be woken when the world needed me again
>Get woken up, no memories or skills from before I was sealed.
>Legends of the hero defeating the Great Evil always sound vaguely familiar, but get a tingling of rage whenever I hear it or see depictions of it
>Leveling returns slight bits of memories and old skills/abilities.
>Try to live up to my old title as the hero of old while trying to find what great need required I be re-awakened.
>Reach level 10-ish or so, unlock some more memories that cause me to come to a horrifying realization.
>The hero of old lost the fight against the Great Evil and died.
>I'm not the hero sealed for 1000 years, I'm the Great Evil who had to sleep for 1000 years to regain the power I spent against the hero
>The hero cursed me with his dying breath that caused me to forget my time as the Great Evil.
>Start wondering if I'll turn back into the Great Evil should my memories all return.

>>49887827
>Then again, D&D is the game where Monks become immortal as a natural ability progression.
Monks do not become immortal. Timeless Body varies by edition, but either halts aging (still dies of old age) or multiplies longevity (still dies of old age, just 10x older).
I think they become immortal in 4E with epic destinies but that hardly counts.

>>49888098
Pretty good.
>Wake up in an icy cave, unearthed by some order of knights/paladins dedicated to me
>Told I'm an ancient hero, long ago I defeated a great evil
>They restore me to health and tell me my legend, about how I destroyed the great evil which decimated the countryside and slew my beloved, but was locked away
>They help me relearn the way of the sword and shield, and give me my ancient blade that they have long held holy
>I depart in order to find myself and do good, severing ties with them for fear of more of their doting and reckless actions around me
>I see how the land has changed and come together with a band of travelers striking out for adventure and to do good
>As time passes my blade feels right in my hand again, I remember my ancient techniques and memories trickle in
>Memories of my life and love
>Flashes of memory of the final battle against the wretched evil
>The memory of the slaying of my lover, the betrothed of the evil, by my very hand, in order to enrage him and draw him out for the final battle

>>49884726
Special snowflake. Reject concept, eject player.

>>49887915
After a point, random forest animals stop giving useful XP. Especially if you're not seeking out encounters with bears or other predators. That point is still higher than level one, though.

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>>49888098
simply amazing, sir. With your permission, I would use this as a background for one of my pcs

>>49887763
That would actually make a lot more sense than the lich seeing as how we'd have to take the phylactery into account which could complicate everything.

The vamp would just be like "Now I'm back to being a level 1 goth. bleh bleh bleh" and be ready to go about questing in rage.

>>49888849
If you want I guess. It's an anonymous chinese doodling forum, so couldn't stop you even if I wanted to.

>>49888098
>>49888223
There should be times when he shows everyone exactlywhy he was considered a great evil 1000 years ago.

>>49884726
I played a 2436 year old Druid as a level one character. his back story was that he wandered into the forest trying to find a good name. he was a elf. an old Druid knowing he was on the verge of death cursed my character to protect a sacred tree. the curse prevented him from leaving the forest and gave him timeless body. the curse broke because it wasn't powerful enough to work on an elf. my elf began to rapidly age as his body tried to catch up to his actual age. that is why he decided to adventure. find the secret to stopping the curse. i.e. timless body.

>>49884726
>>49884792
the brain can only contain so much information, and it's much less than what would be accumulated during thousands of years.
So they have their brain filled with useless data and are crap at anything.
If they start on a path they can learn and get exp at the same rate as others because their brain is as elastic as a normal young adult, but if they continue to get exp and learn new stuff beyond a certain point it will surpass their brain's capacity and they'll start forgetting things and so they'll have botchy memories of mostly unusalbe things and will inevitably end up at square one.

His people are slow to age but he's only ever worked menial jobs. He would have good knowledge of history but nothing else extraordinary. Look at elves.

>>49884726
There was a quest some time ago that used your image. The main character was a skeleton resurrected by a lich. Said lich had very little actual skill, he was lichified by his master accidentally blowing his soul out into something he won't tell anyone about. spent the rest of the time between then and quest reading smut

>>49884726
Something I've always wanted to try is a character who was actually level 20 in a class that can become immortal through a class ability, like certain wizards, monks, and alchemists. The character will have made a powerful enemy who captured them, then killed them 19 times in captivity, bringing them back with Raise Dead. Then left at level one, forced to earn back all they've lost.

>>49884726
He's a lich that did it wrong and as a side effect, he lost much of his power as a sorceror in favor of those of a corpse (very little). His previous acts and lairs were orchestrated out of self preservation rather than an ideal or dogma.

>>49888098
If this was a book i would probably read the shit out of it

>>49887065
>boo hoo the rule is in a splatbook, it's not real! I only play with core!

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>>49888098
>>49888223
done already

I had a fellow player try something like this once, worked surprisingly well, for a while. He was a thief, a good one, hundreds of years ago. He stole from the wrong person or entity, and was cursed with a vague immortality. He was buried in a casket in a graveyard, alive, unable to die. For around three centuries.
He was freed through some murderhobo shenanigans, but has no memory of who he robbed, and he was insane, but not in the fun way, or the CE way. Claustrophobic to the extreme, refused to be alone, neurotic, obsessive, and other fun shit. Point is, the guy played the role really well, and the character was great for the campaign. Especially when he pre-empted the BBEG's evil monologue by rolling a 20 and hitting him in the throat with a +3 mithril throwing knife. Shut that asshole up pretty quickly.
Never finished the campaign, though, because reasons. I'll never know who it was who our thief pissed off. Kind of sad. Goes to show, anything can work if played well.