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I want to roleplay an old mage, but the protagonist is only 20. How can I make this work?

StormvesselStormvessel Member Posts: 654
I want to play an old mage who is incredibly intelligent, incredibly wise, but nuttier than squirrel droppings.

I got a portrait ready which goes really well with either an invoker or diviner:



I got my sound file ready:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaP62uWSmfI&t=0m24s

I came up with a name that sounds good, and is harmonious seeing as how he's a disciple of Gorion:

Gideon.

So I create the character, roll a 94 (hard to do even for specialist mages), and set the stats:

10
18
16
18
18
14

I go into the biography to create Gideon's backstory:

Aw crap, that's right.

20 years.

And adding a "1" before the 20 makes no difference because the opening narration states the protagonist's age as being 20 years old.

Is there some kind of lore-friendly, D&D-friendly justification why a human wizard would be 20 but look 80? Now of course I know I could make him a wild mage, seeing as how in PnP 2nd Edition wild surges can change one's age. But this is NOT true of an invoker. Yes, haste can artificially age a character, but I see no reason why he would've used haste, considering it doesn't effect spell casting and he would have expeditious retreat for increased movement speed.

So what do I do with this character concept? Scrap it?

I really wish the Baldur's Gate team would've allowed the player to set their character's age. I see no reason why it would necessarily have to be set at 20 in all circumstances. For instance, sometimes a wizard apprentice will remain in their master's tower for decades upon decades before striking out on their own.

What a bummer.

Comments

  • RaduzielRaduziel Member Posts: 4,714
    A ghost touch ages the target. In Ravenloft I fought a ghost that was capable of aging a foe by 30 years per touch.

    Maybe your character had an unfortunate encounter.
  • StormvesselStormvessel Member Posts: 654
    If nothing else that's one way it could've happened.
  • KamigoroshiKamigoroshi Member Posts: 5,870
    edited March 2018
    You could simply choose a race which has a faster age progression than humans do.
    For instance: an 20 year old goblin mage would be equal to an 50-ish year old human mage.

    I also found it quite enjoyable to roleplay as an venerable necromancer who mastered his knowledge of souls to reincarnate as (or to possess) an defenseless child of Bhaal. All in the name of seeking even more arcane knowledge with the help of the divine spark. That way you can set whatever mental age you want for your CHARNAME to have.
  • Contemplative_HamsterContemplative_Hamster Member Posts: 844
    edited March 2018


    I also found it quite enjoyable to roleplay as an venerable necromancer who mastered his knowledge of souls to reincarnate as (or to possess) an defenseless child of Bhaal. All in the name of seeking even more arcane knowledge with the help of the divine spark. That way you can set whatever mental age you want for your CHARNAME to have.

    Disturbing. I like it.

    Edit:

    A relevant excerpt from The Complete Book of Necromancers, TSR 1995:


    "I shall laugh as I place my head on the block, laugh at them all as the raven jeers at the gallows or the worm mocks the grave. It took the Prince's most powerful knights to bring me - shackled in cold iron - before my earthly liege, but not before I had slain a hundred of his retainers, twisted the insides of his beloved wife, cursed their only son with ravening madness eternal. 
    I have lain among the rat-gnawed bones of the oubliette and accepted the iron maiden's cruel embrace, but I am not alone, and I feel no pain. The slaadi still comfort me with their infernal melodies, and my invisible familiars still inform me, bringing news in the clammy darkness from my lord Thasmudyan. I shall have eternal life for my devoted service; the baatezu lord has promised me this final boon. 
    I will survive, of that I am certain, but my next evolution may not remember all of my secrets, all the cryptic mysteries of the Art. I shall bid the shadows to write them down, inscribe them in a book so that I may remember all that I knew before I died: And then I shall depart this earthly realm and walk on farther shores, undreaming and unbidden, until I stand once again in the ivory court of Thasmudyan.

    - From Nebt Bhakau's Book of Shadows"
    Post edited by Contemplative_Hamster on
  • DrakeICNDrakeICN Member Posts: 623

    You could simply choose a race which has a faster age progression than humans do.
    For instance: an 20 year old goblin mage would be equal to an 50-ish year old human mage.

    I also found it quite enjoyable to roleplay as an venerable necromancer who mastered his knowledge of souls to reincarnate as (or to possess) an defenseless child of Bhaal. All in the name of seeking even more arcane knowledge with the help of the divine spark. That way you can set whatever mental age you want for your CHARNAME to have.

    This is actually not that farfetched; one of the mages that try to kill you if you use magic without a permit in Amn is a lich that have possesed a human mage, or something like that so such thing evidently can and do happen in the realms.
  • RaduzielRaduziel Member Posts: 4,714
    Wait, what?! How do I make this guy spawn? I never found him.
  • Contemplative_HamsterContemplative_Hamster Member Posts: 844
    Kill enough city guards/cowled wizards and the elf wizard he's currently possessing will eventuslly disappear.
  • YgramulYgramul Member Posts: 1,060
    edited March 2018
    Simple:

    Protagonist is a mage imbued with a temporal incident that both powers and burdens him, causing him to age faster. (Hutchinson-Gilford progeria in Real World terms.)

    Rapidly aging over what would have been a secluded childhood, the Bhaalspawn then rushes against time to achieve godhood, the final last hope for a refugee to survive his condition.

    The portfolio of a God of Murder is the way out while the innate powers slowly murder the time itself that he has been given on Earth, urging him toward his destiny.

    (Bonus point: edit his Bhallspawn powers to reflect this heritage over Time affecting powers, such as receiving Haste and Slow instead of Vampiric Touch x2)


    --

    P.S. You are very much invited to join in the no-reload thread if you want to role-play such story:
    https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/40393/
  • UnderstandMouseMagicUnderstandMouseMagic Member Posts: 2,147


    Those voices are so good, wow, really didn't expect that level of quality. :)

  • Humanoid_TaifunHumanoid_Taifun Member Posts: 1,063
    edited March 2018
    @DrakeICN Your oldest sibling is a mature dragon with an adult-looking son.
    DrakeICN said:


    Sarevok is older than you. When the Bhaal temple was raided, he walked out of there by himself, while you were picked up by Gorion, because Gorion was in love with your mother Alianna."

    The Harpers' quest has you remembering running yourself. So the fact that Sarevok walked out of there does not mean he is older than you.
    The hell trials have you question what would have become of you if he had picked Sarevok instead of you, implying that you had similar chances of survival.
  • DrakeICNDrakeICN Member Posts: 623

    @DrakeICN Your oldest sibling is a mature dragon with an adult-looking son.

    DrakeICN said:


    Sarevok is older than you. When the Bhaal temple was raided, he walked out of there by himself, while you were picked up by Gorion, because Gorion was in love with your mother Alianna."

    The Harpers' quest has you remembering running yourself. So the fact that Sarevok walked out of there does not mean he is older than you.
    The hell trials have you question what would have become of you if he had picked Sarevok instead of you, implying that you had similar chances of survival.
    Eh, I guess there are some inconsistencies, perhaps. But, Sarevoks backstory was that he walked out of there, the night of the raid, and became a street urchin in Baldurs Gate, before being adopted by Rieltar. This all suggests to me Sarevok was around 8. Much younger, and he would not have been able to escape by his own, much older, and Rieltar would probably not have adopted him.

    Gorions wards backstory is that he/she was picked up as a baby by Gorion, as Gorion killed Alianna just as Alianna was about to stab her newborn in a ritual to resurrect Bhaal.

    This also explains how Gorions Ward do not at all remember his/her mother, and generally being clueless about his/her origins, while Sarevok while perhaps not at first realizing his origin still have an intense interest in it and studies it. His much confused childhood memories would have prompted such research.

    Also note - and I draw this from memory, so do correct me if I am wrong - that Sarevok in the hell trials never suggest Gorions Ward was his age. To the contrary, he is mighty bitter about not being picked, even suggesting he has some foggy memories of the night of the raid, and being tossed away by the raiding party in favor of a baby (or babies, Imoen and perhaps other, indisclosed siblings might have been rescued in the same raid - remember, Imoen is of comparable age of Gorions Ward but not sent to Candlekeep until at a later date, suggesting whomever took Imoen in for whatever reason were no longer willing or able to function as her guardian, thus the harpers pulling the strings decided reunite the siblings). He is obviously not pleased with Rieltar, stating "I would have given much for a father like yours", suggesting jealously and bitterness over the rejection 20 years ago might have aided in his decision to kill Gorion.

    Further, in BG1, Gorions Ward is stumbling about, while Sarevok is crafty and cunning, again suggesting there is an age difference.

    I think, that Sarevok being around 8 and Gorions Ward being only a couple of days or weeks old at the night of the raid is canon, and anything that contradicts this, was either simply miscommunication in the dev / storywriting team or the in game characters themselves being confused - induced memories, such as the harper quest thingy, are after all notoroiusly unreliable when it comes to detail.

    I simply applies Occhams razor; when there is a contradiction, whichever alternative makes more sense is probably the true story.

    About the dragon... well, maybe Bhaal had some extramaritial affairs even before he learned of the prophecy? Deities are certainly no strangers to fooling around, just look at Loki, Thor and Odin... or why not Zeus and Poseidon?
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    Maybe an evil necromancer decided to prolong his life span by switching bodies with your Bhaalspawn. He ran off with his young new body and Charname suddenly woke up in the body of an old geezer with no explanation of how or why it happened.

    It would certainly fit in with Imoen's comment that Charname grew up really fast.
  • OrlonKronsteenOrlonKronsteen Member Posts: 905
    edited March 2018
    Maybe we'll need a mod in which Gorion is actually your son. Journal Entry: "Gorion is urgently preparing us for a trip. But why? To where? Oh, no - what if he wants to take me to one of those homes for incontinent wizards and otherwise befuddled miscreants?"
  • Contemplative_HamsterContemplative_Hamster Member Posts: 844
    edited March 2018

    Maybe an evil necromancer decided to prolong his life span by switching bodies with your Bhaalspawn. He ran off with his young new body and Charname suddenly woke up in the body of an old geezer with no explanation of how or why it happened.

    It would certainly fit in with Imoen's comment that Charname grew up really fast.

    There's a 9th level spell in the Complete Book of Necromancers that does exactly that, and even describes that very scenario: Life Force Exchange.

    Excerpt:

    "For instance, a decrepit necromancer uses this spell to exchange life forces with a hale, young warrior in the prime of his health. While the wizard gains a young and vigorous body (and all of the benefits that go with it), the unfortunate youth finds himself trapped in the withered shell of a dying, old man."
  • toolargtoolarg Member Posts: 179
    Thing is, even if you come up with a believable explanation for your age, many NPCs will still refer to you as child, young one or similar. There's no perfect way around it, you just gotta ignore parts of the intro and some conversations.
    Same thing happened in NWN2: I wanted to play a grizzled dwarf war veteran with strokes of grey in his beard. Cue the intro "OH MY LITTLE CHILD YOU'RE HERE, GO DO YOUR CHORES AND THEN YOU CAN GO TO THE CARNIVAL WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND HAVE FUN" :neutral:
  • Humanoid_TaifunHumanoid_Taifun Member Posts: 1,063
    DrakeICN said:


    [] Gorions wards backstory is that he/she was picked up as a baby by Gorion, as Gorion killed Alianna just as Alianna was about to stab her newborn in a ritual to resurrect Bhaal. [] Also note - To the contrary, he is mighty bitter about not being picked, even suggesting he has some foggy memories of the night of the raid, [] Further, in BG1, Gorions Ward is stumbling about, while Sarevok is crafty and cunning, again suggesting there is an age difference. [] Gorions Ward being only a couple of days or weeks old at the night of the raid is canon, and anything that contradicts this, was either simply miscommunication in the dev / storywriting team or the in game characters themselves being confused [] induced memories, such as the harper quest thingy, are after all notoroiusly unreliable when it comes to detail. [] I simply applies Occhams razor; when there is a contradiction, whichever alternative makes more sense is probably the true story.

    Sarevok may have foggy memories of the time, but the protagonist definitely does. No, the Harpers' question is not an induced memory because they make no suggestions, thus inducing nothing. There was also no prior incidence of the protagonist being asked this question, thus giving their memory no time to be shaped by it. Also, prior to that point, in Baldur's Gate 1, the protagonist also remembers the end of the journey, ie their arrival in Candlekeep.
    The fact that Sarevok knows what he's doing while the protagonist is "stumbling about", can't possibly have anything to do with the fact that Sarevok is at the heart of a long-prepared conspiracy while the protagonist is suddenly thrust into it and asked to figure everything out. That's not an argument.
    You have no idea what canon means. Canon is whatever the source material says. You can't reject parts of the canon and then form your own canon. The term canon exists precisely to stop you from doing that.
    You are also misusing the term Occam's razor, which means you are supposed to take the simplest answer that makes the fewest assumptions, not the one that makes the most sense to you.
  • DrakeICNDrakeICN Member Posts: 623
    https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/baldursgategame/images/e/e6/Pocket_Plane-Alianna1.png/revision/latest?cb=20170117085541

    The time of troubles lasted one year:

    http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Time_of_Troubles

    Also, do note the word babe.

    "Others of the Children were there"

    NOT possible if Bhaal impregnated them all in ToT, there would just be a lot of pregnant ladies at that time.

    Ergo: Gorions ward was clearly a baby at the time.

    Meanwhile, clearly, Sarevok walked out on his own, survived for a while in BG slums before being noticed and adopted by Rieltar.

    Ergo: Sarevok is older than Gorions Ward.

    The fact that this would make Gorions ward ten, not twenty, at the start of the game is a known mistake on part of the original devs (on that note, why not just make your char 80, the timeline anyway do not add up).
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Also note that several plot points in ToB directly contradict information given to us in BG1 and 2.
  • Dev6Dev6 Member Posts: 721
    You can always play IWD instead and roleplay whoever you want without fear of contradicting the plot.
  • StormvesselStormvessel Member Posts: 654
    edited March 2018
    Too little roleplaying to actually do in Icewind Dale I'm afraid. It's more of a D&D combat simulator. Every time I try getting into it I can't help but ask myself why I'm playing this when I could be playing that. "That" being the far superior Baldur's Gate.
  • StormvesselStormvessel Member Posts: 654
    edited March 2018
    ^ Now that's a cool suggestion. I could very easily do just that using EE keeper. Thank you SG!
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