help with my elfs age - General Discussion - D&D Beyond General - D&D Beyond Forums (2024)

l am makeing a elvish character,but l am confused about what age l should make her.

it says the lifespan for a elf is 750 years,but how would l translate that to a normal (60-100 year) lifespan. the idea for her is tobe wise and book learned,but look like she is around 20 (in human terms),but level one. my first thought was to make her 40,which ls oldish for a human but almost nothing to a elf,so l have bumped it to 120,but l am concerned if that would be too old to make sense to be lv 1. (though her lack of combat and doing anything other then reading books and going to school in her home town would likely not have given much/any xp/milestones)

any help is appreciated

Under the Age section for Elf it says this:

Age. Although elves reach physical maturity at about the same age as humans, the elven understanding of adulthood goes beyond physical growth to encompass worldly experience. An elf typically claims adulthood and an adult name around the age of 100 and can live to be 750 years old.

Elves take their time doing things because of their long life span. So to them 100 years feels like what 20 years feels like to a Human. In most of the D&D editions a level 1 starting elf is between 100 to 120 years old. So you starting at 120 is still a young elf getting ready to become independent and experience the world for themselves.

I've had a lengthy discussion with some people before when I talked about an elderly dwarf character I made (started his adventure after 200 years). Time does not equal levels. Experience equals levels. Particularly "Adventuring" experience equals "adventurer" levels.

And long lived races already have racial traits to explain what they did with their long lives before becoming adventurers in the form of bonus proficiencies. But mostly, long lived races just live life slower.

Young elves are identified by their Trance. When elves Trance to rest, they relive memories. Very young elves relive the memories of their previous lives. Culturally they're encouraged to not talk to adult elves about these. They instead interact with elves of their age, this is also how they develop socially.

An elf is considered a child for around 20-30 years, when they start first reliving memories from their waking time. For the purposes of putting a bodily age to the mental age, you have options.

You can either just make them appear as a child until they reach this stage, where they begin growing again, or you can go the mental route. They appear mostly grown, but they're not very mature and act more rashly, like a kid. I think they'd stop acting like LITTLE kids within 10-13 years, same rate as humans. However they'd still be like young kids for a while.

After they reach adolescence at around 20-30, they're like teenagers. Elves of this age start to want to learn more stuff and it wouldn't be wholly inappropriate to make an adventurer of this age, though they'd need a specific reason to leave their kind.

Elves are isolationist until around 100 years old, when they officially become adults. Before then they mostly stay home with their families and learn what being an elf means. After reaching adulthood, elves desire to engage with the world. Adult elves want to leave a mark on the world and change it for the better(as they define better). So a 100 or so year old elf would know a bunch of elf stuff, like their weapon proficiencies and how to serve and make elven tea or whatever elf children learn.

However, NOW is when they want to learn pottery, magic, when they want to go on adventures and see the world. Eventually they'll find their niche and stick to it, maybe after decades or longer. It depends on the elf.

Physically, elves will grow into their adult bodies by around 20, and just kinda look like that for 700 years until they die. Children for an elf doesn't mean the same thing, an elf child will likely be more socially advanced than any human child by the age of 20. Elf teens are like, older looking high schoolers.

If you want to have you 17 year old elf look and act like she's 10, that's fine. You can do that. If you want her to look more like she's 17, at age 17, that is also fine. Just keep in mind she won't be very mature and probably won't have much worldly knowledge. She's still learning how to interact with other people, and could get very emotional or be insensitive to others cause she doesn't fully understand yet. Especially if you interact with other races. Elves aren't in a rush, they spend decades learning how to be friends and how to do elf stuff. Then once that's done, they'll start caring about more general skills and seeing the world.

Age.Although elves reach physical maturity at about the same age as humans, the elven understanding of adulthood goes beyond physical growth to encompass worldly experience.An elf typically claims adulthood and an adult name around the age of 100and can live to be 750 years old.

What this says to me is that if you want an elf that looks like a 20 year old human and acts like a 20 year old human, you play a 20 year old elf. They don't experience any less in 20 years than a human would, they just have a much higher bar for what qualifies as "adult," set by one's experience and wisdom rather than physical development.