life expectancy of the races in NW

barkyn · December 2012

as the title states, in the forgotten realms whats the maximum age expectancy for each of the playible races in neverwinter? not that this really matters, I figured the lore for it would be there somewhere in the 4th edition world of DnD.

syfylis · December 2012

It would be funny if you could create old character and 1 week later in mid of your campaign he get heart atack and you have to play again.

vindicon · December 2012

Humans are... humans. Unless there's some sort of magic involved, they live for as long as you'd expect a human to live in a medieval setting. Same with Tieflings and Genasi.

Half elves live up to to 180.

Elves normally live for about 200 years, though they could go beyond 900.

Drow normally live for about 500 years (normally as in if their spine is not introduced with a dagger somewhere along the way, as is the norm) but can go beyond 900. Yvonnel Baenre lived for almost 2 millenia before being killed.

Dwarves usually live up to 200. Duergar up to 250.

Half-orcs up to 60.

Githyanki and Githzerai up to 200.

Gnomes usually live 300 years but can go 500+

Kobolds up to 50.

ambisinisterr · December 2012

While all f those numbers are accurate authors tend to make them minimums.

Bruenor was over 200 when he first met Drizzt and lasted another 150 years, still going strong. Gromphe Baenre is over a thousand now I believe, double the given life expectancy.

Is that ruling on elves accurate or has the rules been updated? I thought they were closer to 500 years and at the very least had a longer life expectancy than dwarves.

zebular · December 2012

Keep in mind on Forgotten Realms' native elves though: They don't "die of old age." When they get venerable of age, they begin to hear the "Call of Arvandor" which entices them to "leave" the World and spiritually return to the plane of the Seldarine (their Gods). When they do listen to the Call, that is when they appear to "die of old age," in which their soul returns to Arvandor. Whether or not they listen or how long they resist the Call, varies greatly. Some elves have been known to remain around for thousands of years.

As for drow specifically, I'm not aware of any note on their "Call" so I have always assumed that they had instead heard a "Call from Lolth" of sorts, or something and pulled to the Demonweb Pits upon their passing. Now that Corellon no longer curses drow's very souls, this opens the question on whether when a good drow gets venerable, if they now hear the "Call of Arvandor again.

The elves of the Realms follow their own rules and origins apart from other Settings. Drow are native to the Realms and their origin does not exist anywhere else as the only way a true "drow" exists on another Setting is by Planeswalking or through Spelljammer. The Dark Elves of Greyhawk and Dragonlance are not the same as the Realms' drow, for example.

lordjustice72 · December 2012

Will everyone start from the same spot or will there be different starting zones depending on which race you pick?

vindicon · December 2012

ambisinisterr wrote: »

While all f those numbers are accurate authors tend to make them minimums.

Bruenor was over 200 when he first met Drizzt and lasted another 150 years, still going strong. Gromphe Baenre is over a thousand now I believe, double the given life expectancy.

Is that ruling on elves accurate or has the rules been updated? I thought they were closer to 500 years and at the very least had a longer life expectancy than dwarves.

All above numbers were taken from the Forgotten Realms wiki (ie I have no idea if they correspond with 3e or 4e lore). As per FR wiki, usual life expectancy is 200 for elves, 300 for elandrin and 500 for drow, though the actual lifespan can surpass those limits by a lot

iamtruthseeker · December 2012

At this time we all appear to start at the same location (no racial starting zones) but we haven't seen anything for "tutorials" publicly yet.

life expectancy of the races in NW

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