Our magi are getting close to 35 and each player is trying to decide when to start their longevity ritual. Right now most of the players are planning on waiting until they hit 40, or possibly even longer depending on various factors (such as improvements to the covenant's health modifier and whether or not they bond a familiar and put points into the bronze cord).
I spent a while yesterday crunching the probabilities on aging crises and was pleasantly surprised to find that the odds of an aging crisis are really quite low, although the odds of picking up an aging point are usually around 1/3.
What did your magus do? And were you pleased with your choice?
Wait. As you say, modifiers can make you cope easily with modifiers. Our magi have a +3 or +4 bonus due to their healthy situation and living conditions; they do not fear much the rampages of age until they are in their late 40's.
HOWEVER, one of our mages is a pettite maga (with a fiery temperament!! I tell ya!) with an obsession with looking young and jovial to everyone (AND not getting pregnant): she has had a longevity potion made by a specialist since she was 23-24, IIRC. It is part of her background story. Worked for her so far, fooling the looks of mature age (for a medieval woman) quite well, and looking young and innocent while she has a fairly long list of kills and planned murders. (We started calling her "Mylady de Winter" a few weeks ago)
My character dealed a longevity potion from his master around age 30.
But he's waiting for preparing and drinking his potion, since he wants to have a childs before that... He's got the potion if the need arise.
My magus is precautious, and our mountain winter is very harsh. Our first winter made many of us sick (one grog died!), we weren't well prepared...
The fact is that we live in a difficult environment (-1), and we cannot pay for the very rich (+2) living style. At age 35, my character will have a penalty of 4 on his roll for for aging. He is currently 33 and is unusually daring about not taking his potion now...
Our SG made us made an aging roll on our first winter: a magical breeze enter the abandonned castle at each winter solstice, cause great pain but also leave auram vis behind, if you know how to gather it. =)
I don't know about the other mages, I think they are just foolish enough to not have their potion yet ... I guess they will react only when aging will affect their life ^^
you can always remake the ritual when your scores improve, so unless you want kids or want to look older there is no reason not to make it as early as you can except for the yearly warping. By looking 25 when you are really 75 you will be greatly underestimated for your powers unless your adversary does some backgroud checking. Living conditions and familiar bonds add on top of the ritual and are not made into it, so theres no reason to wait for either of those to improve.
You can always remake and improve the ritual, but the warping is sort of the point. Most magi don't die of old age - they go into final twilight. It seems like warping is a bigger threat than aging, at least up until a certain point. My question is, when do people think that point is?
Saving 25 warping points by delaying the longevity ritual until you hit 60, for example, is a fairly significant reduction, and can be done, I think, without undue risk by living in a wealthy and/or healthy covenant and bonding a familiar.
In my first saga, we made Longevity once it was needed, slightly before age 35.
In the new saga (in which I converted my maga from the previous one), a lot of people are concerned about not looking too old. Although we have good living conditions and are rich enough, this is not enough for some. As mentioned by a previous poster, someone very vain might do what can be done to stay looking young. My Flambeau Ice Maga started very early on Longevity, combined with other factors, such as Strong Faerie Blood, strong Bronze cord from Familiar, good living conditions, and a good Lab Total - she is now at least 54 (I can' remember the exact age) but still looks 19!
Another magus started early too, but some bad luck made it fail, and he had to have it redone. We have a PC magus who is a specialist in Longevity, and he can be paid off to do the work.
I usually take it at age 35, when the rules say aging starts hurting your stats. I could certainly see someone taking it a bit longer, but not more than a decade.
Under the current syustem, ageing impact is negligible until you are well into your 50s. If you are a mage, that is. Living conditions et al give a massive bonus that makes the risk of having serious health problems just for age negligible. So, no real need to drink it at age 35 except for flavor.
Besides, the classical image of a wizard is an old pal, not a guy in the prime of life
A question about a longevity potions contraceptive effects.
Once your potion hits an ageing crisis, you no longer gain the benefits on your ageing roll. Do you still reap the contraceptive benefits, or do you become fertile again when the potion wears off?
I believe the Longevity renders you infertile after it is first applied, hence this effect stays, even after the Longevity wears off, from a crisis etc.
But this is based on 4th ed stuff, the only thing I can remember at this time.
Unless. of course, you use a variant longevity focus that allows such on certain days, like the Equinoxes or Solstices... Such, however, would be a minor breakthrough...
This was one of the included letters in the WGRE, so it may not apply, but it's a neat idea.
Here's a question - The Merinita Becoming mystery...Does it allow normal fertility?
