Archaeologists from central China’s Henan Province made the discovery in a tomb that belonged to a family from the Western Han Dynasty which dates back to the time period from 202 BC to 8 AD and the elixir was even recorded in ancient Taoist literature. What ways are there to permanently halt aging, at the very least, in 4e and 5e?Īlso, I literally mean eliminating the possibility of dying from advanced age and the related problems thereof, not merely keeping your character lively and spry until the sand runs out. A mysterious liquid that was found in a 2,000-year-old bronze pot is said to be an elixir of life. Always try and drive the story forward not. Other than that there's still wish (good luck getting to cast it), and other than that I have no idea. You can still have flaws like that, but you need to have a reason why your character is adventuring anyways: he's a coward but desperately wants to rescue his brother who was constipated by the lich king, she's a loner but knows this group is the only chance at finding the elixir of immortality, etc. I also heard of a philosopher's stone and the whole "elixir of immortality" thing (which in this case you only had to drink it once to permanently become ageless).Īs goes 4e and 5e, I don't know if the philosopher's stone is still around (or even if it was a thing to begin with), Lich phylacteries now require an upkeep of sacrificing souls to keep it from imploding, which is tedious and sounds ridiculously complicated in the long run, not to mention makes liches EXCLUSIVELY evil as opposed to "more-likely-than-not-evil-but-can-still-have-the-occasional-good-exception" (although I have heard of at least home-brewed rules that allow for different types of phylacteries which are charged by either blood or magic, namely by dipping them in large amounts of blood, or giving up half your available spell slots until your next long rest, but I'm not sure if those are just home-brewed rules or actual material). As goes 3.5, the only ways I knew to make your character at least ageless and not able to die of old age was either by making a bargain with a God, Demon, or similar entity, becoming a lich, or somehow managing to convince your DM to eventually letting you level up to the point where you could cast wish.
That said, I don't have any of the books anymore and the ones I did have were for 3.5. Last I actually played was back in my early high school years, when 3.5 (best edition, IMO) was still the latest and 4e had not come out yet. You have chosen… wisely.Just wondering how what all ways of extending a character's lifespan indefinitely are in D&D anymore. That said, we don't know whether this ancient elixir of the Western Han Dynasty was ever actually imbibed – or simply placed in the tomb as a ritual burial object to honour the departed, as Gizmodo points out.īut given what sometimes went into these drinks, abstinence was probably the only true secret to living a long, prosperous life. In fact, the high level of risk associated with drinking these magical potions was so notorious, that an entire body of research is dedicated to the history of Chinese alchemical elixir poisoning, and depending on level of exposure, potassium nitrate ingestion can be fatal. In more recent times, potassium nitrate has been employed in everything from fireworks to fertiliser and food thickener – but its combination here with alunite is a match for the ingredients for an 'elixir of life', the researchers say, as documented in ancient Taoist texts.Įlixirs supposedly bestowing immortality or preternatural longevity were a feature of many long-ago cultures, and in the case of ancient China, were composed of all kinds of unusual ingredients you wouldn't usually consume, including gold, jade, mercury, arsenic, and lots of other indigestible or poisonous minerals.
But it wasn't rice wine after all, the results show, with the archaeologists reporting that the mysterious liquid is a mixture of potassium nitrate and alunite.
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