Subject: People overestimate the power level of immortality.
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Posted on: 2014-04-13 07:36:00 UTC

I've seen the same argument--"immortality is overpowered"--and I never understood why. There are many things that are much more powerful than immortality. It's certainly not so powerful that you'd have to categorically rule it out.

A character who doesn't age would be very lucky in the real world, but in a role-play or in a tabletop game, dying of old age is highly unlikely to ever be a threat to the characters. In a tabletop game, I would give a character this kind of immortality--doesn't age but can be killed--for free, if the player wanted it. It won't make the character any stronger and it's not unfair in any way.

Being unkillable is a pretty powerful ability. However--it's not infallible. It doesn't mean the person can't be imprisoned, slowed down, drugged, tricked, turned into a frog or a statue, or put into a situation they can't get out of. They don't have super strength or speed or intelligence. They're vulnerable to everything but actual murder, including things that are worse than death. (Drop them into an active volcano, for example...)

Being able to repeatedly come back from death--once again, a powerful ability, but not out of the question. There have to be rules: Do they resurrect in the same body in the same position? What happens if their body is destroyed at death? Do they leave multiple bodies behind, one for every death, or do they re-create their old one? How long does it take to come back? If the place where they died is incompatible with life (see previous "active volcano" suggestion), do they repeatedly die, or do they just not come back until something makes that location survivable? How long does it take to rebuild their body, and are they vulnerable while that's happening? A consistent set of rules goes a long way, and offers interesting story possibilities.

Even at the extremes of immortality, the trait won't make an automatic Mary Sue. It's totally possible to create a good character who doesn't age and can't be killed. Their storyline would focus on their interactions with others and with the world around them. They can't lose their lives--but they can lose just about everything else that's important to them, and they're not superhuman in any other way. You can still get them into deep trouble that their immortality can't get them out of.

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