In an old thread Daevryn states that it takes a number of years away, so if an orc in general would live, say 90 years, something like 10 full withers could conceivably take 20-30 years away from that? That'd be almost a third of his potential life span.

I fully agree with the others who have been saying for years that this should be removed from wither (or at the very least make it only remove RL hours). Daev said that you need to have very poor saves for it to happen, but it feels like shaman-victim level difference could negate even good saves, when applicable.

http://forums.carrionfields.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=6&topic_id=37604&mesg_id=37604