Help with a Chronomage - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Help with a Chronomage

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
dastardlydan
May 20, 2008 9:37:37 I have an NPC concept for a campaign I'm working on, and I want to know if there's anything on the boards about my idea. It's a mage who travels and manipulates time to "fix" history. I DID search, and didn't find anything really that helpful. I'm hoping someone here might be able to help out.
The character is a Wizard or Sorcerer, didn't want to get much more exotic than that unless I absolutely had to. Besides the obvious spells and feats (Delay Spell feat, Time Stop spell, Delayed Blast Fireball spell, Persistent Spell feat), are there any builds or prestige classes that run with this idea?
#2
gaffer
May 20, 2008 9:40:44 Might have better luck with a Psion build: Elocater/Nomad have more time-based stuff.

Other than what you listed, no other timey stuff comes to mind.
#3
runestar
May 20, 2008 9:57:07 Divination spells like foresight or moment of prescience might work if you give it a more "time-control" flavour.

The swiftblade prc might work if you equate time with the haste spell.

MIC has this magic item which lets you undo everything that happened in a round and play it all over again. Not cheap though.

Though I think a psion might work better.
#4
korremar
May 20, 2008 10:54:05 If you don't mind OGL stuff, then AEG's Magic book has a Chronomancer, but it's really, really unbalanced IMO. Other then that, dunno, there's only so much you can do with time travel.
#5
dastardlydan
May 20, 2008 19:05:28 Sorry, been a while since I've been on the boards. What's AEG?
#6
wayne
May 20, 2008 21:12:57 I'm thinking it's the Alderac Entertainment Group, although humorously enough I didn't know what AEG stood for either (despite buying a few of their Rokugan books for a short-lived OA, not knowing how lousy their work was). I really can't recommend them as an RPG publisher.

I don't drop by much since I'm so busy these days, but this thread piqued my interest since I'm playing a similar-themed character now (the general idea is a "time detective" working for an epic chronotryryn (Fiend Folio) to prevent bad stuff happening in the past; that is, in the current campaign). The casting side uses Erudite (Complete Psionic), in particular the Mind's Eye article that allows Erudites to learn spells as well as discipline powers, thus being the only real way to "catch 'em all" besides being a Psion/Wizard/Cerebremancer or something. The limited unique powers per day mechanic is crippling for this concept, but if you're the DM you can safely ignore it. :]

Bruce Cordell's Hyperconscious has the Chronorebel PrC (which is flavorful, and gets the plot device power of time travel to the distant past as a 10th level class feature) and some time-related psionic powers. I'm not a huge fan of the book, but it's by the guy who wrote the XPH, and balance-wise it's roughly in line. Worth checking out if you're curious.

Beyond that, a lot of it is just thematics, and Wizards and Psions are roughly equal there. Explain mirror images as non-substantial duplicates from another time stream, teleportation as drawing quintessence to just move really quickly instead of taking an astral shortcut, etc. Runestar's advice about divinations is sound, particularly for things like sensitivity to psychic impressions and suchlike.
#7
hogarth
May 20, 2008 21:16:04
Bruce Cordell's Hyperconscious has the Chronorebel PrC (which is flavorful, and gets the plot device power of time travel to the distant past as a 10th level class feature) and some time-related psionic powers. I'm not a huge fan of the book, but it's by the guy who wrote the XPH, and balance-wise it's roughly in line. Worth checking out if you're curious.

I'd second Chronorebel from Hyperconscious. The level 10 ability sounds like it might do what you want.
#8
akal-saris
May 20, 2008 22:25:16 If you have access to Dragonlance supplementary materials, the Towers of High Sorcery has some time travel-based spells that you could use.

Timeheal (Wiz/Sorc 7) let's you replace somebody with their body from one minute ago, negating the effects of spells/damage on them, and Timereaver (Wiz/Sorc 9, requires exp, lots of gold, and a major artifact as an arcane focus (Yikes!) but allows you to time travel back in time or into the future.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 dastardlydan May 20, 2008 9:37:37	I have an NPC concept for a campaign I'm working on, and I want to know if there's anything on the boards about my idea. It's a mage who travels and manipulates time to "fix" history. I DID search, and didn't find anything really that helpful. I'm hoping someone here might be able to help out. The character is a Wizard or Sorcerer, didn't want to get much more exotic than that unless I absolutely had to. Besides the obvious spells and feats (Delay Spell feat, Time Stop spell, Delayed Blast Fireball spell, Persistent Spell feat), are there any builds or prestige classes that run with this idea?
#2 gaffer May 20, 2008 9:40:44	Might have better luck with a Psion build: Elocater/Nomad have more time-based stuff. Other than what you listed, no other timey stuff comes to mind.
#3 runestar May 20, 2008 9:57:07	Divination spells like foresight or moment of prescience might work if you give it a more "time-control" flavour. The swiftblade prc might work if you equate time with the haste spell. MIC has this magic item which lets you undo everything that happened in a round and play it all over again. Not cheap though. Though I think a psion might work better.
#4 korremar May 20, 2008 10:54:05	If you don't mind OGL stuff, then AEG's Magic book has a Chronomancer, but it's really, really unbalanced IMO. Other then that, dunno, there's only so much you can do with time travel.
#5 dastardlydan May 20, 2008 19:05:28	Sorry, been a while since I've been on the boards. What's AEG?
#6 wayne May 20, 2008 21:12:57	I'm thinking it's the Alderac Entertainment Group, although humorously enough I didn't know what AEG stood for either (despite buying a few of their Rokugan books for a short-lived OA, not knowing how lousy their work was). I really can't recommend them as an RPG publisher. I don't drop by much since I'm so busy these days, but this thread piqued my interest since I'm playing a similar-themed character now (the general idea is a "time detective" working for an epic chronotryryn (Fiend Folio) to prevent bad stuff happening in the past; that is, in the current campaign). The casting side uses Erudite (Complete Psionic), in particular the Mind's Eye article that allows Erudites to learn spells as well as discipline powers, thus being the only real way to "catch 'em all" besides being a Psion/Wizard/Cerebremancer or something. The limited unique powers per day mechanic is crippling for this concept, but if you're the DM you can safely ignore it. :] Bruce Cordell's Hyperconscious has the Chronorebel PrC (which is flavorful, and gets the plot device power of time travel to the distant past as a 10th level class feature) and some time-related psionic powers. I'm not a huge fan of the book, but it's by the guy who wrote the XPH, and balance-wise it's roughly in line. Worth checking out if you're curious. Beyond that, a lot of it is just thematics, and Wizards and Psions are roughly equal there. Explain mirror images as non-substantial duplicates from another time stream, teleportation as drawing quintessence to just move really quickly instead of taking an astral shortcut, etc. Runestar's advice about divinations is sound, particularly for things like sensitivity to psychic impressions and suchlike.
#7 hogarth May 20, 2008 21:16:04	Bruce Cordell's Hyperconscious has the Chronorebel PrC (which is flavorful, and gets the plot device power of time travel to the distant past as a 10th level class feature) and some time-related psionic powers. I'm not a huge fan of the book, but it's by the guy who wrote the XPH, and balance-wise it's roughly in line. Worth checking out if you're curious. I'd second Chronorebel from Hyperconscious. The level 10 ability sounds like it might do what you want.
#8 akal-saris May 20, 2008 22:25:16	If you have access to Dragonlance supplementary materials, the Towers of High Sorcery has some time travel-based spells that you could use. Timeheal (Wiz/Sorc 7) let's you replace somebody with their body from one minute ago, negating the effects of spells/damage on them, and Timereaver (Wiz/Sorc 9, requires exp, lots of gold, and a major artifact as an arcane focus (Yikes!) but allows you to time travel back in time or into the future.