Chronomancer (another time mage) [3.5 P.E.A.C.H.]

[Greyfeld85]

Chronomancer
http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m06rt0SqBj1qka2vao1_500.jpg

Early in a mage's career, he learns to dabble with the fabric of the universe. The Chronomancer goes beyond its mere fabric and attempts to harness the very essence of time itself.

Requirements
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) 10 ranks
Spellcasting: Must be able to cast 3rd level spells.
Special: Must have used the spell Lesser Celerity, Celerity, or Greater Celerity at least once per day during your last level.

{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special|Spellcasting

1st|+0|+0|+0|+2|Flash of Foresight 1/day|
-

2nd|+1|+0|+0|+3|Time Synch 25%|
+1 existing spellcasting class

3rd|+2|+1|+1|+3|Flash of Foresight 2/day, Time Slip|
+1 existing spellcasting class

4th|+3|+1|+1|+4|Time Synch 50%|
+1 existing spellcasting class

5th|+3|+1|+1|+4|Flash of Foresight 3/day, Shared Celerity|
+1 existing spellcasting class
[/table]
Class Skills: Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Disguise, Gather Information, Intimidate, Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (History), Spellcraft
Skills per level: 2 + Int modifier
Hit Dice: D4

Weapon and armor proficiencies: Chronomancers gain no new weapon or armor proficiencies.

Spellcasting: When a new chronomancer level is gained (except for the first level), the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he had also gained a level in whatever spellcasting class to which he belonged before he added the prestige class level. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If a character had more than one spellcasting class before he became a chronomancer, he must decide to which class he adds each level of chronomancer for the purpose of determining spells per day and spells known.

Flash of Foresight (Ex): At level 1, a chronomancer's dabbling in the timeline has granted him brief visions of the immediate future. Once per day, he may use an immediate free action to add his casting ability modifier as a Divinity bonus to his next Intimidate/Bluff/Diplomacy check, initiative roll, attack roll, or Reflex save. Alternatively, he may choose to apply the bonus to his AC for one round, or use his foresight to act during a surprise round of combat that he would otherwise be Surprised. Any bonus granted by Flash of Foresight must be used by the end of your next turn or be lost.

The character gains an additional daily use of this ability at levels 3 and 5.

Time Synch (Ex): At level 2, the chronomancer has managed spread his consciousness in such a way as to exist in several points in time at once. All attacks against you have a 25% miss chance, and you take 3/4 damage from area attacks. Attacks you make have a 25% miss chance and spells you cast that effect a target other than yourself have a 25% arcane spell failure chance unless you spend a swift action to condense your consciousness into one point in time.

At level 4, the miss chance against you and your miss chance and arcane spell failure chance is increased to 50%, and you take half damage from area attacks.

Time Slip (Ex): At 3rd level, the chronomancer learns how to let his consciousness slip into the time stream and follow its flow. As a standard action, he may disappear completely from existence. He is not invisible, nor has he teleported to another plane, he simply ceases to be in that moment of time. Any number of rounds later between 1 and his primary casting ability modifier (chosen when this ability is activated), the chronomancer reappears at the beginning of his turn in the exact same place he disappeared from, in the exact same position. Any objects he is carrying at the time disappear and reappear with him.

Shared Celerity (Su): At the peak of his understanding of time and space, a chronomancer may extend his mastery to others for short periods of time. When the caster casts any version of the Celerity spell, he may expend an additional spell slot of equal or greater level to extend the effect of the spell to one other target within 30 feet. Any targets effected by this ability follow the description of the spell as if they had cast it on themselves. Targets that wish to contest the effect may make a Will save DC 10 + class level + casting ability modifier to negate the effect.

[Greyfeld85]

I originally was going to make the class more based around specific time-based magic (celerity, time stop, etc), but decided that those spells are already strong enough without the help of a PrC. Instead, I decided to take the flavor and change it into something else. Some of the design is patterned after the Fate Spinner, while other ideas were taken from the Swiftblade. I wanted to create something that held the whole "time master" flavor without accidentally bumping any tier 1 character into tier 0 territory.

[Kellus]

Okay, this is pretty cool! I've seen a lot of 'chronomancers' and time mages, but this is very nicely done, which most of them are... not. :P

It's short, and I think even overly short. There's a lot of potential in this concept, and while I like the abilities that you have here I think there's more that you could do with it. Here's a few problems I spotted:

• Define exactly what "casting ability modifier" is for the purposes of the class features. That is, whether you're referencing the ability which determines spells per day or the ability which determines the DC of your spells; they're not always the same.

• I actually kind of like Time Synch, since the drawbacks emphasize the kind of character you want to be playing this class. My only complaint is that any fraction that is not one half or one tenth is probably too much to ask to be done on a regular basis. I mean, I'm good at maths, but I still wouldn't really enjoy having to determine 75% of, say, 37 damage on a regular basis at the table. It's not that it's hard, it's just not intuitive or fun, which is what the game is all about. I would keep the miss chance, since that's very similar mechaniclally to concealment or blinking, and can quickly be worked out with percentage dice. I'd drop the 75% damage level and just introduce the half damage with the improved ability.

• Time Slip is nice, but it might just be easier to reference time hop (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/timeHop.htm) unless there's a specific exploit you're trying to prevent.

• Divinity isn't a kind of bonus, although if you want one with the same feel to it you could try a perfection bonus, which is what deities actually have.

• Shared celerity is very clever, although I'd enjoy seeing more things to do with celerity, since that's essentially what the prerequisites boil down to.


I've done some thinking in the past about temporal magic, so let me pull up some of my notes for things people want to be able to do with time-travel-esque magic. Might not be useful, but could be helpful if you're looking for non-game-breaking ways to muck around with time:


Contingency, or claiming that you altered something in the past. Limited story-writing abilities, by suddenly deciding that something has changed because of what you did in the past.
Create an alternate timeline: Maybe let them make a temporal recording or something, make a track, and then be able to perform different actions in each. Maybe the tracks condense after a set amount of time, and they need to choose one of them to preserve. Ideal for mazes or puzzles, since they can try two solutions at once. Combat would be... interesting. Needs work.
Turn back time to avoid something bad. Temporal regression?
Try something again because they messed up: rerolls or granting rerolls.
Interact with other iterations of themselves: summon clones or something?
Predict what the enemy will do: wait until the enemy takes their action, and THEN as an immediate action you can take your turn BEFORE them, but without changing what they do.

Anyway, cool class, but it'd be cool to see more options or abilities! Definitely more that can be done with the concept! Nice job! :)

[Greyfeld85]

I like some of those ideas, and I actually considered a couple of them myself when i was writing up the class. I was originally going to make it a 10 level PrC, but I decided just to write it up as a 5-level class and see what sort of responses I got to it first. I'll start tinkering around with a 10 level version of the class and post something when I've come up with a rough draft of it. Concerning your other points:

1. I put "casting ability modifier" because I wanted to make sure that any casting class that met the requirements could take the class. Wizards, Sorcerers, whatever. I didn't know how else to word it.

2. If I manage to stretch this to a 10-class PrC, I'll turn it into increments of 10% over five levels, like the miss chance granted by the Swiftblade class.

3. I knew there was a spell that did something similar to Time Slip somewhere but I couldn't remember the name of it. I might just do a straight copy/past of Time Hop, but tweak its duration to fit my original description.

4. I put it as a "divinity" bonus, because it's like you're divining the future. I didn't know what else to call it. I mean, I could just leave it untyped, because I don't think it'll matter one way or the other. I just slapped a name onto the bonus to reflect the nature of the bonus.

5. I understand what you're saying about Celerity, and normally I would be happy to come up with more effects for it. But I'm afraid of accidentally breaking it. I'll consider it a bit though, and I'll speak up if I come up with anything concrete.

[Kellus]

4. I put it as a "divinity" bonus, because it's like you're divining the future. I didn't know what else to call it. I mean, I could just leave it untyped, because I don't think it'll matter one way or the other. I just slapped a name onto the bonus to reflect the nature of the bonus.

In that case I'd think about an insight bonus, as in foresight (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/foresight.htm) which thematically is similar. The main reason to avoid new bonuses is to preserve system consistency and avoid bonus bloat. Think about it this way: the class is more consistent with and interacts more with the system when you use an established bonus type instead of making one up. :)

[Greyfeld85]

Ah! Insight Bonus, thank you. I knew there was something like that floating around somewhere.

Got a couple ideas for the expanded class:
Shifting Future: Once per day, a chronomancer can briefly split his consciousness across mutliple timelines. Seeing all probable future events for the next few seconds, he can choose the most prudent course of action. After activating this ability as a free action, take your turn as normal. Any time before the start of your next turn, you may retract your previous action(s) and take new ones. The actions taken by all other characters during this turn remain the same.

Temporal Regression: The chronomancer can wrap a temporal bubble around his target, regressing it back to a previous state of being. A number of times per day equal to 1/2 his class level, the chronomancer can touch a target as a standard action and remove the effects of an attack, spell or ability it was inflicted with since your last turn. Temporal Regression does not negate the action itself, or the effect it has on any other target aside from the target touched.

Reverse Celerity: A chronomancer learns that sending time to the future is structurally similar to pulling time to the past. By expending a casting of the Lesser Celerity, Celerity, or Greater Celerity spells, he can take extra actions during his next turn.

Expending a casting of Lesser Celerity removes a move action from your current turn and adds it to your next. Expending a casting of Celerity removes a standard action from your current turn and adds it to your next. Expending a casting of Greater Celerity removes a full-round action from your current turn and adds it to your next. Once your current turn has ended, you are dazed until the beginning of your next turn.

Reverse Celerity is a swift action and may only be used during your turn.

[Greyfeld85]

Still waiting on more input.

[bobthe6th]

a psionic version would be nice. they get so much more flat out time stuff...

[Greyfeld85]

a psionic version would be nice. they get so much more flat out time stuff...

Uh... yeah. Well, after I'm done fixing the balance, wording, and overall flavor of this class, I'll consider giving it a shot.

[Ninjadeadbeard]

Just 2 cents:


What if you added an ability like Temporal Regression, but instead of reversing effects, what if it regressed enemies (a) level(s)? Like Energy Drain as a SLA? Dunno how'd it be balanced.
Perhaps add the ability to alter Initiative order? Like, a fight starts and the Chronomancer decides to give up his first turn of the encounter to put X* number of his allies at the head of the order, or drop X number of enemies lower on the order.


*X being Chronomancer Levels or something.

[Egglooter]

i have a plan for something like this (not for DnD but similar ) and its a difficult time making a character like this balanced so it doesnt just eff about with time. but from what i have seen it looks good what your doing so in other words.
I like it!