Question on Mechanics of Temporal Acceleration

[pwykersotz]

Question for the playground. I was reading Temporal Acceleration and I don't see any clause or implication that you cannot manifest it while a previous manifestation of it is already in place. Now this is no Mad Minute or anything, but could you pretty much keep time frozen for however long you wanted (assuming either having it as an at-will psi-like ability or nigh infinite PP) as long as you kept using the power?

It seems that one of two things would happen if that were allowed. Either 1) you further accelerate and are moving even faster than before, taking additional actions inside nested Temporal Accelerations, or 2) the new casting refreshes the duration on the last manifesting.

Is this accurate, or did I miss something somewhere?

Also, if the first one were applicable, how many GM's would rule that you would eventually become trapped in the Speed Force? :smallbiggrin:

[Roguenewb]

If you can pull it off, it appears you can just GO FASTER. Most reasonable characters are going to have a tiny number of castings per day, and if you spend them all on this tactic, what else are you going to do? The goal of the power is to buff yourself right?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

The same thing can be said of the spell Time Stop, why don't you just cast it again on the last round of its duration?

The answer of course is that neither Time Stop nor Temporal Acceleration will protect you from flying books, nor will they guard your character against mysterious falling rocks which appear as soon as the duration expires.

[pwykersotz]

Of course the goal isn't just to tick off the GM or anything like that. I was actually wondering personally about its validity for scouting, though I'm more curious about how the effect would be interpreted.

For example, let's say there is a temporally accelerated or time stopped device/person that's continually under the effect (NPC). If you were to use it twice, do you just enter their realm of time and keep it refreshed, or do you shoot past them in terms of speed? It's interesting to think about.

[worldeater47]

Seems possible, an easy way to get the infinite powerpoints is through the oh so terrible prc metamind. This should work since all of the sped up time is taking place in one actual round.

[whibla]

The same thing can be said of the spell Time Stop, why don't you just cast it again on the last round of its duration?

Timestop has a random duration. There's nothing to say that the caster has any idea of how many rounds he will have available to him, other than it will always be at least two, and no more than five. Hence, it is not possible to recast it in the last round of the spell.

This is, ofc, just a personal interpretation. I'm sure other people will argue differently (especially those who play mages with the Time Stop spell :smallamused:)


The answer of course is that neither Time Stop nor Temporal Acceleration will protect you from flying books, nor will they guard your character against mysterious falling rocks which appear as soon as the duration expires.

Indeed. Though the time for flying books is when the player asks for the ability to cast Temporal Acceleration at will as a SLA.


For example, let's say there is a temporally accelerated or time stopped device/person that's continually under the effect (NPC). If you were to use it twice, do you just enter their realm of time and keep it refreshed, or do you shoot past them in terms of speed?

My first though is that unless they're immortal, unaging and unchanging, a permanent time dilation effect would be a nasty and lonely way to die. Whilst in it, remember, you're unable to affect anybody else, in any way, and you'll still be aging at your normal rate (well, according to your apparent time anyway). From an onlooker's perspective someone who tried the eternal, or nested, Temporal Acceleration, would instantly age, and possibly die, before the onlooker can do anything.

From an adventure point of view, I can see some mileage in the concept, but, in that case, either of the possibilities you mentioned is equally valid. It would be entirely up to an individual DM as to how to rule on it. With nested Temporal Acceleration there is one potential downside that I can see, and that would be the stacking shaken effect. A mere 3 nestings would see the manifester fleeing in terror the instant they returned to real-time.


It's interesting to think about.

True, though perhaps not too hard... :smallwink:

[sreservoir]

My first though is that unless they're immortal, unaging and unchanging, a permanent time dilation effect would be a nasty and lonely way to die. Whilst in it, remember, you're unable to affect anybody else, in any way, and you'll still be aging at your normal rate (well, according to your apparent time anyway). From an onlooker's perspective someone who tried the eternal, or nested, Temporal Acceleration, would instantly age, and possibly die, before the onlooker can do anything.

killoren, elan, undead things.

bigger problem is that, even assuming you have a torc and earth power functional, your recharge mechanism needs to have a rate of 9 per move + standard at ML 11; at ML 13, 13 in 2 rounds minus a swift -- 6.5 per round; at ML 17, 17 in 3 rounds minus a swift -- 5.4 per round.

of course, incarnum shenanigans can simplify this lots under certain readings -- if we accept psycarnum azure talent, then even if midnight augmentation can only be applied once, at level 12 if we have those three feats, we would regenerate 6 per round, or 12 in two rounds, and with just the torc the cost of a 2-round temporal acceleration is 12 pp. thus, we'll just go and stay in our time stop forever.