Time Dilation options

[CIDE]

Alright, One of the many games I participate in is essentially anything D20 game set in a futuristic setting that meshes magic and technology. I'm currently using what is essentially a mad scientist character who is trying to basically create a Zerg/Tyranid like race as his own personal weapon against the rest of the galaxy and specializes in insane biotech. He obviously has no magic of his own.

Now, a lot of the genetic experiments my character deals with are easy enough to do at his current level but require time. Far too much time in fact (sometimes ONE genetic alteration taking nearly two months worth of time). And while that's normally not an issue given how easy travel and everything is with the current technology my mad scientist will likely be dead and/or retconned out by the time I even accomplish one mutation let alone creating the whole race I'm after.

So, is there any kind of magic items, technology, spells, spell-like abilities, Supernatural abilities, anything that my character could use (I have no shortage of money right now) in order to drastically speed up the process? Any D20 system you can think of is pretty much fair game.

[Alaris]

Not sure about for an area, but a simple (3.5-Specific) trick:

Divine Metamagic (Feat) Persist Spell (Feat) Time Stop (Trickery Domain, 9th Level Cleric Spell) will give YOU a solid 24 hours of actions, in the span of 6 seconds.

Granted, if you do that consistently, you'll still age as normal, so I can't say that'd necessarily be a good idea.

And... that's probably not allowed, given it's "1d4+1 rounds of apparent time," or some such crap. Depending on your DM, it could be allowed.

[Namfuak]

If you can automate most of it (you gave the example of one experiment taking 2 months, does that mean 2 months of you doing it or you setting something in motion and coming back in 2 months?), making a demiplane where time goes much faster (say, 1 month plane time=1 hour real time) would do it.

If you actually have to sit for two months watching the thing grow, I don't know if there are many ways to really do that. Casting time stop on it might be considered to work (since it makes the thing move faster, although there aren't any fast aging drawbacks so what exactly that would do is not clear), or you could use polymorph any object a bunch of times to get it to where you want it to be.

Since this is futuristic, could you possibly use nanomachines to move the correct molecules into place more quickly in order to make things grow faster or mutate correctly the first time?

[nedz]

There's the plane where time runs 10 times as quickly — In fact it could be any plane with a modified time flow. You just need a planer bubble.

Just hire some guys to feed your critters while you pop off to the beach or something.

[nyjastul69]

Alright, One of the many games I participate in is essentially anything D20 game set in a futuristic setting that meshes magic and technology. I'm currently using what is essentially a mad scientist character who is trying to basically create a Zerg/Tyranid like race as his own personal weapon against the rest of the galaxy and specializes in insane biotech. He obviously has no magic of his own.

Now, a lot of the genetic experiments my character deals with are easy enough to do at his current level but require time. Far too much time in fact (sometimes ONE genetic alteration taking nearly two months worth of time). And while that's normally not an issue given how easy travel and everything is with the current technology my mad scientist will likely be dead and/or retconned out by the time I even accomplish one mutation let alone creating the whole race I'm after.

So, is there any kind of magic items, technology, spells, spell-like abilities, Supernatural abilities, anything that my character could use (I have no shortage of money right now) in order to drastically speed up the process? Any D20 system you can think of is pretty much fair game.

When you say d20, do you mean D&D 3.X and 3rd party supplements for it? Or do you mean anything released under the d20 STL? If it's the latter I would suggest d20 Gamma World. Mutants and Masterminds might be very useful as well. d20 Modern, it has an SRD, is pretty solid.

[Wings of Peace]

Not sure about for an area, but a simple (3.5-Specific) trick:

Divine Metamagic (Feat) Persist Spell (Feat) Time Stop (Trickery Domain, 9th Level Cleric Spell) will give YOU a solid 24 hours of actions, in the span of 6 seconds.

Granted, if you do that consistently, you'll still age as normal, so I can't say that'd necessarily be a good idea.

And... that's probably not allowed, given it's "1d4+1 rounds of apparent time," or some such crap. Depending on your DM, it could be allowed.

You're pretty much spot on. I'd have to do some hard searching but at some point Wizards basically ruled that time stop is "effectively instantaneous". They did this once for reals in 3.0 and I believe that ruling made it into one of the FAQs for 3.5.

If I can find a proper link I'll post it later but back in the time of the 339 boards this came up in a lot of debates about Time Stop and Persistent Spell.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Why not look for ways to increase the rate of mutations? You can then use artificial selection (evolutionary intelligent design) to breed the desireable mutations into your species. Increased number of mutations means that there's a greater chance of getting the ones you want.

[Spuddles]

There's a 9th level spell called travel through time. The material component has no price and can be obviates with eschew materials. Travel back in time 10 years every ten years.

[Emperor Tippy]

3.5 has fast time demiplanes that you can create with Arcane Genesis and the 9th level spell Travel Through Time that let's you go back in time.

[toapat]

Besides the time Dilation people have already said

The Sarrukh's Alter Form (altered appropriately to be used when needed), giving a custom property of:

Evolutionary Statis (Su): Creatures with this ability, if they are not fully mature, fall unconcious for 1d6 rounds. While unconscious, This creature rapidly ages to full maturity, and also gains the average life experience that is average for this creature.

[olentu]

So is the problem that your specimens are taking too long to mature? Well aside from the various other methods of time manipulation (flowing time demiplanes, teleport through time) just dig yourself up a phane or something of the sort. 1d4 years per round seems like an acceptably speedy rate of aging. Just be sure you remember to bring a way to knock your specimens out of the stasis touch.

[CIDE]

Not sure about for an area, but a simple (3.5-Specific) trick:

Divine Metamagic (Feat) Persist Spell (Feat) Time Stop (Trickery Domain, 9th Level Cleric Spell) will give YOU a solid 24 hours of actions, in the span of 6 seconds.

Granted, if you do that consistently, you'll still age as normal, so I can't say that'd necessarily be a good idea.

And... that's probably not allowed, given it's "1d4+1 rounds of apparent time," or some such crap. Depending on your DM, it could be allowed.

My character lacks magic. As useful as it would be right now I avoided it on purpose.

There actually aren't ANY spellcasters in our current party. I do have one on the side in a campaign set previously in the same universe. He's still somewhere in this particular universe too. I just haven't roped him in yet.


If you can automate most of it (you gave the example of one experiment taking 2 months, does that mean 2 months of you doing it or you setting something in motion and coming back in 2 months?), making a demiplane where time goes much faster (say, 1 month plane time=1 hour real time) would do it.

If you actually have to sit for two months watching the thing grow, I don't know if there are many ways to really do that. Casting time stop on it might be considered to work (since it makes the thing move faster, although there aren't any fast aging drawbacks so what exactly that would do is not clear), or you could use polymorph any object a bunch of times to get it to where you want it to be.

Since this is futuristic, could you possibly use nanomachines to move the correct molecules into place more quickly in order to make things grow faster or mutate correctly the first time?

I'm using the genetic modification rules from D20 Future. Once an injection is given the target makes a Fort save. Then they must make the Fort save X number of days once a day every day until it's complete. If they fail the save they take permanent Con damage and can potentially die from the procedure. In this case the Fort saves aren't an issue. But it still takes X days for it to happen.

I may have found a loophole, however. I don't see anywhere in the rules (May have missed it) that says I can only have one modification happening at once. I'll re-read (four like a fifth time) to check.


There's the plane where time runs 10 times as quickly — In fact it could be any plane with a modified time flow. You just need a planer bubble.

Just hire some guys to feed your critters while you pop off to the beach or something.

I was aware of time flows in planes. What I'm asking is HOW I can accomplish that with a non-magical character. While magic exists I haven't exactly run into a wizard with his services for sale either.


When you say d20, do you mean D&D 3.X and 3rd party supplements for it? Or do you mean anything released under the d20 STL? If it's the latter I would suggest d20 Gamma World. Mutants and Masterminds might be very useful as well. d20 Modern, it has an SRD, is pretty solid.

Any game that uses the D20 system. We got D&D 3.X, Pathfinder, BESM, D20 Future, Mutants and Masterminds, etc. It's all being used. I'm specifically using D20 Modern/Future for a lot of my stuff.


Why not look for ways to increase the rate of mutations? You can then use artificial selection (evolutionary intelligent design) to breed the desireable mutations into your species. Increased number of mutations means that there's a greater chance of getting the ones you want.

That'd take WAAYY longer. Especially since my experiments are taking place in lab-grown critters custom made by my character. Not altering something in the wild (yet).


Besides the time Dilation people have already said

The Sarrukh's Alter Form (altered appropriately to be used when needed), giving a custom property of:

Evolutionary Statis (Su): Creatures with this ability, if they are not fully mature, fall unconcious for 1d6 rounds. While unconscious, This creature rapidly ages to full maturity, and also gains the average life experience that is average for this creature.

Technology already exists for rapid growth. As far as I can tell that doesn't alter the days of wait required. Evolutionary Stasis (which I CAN give to my experiment using these modification rules) would be useful though as it can give the creature a lifetime of experiences. I can also do it through memory chip implantation but...eh... I know the DM may have some fun with that if I go that route.


So is the problem that your specimens are taking too long to mature? Well aside from the various other methods of time manipulation (flowing time demiplanes, teleport through time) just dig yourself up a phane or something of the sort. 1d4 years per round seems like an acceptably speedy rate of aging. Just be sure you remember to bring a way to knock your specimens out of the stasis touch.

Nah, it's not the maturation rate. That can take just hours to days at PL 9 just using the basic methods available with that technology. Making alterations to the critter's genetic code however take time.

Here's the chart for everyone to see: (Pg 89 of the D20 Future book)

Type of Special Quality: Fort Save: Number of Successes
+1 to Ability score 15 20
Extraordinary Ability 15 15
Supernatural Ability 20 25
Spell-like Ability 20 50


The successes is 1 per day as I mentioned above. And I don't need to make an additional injection every day either. Just one injection and it runs its course. The specimen however needs to make a Fort save every day. Either it succeeds or it takes enough Con damage to kill it.

Edit:

I did reread the excerpt too and missed a section below. The important part reads as such:


At PL 7 mastery of this process is such that multiple modifications may be combined into one treatment. Have the patient make Fortitude saves as if the regime was for a single Supernatural special quality.

So...basically need to ask my DM to clarify that.

Still! Even with that it'd still take nearly a month of In-character time and I am interested in options for my non-magical character to accomplish this task.

[nedz]

So, is there any kind of magic items, technology, spells, spell-like abilities, Supernatural abilities, anything that my character could use (I have no shortage of money right now) in order to drastically speed up the process? Any D20 system you can think of is pretty much fair game.


My character lacks magic. As useful as it would be right now I avoided it on purpose.

You did kind of leave the spells option open, and they are the go to method for breaking the laws of physics. I'm a bit stuck — what with all of the options being open, but then not ?:smallconfused:

[olentu]

Nah, it's not the maturation rate. That can take just hours to days at PL 9 just using the basic methods available with that technology. Making alterations to the critter's genetic code however take time.

Here's the chart for everyone to see: (Pg 89 of the D20 Future book)

Type of Special Quality: Fort Save: Number of Successes
+1 to Ability score 15 20
Extraordinary Ability 15 15
Supernatural Ability 20 25
Spell-like Ability 20 50


The successes is 1 per day as I mentioned above. And I don't need to make an additional injection every day either. Just one injection and it runs its course. The specimen however needs to make a Fort save every day. Either it succeeds or it takes enough Con damage to kill it.

Edit:

I did reread the excerpt too and missed a section below. The important part reads as such:



So...basically need to ask my DM to clarify that.

Still! Even with that it'd still take nearly a month of In-character time and I am interested in options for my non-magical character to accomplish this task.

Wait you have access to progress level 9 technology, can't you just get a time machine.