Freeze Player in Time?

[20yrslater]

Anyone got any ideas how to freeze characters in time (Say for 3-8 months), In a few adventures, I need to have the campaign world to have some major changes and when the players emerge, things are different (ie: NPCs, Governments, etc).

I need something like the opposite of Time Stop. Should I just make it up and say "This Happens" and then 4 months later POP, they are unfrozen?

Things I'm thinking:

- Time Bubble
- Time Dragon eat them then poops them out, heh.
- Block of Ice
- Carbonite Pit

Hmm.. Thoughts?

[Platymus Pus]

dump them in a plane where 6 seconds equals a month or something

[CIDE]

If you're the DM you can pretty much do whatever you want. Stasis, demi-planes, alternate planes, etc. Take your pick.

[Segev]

How much impact do you want your players to have on what the changes are? Is there a reason it needs to be a time-skip, and they can't live through it? Or just be "on a boat" for that long, adventuring overseas to return home and find the changes?

I imagine, for instance, the wizard might enjoy that time for crafting and such.

What's the need behind their inactivity for that duration?

[Yuki Akuma]

Dump them in quintessence (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/quintessence.htm).

[ArcturusV]

Just remember whatever method you do pick? It should be available to the players as well. There may well, knowing how it goes, come a time where they will want to use/abuse that. Stasis stuff like you're talking about particularly. They were trapped in some bubble by an artifact? You should know they'll take that artifact, figure out how to use it, then stick your BBEG in it for a few months while they layer a hundred different varieties of "instant death" waiting for him the moment that he pops out.

So be careful what you use for it. I wouldn't suggest anything Item or Planar based, it makes it easy for players to abuse it somehow. A custom spell effect would be your best bet. A natural phenomenon of a particular location (Everything is time slowed in this one particular cave is a lot different from a whole plane of altered time on the abuse scale) would be another option.

[Inferno]

Sounds like a pretty typical Flesh to Stone, Stone to Flesh scenario.

[bekeleven]

Temporal Stasis or Imprisonment would work.

[20yrslater]

Thanks for the input.

They will be away from civilization (maybe a weeks travel). There will be a change in the major Power Center for the entire Country and it's main Cities/towns. Even though they may be a week out, that not enough time for such a major change, which is why I want to freeze them.

Essentially I want the players to see black, then when they come too everything seems the same until they get to their city. Guards are different, violent, and dressed in new colors. I want them to be like "WTF happened here!" Then they find out it's months later and the world has gone to sheeit!

[Belril Duskwalk]

Thanks for the input.

They will be away from civilization (maybe a weeks travel). There will be a change in the major Power Center for the entire Country and it's main Cities/towns. Even though they may be a week out, that not enough time for such a major change, which is why I want to freeze them.

Essentially I want the players to see black, then when they come too everything seems the same until they get to their city. Guards are different, violent, and dressed in new colors. I want them to be like "WTF happened here!" Then they find out it's months later and the world has gone to sheeit!

Send them to the Fae!

Seriously though, it's a well established trope that realms of the Faeries have a very different time flow rate. So, send them on a weeks travel, redirect their travels through the realm of Faeries. By the time they are back months have passed, and they are none the wiser. Best of all, there is no single entity they can go on to hold a grudge against for placing them out of time.

[Brookshw]

Another vote for planes!

[Feint's End]

2nd quintessence

It's the most straight forward way to do it

[Fax Celestis]

Temporal Stasis or Imprisonment would work.

Why does everyone always forget about temporal stasis? It's such a badass spell, and it's in core!

[Emperor Tippy]

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=15488181&postcount=4

How to make Time Lock grenades.

[unseenmage]

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=15488181&postcount=4

How to make Time Lock grenades.

Sqee! I remember that thread!

And also, 3rd vote for Quintessence with the caveat of making it Animated Object-ed Quintessence. Just DM it to have the Swallow WHole ability and "eat" the party/person you want to time-lock.

Added bonus of the party being eternally grateful to whosoever frees them. Even more bonus points if this person is secretly the BBEG.

[bekeleven]

Why does everyone always forget about temporal stasis? It's such a badass spell, and it's in core!

To be honest, I forgot about it until I looked up Imprisonment and it began "Like Temporal Stasis except..."

[Analytica]

Make sure there's actually a logical reason (like the plots of the BBEG) for why they end up in stasis; it shouldn't be something random just happening unless that kind of thing does all the time. :smallsmile:

[20yrslater]

Thanks everyone for your insight.

It's the entire party that will be frozen, not just one. Title should have read Players rather than player; my bad.

But, I think I know how I will go about this now and Temporal Stasis would work the best. Now the delivery method...

[unseenmage]

Thanks everyone for your insight.

It's the entire party that will be frozen, not just one. Title should have read Players rather than player; my bad.

But, I think I know how I will go about this now and Temporal Stasis would work the best. Now the delivery method...

An ooze controlling cleric and a couple Living Spells?

[Fax Celestis]

My vote is for a living temporal stasis spell.

[Doc_Maynot]

There is a 3rd party book that may have a solution.
Encyclopaedia Arcane-Chronomancy
In the book there is a series of spells (Branard's Future X) which projects targets forward in time. Without the use of a touch attack and the 9th level version is 10x cheaper than Temporal Stasis. The affected are considered completely gone, but the magic remains and can be dispelled. So, you won't have a party of players just standing around collecting dust and potential tourism revenue. May be good functionally for the situation, as the 9th level version projects them forward a maximum of a year.

[John Longarrow]

If you do decide on a more RP-centric approach, I'd do the Fey way but with a fairly standard trope thrown in.

Have the party meet an old lady in the woods. She has a tent set up and invites the party in after they have done X (such as getting rid of a pair of goblins that are bothering her). Old lady is really <Insert goddess/Fey power here>, and for their service she tells them she has returned their favor, but they should be careful of those who seek to harm them.

Time has passed, but the BBEG's that are otherwise looking for the party during the year that has passed are not resolving some infighting. Entity did prevent the party from having to face epic badness, and due to their absence the most dangerous BBEG that they would otherwise have had to face is no longer around, killed by his allies for "Not being able to take care of that meddling party". Of course let the party find out about this as part of their return...

[Radar]

So, is it a mild version of Samurai Jack (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e51hgWIsY4M) scenario?

As for the spells and such, there is also Time Hop power, but it is too short for your purpose. At any rate it has to be something, that can't be repeated easily, so I wouldn't use a simple spell for it. Depending on the plot you have in mind for the time skip, the party might not be just shoved foreward through time, but they were simply kept unconscious, while someone was doing some complicated operation on them (giving them some immunity against whatever made the world worse n the meantime, or some other minor yet crucial ability).

[Valluman]

I'm partial to the "Endless Slumber" spell where it places the target into stasis, though that's probably too easily broken (by damage and saving throws).

[Slipperychicken]

You can simply tear open a portal in time (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/pg/20030416b).