Creating a "time mage"

[Douche]

Character concept: a dude who manipulates time. Slows his enemies, hastes his allies, maybe he can even render chemical or magical reactions inert by halting the atoms or something like that (in a sense, reflavor of counterspell or dispel magic).

Moreover, he would be sort of like Dr. Manhattan, in the sense that he see's the past, present, and future all at once. Obviously, that's not entirely practical or even possible - because saying "I know that you will punch yourself in the face" to your party member will almost certainly ensure that he does not punch himself in the face. But I know there are some spells in the game that are flavored towards that.


How would you create such a character?

[gfishfunk]

Wizard, probably enhancement.

You might need to re-brew the spell list to include all divination spells.

Then, decide if time is set (he sees the future as it will be, but unclear) or if the future is unset (he sees a myriad of possibilities, trying to pick out the best possible).

Finally, add the addendum that the future is chaos unless he works at making sense of it, through spells like augury, guidance, etc.

I would also make time travel itself impossible in the set-up.

[Temperjoke]

I'd start with a divination wizard, since they get the Portent ability allowing you to change two d20 dice rolls that you or a creature you see make, per long rest, which is flavored as you having seen the future.

EDIT: You wouldn't need that much alteration for a lot of regular spells, if you treat your spellcasting as changing the time flow so a particular effect is happening at that moment. So Misty Step is you changing your past so that you are in a different spot at that moment, instead of your original position. Illusions, conjurations, and transmutation spells are caused by reaching into various timelines to alter the present reality: illusions are just showing the image of what could have been right there, conjuration pulls something that was there in a different timeline to the current timeline, and transmutation alters the target to something it could have been. Enchantment spells are temporary changes to the target's timeline to something amenable to the caster. And the reason none of these changes are permanent is because it's difficult to permanently change the Prime timeline in the "now".

[Fishyninja]

Wizard, probably enhancement.

You might need to re-brew the spell list to include all divination spells.

Then, decide if time is set (he sees the future as it will be, but unclear) or if the future is unset (he sees a myriad of possibilities, trying to pick out the best possible).

Finally, add the addendum that the future is chaos unless he works at making sense of it, through spells like augury, guidance, etc.

I would also make time travel itself impossible in the set-up.
One other thing you could fluff into this is IF s/he can see the future and it is SET in stone and s/he CAN see it clearly there is some over arching power stopping them from warning people.

Think the all knowing character doomed to watch the party die (this would require a lot of give with the DM).

[RickAllison]

Some spells that work for this (off the wizard spell-list and not divination, as that would be too easy):

Cantrips

Mending: Reversing the item to when it was whole.
True Strike: Seeing where the enemy will be beforehand.
Ray of Frost: Actually slowing down time for the person.


1st:

Alarm: Flashes of the intruder's actions in the future, enough to tell danger is near.
Mage Armor: Seeing seconds into the future to avoid attacks.
Shield: Rewinding time a second to make an attack miss.
Identify and Detect Magic: Rewinding time to find clear evidence of the spells/qualities of the item.
Illusory Script: A message actually written in the future, and only those who have been selected (or have truesight) may see it.
Magic Missile: The missiles aren't tracking the enemy, they are just fired exactly where the enemy will be.


2nd:

Blur: You make the fabric of time near you thin, making others see distortions of you in the past and the future to form an illegible blur.
Gentle Repose: Halting time for the item.
Hold Person: You are actually stopping them in time.
Knock: Wind back time until the lock was undone, but all the noise it has caused in the time since is released at once.
Mirror Image: You and the images are four potential presents.


3rd:

Blink: Time-skipping. When it kicks in, you are displaced from the timestream only to appear on the next round.
Counterspell: Weaponized time-skipping. You cause the caster to lapse over part of the casting process, causing them to fail.
Glyph of Warding: Think Future Sight from Pokemon. You are casting your spell into a later frame of time. If you were in the spell, it would appear instantaneous.
Haste: You are effectively hitting the fast-forward button.
Slow: Slow-motion button.

[gfishfunk]

Wizard, probably enhancement divination.

You might need to re-brew the spell list to include all divination spells.

Then, decide if time is set (he sees the future as it will be, but unclear) or if the future is unset (he sees a myriad of possibilities, trying to pick out the best possible).

Finally, add the addendum that the future is chaos unless he works at making sense of it, through spells like augury, guidance, etc.

I would also make time travel itself impossible in the set-up.

I actually forgot that divination was a wizard subclass....its the only wizard I have ever personally played in 5e, heh.


I'd start with a divination wizard, since they get the Portent ability allowing you to change two d20 dice rolls that you or a creature you see make, per long rest, which is flavored as you having seen the future.

EDIT: You wouldn't need that much alteration for a lot of regular spells, if you treat your spellcasting as changing the time flow so a particular effect is happening at that moment. So Misty Step is you changing your past so that you are in a different spot at that moment, instead of your original position. Illusions, conjurations, and transmutation spells are caused by reaching into various timelines to alter the present reality: illusions are just showing the image of what could have been right there, conjuration pulls something that was there in a different timeline to the current timeline, and transmutation alters the target to something it could have been. Enchantment spells are temporary changes to the target's timeline to something amenable to the caster. And the reason none of these changes are permanent is because it's difficult to permanently change the Prime timeline in the "now".

While that is true for possible re-fluff, I am not sure if it would get at the core spells, some of which are only available on the cleric's list (if I recall correctly, AFB). And cleric does not really have the flavor of time-mage.

If you really want to get wacky, do Sorcerer Wild Mage, but change the spell list to include all divination spells. I think that combination with metamagic would work super-well.

[Temperjoke]

I actually forgot that divination was a wizard subclass....its the only wizard I have ever personally played in 5e, heh.



While that is true for possible re-fluff, I am not sure if it would get at the core spells, some of which are only available on the cleric's list (if I recall correctly, AFB). And cleric does not really have the flavor of time-mage.

If you really want to get wacky, do Sorcerer Wild Mage, but change the spell list to include all divination spells. I think that combination with metamagic would work super-well.

I never said anything about a cleric :smallconfused: but healing spells could be seen as fast-forwarding the natural healing abilities of your bodies, or changing time in a localized part of your body. Reincarnation/Resurrection is changing a person's timeline so that the thing that killed them didn't, with different effects on their current timeline (the less time that has passed, the easier it is to alter the Prime timeline, reflected in different spell levels).

[Ninja_Prawn]

If anyone's interested in a homebrew solution, I have spells (http://www.middlefingerofvecna.com/2016/01/chronomancy-spells.html)!