Making the Time Police

[The Great Wyrm]

The forum ate my previous draft of this post, so here's a shortened version since it's late and I'm tired.

-I want an Inevitable variant tasked with protecting time.
-I've heard of the Quarut but can't find stats for it.
-I'm trying to make my own. Target CR is 12.
-Stats: I will likely use the Kolyarut as a base, minus its special abilities.
-What special abilities do you think I should give it? (Time stop, divination, etc.)
-I want it to not overwhelm a party of level 10 PCs, but also be able to hold its own against them.
-It will possibly be a recurring adversary.

[bahamut920]

Quarut is in Fiend Folio pg. 102. It's CR 17, though, so unless your Lv. 10 PCs are high-op, they'd probably get wrecked.

EDIT: Okay, a "lesser quarut". It's supposed to police time, and ensure the sanctity of the proper flow of time. Therefore, it should have a few abilities that negate or steal the most common time-related spells at that level.

How about:
Temporal Immunity (Su): A lesser quarut is immune to spells such as haste or slow that disrupt the time stream, and can draw strength from them. If a lesser quarut is the target of such a spell, it instead gains 5 temporary hit points per spell level, and a +2 bonus on attack and damage rolls against the caster until the end of its next turn. A lesser quarut may choose to treat itself as targeted by a haste spell being cast as long as none of the targets of the spell are more than 30 ft. away from it at the time of casting.

Counter Time (Sp): Once per day as an immediate action, a lesser quarut may choose to counterspell any spell whose effect would alter or affect the flow of time. The spell is treated as if another spellcaster used the exact same spell in his counterspell attempt. The lesser quarut must properly identify the spell being cast using the Spellcraft skill in order to use this ability, but it receives a +5 racial bonus on such checks due to its familiarity with spells that alter the flow of time.

Lead Time Strike (Su): As a standard action, a lesser quarut may make a single attack against a creature currently under the effects of a spell that alters the flow of time. Total up the spell levels of all temporally-related spells on the creature, and deal it +1d6 extra damage for each spell level. This ability also allows the lesser quarut to make a dispel check against any temporally-related spells currently in effect upon the creature. Treat this effect as a targeted dispel magic made with a caster level equal to the lesser quarut's Hit Dice that only affects temporally-related spells. Once the dispel check succeeds against a single spell, the lesser quarut stops rolling. A lesser quarut may use this ability once every 5 rounds.

[afroakuma]

I suppose it would help to start from the standpoint of: what are these PCs doing that would draw the ire of a quarut/lesser time-protecting inevitable? What abilities does it possess that would interfere with these deeds, beyond simply punching them until they agree to stop?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Make it able to use Blink or Displacement or similar, as it's able to perceive four dimensions instead of three and can often see an attack coming since it can look across time.

Definitely give it Time Hop (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/timeHop.htm) and possibly even Time Hop, Mass (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/timeHopMass.htm) as spell-like abilities. Maybe even Quicken Spell-Like Ability for Time Hop. Psi-like abilities are the same as spell-like abilities, treat them as though he augmented them with as many power points as he's allowed to spend (up to his caster/manifester level). Thus a CR 12 opponent likely has a caster level of 12th, Time Hop can affect one gargantuan creature or object, two huge creatures or objects, three large creatures or objects, or four medium or smaller creatures or objects. It's a fantastic crowd control or it can be used on an opponent's weapon, armor, shield, holy symbol, etc. Mass Time Hop can be used as an escape mechanism, he would effectively not exist for its duration so he would be impossible to track down unless the party has knowledge of psionic powers.

Temporal Acceleration (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/temporalAcceleration.htm) is also quite good for getting a few buffs in place and getting into a better position prior to full attacking. At 12th level it would only have a single round of additional actions, but that should be plenty.

Give it Time Regression (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/timeRegression.htm), though not necessarily at will unless you want it to have a very powerful ability. That turns back time to immediately prior to the caster's previous turn, so he can replay his previous turn and everything everyone else did is undone also. He can use that previous turn to Time Regression again, and again, until the combat starts over. Other than metagame knowledge, nobody knows that they're reliving this except the caster, but its dialogue or catchphrases can hint at it. Maybe when it uses this ability it can only use it repeatedly until the combat starts over, but it doesn't regain any of its limited-use abilities when doing so. Give it some decent 3/day or 1/day abilities, and probably make this ability work only once per day as well.

[The Great Wyrm]

I suppose it would help to start from the standpoint of: what are these PCs doing that would draw the ire of a quarut/lesser time-protecting inevitable? What abilities does it possess that would interfere with these deeds, beyond simply punching them until they agree to stop?

The PCs traveled back in time to stop a chaos artifact from existing (an action which was allowed, and even encouraged, by the Time Police, since the artifact was screwing with time and had even created itself). After preventing the existence of the artifact and convincing the former versions of themselves to travel through time (thus making the change stable), the PCs ended up a few months in the past relative to where they started. Currently, the PCs are trying to change the outcome of a war from a stalemate to a win for the PCs' side. The Time Police don't like this.

I'm trying to get the PCs to negotiate with the inevitable, but knowing the players they will probably try fighting it first. The Time Police have the power to punch the PCs until they agree to stop, but more importantly they can also use time travel (although they are reluctant to do so unless absolutely needed).

I like the idea of Time Regression as an ability; I'll probably give it to the inevitable 1/day. Time Hop was also a good suggestion.

[afroakuma]

One ability that I had used for a time theme was a temporal disjoint of sorts, wherein the victim (touched or hit with a ray or what have you) became out of sync with time. This produced an effect similar to displacement for animate things and blur for inanimate things with respect to the victim - i.e. the victim suffered miss chances from being unable to successfully follow "when" things were. Blink might also be a suitable alternative. The trick is that while from the victim's frame of reference, everything else is affected, in actuality only the victim has been hit with an effect.

Beyond that, inevitables tend toward DR/chaotic, fast healing, and spell resistance. You could also give it some unorthodox property to make it a hassle for your PCs specifically, such as an aura that causes buff durations to run down significantly faster, a slow aura, a defensive time-warping bubble that makes iterative attacks significantly less effective, a disruptive effect on time-affecting spells and abilities originating from other creatures... yada yada.

In terms of spell-like abilities, some capacity to dispel would not go amiss, nor would dimensional anchor to prevent running away. If you have access to the Spell Compendium, it may constantly be under the effects of accelerated movement, apply phantom foe to enemies by bringing forth their own time-trails in shadowy form, anticipate teleportation, apply unluck to others by splitting and correcting timelines into the worst outcome branch for its foes, or erect a wall of dispel magic.