aimlessPolymath
2017-11-08, 01:18 PM
Right. This is a bug that bit me late the night before last, and the only way to get it out of my head is by posting it. Given that I have midterms, this is necessary. Formatting will be poor. Several dead levels will remain. No class table. Comments on abilities would be appreciated.
Update:
Reduced Frag increase over time. While it still adds a sense of urgency, it isn't 1-minute levels of urgency.
Being overloaded with paradox is no longer instantly lethal.
Alter The Past is less nasty now if you overuse it.
Time Walker
Requirements:
Perform(Dance): 4 ranks (1 in Pathfinder)
Autohypnosis: 7 ranks (or the Psychic Sensitivity feat in Pathfinder and 7 ranks in Perception)
Feats: Paradox Cut
Hit Die: d8
Skills: 4 + Int. Unsure of class skills.
Proficiencies: Nothing new.
Chassis: Average BAB. Good Reflex and Will. Poor Fortitude.
Class abilities:
Paradox and Frag: Several of the Time Walker's abilities generate paradoxes- unfulfilled time loops with a promise to reach into the past and resolve them. However, a single Time Walker can sustain only so much paradox at once- each Paradox has a Frag value, and a Time Walker can only maintain Paradoxes with a total Frag of no more than her level. Furthermore, unfulfilled Paradoxes increase in size over time:
Time Elapsed
Bonus Frag
1 hour
1
1 day
2
Should a Time Walker have Frag greater than their level, they find the timeline beginning to rebel against them, rolling twice on all d20 rolls and taking the lower value. Furthermore, a Time Walker cannot create a Paradox while above their maximum Frag.
Forsee: At 1st level, a Time Walker can attempt to gain a small assistance from their own memories of a fight. As a swift or immediate action, they can reroll an attack they make or an attack made against them that they are aware of. This generates a Paradox of 1 Frag, which can be resolved as a move action, by sending their memories of the relevant attack backwards in time.
Receive: At 2nd level, a Time Walker grows in power, to the degree that physical, inanimate objects can be sent back in time. When you do, choose a specific item or specific type of item to be received; you may choose for it to appear wherever you like. This generates a Paradox of 1 Frag. It can be resolved by sending a different item which meets all specifications that you know of of the actual item that you received back in time; this takes a full-round action and an appropriate item, while standing in the same space for the item to arrive.
Aid From The Future: At 3rd level, a Time Walker finally works out the difficult and thorny issues behind travelling through time. As a standard action, you can summon a copy of yourself in any square you can see. You may have the copy arrive with any additional equipment you desire, with changes you can specify as under the First Law of Time. The copy takes its turn immediately after you, but only has a move action on the first round it acts. This produces a Paradox of 3 Frag, which can only be resolved by standing in the same square it arrived in and taking a full-round action to travel back in time. When you do, you must be in indistinguishable condition to the clone of yourself (as per the First Law of Time).
You may only create Time Clones a number of times per day equal to your Time Walker level. Only the youngest instance of yourself can use Time Walker abilities that generate paradoxes, but any of them can resolve them, provided that doing so does not create a loop with no beginning or end.
Paradox Action: At 4th level, when you use Paradox Cut, you may take any standard action instead of making an attack.
Alter the Past: At 5th level, you gain the ability to alter what has already happened, rather than passively preparing the present for the future to alter. As a full-round action, you disappear, traveling up to 24 hours back in time. You may then do whatever you like. Anything you do that distinguishably conflicts with your memories of the original event immediately creates a Paradox of 5 Frag, which can only be restored by ensuring that your past-self's memories of the event are indistinguishable from what originally happened. Furthermore, if this kind of paradox occurs regularly, you may find yourself experiencing bizarre and inexplicable events, generating a Paradox of 2 Frag which can only be resolved by self-fulfilling the event.
Paradox: None unless you change the past distinguishably, in which case one of 5 Frag.
Pre-planned preemtive post-event travel: At 6th level, at any time, you may dictate that your future self traveled back in time to perform some set of actions, altering the world around you. Immediately describe how your future self acted to aid you; any changes you make must be indistinguishable from what has already happened. This creates a Paradox of 5 Frag, which can be resolved by going back in time as per Alter the Past to perform those actions.
For example, suppose you wanted to meet with someone, but had no appointment. As you speak to the receptionist, you realize that you can just go back in time to make the appointment. You use this ability, at which point you and the DM play out a short encounter in which you attempt to make the appointment. You then return to the present, where you inform the receptionist that you have an appointment. You get in.
Had the receptionist said something along the lines of "I don't have an appointment for (your name) on the list" before you used this ability, you would have had to adjust how you make the appointment in order to prevent conflicting with what already occured; perhaps the appointment was made under an alternate name,
for example.
Laws of Time:
1st law: No meaningful information can be extracted from a time loop. Should you arrange or attempt to receive a message from your future self, the attempt is bound to generate only meaningless or utterly simplistic information. As the Frag from such an event can only be resolved by sending an identically meaningless message, attempting to do so is useless. Broader emotional information and information in which the Time Walker has little to no control over can be sent. As the Time Walker creates a loop, they may choose to leave information specifically undefined. So long as that information never becomes relevant, they may resolve that loop using any possible values for the information.
2nd law: Timelines lock. Any attempt to change the past must change it so that the traveler's memories remain accurate to what happened. Anything not in line with this law will not resolve the Paradox generated by the time travel. Memory manipulation is a valid method of resolving this type of paradox.
3rd law: Everything must have a defined age. No sending items back in time to become themselves.
Paradox Cut(Combat)
Requirements: BAB +5
Benefit: You may make attacks on a different round from the one you take the action to use them. This functions in two ways:
-At any time, you may make a single attack as a free action. If you do, you lose your standard action on your next turn as you attack into the past.
-You may take a standard action to attack into the future. If you do, as a free action, you can make a single attack at any time before your next turn.
No matter what you do, you may only make a single free attack per turn cycle with this feat.
Any ideas and thoughts would be welcome, though I can't promise that I'll respond quickly.
Update:
Reduced Frag increase over time. While it still adds a sense of urgency, it isn't 1-minute levels of urgency.
Being overloaded with paradox is no longer instantly lethal.
Alter The Past is less nasty now if you overuse it.
Time Walker
Requirements:
Perform(Dance): 4 ranks (1 in Pathfinder)
Autohypnosis: 7 ranks (or the Psychic Sensitivity feat in Pathfinder and 7 ranks in Perception)
Feats: Paradox Cut
Hit Die: d8
Skills: 4 + Int. Unsure of class skills.
Proficiencies: Nothing new.
Chassis: Average BAB. Good Reflex and Will. Poor Fortitude.
Class abilities:
Paradox and Frag: Several of the Time Walker's abilities generate paradoxes- unfulfilled time loops with a promise to reach into the past and resolve them. However, a single Time Walker can sustain only so much paradox at once- each Paradox has a Frag value, and a Time Walker can only maintain Paradoxes with a total Frag of no more than her level. Furthermore, unfulfilled Paradoxes increase in size over time:
Time Elapsed
Bonus Frag
1 hour
1
1 day
2
Should a Time Walker have Frag greater than their level, they find the timeline beginning to rebel against them, rolling twice on all d20 rolls and taking the lower value. Furthermore, a Time Walker cannot create a Paradox while above their maximum Frag.
Forsee: At 1st level, a Time Walker can attempt to gain a small assistance from their own memories of a fight. As a swift or immediate action, they can reroll an attack they make or an attack made against them that they are aware of. This generates a Paradox of 1 Frag, which can be resolved as a move action, by sending their memories of the relevant attack backwards in time.
Receive: At 2nd level, a Time Walker grows in power, to the degree that physical, inanimate objects can be sent back in time. When you do, choose a specific item or specific type of item to be received; you may choose for it to appear wherever you like. This generates a Paradox of 1 Frag. It can be resolved by sending a different item which meets all specifications that you know of of the actual item that you received back in time; this takes a full-round action and an appropriate item, while standing in the same space for the item to arrive.
Aid From The Future: At 3rd level, a Time Walker finally works out the difficult and thorny issues behind travelling through time. As a standard action, you can summon a copy of yourself in any square you can see. You may have the copy arrive with any additional equipment you desire, with changes you can specify as under the First Law of Time. The copy takes its turn immediately after you, but only has a move action on the first round it acts. This produces a Paradox of 3 Frag, which can only be resolved by standing in the same square it arrived in and taking a full-round action to travel back in time. When you do, you must be in indistinguishable condition to the clone of yourself (as per the First Law of Time).
You may only create Time Clones a number of times per day equal to your Time Walker level. Only the youngest instance of yourself can use Time Walker abilities that generate paradoxes, but any of them can resolve them, provided that doing so does not create a loop with no beginning or end.
Paradox Action: At 4th level, when you use Paradox Cut, you may take any standard action instead of making an attack.
Alter the Past: At 5th level, you gain the ability to alter what has already happened, rather than passively preparing the present for the future to alter. As a full-round action, you disappear, traveling up to 24 hours back in time. You may then do whatever you like. Anything you do that distinguishably conflicts with your memories of the original event immediately creates a Paradox of 5 Frag, which can only be restored by ensuring that your past-self's memories of the event are indistinguishable from what originally happened. Furthermore, if this kind of paradox occurs regularly, you may find yourself experiencing bizarre and inexplicable events, generating a Paradox of 2 Frag which can only be resolved by self-fulfilling the event.
Paradox: None unless you change the past distinguishably, in which case one of 5 Frag.
Pre-planned preemtive post-event travel: At 6th level, at any time, you may dictate that your future self traveled back in time to perform some set of actions, altering the world around you. Immediately describe how your future self acted to aid you; any changes you make must be indistinguishable from what has already happened. This creates a Paradox of 5 Frag, which can be resolved by going back in time as per Alter the Past to perform those actions.
For example, suppose you wanted to meet with someone, but had no appointment. As you speak to the receptionist, you realize that you can just go back in time to make the appointment. You use this ability, at which point you and the DM play out a short encounter in which you attempt to make the appointment. You then return to the present, where you inform the receptionist that you have an appointment. You get in.
Had the receptionist said something along the lines of "I don't have an appointment for (your name) on the list" before you used this ability, you would have had to adjust how you make the appointment in order to prevent conflicting with what already occured; perhaps the appointment was made under an alternate name,
for example.
Laws of Time:
1st law: No meaningful information can be extracted from a time loop. Should you arrange or attempt to receive a message from your future self, the attempt is bound to generate only meaningless or utterly simplistic information. As the Frag from such an event can only be resolved by sending an identically meaningless message, attempting to do so is useless. Broader emotional information and information in which the Time Walker has little to no control over can be sent. As the Time Walker creates a loop, they may choose to leave information specifically undefined. So long as that information never becomes relevant, they may resolve that loop using any possible values for the information.
2nd law: Timelines lock. Any attempt to change the past must change it so that the traveler's memories remain accurate to what happened. Anything not in line with this law will not resolve the Paradox generated by the time travel. Memory manipulation is a valid method of resolving this type of paradox.
3rd law: Everything must have a defined age. No sending items back in time to become themselves.
Paradox Cut(Combat)
Requirements: BAB +5
Benefit: You may make attacks on a different round from the one you take the action to use them. This functions in two ways:
-At any time, you may make a single attack as a free action. If you do, you lose your standard action on your next turn as you attack into the past.
-You may take a standard action to attack into the future. If you do, as a free action, you can make a single attack at any time before your next turn.
No matter what you do, you may only make a single free attack per turn cycle with this feat.
Any ideas and thoughts would be welcome, though I can't promise that I'll respond quickly.