Chronomancer (PEACH)

[Scarce]

People seemed to like the Master of Masks, so here I bring you my favorite 5e sub-class, the Chronomancer. I've playtested this pretty exhaustively in Hoard of the Dragon Queen, and up to level 6, it seems pretty balanced. Please let me know what you think!

School of Chronomancy

The focus of the School of Chronomancy is harnessing the energies of flowing time, and manipulating them to suit your gain. It is a most dangerous tradition, as the practice of slowing, reversing, or diverting the flow of time can accidently tear novices to pieces, spreading them thinly across millennia, or sometimes even drop them wholesale into a new or old era, with no way of returning home. Masters, however, walk the generations as planeswalkers walk the cosmos. Experienced chronomancers can reliably (and literally) end most conflicts before they even begin.

Temporal Savant
Beginning when you select this school at 2nd level, the time you must spend to copy a spell into your spellbook is halved.

Chronoshift
When you cast a spell that has a casting time of 1 action, you can change the casting time to 1 bonus action for this casting. You may use this a number of times equal to your Wizard Level divided by 2 (rounded down.)

Alter Causality
At 6th level, you add the spells Slow and Haste to your spellbook, if it they are not there already. You can cast one of these spells without expending a spell slot. If you cast Haste, you can target only yourself. Once you cast one of these spells in this way, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest, though you can still cast it normally.

Quantum Lag
When you cast a spell, you can delay its effect one to three turns. Before the spell is cast, you select the duration, the target, and roll any relevant attack rolls. Any effects on the spell's targets, including saving throws, are resolved when the spell triggers. If any conditions change between casting and effect of the spell that would make the spell impossible – such as the target leaving the spell’s maximum range before the spell goes off – the spell fails. After you use this ability, you must finish a short rest before using it again.

Timewalker
Beginning at 14th level, you can use a bonus action to borrow time from the present, and use it in the future. Select one of the following durations: one action, one move action, one round, or two rounds. You are paralyzed for this amount of time. When this duration ends, time stands still, and you may act freely for the entire duration, while all other creatures and events are frozen around you and considered paralyzed. Time restores to normal when you attack or when a spell targeting a creature other than yourself is resolved. After you use this ability, you must finish a short rest before using it again.

[Scarce]

If anyone wants a PDF of this, I've formatted it like the Player's Handbook here. This is the exact PDF I've been using in my home game with this class.

[Ziegander]

Chronoshift and Timewalker are ridiculously overpowered. With Chronoshift you basically give Quicken Spell plus 20 Sorcery Points to your Wizard. No. And for a simplified example of why Timewalker is ripe for abuse, "Okay, guys, I'm going to paralyze myself for exactly 12 seconds," "Wait, what, the enemy is just through that door, why would you do that?" "Because as soon as I stop moving, I want you to count to 11, and as you reach 11, I want you to kick that door down, because when you do, I'll start moving again, and I'm gonna light it up like Pelor came to town." And you can do that like every other encounter, just finding easy ways to set yourself up for two free turns at no cost to yourself.

I think Chronoshift should take your next turn's standard action when you use it and require a short rest between uses, and Timewalker needs to be reworked (and reworded) from the top down. An action is not a duration, and a move action is not even a thing. You can't be paralyzed for "1 action's worth of time," because that's a meaningless measurement; likewise you cannot paralyze an enemy for "1 action." It doesn't make sense, and it's too easy to massively abuse.

[meltodowno]

Chronoshift is a bit too strong, it's really cheap quickened spells, messing with action economy and stepping on the sorcerers metamagic shtick is generally bad design. It gives you several rounds of firing off two spells a turn.

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Timewalker is broken. As Ziegander points out it's an easy set up. It is several times stronger than timestop (and with timestop it's an even easier set up)

This is because timewalker makes everyone paralyzed (no save), and as such they fail all Strength and dex saves, your attacks have advantage, and any attack is a critical hit. With chronoshift you'll be getting off 4 spells - either auto fails on the saves, OR auto crits on the attacks, with advantage.

That is not anywhere in the general vicinity of balanced, and would render any boss tier encounter moot.

[SonsOfSauron]

Chronoshift is a bit too strong, it's really cheap quickened spells, messing with action economy and stepping on the sorcerers metamagic shtick is generally bad design. It gives you several rounds of firing off two spells a turn.

I agree with the sentiment, but a quick note is that you can't cast two 1st-level spells or higher in one turn.

Bonus Action
A spell cast with a bonus action is especially swift. You must use a bonus action on your turn to cast the spell, provided that you haven’t already taken a bonus action this turn. You can’t cast another spell during the same turn, except for a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action.

But the point still stands that it is stepping on the Sorcerer's toes.

[meltodowno]

Fair, was away from my books

Doesn't change timewalker allowing either two insta-crits or to failed spell saves with no save at all on the part of the recipient

[Scarce]

Chronoshift is a bit too strong, it's really cheap quickened spells, messing with action economy and stepping on the sorcerers metamagic shtick is generally bad design. It gives you several rounds of firing off two spells a turn.

Several rounds of firing off an additional cantrip each turn, really. The rules on Quicken Spell are far more balanced in this edition, and I took that into account when writing this class. Admittedly, I'm looking at my notes, and I intended to give them this a total number each day = wizard level / 4. That was a mistake in copying. Also, I don't think conserving game mechanics, rather than writing entire new ones, is entirely bad design.

This is because timewalker makes everyone paralyzed (no save), and as such they fail all Strength and dex saves, your attacks have advantage, and any attack is a critical hit. With chronoshift you'll be getting off 4 spells - either auto fails on the saves, OR auto crits on the attacks, with advantage.

I specified in Timewalker that the effects end when you attack or when a spell targeting someone other than yourself goes off. This was intended to limit the resulting effect to one (maybe two with Quantum Lag) spells. Alternatively, a wizard could get in close and get a critical hit. Because, you know, that's totally an effective strategy for a spellcaster to perform mid-combat. Admittedly, I would perfer not to allow this to give auto-fails on saves, but I'm not really sure how to change it.

[Scarce]

I think Chronoshift should take your next turn's standard action when you use it and require a short rest between uses

Forgive me here, but how is that supposed to be balanced? A sorcerer can get 10 quickens by 20th level, and this excludes burning spell slots for additional sorcery points. I think that limiting it to once per short rest might be prudent, but giving up another turn's action to add a cantrip to this one is a little overboard.

, and Timewalker needs to be reworked (and reworded) from the top down.

Here you're probably correct. This feature was primarily a conversion from a 3.5 homebrew, so the duration logic needs to be reworked. Also, while I agree with the consensus that it's easy to set up, I don't think that changes much; the feature specifies that its effects end when a spell goes off or if you attack. Even if you line up an ambush so that you can wait for the duration to time out (a situation in which the entire party taking prepared actions to attack when the door opens is also equally a possibility) the effects end after a single effect (or two, with Quantum Lag.) I'll rewrite it shortly, but I don't think the overall logic here is flawed: it should give the wizard a breather and a tactical edge if he is willing to take the turn sacrifice, but not completely derail the action economy.

[Scarce]

Timewalker
Beginning at 14th level, you can borrow time from the present as an action, and use it in the future. Select a duration, either one round or two rounds. You are paralyzed for this amount of time. When this duration ends, time stands still, and you may act freely for the entire duration, while all other creatures and events are frozen around you and considered paralyzed. Time restores to normal when you attack or when a spell targeting a creature other than yourself is resolved. After you use this ability, you must finish a long rest before using it again.


Slight revisions: casting time increased to 1 action, duration list corrected, usage changed to once per long rest. Also, I'll be revising the number of Chronoshifts to either 1 / short rest or wizard level / 4 per long rest. How else should I look to change this?

[meltodowno]

Alternatively, a wizard could get in close and get a critical hit. Because, you know, that's totally an effective strategy for a spellcaster to perform mid-combat.

I'll ignore the passive aggressive attitude shall I?

Dev's confirmed many months ago at a convention FAQ that any magic with an attack roll can crit.

Can you crit with a spell (assuming it has an attack-roll)? Rules seems to indicate that you can.

Yes, you can. -Mike Mearls

So yes, instant crits (and thus doubling the damage) for mages is an effective strategy for a spellcaster to perform mid combat.

[Scarce]

Dev's confirmed many months ago at a convention FAQ that any magic with an attack roll can crit.

So yes, instant crits (and thus doubling the damage) for mages is an effective strategy for a spellcaster to perform mid combat.

Wow... that's the first I've ever heard of that (we certainly don't play with that at my table.) That totally changes the entire situation and opens an even wider hole in this class feature.

[Scarce]

You know what? Revision #2: a weaker version of Time Stop (because I was dumb for thinking I could fiddle with the action economy and not mess everything up)

Timewalker
Beginning at 14th level, you can borrow time from the present as an action, and use it in the future. Select a duration, either one round or two rounds. Time stops for you for this duration and you may take no actions. When this duration ends, no time passes for other creatures and you may move and act normally for the chosen duration. Time restores to normal if one of the actions you use during this period, or any effects that you create during this period, affects a creature other than you or an object being worn or carried by someone other than you. In addition, the effect ends if you move to a place more than 100 feet from the location where you cast it. After you use this ability, you must finish a long rest before using it again.