Quintessence!

[Alleine]

I'm playing a psion in a current campaign, saw the quintessence power and immediately began thinking of all the terrible and silly things I could do with it.

For starters, I was hoping you great and powerful DnD gurus could clarify the description a bit. Could it potentially be frozen or otherwise hardened? And what would happen if you attempted to shoot an arrow through a pool of it?

Secondly, I'd like to know what you can think of that can be done with quintessence, malicious or otherwise. Please try to be original. The power in its entirety is provided below.

Quintessence
Metacreativity(creation)
Level: Shaper 4
Display: Material; see text
Manifesting time: 1 round
Range: 0 ft.
Effect: 1-inch-diameter dollop of quintessence; see text
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Power resistance: No
Power Points: 7

You collapse a bit of time from the continuum, forming a 1-ounce dollop of thick, gooey material called quintessence. This substance shimmers like a silver mirror when viewed from some angles but is transparent from other viewpoints. You can smooth a dollop of quintessence around any extremely small object, such as a key, a ring, a seal, or an insignia.
Objects sealed within quintessence are protected from the effects of time; in practical terms, they enter a state of stasis. Living flesh with only partial contact with quintessence is also partially pulled out of the time stream(the manifester is immune to this effect). This disruption deals 1 point of damage per round beginning 10 rounds after partial contact occurs.
Quintessence can be manually scraped away from a protected object, freeing it to rejoin the time stream. When you do this, there is a 75% chance that the quintessence evaporates back into the continuum. Otherwise it coalesces again into a 1-inch-diameter bead, available for later use.
Large quantities of quintessence could theoretically be gathered to preserve large items or structures(or even a complete living creature; if completely immersed, a living creature would not take the the damage associated with partial contact). However, psionic characters and creatures are generally loath to do so because accumulations of quintessence weighing 1 pound or more hinder psionic activity within a 5-foot radius of the accumulation: Powers require twice as many power points to manifest, unless the manifester makes a successful Will save each time he or she attempts to manifest a power. Also in these circumstances, manifesting a psi-like ability that is usable at will is a full-round action rather than a standard action.

[NullAshton]

Any objects inside are protected from the effects of time. They are held in stasis. They do NOT have their momentum stilled as far as I know. I don't believe it can be frozen, and I don't think it can be hardened, though the DM is free to say otherwise. Shooting through a wall of quintessense would be much like shooting through water I suppose. Also, if an object isn't completely sealed in quintessense, it isn't COMPLETELY cut off from time, thus an arm inside quintessense could still move.

[Alleine]

Generally, being frozen/suspended in time also suspends movement in space.
If you move through time, you also move through space, whether you realize it or not. You start at location x in time x and move to location x in time y. Sadly, location x wasn't in the same spot due to planetary movement, but seeing as this would make time travel a relatively unexplorable frontier, we get to move through space as well.

Following that logic, if you reached into quintessence and tried to move your arm, you couldn't, its in stasis. You could coat your arm and bring it along with the rest of you for a ride, but it would be useless.

[NullAshton]

Yeah, but that leads to so many evil evil traps. It ALSO makes it impossible to actually put an object into quintessense, or take it out of it. Thus, silly.

A good trap would be a pit into... quintessence. If they fall, they're not dead, but stuck in stasis. How would you get him out? There's the ten foot pole, but there's also the slight problem of him not being able to grab it...

[Jack_Simth]

Yeah, but that leads to so many evil evil traps. It ALSO makes it impossible to actually put an object into quintessense, or take it out of it. Thus, silly.

A good trap would be a pit into... quintessence. If they fall, they're not dead, but stuck in stasis. How would you get him out? There's the ten foot pole, but there's also the slight problem of him not being able to grab it...

Grappling hook.

Or find a way to get rid of the quinessance - stick 10 foot pole in, scrape Quintessance off on wall, repeat until no quintessance.

[Alleine]

I agree, but when I mentioned arm movement I meant actually bending it around, you could easily pull it out and scrape off the quintessence. Thanks for pointing that out to me.

One idea I had was to manifest Telekinetic Sphere and have an ally coat the sphere in quintessence, or use control objects to do it myself with a ready supply of course. I wouldn't be in stasis, the sphere couldn't be harmed until someone wiped off enough quintessence to disintegrate it or dispel it, and I would be safe inside, raining psionic destruction on my enemies while laughing heartily. Presumably the sphere would last forever in stasis, though being moved telekinetically, but I doubt my DM would allow that.

[martyboy74]

Depending on various unspecified factors (density, surface tension, and viscosity) it's quite likely that a DM could rule that they don't sink all the way in, making a much more escapeable trap.

One idea I had was to manifest Telekinetic Sphere and have an ally coat the sphere in quintessence, or use control objects to do it myself with a ready supply of course. I wouldn't be in stasis, the sphere couldn't be harmed until someone wiped off enough quintessence to disintegrate it or dispel it, and I would be safe inside, raining psionic destruction on my enemies while laughing heartily. Presumably the sphere would last forever in stasis, though being moved telekinetically, but I doubt my DM would allow that.

*cough*Split Ray Disintegrate/Quicken Disintegrate followed by Disintegrate*cough*

[Alleine]

Would disintegrate really work on quintessence? I don't know spells very well, new + not interested.
Even if it does, how many enemies would be capable of such?

*cringes in fear of massive list*

[martyboy74]

Presumably disintegrate would work; there's no logical reason it wouldn't.

Really, only monsters with high levels in spellcasting classes get disintegrate. The designers apparently thought it was too powerful to be handed out willy-nilly.

[Fizban]

The whole plan fails because the sphere (and/or the quintessence covering it) blocks your line of effect. You can't cast spells from the safety of a sphere of force, nor can you manifest powers from the same.

[Alleine]

Untrue. While I may not always be able to see through the quintessence, I can sometimes if you read the description. And also, at that level my psicrystal will be able to see for me, so I give it to someone else who will allow me to keep sight.

As for being unable to manifest, well, I don't see where it says I can't. I know nothing(excepting air) can pass through the sphere, explaining why spellcasters don't do it, magic missile originates from them. However, there are numerous powers that do not shoot from me. Therefore, they do not pass through the barrier. Take for example a simple first level power called matter agitation. I agitate a target part of matter, heating it up to a damage dealing level. What moves from me? Nothing. No one, except perhaps other magic/psionics users can detect it was me. I sit there innocently(or not, as the case may be) staring at them as they die. I am confident that by that level, at which point I will wield 8th level powers, I can manifest something without the usual it-shoots-from-me-to-you interface.

Now, if you back up your reasoning with RAW that states,"So-and-so can't do thus-and-such while in a sphere of force" I will admit defeat. Until then, well, it looks good to me. Thankfully the DM of my group can usually be swayed with reasonable statements. And seeing as this won't happen until 15th level, it isn't all that broken.


And to anyone else reading, I was hoping for a larger creative response. I think a lot of funny things could potenially be done with this. Or if not funny, then interesting.

[vanyell]

one of the tricks I remember was putting delayed blast fireballs in there... hundreds or thousands of them.... a D&D WMD

[Jack Mann]

As for being unable to manifest, well, I don't see where it says I can't. I know nothing(excepting air) can pass through the sphere, explaining why spellcasters don't do it, magic missile originates from them. However, there are numerous powers that do not shoot from me. Therefore, they do not pass through the barrier. Take for example a simple first level power called matter agitation. I agitate a target part of matter, heating it up to a damage dealing level. What moves from me? Nothing. No one, except perhaps other magic/psionics users can detect it was me. I sit there innocently(or not, as the case may be) staring at them as they die. I am confident that by that level, at which point I will wield 8th level powers, I can manifest something without the usual it-shoots-from-me-to-you interface.

Depends on whether or not the quintessence-covered telekinetic sphere counts as a solid barrier. If it does, you don't have line-of-effect. Check out the rules on psionics. You still have to have line-of-effect to the origin of the power. In this case, the air that you're agitating.

Of course, I'm not sure that it's a solid barrier for this purpose. What do you think?