Time Adept, 5 level 3.x edition PrC

[brian 333]

There are certain powerful wizards and sorcerers who have achieved an understanding of how time functions, and they are able to move along, between, and even against the flow of time.

Requirements:
The Time Adept must be able to cast the Time Stop spell without use of a magic item.
The Time Adept must be an expert in both Spellcraft and Knowledge (Arcana), having at least 10 ranks in each.

Class Skills:
Any Sorcerer or Wizard skill.
The Time Adept gains 3+Int Skill Points per level, plus 1 Rank in Knowledge (Arcana).

Advancement:
At Time Adept levels 1, 3, and 5 the character's BAB and Will Save improves by +1
At Time Adept levels 2 and 4 the character's Fort and Ref Saves improve by +1
Time Adept levels add to Wizard or Sorcerer levels for Caster Level calculations and to calculate Spells Per Day.

Class Features:
Level 1- Transmuter Synergy: Wizards who Specialize in the Transmutation School gain a +2 Spellcraft Bonus and a +2 Will bonus when casting or saving against Time Adept magic or magical effects of a similar nature.
Level 1- Temporal Awareness: this sense allows a Time Adept to know when and how the flow of time is being affected. For cases of time-related effects specifically aimed at the Time Adept treat it like a Detect Magic attempt, except that the Time Adept is not required to declare the attempt.
Level 2- Enhanced Timing: the Time Adept can forsee the future to a small degree, gaining Time Adept levels as an additional bonus to Counterspelling attempts.
Level 3- Temporal Scrying: a creature, (Will Save allowed,) object, or location can be scried with perfect accuracy for one day per Time Adept level into the past if the person or object is present or if the scrying occurs in the location in question. (When a location is scried, any creatures that move through are allowed a Save which, if successful, results in the appearance of a shadow moving through or doing what the creature did.) Scrying into the past beyond the stated time or scrying the future are less accurate. The DM will 'guess' future acts based on the adventure but may intentionally modify the results to be more vague. For example, the DM knows the adventure requires the PCs to encounter a white dragon. The DM might inform the Time Adept that the PC being scried will be killed by falling ice. The PC might survive the dragon encounter or die before getting to it.
Level 4- Anticipate Danger: any time the Time Adept is entitled to a Ref Save, the character's Will Save may be used instead.
Level 5- Selective Aging: the Time Adept may choose the age he wishes to be, and apply the appropriate aging effects to his Ability Scores. He cannot be younger than Adult, nor older than Venerable. This requires three days of seclusion to perform. Interruption of this three day period by anyone for any reason forces the Time Adept to try again or to abandon the attempt. At this point the character is no longer subject to actual aging.
Level 5- Time Stop Immunity: When another character casts Time Stop, the Time Adept may continue to act as if he had cast the spell.

Time Adept Spells:
When a Time Adept is entitled to gain a new spell, one of the following may be selected. All of these spells use a Level 9 slot to cast; Level applies to the Time Adept level required to acquire the spell.

Reverse Time
Transmutation
Level: Time Adept Level 1
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Instantaneous
This spell allows the caster to reverse time up to 1d4+1 rounds, (the time desired must be declared before the roll, if the caster desires less than the full amount possible,) and those rounds may be replayed.
Because the time begins normal forward movent from that point, all characters may declare different actions than those used the first time, though only the caster will be aware that the missing rounds occurred.

Time Skip
Transmutation
Level: Time Adept Level 2
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1
Range: Touch
Target: You or any one creature
Save: Will negates
Duration: Instantaneous
This spell allows the Time Adept to send himself or any touched creature forward in time 1d4+1 rounds. The creature reappears in the exact spot he apparently vanished from, and if not the Time Adept, will be unaware that time has passed, (other than through deduction.)

Double Time
Transmutation
Level: Time Adept Level 3
Components: V, M (a double-headed platinum coin)
Casting Time: 1
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Instantaneous
This spell allows the Time Adept to go back in time 1d4+1 rounds, effectively creating a duplicate of himself. This effect can alter the possible choices of other characters and creatures, but where possible, everything that occurred the first time should be the same. Example: the party fighter attacked the dragon for four rounds for 32, 26, miss, and Crit for 72 damage. The Time Adept Double kills the dragon in the round that the fighter scored 26. In the following round, the fighter's attacks may be directed to another target, but the dice rolls remain unchanged.

Advanced Aging
Transmutation
Level: Time Adept Level 4
Components: V, S, M (a crystal hourglass filled with diamond dust worth a minimum of 10,000gp)
Casting Time: 1
Range: Touch
Target: Any creature
Save: Fort negates
Duration: Instantaneous
The subject of this spell is advanced one age category if its Fort Save fails. This effect can be reversed by a Greater Restoration spell.

Time Lock
Transmutation
Level: Time Adept Level 5
Components: V
Casting Time: 1
Range: 100' emanation from target
Target: You
Duration: 10d4+10 rounds
The Time Adept creates a 100' radius sphere around himself in which time proceeds at the normal rate for all creatures and objects. No saves are allowed, but the emanation only suppresses such effects. Leaving the area of effect allows suppressed spell effects to return.
Examples of spells disabled by this spell include, Haste, Slow, and Time Stop.

[Beni-Kujaku]

The class is fun, and its abilities are good, but they require some work on the formatting.

Requirements:
The Time Adept must be able to cast the Time Stop spell without use of a magic item.
The Time Adept must be an expert in both Spellcraft and Knowledge (Arcana), having at least 10 ranks in each.

Time Stop is a 9th level spell. Any PrC requiring to be able to cast it should also be intended for epic play. With that in mind, 10 ranks in two very common skills seems really low. Maybe requiring 24 ranks would make it clearer who the class is for. At the very least 20 ranks mean that the candidate has invested max ranks until level 17, the level at which a wizard gains Time Stop.

Class Skills:
Any Sorcerer or Wizard skill.
The Time Adept gains 3+Int Skill Points per level, plus 1 Rank in Knowledge (Arcana).

All classes and PrC in 3.x have an even number of skill points. It would be better to give the Time Adept 4+Int mod Skill Points, but then give it a 1st level ability saying that a Time Adept must invest at least one skill point at each level in Knowledge (Arcana).

Advancement:
At Time Adept levels 1, 3, and 5 the character's BAB and Will Save improves by +1
At Time Adept levels 2 and 4 the character's Fort and Ref Saves improve by +1
Time Adept levels add to Wizard or Sorcerer levels for Caster Level calculations and to calculate Spells Per Day.

This is not how saves work in 3.x. Either a (prestige) class has "Good" will saves, or it has "Bad" will saves. In the first case, it gains +2 at first level, then +1 at each even level. For the latter, it gains +1 at each level divisible by 3.
Same thing for the BAB, either a class has a bad, medium or good BAB. A bad BAB class gains one point of BAB at each even level, a medium BAB class gains three quarters of its level as BAB (like a cleric) and a good BAB class gains one point of BAB each level. If you want the Time Adept to be enterable pre-epic, then you should simply say "good Will save, bad Reflex and Fortitude saves, bad BAB". But if you want your class to be epic-only (in that case, definitely ask for 24 ranks in the prerequisites), epic works differently. All epic characters gain one point in all saves at each even level and one point in BAB at each odd level. Then, do not say anything about your class's advancement.

Class Features:

All class features must be classified as (Ex), (Sp) or (Su). Probably Transmuter Synergy (Su), Temporal Awareness (Su), Enhanced Timing (Su), Temporal Scrying (Sp), Anticipate Danger (Su),

Level 1- Transmuter Synergy: Wizards who Specialize in the Transmutation School gain a +2 Spellcraft Bonus and a +2 Will bonus when casting or saving against Time Adept magic or magical effects of a similar nature.

You cannot use spellcraft when casting a spell. You use Spellcraft when another caster casts a spell, to identify what spell they're casting. It's also not up to the class to say anything about "similar effects", only about things the character choosing this prestige class does. Additionally, bonuses generally have a type. In this case, it would be a circumstance, or maybe a morale bonus. One example would be "Transmuter Synergy: Wizards who specialize in the Transmutation School gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Spellcraft checks made in order to identify spells cast by the Time Adept and a +2 circumstance bonus to Will saves against the Time Adept spells."

Level 1- Temporal Awareness: this sense allows a Time Adept to know when and how the flow of time is being affected. For cases of time-related effects specifically aimed at the Time Adept treat it like a Detect Magic attempt, except that the Time Adept is not required to declare the attempt.

This ability must include a way to detect spells that alter time cast in a certain area around the Time Adept, otherwise they would never detect a Time Stop, since it is a Personal spell.
"[...] specifically aimed at the Time Adept*, including the Time Adept in their area of effect or cast within a 300ft radius from the Time Adept*, treat this sense as the effect of a Detect Magic spell *after three turns spent concentrating* [...]".

Level 2- Enhanced Timing: the Time Adept can forsee the future to a small degree, gaining Time Adept levels as an additional bonus to Counterspelling attempts.

How does seeing the future aid in caster level checks made in order to counter a spell? I would understand AC, initiative or saves, but caster level checks?

Level 3- Temporal Scrying: a creature, (Will Save allowed,) object, or location can be scried with perfect accuracy for one day per Time Adept level into the past if the person or object is present or if the scrying occurs in the location in question. (When a location is scried, any creatures that move through are allowed a Save which, if successful, results in the appearance of a shadow moving through or doing what the creature did.) Scrying into the past beyond the stated time or scrying the future are less accurate. The DM will 'guess' future acts based on the adventure but may intentionally modify the results to be more vague. For example, the DM knows the adventure requires the PCs to encounter a white dragon. The DM might inform the Time Adept that the PC being scried will be killed by falling ice. The PC might survive the dragon encounter or die before getting to it.

What is the DC? I suggest 20+1/2 class level+Cha modifier.

Level 4- Anticipate Danger: any time the Time Adept is entitled to a Ref Save, the character's Will Save may be used instead.

Simple enough. Don't forget to state that this is (Su).

Level 5- Selective Aging: the Time Adept may choose the age he wishes to be, and apply the appropriate aging effects to his Ability Scores. He cannot be younger than Adult, nor older than Venerable. This requires three days of seclusion to perform. Interruption of this three day period by anyone for any reason forces the Time Adept to try again or to abandon the attempt. At this point the character is no longer subject to actual aging.

I like this one!

Level 5- Time Stop Immunity: When another character casts Time Stop, the Time Adept may continue to act as if he had cast the spell.

In effect, the character gains the Spell Stowaway feat for Time Stop.

Time Adept Spells:
When a Time Adept is entitled to gain a new spell, one of the following may be selected. All of these spells use a Level 9 slot to cast; Level applies to the Time Adept level required to acquire the spell.

The level line must say "Time Adept 9" if those are all level 9 spells. Level requirements like yours should be included in the class feature, not in the spell description. The casting time must say "1 standard action" rather than simply "1".
Those spells are ridiculously hard on the DM, but they are fun. I think making Double Time be more like Time Duplicate (the epic spell) would make it more bearable, where it's the past Adept who calls their future self from the future, rather than the future Adept going back in time.

[brian 333]

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The class is fun, and its abilities are good, but they require some work on the formatting.


Time Stop is a 9th level spell. Any PrC requiring to be able to cast it should also be intended for epic play. With that in mind, 10 ranks in two very common skills seems really low. Maybe requiring 24 ranks would make it clearer who the class is for. At the very least 20 ranks mean that the candidate has invested max ranks until level 17, the level at which a wizard gains Time Stop.


All classes and PrC in 3.x have an even number of skill points. It would be better to give the Time Adept 4+Int mod Skill Points, but then give it a 1st level ability saying that a Time Adept must invest at least one skill point at each level in Knowledge (Arcana).


This is not how saves work in 3.x. Either a (prestige) class has "Good" will saves, or it has "Bad" will saves. In the first case, it gains +2 at first level, then +1 at each even level. For the latter, it gains +1 at each level divisible by 3.
Same thing for the BAB, either a class has a bad, medium or good BAB. A bad BAB class gains one point of BAB at each even level, a medium BAB class gains three quarters of its level as BAB (like a cleric) and a good BAB class gains one point of BAB each level. If you want the Time Adept to be enterable pre-epic, then you should simply say "good Will save, bad Reflex and Fortitude saves, bad BAB". But if you want your class to be epic-only (in that case, definitely ask for 24 ranks in the prerequisites), epic works differently. All epic characters gain one point in all saves at each even level and one point in BAB at each odd level. Then, do not say anything about your class's advancement.


All class features must be classified as (Ex), (Sp) or (Su). Probably Transmuter Synergy (Su), Temporal Awareness (Su), Enhanced Timing (Su), Temporal Scrying (Sp), Anticipate Danger (Su),


You cannot use spellcraft when casting a spell. You use Spellcraft when another caster casts a spell, to identify what spell they're casting. It's also not up to the class to say anything about "similar effects", only about things the character choosing this prestige class does. Additionally, bonuses generally have a type. In this case, it would be a circumstance, or maybe a morale bonus. One example would be "Transmuter Synergy: Wizards who specialize in the Transmutation School gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Spellcraft checks made in order to identify spells cast by the Time Adept and a +2 circumstance bonus to Will saves against the Time Adept spells."


This ability must include a way to detect spells that alter time cast in a certain area around the Time Adept, otherwise they would never detect a Time Stop, since it is a Personal spell.
"[...] specifically aimed at the Time Adept*, including the Time Adept in their area of effect or cast within a 300ft radius from the Time Adept*, treat this sense as the effect of a Detect Magic spell *after three turns spent concentrating* [...]".


How does seeing the future aid in caster level checks made in order to counter a spell? I would understand AC, initiative or saves, but caster level checks?


What is the DC? I suggest 20+1/2 class level+Cha modifier.


Simple enough. Don't forget to state that this is (Su).


I like this one!


In effect, the character gains the Spell Stowaway feat for Time Stop.


The level line must say "Time Adept 9" if those are all level 9 spells. Level requirements like yours should be included in the class feature, not in the spell description. The casting time must say "1 standard action" rather than simply "1".
Those spells are ridiculously hard on the DM, but they are fun. I think making Double Time be more like Time Duplicate (the epic spell) would make it more bearable, where it's the past Adept who calls their future self from the future, rather than the future Adept going back in time.

Good critiques.

Explanations:
Skills- I wanted to say in the easiest way possible that advancement in Time Adept required continual study, resulting in greater knowledge of arcana. I may have oversimplified. 4+int bonus with a requirement that at least one skill point be invested in one rank in knowledge (arcana) was my original phrasing, but it seemed to need trimming.

Saves: this is Sorcerer progression in saves except that Fort and Ref are delayed one level. If the character progresses to level 2 TA or beyond, the saves mirror that of Sorcerer. Not correct, but I wanted to reflect the intense devotion to study a TA undergoes. Fix it if you like.

Spellcraft- yeah. In my head was something about DCs, but I completely screwed that pooch.

Similar Effects- refers to other time-related spells, not just TA spells. Specifically, Slow, or if for some reason, Haste is not desired. There are also non-spell effects that might qualify, such as zones of faster or slower times.

The ability to detect time manipulation is where that Spellcraft thing should have gone.

Seeing into the future a bit helps with counterspelling because the character can time the disruptions and interference better. There is a similar thing regarding Ref Saves as well, for the same reason. I had considered a stackable Dodge bonus to AC, but rejected it because I thought the bonus exceeded the limits of the effect I was describing.

Time Duplicate is the opposite of what I wanted. With TD, the presumption is that there is a living being up there on the temporal highway to call back. I wanted the character to go back from his current time, and when he gets there, be able to alter the previous outcome, with his younger self vanishing back into the past once they catch up. So, if younger self dies, he cannot go back and help himself in the past. (A funny instance I thought of would be to summon yourself from the future and get your dead, smoking corpse!)

Thank you for your comments. I will revise with them in mind.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Explanations:
Skills- I wanted to say in the easiest way possible that advancement in Time Adept required continual study, resulting in greater knowledge of arcana. I may have oversimplified. 4+int bonus with a requirement that at least one skill point be invested in one rank in knowledge (arcana) was my original phrasing, but it seemed to need trimming.

I think that first version was better, then.

Saves: this is Sorcerer progression in saves except that Fort and Ref are delayed one level. If the character progresses to level 2 TA or beyond, the saves mirror that of Sorcerer. Not correct, but I wanted to reflect the intense devotion to study a TA undergoes. Fix it if you like.

I can understand that, it's just not how classes work in 3.x. Everything there is very standardized, and homebrew should reflect that. Also, I am not going to fix it, I'm most probably not going to use this class, this is your homebrew, I'm just here to give advice.

Similar Effects- refers to other time-related spells, not just TA spells. Specifically, Slow, or if for some reason, Haste is not desired. There are also non-spell effects that might qualify, such as zones of faster or slower times.

The problem is that a prestige class cannot modify the rules for everything. If I am a Time Adept but my buddy casts Slow on a transmuter wizard, the fact that I am a Time Adept should not make the target gain a +2 to Will saves anymore than if the same situation happened on the other side of the planet from me. That's why "Transmuter wizards gain a +2 to saves against any time-related magic" should not be a class feature.

Seeing into the future a bit helps with counterspelling because the character can time the disruptions and interference better.

Why not. I suggest explaining it in the feature then, because it does not seem obvious to me with the current wording.

Time Duplicate is the opposite of what I wanted. With TD, the presumption is that there is a living being up there on the temporal highway to call back. I wanted the character to go back from his current time, and when he gets there, be able to alter the previous outcome, with his younger self vanishing back into the past once they catch up. So, if younger self dies, he cannot go back and help himself in the past. (A funny instance I thought of would be to summon yourself from the future and get your dead, smoking corpse!)

Yes, it is much more interesting this way, but it requires the DM remembering every position and HP from everybody in the last 5 rounds, which is obscenely hard. Still, you can write it like that, and people wanting to use the class will find a way.

[brian 333]

The problem is that a prestige class cannot modify the rules for everything. If I am a Time Adept but my buddy casts Slow on a transmuter wizard, the fact that I am a Time Adept should not make the target gain a +2 to Will saves anymore than if the same situation happened on the other side of the planet from me. That's why "Transmuter wizards gain a +2 to saves against any time-related magic" should not be a class feature.

Awkward phrasing on my part. Transmuter Time Adepts gain the advantage, not random other characters. It is a synergy bonus.

Obviously, the concept still needs work, but I thank you for your assistance.

[rel]

The class is oddly formatted, making it hard to use. Specific issues have already been addressed up thread.

Time skip seems a tad weak for a 9th level spell. The 3rd level psionic power time hop does basically the same thing.

Point of order regarding class features needing to be tagged Su, Ex, etc and bonuses needing typing, there are plenty of official class features and bonuses that were never given a type;
Class feature examples: bardic knowledge, perfect self, trap finding, spell casting.
Bonus Examples: trap sense reflex save bonus, monk AC bonus, divine grace.

[brian 333]

The class is oddly formatted, making it hard to use. Specific issues have already been addressed up thread.

Time skip seems a tad weak for a 9th level spell. The 3rd level psionic power time hop does basically the same thing.

Point of order regarding class features needing to be tagged Su, Ex, etc and bonuses needing typing, there are plenty of official class features and bonuses that were never given a type;
Class feature examples: bardic knowledge, perfect self, trap finding, spell casting.
Bonus Examples: trap sense reflex save bonus, monk AC bonus, divine grace.

I had considered a whole Time Spell list, incorporating all of the spells that deal with time plus some to fill in the levels that don't have much to work with. You are certainly welcome to adjust the idea to suit your campaign.