Quintessence Happiness

[Dragonmuncher]

(I'll be posting this to the Gaming forums as well, but I figured I might as well give the homebrew junkies a shot)


Is there any spell, build, or class, that uses Quintessence?

By Quintessence I mean

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.

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 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 DC 16 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.

It's always struck as me as an incredibly iconic psionic ability, yet its usually ignored by the general D&D population.

So... any thoughts? Any uses for quintessence, combat or otherwise? Homebrew classes? Third-party classes? Et cetera and so forth?

I know that there's another "version" of quintessence, but I have no idea what it is, and it's not what I'm asking for. I'm talking about this silvery stuff. So, how about it? Any PrCs, class features, or house rules about said miracle goo?

[Behold_the_Void]

I remember someone made a Delayed Blast Fireball nuke with it, but others argued that it wouldn't freeze the DBF counter and the spell would go off inside the Quintessence.

[Kellus]

The Timeless Mind

Very little is understood about the substance psions know as quintessence. Thought to be condensed from time itself, it’s commonly understood that this material has strange properties when interacting with psionics and aging materials. Some manifesters, however, go beyond this rudimentary knowledge in an effort to glean further insights into the fabric of the time continuum. These ardent psionicists go so far as to consume quintessence, making it a part of them and themselves by extension a part of the fabric of time. In exchange for a loss of some of their more general knowledge and skill, these researchers gain a measure of control over the flow of time.

Requirements

To qualify to become a timeless mind, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Skills: Craft (any) 5 ranks, Knowledge (psionics) 10 ranks.
Psionics: Manifester level 7th and must be able to manifest quintessence.
Special: The character must consume 1 pound of quintessence.

Hit Die: d6.
Class Skills: The timeless mind’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are: Autohypnosis (Wis), Concentration (Con), Craft (any) (Int), Knowledge (arcana, nature, psionics) (Int), and Psicraft (Int).

Table: The Timeless Mind
{table="head"]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special |Powers Known

1st|+0|+2|+0|+2|Quintessence points, time hop|–

2nd|+1|+3|+0|+3|Time trap|

+1 level of existing manifesting class

3rd|+1|+3|+1|+3|Temporal acceleration|–

4th|+2|+4|+1|+4|Improved time trap|

+1 level of existing manifesting class

5th|+2|+4|+1|+4|Body of quintessence, time regression|–

[/table]

All of the following are class features of the timeless mind.

Weapon and Armour Proficiency: Timeless minds gain no proficiencies with any weapon or armour.

Powers Known: At 2nd and 4th levels, a timeless mind gains additional power points per day and access to new powers as if he had also gained a level in whatever manifesting class he had belonged to before he added the prestige class. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (bonus feats, metapsionic or item creation feats, psicrystal special abilities, and so on). This essentially means that he adds the level of timeless mind to the level of whatever manifesting class the character has, then determines power points per day, powers known, and manifester level accordingly.

If a character had more than one manifesting class before becoming a timeless mind, he must decide to which class he adds the new level of timeless mind for the purpose of determining power points per day, powers known, and manifester level.

Advancement: To gain a level in the timeless mind prestige class, in addition to gathering enough XP to advance, a character must also consume 1 pound of quintessence per class level he is entering into. For example, to enter the 4th level of this class, a character must gain enough XP to advance to that level, and also consume 4 pounds of quintessence.

Quintessence Points: A timeless mind has a store of personal quintessence in his body that he can draw upon to cause various fluctuations in the continuum of time itself. Every day when he regains power points, he also gains quintessence points equal to twice his class level + his Wisdom modifier. If he fails to spend any quintessence points in a day, he loses them when he gains new quintessence points.

Time Hop (Ps): By spending one quintessence point as a standard action, a timeless mind can use time hop as a psi-like ability at a manifester level equal to his character level.

Time Trap (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, whenever a timeless mind is targetted by a psionic power, he can spend one quintessence point as an immediate action to activate this effect. The manifester attempting to target him must make a Will saving throw (DC 10 + twice the timeless mind’s class level + the timeless mind’s Wisdom modifier) or be forced to spend twice as many power points as normal to manifest this power. If the timeless mind is targetted instead by a psi-like ability, a manifester who fails this saving throw must spend a full-round action to manifest the psi-like ability instead of a standard action. If the manifester cannot take a full-round action this turn, the psi-like ability is wasted with no effect.

Temporal Acceleration (Ps): Beginning at 3rd level, a timeless mind can spend two quintessence points as a standard action to use temporal acceleration as a psi-like ability at a manifester level equal to his character level.

Improved Time Trap (Su): Beginning at 4th level, whenever a timeless mind uses his time trap class feature, he also gains power resistance equal to 5 + his character level until his next turn.

Body of Quintessence (Su): Beginning at 5th level, a timeless mind undergoes a transformation from the quintessence he has consumed. At this point, he stands adjacent to the flow of time, forevermore an abomination doomed to gaze on as time speeds by. His type changes to aberration. As such, he gains darkvision out to 60ft. if he does not already posess it. In addition, he no longer takes penalties or receives benefits from aging. He loses his maximum age, and no longer will die of old age.

Time Regression (Ps): Beginning at 5th level, a timeless mind can spend all of his remaining quintessence points as a full-round action action to use time regression as a psi-like ability at a manifester level equal to his character level. As it’s a psi-like ability, he doesn't need to provide 1,000 XP to use this ability as normal for the power.

[Dragonmuncher]

On reflection, I should have posted this in the "Request a Homebrew" Thread, but I'd completely forgotten it existed...

Anyway, neat PrC, Kellus. Did you just make that now?

[Kellus]

Ayup. limit?

[Serania]

I thought groupings of Quintessence of a pound or more hindered Psionic Power usage. Represented maybe by the lack of Manifester level improvement at 1st and 5th?

[MorkaisChosen]

Actually, Quintessence can be the ultimate poison- slap a bit on your weapon with no risk to yourself, then if you touch the enemy with it? d6 per round until they get it off.

Nice.

[Kellus]

I thought groupings of Quintessence of a pound or more hindered Psionic Power usage. Represented maybe by the lack of Manifester level improvement at 1st and 5th?

Sure, let's go with that.

[SilentNight]

I love the Prc, seems a bit over powered though.

[martyboy74]

I remember someone made a Delayed Blast Fireball nuke with it, but others argued that it wouldn't freeze the DBF counter and the spell would go off inside the Quintessence.

The idea was that you put a DBFs inside quintessence, which would stop them from detonating. When you have a sufficient amount amount of damage storedgetting it near your enemy, and removing some quintessence (from range). The resulting blast would set off the other DBFs, resulting in a 30' radius of death.

Think explosive runes bomb.

[Kellus]

I love the Prc, seems a bit over powered though.

Really? How so? It loses two manifesting levels, after all. The most powerful thing he gets is a 1/day time regression, which is nice to have free, but not especially game breaking. After all, there's a magic item in the MIC that does the same thing: the amulet of second chances, priced at 40,000 gp.

[SilentNight]

Really? How so? It loses two manifesting levels, after all. The most powerful thing he gets is a 1/day time regression, which is nice to have free, but not especially game breaking. After all, there's a magic item in the MIC that does the same thing: the amulet of second chances, priced at 40,000 gp.

So at 12th level we have a 10th level manifester able to use temporal acceleration about six times per/day(10 quintessence points from class and four from wis), counteract a power and get a time regression all for free. It's not game-breaking, but still a little over-powered.

[Kellus]

So at 12th level we have a 10th level manifester able to use temporal acceleration about six times per/day(10 quintessence points from class and four from wis), counteract a power and get a time regression all for free. It's not game-breaking, but still a little over-powered.

Hm... You may be right. I'll drop a third manifester level at 3rd level.

[Mewtarthio]

Actually, Quintessence can be the ultimate poison- slap a bit on your weapon with no risk to yourself, then if you touch the enemy with it? d6 per round until they get it off.

Nice.

Too bad it takes a full minute for them to start suffering damage.

----

How much quintessence does it take to fully cover a human being? They only list the weights of the quintessence itself. I assume it's more than a pound, though it'd be nice to know just how much stuff I can protect with quintessence.

[Pie Guy]

The character must consume 1 pound of quintessence.

mmmm... Tastes like chicken!