Date: Fri, 1 Apr 1994 10:09 MST To: D&DTIME@media.utah.edu From: Steve Miller Subject: New D&D cleric class attached as text file (Time Spirit) DISCLAIMER: Document Copyright 1993 Steven Miller, with the following exemptions and provisions: This is an early draft (the first draft, in fact) of D&D game rules ultimately rejected by the editors of DRAGON Magazine. The text contains material that is the property of TSR, Inc., and is being distributed in a not-for-profit fashion, purely for the entertainment and enjoyment of role-playing game enthusiasts. The material contained herein may not be redistributed, in part or in whole, through any medium without the express permission of Steven Miller, although the original recipient may make one electronic copy and one hard copy for personal use. Dungeons & Dragons, D&D and the WORLD OF GREYHAWK are registered trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. Blackmoor, Dungeon Master, DM, Jagger von Drachenfels and the WORLD OF MYSTARA are trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. No copyright infringement or challenges to ownership intended. ARCANE LORE: Time Spirits: A New Character Class for the D&D game By Steven Miller (Direct any questions and comments to smiller@media.utah.edu) Esor the Faithful paused before the two golden doors, his much vaunted courage for once failing him. He knew Kroy, the Lord of Shadows, was watching him through his crystal ball. He knew that if he picked the wrong door Kroy would unleash the full might of his dark magic upon Esor's captured comrades. Beneath his breath, Esor uttered a small prayer. He took his lockpick from the secret pocket sewn inside his red cloak. He knelt before the door on his right and went to work. It was a simple lock and moments later it released with a soft click. Esor straightened his back and flung the door open. Behind it was... nothing. Nothing but an empty room with a thick cover of dust on the floor. "You have chosen poorly." Kroy's booming voice seemed to issue forth from the very stones and mortar of the dungeon. Esor covered his ears, wincing in pain. "And for that, your companions will die!" "You will not succeed!" Esor bellowed, as his ear drums burst and the very marrow of his bones trembeled from the aplified death-screams of his trusted companions. "By the power of the Immortal Tidligsent, you will be thwarted yet!" And with those words, the red-robed cleric vanished. Esor's knees gave way under him and his vision burred until he could see nothing but muted greys. Pain unlike anything he had ever felt was shooting through his whole body. He couldn't help but screamQa scream he couldn't himself hear. He realized he had to focus, or his desperate measure would have been for naught. He tried to think through the pain and pressed his hands to his bleeding ears. He invoked the name of Tidligset and felt the powers of the Immortal repair his damaged ears. "... weakness will not gain you a reprive, Esor," Kroy's voice boomed. "You will choose a door, and it will be the correct door, or your companions will suffer like no mortals have suffered before!" Esor got to his feet and looked at the two golden doors, both of which were again closed. He now knew the one on the left was the correct one. "Tidligsent be praised," he whispered. "Masters of Time" introduces the time spirit, an all-new character class for use in Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. Broadly speaking, the class is a combination between the standard game theif and cleric. However, time spirits have additional powers and access to a unique set of spells. Besides providing rules regarding the class itself, this article provides an explanation of the nature of time in the D&D universe, the history of the Immortal (the D&D game gods) time spirits serve, and eight spells that only time spirits can cast. Efforts have been made to make this class usable for D&D gamess of all levels and scopes. However, DMs should consider carefully if PCs should have access to time travel: it may lead to some complicated game situations that require quick thinking on the part of the DM. A Brief Explanation of Time It perhaps goes without saying that time is a concept much to complex to tackle in this article. A full-blown discussion of time and time travel and how it might be used in a D&D campagin would fill a volume larger than the Rules Cyclopedia. In fact, thousands of pages have been written about the nature of time--and there's a selected list of these texts at the end of the article. This section is intended to help DMs establish limitations on time travel that seem fitting fortheir campaigns. What is presented here is only one of any number of approaches one could take to incorporating time spirits and time travel in D&D. DMs are encouraged to expand and modify the ideas presented here, but it is recommended that some limitation is placed on the character's power to affect past events similar to those provided in the time spirit class discription--if characters have free reign over time, the DM might be generating a new campaign setting every game session. (Unless, of course, the focus of a campaign is to unravel all of history for some grand purpose.) Time, in the D&D game, is like a placid stream flowing to the present from a point infinately distant in the past, and continuing onward infinately into the future. Each campaign world is part of such a stream, and an infinate number of streams flow parallel to the one of the campaign world is in. In turn, each stream is made of a theoretically infinate number of time lines, individual existences of every being that has every existed in that particular time stream: a time line begins the moment a creature is born, and ends the moment it dies the final death. (Undead creatures, even intelligent ones, produce no time lines. They exist outside all temporality, unless there is some as-of-yet undiscovered form of "anti-time" in the Sphere of Entropy.) Time streams directly adjecent to each other will be almost indistingushable realities. In a campaign, a time spirit could enter the time stream closest to the one he belongs in (through an open time portal or displace self spell,) and notice virtually no difference. The character's companions are the same people he knew in the other reality, and the political and natural landscapes are mostly the same as well. From one time stream to another, the differences are insignifcant, but they have a cumulative affect. For example, if one considers the WORLD OF MYSTARA as detailed in official TSR supplements as the "middle" time stream, then the time streams to the left and right of it will also resemble to official supplements, except Prince Jaggar von Drachenfels of Glantri is named Jagger van Drachenfels instead. In the next time stream, Jagger van Drachenfels lost an eye and almost died as a child. Two or three more time streams hence, Prince Jagger did die as a child, and thus never lived to become prince or lead the Glantrian armies in the Great War. Even further removed, and the Kingdom of Blackmoor was never destroyed, hence the WORLD OF MYSTARA never came into being. (Instead, Mystara bears a striking resemblence to the WORLD OF GREYHAWK.) Natural laws (i.e., D&D game rules) apply equally in all time streams. With the appropriate spells, a time spirit can traverse the time streams, moving from reality to reality and correcting errors he may have committed in his native time stream. Sometimes he may even travel into that time stream's past and undo great evil before it comes into being. While this gives the time spirit great powers, these powers are limited by the nature of time, the Immortal Tidligsent, and a nightmarish breed of humanoids know as the Time Guardians. The Immortal Tidligsent A "time spirit" is a human cleric who is as much a product of rigerous training as inate abilities. Time spirits are born conduits for a form of kinetic energy generated by the passage of time. These special individuals are encouraged to serve Tidligsent, an Immortal of the Sphere of Time as clerics who can traverse the boundries of what most characters would consider perhaps the fundemental aspect of reality--time. Tidligsent was once mortal, an elf named Sesra Quicksteel. She lived on a world populated exclusively by elves who had never discovered magic and had no true Immortals or gods watching over them. A great general who was renowned for her ability to predict and successfully counter strategies of opposing commanders, Sesra was likewise always one sword thrust ahead of her foes in personal combat. The secret to her superior talent lay in with the fact that she was an untrained time spirit. She might never have developed her powers further if tragedy hadn't put her on the long road to immortality. While Sesra was recieving one of her many honors, her husband and children were killed when their carriage was swept off a mountain road by a mudslide. The mighty warrior was devastated: she could predict methods of death and destruction, but had not foreseen mortal danger to those she loved. Sesra resigned her commission and retired from public life. One night, after nearly a decade of isolation, Sesra had a vision, not unlike the ones she had when predicting actions of foes. She saw herself rescuing her family moments before the mudslide hit, and she heard a voice whisper, "This can be reality if you choose. Time is like a river, and with the proper craft you may sail it." Sesra devoted the rest of her life to making that improbable vision reality. Sesra eventually learned that her abilities went far beyond simply predicting the future: she became a self-taught time spirit. Sesra managed to travel into the past and rescue her family, as she had seen herself do. After saving the past, she traveled to the future and saw to it that her son became the ruler of a peaceful empire that was passed onto her granddaughter. Sesra died happy, after acheiving what only the rarest of mortals acheive, erasing past tragedies and replacing them with generations of joy. However, unknowingly, she had accomplished what even fewer manage: she had stumbled upon a path to Immortality. She soon realized there are millions of inhabited planets, and on each of them were beings with the potential to undo tragedies as she had. Sesra, calling herself Tidligsent ("prior to the later," in the common tongue of her world,) set out to use her godlike powers to explore the many different time streams she now knew existed, and teach those with powers like hers how to reach their full potential. She quickly learned that she could grant such students additional powers (clerical spells). Eventually, a religion that spans the uncounted Prime Planes came into being. While traveling the time streams, Tidligsent came across a reality where the death of her family had never been undone. She located her counterpart in this reality and began to explain to her that she can undo the death of her family--and realized that she was providing her counterpart with the visions that she herself had seen centuries earlier. For the first time, Tidligsent realized how vulnerable she was to interference by the many mortals she had inspired to follow in her footsteps: a time traveler accidentily undoing her act of inspiring herself to develope her abilities which might undo everything she had worked for. She didn't want to take away the gift of time travel, as she wanted all to share the happiness she had known, but needed to prevent the powers from being ill used. To this end, she recruited members of time traveling races such as reflecters and oards (detailed in the Creature Catalogue) and adaptors (found in the Rules Cyclopedia) into a force of "police officers" she called Time Guardians, and charged them with protecting the time lines from undue meddling. She then retreated to a plane connected with the time streams only so far as allowing her to grant clerical spells. By limiting her actions on the prime planes, Tidligsent hopes to avoid creating any more opportunities for mortals to alter her personal time line by accident. Time traveling PCs might encounter Tidligsent before she retreated from time. If they encounter her while she is still mortal, she is a 36th-level elf (XPs 3,850,00) with spellcasting abilities limited to time spirit spells. She is a grand master with the normal sword, with other skills and weapons mastery as per DM's choosing, and has the following stats: S 13, I 14, W 15, C 11, D 15, Ch 17; hp 62. As an Immortal, Tidligsent may be encountered as an Initiate with the special ability of Extra Damage. No stats are given for Tidligsent, as Immortals are not monsters for character's to fight. Her appearance is much the same in either case: an female elf, who despite scars on her arms and face from many battles, is still stunningly beautiful. (DMs wishing to fleshout Tidligsent, should consult the Codex of the Immortals from the Wrath of the Immortals boxed set, or possibly the old Immortals D&D game rules.) The chances of encountering time guardians are given in the "Time Spirit Spells" section below. Each time spirit has a device attuned to his life-force that permits the detection of time-altering magic. Time guardans travel in forces of 2d6, of a racial composition determined by the DM. The Time Spirit Character Class Time Spirtis follow the THAC0 progression for clerics and recieve clerical saving throws and spells. They gain levels somewhat slower than standard game clerics, a reflection of the fact that they spend time honing skills and mastering powers that counterparts in other orders do not have. Tidligsent requires her clerics to learn ways around mundane barriers such as locks and doors. This is a metaphor for their ability to avoid the greatest of barriers for mortals. Time spirits are born with a natural ability to sense the mystical energies generated by the passage of time. High-level time spirits (30th and above) can sense this talent in others, and they roam the world seeking such individuals, hoping to find them while still children. They attempt to convince the parents of time spirits to release their child into the care of the order so he or she can realize their full potential. If they are refused, the family and the child are never contacted again. Once an acolyte has pledged to be faithful to Tidligsent, the training begins. At 1st level, a time spirit is immune to spells that affect movement rates, such as haste and slow. They automatically make any saves, and cannot volutarily fail. Once the character has provien his mettle and is granted spells by the Immortal (i.e., upon reaching 2nd level) their continued training gives them the ability to channel the flow of time with a variety of effects. (The abilities of the class are detailed below.) A time spirit must spend at least one month out of every year recieving personal instructions from the masters of his order to gain the special powers as he advances in levels. Adventuring time spirits do a wide range of excersizes on their own to prepare for the annual instruction. Master-level proficiency is as high as they can hope to go. Like standard game clerics, time spirits may only wield blunt weapons. Since the time spirits' talents are to some extent linked to their ability to feel the passage of time, they may never wear armor. Such thick clothing partially disrupts the connection to time, cutting off the character's special abilities. Time spirits can wear proctection devices and use a shield without penalty. Finally, in campaigns using the optional general skills (found in the Rules Cyclopedia,) time spirits must take the following proficiencies at first level, without having to use slots: Acting, Alternate Magics, Disguise, and Knowledge (of the history of one of the campaign world's nations). These skills are taught to novices to prepare them for moving through time. Time Spirit Level and Spell Progression Chart Level XPs 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1: 0 2: 1,500 1 3: 3,500 2 4: 7,000 2 1 5: 14,00) 2 2 6: 30,000 2 2 1 7: 60,000 2 2 8: 120,000 3 3 2 1 9: 240,000 3 3 3 2 10: 400,000 4 4 3 2 1 11: 560,000 4 4 3 3 2 12: 720,000 4 4 4 3 2 1 13: 880,000 5 5 4 3 2 2 14: 1,040,000 5 5 5 3 3 2 15: 1,200,000 6 5 5 3 3 3 16: 1,360,000 6 5 5 4 4 3 17: 1,520,000 6 6 5 4 4 3 1 18: 1,680,000 6 6 5 4 4 3 2 19: 1,840,000 7 6 5 4 4 4 2 20: 2,000,000 7 6 5 4 4 4 3 21: 2,160,000 7 6 5 5 5 4 3 22: 2,320,000 7 6 5 5 5 4 4 23: 2,480,000 7 7 6 6 5 4 4 24: 2,640,000 8 7 6 6 5 4 4 25: 2,800,000 8 7 6 6 5 5 5 26: 2,960,000 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 27: 3,120,000 8 7 7 7 6 6 5 28: 3,280,000 8 8 7 7 7 6 5 29: 3,440,000 8 8 7 7 7 6 6 30: 3,600,000 8 8 8 7 7 7 6 31: 3,760,000 8 8 8 8 8 7 6 32: 3,920,000 9 8 8 8 8 7 7 33: 4,080,000 9 9 8 8 8 8 7 34: 4,240,000 9 9 9 8 8 8 8 35: 4,400,000 9 9 9 9 9 8 8 36: 4,560,000 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 Time Spirit Thief Abilities Progression Chart (Given in Percentage Points) Lvl Open Locks Find/Remove Traps Climb Walls Hide/Shadows 1 10 5 50 10 2-11 +5/level +3/level +3/level +3/level 12-20 +2/level +2/level +3/level +2/level 21-30 +1/level +2/level +2/level +1/level 31-36 +1/level No progression +1/level +1/level Additionally, all time spirits have a percentage chance of 20 plus their level to successfully Move Silently. Special Abilities Progression Chart Level AC Movement #AT Special Abilities 1 9 120' 1 Immunity to time-based magic 2-4 8 130' 1 5 8 130' 1 Read Languages 6-8 6 150' 1 9 6 150' 1 Time Sense 10-12 4 170' 2 13 4 170' 2 Time Visions 14-16 2 190' 2 17 2 190' 3 Time Walking 18-21 0 210' 3 22 0 210' 3 Disruptive Touch 23-29 -2 230' 3 30 -2 230' 3 Sense Time Spirits 31-36 -4 250' 4 Explanation of Special Abilities Immunity to time-based attacks: Immune to haste, slow, time stop, and similar effects produced by mortal-level magic and items. Immortal magic overwhelms this immunity, as may, at the DM's option, artifact effects. Additionally, time spirits receive a saving throw vs. death ray to avoid the aging effects of a Haunt's attack. (See Rules Cyclopedia, page 182.) On a successful save, the time spirit does not age. Read Languages: Time spirit gains a 50 percent chance to read any normal (non-magical) writing, langauge, code, or map. This ability stems from training received from more experienced tie spirits and the character's own travels through time. Time Sense: Time spirit gains ability to sense when other living beings approach him through the ripples they create in the energies of time. The cleric can sense any living creature native to the prime material plane within 10 yards. The cleric cannot be surpised when awake, and will awaken when approached while sleeping if the character's level or less is rolled on a d20. Undead and extra-planar creatures are not sensed, since they are effectively "disconnected" from the time stream. Time Visions: A time spirit has a percentage chance equal to his level +45 to predict the next action of his foe in combat. (A successful roll automatically gives the time spirit initiative on the round following the use of this ability, as well as +2 to-hit and an AC improvement of 1. The DM must also reveal spells that hostile characters intend to cast at the time spirit.) Time Walking: Time spirit gains ability to travel either forward or backward along the character's native time stream. The time traversed can be up to the character's level in decades either into the past or the future. When traveling into the past, the character is insubstantial and invisible and cannot affect events as they unfold, and can return to the present at will. When traveling into the future, the character loses all spells, and must rest for a full day to regain them. For each day the character remains in the future, there is a 5 percent cumulative chance that he or she will be trapped in the future. (This removes a character from a campaign until the other PCs "catch up.") A 72-hour ritual is required to return to the character's time of origin. The three days this takes are added to the character's chance of being trapped in the future. If the character isn't trapped in the future, the point of return will be 1d4 days after the character "left." Disruptive Touch: The time spirit can distort the flow of time around another individual by touch, once per day (a normal to-hit roll is required on unwilling targets or in melee; if he fails, he can try again). The time spirit must declare which of the following effects he wishes before he rolls to hit: haste, slow (as 4th-level MU spell,) freeze time (identical to hold person, except only a time spirit can release the subject before the end of the duration,) or make the target 10 years older (draining one Constitution point in the process, as per the power of Haunts). The target receives no save. Sense Time Spirits: Time spirit can sense the presence of other time spirits when within 150 yards. This ability is due to the effect they have on the magical currents. Time Spirit Spells First Level Time Spirit Spells: Open Time Portal* Range: 1 time stream per level of caster Duration: 1 turn Effect: Creates portal between two time streams When this spell is cast, a shimmering doorway appears. Beyond it, the characters can see a blinding white light. The caster, and any other character, can step through and find themselves in another time stream. This is a one-way trip. The opening is only accessable in the time stream it was created. The caster can choose to link the portal to the time stream adjecent to the one in which he finds himself, or can choose to access a stream as far removed up to his number of levels. Additionally, the caster can choose to enter the time stream at any point in the past or future within a number of decades equal to his level. The portal remains open until the duration is up, or the reverse of the spell, close time portal is cast at a level equal to or higher to the time spirit that opened the portal. Second Level Time Spirit Spells Find Person Range: 1 world in one time steam Duration: Instantanious Effect: Notifies caster to the status of a sentient being in any given time stream With this spell, a time spirit can locate the counterparts in other time streams, or future and past versions of companions, world leaders, and other individuals he either knows through detailed accounts or personally. The caster immediately knows if the being he is trying to find is dead, alive, or if it even existed in this reality. The character is also aware of the subject's general location. The use of this spell has a 5 percent chance of attracting the attention of time guardians. Third Level Time Spirit Spells Trace Timeline Range: Special Duration: Special Effect: Reveals crucial events in one sentient being's life to the caster. The caster must be intimately familiar with the subject's history as it is commonly known, or at least casually aquainted with the subject personally. However, the "crucial" even need not be part of recorded history or even presented acurately in said history. The event is replayed instantly in the mind's eye of the caster. A timeline can be traced back 1d10 years per skill level of caster. The use of this spell has a 5 percent chance of attracting the attention of time guardians. Fourth Level Time Spirit Spells Younger* Range: Touch Duration: Permanent Effect: Removes 10 percent of the current age of a touched subject. The reverse of this spell, older adds four months per skill level of caster to the current age of a touched subject. A successful save vs. spell halves the time aged. Fifth Level Time Spirit Spells Displace Self Range: 1 time stream Duration: Permanent Effect: Allows caster to replace his counterpart in adjecent time stream When this spell is cast, the time spirit foreably removes his existence from one time stream and places it in the one immediately adjecent to it. The caster's counterpart is erradicated in that reality at the same time, the caster assuming his place. This spell is generally only used by a time spirit in the most dire of straits, due to the irrevokable violence it does to the caster's counterpart and because the caster is also drained of all spells higher than 1st-level and is left weak (-2 to-hit and damage, and -3 to Constitution checks) for 1d10 days following. Lawfully-aligned time spirits hardly ever use this spell, since it can be claimed with some justification that it is a form of murder. (What other term can be applied to act of snuffing out the life of another human being, even if that human is a version of you?) Additionally, the use of this spell has a 25 percent chance of attracting the attention of time guardians. Sixth Level TIme Spirit Spells Alter Reality Range: 1/3 level of caster rounds into immediate past Duration: Non applicable Effect: Allows the caster to create a mini-divergence in a time stream. This spell creates a time divergence ranging a number of rounds equal to 1/3 of the caster's skill level into the past. If this spell is used for a trivial purpose (such as letting a gambling time spirit bet on the winning horse instead of the one that lost,) there is a 65 percent chance Tidligsent will notice and strip the cleric of spells. Additionally, there is a 80 percent chance the use of this spell will attract the attention of time guardians. DMs should make a seperate check for each eventuality. Seventh Level Time Spirit Spells Alter Personal Timeline Range: The caster + special Duration: PermanentEffect: Allows caster to change past events in his life Through this spell, a time spirit may choose one event up to 5 years per level into the past and change it in any way he sees fit. This, then, changes his timeline, and possibly those he has dealt with up to that point. (If the caster chooses never to have met Karp the Slayer, then that part of Karp's timeline is altered, too.) Whether this spell lets the caster alter his native time stream, or merely shifted himself into another timestream (as per displace self) that matches the situation he was looking for is something time spirit philosophers get into heated arguments about. Regardless, the use of this spell has a 60 percent chance of attracting the attention of time guardians. Sever Timeline Range: Touch Duration: Permanent Effect: Disconnects one creature from its personal history The most powerful spell in a time spirit's repetoir, it opens all of time to the caster. Once this spell is cast, a time spirit may time walk as far into the past as he desires, in any time stream, and effect any and all events. He may meet his past self, even killJhis past self, and basically wreak all kinds of havoc without risk of changing his past experiences, or those of any other being subjected to the spell, since he now exists outside of time. The use of this spell has a 99 percent chance of attracting time guardians--and none-too-pleased ones at that. Further Reading S.G.F. Brandon, History, Time and Deity (1965); Joseph Cambell, ed., Man and Time (1957); Mircea Eliade, Cosmos and History: The Myth of the Eternal Return (1959); J.T. Fraser, The Voices of Time (1966); and G.J. Withrow, The Natural History of Time (1961). These texts are considered central to modern philosophy and history discussions relating to time, and several of them contain extensive references to additional sources. TIME SPIRITS: FIRST DRAFT, OCT. 12, 1993. COPYRIGHT S. MILLER & TSR