A good level for this spell?

[Palskane]

Ok, I've made a custom Prestige Class that I've rather mundanely named "Chronomancer". The basic abilities of the class are still just in my head, and is meant to be an NPC only class. I've come up with a spell for the class that I'm not sure is overpowered and/or what level it should be. Any help you folks can give me would be appreciated.

Temporal Displacement
Level: ?
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1d6+1 minutes

This spell allows the caster to "step back in time" up to 1d6+1 minutes. Often used to escape certain death, this spell does have one major drawback. The caster does not remember any of the time for the amount of time that is displaced. In other words, if the caster steps back 5 minutes, the last five minutes are erased for him, possibly landing him in the exact same situation. To other creatures the caster simply disappears. The caster goes back to the exact location he was in before the duration of the spell. So that if he was standing outside of a city, he finds himself there again, with no recollection whatsoever of what he may have done in the city beforehand... though the guards would remember him entering before.

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Ok, did I word that in a confusing way? Hopefully the gist of the spell is understood. Time can also only be reversed. Since it basically can "undo" actions the caster has taken, and wipes his memory for that amount of time, I don't think it is on the same level as "Time Stop". I am thinking about level 7. It is not permanent like "Temporal Stasis".

So, is level 7 about right?

 

[Crosshair]

7 or 8 I'd say. The difficulty with this spell is adjudicating memory loss of a PC because the player will definitely remember what happened.

What's the material component?

It'd make for one interesting trap. (If anyone has even seen Stargate, Season 4, episode 2: Window of Opportunity, you'll get the idea.)

 

[Chorn]

Take a look at the time regression psionic power and use that as a guide. It's a 9th level Nomad power that turns back Time one round. However, the manifester retains the knowledge of the "future" and it also costs 1,000 XP. There is no augmentation available so the maximum rewind is one round.

 

[Palskane]

7 or 8 I'd say. The difficulty with this spell is adjudicating memory loss of a PC because the player will definitely remember what happened.

What's the material component?

Well, at least so far this is an NPC only Prestige Class spell/ability. Now, that could obviously change in the future, but not for quite some time, as the group is only 1st level currently. This is just an NPC that they've just begun to interact with.

The material component is powdered sapphire worth at least 1,000 gold.

Take a look at the time regression psionic power and use that as a guide. It's a 9th level Nomad power that turns back Time one round. However, the manifester retains the knowledge of the "future" and it also costs 1,000 XP. There is no augmentation available so the maximum rewind is one round.

Yeah, I guess that would put it around 7th or so, like I thought. It goes back further in time, but the memory wipe is a huge offset to that since that could be a huge factor in how things play out.

Thanks! I just wanted to make sure I was in the ballpark.

 

[smootrk]

I assume this is an Arcane Class. You have to be prepared for PC's to want this spell for their own use, even if they must research it themselves. I find the loss of memory impossible to enforce in this case.

Therefore, I would use the Psionic power as the template, duplicating the effects including the xp cost (possibly adjusted for the gp loss in material components).

This would simplfy the spell a bit and in addition make it a little easier to manage.

I still think this is a DM problem spell, as I would require doing the round over, thus giving everyone the opportunity to make new choices after they see the changes. IE. Movement changes, attacks that did not work well, basically everything that happened that round gets a redo. Thus the spell actually benefits all players, regardless of who (npc or pc) casts the spell. Further thoughts make me say 8th level minimum because of these factors.

 

[Arkhandus]

I'm kinda confused here. Does the spell actually transport the caster 1d6+1 minutes into the past, back to where he was at that point? If that's so, then the rest of your description doesn't make sense. If I threw a water baloon at someone on the street, then went back in time 5 minutes, that person is not going to remember that I threw a water baloon at them. Those 5 minutes that I just jumped back through NEVER HAPPENED, though, depending on what sci-fi theories of time travel you subscribe to, I myself may or may not remember those 5 minutes. But either way it is CERTAIN that no one else will remember it (at most, they may feel deja vu from some kind of temporal wierdness, but deja vu is not the same as remembering something, it's feeling like something already happened).

So if the caster is truly sent back 5 minutes into the past, to the spot where he had been 5 minutes ago, then no one will remember those 5 minutes. They won't have happened. So you'll need to fix your description for clarity. I.E. the guards will not remember the caster entering the city, if the caster just jumped back to the point in time before he had entered.

If that IS NOT what you meant...... Then it's just really wierd. If that's the case, does the spell just remove the caster from the time stream, rewind him 1d6+1 minutes, then take that version of him from 1d6+1 minutes ago and leap it forward to the present, but at the location he was in 1d6+1 minutes ago?

Before I can comment on what level it should be, you have to clarify what it does. Did the past 1d6+1 minutes just never happen? If so, then the spell is probably 7th level I'd guess. If the past 1d6+1 minutes DID happen, and everyone except the caster remembers them (and has the wounds/etc. from them), then I'm not really sure what the hell the spell's point is, or what level it should be.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Here is a spell I worked up:

TEMPORAL SLIP
Conjuration [Teleportation]
Level: Sor/Wiz 1
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal
Target: You and one willing recipient per caster level
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)

You create a small tear in the fabric of space and time, allowing you to step through it and move through the boundary of time. The rip in time may only send the person(s) stepping through to go forward or backward up to by five minutes per level of the caster.

A creature affected by a temporal anchor cannot travel via this spell.

Material Component: A pinch of sand.

 

[Arkhandus]

Wha? A 1st-level spell? I don't get it.......is it meant to be a joke? Cuz I wouldn't believe that to be a serious spell. Not to mention the utter lack of any explanation. So would the PCs use that to go fight an enemy, then go back 5 minutes or so to just before the fight, so that they know exactly what the enemy has ready, and can completely screw its tactics? Etc.?

 

[Palskane]

I'm kinda confused here. Does the spell actually transport the caster 1d6+1 minutes into the past, back to where he was at that point? If that's so, then the rest of your description doesn't make sense. If I threw a water baloon at someone on the street, then went back in time 5 minutes, that person is not going to remember that I threw a water baloon at them. Those 5 minutes that I just jumped back through NEVER HAPPENED, though, depending on what sci-fi theories of time travel you subscribe to, I myself may or may not remember those 5 minutes. But either way it is CERTAIN that no one else will remember it (at most, they may feel deja vu from some kind of temporal wierdness, but deja vu is not the same as remembering something, it's feeling like something already happened).

So if the caster is truly sent back 5 minutes into the past, to the spot where he had been 5 minutes ago, then no one will remember those 5 minutes. They won't have happened. So you'll need to fix your description for clarity. I.E. the guards will not remember the caster entering the city, if the caster just jumped back to the point in time before he had entered.

If that IS NOT what you meant...... Then it's just really wierd. If that's the case, does the spell just remove the caster from the time stream, rewind him 1d6+1 minutes, then take that version of him from 1d6+1 minutes ago and leap it forward to the present, but at the location he was in 1d6+1 minutes ago?

Before I can comment on what level it should be, you have to clarify what it does. Did the past 1d6+1 minutes just never happen? If so, then the spell is probably 7th level I'd guess. If the past 1d6+1 minutes DID happen, and everyone except the caster remembers them (and has the wounds/etc. from them), then I'm not really sure what the hell the spell's point is, or what level it should be.

Ok, here's how the spell works:

Caster throws the above mentioned water balloon, soaking a guard and upsetting him very much. The guard sees him in the second story window of the inn and heads that way, intent on giving the caster a good thrashing. The caster, only having one spell left for the day, this particular one, casts the spell and slips back in time 5 minutes.

His actions are not undone. The guard is still wet and intent on kicking his butt, but when the guard gets to the room the caster is nowhere to be found, because five minutes ago the caster was out in back of the inn making water balloons.

To the caster he is just now starting to make the balloons and has thrown them at nobody. He doesn't remember the guard, or the other balloon either. Though the guard will clearly remember him if he sees him again.

Though this may not be the way you'd adjudicate the spell, it is nevertheless the way the spell works. Only the caster is affected, and nobody else gets to redo any actions for that time period. Any spells the caster had cast before casting this spell are like-wise gone. He doesn't get those spells back.

 

[Chorn]

He obviously loses the spell slot used to cast the spell so it's probably safe to assume items used and spells cast would not be restored but what about damage and active effects? If the caster was hit for 10 points of damage and cast mage armor on himself in the minutes before rewinding himself, would he still retain his injuries and mage armor or would they cease to exist on account of not having occured?

Finally, since it only rewinds the caster while still keeping him in the same timeframe, what possible use would someone have for this spell that would not be achieved by simply teleporting away? Teleporting avoids the memory loss and allows you to precise control over your destination for the Times when hopping back somewhere between 2-7 minutes ago might be a bad idea.