Wow, I seem to be having an influx of random magic-but-not-magic ideas this week. Here's another random base class that sort of evolved over the course of a few lecture periods.
The Chrono Disciple"Your linear conception of time bores me."--Gaspar, chrono disciple
A chrono disciple trains his body and his mind for one purpose: to learn to transcend the normal flow of time. As his movements and thoughts become more and more rapid, he gains more and more control over a supernatural ability to slightly alter and distort the passage of time. A master of this path is a blur on the battlefield, moving faster than the eye can follow and sending his foes through the space-time continuum with a simple blow.
Chrono disciples come from all sorts of backgrounds, though many come from areas near monasteries. Societies that respect or revere monks are more likely to turn out chrono disciples, as the regimen and devotion necessary to pursue this path are similar to those of a monk.
Making a Chrono DiscipleA chrono disciple is a melee combatant who uses his abilities to manipulate time in order to maintain an advantage over his foes. Disdaining weapons, he fights with his fists alone, striking his foes far more rapidly than any normal mortal ever could.
Abilities: The most important abilities for a chrono disciple are Intelligence and Dexterity. Intelligence gives him a higher armor class bonus, a greater chance to hit with his unarmed attacks, and maximizes the effects of his time-manipulating abilities. Dexterity increases the damage done by his attacks and, as usual, increases his armor class.
Constitution is also an important ability, as a chrono disciple will often find himself fighting in close quarters, and the extra hit points will be invaluable in the event that a foe manages to strike him.
Races: A chrono disciple can come from any race, though those less given to intellectualism are less likely to produce members of this class.
Alignment: Any
Starting Gold: 4d4x10 (100gp)
Starting Age: As monk
Hit Die: d8
BAB Fort Ref Will Distortions Abilities AC Bonus Fast Movement
1 +0 +0 +2 +2 1 Unarmed strike, flurry of blows, accelerate +0 +0 ft.
2 +1 +0 +3 +3 1 Uncanny dodge +0 +0 ft.
3 +2 +1 +3 +3 2 Tweak time (self) +0 +10 ft.
4 +3 +1 +4 +4 2 Evasion +0 +10 ft.
5 +3 +1 +4 +4 3 Temporal dislocation (move action), decelerate +1 +10 ft.
6 +4 +2 +5 +5 3 --- +1 +20 ft.
7 +5 +2 +5 +5 4 Tweak time (ally) +1 +20 ft.
8 +6 +2 +6 +6 4 --- +1 +20 ft.
9 +6 +3 +6 +6 5 Time leap +1 +30 ft.
10 +7 +3 +7 +7 5 Temporal dislocation (standard action) +2 +30 ft.
11 +8 +3 +7 +7 6 Tweak time (foe) +2 +30 ft.
12 +9 +4 +8 +8 6 Improved uncanny dodge +2 +40 ft.
13 +9 +4 +8 +8 7 Timeline disruption +2 +40 ft.
14 +10 +4 +9 +9 7 Improved evasion +2 +40 ft.
15 +11 +5 +9 +9 8 Temporal dislocation (round), quantum glimpse +3 +50 ft.
16 +12 +5 +10 +10 8 --- +3 +50 ft.
17 +12 +5 +10 +10 9 Timeless body, revise past +3 +50 ft.
18 +13 +6 +11 +11 9 --- +3 +60 ft.
19 +14 +6 +11 +11 10 Backstep +3 +60 ft.
20 +15 +6 +12 +12 11 Timesurge +4 +60 ft.
Class Skills (4 + Int modifier per level, x4 at 1st level): Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (history) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Search (Int), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spot (Wis), Tumble (Dex), Use Magic Device (Cha)
Class FeaturesAll of the following are class features of the chrono disciple.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A chrono disciple is proficient with clubs, crossbows (light or heavy), daggers, handaxes, quarterstaves, and slings. He is not proficient with any armor or shields.
When wearing armor, using a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load, a chrono disciple loses his AC bonus, as well as his fast movement and flurry of blows abilities. In addition, the extra encumbrance prevents him from affecting the timeline by using his temporal distortion abilities.
Temporal Distortion: The chrono disciple is a devoted student of time, a pupil whose master is the passage of the seasons. By perfecting his body and his mind, a chrono disciple gains the ability to manipulate time on a small scale, achieving effects that, while extraordinary, do not rewrite history.
To represent this growing mastery over the timeline, a chrono disciple gains temporal distortion points that he can spend to activate his abilities. At the beginning of each encounter, he gains a number of temporal distortion points determined by his level (see the table).
AC Bonus (Ex): Your attunement to the time stream grants you slight precognitive abilities that allow you to avoid even unanticipated attacks. When unarmored and unencumbered, you add your Intelligence bonus (if any) to your AC. In addition, you gain a +1 bonus to AC at 5th level. This bonus increases by 1 for every five chrono disciple levels thereafter (+2 at 10th, +3 at 15th, and +4 at 20th level).
These bonuses to AC apply even against touch attacks or when you are flat-footed. You lose these bonuses when you are immobilized or helpless, when you wear any armor, when you carry a shield, or when you carry a medium or heavy load.
Unarmed Strike: As a chrono disciple, you have trained your body to perfection in order to move through time. At 1st level, you gain Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. Your attacks may be with either fist interchangeably or even from elbows, knees, feet, or any other part of your body. This means that you may even make unarmed strikes with your hands full.
Your unarmed strike is treated both as a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or imporve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons (such as the magic fang and magic weapon spells).
Unlike most people, you do not rely on brute strength when making your attacks. Instead, you rely on your glimpses of the future and your blinding speed in order to land attacks and deal damage. When making an unarmed attack, you apply your Intelligence bonus, rather than your Strength bonus, to the attack roll. In addition, you apply your Dexterity bonus, rather than your Strength bonus, to the damage rolls for your unarmed attacks.
You also deal more damage with your unarmed strikes than a normal person would, as shown on the table. The unarmed damage on the table is for Medium chrono disciples. A Small chrono disciple deals less damage than the amount given with his unarmed attacks, while a Large chrono disciple deals more damage; see the monk (PH 40) for more information.
Flurry of Blows (Ex): When unarmored, you may use your unnatural speed to strike with a flurry of blows at the expense of accuracy. When doing so, you make make one extra attack in a round at your highest base attack bonus, but this attack takes a -2 penalty, as does each other attack you make that round. This penalty applies for 1 round, so it also affects attacks of opportunity that you might make before your next action. When you reach 5th level, the penalty lessens to -1, and at 9th level it disappears. You may choose to use flurry of blows whenever you make an attack roll, but only once per round, and you may attack only with unarmed strikes when using flurry of blows.
When you reach 11th level, your flurry of blows ability improves. In addition to the standard single extra attack you get from flurry of blows, you get a second extra attack at your full base attack bonus.
Accelerate (Su): By spending a temporal distortion point as a swift action, you can accelerate yourself or an ally within 30 ft., granting the benefit of the
haste spell for three rounds.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, your limited precognition allows you to react to danger before your senses would normally let you do so. You retain your Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) even if you are caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, you still lose your Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized.
If you already have uncanny dodge from a different class, you automatically gain improved uncanny dodge (see below) instead.
Fast Movement (Ex): Starting at 3rd level, your relationship to the nature of time allows you to move with extraordinary speed. You gain an increasing enhancement bonus to your speed, as shown on the table. You do not gain this extra speed when wearing armor or carrying a medium or heavy load.
Tweak Time (Su): Starting at 3rd level, you can spend a temporal distortion point as an immediate action to tweak the flow of time slightly, allowing you to reroll one roll that you have made. You do not have to use this ability before the DM declares whether the roll results in success or failure, but you must use it before anything else occurs. You must take the result of the reroll, even if it's worse than the original roll.
At 7th level, you can use this ability to allow an ally to reroll one roll that she had just made.
At 11th level, you can use this ability to force an opponent to reroll one roll that it had just made.
Evasion (Ex): At 4th level, you can avoid even magical and usual attacks with great agility. If you make a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals damage on a successful save, you instead take no damage. Evasion can be used only if you are wearing light armor or no armor. If you are helpless, you do not gain the benefit of evasion.
Temporal Dislocation (Su): Starting at 5th level, your mastery of time allows you to act in a manner that defies the normal structure of time. You can use an immediate action to take a move action. In addition to the normal effects of taking an immediate action, you cannot take a move action or full-round action on your next turn after using this ability. If you use this action to try to avoid an attack or interrupt an opponent's action, you must succeed on an opposed initiative check against the opponent whose action you are interrupting in order to do so. If you fail this check, you still take a move action, but you must take it after your opponent's action resolves.
At 10th level, your dissociation from the time stream becomes more pronounced. You can instead take a standard action (or move action) as an immediate action, though you still lose your next action of that type after using this ability.
At 15th level, you transcend time completely. You no longer take move actions or standard actions as immediate actions. Instead, you can simply act whenever you like, regardless of where you are in the initiative order. You still are limited to the number of actions a character can take in a round, but you can take them at any time, and you do not have to take them together. If you try to use one of your actions to interrupt an opponent's action, you still must roll an opposed initiative check in order to do so.
Decelerate (Su): Starting 5th level, when you damage a foe with your unarmed attack, you can spend a temporal distortion point to shift him into slow time, forcing him to move and attack at a drastically slowed rate. Using this ability is a swift action that follows a successful melee attack. The target of the ability must make a Will saving throw (DC 10 + 1/2 your class level + your Int modifier) or be affected as if by the
slow spell for three rounds.
Time Leap (Su): At 9th level, you gain the ability to leap forward in time. As a move action, you may spend a temporal distortion point to leap forward in time a number of rounds equal to or less than your Intelligence modifier (always into the future, never into the past). In effect, you seem to disappear, then reappear the appropriate number of rounds later. You reappear in the same orientation and condition as before. For you, no time has passed at all.
If the space from which you departed is occupied upon your return to the time stream, you appear in the closest unoccupied space, still in your original orientation. Determine the closest space randomly if necessary.
Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 12th level, your ability to see into the near future allows you to respond to multiple attackers with the same ease with which you would respond to one. You can no longer be flanked; you can react to opponents on both sides of you as easily as you can react to a single attacker. See the barbarian class feature (PH 26) for more information.
Timeline Disruption (Su): At 13th level and higher, when you damage a foe with your unarmed attack, you can spend a temporal distortion point to attempt to send that foe reeling through the continuum of time. Using this ability is a swift action that follows a successful melee attack. The target of this ability must make a Will saving throw (DC 10 + 1/2 your class level + your Int modifier). If your foe fails his saving throw, he is hurled forward in time in addition to taking damage normally.
The subject is propelled 10 rounds forward in time by your disruption of his timeline. In effect, the subject seems to disappear through ahole punched in space, then reappears 10 rounds later. The subject reappears in the same orientation and condition as before. From the subject's point of view, no time has passed at all.
In each round following the disruption before the subject falls back into the time stream, on what would have been the subject's turn, it can attempt a DC 15 Wisdom check. Success allows the subject to return. The subject can act normally on its next turn after returning to the time stream.
If the space from which the subject departed is occupied upon its return to the time stream, it appears in the closest unoccupied space, still in his original orientation. Determined the closest space randomly if necessary.
Improved Evasion (Ex): From 14th level on, you gain the benefit of improved evasion. You still take no damage if you make a successful Reflex save against an attack, and even if you fail the Reflex save, you take only half damage from the attack. If you are helpless, you do not gain the benefit of improved evasion.
Quantum Glimpse (Su): At 15th level, your precognitive abilities grow to the point that you can call upon them to see the immediate future with perfect clarity. By spending a temporal distortion point as an immediate action, you gain extraordinary precognition that grants you an insight bonus equal to your class level on any single attack roll, opposed ability check or skill check, or saving throw. Alternatively, you can apply the insight bonus to your AC against a single attack (even if you are flat-footed). You must choose to use a this ability before you make the roll it is to modify.
Timeless Body (Ex): Upon attaining 17th level, you reach a level of temporal transcendence not achieved by many mortals. You no longer take penalties to your ability scores for aging and cannot be magically aged. Any such penalties that you have already taken, however, remain in place. Bonuses still accrue, and you still die of old age when your time is up.
Revise Past (Su): At 17th level, you gain the extraordinary ability to reverse the last few seconds of time. By spending a temporal distortion point as a standard action, you can regress apparent time 1 round into the past. In effect, you "replay" the previous round of activity. This ability regresses time to the point along the time stream just prior to your previous turn (according to initiative count), undoing everyone else's actions in the meantime. Once you have used this ability, only you retain knowledge of what happened during the round that is being replayed; however, you can communicate that knowledge verbally to your companions, if desired. During the round that you live through a second time, you can act on knowledge you previously gained by already living through the immediate future. In all likelihood, you will probably not choose to use this ability during your second pass through the time stream, instead taking completely new actions, but you pay the temporal distortion point all the same.
Backstep (Su): At 19th level, you gain the ability to decide to step backwards in time. By spending a temporal distortion point as a swift action, you cause your future self to appear in an adjacent space. Technically, your future self decides to come back into the past, but you will do so soon enough that you must decide in the past. This future self is technically only a possible future self (the time stream is a maelstrom of multiple probabilities), but snatching that future self from 1 round in the future collapses probability, and the possible future becomes the definite future. You and your future self are both free to act normally until you jump into the past and become your future self (though your present self has spent its swift action for this round, your future self has not). Your future self's knowledge of what occurred in what it views as the past grants it a +10 insight bonus on all attack rolls, opposed ability checks, skill checks, and saving throws for the one round during which both versions of you are present.
The future self has all the resources you had at the moment you decided to use this ability. However, as your future self is you from the future, any resources your present self uses up (temporal distortion points, hit points, et cetera) are deducted from the future self as well. Resources used by your future self are not deducted from your present self. If your preset self dies, so does your future self--and any effects it created vanish immediately. If your future self dies, your present self is not harmed--but you will die when you make the leap back in time.
At the end of the round, your present self jumps into the past to become your future self. What was previously termed your future self is now just you, as you have reached the point in the timeline at which you are no longer from the future.
Timesurge (Su): Once per day, as a free action, you may enter a higher level of time, moving much more quickly than other creatures around you. This concentrated burst of time essence allows you to take another full-round action (or a move action and a standard action) this round.
