Past, Present, and Future

[Stratovarius]

Alright, finished the Ancient Martial Eras (10 in all). Ancient Wizardry is next, and then Ancient Prayer. 4 more needed in each.

[Stratovarius]

Ancient Eras
The Historian has studied the wisdom of the past for his entire life, and now applies that knowledge to the modern era, striking and defeating his foes with combat styles that have not been seen for hundreds or even thousands of years. These techniques have been reconstructed through painstaking study, represented by the Knowledge check needed to attune himself to the individual era.

Ancient Prayer Eras

• Healer's Gift: Flonha healers, as well as the rest of their society, were renowned for their ability to heal, and for the kindness and gentleness that permeated the culture. Diseased people would make a pilgrimage from all over the world to be treated at the hospitals of the Flonha. However, as has been the case with many of the few cultures based around kindness and self-sacrifice, they were swept under by a warlike neighbour who saw them as easy prey.
  • Prequisites: Health and Hearth
    
  • Knowledge Check: Religion DC 10.
    
  • Effect 1: Whenever the Historian heals a creature, he may take up to one hit point per level in damage. The creature that is being healed gains an extra two hit points per point of damage the Historian takes. The Historian also receives a +1 bonus per hit point taken to any concentration checks he must make to complete the healing.
    
  • Effect 2: Once per day, the Historian may heal a creature up to 10 hitpoints per class level.
    
  • Penalty: If you use the Healer's Gift while in combat, you take a -1 penalty to AC for every two hitpoints sacrificed, as you focus entirely on healing the wounded creature before you, blocking out all that is around you.
• Theft of Cripples: Magical energy crackled from the spires of the Chral Kala in its heyday, siphoning off of the energy of all those who lived with its domain, feeding that energy into carriers and storage for the use of the few, proud rulers of the city. Haughty men, others died so that they might live.
  • Prequisites: Illness, Life Attenuated
    
  • Knowledge Check: Religion DC 18.
    
  • Effect 1: The rulers of the Chral Kala stole the souls of their peasants, in order to revivfy their old and failing bodies. The historian gains 5 temporary hit points for every negative level he bestows, 2 temporary hit points per point of ability damage, and heals the total of any negative energy damage he deals.
    
  • Effect 2: Lust for eternal life and power never ending drove the rulers of the Chral Kala onward, forcing them into ever more extreme means of staying alive. Whenever afflicted by a disease or a poison, the historian becomes immune to all other sources of ability damage or burn.
    
  • Penalty: Infused with the very opposite of living life, the Chral Kala eventually passed over into undeath. The historian is treated as if he is undead for the duration of the era.
• Radiant Dark: Bright lights sparkled along the golden rooftops of Setras Ra, brilliant spheres of captured light, illuminating a city of splendour and exquisite tastes. What it did not reveal was the lust and corruption eating away at the heart of the land, two forces brought together within the hearts of the rulers, men of charitable dispositions and secretive and immoral liasons.
  • Prequisites: The Radiant Orb, Life Attenuated, Health and Hearth
    
  • Knowledge Check: Religion DC 24.
    
  • Effect 1: Entangled amidst the life of each other, the light fed off the darkness, and the darkness cloaked the light. Whenever a creature is struck by a spell that uses both The Glaring Heart and The Black Whip, the historian can cast a spell using only A Wound Mended as a swift action.
    
  • Effect 2: Light turns and steps aside, and darkness fills the cracks, only for it, in turn, to pass on. Every round in which the historian casts a spell from the Life Attenuated and follows with one from The Radiant Orb or Health and Hearth, he gains one free spell point. Likewise, if he follows The Radiant Orb or Health and Hearth with a spell from Life Attenuated, he gains a free spell point.
    
  • Penalty: Creatures of duality, the citizens of Setras Ra have long feared the purity of one side or the other. Any spell with the Light or Darkness descriptor is empowered when it affects the historians, and he takes a -2 penalty on saves against those spells.
• Verdant Tide: Nature has often been ignored amidst the expansion and breadth of civilization, but is a force that has, perhaps, done more to shape the course of history than any before or any since.
  • Prequisites: The Verdant Forest, The Roaring Beast
    
  • Knowledge Check: Religion DC 30.
    
  • Effect 1: Plants and animals are simply two sides of a single, coherent nature, that interacts far more than any would suspect. Any effect that targets plants may also be used on animals, and any effect that targets animals may be used on plants.
    
  • Effect 2: To become one of the very things that is studied appeals greatly to the historian. He gains the ability to wildshape, as a druid of one half his level, except that he may also transform into a plant creature.
    
  • Penalty: Tightly enmeshed in nature as those who study these seeds are, they take on the vulnerabilities of that same flora. Treat the historian as a plant or an animal whenever he is afflicted by an injurious spell that affects only those types.
• Earth and Sky: The Hanian civilization was one of the first to discover the magic needed to make lands flow and form, lifting the mountain tops from the hoary peaks and turning them into the first flying landmasses. Each was enmeshed in the gale that kept it airborne and stable, but one by one, these failed as the patterns of the world changed, and the great stones fell from the sky, leaving behind little but forgotten hills and tiny islands as markers of what once was.
  • Prequisites: The Land Arisen, The Howling Storm
    
  • Knowledge Check: Religion DC 20.
    
  • Effect 1: Land that flies and dances is an easy and wonderful gift for one of the Hanians, but for those others who had never seen such alterations in the landscape, they would become overawed and stunned. Whenever the historian casts a spell that uses both The Howling Storm and The Land Arisen, any creature viewing the effects is shaken if it fails a Will save against the spell's save DC.
    
  • Effect 2: Investing the talents of the Hanians into the landscape, the historian creates his own, small, flying, structure, the equivalent of a two-story tower. It moves at a speed of 30ft. per round, and requires the expenditure of 5 spell points an hour to move it.
    
  • Penalty: Such a brilliant device as a flying tower is likely to draw the attention of unwelcome visitors and wonderous peasants. The historian is twice as likely to engage in random encounters when travelling in his tower. Or, as an alternative penalty, the historian's tower is liable to be knocked over in a severe windstorm, and must save as a medium creature, if it is not grounded. If grounded, treat the tower as a normal building of its type.
• Faith's Defense: Those of the Ghoel valued faith above all else, faith in their single, overarching diety. That monolithic faith drove them onwards, pressing outward into the surrounding lands until they encountered those of another faith. Each converted, through death or through life, until the other gods saw their civilization as a true threat to all of their existences. Faced with the combined wrath of the gods, the Ghoel redoubled their own faith, knowing that they had come close to toppling the balance in their god's favour. It was all for naught, as attrition and the ageless, remorseless hate of the gods ground their civilization down, eventually burying their great city beneath a giant slurry of molten lava.
  • Prequisites: The Divine Hand, The Passage Through, A Field of Pikes
    
  • Knowledge Check: Religion DC 22.
    
  • Effect 1: Righteous and powerful in their faith, the priests of the Ghoel suffered no unbelievers to live, smiting them whenever found. Whenever the historian slays a creature of a different alignment than his own, he may cast a spell from The Divine Hand, or A Field of Pikes as a swift action.
    
  • Effect 2: The Ghoel did not attach doors to their structures. Rather, their god gave those of strong and abiding faith the ability to walk through the walls of the earth, and many would test their faith by staying amidst the stone for as long as they could. Stone and brick prove no obstacle to the historian, who can see and step through any wall made of stone with a 1 ft. or less thickness.
    
  • Penalty: The anger of the gods against those of the Ghoel lives on to this day, an echoing memory of hate. The historian takes a -1 penalty to saves against all divine spells, and all divine spells cast against him have a +1 bonus to their caster level.
• Groves and Greed: The Byd Nitur spent their time in quiet contemplation, dancing amidst the trees and lakes of their quiet valleys, each tasked with looking after a single type of animal. And so each would wander through their domain, healing the sick, feeding those in their charge. It was an idyllic life, one that slowly collapsed as some of the Byd Nitur decided not to be nature's servants, but rather it's masters.
  • Prequisites: Hidden Allies, The Roaring Beast, The Land Arisen
    
  • Knowledge Check: Religion DC 14.
    
  • Effect 1: Always eager to help those around them, the Byd Nitur never faltered in their duty to their bequeathed domain, until the very end, and so their domain was there to aid them, too. The historian gains the ability to cast a spell using the Hidden Allies or The Land Arisen seed as a swift action, once per encounter.
    
  • Effect 2: Those amongst their nature-born cousins who assisted the Byd Nitur often found themselves enriched from the duty. Animals summoned by the historian are advanced one hit dice.
    
  • Penalty: As the civilization of the Byd Nitur fell apart as people failed in their duties, so does the historian collapse. Whenever the historian rolls a natural 1, he is shaken for the rest of the round.
• Fettered Strength: Possessed of a most startling trait, the Pybyr could weaken themselves in order to store the energy for use at a later time. Pybyr would collapse in their homes, emaciated, only to emerge hours later, their muscles swollen, as they went to work at smithing a stubborn metal rod. Some of their racial makeup can be gleaned through the works of their cities, and the historian seeks to gain that for himself.
  • Prequisites: Walker in the Woods
    
  • Knowledge Check: Religion DC 16.
    
  • Effect 1: By stunting their strength and sapping their balance, the Pybyr saved their energy for battle. The historian may voluntarily take a number of points of ability damage no greater than his class level to any stat for as long as he likes, storing that energy away for later. He gains an enhancement bonus equal to the number of points of ability damage taken to the same statistic, and this lasts for a number of rounds equal to one-half the rounds he cursed himself with the ability damage. Use of energy in this way is tiring, and when the historian loses the enhancement bonus, he is exhausted for an equal number of rounds. The stored energy must be used within one day or be lost.
    
  • Effect 2: Able to focus all of their will and energy into a single point, the Pybyr would use this in only dire circumstances. Once per day, the historian may gain a +10 ft. bonus to speed, a +4 bonus to all abilities, and gain the use of an extra standard action for one round. At the end of this round, he collapses, exhausted and nauseated for the next five rounds.
    
  • Penalty: Their unique ability to alter their physical characteristics has made the Pybyr equally vulnerable to having it reduced or altered by others. Whenever a spell or effect would deal ability damage to the historian, he takes two extra points of damage.
• The Dead That Lie Not Still: It was long rumoured that existed a race of people to whom death was merely a stopping place on the eternal cycles of life, and it has finally come to the attention of the historian that they did indeed exist. Known by the name of the Edfryd, they possessed the qualities of the phoenix, able to die, only to be reborn.
  • Prequisites: Return of the Soul, Fortress Formed, Walker in the Woods
    
  • Knowledge Check: Religion DC 28.
    
  • Effect 1: The Edfryd were a violent people, in part because they knew it was of no matter to the person whom they struck, for it they died, they would merely return to life. Whenever the historian would be struck dead by hitpoint damage, he may make a will save equal to 10 + the total damage dealt. If he succeeds, he returns to life the next round as if a true resurrection spell had been cast upon him. He also gains a +2 bonus to attack, damage, armour class, and all physical statistics for one round, as he is invigorated in the return of his spirit.
    
  • Effect 2: Even those who had died, and were not seen to spring back to life, were often able to be resuscitated by others among the Edfryd. Should the historian fail his save against hit point damage, or be killed in another fashion, if his body is materially intact after 2 hours, he returns to life as if a raise dead spell had been cast on him. The historian loses only half a level from this.
    
  • Penalty: For those who feel that death is such a simple barrier to cross forward and backwards and forwards, the Edfryd disappeared rather quickly and quietly from history. If neither of the above abilities revive the historian, he can only be returned to life through the application of a miracle and a wish spell, followed by a true resurrection.
• That Which Is Not There: Mere ephemeral beings, the Pellennig danced and swum amidst the Astral plane, able to see what was before and behind them, and never in danger because of such. Their god had given them the gift of foresight at the cost of their bodies, and that was how they remained, half-present, but knowing all things that passed through their scope. Perhaps they still exist, although that, for certain, is not known.
  • Prequisites: Eyes Beyond, The Distant Void
    
  • Knowledge Check: Religion DC 26.
    
  • Effect 1: Visions of the past and the future filter into the mind of the Pellennig, and it is that knowledge that the historian seeks. Once per hour, the historian can cast an augury spell for free to determine his next course of action. All spells that use Eyes Beyond have their spell point cost reduced by 1.
    
  • Effect 2: A creature that perhaps would be happier with no body, and living in a place of no where, and no when, its half-present state a perpetual curse. The historian gains concealment 50% against all who cannot travel to the Astral plane, and may duplicate the effects of the Ethereal Jaunt spell by paying 12 spell points.
    
  • Penalty: There are many things that could perhaps better the Pellennig's existence, but none have come to pass, and their god's gift of vision at the cost of body is a fate the historian wishes to avoid. Whenever struck in combat, the historian must make a will save against 10 + the total damage dealt or be shaken and sickened, the fear of the Pellennig for direct interaction with others.

[Stratovarius]

Having all three Eras in the same post broke the 40,000 limit, so the Ancient Prayer Eras are moved down to here. This also marks the completion of all of the eras out there, and the more or less completion of the Historian, aside from some feats and flavour text.

[Stratovarius]

Slices

• Slithering Echoes
  
  • Level: Chronomancer 6
    
  • Duration: 1 round
    
  • Saving Throw: None
    
  • Spell Resistance: Yes
    
  • Effects
    • Forward - Time has long had many branches, each with a different action or inaction. By calling upon some of those actions, you merge what could have happened with what is happening. Each round your slice is active, you can duplicate a single spell of level 7 or lower off of the wizard, cleric, or druid lists. This spell is cast at your slicer level.
      
    • Reverse - The branches of time that exist may also be cut off, blocked from ever happening due to your will. Each round that the slice is active, by spending a full round action, you may cancel a single standard action or move action each round. You must decide the action to cancel before it has been used.
      
• Out of Phase
  
  • Level: Chronomancer 6
    
  • Duration: 1 round
    
  • Range: 20ft./level
    
  • Area: 5ft. cube/level
    
  • Saving Throw: None
    
  • Spell Resistance: Yes
    
  • Effects
    • Forward - By shifting an area subtly in time, you may cause positive and helpful amplification as the mixed timeframes harmonize and peak. All creatures within the area gain one half their current hit points as temporary hit points, and have their ability scores increased by half.
      
    • Reverse - By shifting an area subtly in time, you may cause negative and painful feedback as the mixed timeframes clash and bend. All creatures within the area lose one half their current hit points, and have their ability scores reduced by half.
      
• Time's Last Gasp
  
  • Level: Chronomancer 6
    
  • Duration: 1 round
    
  • Range: 10ft./level
    
  • Area: 20ft./level burst
    
  • Saving Throw: None
    
  • Spell Resistance: Yes
    
  • Effects
    • Forward - While it may be possible to slay time, it is often of far more use to one so skilled in temporal manipulation as you to augment the effects that are found within. You create an area of peaked, heightened, vibrant time. This effect lasts twice as long as normal (2 rounds if normally 1 round, and so on), as does any slice or time affecting spell created within the area. Also, the slicer level of all creatures within the field is increased by 4.
      
    • Reverse - Time is an entity, alive in a certain sense. Like anything that is currently alive, it can be slain, although slaying time can have consequences that are unforseen and unforgiveable. You create an area of dead time, where nothing happens, and all things are frozen. Any creature in the area is frozen in time, and cannot harm, be harmed, take any action, or be affected by any action.
      
• Chronomancer's Blade
  
  • Level: Chronomancer 6
    
  • Duration: 1 round
    
  • Saving Throw: Fortitude negates
    
  • Spell Resistance: Yes
    
  • Effects
    • Forward - For those with the utmost control of the aspects of time, it can be sharpened into a blade, a single entity of concentrated time. This creates a single weapon, with which you are proficient. You gain a +4 bonus to attacks. If you hit with any of your melee attacks using this weapon, that struck foe must save or be aged to the point of death. Non-living creatures, and creatures who do not die from old age, are immune to this effect. The weapon does not deal damage.
      
    • Reverse - Much as time can be hardened into a weapon, it can likewise be twisted and warped into a shield surrounding you. Whenever you would be struck by a spell, make an opposed caster level check, using your slicer level, against the opponent's caster level. You gain a +4 bonus to this check. If you succeed, the spell is torn apart, shredded on the tides of time. If the spell would affect other creatures, those other creatures may be affected, even if you are not.
      
• Weight of the Past
  
  • Level: Chronomancer 6
    
  • Duration: 1 round
    
  • Range: 20ft./level or Personal
    
  • Area: 30ft./level burst or Self
    
  • Saving Throw: None
    
  • Spell Resistance: Yes
    
  • Effects
    • Forward - The future is an ever changing mass of possibilities, probabilities, and rarities. You have learned to focus in on those rarities. When you would roll a d20, instead roll a d4. A 1 is still a natural 1, but convert a 2 to an 18, 3 to a 19, and a 4 to a 20.
      
    • Reverse - The past accretes, a continual buildup of the detritus of time, an ever-growing lump of actions and inactions that plague all of men. You bring the weight of time to bear against your foes, crushing them their minds with its wait. All creatures in the area are nauseated and blinded, and images from the past play out in the area, as if from a persistent image spell, cast at your slicer level.
      
• All Things Eventual
  
  • Level: Chronomancer 6
    
  • Duration: 1 round
    
  • Saving Throw: None
    
  • Spell Resistance: Yes
    
  • Effects
    • Forward - Everything is within the scope of the chronomancer, and you know that all too well. The deepest past is a brief travel in the mind away, and the farthest future, well, you can at least see what might come. Each round this slice is active, you may duplicate the effects of any two slices of levels 5 or lower as a swift action.
      
    • Reverse - The broad scope of time allows you to encompass all things of the material world, as well as the temporal. You may plane shift or teleport with 500ft. accuracy to a desired point. You may bring one ally per 4 slicer levels.
      
• Somewhere in Time
  
  • Level: Chronomancer 6
    
  • Duration: 1 round
    
  • Saving Throw: None
    
  • Spell Resistance: Yes
    
  • Effects
    • Forward - There are few things that are more helpful that to know where you stand in time, and what the various futures may or may not cause. Whenever you roll a d20 while under the effect of this slice, you may choose to reroll it. If you do, you may choose between the results. However, you must record the unused value, and use that the next time you would roll a d20 for the same skill, attack, or otherwise, regardless of whether this slice is still active.
      
    • Reverse - The river of time has many branching streams that feed into it, and it is incumbent upon you to direct those in an appropriate manner. While affected by this slice, you may, once per four slicer levels, force a creature to reroll and use the lower of the two numbers. This is a free action, and can be performed even if it is not your turn.
      
• Strike Midnight
  
  • Level: Chronomancer 5
    
  • Duration: 1 round
    
  • Area: 60 ft. circle.
    
  • Saving Throw: None
    
  • Spell Resistance: Yes
    
  • Effects
    • Forward - There are few things that are possessed of more symbolism than that passage from an old day into a new, and the ringing of the bells that symbolize that transition. A long, loud tone rings out, as if a giant bell or gong had been struck in the air above you. All of those who hear it are stunned by the ringing tones, including allies.
      
    • Reverse - As well as marking the birth of the new day, it also marks the passage of the old. A single creature hears the tone of the bell. If it's hitpoints are less than 10 per slicer level, it is immediately reduced to 1 hit point as the bell signals the creature's funeral.
      
• Cheating Time
  
  • Level: Chronomancer 5
    
  • Duration: Permanent
    
  • Area: 60 ft. or See text
    
  • Saving Throw: None
    
  • Spell Resistance: Yes
    
  • Effects
    • Forward - There are those who seek to prolong their life into eternity, to see the sands of time run to ruin before the expanse of their life is ended. For them, they seek any means of extending their life. The target creature, who must be willing, gains the Creature of the Sands template.
      
    • Reverse - Those who have extended their life beyond the natural time think that they are protected from the revenge of time, but there are none who are immune to the strength of time. You may destroy up to 2 hit dice of undead per slicer level.
      
• Past Is Become The Future
  
  • Level: Chronomancer 5
    
  • Duration: 1 round
    
  • Area: 60 ft.
    
  • Saving Throw: None
    
  • Spell Resistance: Yes
    
  • Effects
    • Forward - It is said that those who do not understand the past are doomed to repeat it. You understand the past, and wish to see it used against those who would damage your future. You call images from the past in vast profusion, creating three copies of each creature within the area. Each copy moves and acts independent of the original, and only disappears at the end of the duration or when struck by a spell or a weapon. These copies cannot harm other creatures.
      
    • Reverse - There are those who see the future as a better road forward, as something that will offer them succor. What they do not understand is that they must take action in the present in order for the future to improve. Each friend and foe who has not yet acted in the round in dazed and slowed.
      
• Repetitious Doom
  
  • Level: Chronomancer 5
    
  • Duration: 1 round
    
  • Saving Throw: None
    
  • Spell Resistance: Yes
    
  • Effects
    • Forward - It is said that those who do not understand the past are doomed to repeat it. You just nudge them a little further along that path. If a creature rolls an attack, save, skill check, or damage, you may force it to use the same result as its roll from the last round, if it had one. You may do this once per round that the slice is active.
      
    • Reverse - The flow of time is many things, but to you it is home, and a source of power. A single creature feels the weight of the past pressing down upon it. It suffers under the lash of time, nauseated and stunned by the visions that slam forcefully into its mind.
      
• Good Times, Bad Times
  
  • Level: Chronomancer 5
    
  • Duration: 1 round
    
  • Saving Throw: Will negates
    
  • Spell Resistance: Yes
    
  • Effects
    • Forward - There are few things in life that can compare with the best of times in a person's life. A sense of euphoria and joy fills the slice's target, and they become at peace with the world. They gain a +10 bonus to mind affecting or fear saves, and, if they fail, can reroll again the next round.
      
    • Reverse - The times that are brutally depressing can drive a man to drink, to slackness, and even unto the very borders of death. If the target fails his first save, he collapses helpless on the ground. If he has failed the first save, during the next round, he must save again or drop to -1 hit points.
      
• Echoed Sight
  
  • Level: Chronomancer 4
    
  • Duration: 1 round
    
  • Saving Throw: None
    
  • Spell Resistance: Yes
    
  • Effects
    • Forward - You focus intently on the paths a single creature might take, and are easily able to anticipate its actions, gained a +4 attack and +2 AC bonus against it. However, this takes away from your focus on other creatures, and you take a -3 penalty to AC against all other monsters.
      
    • Reverse - You force the focus of a single creature onto yourself, controlling its temporal actions. It receives a +1 bonus to hit you, and a +1 AC bonus against your strikes, but it takes a -4 AC penalty to attacks from all other creatures.
      
• Despised Time
  
  • Level: Chronomancer 4
    
  • Duration: 1 round
    
  • Area: 20 ft. burst or see text
    
  • Saving Throw: None
    
  • Spell Resistance: Yes
    
  • Effects
    • Forward - There are times when even one such as you sees that a path that wields time will cause matters to spin in an untoward manner. You forfeit your ability to use slices, and instead have your BAB advanced to your character level, gain a +3 bonus on attacks, and a +2 bonus on damage rolls. You also may make a single extra attack during a full attack action.
      
    • Reverse - While you believe wholy in your own ability to affect and control the threads of time, it is apparent that there are some creatures that should not have that control. You halt and destroy any temporal effects within 20 ft. of where you stand, ending them instantly.
      
• Lives of the Kin
  
  • Level: Chronomancer 4
    
  • Duration: 1 round
    
  • Saving Throw: None
    
  • Spell Resistance: Yes
    
  • Effects
    • Forward - As a master of great sweeps of time, you feel a kinship with those other races whose lives allow them to span the aeons and experience history as it occurs. You shapechange into a single dragon of your choice, with the age category of mature adult or less. You lose your slicing ability and class features while in this form.
      
    • Reverse - There has always been a distance between you and the short-lived races, for they rush and hurry about their short, pointless lives, unaware of the scope of what they live through. You reveal the vastness of history to those who cannot comprehend it, dazing all creatures within 20 ft. of you who are less than 100 years old. This does not affect mindless creatures, or those with animal or lower intelligence.
      
• Temporal Morass
  
  • Level: Chronomancer 4
    
  • Duration: 1 round
    
  • Saving Throw: None
    
  • Spell Resistance: Yes
    
  • Effects
    • Forward - You rummage through the paths of time, seeing when this was a common device, and how to affect it. You gain a +15 bonus to Disable Device, and can attempt to disarm one trap per round.
      
    • Reverse - You form the threads of time into a trap for those who attempt to strike you. The first caster who targets you, and you alone, with a single target spell becomes frozen in time, paralyzed for the duration of the slice. The caster's spell still affects you normally.
      
• Temporal Moraine
  
  • Level: Chronomancer 4
    
  • Duration: 1 round
    
  • Saving Throw: None
    
  • Spell Resistance: Yes
    
  • Effects
    • Forward - The earth has been affected by time, worn down and worn away as the years pass on. You may erode 5 cubic feet per slicer level of walls or earth into rubble or difficult terrain. This can also reduce one 5 ft square per level from difficult terrain to a smooth surface.
      
    • Reverse - When the earth was young, it was sharp and jagged, full of rocks and mountains. You may creature 5 cubic feet of stone or earth wall per slicer level. Alternatly, you can make one 5 ft. square of ground per level spiked, cutting all those who walk over it. Creatures take 1d8 damage for every 5 ft. of movement through the affected area, and have their speed cut by half.
      
• Myths and Visions
  
  • Level: Chronomancer 3
    
  • Duration: 1 round
    
  • Saving Throw: None
    
  • Spell Resistance: Yes
    
  • Effects
    • Forward - Few things stand as true myths before you, for you have travelled the streams of time and seen many things. You gain a +2 insight bonus on all rolls made this turn.
      
    • Reverse - For a single moment in time, you have an unparelled look into history, seeing that one moment that you desire. You gain a bonus equal to your slicer level on all knowledge checks.
      
• Sands of Time
  
  • Level: Chronomancer 2
    
  • Duration: 1 round
    
  • Saving Throw: None
    
  • Spell Resistance: Yes
    
  • Effects
    • Forward - The close association between the flow of sand and the flow of time has given you some small measure of control over the sands. You may blast a single creature with temporal sand, dealing them 1d8 + 1 damage per two slicer levels. If they fail a fortitude save, the sands also blind them for the duration of the slice.
      
    • Reverse - A simple hourglass appears in your hand, plain and without engraving. The top half is full, flowing rapidly down into the bottom, at such a rate that the last sands will fall through at the end of your turn. When they do so, all creatures within 20ft. of the hourglass  are slowed for the slice duration. The hourglass can be thrown as a grenade-like weapon.
      
• Minutes and Hours
  
  • Level: Chronomancer 1
    
  • Duration: 1 round
    
  • Saving Throw: None
    
  • Spell Resistance: Yes
    
  • Effects
    • Forward - Life clicks by quickly, with each minute of boredom seeming to take hours. You dull the senses of the target, giving it a -1 penalty to listen and spot per two slicer levels.
      
    • Reverse - Excited and energetic, awake and aware of the surroundings, that is how a hour of joy is treated. You enhance the senses of the target, giving it a +1 insight bonus to listen and spot per two slicer levels.
      
• Mechanical Mental
  
  • Level: Chronomancer 1
    
  • Duration: 1 round
    
  • Saving Throw: None
    
  • Spell Resistance: Yes
    
  • Effects
    • Forward - There are a few things that are easier to shift through time than basic metals and mechanics. You may reload or draw 1 weapon per four slicer levels.
      
    • Reverse - Your foe looks down at his hand, empty of the weapon it held moments ago. A single foe has his weapon sheathed or unloaded of ammunition. He must redraw or reload the weapon to use it.
      

[Stratovarius]

Feats

REPERCUSSION
You are able to twist and echo magic with exquisite skill.
Prerequisites: Echoed energy class feature.
Benefit: By expending 2 echoes, you can copy a spell affected by echoed energy a second time. This second spell has all attributes (caster level, DC, duration, etc.) halved, but can otherwise be treated as normal. The spell originates from you, and does not need to target the caster.
Normal: You cannot create a second spell.


EXTRA ECHOES
You have better learned how to wield the eddies and swirls in time that cause duplicates to occur.
Prerequisites: Echoes class feature.
Benefit: When you take this feat for the first time, you add 2 more echoes to your pool each day.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times. Each time you take the feat after the first time, the number of echoes you gain increases by 1.


EXTRA SLICE
You have learned an additional slice through time, a moment of the timestream that will help you.
Prerequisites: Ability to slice time
Benefit: You gain a single extra slice known, of a level less than or equal to one below the maximum level you can learn.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times. Each time you take the feat after the first time, you may choose a different slice.


EXTRA SEED
The magical knowledge streams into your mind, and you perceive it well.
Prerequisites: Ancient wizardry class or ancient prayer feature.
Benefit: When you take this feat for the first time, you may use a single extra seed. That seed is chosen each time you select ancient wizardry or ancient prayer as your technique for the day.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times. Each time you take the feat after the first time, you may pick an additional seed.


ERA AMPLIFICATION [Ancient]
You have chosen to focus your knowledge on a single point in time, one that you feel most at home with.
Prerequisites: Knowledge (History, Arcana or Religion) 14
Benefit: When you take this feat, choose a single era. Whenever you attune that era, all numerical modifiers are increased by 50%. This includes penalties.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times. Each time you take the feat after the first time, choose a different era.


WAVES OF HISTORY [Ancient]
You constantly switch between various eras and abilities that you have, assaulting enemies with a bewildering barrage of strength.
Prerequisites: Knowledge (History, Arcana or Religion) 12
Benefit: Whenever you use an ability from an era, if you use a different ability from a different era the next round, you gain a +1 bonus to attack, if in the ancient martial technique, or a +1 bonus to caster level, if using ancient wizardry or ancient prayer. For each round beyond the first that you do this, the bonus increase by 1. If you ever use an ability you have used before during this sequence, all benefits are reset to 1.


ANCIENT WEAPON FOCUS [Ancient]
You are familiar with weapons of historical design, and know a few tricks that can gain you an advantage on the battlefield.
Prerequisites: BAB +1
Benefit: Whenever wielding an ancient weapon, you gain a +1 bonus to attack.


ANCIENT WEAPON SPECIALIZATION [Ancient]
You are well practiced in the use of old and unusual weaponry, and feel at home with their hafts in your hands.
Prerequisites: Ancient Weapon Focus, BAB +4
Benefit: Whenever wielding an ancient weapon, you gain a +3 bonus to damage.


ANCIENT WEAPON CRITICAL [Ancient]
You have learned how to strike for maximum effect with your ancient tools.
Prerequisites: Ancient Weapon Focus, BAB +9
Benefit: Whenever wielding an ancient weapon, double the critical threat range.


ANCIENT WEAPON PROFICIENCY [Ancient]
You have versed yourself in the use of ancient martial weapons, and can wield them without penalty.
Prerequisites: BAB +1
Benefit: You become proficient in all ancient weapons.


TIME'S MANIPULATOR
You have felt the wellspring of time flow through your fingers, and it has danced and beckoned to you.
Prerequisites: Extended Slicing class feature
Benefit: Any slice that you create has its duration increased by 1 round.


LESSONS OF THE FOREBEARERS [Ancient]
There are many things that have been said before, some of which are valuable, others of which are not. It is your duty to sift those that are, and to use them.
Prerequisites: Knowledge (History, Arcana, or Religion) 11.
Benefit: By making a DC 25 Knowledge check, you remember some fragment or flash of insight that the old ones had about the particular situation that you find yourself in. You gain a +2 bonus on the next action that you make. This ability can only be used once every 5 rounds.


SCHOOLED BY THE FOREBEARERS [Ancient]
You have long studied the old tombs and musty passages that those before you wrote down, and have even gazed into the past in an attempt to reconstruct some of what has gone on before. An expert in the lore of those who have long since died, you find the aeons of knowledge have given you an unsurpassed edge.
Prerequisites: Knowledge (History, Arcana, or Religion) 16, Lessons of the Forebearers
Benefit: By making a DC 40 Knowledge check, you recall the exact action that is required to escape from the problem in which you find yourself. You gain a +4 bonus on the next action that you make. This ability can only be used once every 5 rounds.


LORE OF THE LOST [Ancient]
You have discovered a particular incident, one that had fallen from the face of history and into the remains of the past. It seems to be from too far before to be of assistance, but as a lover of all things lore and myth, you remember it for later recall.
Prerequisites: Knowledge (History, Arcana, or Religion) 9.
Benefit: When you choose this feat, pick a particular race to whom the lost incident applies. When interacting with members of that race, if you succeed at a DC 20 knowledge check, you gain a +2 bonus to all social interaction skills (Bluff, Persuade, Intimidate, Sense Motive). You may only gain this benefit once with each individual member of a race.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times. Each time you take the feat after the first time, you may either choose a different race, or increase your bonus in regards to a specific race by +2.


ENLARGE SLICE [Metaslice]
With the proper focus, a slice may reach farther than it normally does.
Prerequisites: Must be able to create 1st level slices
Benefit: You focus your will on time to push the range of your slicer further, doubling the range, and you cast it at a penalty of -1 to your slicer level. You may use this once per encounter, and recover it at the same time as you recover your slices.


EMPOWER SLICE [Metaslice]
Sliced through time with the right skill, a slice will impact with greater force.
Prerequisites: Must be able to create 2nd level slices
Benefit: You focus your will on time to strengthen your slice. All variable, numeric rolls are increased by 50%, and you cast it at a penalty of -2 to your slicer level. You may use this once per encounter, and recover it at the same time as you recover your slices.


MAXIMIZE SLICE [Metaslice]
A single moment can be focused on to such an extreme that it strikes with deadly force.
Prerequisites: Must be able to create 3rd level slices
Benefit: You focus your will on time to strengthen your slice. All variable rolls are maximized, and you cast it at a penalty of -2 to your slicer level. You may use this once per encounter, and recover it at the same time as you recover your slices.


IMMEDIATE SLICE [Metaslice]
Time may be a stiff force to control, but you have mastered it, to the point of being able to flicker through it at your whim.
Prerequisites: Must be able to create 5th level slices
Benefit: You focus your will on time to speed your slice. You may cast a single slice as an immediate action, and you cast it at a penalty of -3 to your slicer level. You may use this once per encounter, and recover it at the same time as you recover your slices.


EXTENDED SLICE [Metaslice]
To lengthen your control of time is a simple and easy step for you.
Prerequisites: Must be able to create 2nd level slices
Benefit: You focus your will on time to lengthen your slice. The slice lasts for one extra round, and you cast it at a penalty of -1 to your slicer level. You may use this once per encounter, and recover it at the same time as you recover your slices.


SLICING BLADE
Each slash of your blade matches with the manner in which you control your temporal weapons.
Prerequisites: Must be able to create 2nd level slices, BAB +2
Benefit: You have blended the use of your slices into your combat style. Any time you strike a foe in melee combat, if you subsequently target him with a slice in the same round, you gain a +1 bonus to the slicer level. If you first affect the foe with a slice, you instead gain a +1 bonus to all attacks against him during the round.


TIME'S GRACE
You are versed in the usages and the twists of time, and have achieved a good measure of control over it.
Prerequisites: Must be a member of a temporal class, character level 6.
Benefit: Any effect you create that lasts one round in length is doubled to last two rounds, regardless of the source or whether it is negative or positive for you.


TEMPORAL WANDERER
You step between different areas of time without much thought, completely at home within the shifting sands.
Prerequisites: Ability to create slices.
Benefit: If you have used a forward slice on a creature during the last round, you gain a +1 bonus to slicer level if, during the next round, you create a reverse slice. Likewise, If you have used a reverse slice on a creature during the last round, you gain a +1 bonus to slicer level if, during the next round, you create a forward slice. This does not need to be the same slice, merely forward and then reverse, or vice versa.


ECHOING SLICE
You have learned to blend two different areas of temporal manipulation.
Prerequisites: Ability to create slices, ability to create echoes.
Benefit: Slices leave a trace in the time stream that can be copied by those who can feel and see it. You copy one slice as you create it. Treat this slice exactly as if it had been cast by by you, with all benefits and penalties of the original slice. This costs one echo to activate, and the slice lasts your normal duration.


TIME'S QUICKNESS
You are time's child, born and bred amidst the streams and sands of times.
Prerequisites: This feat can be taken at first level only.
Benefit: You permanently lose two points of constitution, and they can never be restored. You gain a +4 bonus to initiative, and a 5' bonus to speed.


TEMPORAL SOLIDITY
You are rooted within the time stream, better able to resist effects that would alter your chronological position.
Prerequisites: None.
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus against all temporal effects. (Currently defined as anything created by a class/feat/etc featured in PPF).


INEVITABLE
You seek out and strike down those who alter and play with the river of time, seeking to ensure a meaningful transition from past to present to future.
Prerequisites: Temporal Solidity, cannot have any levels in a temporal class, character level 5.
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus to attack and a +2d6 bonus to damage against all temporal creatures.


HISTORY'S HORDES [Ancient]
You have looked back into the past, and learned how to call some of those creatures forward in time.
Prerequisites: Must be a temporal creature.
Benefit: Any creature you summon through the use of a spell gains the Ancient template, regardless of whether it would normally meet the prerequisites.


WARRIOR OF OLDEN DAYS [Ancient]
You have turned your back on the current martial ideas, and instead look back to an older and perhaps stronger style of fighting.
Prerequisites: BAB +1.
Benefit: You may now choose to take Ancient Martial feats as general feats or as fighter bonus feats. In addition, you gain +2 hit points for each Ancient feat that you have.
Normal: You cannot choose Ancient Martial feats.


DANCE OF THE AGES
Blending different alterations of the temporal flow, you find a more profound resolution.
Prerequisites: Character level 12, any two of the following: ability to create slices, ability to create echoes, ability to cast spells using seeds.
Benefit: You have learned to blend the various aspects of temporal manipulation into a seamless whole. Any round in which you use two separate methods of temporal manipulation, be it slices and echoes, or echoes and spells, or slices and spells, you gain one of the following bonuses: 2 bonus spell points, 1 bonus echo, or recover the use of the slice of a level 1 or 2 slice. These benefits last until the end of the encounter. Bonus echoes and bonus spell points are expended first, when using one of those abilities.


DELAY SLICE
You know how to push a slice into the time stream and then grab it at an opportune moment.
Prerequisites: Slicer level 7th
Benefit: When you perform a slice, you may choose to sequester it in the sands of time, letting it hide and endure there. It will remain there for up to 1 minute. Storing it in chronological fashion still takes your standard action, as per normal. At any time that you wish to use the slice, you must call it from the river of time and slice it as a standard action. If it is not used after 1 minute, it fizzles and dissipates.


FIELD OF ECHOES
Your echoes are not things that merely affect one thing.
Prerequisites: Echoes class feature
Benefit: Whenever you may use an echo, if, in addition to the base cost, you pay twice the cost again, that echo can affect a second target with 30 ft. of the first.


SHAPING TOUCH [Ancient]
You have learned how to better mold the seeds of ancient magics to your whim and will.
Prerequisites: Ancient casting, Knowledge (Arcana or Religion) 11
Benefit: Whenever you use an ancient spell alteration of the targeting type, you may reduce the cost adjustment of the alteration by 1. This cannot reduce the cost below 0. You may not use this cost reduction with any other effect that reduces the point cost of a spell.


CONTINUANCE TEMPORAL [Ancient]
Seeds cast from your hands appear to stay longer in the air, the touch of a true master magician.
Prerequisites: Ancient casting, Knowledge (Arcana or Religion) 9
Benefit: Whenever you use an ancient spell alteration of the duration type, you may reduce the cost adjustment of the alteration by 1. This cannot reduce the cost below 0. You may not use this cost reduction with any other effect that reduces the point cost of a spell.


INCANTATIONS MYSTICAL [Ancient]
Powers of strange and unholy things appear to spark between your fingers, granting to those spells of yours a single great adjustment.
Prerequisites: Ancient casting, Knowledge (Arcana or Religion) 13
Benefit: Whenever you use an ancient spell alteration of the metamagic type, you may reduce the cost adjustment of the alteration by 1. This cannot reduce the cost below 0. You may not use this cost reduction with any other effect that reduces the point cost of a spell.


ANTIQUARIAN CASTING [Ancient]
You have studied long and hard the gestures and the knowledge of the forgotten lands. Prepared by years of study, you feel able to cast off the prejudices of modern magic.
Prerequisites: Autohypnosis 9, Knowledge (Arcana) 12, Knowledge (History) 12, Spellcraft 12, level 6 wizard.
Benefit: You forsake all prior arcane casting knowledge, dismissing it as something for those who have not seen true magic. Instead, you gain all the benefits as described in the Historian's Ancient Wizardry Technique class feature, with a level equal to your current caster level, up to a maximum of your character level. However, you do not gain eras, nor may you change the seeds known once picked. All class features that worked on your prior spellcasting continue to function on your new, ancient wizardry, casting.


BROTHER FROM BEYOND
You have come into contact with your temporal twins, and they and you have served one another with grace and with skill.
Prerequisites: Echoes class feature, Knowledge (The Planes) 11, character level 9.
Benefit: Whenever you use an ability that allows you to summon a temporal duplicate of yourself, you gain an additional +2 bonus to attack if that duplicate is flanking a creature you strike, and a +2 bonus on saving throws if both of you are affected by the same spell or effect.

[Straw_Man]

Very impressive, I admire the amount of work you've put into this. I can also see why the Historian's the hardest class to play, but it's fascinating. It's like a 20 level Chameleon with an intellectual feel.

Questions. What qualifies for an ancient weapon, and are they automatically considered exotic weapns as well?

Do you pump in spell points for the enhancements seperately, or all your spellpoints used in a spell counted to determine duration/dmg/etc.?

[Stratovarius]

All spellpoints count. So, you total them up, see what the cap is (it's your level, unless something funky has happened), and max out there.

As for ancient weapons: I haven't compiled a full list. Most things that are old sounding or more exotic will fall in that category.


As you can tell by the complete and utter lack of prestige classes, combined with an incomplete feat list, this is not a finished product by any means. It is still in the process of being created, so feel free to toss out ideas.

[Stratovarius]

Updated the levels on all available slices. Also updated the front post with links to other postings.

[Stratovarius]

Added 5 feats, all for slicers.

[Stratovarius]

Another 10 feats of various provenance.

[dman11235]

You wanna delete all the non-relevant posts (as in, put all the mechanics as close as possible post-wise)?  I'll start reading.  Also, my Guide to Homebrewing is near the bottom of the page, and has a workable table.  It'll take a LONG time to get through all this making sure I understand it though, so don't expect a review soon, and when I do, it'll be in chunks, getting small kinks out first, then more general ability meshing stuff.

[Stratovarius]

No worries. I'll probably reformat everything at some point soonish, since it's a bit scattered, but that's why I have the links post at the top of the thread, so that everything is accessible.

I've also got a campaign for playtesting going on (Rituals in Winterhaven in PbP), in order to try and sort out where the bits that work or don't work are. As well as the bits where I attempted murder on the english language.

[Stratovarius]

Another 4-5 slices posted. That leaves only 5 to do there.

[Llochlyn]

Been reading on the chronomancer. Love the class overall, but some precisions lack : the type of action required to use each feature, the type of action required to slice (you seem to imply they are swift actions but it's never stated), aaaand finally, slices per day !

I had a NPC who used such tricks, but all through narration, without any rules to go with... Now she has some rules, yay !

[Stratovarius]

Chronomancy

Chronomancy "spells" are known as slices, little parts of time shifted around at the whim of the caster. All of them, except where listed, cast as a swift action, and have a duration of one round, except where mentioned. Each comes in two forms, forward through time, and backwards through time. You choose which form of the slice to use at the time you cast it.

People who can affect time in this way are known as slicers. Slices are affected by spell resistance, and the check to beat it is slicer level + d20 + any alternate abilities. The DC for a slice saving throw is 10 + slice level + primary slicing modifier.

Each slice can be cast once per encounter. To recover expended slices, the slicer must meditate for 10 minutes, undisturbed. At the end of the meditation, all expended slices are recovered.

That gives the basic rules for using slices, including action required and slices per day.

The class isn't quite finished yet.

[Smudgy]

I suppose I should inform you, considering you made these classes, which I love by the way, great job. If I get in, I hope to be playing a gestalt echocaller//monk or echocaller//cleric. I noticed it's not being played in that Rituals of Winterhaven game, so I figured I'd play test it in Sinfire Titan's game. Any tips for building my character? I've never made a gestalt before. Though you might want to read the house rules on gestalting, they're a little different from normal.

[dman11235]

Which region are you joining (I'm in the newly started ice setting)?

[Stratovarius]

Actually, there is one in the RoW game. I think it's Mace of Sauron, he's just a little quieter in posting currently. One of the players there had already linked me to your post  .

I've never played Gestalt either, so I'm not outstanding on offering suggestions there. I'd consider a d12 tank, like Warblade, though, as the other half of the equation. You can strike as a standard, and use echoes or boosts as a swift. Either that or one of the Druid/Cleric set for wisdom synergy and big boosts.

Do note that the Echocaller does not have trapfinding or some of the other standard skills for a skill monkey. It's more combat and less skill oriented. You'll want to have at least some points in wisdom, as that affects your echoes per day. I would build like a rogue built for combat, not skill monkeying. As for feats, if there are ones you wish to suggest, please feel free. That area is not complete.

[dman11235]

On Echocaller: it may be wise to put the echoes together so we know what are echoes and what are other class features.

[Smudgy]

The setting is in Yafutoma, the Blue Moon place. I think I'm going to go with Echocaller//Cleric, just for he great wisdom synergy. Probably throw in some divine metamagic to make a combat beast. Though the strike/swift combination is tempting, certainly something to consider. As for feats, I can't really come up with any on the spot right now, but if I have any ideas, I'll certainly suggest them.