The past two weeks sure have been busy for me! Between hosting American Thanksgiving last week and starting to work in a co-working space my daily routines have been all over the place! As somebody with ADHD, that means that some things are bound to get missed. Thankfully for this article, I did most of the leg work shortly after working my last article. However, because of that pre-work, I ended up putting it in the back of my brain until late last night. I am glad though that sometimes my regular job does have lulls that allow me to finish up articles. Albeit, a little late. Time, that is something that is almost always on my mind, until it isn’t and I’m zoning out on a few different activites.

Connection Ability Thoughts

While looking at most of the connections (I won’t claim all of them), Akashic and Shaper are likely the closest to what we want for Time. Akashic because of the knowledge gained from time manipulation. Shaper deals with the connection between matter. Moving *things* through time has to be able to manipulate matter on some level when you’re pushing it through time. Akashic has Peer Into the Future. It is tempting to pull this full bore, but I’d instead not take an ability that already exists in the game and the class. 

Geneturge allows for a lot of customization in the choice, especially when paired with the 3rd level ability till typically a tiny bonus. Still, I don’t think I’m down for designing that much for this class. It is nice to see that the design space for choices within connections exists, especially since, except for the handful of epiphanies and the newly added mystic smith, mystics don’t get class choices beyond their connection. 

Where else do we see chronomancy in Paizo products? Well, we have the wizard archetype Chronomancer. This archetype gives us some options for the future. For example, the Temporal Pool can be changed to Resolve Points. I always hesitate to tie things to RP because it saves a PC’s life. However, it’s the pool we have unless we make a brand new one (hello Entropy Points), but that seems unnecessary for choosing a class feature.

We also have the Time mystery for oracles. This mystery is a fantastic tool as there is a clear line between oracle mysteries and mystic connections. The revelations here will be excellent guides for me, especially for abilities that I might not want to spend RP. 

Honestly, between the chronomancer archetype and Time mystery, we have all that we need to put together the abilities. Those out there might want to recreate things whole clothe since Starfinder is its own system. However, I am not one of those. Each ability should be looked at to see if any adjustments should be made with some of the changes in assumptions that Starfinder has. Still, overall, Pathfinder 1e and Starfinder share a lot of commonalities.  

Ability Notes

Here are some of my notes when thinking about each ability level. After that, I’ll put it together in game terms and put the entire connection together!

1st level – something skill-related? Temporal Celerity? How about a +1 bonus to Init, and spend an RP for a 1d4 bonus? 

3rd Level – Time flicker (1/short rest language). Blur is not a spell so look into other examples for concealment? 

6th Level – Rewind Time is hard to adjudicate at the table, especially with VTT play. The entire mechanic of “declaring before you know the result” is always a hassle when I see it in play. As a GM, sometimes I may speak the result faster than the player has a chance to respond, which happens for many reasons. Typically I think I want to avoid creating more of these opportunities for argument at the table. Aging Touch gives an offensive ability, but I do want to look into other Strength damaging abilities to compare. 

9th Level – Make this Temporal Celerity, allowed to stack Forewarned? 

12thLevel – Slow & Haste Combined. I want to combine Slow & Haste, likely for the cost of an RP as well (maybe a 4th level slot as well) so they’ll have to be a 12th level ability. Technomancer’s Spell Coupling ability is sort of a neat way to go about it maybe? For two 3rd level spells, increase DC by 1 for Slow effect. Since this is an 11th level ability, placing at 12th level connection ability makes sense. This was the low-hanging fruit as far as abilities. For naming, I’ll probably “borrow” the name that Owlcat used for the Aeon ability that inspired this ability, Relativity. 

15th – Erase from time

20th – Stop Aging, spend RP to get time stop type ability?

The Time Connection

The ebbs and flow of time call to you. Whether you are more concerned about the past or how time might affect the future, you’ve dedicated your energy to harnessing the power that has eluded so many throughout time. 

Associated Deities: Eldest(Shyka), Eloritu, Oras, Pharasma, Triune, Yog-Sothoth

Associated Skills: Physical Science, Choose 1 of the following: Culture, Life Science, or Mysticism

Spell: 1st – recall, 2nd – augury, 3rd – Choose 1: haste or slow, 4th – modify outcome, 5th – retrocognition, 6th – akashic revival 

Forewarned (Su) – 1st Level

You gain a +1 insight bonus to Initiative. When you roll initiative and you spend 1 Resolve Point, you or an allow within 30 feet may roll 1d4 and add it as an insight bonus to that character’s initiative result. At 7th level, the die increases to 1d6. At 11th level, the die increases to 1d8.

Time Flicker (Su) – 3rd Level

As a standard action, you can flicker in and out of time, and gain the benefits of concealment (20% miss chance). You can use this ability for 1 minute. You can regain the use of this ability after a 10-minute short rest where you spend a Resolve Point. At 13th level, the benefit increases to total concealment (50% miss chance). 

Aging Touch (Su) – 6th Level

Your touch ages living creatures and objects. You make a melee attack against a single target’s EAC, adding your key ability score modifier to the attack roll instead of your Strength modifier if it is higher.  You deal 1 point of Strength damage for every two mystic levels you possess to living creatures. Against objects or constructs, you can deal 1d6 points of damager per mystic level. If used against an object in another creature’s possession, treat this attack as a sunder combat maneuver. You can use this ability once per day, plus one additional time per day for every five mystic levels you possess. 

Temporal Celerity (Su) – 9th Level 

Whenever you roll for initiative, you can roll twice and take either result. You always act in the surprise round, but if you failed to notice the ambush, you act last, regardless of your initiative result (you act in normal order in following rounds). At 14th level, you can roll for initiative three times and take any one of the results. You may use the bonus die from Forewarned in conjunction with this ability. 

Relativity (Su) – 12th Level

You change the flow of time in the combat area, speeding it up for your allies and slowing it down for your enemies. When you cast either haste or slow, you may expend another 3rd level spell slot to gain the effects of whichever of the two previous spells you did not cast. The saving throw DC of the slow effect increases by 1.

Erase from Time (Su) – 15th Level 

You make a melee attack against a single target’s EAC, adding your key ability score modifier to the attack roll instead of your Strength modifier if it is higher. If the attack lands you can temporarily remove a creature from time altogether.  The target creature must make a Fortitude save or vanish completely for a number of rounds equal to 1/2 your mystic level. No magic or divinations can detect the creature during this time, as it exists outside of time and space—in effect, the creature ceases to exist for the duration of this ability. At the end of the duration, the creature reappears unharmed in the space it last occupied (or the nearest possible space, if the original space is now occupied). You can use this ability twice per day.

Master of Time (Su) – 20th Level

You stop aging. You cannot be magically aged. [[Designer Sidebar: If you are utilizing Aging rules found in Advanced Occult Guide, you no longer suffer the negative effects of aging, however penalties already accrued remain]]. You cannot die of old age, but you can be killed through other means. 

Once per day as a full action, you can stop the flow of time for all other creatures. In reality, you speed up so greatly that all other creatures seem frozen, though they are actually still moving at their normal speeds. You are free to act for 1d4+1 rounds of apparent time. Normal and magical fire, cold, gas, and the like can still harm you. While the time stop is in effect, other creatures are invulnerable to your attacks and spells; you cannot target creatures other than itself. A spell that affects an area and has a duration longer than the remaining duration of the time stop has its normal effects on other creatures once the time stop ends. You cannot move or harm items held, carried, or worn by a creature stuck in normal time, but you can affect any item that is not in another creature’s possession. You are undetectable while this ability lasts.

Conclusion

I believe this was the first time I’ve tried to work on a “core” class feature present in the game. I may have bitten off more than I was prepared to by choosing a mystic connection. This is only because a single connection must carry through an entire character’s career. Whereas if I wanted to make some technomancer’s hacks or operative exploits, I could conceivably skip some levels if I didn’t think there was anything appropriate for the abilities I was writing at particular levels. 

Overall, I hope you all enjoyed reading about my new Time connection! Next article I might try to make holiday-themed, as it will likely be my last article for this year!