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Dennis
Great Reader
9933 Posts |
 Posted - 14 Nov 2011 : 10:22:01
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....be a better time-manipulator? Bending, twisting, molding time to one’s will requires high level of mental discipline. Some can go insane if they happen to overreach. Generally, psionicists are far better in the discipline of the mind than common mages, or at times, even better than archmages themselves. I know that the art of divination also requires relatively high mental discipline. However, if we look closer, they do not exactly affect any time frames that they happen to glimpse or explore. What they accomplish is that they see possible futures, or some fixed, unchangeable pasts. Although, that in itself is no meager feat. Psionics on the other hand, makes use of the mind to affect reality directly, albeit that reality is limited to the present. So in terms of the level and utilization of mental discipline, I’d say psionics is rather superior.
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Every beginning has an end. |
Edited by - Dennis on 15 Nov 2011 04:47:48
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31701 Posts |
Posted - 15 Nov 2011 : 05:14:14
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I can't recall the specifics, but I think part of Bruce Cordell's Hyperconscious tome dealt with this very topic.
It may have been a PrC... that allows the psionicist to develop skills which can effectively manipulate how others perceive -- albeit mentally -- the flow of time from their own perspectives. |
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Zireael
Master of Realmslore
Poland
1190 Posts |
Posted - 25 Nov 2011 : 15:39:01
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quote:
Originally posted by The Sage
I can't recall the specifics, but I think part of Bruce Cordell's Hyperconscious tome dealt with this very topic.
It may have been a PrC... that allows the psionicist to develop skills which can effectively manipulate how others perceive -- albeit mentally -- the flow of time from their own perspectives.
What's Hyperconscious and where can I find it? |
SiNafay Vrinn, the daughter of Lloth, from Ched Nasad!
http://zireael07.wordpress.com/ |
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31701 Posts |
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Dennis
Great Reader
9933 Posts |
Posted - 26 Nov 2011 : 09:46:25
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I bought it, together with Mindscapes and If Thoughts Could Kill, from a second-hand bookstore. For near mint condition books, they're rather very cheap. |
Every beginning has an end. |
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The Hooded One
Lady Herald of Realmslore
5056 Posts |
Posted - 26 Nov 2011 : 16:10:38
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Well, Dennis, according to Ed, in the Realms, the answer to your question has to be "yes and no."
Here's his take on it:
Yes, psonics does grant one an edge in any mental discipline. However, just as psionic ability is an aptitude some individuals have and some don't, and some are very gifted at while others aren't, so too is the ability to wield Art (magic) . . . and so too is the ability to "come to grips with" time.
One of the reasons time travel and time manipulation is so rare in the Realms: almost no one can do it. Even among the gods.
That's the way I wanted it, when creating the Realms, and that's certainly the way TSR wanted it. Some designers have toyed with chronomancy since, but such dabblings have always been low-key and limited in scope; the main design teams have always realized that once time-shifting (except stasis, and into the future, with no "going back" allowed) is part of any fantasy setting, heroic achievements go out the window. Why fight a dragon when you can just go back in time and stamp on its egg so it never was? Yes, paradoxes galore - - but you're inviting them by the very act of allowing travel back in time.
So: no. Sorry, but flat no. You can do a time-travel fantasy or sf campaign, but not in the Realms.
So saith Ed. Who created the sandbox we all play in, here.
love,
THO |
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Dennis
Great Reader
9933 Posts |
Posted - 30 Nov 2011 : 14:41:43
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People change. The world changes. Ideas evolve. One day, I hope, the treatment of time-traveling in the Realms would change... |
Every beginning has an end. |
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Varl
Learned Scribe
USA
284 Posts |
Posted - 30 Nov 2011 : 14:55:50
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My last DM (a close friend) last ran us in his game where the main nemesis was a time mage. To this day, I'm not sure he knew what he was going to get into by having a time mage be our primary adversary. It didn't turn out well; the campaign or the experience. It ended up being too much of a DM foil to any plans we'd try and execute, well, because he was a time mage, and that allowed him certain insights into possible actions that could be taken against him. It was all just very awkward and not something I'll never do when I DM.
That said, I do allow time manipulation magics to exist, simple spells and effects such as haste or time stop that temporarily allow the bending of time to aid one's position in a battle. These types of time manipulations are fine to me as long as they remain simple, short term, and finite with definitive expiration dates on the effects they give. Anything more, where paradoxes and confusing chrono-consequences begin to show their ugly faces, is the point where chronomagic has overstepped its utility. |
I'm on a permanent vacation to the soul. -Tash Sultana |
Edited by - Varl on 30 Nov 2011 14:56:57 |
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Hoondatha
Great Reader
USA
2449 Posts |
Posted - 30 Nov 2011 : 15:01:56
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I think you can do a fair amount of time travel in the Realms at the moment, you just have to be subtle about it, and pick your moments. I'm mulling over a campaign at the moment where the PC's are "lore thieves," time travellers who go back in time to right before disasters and try to pull out as much as they can before everything goes boom. I'm looking at Uvaeren as a good target, and either using Chronomancer or the time portals from the Netheril box set.
The trick is changing time without leaving traces. Like going back to the Library of Alexandria and pulling scrolls off the shelves in the back, while in the front people are setting it on fire. No one notices that some of it is missing, until you turn up in the present and "discover" it.
I think you could do quite a bit with that sort of "lore thief" idea. |
Doggedly converting 3e back to what D&D should be...
Sigh... And now 4e as well. |
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Dennis
Great Reader
9933 Posts |
Posted - 30 Nov 2011 : 15:37:48
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Indeed. Needless to say, the effects of time-travel (to the present) in that scenario would depend on the kind of information from the stolen scrolls. If the said scrolls contain something like The Leaves of One Night or Vhostym's notes on how to make a Weave Tap, then I say the effects to history itself would be quite...significant, specially if they fall on the wrong (or even the right) hands. |
Every beginning has an end. |
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Does mastery of psionics grant one an edge to....
