The Genius Guide to the Time Warden (PFRPG) PDF (based on
3
ratings)
Super Genius Games
Our
Price:
$2.99
Add to Cart
Time is something we all understand on an instinctive level, at least to a degree, but few of us have ever tried to define. Time has been called the 4th dimension, nature's way of making sure everything doesn't happen all at once, and a philosophical construct to allow for the comparison of durations. Philosophers grant time the power to heal all wounds, but also warn it is the death of all things from mountains, to kings, to peasants. We do not need to understand time to make use of it, but no matter how much we deny its power, we remain beholden to it.
Time is one of the great forces of the universe. But what if time doesn't just happen? What if time is fragile, or at least mutable, and must be guarded?
The time warden is a master of chronothurgy, the magic of manipulating time, and a self-appointed guardian of the timeline—the sequence of events from the beginning up to the present, and stretching out to the end. With the ability to manipulate time comes the ability to abuse it, and, if damaged, time can become dangerous. Time wardens are aware that if time is stretched too far, ignored too much, or called upon too recklessly, the result can be an injury to time. The measure of how likely a given use of time is to cause damage is known as chronal dissonance, and time wardens seek such dissonance and do their best to reduce it.
Of course, time wardens do far more than place a stitch in time. They are spellcasters, calling on temporal spells as sorcerers call on the arcane and clerics on the divine. Through manipulation of chronothurgy, a time warden can divine the future, heal his allies, undo many harmful effects, and eventually carry friends through time. Much like the bard or monk, the role of the time warden is less well defined than classes that stick closer to the cleric/fighter/rogue/wizard mold, but by the same token is less likely to overlap with existing characters filling those traditional roles. Certainly a time warden can be of great benefit to a band of adventurers, granting time-based benefits and hampering foes, if not through direct damage.
Product Availability
Will be added to
your downloads
immediately upon purchase of
PDF.
Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at
webmaster@paizo.com.
Ok, having read the previous reviews, I'm not going to rehash on the wonderful comments already stated, instead I'm going to focus on the two mistakes I found, one already covered in the comments section, the other not pointed out yet.
The spell progression chart completely forgot the 0 level spells...ok, yes, it took less than 6 minutes to whip up an errata chart using a spreadsheet to correctly show spell progression based upon the comments found between Russ Luzetski and Owen. Not a big deal right? Wrong. This PDF has been out for several months now, and this mistake was pointed out at the beginning of June. I'm thinking this could of been corrected in the PDF by now. Errata corrections to PDF's, as bothersome as they may be, are a lot easier to do than the olden days, there's nothing in print...
The other mistake I found has me truly confused as to what was meant to be said, as opposed to what got written into the text. Page 7, last paragraph, I quote "When using other spells to duplicate the effect of a chronothurgy or chronothurgy spells (such as limited wish, wish, or miracle), or when using spells to price magic items based on chronothurgy or chronothurgy, treat the spell level as if it was 50% higher (minimum +1 level)." Ok, folks I know I'm not the brightest person alive, but what exactly is this trying to convey? It seems like either chronothurgy got used a few too many times, or there were words left out, because comparing chronothurgy to chronothurgy makes no sense, at all.
I have to however mention my favorite part of this PDF, the new spell Chronal Weapon. The idea of attacking an opponent with the failed weapon swings of history, to unleash a flurry of missed chances for a blade to taste flesh, literally appearing long enough to strike, the visual of multiple weapons from multiple times rippling in and out as they attck...very very cool.
Now, taking all of that into consideration, I still give this product a four star rating as I think it is a solid, fantastic addition to any campaign, with well balanced rules for handling something as delicate as time manipulation in a fun way that allows players to feel truly creative and bad ass, while keeping the reigns in the GM's hands. I would of gone five stars on it, but the fact that the spell progression chart has been known about since June...that just didn't live up to the standard I've started to expect when I read through a SGG product.
Just as awesome as the Time Thief, but in a different way
This pdf is 15 pages long 2/3 of a page front cover, 1 page credits and SRD, leaving 13 1/3 pages of content for the sequel to the much-lauded Time Thief-class, so let’s check the wardens of timelines out!
The Time Warden base class gets d8, ¾ BAB, good ref and will saves, 4+Int skills per level and spontaneous spellcasting (guided by Cha) of up to 6th level spells. As the Time Thief, the Warden gets access to motes of time as his signature ability. However, while there are some overlapping abilities both Wardens and Thieves can use, the Time Warden actually gets a quite expanded selection of time mote abilities he learns in a linear progression when compared to their thievish opponents. They also get a selection of 7 different aevum powers to choose from over the course of their career. The capstone ability, Lord of Time, lets the Warden reassign feats, skills, etc, essentially making for the ultimate versatile character then – cool idea!
Speaking of cool ideas: One of the aevum abilities lets the Time Warden jump through time and take friends with them, up to the point when they last interacted with a creature with Int, Wis or Cha of 1+. This ability alone is worth gold – the amount of plot options for the DM and cool plans for the PCs is staggering – excellent and thanks to the restriction, easily controllable by the DM.
Speaking of easily controllable: The time manipulation trope, easily one of the most bothersome ones in the hands of PCs, gets a large box in which the basic concept of time manipulation as used by the warden is explained. Additionally, the Time Warden’s spells, chronothurgy, and its peculiarities are extensively reflected on: Basically, there are some cosmetic, yet very cool differences from regular arcane or divine spells (the DM can freely choose to which side the Wardens belong): The spells of the Time Wardens don’t break e.g. space, that means that a time warden could teleport to a place he could theoretically reach on foot, but not e.g. inside a resilient sphere. While minor, these special little additions are what in the end constitute a flavorful, cool class. Several pages are devoted to the complete spell-list of the Time Wardens and 6 spell variants (all cool ones, btw.!) and 2 new spells are presented, among them the one spell that HAD to be in this book for me to enjoy it: Time Travel. And yeah, mechanically the spell is sound. Next up is a short template to create creatures that can use aevum and motes of time.
Next up is a section that is actually needed or should be consulted, even by experienced DMs: A discussion of adventures in time. If you don’t want time travel, you can easily eliminate it from the Time Warden and still have a blast. If you do, several ways of handling e.g. paradox, are mentioned and I’ve used some of these approaches myself in my homebrew, prior to purchasing this book. I have to admit, though, that I’d like some more definite rules for paradox along the lines of Mongoose Publishing’s otherwise not too stellar Chronomancy-book. While I wasn’t all into the rest of said 3.5-book, I scavenged some of the paradox-rules.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting, as almost always in SGG-pdfs, are top-notch, I didn’t notice any glitches. Layout adheres to the 3-column-standard and artworks once again are cool, larp-style photographs, this time of a male model – nice! There are no bookmarks, which is a pity. It would have been easy to replicate a fighter-style Time Thief, but rules-mastermind Owen K.C. Stephens has gone out of his way to create a distinct experience that differs in almost all key aspects from the Time Thief, while still having some basic principles in common. All in all, I’m very happy with this awesome class and once again applaud the great concept. My final verdict will be 5 stars with the Endzeitgeist seal of approval.
Genius Guide to: The Time Warden by Super Genius Games
This product is 15 pages long. It starts with a cover and Intro. (1 pages)
Time Warden (11 pages)
This section layouts the new base Time Warden Class. D8, 4 skill, simple weapons, medium BaB, 2 good saves and spells up to level 6, similar to a bard. They also get Mote of Time and Aevum like the Time Thief got for powers. There is 8 Aevum for them to choose from. It doesn't say if they can learn any of the Time Thief ones or not. I am going to assume no, but it doesn't say one way or the other. They have their own spell list. There is 6 new spells that are variations of existing spells and 2 totally new spells.
Time Options (2 pages)
This section has a new monster ability sense time, and also advice on how to run adventures in time.
It ends with a OGL and credits. (1 pages)
Closing thoughts. Layout and editing where both good, art is photographs like the cover. The class is well written and easy to understand and is a nice addition to the time thief. I wasn't as impressed with this one as I was the time thief though. It isn't bad, it just lacked the wow cool factor that the time thief had. So what's my rating? I am going to give this one a 4 star review.
