| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Gelcur |
Posted - 03 Jun 2006 : 03:50:29
I had read in some 2e source, Arcane Age accessories, that time travel was severly limited by Mystryl. But as I was searching around the other day I ran into this.
I had been looking for more info on a different set of time gates which apparently are also in that Arcane Age accessory.
So do people know if this has been revised in 3e? In the 2e source it specificly said wizards look to time travel would fail due to the rules in place and eventually conclude only Time Conduit would work but this article contradicts it. |
| 4 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 03 Jun 2006 : 14:18:27
Yes, I would say also that newer lore trumps older lore.... except in this instance. Chronomancer had a better ruleset to prevent players from easily going back in time and mucking with things. For instance, sure a construct isn't alive, but it is sentient of sorts (hell, even a skeleton is sentient of sorts... it responds to commands and makes its limbs move). Therefore, said being should have a "lifeline" and the idea of you being unable to double your lifeline was a very stabilizing feature of chronomancer. Later with a very powerful spell you could sever your lifeline, but even that to me becomes something overly powerful (but a little house rule that you can't "triple" your lifeline gives the spell the intended purpose while providing some measure of control).
How does this affect this current article? Well, they keep reusing the same construct to go back in time. Therefore, they'd all end up sitting in this cave at the same time until modern day catches up. How does this not cause a paradox? Even worse, if players get ahold of this concept, what prevents them from sending the same construct back 500 times to wait in some cave all with the instructions to wait unless given new orders via X construct (some different kind). Then they send back X construct that goes back with instructions to override all the others and tell them invade some elven land. So, with the construction of a pair of constructs and using this time gate, they could then overwhelm nations and reform the world. Why? Because all those constructs are still ignoring each other and only listening to X construct... and that's the ruleset that this person wrote up for stopping a paradox.
Also, they try to balance the spell with a mundane component that they don't associate a cost to. Therefore for many this would constitute a component that could be ignored with eschew materials.
Finally, you could still include this realmslore into your campaign. The things that you would need to change of course would be that a new "probe" must be created for each sending back. Theoretically, they could send back undead, but non-sentient undead would likely fall apart before aging to the current time and most incorporeal undead would be sentient enough that once whatever spell used to control them were gone they'd leave. Similarly, demons used in this fashion would all go sit in the cave and wait for enough of them to be there and find some way to overwhelm the "past" versions of those monks, then they'd seize the portal. So, the monks would probably be stuck with the same idea of using constructs, but having to build a new one each time with all the attendant costs. So, maybe they end up making cheaper constructs... oh, but those tend to get destroyed... you get the idea. |
| Vainelus |
Posted - 03 Jun 2006 : 14:17:30
Cormanthyr Empire of Elves has a good section on the rules and regulations of time travel set by Mystryl. |
| Kentinal |
Posted - 03 Jun 2006 : 04:09:28
The article appears to be 3.X material. While it is not timestamped as the when written the _Perilous Gateways_ are AFAIK a recent series that started with 3.5 , but perhaps 3.0 might of had one.
I do not recall any other current souce that deals with time in this manner. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 03 Jun 2006 : 04:07:24
Despite this article, 3E really hasn't addressed time travel. 2E didn't address it much; I only know of a couple references to it outside of the Chronomancer supplement.
While newer lore trumps older lore, I think of these portals as being more of an alternate, previously undiscovered method of time travel. |
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