Time Mage
Magic leaves its brand on those who practice it. The veteran pyromancer bears the scorch marks of lessons learned. The archdruid grows to resemble plants or animals in their domain or grove. The professional reanimator can never quite cover up the stench of their grim work.
The mark left by the practice of time magic is less obvious but no less indelible. With other disciplines, the marks of experience accumulate as magic is learned, creating an equilibrium of sorts between the exercise of power and the necessary consequences. Time magic suffers no such limitations of cause and effect. Distortions and anachronistic thoughts echo back throughout a time mage’s entire life, providing a nonlinear perspective that others can find distracting or even alien. The threat of creating a paradox is ever looming. Many a reckless time mage has inadvertently erased themselves from existence, glimpsed a future they now have no choice but to enact, or attracted the attentions of temporal creatures, such as iriis or siktemporas.
For these reasons, most mages merely dabble in time magic, learning a spell or two here and there. Despite the dangers, a brave few embrace the discipline, for it offers the allure of changing what was and controlling what will be.
Additional Feats 10th Read Disaster; 12th Quickened Casting; 16th Plot The Future; 20th Echoing Spell
Time Mage Dedication Feat 6
Prerequisites You have a spellcasting class feature
You might be a novice in the temporal arts now, but in the future, you’ll hold time in the palm of your hand. As some of your future knowledge leaks back to your present self, you gain the Delay Consequence domain spell. It costs 1 Focus Point to cast a focus spell. This feat grants a focus pool of 1 Focus Point that you can recover by using the Refocus activity to revisit moments from your past and contemplate futures yet to come. If you already knew delay consequence from a feat or ability that allows you to gain your choice of domain spell, such as Domain Initiate, then when you take this feat, you can retrain that option to gain a different domain spell instead as your personal timeline rearranges itself. You also gain Time Sense as an innate cantrip usable at will. This innate spell and your focus spells from the time mage archetype are of the same tradition as the spells you used to meet the archetype’s prerequisites.
Special You can’t select another dedication feat until you have gained two other feats from the time mage archetype.
Chronocognizance Feat 7
Prerequisites Time Mage Dedication; master in Perception
The flows and ebbs of time are obvious to you, as are the tangles that form when it’s distorted. You’re automatically aware if any creature that you observe is under the effects of the Slowed or Quickened conditions. You have a general idea when you’re in the vicinity of time-manipulating phenomena, though this grants you no particular insight into the specific effects of the anomaly. Particularly subtle temporal anomalies might still escape your notice, requiring a Perception check, as determined by the GM. If you’re legendary in Arcana, Nature, or Occultism, or Religion, whenever a creature that you can observe gains the benefits of Freeze Time or similar effects, you can observe what happens during the stopped time, though you still can’t act yourself for the duration.
Chronomancer’s Secrets Feat 8
Prerequisites Time Mage Dedication
The secrets of time peel back, revealing deeper truths. You gain either the Stasis domain spell or the Path of Least Resistance focus spell. Increase the number of Focus Points in your pool by 1.
Special You can take this feat a second time, gaining the focus spell that you didn’t gain the first time. Increase the number of Focus Points in your pool by 1.
Future Spell Learning Feat 8
Prerequisites Time Mage Dedication
More future memories of time magic percolate back to the present, teaching you spells you’ve yet to learn. Add Behold the Weave, Cast into Time, Haste, Loose Time’s Arrow, Quicken Time, Slow, and Stagnate Time to your spell list. You can thus potentially learn these spells even if they aren’t normally on your tradition’s spell list.
What Could Have Been Feat 8
Prerequisites Time Mage Dedication
Rather than conjuring creatures from elsewhere in the world or the planes, you can temporarily pull a much different version of yourself from an alternate timeline-for instance, instead of summoning a generic or random troll with Summon Giant, you summon a troll version of yourself from a timeline where you’re a troll. If your next action is to Cast a Spell that summons a creature, that creature is another version of you. This creature remains the type of creature you summoned and has largely the same abilities (plus the following adjustments), but it clearly resembles you, likely sharing some distinguishing features, such as mannerisms, speech patterns, tattoos, or clothing. The summoned creature gains a +1 status bonus to any skill check in which you’re trained, a +2 status bonus if you’re an expert, a +3 status bonus if you’re a master, or a +4 status bonus if you’re legendary. The creature also takes a -2 penalty to all skills in which you’re untrained.
Into the Future Feat 10
Prerequisites Time Mage Dedication
You know your spell will be needed not now but in a few moments, so you cast your magic into the future. If your next action is to Cast a Spell that takes 1 or 2 actions to cast, the spell’s effects occur 1 round later, at the beginning of your next turn, rather than immediately. Targets and choices about the spell must be determined when the spell is cast, and requirements, such as line of sight and line of effect, must be valid both when the spell is cast and when its effects occur. Consequences for the action of Casting the Spell itself, such as an Attack of Opportunity reaction or ending a foe’s Fascinated condition by taking a hostile action, aren’t delayed.
Purge of Moments Feat 16
Prerequisites Time Mage Dedication
Frequency once per hour
All things eventually end, a truth that you can put into practice by accelerating your passage through time to shake off harmful effects. Five rounds of apparent time occur for you. No one, including you, can act during this time, but effects on you run their course, including beneficial effects, void effects, afflictions, conditions, and persistent damage. Roll saving throws, flat checks, damage, and any other rolls for those effects normally as if the time had passed. Excessive use of this technique is responsible for more than a few premature gray hairs among time mages.
Timeline-Splitting Spell Feat 18
Prerequisites Time Mage Dedication
Frequency once per day
You invest in two futures, then choose the one to make a reality. You Cast two Spells that each take 1 or 2 actions to cast. These can’t be the same spell heightened to two different levels. You expend the resources for both spells, such as spell slots, Focus Points, and material components. Determine the immediate results for both spells, including attack rolls, saving throws, damage, and any other dice rolls. Then, choose which of the two spells takes effect, using the previously made rolls. The other spell’s resources are still expended, but the spell has no effect as the magic disappears the other timeline.