Sample: Kylind Campaign—Revising the Chronologist Class (OC)
A long time ago (around the last time I was part of a major layoff), I spent most of that time developing my own D&D world. I was very ambitious with it - the projected included:
A whole continent
A full 1-year long adventure
5 new subraces
2 new classes
An entire new school of magic + spells for it
Its own pantheon of gods
New monster types and templates
New weapon categories
A handful of subclasses/prestige classes
... and probably more that I've forgotten about. The document, last I checked is 78 pages long and over 30,000 words on its own, including history, tables, descriptions, and rules. I dubbed this work "The Kylind Campaign" and it wound up becoming the first ever adventure I ran for my now-husband.
I've always intended to go back to it and revise the information, because the conclusion of that campaign was so earth-shattering, it needs it. There's also just some stuff I wrote back then that needs updating, either because I've become a better writer and designer or because it's been 13 years and general philosophies in the industry have changed substantially.
The world itself was originally written for the 3.5 Edition of Dungeons & Dragons and later formally converted to the 1st Edition of Pathfinder. I'm not sure if I'll convert further from there—our play group really likes the crunchier, heavier mechanics those systems offer.
I wanted to show some of the work I had done on my old blog, in part to just have content out there, but also because I was planning on publishing this stuff some day. I still might! You can read the original article here, but it's from 2013, so it definitely shows its age.
Rather than repost that exact content here, I've instead written a revised piece below that's less about the mechanics and more about the philosophy and what I learned in playtesting this class. The campaign has long since ended, and there's a lot about it I'd like to revisit.
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What is the Chronologist?
Chronomancy seeps throughout the land of Kylind, challenging its structure and even its history. None are more passionate in seeking to understand and harness that power more than the Chronologist. From mastering raw power to understanding the intricacies of ancient weaponry, their passion and fervor is so intense that they are often decried as zealots, compared more frequently to religious fanatics than to wizards. The life of a Chronologist is usually lonely, though they rarely care for the company of others. All that matters is understanding, and ultimately controlling, time itself.
Why the Chronologist?
My initial goal with the Chronologist class was to design a support-based Divine caster who could replace a Cleric in a party. I've been at far too many tables that consider Clerics boring to the point that someone almost always gets "forced" to be the healing stick, and I wanted to solve that by creating a new class that can serve that purpose with a different flair.
I also really wanted there to be an Intelligence-based support class. I was very stuck on this concept, and kind of still am if I'm being honest.
Unfortunately, it really didn't pan out that way—the Chronologist wound up landing somewhere between a support and a damage-dealing caster, to the point where it served neither role well enough to take those tasks on alone. This meant it felt a lot like Bard did in Pathfinder and 3.5 - they're nice to have as a 5th or more party member, but hard to justify if you need perfect team balance.
The group recruited a Cleric later in the campaign because our Chronologist couldn't quite keep up with healing demands, and I re-evaluated the Chronologist's overall structure as a result.
The Future of the Chronologist
I still feel very strongly about including the Chronologist as a class in my world. It feels key because time manipulation and time travel play such an important role in the world of Kylind (to the point of being considered a form of divine intervention). However, we set it up for failure by adding a way for Wizards to specialize in Chronomancy on their own. This lead to a new problem: now I have two classes that basically do the same thing, with one of them wildly out-performing the other.
The answer is likely in combining the two concepts together and meeting somewhere in the middle. We gave the Wizard (Chronomancer) specialty some very cool crafting and construct flavor that is probably better suited to being moved to Artificer. Because Artificer wasn't a class in Pathfinder 1E, I was stuck finding another way to convert it.
My current thinking is probably to kill the Chronomancer specialization in Wizard (or at least tone it down) and let the Chronologist stand on its own. Perhaps the Chronologist needs to be my version of an Artificer, so we can carry forward some of that crafting and automaton vibe without losing the unique flavor of time manipulation it carries. In either event, some things either need to be shifted or removed so that it avoids becoming too good, too utilitarian, or overshadows other existing classes.
Next Steps
Before I can really make decisions on what to do with the Chronologist or the Chronomancer, I have a big decision to make:
What edition and system do I build this class and world for?
If I intend to publish this, it doesn't make a lot of sense to stick with two systems that are both now out of print. However, my home group isn't super big on playing 5th Edition D&D (old OR revised) or 2nd Edition Pathfinder, so I'm left in a difficult place.
It's part of why this project has stayed on the backburner so long. The other reason is that this world isn't entirely just mine anymore—both my husband and I have used aspects, characters, philosophies, and stories from this original campaign in newer adventures with our friends. Much of our lore has evolved and changed, and needs to be recorded and reflected. If I continue to develop this class, it won't be on my own!
