Chronoskimmer (Pathfinder Second Edition Archetype)
(art by beckyg on DeviantArt)
Time is a strange thing indeed, which we don’t fully understand even in the real world. In fantasy we sometimes see mages that study the phenomena in hopes of mastering it by some measure, and we call those chronomancers or time mages.
However, sometimes someone gains a measure of power over time by complete accident, and as such, their mastery of causality is a bit more intuitive and instinctual. We call these curious anomalies chronoskimmers.
Like their name suggests, these individuals exist slightly outside of time and can sense it’s flow, allowing them to step slightly or entirely outside it’s flow for moments at a time and manipulate how the flow affects others as well in the same way that others walk down the street for a very small-scale, practical approach to time manipulation.
The origins of such powers can vary a lot, between strange accidents in labs to surviving an attack from beings associated with time to things that might not have even happened yet in linear time. No matter what the nature of their powers is, however, they can be befuddling and unpredictable foes.
So if you want to play a character similar to Tracer from Overwatch and the like, this archetype might appeal to you!
The base dedication of this archetype grants the time-shifting hero the ability to influence their own reaction to the flow of time in high-stress scenarios. This allows them to either willingly choose to take their average for initiative, or to gamble on either going nearly first or nearly last. Additionally, if their initiative matches that of another party, they always have priority.
When failure seems imminent, many chronoskimmers learn to turn back time by a few seconds and try again with forewarning of their original failure, though this does not guarantee success.
With a gesture, some are able to guide the personal timelines to a favorable result, either aiding an ally or hampering a foe with what from the outside seems like a sudden turn of luck.
Charging into melee carries plenty of risks, but by rewinding their own bodies but not that of their foes, they can leap into the fray, strike a foe, then suddenly revert back to their original position out of reach.
Mirroring the ally across time and army across time spells of 1st edition, some chronoskimmers can briefly manifest echoes of themselves from parallel timestreams to menace foes, unable to attack with them but being real enough that their foe’s attention is divided.
By creating a sort of pinch in their personal flow of time, these empowered can briefly speed up, borrowing moments to act before the borrowed time catches up to them and they slow down.
Conversely, they can instead rob a foe of their own time with a gesture and slowing them down for a time.
Rather than manipulate their own reaction time, some chronoskimmers learn to see danger coming and warn allies, at the cost of their own reaction being slower.
Powerful chronoskimmers live up to their name and step outside of the timestream and seconds into the future, vanishing and being unable to be touched any anything, but still progessing any effects on themselves for that moment of lost time.
With a twist of causality, these time travellers can move through space at the same rate as normal but cut out the amount of time spent traversing to their destination, seeming to teleport a short distance.
Many chronoskimmer abilities can only be done once a day, but by subtly manipulating the timestream, they can make it as if they never used them at all, effectively allowing them to use such powers one more time.
While this archetype shares a lot of themes with the time mage, it feels much more instinctual, needing no prior magical power to function. This makes it perfect for playing a character like a sneaky timeskipping rogue, or any number of martial characters that use time manipulation as part of their fighting style.
I spoke with the time mage archetype about how they are unbound by causality, gaining knowledge and power from their future as much as their training gives them power in said future, but I think it’s safe to say that if you want to get weird with a character who views time weirdly, you can easily do the same with this archetype.
The only one of her class to have been confirmed to survive the accident, Dilva has become unstuck from time, a curiosity that the university is eager to study. Not wishing for that fate, the young mage fled, plying her magic and powers to get by. It is a rough existence, caught between the hounding bounty hunters and the echoes of her now-lost peers
Rumors speak of a shadow in the falling of an hourglass’ sand, an assassin that can get into anywhere, and if they fail their task, they rewrite reality to succeed instead. While these tales are certainly exaggerated, there is no denying that the aiuvaran vanara hitman Penjakhan has some mysterious power over time honed by years of training.
The omen archdragon Nubinaka is, like all his kind, fascinated by prophecy and the strings of fate. So when he notices a blank spot in that tapestry, one that slides in and out of other stories, he puts out a reward for whoever can track down and investigate the source of this strangeness, and perhaps arrange a meeting.
