Hello, everyone, and happy Friday! This week’s class archetype continues the theme of time-traveling adventurers which began last month with the Fate Domain cleric. If the Fate Domain were Doctor Who, though, the Chronoklept is certainly Bill & Ted – this time-traveling rogue focuses on creating causeless effects to your benefit, then having to make amends to your personal timeline after the fact. Unfortunately, George Carlin isn’t around to bail you out, though, so be sure to be excellent to your personal history.
Roguish Archetype
Chronoklept
Time is precious. Everyone tries to save time, spend time, make time. Clearly, “time” is a currency, and if time truly is money, what stops an enterprising individual from investing theirs more wisely? Can one take a loan on their time?
Rogues who follow the Chronoklept archetype are unique individuals who leverage psionic talent to manipulate their own personal histories, either for uncanny gains or to mitigate their misfortunes. Either way, these rogues walk a path fraught with complex paradoxes and seemingly causeless effect.
Paradoxes
When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, your psionic abilities give you the ability to produce paradoxes, causeless effects which fly in the face of the traditional linear notion of time.
When you invoke a paradox, you accumulate a number of Paradox Points, listed on that paradox. These points are the measure of the strain you’ve inflicted upon your personal timeline, which you must strive to amend or they will worsen over time.
At the end of a short or long rest, you may remove any number of Paradox Points you have accumulated. Doing so will trigger a Paradox Effect, depending on how many points you have removed.
Paradox Effects
Points Removed | Effect |
---|---|
1 | Reduce your speed by 5 feet until you next complete a long rest. |
2 | Decrease the number of dice used in your Sneak Attack by 1 until you next complete a long rest. |
3 | Gain 1 level of exhaustion. |
4 or more | Gain 2 levels of exhaustion. |
After removing Paradox Points, if you have any remaining, you take psychic damage equal to the number of Paradox Points remaining, and your maximum Hit Points are reduced by that amount until you next trigger a Paradox Effect. After applying this damage, you accumulate 1 additional Paradox Point.
Right Tool for the Job. 1 Paradox Point. As a bonus action, you reach out into your timeline and can retrieve a mundane tool worth no more than 5gp. If the tool leaves your hand, it disappears, presumably taken by yourself at another point in time.
Prescient Adjustment. 1 Paradox Point. You use your psionic talents to foresee the immediate results of your actions. When you fail an ability check, you may use your reaction to roll again, using the higher result.
Self-Assist. 2 Paradox Points. You enlist the aid of your future self to flank an enemy, disorienting them and allowing you to make a vital strike. When you invoke this paradox, you gain advantage on your next attack roll. If you deal Sneak Attack damage with this attack, it is psychic damage.
Knowledge to Come. 2 Paradox Points. You look down a possible path your life could take. You cast augury without expending a spell slot.
Timely Sabotage. 2 Paradox Points. Your future self travels back in time, damaging a foe’s equipment before you would even encounter them. For the next minute, a creature you can see takes a penalty to attack rolls equal to your proficiency bonus.
Crucial Intelligence. 2 Paradox Points. You foresee an alternative but equally cunning attack which you can execute. The next time you roll damage for your Sneak Attack, you may roll twice, using the higher result.
Steal Time
Starting at 9th level, when a creature you can see is reduced to 0 hit points, you may steal a moment of what little future that creature may have. You may take an extra action on your next turn by accumulating 1 Paradox Point.
Continuity Slip
At 13th level, you gain the ability to remove yourself from linear time and reappear, only a fleeting moment passing from your perspective as you take the opportunity to set right some of the paradoxes you have created. You may declare an amount of time, ranging from 1 round of combat (6 seconds) to 8 hours. You disappear for that amount of time.
Creatures cannot perceive or interact with you for that declared amount of time, and you cannot take any actions or benefit from a short or long rest for that time. You are unaware of anything which happens during this period of time.
For every hour you spend removed from linear time, you may remove 1 Paradox Point without triggering any Paradox Effects.
Temporary Setback
Starting at 17th level, your constant manipulation of cause and effect has exposed you to the thread of your own destiny. You can’t quite see where this thread ultimately leads, but you can identify snags in the line, threats to your true fate. When you die, after 1 hour, a future version of yourself appears and takes your body and possessions, instantly disappearing. After 24 hours, you reappear alive and at full hit points at a safe place of your choosing that is familiar to you. You appear with 3 additional Paradox Points.
Some artwork © 2015 Dean Spencer, used with permission. All rights reserved.