Hello, everyone! This week’s player’s option is a Tales of the Valiant approach to my Chronomancer subclass. For the most part, the major changes to the subclass were wording issues, but I also aimed to streamline some features. To make this article just a little more interesting than a straightforward system conversion, though, I’ve also added a couple new playtest-draft spells as well.

Wizard Subclass: Chronomancer

Those who study arcane magic have always found spells to be most effective in manipulating the present, but the school of divination proves that the future and past can also be affected by magic, and Chronomancers use their spells as a guide to shape time to their will.

Asynchronous Spellbook

3rd-Level Chronomancer Feature

You have learned to use time magic to preserve your spellbook under almost any circumstance, pulling it from the moment you last held it. When you complete a Short Rest, you may summon your spellbook. If your spellbook was destroyed or misplaced since you last had it, it will appear to you, unharmed, in the same condition as when you last had it. If another creature possessed your spellbook when you summon it, that copy of your spellbook disappears.

Revised Preparations

3rd-Level Chronomancer Feature

As an Action, you may replace a 2nd circle or greater Arcane spell in your list of prepared spells with a spell you know of a lower circle. If you do so, you gain temporary HP equal to the circle of the spell you replaced + your Intelligence modifier. These temporary HP last until expended or you complete your next Short Rest.

Unstable Time Field

7th-Level Chronomancer Feature

You carry elements of time magic across your Arcane spells. When you cast a spell which produces an area of effect, such as a cone, line, or sphere, that area of effect gains one of the following additional effects for the duration of the spell. If the spell’s duration was instantaneous, the effect instead lasts until the end of your next turn.

• Creatures entering the zone or starting their turn inside it have their speed halved. A ranged weapon attack which enters or crosses through the zone deals half damage if it hits.
• Creatures entering the zone or starting their turn inside it have their speed doubled. A ranged weapon attack which enters or crosses through the zone deals an additional 1d10 force damage if it hits.

You cannot use this ability again until you complete a Short Rest.

Arcane Delay

11th-Level Chronomancer Feature

You shunt a spell’s effects a short distance into the future. When a creature you can see casts a spell on its turn, you may use your Reaction to slow the flow of energy from the spell. The creature must make a saving throw against your Spell save DC. If they fail, the creature expends the action and spell slot used for the spell, but the spell is cast at the beginning of the creature’s next turn instead.

If the creature is reduced to 0 hit points before its next turn, the magical energies of the spell backfire, and each creature in a 15-foot radius sphere from where the spell was originally cast takes 1d8 psychic damage, plus an additional 1d8 for each slot above 1st.

You cannot use this ability again until you complete a Short Rest.

Superluminal Spells

15th-Level Chronomancer Feature

Your time magic makes your position uncertain as you cast Arcane spells. Whenever you cast an Arcane spell of 1st circle or higher, you may teleport a distance up to your move speed to an unoccupied space you can see immediately before casting the spell.

New Chronomancy Spells

While chronomancy itself is not considered a proper school of magic under most taxonomies, a number of well-known spells have demonstrable chronomantic effects, such as the haste and slow spells, or the infamous time stop. In addition to the spells found in the Player’s Guide, the following spells are available on the Arcane spell list.

Superposition

2nd-Circle Arcane (Necromancy)

Casting Time: 1 Reaction, when you take damage which would reduce you to 0 HP

Range: Self

Components: V, S, M (A flask of poison, which the spell consumes)

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

You dodge certain doom momentarily, though there is still a chance you don’t make it.

You use a fluke of chance to remain conscious despite suffering potentially fatal damage. For the duration of the spell, you don’t fall unconscious at 0 hit points. You do not make death saves, but can be killed outright if you take damage from a single source equal to your hit point maximum.

Each time you cast a spell of 1st Circle or higher and at the end of each of your turns, roll a d20. On a 10 or lower, you fall unconscious at 0 hit points and the spell ends.

Enhance Reflexes

3rd-Circle Arcane (Transmutation)

Casting Time: 1 Action

Range: Touch

Components: S, M (a handful of roasted coffee beans)

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

You imbue a creature with a burst of energy, and time seems to slow around them.

You touch a creature and their perception of time seems to slow. For the duration of the spell, the target can take two Reactions per round. If it must make an attack roll, saving throw, or ability check on its first Reaction in the round, it does so with Advantage.

Pluck Fate

9th-Circle Arcane (Divination)

Casting Time: 1 minute

Range: Self

Components: V, S, M (a piece of obsidian carved into a black rose)

Duration: Instantaneous

You retreat from your vision of the future, knowing what threads of fate are about to be woven.

You awaken from a trance 1 hour in the past from when you cast this spell. Any spell slots, class or item features, and hit points you expended in that hour remain spent, but otherwise you are in the same state as you were at this destination time.

You retain your memories of what is to come in the next half hour, and events will unfold in the exact same way at your Game Master’s discretion unless you do something substantially different.