Review of Temporal Magic

[darthauthor]

Temporal magic is covered in Rifts England, Book of Magic, and maybe a touch in The Rifter.

The magic is considered Rare in that few know it and most are unwilling to share it unless in trade for a years of faithful service and study or forune or both. Exceptions are those who come by Temporal magic spells by intuitive (such as the Mystic) or granted by an Alien Intelligence (a Shifter; also the Traveler O.C.C.)

Over all the spell list seems short on low level spells. Heavy on defense and non-detection. Followed by travel. Some good buffs. But almost no spells for attack, just some curses. I would have liked to have seen some cleverly worded spells like time out, time lock or time bomb.

Temporal Magic by Level

Level Seven
D-Phase (20): Same as Earth Warlock’s “Travel Through Stone” but can travel through everything. Great if you are a thief who wants to get in and out without leaving a mark or just making a jail break for yourself. A travel spell. Situational.
D-Shift Phantom (20): Become an invulnerable witness. What happens if your enemy leaves a sword inside you while you materialize? Can’t fight or flee. Only good for taking oneself out of combat or escaping an artillery strike bomb, land mine, etc. 1 melee per lvl
D-Shift Two Dimensions (25): Good for hiding. That’s about it.
Suspended Animation (10 or 30): A sleep spell meant for willing people. Who needs to sleep years at time?
T-Dep (20): A curse, better than just a nuisance.
Time Warp: Send (25): A time capsule. High espionage gaming might use it for dead drops, bomb planting, or smuggling. Very situational.

Level Eight
Attune Object to Owner (30): A fingerprint kill switch for guns, vehicles, computers and such. Good for making money.
Retro-Viewing (30): Limited time to view the past makes it only good for on the spot witnessing of the immediate past. Good if you are a cop who arrived shortly after the crime was committed.
See Dimensional Anomaly (30): Detecting another using temporal spells. Temporal magic is super rare. When does one expect to come across it? This is for Temporal casters against each other.
Sense Dimensional Anomaly (30): Good for detecting Rifts. Meh. Shifters can do it, there's a psychic sensitive power for it too. So you cast this spell when you want to sense if there is an open Rift. Very situational.
Time Capsule (30): Greater duration than Time Warp Send but highly vulnerable. Good for preserving food, magic herbs, etc. Anyone want to open an organ bank? Incredibly situational but a shrewd caster will use this spell for profit getting others to pay them to perserve organic things from decay.
Wink-Out (20-60): Invulnerable and undetectable for a minute but it's running away and hiding. Good for the caster and two others (at 5th lvl) with the advantage of getting 4+ minutes to treat injuries, reloading, casting buff spells, etc. So great if you are surprised and need a few minutes. After it wears off you are right back where you started. Great if you are the healer/medic and need time to stop the bleeding and treat the wound mid battle.

Level Nine
Remote Viewing (45): Like the psionic power Remote viewing only good for places you know well, with a longer duration. Good for spying. Astral project does it better but this is undetectable.
S-Dep (50): Super curse; especially good against psychics.
Time Warp: Age (45): Super curse but not good against supernatural beings.
Time Warp: Slow Motion (45+): Area of effect buff spell for the party. Great in a melee fight or close range gun fight.

Level Ten
Dimensional Pockets (20 or 140): D&D’s bag of holding. Good for smuggling and selling for money
Temporary Time Hole (100): Good for escaping explosions and containing a fight preventing enemies from escaping and collateral damage.
Time Maelstrom (55): Only good for magic users attempting to go somewhere using temporal magic. Too situational to be practical.
Time Warp: Fast Forward (70): When you just can’t wait. Burn PPE to skip ahead and maybe things will be the way you want when you get to the future (3 seconds later for you). Another spell that makes the caster and 2 others undetectable and invulnerable but with unlimited duration. Situational good for emergency medical aid if outsiders can arrange it for a pre agreed upon time in the future the time travels come out in. Likewise, if you don’t have air, food or water. Might be an assassin’s tool if they knew where and when their mark will be.

Level Eleven
Time Barrier (100): Only good against other casters of temporal magic. Extremely situational.

Level Twelve
Dimensional Envelope (60 or 380): A bolt hole to hide in.

Level Thirteen
Id Self (400): A more powerful variation of the Doppelganger spell with possibly having to fight yourself.

Level Fourteen
Fourth Dimension Transformation (350): Metamorphosis into a supernatural being that can see where everything and everyone is around them. Jump in and out of vulnerability and detection without restricting travel or movement. Teleport and time travel. Greatest strengths are travel and detection. Risks sanity though. A super buff that is basically perfect way to travel someplace quickly undetectable and invulnerable seeing everything in your area. Doesn't do damage though; can still shoot a gun and such. Have to drop a bomb or poison or something. Spying application limited only by duration.

Level Fifteen
Time Warp: Space & Time (800): Teleportation and can move to the future.

[Mouser13]

Overall the temporal are not that power by them self the fact that Temporal Wizard gets to pick Any of them even a level one can pick any of them. Also gets to pick form any level of basic spells(Though no GM would allow it includes spells of leg as they are list in spells by level). Also the ability backstory extra xp which only a few can do.

Personally I use Dimensional Envelope targeting for static point in space. (Assuming following random location within dimension list in D-portal spell(I find most don't)). If random with in a 10ft ish box isn't that random. Then can walked out to my ley-nexus and recharge.

[darthauthor]

Thanks Mouser13,

I must admit I had not thought of it.

According to your discription, it would seem, the power of temporially magic is not in the spells themselves but the OCC who uses them. Namely, the freedom to pick ANY spell from BOTH innvocations (spells of Legend too) and Temporal magic.

Then the power is in the planning and strategic use of select spells.

[Mouser13]

One other thing I forgot about people seen do. Suspended Animation (10 or 30) Can subdue person can then case it for transport. Useful for capture of teleporting creature don't want to kill. Put sleep.

[Glistam]

Don't forget that Fleets of the Three Galaxies has new spells, and there is one unique spell in the Wormwood book too.

[Grazzik]

The Temporal Warrior is a nice balance of magic, combat skills and servitude bonuses. Much tougher than the nerfed Combat Mage.

However, the only Temporal Magic spells of any real general use is D-Envelope and D-Pocket, in my experience. The rest just don't seem to have much traction.

There are also Time Lord Abilities (Transdimensional TMNT) that could maybe be adapted as a Temporal Spell, but many are duplicates to existing spells. A couple are unique, like Temporal Barrier, but how often does a PC want to block off an entire planet from time travelers?

Don't forget that Fleets of the Three Galaxies has new spells, and there is one unique spell in the Wormwood book too.

Temporal Blast can be useful too for shock value, but not for offensive damage - 20 PPE for just 2d6 HP/MDC. The rest are just okay and situational.

Re Wormwood, Black Abyss Dimensional Pocket (pg 141) in case anyone is wondering. Just a terrifying prison cell. However, I've always wondered why it's called a "pocket" since it is static in one place, but a D-Pocket is portable. Would make more sense as an "envelope" like D-Envelope, which I believe is intended to be static.

That said, I have to admit to making the D-Envelope more interesting in my games by house ruling that it can a) have the envelope space expanded or rooms nested through multiple casting of the spell and b) be cast on any surface, vertical or horizontal, preferably a carpet or large beach towel that can be rolled up and carried around. In those instances, it involves a travelling merchant/temporal warrior who carries their store front or warehouse with them. So, if your PC is wandering through the wilderness and finds a throw rug lying on the forest floor, please don't disturb it. My PC may be inside having a snooze. For those curious, creature comforts and other amenities within the envelope such as fresh oxygen, running water, or lavatories are addressed through various TW devices