Favor
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Jota II's Favor |
| This article has been favored and rated Good by Jota II, for the following reasons: Despite the relative lack of obvious damage the time walker can dish is out with a reasonable degree of competency, and it's defenses and special abilities are top notch. The unique natures of the time walker's abilities are simply awesome, and you shouldn't have too much trouble competing at the rogue balance point. I think this a bit on the lower end of the rogue balance point personally, but I don't think that detracts from the enjoyment that class can offer while still being a useful additional to the party. That perspective, however, is looking at the class a whole. As a dip it allows Wisdom-based casters to add +2 to the spell DCs at the expense of a single caster level, which can be combined with other factors (Spell Focus) to get a little out of hand. It is also a potent addition for monks and swordsages who get a +4 boost to AC in exchange for a single level, as well as the re-roll ability. This creates some disparity between the strength of the class' ability over 20 levels as opposed to as a dip, which is why I can only rate this good, rather than excellent. |
Dichotomy
So I was thinking about joining you Storm Soul game and I was perusing the list of pre-approved and I came across this one. Now this (time walker) intrigues me greatly, but I have a question. How can you consider dichotomy balanced? The only way I could rationalize this is via the Leadership feat (in which case this is fine). If that's the assumption, there's really no point in any further discussion, but otherwise giving two characters to one player seems really unfair.
On a somewhat related note, I will also favor this hard when the RC templates get figured out (provided you mollify, via explanation or otherwise, my concerns both above and below) because this is my favorite class from you (of what I've viewed) and could maybe one of my favorite homebrew classes period (assuming rogue-level balance). I'm really loving the flavor, but I do have some power concerns a bit at first level (no Temporal Strike makes you rather average, although I guess you can compensate with dirty AC), but also throughout. Namely, Power Attacking via Temporal Strike should be pretty nice, but it only applies to the first attack, and you don't get anything else that says, "Don't you dare turn your back on me!" until Greater Delay, which is a long way away at tenth. My point is just that AC in itself and mobility are not enough (age-old maxim, I'm sure you know about it; see Dwarven Defender for example); you need something that enemies must respect in terms of ability to effect them. Greater Delay can be that, and Power Attack works pretty well until everyone starts getting iterative attacks, but in between I worry a bit. And things that can make your save (Greater Delay) also will probably just run all over you, too. I'm also not sure that ranged attacks can give you a great damage source either. If you can prove to me via numbers that you can keep up damage-wise (I'm generally okay with this formula) or make some other case for levels 4-9 or so and then what happens when enemies can save against Greater Delay, awesome. Otherwise I see delectable potential being held back a bit by limited damage output. -- Jota 19:39, September 24, 2009 (UTC)
- So me and Rith SGT'd this (at both the 5 and 10 level) in the Tavern, or whatever we're calling it now. It worked out better than I thought (I think 6/4/5 at 5th and 4/1/4 at 10th), which surprised me (obviously) given my concerns above, but means that I am no longer worried about its power. Rith also explained that Dichotomy was a Tome-esque element in an otherwise rogue-level class, something I am still not totally okay with it (again, excepting games that allow Leadership) within the context of all of the other abilities. That said, it is a 19th level ability. Considering you still have just one Power Attack and despite the previous results I'm still unsure of the 15th level SGT (yeah, I know), I think its awwright! So, to depart from that vein, this class is really pretty awesome. It's a little bit of a break from the norm, but it is playable and wonderfully delicious from the flavor aspect. I hope to playtest it (maybe) in the future. -- Jota 21:45, September 24, 2009 (UTC)
- I'm giving this one the thumbs up (as per above), making it my first official favor. I've been thinking about it, and while I think the damage output is still a bit less than is par, it is still semi-respectable and with the right optimization and the plethora of defensive abilities, this is a great class. -- Jota 06:45, September 25, 2009 (UTC)
Question
Was just wondering, did you mean for a mid-level character with a single level of Time Walker to be able to use Flow of Time multiple times per day? How did you find this balances for most characters? (Say, a Swordsage, Ardent, or Psychic Warrior?) Also, why did you choose to make the recharge times for Moment Stop (and its Improved version)? BTW, I really like the Walk the Aeons ability, and think it's a great way to replace all stat-to-AC bonuses in a balanced way--a really good ability, all-in-all. --Ghostwheel 20:00, September 28, 2009 (UTC)
- Oh damn, sorry, I forgot all about this. To give you few quick answers to your questions, I made the usage limit of the Flow of Time ability be based on HD for two reasons, (1) so that a character with racial HD would be able to keep up with others decently well, and (2) so that a character with levels in another class could still use that first level in this class for something (much in the same way martial adept classes work with initiator level, only different). As for the recharge on moment stop and improved moment stop, is so that a character doesn't abuse em, and move out of the way of every attack or AoE spell that comes their way. THough thank you, I am particularly proud of this class and everything about it. → Rith (talk) 11:38, October 18, 2009 (UTC)
Error
you said Please Discuss before Editing so in Greater Delay: A time walker can seem to rip apart a beings timeline in and of itself at times, making them forget that time is even flowing for long moments. At fifth level a time walker gains the ability to make a single attack as a standard action, if this attack lands then no damage is dealt, instead, the target must make a Will save (DC 10 + half the time walker's Hit Die + the time walker's Wisdom modifier) or skip their next turn. fifth level should be tenth
- Huh, good catch dude. Thanks for pointing that out. For minor little things like that, though, it's fine to make the edit. :P → Rith (talk) 14:02, September 16, 2010 (UTC)
Flow of time
What does flow of time take to use? As it does not say... Ty Balthuras 09:17, October 3, 2010 (UTC)