QUINTESSENCE
- EXPANDED PSIONICS HANDBOOK (3.5)
- PSIONICS HANDBOOK (3.0)
Metacreativity (Creation)
Level: Shaper 4
Display: Material; see text
Manifesting Time: 1 round
Range: 0 ft.
Effect: 1-inch-diameter dollop of quintessence; see text
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Power Resistance: No
Power Points: 7
You collapse a bit of time from the continuum, forming a 1- ounce dollop of thick, gooey material called quintessence. This substance shimmers like a silver mirror when viewed from some angles but is transparent from other viewpoints. You can smooth a dollop of quintessence around any extremely small object, such as a key, a ring, a seal, or an insignia. Objects sealed within quintessence are protected from the effects of time; in practical terms, they enter a state of stasis. Living flesh with only partial contact with quintessence is also partially pulled out of the time stream (the manifester is immune to this effect). This disruption deals 1 point of damage per round beginning 10 rounds after partial contact occurs. Quintessence can be manually scraped away from a protected object, freeing it to rejoin the time stream. When you do this, there is a 75% chance that the quintessence evaporates back into the continuum. Otherwise, it coalesces again into a 1-inch-diameter bead, available for later use. Large quantities of quintessence could theoretically be gathered to preserve large items or structures (or even a complete living creature; if completely immersed, a living creature would not take the damage associated with partial contact). However, psionic characters and creatures are generally loath to do so because accumulations of quintessence weighing 1 pound or more hinder psionic activity within a 5-foot radius of the accumulation: Powers require twice as many power points to manifest, unless the manifester makes a successful Will save each time he or she attempts to manifest a power. Also in these circumstances, manifesting a psi-like ability that is usable at will is a full-round action rather than a standard action.
Editor: Quintessence is one of the most misunderstood powers in psionics today. Having plumbed the length and breath of the internet, I have determined what I believe is the RAW of the situation. First of all one use of this power creates 1 oz of quintessence. One ounce can contain one object of tiny size. If you need to contain a larger object, we apply the rules that apply to all objects of larger size, we double it.
Tiny - 1 oz
Diminutive - 2 oz
Tiny - 4 oz
Small - 8 oz
Medium - 16 oz
Large - 32 oz
Huge - 64 oz
Gargantuan - 128 oz
Colossal - 256 oz
You do not “over pay”. If you have a vat of quintessence and dip something in, the excess flows off. However, that batch of quintessence coating the object or person is subject to certain rules:
1. You can only coat physical, solid objects. Liquid, Air, and Energy cannot be contained. If you can somehow freeze the liquid, air, or energy, you could do it afterwards with DM approval.
2. Incorporeal objects can be frozen, but are subject to the standard 50% miss chance. If frozen, they are considered to be on the same plane as the quintessence.
3. Only the original creator can safely handle a coated object. Any one else disturbing the object in any significant fashion (ie, causing one point of damage. Trying to move the object. Attempting to activate the object.) is considered “scraping”. The exact nature of what is considered “scraping” is left up to the individual DM, but should be rather liberal.
4. Once scraped, each individual ounce of quintessence is subject to a 75% chance of vaporizing once “scraped”. You can either have 25% survive, or roll for each ounce separately.
5. An instantaneous Spell Effect, even if it creates an object for a moment, cannot be frozen. However, any delayed, or continuous effect can be delayed if the object it is placed on is coated with quintessence. This means you can cast several spells on a sword then coat it, put it in a sack for protection, then unwrap it later. All buff spells will be halted at the time it was placed into the sack.
6. You can cast spells/powers onto an object in stasis without that being considered “scraping” The object is protected from time and therefore can be the target of spells, but not a single spell will take effect until it resumes traveling through time. The exception is, you cannot use touch spells/powers on the object, since this will result in “scraping”. Also, instantaneous powers are instants, therefore do not travel through time since they take no time at all, under the D&D rules. Therefore, instantaneous spells cast on, a suspended object will take effect. If this causes damage, the object will resume moving through time, check to see how much quintessence survives. If this causes any physical changes to the object, consider the object “scraped”.
7. Contact with quintessence can cause damage if left alone. But scratching at it will cause a 75% chance of it vaporizing. Eating quintessence causes digestion, which is as close to “scraping” as you can get. So each round there is a 75% chance it vaporizes.
8. It is assumed that if you are using a container to hold the quintessence, none will be lost to the container itself. The material beads up at the behest of the creator. However, if someone else tries to remove or apply it, a DM is well within his rights to have it vaporize.
9. It cannot be applied to an unwilling subject, since all the subject has to do is shake a whole lot to cause “scraping” and thus vaporizing. However, as an alternate rule, if you have four times the amount of quintessence needed to coat someone, that can be applied as a touch attack. It is assumed the resisting target causes 75% of the quintessence to evaporate, but enough remains behind to coat them. That means you need 64 oz, or four pounds to coat one medium sized target against their will.
10. You cannot coat a sphere of annihilation with quintessence.
11. You can preserve a corpse or wounded person to heal them later. But only the creator of the original quintessence can safely move him.
12. If someone crates something like a heroes’ feast, you can preserve the feast for later. One meal should take about 4 ounces, to be on the safe side.
13. Putting quintessence on an extra-dimensional space does not affect it’s contents and renders the extra-dimensional storage in stasis and therefore inoperative.
14. If you have a large container of quintessence and any part of the quintessence takes damage, all quintessence must immediately check to see if it vaporizes. It is suggested to you keep quintessence in separate containers as a “firewall”.
15. Summoned critters kept in quintessence are in effect in stasis, thus they resume their countdown from the point when they were coated.
16. If you have a large bag of quintessence and stick a sword in, the whole sword must be in it. The sword will retain any spells cast on it. If you pull it out, only the quintessence needed to keep it suspended in time is at risk for vaporization.
17. You can toss someone in a portable hole of quintessence, cast a whole bunch of ranged buffs on them, then pick the hole. They will be suspended in time until you pull them out, fully buffed. If you forget about them, you might have a “Once and Future King” situation going on.
18. If you are astrally projecting and your body is coated in quintessence, you immediately are brought back to your body. If you cannot, your silver cord is severed.
19. By RAW, a lich’s phylactery is just as effective in quintessence as it is lying around.
20. Since a forced dream is in fact a “dream” about the future, if you use forced dream, the use quintessence to wait a thousand years, then activate forced dream in the far future, it does indeed bring you back to the present. However, since it was all a dream about the future anyways, it doesn’t matter and the entire universe isn’t destroyed.
Editor: This is a rare power that creates a permanent “charge” for no XP. That item is ostensibly the world’s greatest preservative: anything that is completely covered in Quintessence is treated as being outside of the time stream and thus is preserved in the state in which it was in at the time it was covered. The power description says that you can accumulate large amounts of Quintessence, enough to cover an object of any size. There are drawbacks: it takes a long time to accumulate enough to cover anything other than a small object, any accumulated quintessence greater than one pound generates a catapsi effect, and anyone other than the manifester takes damage if they are in contact with Quintessence for more than 1 minute (unless that person is completely covered in it). In a typical campaign, this will limit the usefulness of this power. True, you might be able to cover a dying king with the stuff to “stop the clock” while you adventure for the cure, but building up enough to cover him would take awhile. He might die while you manifest. You might also contemplate selling the stuff, but expect angry customers when one of their kids dies from eating a Quintessence-covered object. Additionally, you could try applying this to objects created with Minor Creation, or get a Wizard friend to drop a few Delayed Blast Fireballs into it for the ultimate bomb. Whether or not the power halts the countdown on the duration of a spell or power, however, is an open question. Therefore, just what kind of effect the Quintessence has, is subject to the whims of the DM. More than any other power, your mileage may vary. The rules on this are a bit fuzzy, but with a bit of ingenuity, this is widely considered one of the most useful powers out there. It's an instantaneous creation effect, so you don't have to worry about it being dispelled.
