Time Lord (A Doctor Who-inspired Race of Eccentric Immortals)

Time Lords

"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint--it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff," the odd man in the corner of the bar rambled.

He looked perfectly human, with a youthful face and frazzled brown hair, but his eyes carried the weight of something far older. He was energetically delivering a lecture to his companions: a Wizard easily thrice his age who was excitedly noting down everything said, and a Bard that was clearly preoccupied with... the rambler's other features. Spouting polysyllabic words with the spastic energy of a child on a sugar rush, the man seemed to almost be talking for the sake of it rather than because he was truly trying to educate.

--An excerpt from "Tales of Gallifrey: Legends of a Forgotten People."

Time Lords are a lonely race of eccentric nomads who perceive the world around them in a manner utterly unlike most other races. As a result of their intrinsic connection to Time and their form of pseudo-immortality, they tend to live long enough to be experts in their fields, spending their lives pursuing their chosen crafts and sharing their achievements with those few that can stand to keep up with their mad genius.

Individualistic to a fault, what little consistency Time Lords have as a people is in their shared burden: the disappearance of their homeland, Gallifrey.

A Face for Every Occasion

Like a snapshot in time, Time Lords never seem to age. One can meet a Time Lord multiple times across several centuries and they would not have changed in the slightest. The lone exception to this is their peculiar ability to 'Regenerate.'

When a Time Lord is on the verge of death, they instinctively pull on their connection to Time's natural energy to escape their fate. Not everything survives the process, however, and most of who they are is lost to the Vortex of Time. From their bodies to their personality, nothing remains but their knowledge, skills, and the root of who they are as a person; everything else is exchanged with something new as the price for their survival.

Many Time Lords embrace this change, thriving on the chaos of their existence up to the point of taking bets on their 'next face,' while others live in perpetual fear of what's coming. Regeneration is not a choice, and the threat of a being replaced by what many view as an almost entirely new person is too much to bear for some.

A Curious Sense of Time

Time Lords do not experience the flow of time like the other races. Rather than a continuous river of actions, they perceive it as a series of relative fixed points.

They are aware of the past and present, and that events happened in a specific sequence, but unless a Time Lord has kept careful track of their life and experiences they could not even begin guessing how much time they've experienced.

This ability is not without risk, however. The process is incredibly draining, and often leaves Time Lords bedridden for days until they've fully recovered; during which time whatever caused their wounds in the first place is likely to come to finish the job.

Lonely Gods

Due to their incredibly long lives, Time Lords frequently find themselves outliving their loved ones. Though the origins of their people are shrouded in mystery, whatever god or happenstance led to their existence forgot to account for how mortal beings would respond to such longevity.

As a result, Time Lords are prone to various forms of instability, with many becoming manic megalomaniacs as they grow older; often seeing themselves as gods or some other form of true immortals that are above the 'lesser' races.

Many Time Lords have found various ways to combat this. Some follow personal codes religiously, others withdraw from the world and become hermits, while some push through the long-term grief and find companions among the shorter-lived races. The eventual pain of loss is worth it in exchange for a friend to keep them sane, in their eyes.

Can't Do Domestics

It is very rare for Time Lords to meet each other, and even rarer for them to have children. Partially because of how few of their kind were left after Gallifrey vanished, but also due to their tendency towards very forceful personalities, Time Lords tend to drive each other mad faster than their age would naturally.

On the rare occasion that two Time Lords meet, they either quickly become the best of friends, the worst of enemies, or fall into a whirlwind romance, spiraling into a messy courting period that can last as little as a day or as long as centuries depending on the couple. Once married, Time Lords do not believe in the idea of divorce, swearing their vows 'until Time ceases to flow.' The most they tolerate is separating for a few centuries whenever they inevitably have an argument.

Time Lord families, perhaps unsurprisingly, are chaotic and messy affairs. Their innate tendency to frustrate each other often leads to dysfunctional childhoods and young Time Lords eager to set off on their own to distance themselves from their parents. That is not to say that they do not care for each other, but as they say: "Three Time Lords in a room is at least two too many."

Every few decades or centuries, children end up finding one or both of their parents again and usually find the experience quite pleasant, but it never lasts for long before the generations split off and return to their own lives.

A Lost Legacy

"On the continent of Wild Endeavor, in the mountains of Solace and Solitude... There stood the citadel of the Time Lords."

--Recollections of an ancient Time Lord.

Though some descriptions have survived the ravages of time, such fantastical claims of things like scarlet grass and silvered trees, a burnt-orange sky set in perpetual twilight, or even a whole city, domed in glass more impressive than any mundane gaffer could ever create... little of substance is actually known about the lost homeland of the Time Lords.

It's disappearance is a subject of much debate for scholars of any disposition, while tales of its treasures steal the greedy hearts of many an adventurer and would-be thief.

At the height of their power, the Time Lords were a kingdom of powerful wizards; specialists in time magicks and the study of the stars above our heads. Their inventions were peerless in their field, and many a modern mage would trade their firstborn for a chance to study an old relic of Gallifrey.

To most, however, the lost citadel is a subject of passing curiosity, a long-gone myth and an entertaining mystery to ponder.

Some theorize that the haughty chrono-mages angered a deity of some kind, and were punished for their arrogance, while others believe that it was war with rival nations that destroyed them in the end. An eccentric few even posit the idea that the Time Lords had attempted to assert their control over time itself, creating an impossible machine that could traverse the skein of fate and go anywhere in time or space... and ultimately, it led to their destruction.

Passionate but Closed-minded

With how much dedication and energy it takes to follow a singular path for the duration of their long lives, Time Lords are passionate creatures by necessity, if nothing else. Unfortunately, their single-minded dedication has also led them to often be unable to see other paths in life; unused to the idea that there are other ways forward outside their own plans.

Dwarves. "Dwarves are excellent craftsman and fine companions, if you can get over their brash natures and obsession with digging. It's recommended to bring along something to deal with the smell, though."

Elves. "A bit snooty for how young they are and quite likely to hold a grudge over the silliest of things—really, it was just a tree; it looked better like that anyway—but their long lives make them excellent long-term companions. Some of them even stick around for multiple faces!"

Humans. "How they can possibly get anything done with lives so short is a mystery, but they're acceptable enough folk to be around, I suppose. We resemble them most of any of the races, so we have to at least try and get along, even if they don't ever live long enough to start to understand the realms properly."

Time Lord Names

In Time Lord tradition, names have deep meaning, and true names have a great and terrible power. Knowledge of one's name is knowledge of one's self, as a name is one of the very few things which never changes throughout a Time Lord's long life of regeneration.

Accordingly, a Time Lord's true name is their most closely guarded secret. Some will never share it with another living soul for their entire life, while a rare few might lock the knowledge of their own name away with magic and throw away the key.

A descriptor is still required for the sake of communication however, and so Time Lords pick a title that defines how they want to spend their time in this world.

Tradition used to dictate that this name would be chosen on their eighth birthday, immediately after they were brought to peer into eternity itself and see glimpses of their own future through a coming-of-age ritual, but with the loss of Gallifrey the methods required to do so vanished.

Adult Names: The Lord, The Scholar, The Warrior, The Killer, The Lady, The Forgotten, The Regretful, The Keeper, The Diplomat, The Builder, The Artist, The Lost, The Teacher, The Weaver, The General, The Martial, The Captain, The Tinkerer, The Smith, The Wanderer

An Old Superstition

There is an old tradition amongst Time Lords: burning the bodies of their fallen. The legend goes that, if someone of another race managed to study the body of a Time Lord, then the secret behind Regeneration would be revealed to the realms and then forever be lost to their kind.

Accordingly, it is a cultural taboo to delay the final rites of a dead Time Lord, and not even the worst of enemies would deny each other this ritual.

Time Lord Traits

Your Time Lord character has a variety of instinctual knowledge, the result of countless lifetimes of advancement.

Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligent score increases by 2, and your Charisma score increases by 1.

Age. Due to their connection with time, Time Lords do not age after reaching physical maturity at the age of 20 and gaining the ability to regenerate, though they're still considered young until the end of their second century or until after they've experienced their first regeneration. Given the peculiar manner in which they experience and perceive the flow of time, Time Lords tend to not keep track of their age past maturity, usually measuring their lives by how many faces they've worn.

Alignment. Most Time Lords are lawful, believing firmly in certain 'Laws of Time' that govern everything, though this may vary from face to face. They also tend towards the good, seeing it as their duty to use the remnants of their lost heritage to educate the younger races and bring them forward into a higher level of civilization.

Size. Time Lords range from under 5 to over 6 feet tall and have slender builds. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Ancient Knowledge. Your people have been studying time and its mysteries for so long that you have gained an innate understanding of the its flow and the events that mark its passing. You gain proficiency in History.

Temporal Awareness. You have an innate connection to time, and gain advantage in all perception checks related to magic or artifacts that affect the flow of time.

Binary Vascular System. Time Lords have two hearts, and the greater blood flow has lead to the ability to keep going for longer. Your long rests are 4 hours long, unless you a recovering from regeneration, in which case the strain of the process negates this trait for the duration of your recovery.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Gallifreyan, the ancient language of your people, along with three other languages of your choice.

The spoken form of Gallifreyan contains many words and verb tenses reflective of the Time Lords' unique perception of the passage of time, rendering it incredibly difficult for non-Time Lords to learn, while the written form is an elegant and mathematically exacting collection of symbols; each arranged counter-clockwise around a circle in a manner similar to the face of a clock and visually reminiscent of the star charts of astronomers.

Regeneration. The most unique strength of the Time Lords is their ability to regenerate. Like a lizard losing its tail to avoid danger, Time Lords will abandon a mortally wounded body for another, giving them a chance to escape or defeat whatever nearly killed them.

When your Time Lord dies they will begin the regeneration process, jumpstarting their mortally wounded body with energy as they prepare to change faces.

Once your character has begun regenerating, roll one hit dice to heal and do not subtract that dice from your total. You are now conscious, and once the current combat has ended you will complete the regeneration process and switch to the the next face in succession. Once this occurs, you will fall unconscious again but will automatically be stabilized.

Additionally, you gain two stacks of exhaustion upon falling unconscious again. You may not use this ability again until one full week has passed since it was last used, but you will be otherwise recovered once your exhaustion has dissipated fully.

Preparing Regenerations

Creating a Time Lord

Time Lords are more complex to create than the characters of a normal race, thanks primarily to their most iconic trait, Regeneration.

In an effort to be considerate to your fellow players and the DM, it is highly recommended that, when making a Time Lord, you also prepare several regenerations in advance. This will save a lot of time while playing and ensure that each of your character's faces is as fun to play as the last.

To make this process more approachable, several pages of suggestions have been included to help design your Time Lord's faces. However, so long as you follow the general format, you may go about creating new regenerations in whatever manner you and your DM deem to be most suitable.

Consistent Complications

When playing a Time Lord, before creating any of the faces of your character, it is important to consider what will not change between regenerations.

While creating a new face for your Time Lord, think about what traits are at the core of your character. Do you believe in any kind of code? Perhaps you try to help others with all the knowledge your heritage affords you. Or, perhaps you leverage that advantage for your personal gain, thriving on the belief that your lengthy lifespan marks you as more significant than those shorter lived.

Additionally, how does your character feel about Regeneration? Do they thrive on the change it brings to their long life, or fear the inevitability inherent in the ability?

Whatever the case, such beliefs should never change as a result of the regenerative process. Only the things that would normally prompt a character to grow and change should effect such vital characteristics.

A New Face

Perhaps the simplest part of crafting a regeneration is deciding their appearance. Every single one of a Time Lord's faces is meant to be distinct from each other, with every visual aspect of their character being potentially different.

Additionally, their chosen outfit style is likely to change as well, so be sure to work with your DM to explain how your character discovers their new clothing.

All of the following must be re-considered when creating a new face for your Time Lord: Sex, Apparent Age, Facial Structure, Height, Weight, Physical Build, Hair Style and Color, Eye Color, and Skin Color.

Changes can be as stark or as minimal as you like, so long as the new face is visually distinct from those that have preceded it and does not stray from possible human features. Consider experimenting with traits you may not normally use.

Sex. While some Time Lords tend to stick to one biological sex across the majority of their regenerations, there are a variety of exceptions to this rule.

To decide the sex of your new face, you may either pick a desired result or you may roll a d20 or d8:

When rolling a d20, a 1-10 results in a male face, while a 11-20 results in a female one.

When rolling a d8, a 1-6 will result in whatever sex your Time Lord is normally, while a 7-8 will result in whatever the opposite sex is.

Apparent Age. The physical effects of age have no bearing on a Time Lord's capability, and as such, their varied regenerations can vary wildly in how old they look by the standards of other races. Below is a list of different ages that a Time Lord may resemble.

Pick or roll for one of the following:

d6	Apparent Age
1	Teenager
3	Young Adult
4	Adult
5	Middle-Aged
6	Geriatric

Curious Quirks

One of the most notable parts of regeneration is the fact that, outwardly, a Time Lord can appear to be a completely different person than they were just the day before. Though this may be more noticeable in their entirely new appearance, a Time Lord's personality often goes through just as drastic of a change when they don a new face.

While creating a new regeneration for your Time Lord, think about what the important traits you considered previously. Keep them in mind and then alter as many other aspects of your Time Lord's personality as you feel is necessary. Make sure that your new traits mark you as notably different from past incarnations.

To assist in this process, here are a selection of example personality traits. Feel free to pick and choose, invent your own, or roll for your choices. You may pick as many options as you'd like, but take care to not over complicate any singular face of your Time Lord.

Pick at least 3 Personality Traits as consistent characteristics, and at least 1 for each regeneration:

d20	Personality Trait
1	“I am always right; arguing with me is a waste of your time and mine.”
2	“I’m the best at what I do; and if you think there's someone better I'll thank you to keep it to yourself.”
3	“Stay out of my way before you make me do something we'll both regret.”
4	“A lot of people think I’m rude; I think those people are dumb and ugly.”
5	“Puzzles and mysteries fascinate me, and I often lose myself in the moment when confronted with them.”
6	“Meeting new people and being overly-friendly with them is the best thing to do when you're bored.”
7	“I always tell the truth, especially if it gets me into trouble.”
8	“My temper is akin to an ancient volcano, slow to rise but violently explosive when triggered.”
9	"I often find myself irritated by others' inability to keep up with me in conversation, and get frustrated when I have to repeat things."
10	"I like to sit and ponder pointless things to take my mind off more serious matters."
11	"What's the point of playing it safe if I can regenerate?"
12	"It's not paranoia if everyone actually is out to get you, thank you very much."
13	"I see regeneration as my dying and a new person being born, and I would almost rather die than regenerate."
14	"I will frequently speak using long, convoluted scientific terminology, usually because I can’t remember the actual name for what I’m thinking of and don’t want to admit it."
15	"I respond to perilous situations with excessive humor, because my idea of true danger is starkly different than most."
16	"I tend to over-complicate problems when simple solutions would work best."
17	"I dread the death of my companions and loved ones more than anything else, and will go to unreasonably great lengths to prevent their ends."
18	"Violence is for barbarians and fools, and I consider myself above those who resort to it with any frequency."
19	"My greatest friends are the books in my library. No person could ever compare."
20	"Keeping clean and dry is of paramount importance to me, and I will resist any suggestions that require me to sully myself."

Aged Eccentrics

Time Lords are infamous for their multitude of unusual quirks, and only ever seem to pick up more as they grow older.

Pick at least 3 Character Quirks as consistent character traits, and at least 1 for each regeneration:

d20	Character Quirk
1	Prone to singing, whistling or humming quietly
2	Speaks in rhyme or some other peculiar way
3	Slurs words, lisps, or stutters
4	Enunciates overly clearly
5	Accidentally mumbles many of their inner thoughts
6	Uses flowery speech or overly long words
7	Licks things to confirm their alchemical makeup
8	Makes frequent 'dad jokes' or puns
9	Prone to predictions of doom
10	Stares at people awkwardly
11	Frequently chews lip
12	Prone to wielding common household tools menacingly
13	Taps fingers to the tune of their doubled heartbeat
14	Decorates their hair or beard with odd trinkets
15	Makes minor decisions by consulting a lucky charm
16	Taps foot impatiently
17	Has a penchant for a particularly quirky article of clothing
18	Offers candy or sweets at inopportune moments
19	Particularly enjoys strange-looking food
20	Curses with silly phrases instead of swearing

Facing the End

While they often seem as such to other races, Time Lords are not truly immortal. They have a finite amount of times that they may regenerate, though by the time they've reached their final face, a rare few Time Lords find a way around this limitation...

You may either roll to decide how many faces you will have, or you may take the default option of 12 regenerations:

Roll a d8 and add +10 to whatever you have rolled. This number is how many faces your Time Lord has naturally.

Final Touches

Once you have finished creating a few faces for your Time Lord, there only remains one final detail to decide: what order to play them in.

By default, it is recommended to manually select the progression of your character's regenerations, but if you'd like, you may also choose to roll a dice to decide which face your Time Lord changes into upon regenerating.

If you decide to choose manually, ask yourself whether you'd like for the different faces of your Time Lord to convey a story. Perhaps your character's different regenerations can reflect the lessons they learn or experiences they have throughout your campaign, displaying the growth and maturation of their character.

Or, alternatively, you can simply have them proceed in whatever order is most entertaining to yourself and your player group.

Whatever you choose, make sure you have at least a vague plan in mind for how you intend to introduce your new face to the party. It's a whole new you, after all!

Optional Rules:

A Varied Approach

Due to the inherent complexity of Time Lords, there are some features that may not be as simple to implement at your game table when compared to others. Accordingly, they have been included here as optional features of the race for your convenience.

If you choose to use them, be aware that they will likely require more effort on your part or the DM's, and should only be added to your game after due consideration.

A Sliding Scale

Though your Time Lord's view on good versus evil is too central of a characteristic to be effected by the regenerative process, the way they believe that balance must be approached is not as certain.

When making a new face for your Time Lord, you may alter whether your character is Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic. You may decide this yourself, or if you'd prefer to leave it up to chance you may roll 1d6 to decide:

Rolling a 1-2 results in a Lawful alignment.

Rolling a 3-4 results in a Neutral alignment.

Rolling a 5-6 results in a Chaotic alignment.

Weapon Proficiencies

Similar to gaining a new taste in attire after changing faces, your Time Lord may also wind up with a new taste in weaponry, gaining the equivalent skill with the new weapon that they had with their previous one.

Upon completing your regeneration and changing into your new face, you gain a proficiency in a single weapon type of your choice (i.e. Longsword, Quarterstaff, Shortbow.) If you already have gained a weapon proficiency in this manner, you lose the old proficiency in exchange for the new one.

Work with your DM to decide how you come across your new equipment. Perhaps a party member has a spell that can transfigure your old gear, or perhaps the dangerous enemy that caused your regeneration in the first place happened to have a suitable weapon in their treasury.

Minor Specialties

Sometimes, when a Time Lord regenerates, they pick up a small skill or ability as part of the process. This is entirely optional, but it can be a fun final detail to tie everything together for your new face.

Pick or roll for one of the following skills:

d10	Skills
1	Plays an instrument. You gain proficiency in one musical instrument of your choice.
2	Skilled dancer. You have advantage on Charisma (Performance) checks made to dance.
3	Expert cook. You gain proficiency in cook’s utensils.
4	Great at solving puzzles. You have advantage on Intelligence (Investigation) checks made to solve puzzles.
5	Great at Games. You gain proficiency in commonly used gaming sets such as chess or cards.
6	Sings beautifully. You have advantage on Charisma (Performance) checks made to sing.
7	Draws beautifully. You gain proficiency in calligrapher’s or painter's supplies.
8	Experienced Freerunner. You have advantage on Dexterity (Acrobatics) checks related to navigating urban terrain.
9	Great with animals. You gain proficiency in the Animal Handling skill.
10	Avid Prankster. You gain advantage on Charisma (Persuasion) checks related to mischief or light-hearted situations.