The Save State Psion 1.0
By Tleilaxu_Ghola
The Simple Summary
This trick works by abusing time hop to send your psicrystal days forward in time, and forced dream (Magic of Eberron 104), which will return him back in time to the moment you manifested time hop. Doing so will undo whatever caused your party to wipe, because the psicrystal's Dream began before you time hopped it. (Presumably while you were all alive and kicking.)
There's a couple of other things you'll need to make it work, below:
Abstract
With this trick one is able to create "save" game points, with a minimal cost of 15 XP for psionic contingency. The trick allows one to adventure for a day and then reload the save game point if something went awry.
Ingredients:
Forced Dream (Magic of Eberron 104)
Anticipatory Strike (Complete Psionic 78)
Time Hop (Mass version lasts longer, for a full day of adventuring)
Psionic Contingency
A Psicrystal
Status
Imbue with Spell Ability
Metamorphosis - needed if your DM ignores Player's Handbook 177 that states a creature can suppress racial resistances/immunities to magic.
Sending Stones [Optional magic item] (Complete Arcane 150, 15K per linked pair)
Forced Dream: Psion/Wilder 3
[Paraphrased]
Any time during the 1 round/level duration (or minutes per level with 4 pp augment), you can spend a swift action to restart your turn. As forced dream says, "When this effect is used, everyone and everything is reset to the state they were at when the subject's turn began. Any spells or abilities used are available again, any damage dealt is healed , any effects incurred are negated, any objects or creatures moved are reset to their original position, and so on. The only exception to this is that any power points spent to manifest forced dream are not recovered..." Forced dream ends when the swift action to do this is expended or when the duration expired.
The Trick
Manifest psionic contingency on your psicrystal placing a contingent ancipatory strike on him contingent on the event: returns to the normal time stream from a time hop.
If desired, share metamorphosis with your psicrystal to transform him into something that isn't immune to mind-affecting compulsions. Heck you could transform him into an object of any size if you wish. (Player's Handbook 177 states a creature can suppress racial resistances and immunities to magical/psionic effects, meaning metamorphosis is just for show.) Have the party Cleric use imbue with spell ability on the psicrsytal so that it can use the spell status. (A Spell to Power Erudite, Cerebremancer, Psychic Theurge or someone with an item can cast status himself.) Mix with affinity field if you wish the psicrystal to have knowledge of all party members' condition, though this requires a level 9 (!) power.
The psicrystal casts status on you or whatever party member you choose. This person's condition will determine whether or not the save state will be reloaded, so choose carefully. NOTE: Status will NOT work across planes! Be careful!
Manifest forced dream on your psicrystal at some time before you fear harm will befall you. Ready a standard action to manifest a contingent time hop on your party (+2PP per target) when the psicrystal moves. Tell the psicrystal to do so, advancing him hours / level ahead in time. With enough ML you can advance your psicrystal nearly a day. Adventure on your merry way, whilst your psicrystal is outside the time stream.
If your party succumbs to a TOTAL PARTY KILL, your psicrystal will still be alive and kicking the next day. No time will pass for him and when he comes out of the time hop and the contingency will grant him sufficient actions to check the status of the party, provided they are on the same plane as the psicrystal. (If on another plane, there's a 5% chance of failure.) The psicrystal may also use a Sending Stone to ask whether his master would like to reload or not. If the party member is under a certain condition or if the master tells the crystal to, the save state is reloaded as the psicrystal spends a swift action to return to the beginning of his turn, which began with you manifesting time hop on him right before he started moving. You may now retry whatever you failed to accomplish.
