D20 Mechanic: The Impossible

This page outlines the impossible status, what it means (both mechanically and in-world), as well as effects that can cause, prevent, remove, or otherwise interact with it.

What Is Impossible?

The impossible status is a condition that, once acquired, cannot be removed by any effect that does not explicitly state that it can remove said status. Anything that exists - be it a creature, an item, or even a given area - can acquire this status.

This status has no effect on a creature aside from interacting with effects that cause or otherwise interact with the status itself.

The Forces and the Impossible

There are two distinct ways in which to view the Forces: along alignment lines, or by the means with which they interact with their relevant "physics."

Three Forces - those of Magic, the Divine, and Time - directly modify their physics. Each directly interferes with how the world is "supposed" to work, producing effects that should not be possible but are, due to a variety of factors. Mastery of any one of these Forces can eventually lead to an individual being capable of wielding an impossible-causing effect, but are incapable of removing it.

Another three - those of Psionics, the Void, and Chaos - alter their physics by means of exploiting loopholes in the existing physics. Each finds holes in implementation of their given "physics," and exploits them to the fullest, allowing them to produce effects that should not technically be possible, but are due to circumstance or circumvention of particular prerequisites. These Forces cannot directly cause or remove the impossible status, but repeated usage of some of their more powerful abilities can result in these effects compounding and resulting in the impossible status.

The final three - Technology, Nature, and the Blue - follow their physics. They use the existing system and build upon it, using the consistent ruleset already provided. They can make basic assumptions and work from there, rather than utilize loopholes or simply force reality to their whim, which can have unforeseen side-effects. These Forces can undo the impossible status and the effects that caused that status to occur, but they cannot cause it themselves.

Making the Impossible Possible

Each Force has a singular ability, which can only be attained by an individual's research into the inner secrets of their Force. Each of the primary Force-using classes has a talent available to them, which can only be taken once they have reached at least 16th level as a Force-user.

These effects are relatively unique. None of these Force effects has a path, discipline, field, or similar (that is, specialization is irrelevant, and has no effect on these abilities). While these effects can be learned by mortals, they are effectively higher in power than most mortals ever gain access to (that is, they are treated essentially as Epic effects, despite not being Epic in level).

Force Effects

The following is the list of Force effects that interact with the impossible status.

WISH
Path: None [Impossible]
Level: Mag Archmage
Casting Time: Standard action
Target, Effect, or Area: See text
Duration: Instantaneous
Mana Cost: 36 mp
Saving Throw: No
Spell Resistance: Yes
Reality is malleable. Nothing is impossible.
When you cast this spell, whatever target, effect, or area you affect immediately gains the impossible status, even if this spell fails to have any effect on the target, effect, or area in question. If your target already has the impossible status, this spell automatically fails (at no XP cost). You cannot use this spell to remove the impossible status from any target. This spell itself - and each casting of it - is considered to have the impossible status, and thus you cannot alter it in any way with a casting of this spell or similar effects.
By casting this spell, you can alter reality in any way you see fit, be it altering a creature in some fashion, creating an item from nothing, totally changing the local terrain, or performing some other normally-impossible feat. Regardless of how you choose to alter reality, all elements involved gain the impossible status; if any one affected element already has such status, the spell fails (at no XP cost).
In regards to creatures, you can cause a status of your choice to permanently affect the creature (such as haste, slow, petrification, or reraise, keeping in mind that this is not an exhaustive list). Such a status affects the creature until it would either end (such as with reraise) or is ended by removing the impossible status from the target. A status put on a creature by virtue of wish can only end by the status' own natural course or by an effect that can remove the impossible status.
In regards to items, you can spontaneously create an item of any sort, so long as it is an item that can be created through Magic (that is, if the item you wish to create is a normal item, or a Magic-aligned item, you can create it). Such an item has the impossible status upon its creation. Alternatively, you can alter an existing item in any way you see fit, either by adding or removing abilities from it. You can attempt to alter Magic-aligned artifacts in this manner, though doing so increases the chance of this spell failing.
Effectively, this spell is essentially a much more free-form version of standard d20 wish. Any effect that that spell can produce, this spell can produce up to double such an effect with minimal chance of failure.
If you use this spell to attempt to perform a particularly impossible task, it may fail. The chance of failure is at the DM's purview. You may choose to accept the impossible status upon yourself in exchange for a single casting of wish, no matter how egregious, to succeed. If you do so, you gain the impossible status as part of casting the spell (and as such you cannot affect yourself with such a casting), and the total XP cost of casting this spell is tripled.
Due to the nature of this spell, nothing can make a saving throw against any effect it produces: you are essentially rewriting reality to your whim, which cannot be overcome simply by physical endurance or force of will. However, if you affect anything that has Spell Resistance, you must overcome that in order to affect such a target with this spell, as SR represents an inherent resistance to such rewritings of reality.
XP Cost
Casting this spell costs 5,000 XP.
If you create an item, you must pay additional XP equal to double the XP normally required to make the item. If you modify an existing item, you must pay additional XP equal to the XP normally required to modify the item.
If you attempt to alter an artifact, you must pay an additional 15,000 XP.

 

ANTIKYTHERA MECHANISM
Field: None
Level: Tec/Inv 10th
Activation Time: Standard action
Target, Effect, or Area: See text
Duration: Instantaneous or 1 round/level (see text)
Saving Throw: No
Tech Resistance: Yes
If there were an engine at the heart of existence, this would be a functional model of it.
This device is essentially an engine designed to "tie in" to the existing physics "engine" that keeps reality functioning. Once activated, it operates on low-level aspects of reality to rebuild it from the ground up, re-establishing standard physics.
This device has two potential uses.
Annul Impossibility
When directed at a creature, item, area, or effect with the impossible status, this device immediately removes the effect that caused the status, as well as the status itself. This effect is immediate, and can only be stopped by failure to overcome Tech Resistance.
XP Cost: This usage of this device requires an expenditure of 2,500 XP by its user.
Build Physics
You can instead use this device to generate a "physics engine," which causes local physics to obey standard physics as per the prime material plane. This affects a radius of 100 feet/student level out from the device. This effect overrides any and all planar traits. When using this aspect, you can opt to not "turn on" certain aspects of the physics engine inherent in the device (for instance, not turning on normal gravity on a plane with nowhere solid to stand). If this device would generate gravity, it generates gravity relative to it.
This usage of this device lasts 1 round/level. Attempting to shut it off early is impossible due to the nature by which it generates a physics engine.