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Time Stop spell as an archmage walks through a battle frozen in a single instant.

SpiralWorlds original illustration created with OpenAI image tools

Ninth-level transmutation

Time Stop Spell

Steal several private moments from the world while weapons, flame, voices and falling stone wait between one heartbeat and the next.

Time Stop appears to halt the world for everyone except its caster. The precise explanation and restrictions change sharply between editions. D&D 5.5e/2024 grants consecutive personal turns, while Pathfinder 1e and D&D 3.5e describe the caster moving through several rounds of apparent time at overwhelming speed.

Across all three versions, Time Stop is strongest as a spell of preparation, defence, movement, escape and delayed control. It does not provide a sequence of unrestricted attacks against helpless opponents.

Content note: this page contains non-graphic fantasy battle imagery, fallen combatants and discussion of magical violence.

Quick Rules Reference

D&D 5.5e / 2024

Level 9 Transmutation. Action, Self, Verbal, Instantaneous. Take 1d4 + 1 consecutive turns.

Pathfinder 1e

Level 9 Transmutation. Personal range. Act for 1d4 + 1 rounds of apparent time.

D&D 3.5e

Sorcerer/Wizard 9 and Trickery 9. Personal range. Act for 1d4 + 1 apparent rounds.

Save and Attack

Time Stop targets only the caster. It requires no attack roll and permits no hostile saving throw.

Primary Counter

Interrupt the verbal casting before the spell resolves. Counters use the rules of the edition being played.

Best Uses

Personal wards, healing, movement, escape, equipment, summoning in older editions and delayed battlefield effects.

Edition boundary: the 2024 spell is not the Pathfinder or D&D 3.5e spell with modern terminology. Use only the rules in the panel for the edition currently being played.

Mechanics by Edition

Choose the edition currently in use. Each version below is mechanically independent and should not borrow wording or restrictions from another ruleset.

D&D 5.5e / 2024

SRD 5.2.1 rules

Level
9
School
Transmutation
Casting Time
Action
Range
Self
Components
V
Duration
Instantaneous
Classes
Sorcerer, Wizard
Save or Attack
None

Effect

Time ceases to pass for every other creature while you take 1d4 + 1 turns consecutively. You can move and use actions normally during each of those turns.

The spell ends early when an action you take, or an effect you create during the stopped interval, affects another creature or an object worn or carried by another creature.

The spell also ends if you move to a place more than 1,000 feet from the location where you cast it.

Usually Legal

  • Move within the 1,000-foot limit.
  • Dash, Disengage, Dodge, Hide or Search.
  • Cast a spell that affects only you.
  • Heal, protect or transform yourself.
  • Draw, stow or use your own equipment.
  • Interact with unattended surroundings when doing so does not affect another creature.

Ends Time Stop

  • Your action affects a creature other than you.
  • An effect created during the interval affects another creature.
  • You affect an object another creature wears or carries.
  • You move more than 1,000 feet from the casting location.

Important Interactions

  • No condition is imposed: other creatures are not automatically Paralyzed, Stunned, Incapacitated or Unconscious.
  • No Concentration: Time Stop does not itself require Concentration.
  • Consecutive turns: the caster takes actual turns. Effects tied to the beginning or end of the caster’s turn can therefore advance during the sequence.
  • Created effects: an effect does not bypass the ending condition merely because its damage or influence is delayed.
  • Worn and carried objects: the restriction covers another creature’s equipment as well as the creature.

Counterspell

Time Stop has a Verbal component and can be interrupted before it resolves by Counterspell when that spell’s trigger, range and visibility requirements are satisfied.

Dispel Magic

The 2024 spell has an Instantaneous duration. Once it resolves, it does not leave an ongoing Time Stop spell for Dispel Magic to end.

Antimagic Field: the 2024 Time Stop text does not contain the older rule expressly preventing its caster from entering an Antimagic Field . Apply the 2024 Antimagic Field rules independently.

Pathfinder 1e

Core Rulebook and Mythic Adventures

School
Transmutation
Levels
Arcanist 9, Psychic 9, Sorcerer 9, Wizard 9
Casting Time
1 standard action
Components
V
Range
Personal
Target
You
Duration
1d4 + 1 rounds of apparent time
Save and Resistance
Not applicable

Effect

You accelerate so greatly that every other creature appears motionless, although those creatures continue moving at their normal rate. You act for 1d4 + 1 rounds of apparent time.

Fire, cold, gas and similar normal or magical hazards can still harm you. Other creatures are invulnerable to your attacks and spells during the apparent interval, and you cannot target them with an attack or spell.

An area spell whose duration extends beyond the remaining apparent rounds begins affecting other creatures normally when Time Stop ends.

You can improve your defences, summon allies, flee or manipulate unattended objects. You cannot move or harm an object another creature holds, carries or wears.

You are undetectable during the spell and cannot enter an area protected by Antimagic Field.

Pathfinder Rules Boundaries

  • Use the Pathfinder apparent-round procedure rather than the 2024 consecutive-turn rules.
  • Other creatures cannot be targeted and are invulnerable to your attacks and spells.
  • Fire, cold, gas and similar hazards continue to affect the caster.
  • Longer-lasting area magic can begin affecting other creatures after Time Stop ends.
  • Unattended property can be affected, but another creature’s possessed equipment cannot be moved or harmed.

Countering the Casting

A caster using Pathfinder’s readied counterspell procedure can counter Time Stop with the same spell. Dispel Magic can instead be used as a counterspell when its normal dispel check succeeds.

Antimagic Field

This version expressly prevents the accelerated caster from entering an area protected by Antimagic Field while Time Stop remains active.

Mythic Time Stop

Choose a number of creatures no greater than half your mythic tier within close range. Each selected creature receives the same apparent rounds and can interact normally with you and the other selected creatures.

Augmented, 10th tier: by expending three uses of mythic power, the apparent duration becomes 1 hour per level. Creatures affected by this interval receive no benefit from sleep or rest during it.

D&D 3.5e

Preserved legacy mechanics

School
Transmutation
Levels
Sorcerer/Wizard 9, Trickery 9
Casting Time
1 standard action
Components
V
Range
Personal
Target
You
Duration
1d4 + 1 rounds of apparent time
Save and Resistance
Not applicable

Effect

You move with such extraordinary speed that every other creature appears frozen, even though those creatures continue moving at their ordinary rate. You act for 1d4 + 1 rounds of apparent time.

Normal and magical fire, cold, gas and similar dangers can still harm you. Other creatures are invulnerable to your attacks and spells, and you cannot target them with an attack or spell.

An area spell that continues beyond the remaining apparent rounds produces its normal effects on other creatures once Time Stop ends.

The interval can be used to strengthen your defences, summon allies, affect unattended objects or escape. You cannot move or harm an object held, carried or worn by another creature.

You are undetectable while the spell lasts and cannot enter an area protected by Antimagic Field.

D&D 3.5e Rules Boundaries

  • Do not apply the 2024 1,000-foot movement limit.
  • Do not use the 2024 action-or-effect early-ending test.
  • Other creatures are invulnerable and cannot be targeted.
  • Longer-lasting area effects begin operating on other creatures when Time Stop ends.
  • The caster remains vulnerable to environmental hazards.
  • The caster is expressly undetectable during the apparent rounds.

Countering the Casting

A readied caster can identify Time Stop and counter it with another Time Stop. The 3.5e counterspell use of Dispel Magic can also interrupt the casting if its dispel check succeeds.

Antimagic Field

The spell expressly prevents its caster from entering an Antimagic Field during the apparent rounds.

Edition Comparison

Rule D&D 5.5e / 2024 Pathfinder 1e D&D 3.5e
Time model The caster takes consecutive turns while no time passes for other creatures. The caster moves through apparent rounds at extreme speed. The caster moves through apparent rounds at extreme speed.
Duration Instantaneous 1d4 + 1 apparent rounds 1d4 + 1 apparent rounds
Other creatures Affecting another creature ends the spell. They are invulnerable and cannot be targeted. They are invulnerable and cannot be targeted.
Possessed objects Affecting one ends the spell. They cannot be moved or harmed. They cannot be moved or harmed.
Distance limit 1,000 feet from the casting location No equivalent spell-text limit No equivalent spell-text limit
Environmental hazards No special hazard clause appears in the spell. Fire, cold, gas and similar hazards still apply. Fire, cold, gas and similar hazards still apply.
Antimagic entry No explicit cannot-enter clause Expressly forbidden Expressly forbidden
Mythic version None in the core spell Yes None

Best Uses and Tactics

Defensive Preparation

Use the stolen interval for personal wards, healing, temporary protection and equipment.

Escape and Repositioning

Leave threatened spaces, reach cover or break line of sight. A 2024 caster must remain within 1,000 feet of the casting location.

Delayed Area Control

Pathfinder and D&D 3.5e expressly permit suitable long-duration area spells to begin affecting creatures after Time Stop ends.

Summoning

The older spell text identifies summoning allies as a normal use. The 2024 version uses its different created-effect restriction.

Unattended Objects

Doors, levers, dropped weapons and loose equipment can be valuable targets.

Plan Before Casting

Decide on the intended sequence before rolling the number of turns or apparent rounds.

Rules Clarifications

Does Time Stop paralyse every other creature?

No. It does not impose the Paralyzed condition. Each edition supplies its own rules for the caster’s turns or apparent rounds.

Can the caster attack creatures during Time Stop?

Not without ending or violating the spell’s restrictions. In 2024, affecting another creature ends Time Stop. Pathfinder and D&D 3.5e make other creatures invulnerable and prohibit targeting them.

Can the caster steal equipment from another creature?

No. The 2024 spell ends when the caster affects an object another creature wears or carries. The older editions expressly prevent moving or harming such property.

Can Dispel Magic end Time Stop after it resolves?

The 2024 spell is Instantaneous and leaves no ongoing Time Stop spell to dispel. In Pathfinder and D&D 3.5e, Dispel Magic is primarily relevant as a readied counterspell.

Does Antimagic Field work identically in every edition?

No. Pathfinder and D&D 3.5e expressly state that the caster cannot enter an Antimagic Field. The 2024 spell contains no equivalent sentence.

Can a delayed area spell affect creatures when time resumes?

Pathfinder and D&D 3.5e expressly allow this when the area spell lasts beyond the remaining apparent rounds. In 2024, apply Time Stop’s early-ending condition.

Do ongoing effects advance during the extra turns?

In 2024, the caster takes consecutive turns, so effects tied to the beginning or end of that caster’s turn can advance. The older editions use apparent rounds.

Time Stop in the World

Time Stop places several private decisions between one public instant and the next. Witnesses hear a single word. Before they can answer, the archmage stands elsewhere, defensive magic has formed, a door is open and the balance of the chamber has changed.

This makes temporal masters exceptionally difficult to imprison, assassinate or surround. Effective precautions must operate before the spell is completed: silence, broken sight lines, readied countermagic, antimagic architecture or hazards that remain dangerous while every observer appears motionless.

In courts and magical colleges, the spell changes protocol. A ruler who knows that a rival can claim several hidden turns may treat any visible ninth-level casting as the beginning of an escape, coup or assassination attempt.

At the table: resolve each turn or apparent round separately and apply only the restrictions belonging to the edition being used.

Historical and Occult Development

The World Divided into Hours

Time magic becomes particularly vivid in cultures that represent time as something ordered, divided and measured. Late-medieval and Renaissance art personified Time as an active power, while clocks made the passing hour increasingly visible through machinery, bells and moving figures.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art discusses European imagery of the Triumph of Time and Time’s later identification with Chronos or Saturn: Wall Clock and the Triumph of Time .

Acceleration Rather Than Universal Stasis

H. G. Wells’s The New Accelerator offers a strong literary parallel to the Pathfinder and D&D 3.5e explanation. Its characters become so accelerated that the surrounding world appears almost motionless.

The story appears in the public-domain collection Twelve Stories and a Dream .

Saturn, Memory and Ordered Time

Renaissance occult and mnemonic systems connected planetary symbolism with carefully ordered structures of memory. Frances Yates examines attempts to organise knowledge through images, architecture and celestial correspondences.

See Frances Yates, The Art of Memory , hosted by the Warburg Institute.

Mythological Parallels

Chronos and Ananke

In Orphic cosmology, Chronos is primordial Time, associated with the ordering and generation of the cosmos. Ananke embodies necessity or inevitability.

Theoi: Chronos

The Horae

The Horae personify seasons and ordered divisions of natural time. They regulate the movement of the year and guard the gates of Olympus.

Theoi: The Horae

These figures do not reproduce the spell’s exact effect. Their relevance lies in the idea that time has divisions, guardians and an order that supernatural authority may command.

Rules Sources and Licensing

Rules and contextual sources
Open Game Content declaration

Product Identity: the SpiralWorlds name, branding, original prose, worldbuilding, page design, CSS, artwork, image captions and original illustrations are designated Product Identity, except for material already identified as Open Game Content or released under another stated licence.

Open Game Content: the Pathfinder 1e and D&D 3.5e game mechanics in their respective rules panels are designated Open Game Content to the extent required by the Open Game License Version 1.0a.

Section 15 copyright notice
  • Open Game License v 1.0a Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
  • System Reference Document Copyright 2000–2003, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Rich Baker, Andy Collins, David Noonan, Rich Redman, Bruce R. Cordell, John D. Rateliff, Thomas Reid and James Wyatt, based on original material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
  • Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook Copyright 2009, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Author Jason Bulmahn, based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook and Skip Williams.
  • Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Mythic Adventures Copyright 2013, Paizo Publishing, LLC.
  • Time Stop Spell — D&D 2024, Pathfinder 1e and D&D 3.5e, Copyright 2026 SpiralWorlds.

This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 by Wizards of the Coast LLC. SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License .

The Pathfinder 1e and D&D 3.5e mechanics are presented under the Open Game License Version 1.0a.

The principal Time Stop illustration is a SpiralWorlds original image created with OpenAI image tools.

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