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Solaris
2009-10-20, 09:56 PM
Clockwork Hybrid
A clockwork hybrid is someone who has suffered the loss of one or more limbs, but has had it replaced with an intricate construct of brass and spellstone crystal. The alterations run deeper than that, as a mortal is not capable of driving clockwork automata on its own. The end result is something that is a good deal less - and perhaps something more - than an ordinary mortal.

Personality: On the surface, a clockwork hybrid's personality seems unchanged. Those who know it well can tell that something has deeply changed him for the worse. He no longer really enjoys anything he used to love, often just going through the motions of a normal life. The lack of a need for sleep, food, drink, or even breath can unnerve most people, not to mention losing his soul. Animals tend to act like automatons, obeying orders without question or concern for their own well-being.

Physical Description: The most obvious feature of a clockwork hybrid are its uniquely-constructed clockwork replacements. The exact features vary depending on the craftsman, but most limbs are brass, steel, bronze, or even mithril shells protecting the brass gears, marked with rivets and set with knuckle-sized spellstone crystals on the major joints. There are often additions to the recipient's skeleton to support the limb, too. The process of transformation has also worked much more vital transformations to the recipient's body, installing a clockwork pump into the recipient's chest to replace the heart and an alchemical ectoplasm-based concoction to replace the blood. Most craftsmen can embed the pump into the surface of the chest, making it all too obvious as the device pumps ghostly, glowing fluid through tubes in the clockwork hybrid's body, but a skilled surgeon can install it inside the ribcage to leave little or no mark on the skin. The concoction often leaves an unusual tinge to recipient's skin and an odd tinge to their sclera, often blue, green, purple, red, or yellow. Many clockwork hybrids' eyes glow slightly from the ectoplasm running through their veins. After the transformation the hybrid is no longer a living creature, but neither is it an undead - undead have a soul perverted by necromancy, whereas the clockwork hybrid lacks a soul entirely. The alterations sustain an imitation of life, not actual life itself. Still, the procedure renders the clockwork hybrid immortal - or at least unaging.

Relations: Clockwork hybrids are generally poorly-received wherever they go, given their slightly unnatural appearance and obviously mechanical augmentations. Curiously, many earth elementals seem to regard clockwork hybrids with the ambivalence they would one of their own.

Alignment: Clockwork hybrids, being semi-living constructs, tend to drift more and more towards neutrality as the years pass. Those who were once evil find they lack the lust and passion that led them to selfishness and destruction, while those who were once good find they lack the compassion and empathy to really care about other people anymore. Despite this, there are some clockwork hybrids who struggle to hold on to what made them alive and retain their alignments.

Clockwork Hybrid Lands: Clockwork hybrids are most common among the Kanorati, magi, and in Vaundei. The Vaundei perform the process on themselves and others as a medical procedure, whereas the Kanorati do it out of the necessity to maintain a worker's usefulness and the magi perform it as an experiment or as an attempt at immortality.

Religion: Most clockwork hybrids lose interest in the worship of immaterial deities, perhaps as a side-affect of their soul departing.

Language: Clockwork hybrids retain the languages they knew previously.
Names: Clockwork hybrids generally retain their names.

Adventurers: Clockwork hybrids were generally adventurers to begin with.

Clockwork Hybrid Racial Traits
'Clockwork Hybrid' is an acquired template that can be added to any animal, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, vermin, or native outsider of Small size or larger. (referred to hereafter as the "base creature"). A skilled surgeon and craftsman is required to conduct the transformation. A clockwork hybrid uses all of the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

Size and Type: The creature becomes a construct with the augmented subtype. It retains its previous subtypes. Do not recalculate base attack bonus or saving throws.

Hit Dice: All non-class hit dice become d10s. Class hit dice are calculated normally. Clockwork hybrids lack wound points, but instead gain hit points as a construct one size smaller (minimum Small). Clockwork hybrids, like all constructs, add their Strength scores to their hit points but are immediately destroyed upon reaching 0 hit points.

Special Qualities: A clockwork hybrid has all the special qualities of the base creature, plus the following special qualities.

- Darkvision (Ex): A clockwork hybrid can see in nonmagical darkness as easily as daylight, though darkvision is black-and-white only.
(Darkvision 30 feet, for all you people who believe that vision should have a range.)

- Low-Light Vision (Ex): A clockwork hybrid can see twice as far in low-light conditions as a human. It retains the ability to discern color and detail under these conditions.

- Immunities: As constructs, a clockwork hybrid is immune to the following effects: poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, and necromancy effects. Clockwork hybrids are not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, or energy drain. Lacking a Constitution score, clockwork hybrids are immune to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless). Clockwork hybrids are not at risk of death from massive damage, but are immediately destroyed upon reaching 0 hit points or less. Clockwork hybrids no longer need to eat, sleep, drink, or breathe.

- Lacking Constitution scores, clockwork hybrids can't heal hit point damage on their own. With a standard alchemy lab (costing 500 gp) and the proper reagents (costing 1 gp per hit point healed), an alchemist can restore damage to a clockwork hybrid. Doing so takes 8 hours and a DC 15 Repair check. The clockwork hybrid recovers vitality points and mana points as normal.

- Vulnerabilities: Unlike ordinary constructs, clockwork hybrids are subject to mind-affecting effects. Their minds are still mortal, even if they're not quite alive anymore.

- Notes on Healing Magic: As an alchemically-animated body and mind, a clockwork hybrid doesn't respond normally to healing and resurrection magic. Spells that restore damage only heal half of what they normally would, while spells that repair constructs restore normally. The various inflict spells have no effect, as the clockwork hybrid is immune to negative energy. Restoration does nothing for the clockwork hybrid, as it is immune to ability damage. Speak with dead treats the clockwork hybrid as an ordinary corpse - a really unsettling sensation for the hybrid. Raise dead requires the hybrid's body be intact, and as at least one limb and the heart are missing casting the spell generally results in a quick and ugly death for the subject. Heal restores half the damage it would normally, but otherwise works as stated. Harm has no effect on the hybrid. Regenerate forces the hybrid's body to return to normal (somewhat messily but otherwise harmlessly), removing this template. Resurrection restores the clockwork hybrid much like regenerate does. True resurrection and reincarnate have no effect on the clockwork hybrid itself, instead creating a new body for the subject and leaving him with the unusual experience of coming face-to-face with himself. The subject has dim memories of his time as a clockwork hybrid. A wish or miracle spell can restore the clockwork hybrid to wholeness and life. In all cases of magic to restore life the spell treats the subject as though he died the round before casting.

Abilities: +2 Strength, -4 Dexterity, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma. As constructs, clockwork hybrids lack Constitution scores. Clockwork hybrids have unnatural strength, but the transformation renders them clumsy and leeches away a bit of their spirit.

Feats: The clockwork hybrid gains one Construct feat as a bonus feat. It adds Construct feats to all lists of bonus feat it gains access to through class levels.

Skills: Do not recalculate skill points.

Favored Class: Craftsman. Clockwork hybrids gain +10% experience point bonus for having more than half the levels in this class*. This replaces to the creature's normal favored class, if any.

Level Adjustment: Same as base creature +1.

*: The 10% thing is my standard replacement for the normal favored classes, while Craftsman is a homebrew class of mine. Use Artificer. I'm not posting it because I hate tables so much.

And then the Construct feats.
Advanced Clockwork Arm [Construct]
Your mechanical arm receives an overhaul, significantly improving its design to amplify its strengths and reduce its weaknesses. If you have two or more clockwork arms, this feat applies to all of them.
Prerequisites: Clockwork Arm, construct type or Con 13+.
Effect: The bonus to Strength-based rolls your arm grants increases to +2, while the penalty to Dexterity-based rolls decreases to -1. Any unarmed attacks made with this arm deal damage as a creature one size larger.

Clockwork Arm [Construct]
Your natural arm has been replaced with one of brass and clockworks.
Prerequisites: Construct type or Con 13+.
Effect: You gain a mechanical arm. This can be your right or left arm, joined at either the shoulder or the elbow. It imparts a +1 bonus on all Strength-related rolls made with it (such as grapple checks, melee attacks, and damage rolls) but imposes a -2 penalty to all Dexterity-related rolls made with it (such as Sleight of Hand, Open Lock, and ranged attack rolls). If you were already a construct you suffer no penalty.
Special: You can take this feat once for each arm you have.

Clockwork Brain [Construct]
Your skull has been hollowed out and large chunks of your brain replaced with a device of brass clockworks and glass tubes full of ectoplasm.
Prerequisites: Three or more construct feats, and construct type or Con 13+.
Effect: You are immune to mind-affecting effects. Your Charisma and Wisdom scores are reduced by 2 points each. If you were already a construct you suffer no such penalty.

Clockwork Leg [Construct]
Your natural legs have been replaced with limbs of brass and clockworks.
Prerequisites: Construct type or Con 13+.
Effect: You gain a mechanical leg. This can be your right leg, your left leg, or both, joined at the hip or the knee. It is otherwise like your ordinary limbs, imparting no special bonuses but imposing a -2 armor check penalty. If you were already a construct you suffer no such penalty. Should you replace all of your legs, you gain a +10 ft increase to your base speed for each leg replaced.
Special: You can take this feat once for each leg you have.

Clockwork Wings [Construct]
Great wings of brass and floatstone have been grafted onto your shoulders, while smaller floatstone cores have been installed elsewhere on your body. You have a wingspan equal to about twice your height, though the exact details of these wings vary by the craftsman.
Prerequisites: Two or more construct feats, and construct type or Con 13+.
Effect: You gain a flight speed equal to half your base speed with poor maneuverability.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times. Each time you take it, your flight speed increases by +10 feet and your maneuverability improves by one step.

Crystal Eye [Construct]
Your natural eye has been replaced by one of brass and crystal.
Prerequisites: Construct type or Con 13+.
Effect: One or both of your eyes is replaced with a lens of finely-ground crystal and ectoplasm, enabling you to see despite the loss of an eyeball. It is otherwise like a natural eye, and can be made with a magical lens if the character already possesses one.

Grafted Armor [Construct]
You have mechanized armor plating covering your body, installed into the flesh and bone.
Prerequisites: One or more construct feats, and construct type or Con 13+.
Effect: You gain DR 5/adamantine and an armor bonus of +2. This imposes an armor check penalty of -2 and a maximum Dexterity bonus to AC of +3. The grafted armor occupies the torso slot, the same as a cuirass or robe.
Special: This feat can be taken multiple times. Each time it's taken, the armor bonus improves by +2 and the armor check penalty increases by 1. This armor can be enchanted as masterwork armor and at a 25% discount.

Grafted Toolkit [Construct]
Your hand has been replaced with a finely-crafted mechanical one of unsurpassed intricacy, one that allows you to perform delicate tasks barehanded, as it were.
Prerequisites: One or more construct feats, and construct type or Con 13+.
Effect: Choose a specific Craft skill, Disable Device, Open Lock, or Repair. You gain a +5 equipment bonus to checks made with that skill and are always considered to have the appropriate tools for making that check. Other restrictions and limitations of your mechanical hand still apply.
Special: You can select this feat once for each hand you possess. Each time you must select a different skill, as the bonuses do not stack.

Grafted Weapon [Construct]
You have a weapon grafted into your mechanical parts.
Prerequisites: One or more construct feats, and construct type or Con 13+.
Effect: A light or one-handed weapon of masterwork quality or greater is installed into your body. If the weapon is a light weapon for you, it does not replace your hand but instead is installed on a sort of forearm sheath that keeps it out of the way until drawn (a free action). If the weapon is one-handed, however, it replaces your hand completely, preventing you from using that limb for much anything but attacking. You cannot be disarmed of this weapon, but it can be sundered - and any damage dealt to the weapon is also dealt to you.
Special: This weapon can be enchanted at a 25% discount, and it counts as a manufactured or natural weapon - whichever is more beneficial for you.

Hardened Clockworks [Construct]
The more machine you become, the more your body hardens against attacks.
Prerequisites: Two or more construct feats, and construct type or Con 13+.
Effect: You gain DR 1/adamantine for each construct feat you possess. This damage reduction is added onto any other DR */adamantine you possess, whether it be through armor or abilities. You gain light fortification (as the armor ability).

Reinforced Skeleton [Construct]
Through painful and invasive surgeries, you have received alchemically-treated brass struts and spellstone studs on the major bones of your skeleton. You've become quite grotesque, as broad as a dwarf and horribly scarred, but your increased physical power makes up for that.
Prerequisites: Two or more construct feats, and construct type or Con 13+.
Effect: You gain the Powerful Build extraordinary quality. In addition, your Strength score increases by 2 points while your Dexterity score decreases by 2 points. You take a -4 penalty to all Diplomacy-based checks save Intimidate.

Spellstone Engraving [Construct]
The spellstone involved in your mechanical augmentations is awakened, granting you some measure of arcane power.
Prerequisites: Three or more construct feats, and construct type or Con 13+.
Effect: You can repair a number of points of damage per day equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum +1) multiplied by your Hit Dice. This can restore damage dealt to you or to a construct you touch. In addition, you gain 1 point of mana for each Construct feat you have.

Strengthened Clockworks [Construct]
The more machine you become, the stronger you are.
Prerequisites: Three or more construct feats, and construct type or Con 13+.
Effect: Every three construct feats you have improves your Strength score by 2 points.

sigurd
2009-10-20, 10:45 PM
I like it.

It's a little more than having a mechanical arm but I can see settings where it would be very useful.

Thanks.



S

Karma Guard
2009-10-20, 11:07 PM
Interesting idea. Cool flavor, not broken (even if I have personal issues with '-' scores), and a bevy of feats always helps.

As an aside, though: Shouldn't clockwork wings reduce your weight if you've had floatstone bolted on?

Solaris
2009-10-20, 11:43 PM
Yeah, mechanically it pretty much just turns you into a construct if you don't want to spend any more feats on the Construct feats. I'm a sucker for the construct types.

You know, I think you're right about the weight reduction. Floatstone provides 1 pound of lift for a piece roughly the size of a marble... I'm figuring halving the character's weight, but not the mass.