Would it be possible to include Gundam style mecha in 5e?

[Protato]

I was wondering if anyone had a good way of statting out a Gundam mecha in DnD 5e. I'm talking about something 60 feet (~18 metres) tall designed to take on something else that's about the same height. My plan is, the party finds some sort of mecha and uses it to take on another one, or perhaps a similarly sized giant creature. Of course, without everyone having their own machine, how would this be done in game? I don't want it to be a glorified NPC, and the idea of a Voltron style machine isn't what I'm too into but it could be done. Perhaps there's one cockpit and all of the members share it? Or, they upload their minds or souls to the mech and then get them back after the fight? As for having this be a campaign-wide thing, I don't want that, it's just something fun and a little different for one or two sessions.

[Eragon123]

Possible? Yes
Though it might require some homebrewing and some creative repurposing from other systems.

I will say that 5e is not the best system for this.

With that out of the way, keep in mind a few design philosophies when drafting a mecha system.

Keep it fast.
Keep it easy.
Try to keep it fair.

[Protato]

Possible? Yes
Though it might require some homebrewing and some creative repurposing from other systems.

I will say that 5e is not the best system for this.

With that out of the way, keep in mind a few design philosophies when drafting a mecha system.

Keep it fast.
Keep it easy.
Try to keep it fair.

Well, the thing is, I plan on including it in an extant 5e campaign rather than starting a new one, because it's not a very good system for what I'm trying to do. However, it only needs to work for me for one or two evenings so I imagine it's alright, even if a little clunky.

[Spectrulus]

I've had a similar idea in my campaign, and I've thought either make it a modified Apparatus of Kwalish, or just copy the control scheme for it and apply it to an equal CR creature. The second option would be to have each player control an arm / legs / other attack option.

Haven't figured out which way I'm going yet, but hope it helps!

[ImproperJustice]

You could raid some OSR material such as:

Stars Without Number has Gundam Style Mecha but they are only available in the paid for version of his game which is based on traveler / 1e D&D mechanics which easily port to 5th edition.
Honestly it may be worth your money. The toolkits in SWN for NPC and location generation, along with the faction rules which are fairly setting independent make it a great source book for any game you are running.


Mutant Future, another OSR product that is free is based in a Post Apocalyptic setting and has “Power Armor” that can get you going in the right direction for a Mobile Suit.

[Temperjoke]

Let me ask you this, how complicated do you want this to be for your players? I mean, if you're trying for the anime experience, mecha move way more human-like than machine-like. So, you could just re-skin a giant and call it a gundam, and have the player man it.

[Ventruenox]

I would steal the idea of Illithid Spelljammer helms to create a psionic control of the mech. Have the PCs make a group INT check to see if they are capable of working in sync to enable actions that round. Beyond that, give them a statblock of the mech's abilities suited the opponent they are pitted against. Temperjoke has a good idea with reskinning a giant.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Let me ask you this, how complicated do you want this to be for your players? I mean, if you're trying for the anime experience, mecha move way more human-like than machine-like. So, you could just re-skin a giant and call it a gundam, and have the player man it.
I'm inclined to agree with this-- it keeps the existing rules as close as possible. As for sharing the control... I'd say cycle between players-- A acts, the monster acts, B acts, the monster acts. Etc. Let them use their class features while controlling the "mech," to a degree-- spellcasters can burn slots for huge explosions, the Barbarian can Reckless Attack, the Fighter can Action Surge, etc.

[Sigreid]

You should totally go with 5 lion-golems so each can have one and form Voltron.

[Nifft]

I was going to suggest wild shape re-fluffing to be a cyborg exoskeleton thingy, and when you take sufficient damage to lose the exosuit your wild shape duration ends (as normal), but ...


You should totally go with 5 lion-golems so each can have one and form Voltron.

... now I want to make a giant robot out of five Druids in wild shape as lions.

[Jackaccount]

Look up something called dragonmech, it was made for 3.5 but it might give you some ideas.

[krugaan]

... now I want to make a giant robot out of five Druids in wild shape as lions.

I feel that 5 Druids wildshaped as water elementals should be able to make one colossal water elemental, though!

[Throne12]

Table top terrors and a fist full of dice. Have been working on what your talking about it for 5e check it out.

[Theodoxus]

I was going to suggest wild shape re-fluffing to be a cyborg exoskeleton thingy, and when you take sufficient damage to lose the exosuit your wild shape duration ends (as normal), but ...



... now I want to make a giant robot out of five Druids in wild shape as lions.

5 warforged druids wild shaped into robot lions each with a different color scheme and breath weapon... Tiamat's Voltron baby!

[willdaBEAST]

There was an older Acquisitions Incorporated live game from PAX Prime 2013 involving a giant mecha statue vs a Tarrasque. The DM, Chris Perkins had different stations for the various players to operate appendages (arms, legs, etc). Might be worth watching for some ideas or inspiration.

[Derpaligtr]

I would grab BESM 3.5 and homebrew something up.

[Dausuul]

The real challenge is coming up with something interesting for everyone to do while they're all sitting in the mech.

My suggestion: Design the mech so that it amplifies the capabilities of the human pilots. That allows the PCs to take advantage of their own abilities, without you having to come up with a full party's worth of options. If the mech were designed to accommodate the standard 4-person party, it might be something like this:

Two spellcasting nodes. A character in one of these nodes can cast spells through the mech; such spells originate from the mech, treating it as the spellcaster, and are cast as if using a slot 4 levels higher.
Battle seat. A character in this seat controls the mech's weapons, and can use any ability which improves that character's weapon attacks (a fighter's Extra Attack, a rogue's Sneak Attack, a monk's Stunning Strike, etc.). All bonus damage from such abilities is doubled. The mech can switch between a Huge greatsword, a cannon (equivalent to a Huge longbow), or two blades equivalent to Huge shortswords.
Pilot seat. A character in this seat controls the mech's movement, and makes all skill checks and saving throws for the mech. The mech's Strength and Constitution modifiers are +10; otherwise, it uses the pilot's modifiers for checks and saves. Each round, the pilot can make a skill check or Dodge, Dash, or Disengage; and can use abilities that allow doing any of those things as a bonus action.

[Norts]

I'm gonna come in here with something different: the ship operation roles from Star Wars SAGA edition RPG. Ships have HP and Shields, and require at least 1 pilot. HP can't be damaged unless Shields are gone, or hit by a Crit. Losing HP slowly reduces functions like movement and accuracy.

Useful Roles include Pilot(gets to make it move around. Also makes saves for ship. Having 2 gives more efficient movement, and bonuses to avoiding AoE stuff), Gunner(Fire weaponry, whether melee or ranged), and Engineer(Make checks to restore shield points, remove injury penalties for a turn, or enhance another's actions). There are a couple more, but they are mostly for mass space combat and plotting hyperspace routes.

[Nifft]

5 warforged druids wild shaped into robot lions each with a different color scheme and breath weapon... Tiamat's Voltron baby!

Oooo, good comparison. The five chromatic dragon colors are a really good stand-in for the lion-robots, and making the combined formation an enemy is a lot more useful for a game where the players expect their PCs to retain individuality.


Hmm, perhaps a Druid formation would be more of a Vole-tron, and thus composed of rodents.

[Pelle]

If they only are fighting similar sized opponents, you can just reskin the existing mechanics for PCs and monsters, and apply them for larger creatures instead of human sized creatures. I.e. give the robot the stats of a Level 1 Fighter and the Godzillah monster the stats of an Orc. Instead of normal HP, you can call it kiloHP, and instead of normal damage, kilodamage etc...