Even worse than a trip to the DMV (New Inevitable)

[TheLogman]

"Heh, I used to think magic was so easy. Just snap your fingers and teleport halfway around the world. That's the way they used to do it, before those "lawmakers" decided to get trigger happy. Now, I have to fill out forms in triplicate just to run a legitimate transport business. I guess all the paperwork is better than the alternative...them..."-Gabrial Skylark, a Wizard specializing in inter-dimensional transport.

Transrut
...

Size/Type: Medium Construct (Extraplanar, Lawful)
Hit Dice: 15d10+20 (101 hp)
Initiative: +9
Speed: Base speed 30 ft. Fly Speed 60 ft. (Perfect)
Armor Class: 26 (+5 Dex, +5 natural, +6 banded mail (Mithral)), 15 touch, 21 flat-footed
Base Attack/Grapple: +11/+0
Attack: +3 longbow +19 ranged (1d8+3/x3) or shortsword +16 melee (1d6+5/19-20/x2) or slam +16 melee (1d6+5)
Full Attack: +3 longbow +19/+14/+9 ranged (1d8+3/x3) or shortsword +16/+11/+6 melee (1d6+5/19-20/x2) or 2 slams +16 melee (1d6+5).
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Impound, Spell-Like Abilities
Special Qualities: Construct traits, Damage Reduction 10/Chaotic, Darkvision 60 ft., Fast Healing 5, Low-Light Vision, Paperwork Master, Spell Resistance 22
Saves: Fort +5, Ref +10, Will +9
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 20, Con Ø, Int 14, Wis 20, Cha 14
Skills: +20 Appraise, +23 Listen, +20 Search, +23 Spot
Feats: Ability Focus (Impound), Improved Initiative, Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Spell Penetration, Weapon Finesse
Environment: A lawful-aligned plane
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 14
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Always lawful neutral
Advancement: 15-22 HD (Medium); 23-39 HD (Large)
Level Adjustment: —

Transruts are charged with ensuring that the the fabric of the multiverse is kept intact, usually by regulating inter-dimensional transport. While most unauthorized teleports are ignored, multiple violations, or very flagrant violations (such as tearing a permanent hole between planes, creating a new Genesis plane without being authorized, or transporting thousands of outsiders) will be prosecuted.

Just as they are programmed, Transruts accept no excuses and know no mercy except that which the Law provides.

Like most Inevitables, Transruts appear to be humanoids composed completely of gold and silver, animated with clockwork. Transruts in particular have giant bird-like wings, and usually carry briefcases filled with up-to-date records on its quarry.

Combat

Upon finding its quarry, a Transrut will immediately demand the inter-dimensional transport license of its target. If the target attempts to flee, or attacks the Transrut, it will respond with progressively deadly force, continually demanding that its quarry and their party (if any) turn themselves in immediately. Typically, a Transrut will immediately Impound its targets, then Slow them and box them in using Walls of Force, before finally starting to use actual deadly force.

Against stronger opponents, the Transrut will pair up with other inevitables to flank and capture or kill more difficult quarries.

Construct Traits:

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* No Constitution score.
* Low-light vision.
* Darkvision out to 60 feet.
* Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects).
* Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, and necromancy effects.
* Cannot heal damage on their own, but often can be repaired by exposing them to a certain kind of effect (see the creature’s description for details) or through the use of the Craft Construct feat. A construct with the fast healing special quality still benefits from that quality.
* Not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, or energy drain.
* Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless).
* Not at risk of death from massive damage. Immediately destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points or less.
* Since it was never alive, a construct cannot be raised or resurrected.
* Because its body is a mass of unliving matter, a construct is hard to destroy. It gains bonus hit points based on size, as shown on the table.
* Proficient with its natural weapons only, unless generally humanoid in form, in which case proficient with any weapon mentioned in its entry.
* Proficient with no armor.
* Constructs do not eat, sleep, or breathe.

Impound: Three times per assignment, a Transrut may target its primary quarry with a wave of mental energy that severs its target's connection with any other planes. As a Standard Action, the Transrut may chose to affect its quarry with this ability, as long as it has line of sight to the target. The target must succeed on a DC 24 Will Save (Save is Wisdom based) or become totally incapable of any inter-dimensional travel except to Mechanus. The Impound is tied to the grand laws of Mechanus, and cannot be removed except by an authorized employee of the Mechanus Department of Travel and Transit. Impound is a Supernatural effect that cannot be dispelled.

Paperwork Master: Transruts cannot be fooled by any forgeries of documents or lies. All Bluff and Forgery checks made against a Transrut automatically fail.

Spell-Like Abilities: At Will: Freedom of Movement, Passwall, Slow, Solid Fog. 3/day: Chain Lightening, Dimensional Anchor, Plane Shift, Teleport. Caster Level 15.

Quest Hooks:

-One of the Party's NPC allies has been accosted by the officials of Mechanus for excessive teleporting. The PC's must travel to Mechanus and figure out all the paperwork. (DMV anyone?)
-The party has been mis-marked as being teleport abusers (Or really are teleport abusers) and have to clear their name or fight the hordes of Mechanus to the death.
-The party must team up with a group of inevitables to stop the BBEG from tearing a rip in the multiplane, which would imbalance the fight between good and evil.

Information on the Department of Travel and Transit

Because the chief purpose of Mechanus is maintaining the law, often rule breakers will be forced to assist in the capture or justice of criminals. Depending on the party's abilities, this could mean doing research, serving jury duty, donating magical items, or even acting as the long arm of the law by proxy.

Often, punishments also have a much more long-lasting effect. For breakers of travel laws, this could mean not teleporting for a few days/weeks/months, until the incredibly slow paperwork gets sorted out.

[Eldan]

The problem is, at levels when someone can use genesis, or even greater teleport, this thing can be handled by a caster.

[TheLogman]

Inevitables aren't really meant to go solo on really big targets though. No, this thing isn't a level appropriate challenge for a level 20 Wizard, but it isn't meant to be, because it's CR 14 (And I feel it might actually merit a CR 13).

Against a level 20 Character or Party, 3-4 of these would be more appropriate, perhaps with other inevitables added in.

Inevitables are the long arm of the law, and they represent an entire plane of constructs that chase rule-breakers, so if the threat is that big, there's certainly gonna be more than one.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

The problem is, at levels when someone can use genesis, or even greater teleport, this thing can be handled by a caster.

However, as soon as someone can cast plane shift or teleport (9th) one of these guys can take them out preemptively.

[Debihuman]

This is really excellent even if it needs a bit of fine-tuning.

I think that your AC may be off. Banded Mail armor has a +6 AC bonus.

A character gets no Strength bonus on damage rolls with a projectile weapon unless it’s a specially built composite shortbow, specially built composite longbow, or sling.

The damage bonus to the longbow should be +3 not +5. Weapon Finesse does not apply to longbows. Weapon Finesse only applies to a light weapon, rapier, whip, or spiked chain. Natural weapons are always considered light weapons, so the slam attack should have a +5 damage bonus. Also, your natural weapon is considered a primary attack not a secondary attack. Slam should have a +16 melee attack not +9. It looks like it should have 2 slams as a full attack. Moreover, with weapons, monsters get iterative attacks for having high BAB, which they don't for their natural weapons.

Attack: +3 longbow +19 ranged (1d8+3/x3) or shortsword +16 melee (1d6+5/19-20/x2) or slam +16 melee (1d6+5)

Full Attack: +3 longbow +19/+14/+9 ranged (1d8+3/x3) or shortsword +16/+11/+6 melee (1d6+5/19-20/x2) or 2 slams +16 melee (1d6+5).

I find putting in the threat ranges and criticals to be useful especially if they aren't the standard.

It is also missing one feat. For 15 HD, it should have 6 feats. I really love the feats that you gave it. Manyshot would be the next logical feat since it already meets all of the requirements.

Finally, is the briefcase worth anything? If so, it should be listed as a possession or with treasure.

Debby

[Violet Octopus]

Unless their quarry is indoors, it's going to be difficult to trap them with walls of force. If they're in the open, it'd need to spend all 3 uses to make a prism (meaning they couldn't teleport in), and even then the caster could fly out.

Other than that, this is cool. Flavour's great.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Unless their quarry is indoors, it's going to be difficult to trap them with walls of force. If they're in the open, it'd need to spend all 3 uses to make a prism (meaning they couldn't teleport in), and even then the caster could fly out.

Yeah, replacing wall of force with forcecage (or just adding it) would probably be a good idea.

[TheLogman]

Ah Debby, yes, thank you.

Fixed the minor math errors, the missing feat was actually already figured in (Ability Focus (Impound)), I just forgot to write it there.

The Banded Mail is Mithril, which I believe means it is automatically masterwork, which means it's actually +7 to AC. Thanks for pointing it out though, it is now 2 points higher than before.

And no, the Briefcase isn't worth anything. More of a distinguishing characteristic than anything else. It just contains the dossiers on the targets, nothing the PC's wouldn't already know themselves. Could server as a plot hook though.

Oh, and I forgot about the multiple attacks. I knew the attack lines were missing something.

As for the inspiration, I got really bored and aggravated at the DMV one day, and I figured maybe Mechanus employees were even worse than the ones at my DMV.

The Walls of Force are a tough call. I kinda want him to have some kind of physical limitation as well as the Dimensional one. I think I'm going to change it to Solid Fog at will, that way he can slow them to one action per round, and then limit them to 5 ft. per move action. That's pretty close to crippling them, while still being pretty fair. Plus it's easier to set up than 3 force walls.

Forcecage is a little strong for this level, plus it doesn't all for any escape.

[Debihuman]

Actually, for the challenge rating, forcecage is a good call. If the PCs are the quarry, this is an excellent way of capturing them so that they can be taken to Mechanus or to stop them from fleeing so that they can be questioned. Also, the forcecage can be disintegrated as per the spell, so they do have a way out. As far as spell-like abilities go, this one really fits the purpose of the creature. It's not like the PCs will be caged for long -- 2 hours per level and it is dismissable.

You are correct, mithral armor and weapons are masterwork so it should be +7. BTW, it's "mithral" not "mithril" because of the Tolkien estate's copyright.

One more thing: you give it a fly speed but forgot the manueverability. I think it should probably Poor because it isn't really aerodynamic. Generally, the fly speed double the land-based speed. You could bump up the fly speed to 60 ft. (40 ft. in armor).

Debby

[TheLogman]

Nah, the problem is that if it has Forcecage, unless they prepared disintegrate, then it becomes less of a monster and more of a plot device. There's no real point in fighting if it is just going to forcecage them and cart them off for a trial.

No Saving throw and no SR means that the party has to have either one of two very rare magical items that no DM ever gives out, or a disintegrate spell, which the wizard may have prepared. But it feels like a railroad spell, especially at the 13th level.

Solid Fog, on the other hand, has a good duration, no save, which means it will always slow the PC's down a little, an effect that makes it hard to get out and easy to capture or harm, while not making it impossible, and it's a good enough spell to make combat interesting.

As for the Fly Speed, 60 sounds about right, but I wouldn't put it at poor. He may not be aerodynamic, but at the same time, he's a magical clockwork man with bird wings, and I'm willing to be a being specifically designed for travel has a Perfect Maneuverability.

[DracoDei]

Masterwork armor has the same AC bonus as normal armor, just 1 better Armor Check Penalty. The Mithril manufacture overrides this with its own bonus.

[Debihuman]

Does mithral armor add a bonus to AC? I didn't see where it did. If I am correct, then AC is 26, Touch is 15 and Flat-footed is 21 and the bonus for the banded mail (mithral) is still only +6.

Debby

[TheLogman]

Yeah, I forgot that Masterwork Armor doesn't actually add any AC.

And when he said overrides, he means the lessened masterwork penalties are overridden by the even less penalties from the special material.

[Thrawn183]

So, outside of chain lightning, this things has virtually no offensive capabilities. I might call this a CR 12?

[TheLogman]

I dunno about no offensive capabilities.

No, it's not gonna be spell-slinging, but Solid Fog and Slow are both significant debuffs. The Lightening helps to soften the PC's up, but once he gets down the basic debuffs, the players can only move 5 ft per round, and they only get one action per round.

Plus, his ranged and melee attacks aren't that shabby. His high base attack means 3 attacks dealing 3d8+9 damage per turn, while the players, if they can get past his DR and Fast Healing, are only getting one attack at most at him per turn.

Plus, he isn't meant to be able to TPK anyone, that's not his purpose. His purpose is to lock them in this dimension, and bring them to Mechanus. That may mean trapping them in Fog or slowing them down until a bigger number of reinforcements arrive, if necessary.