Warrior Droid Working Draft
Droid, Warrior
Medium Construct
Hit Dice: 5d10+20 (47 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 20 (+2 Dex, +8 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 18
Base Attack/Grapple: +5/+8
Attack: high frequency sword +9 melee (2d6+6/19-20) or laser pistol +10 ranged (2d8 fire) or slam +8 melee (1d6+3)
Full Attack: high frequency sword +9 melee (2d6+6/19-20); or laser pistol +10 ranged (2d8 fire); or 2 slams +8 melee (1d6+3)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Feat sockets, integral weapons, martial programming
Special Qualities: Advanced data slots, construct traits, damage reduction 5/adamantine, radarsight 300 ft. [
max 5 mile, detectable 100 miles], radiospeech 100 miles, robot traits
Saves: Fort +1, Ref +3, Will +1
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 14, Con —, Int 11, Wis 11, Cha 10
Skills: Listen +8, Spot +8, plus crystal card skills* (typically Climb +7, Jump +7, Search* +8)
* Many Warrior Droids substitute another Int-based skill for their crystal card's Search skill, such as Craft, Disable Device or Knowledge.
Feats: Point Blank Shot, Power Attack, Rapid Shot (B), Weapon Focus (high frequency sword)(B), Weapon Specialization (high frequency sword)(B)
Environment: Any land or underground
Organization: Solitary, unit (2-4) or section (5-20)
Challenge Rating: 5
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 6-7 HD (Medium); 8-15 HD (Large)
Level Adjustment: +3 (cohort)
Humanoid in form, this being resembles a warrior in full body armor. The "armor" is actually the metallic skin of some kind of construct or automata. It has the proportions of an athletic human, with simplified features and jointed limbs. Its face is an idealized mask set with clear crystal lenses for eyes.
A droid is an artificial creature manufactured by nonmagical technologies far more sophisticated than exist in most known worlds. The warrior droid is a standard design intended for general-purpose combat. It has an anthropomorphic design that allows it to use the same weapons and armour as a regular humanoid. Warrior droids are normally found barracked in high technology installations, such as military outposts built by an extraterrestrial centauroid species who call themselves the masters.
Warrior droids are designed for combat, so do not have the safety codes that hinder civilian droid models from attacking members of an "owner race". They usually had safety codes to prevent them targeting allies and members of whatever martial organization they belong to, plus protocols requiring them to obey officers of particular ranks or units.
Droids can speak a special language of buzzes and beeps called Code. There are many dialects of Code, most of which are mutually unintelligible. A warrior droid speaks Code Standard (the droid equivalent of Common) and Code Security (a dialect that encrypts the speech with a password). A message sent using Code Security can only be understood by a listener who speaks Code Security and knows the password the message was sent with. A creature can figure out the password of a Code Security message with a DC 35 Decipher Script check.
In addition, most droids are capable of normal humanoid speech. A standard warrior droid speaks Common and one other language, such as Draconic.
A warrior droid stands 6 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 275 pounds.
Combat
Warrior droids have a solid if unimaginative grasp of small unit tactics. If they encounter potential hostiles they follow whatever "engagement protocols" they have been instructed to. A group of warrior droids constantly uses their radiospeech ability to coordinate their actions against their opponents.
A warrior droid will act to preserve itself it it does not contradict its orders, but will emotionlessly fight to the death or self-destruct if instructed to do so. They are intelligent creatures, so are able to adapt their behavior to some extent to cope with unexpected situations, although only a highly defective one would actually disobey its orders.
Advanced Data Slots (Ex): This droid can be fitted with up to two "crystal cards" - thin slabs of crystal whose interior is filled with intricate silver and gold filigree. Each crystal card gives the droid 8 extra skill points. A warrior droid's data slots can process points in any Str, Int- or Wis-based skill. Skill ranks from multiple crystal cards do not stack, so two cards that both contain Appraise 3 SPs, Swim 5 SPs would give the droid an extra 3 ranks in Appraise and 5 ranks in Swim, not 6 ranks and 10 ranks. Data slots cannot give a droid more skill ranks than the normal maximum ranks for the droid's Hit Dice.
A droid can freely exchange its crystal cards, allowing it access to different additional skill points. It takes 1 minute to open a panel in the droid to expose its data slots, swap the cards, and reseal the droid. This panel is internally barred and can only be opened with the cooperation of the droid.
Some more sophisticated models of droid have improved data slots that can contain more skill points and/or grant additional types of skills, such as a "acrobatic locksmith" model that can accept Dex-based crystal cards.
Feat Sockets (Ex): A warrior droid has internal sockets that can be fitted with "crystal spikes" - rods of crystal crammed with a complex web of silver and gold filigree, spun glass, and tiny crystal shards. Crystal spikes have a similar function to crystal cards (see Data Slots, above), except instead of storing skill points they store bonus feats - in the case of a warrior droid, each spike stores one of the fighter bonus feats it acquires from its Martial Programming ability (see below). The droid must still meet all prerequisites for the feat, including ability score and base attack bonus minimums. It can use other feat spikes to meet the prerequisites (e.g. a warrior droid could socket a Power Attack spike, and then socket a combat spike with a fighter bonus feat with Power Attack as a prerequisite, such as Improved Sunder).
A warrior droid can freely exchange any of these fighter bonus feats by swapping the feat's "combat spike". It takes 1 minute to open a panel in the droid to expose its feat sockets, swap the spikes, and reseal the droid. This panel is internally barred and can only be opened with the cooperation of the droid.
Integral Weapons (Ex): Warrior droid can use weapons and wear armor like a standard character, but most also have built-in weapon systems. Integral weapons are powered by the droid's internal energy plant, so they will not run out of power as long as the warrior droid continues functioning.
A standard warrior droid has a high-frequency sword built into one arm and a laser pistol in its other arm or its head. Targeting sensors give the warrior droid a +3 racial bonus to its laser's attack rolls. The droid does not provoke attacks of opportunity when it attacks with its integrated laser, despite it being a ranged weapon.
Martial Programming (Ex): Warrior droids are high performance combat machines. They have the base attack bonus and all the class features of a fighter with a level equal to their Hit Dice, including fighter bonus feats, and qualify for feats and other abilities as if their construct Hit Dice were fighter levels.
Furthermore, the martial programming bonus fighter feats are encoded on exchangeable crystal spikes that fit into its Feat Sockets (see above).
Radarsight (Ex): A warrior droid possesses sophisticated microwave radar, allowing it to "see" the shape of objects and creatures. Radarsight ignores concealment caused by darkness, fog or clouds.
Invisibility provides total concealment against radarsight, although the droid may still make Spot checks to notice the location of an invisible opponent. Rain has the same effect on radarsight as it does normal vision. Unlike radiospeech, normal radarsight requires line of sight and cannot extend "over the horizon".
Radarsight cannot discern colors and any object or texture smaller than a quarter of an inch will just be a foggy blur. The listed range is the maximum distance radarsight can clearly distinguish shapes. It can detect the presence of objects at longer ranges - out to a maximum of one mile for every 60 ft. of range for extremely big objects such as hills and titanic buildings or creatures - but can't identify their shapes. So it might register the presence of a mountain giant a few thousand feet away with an appropriate Spot skill check, but it couldn't tell the Colossal moving object has a humanoid shape.
A creature using radarsight stands out to radarsight or radiospeech like someone walking around in the dark while shouting and waving a bullseye lantern about. They are detectable out to a maximum distance of 10 miles for every 30 ft. of radarsight range, but this distance is reduced by the same factors that can interfere with radiospeech. A Spot check is still necessary for a radio-sensitive creature to notice a radarsight source, but it has a +10 circumstance bonus.
Radiospeech (Ex): A creature with this ability can broadcast a radio communication with a radius up to the listed range (the creature can use less than its maximum range if it wishes to). All creature with radiospeech that are within range hears the communication, so it is possible to address many creatures at once using radiospeech, although maintaining a conversation with more than one creature at a time is as difficult as speaking with multiple people simultaneously. Radiospeech relies on words, so two creatures must understand the same language to communicate by radiospeech. Some items can listen to or broadcast radiospeech, allowing creatures without this ability to participate in radiospeech conversations.
Radiospeech cannot penetrate 10 feet of stone or wood, three feet of water, or an inch of metal. Intervening objects and radio noise can interfere with the radio signal and reduce the range by a factor of two to twenty or more depending on how bad the interference is. Electrically conducting objects provide the worst interference. If the creature is inside a building or is surrounded by construction or metalwork their radiospeech range will be divided by a factor of at least fifty. Rainfall and terrain that's mountainous or lightly forested will likely halve the radiospeech range.
Robot Traits: All droids have the following traits.
- Vulnerability to Criticals: A droid's delicate internal components means it takes normal damage from confirmed criticals, despite being of the construct type. Particularly robust droids may have the fortification special quality to decrease this vulnerability.
- Vulnerability to Logic: Droids are immune to mind-affecting powers, but a droid with an intelligence of 3 or more is susceptible to logical argument. An intelligent droid can be affected by Bluff and Diplomacy checks that are based on logic. A properly functioning droid will ignore any argument that is illogical, and can not be confused by paradoxical statements such as "I am lying".
- Vulnerability to Power Failure: A droid runs off some kind of power supply, and if it loses power it becomes helpless and unconscious until its power is restored. Most droids have internal batteries that allow them to operate independently for a certain period of time. A standard droid can run on normal power for 10 days before its batteries start to flag; it then has energy reserves to continue for 5 days on low power followed by 5 days on emergency power, after which it is forced into shutdown.
— A droid operating on low power acts as if it was fatigued, a droid on emergency power acts as if it were exhausted. A droid can switch its own power off using emergency shutdown, becoming helpless and unconscious until it is reactivated (either by an internal timer or another creature flipping the droid's "on" switch). A droid can also operate on standby power, it can observe its surroundings and cogitate but cannot move (treat as if the droid were paralyzed).
— Switching power regimes is a move action. A droid can run at a lower power regime than its battery power dictates, thereby extending the duration of its operation. For example, a droid reduced to low energy reserves is unable to operate at normal power but can operate at low power, emergency power or standby power. One round of normal power is equal to two rounds of low power, four rounds of emergency power or 20 rounds of standby power. The power ratios are the same for droids operating on reserve power, so 1 round of low power equals 2 rounds of emergency power and 5 rounds of standby power.
Skills: If you use the d20 Modern rules, warrior droids often have d20 Modern skills as either normal skills or crystal card skills. Typical skills include Computer Use, Craft (mechanical), Demolitions, Knowledge (tactics), Pilot*, Repair and Treat Injury. *Note that warrior droids can only gain Pilot as a normal skill, since their advanced data slots cannot use Dex-based crystal card skills.
Defective Warrior Droids
A poorly maintained droid may become defective, causing it to act erratically or even break down. This mostly happens to droids that have been exposed to the weather, since rain or windblown particles eventually wear through the droid's seals and corrode or jam delicate inner workings. Droids that work indoors in stable climate conditions rarely malfunction.
A defective warrior droid has the following changes to its statistics block. Any statistic that is not listed is the same as a normal warrior droid.
Droid, Warrior, Defective
Initiative: +0
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 18 (-2 competence penalty, +2 Dex, +8 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +5/+8
Attack: high frequency sword +9 melee (2d6+6/19-20) or laser pistol +8 ranged (2d8 fire) or slam +8 melee (1d6+3)
Full Attack: high frequency sword +9 melee (2d6+6/19-20) or laser pistol +8 ranged (2d8 fire) or 2 slams +8 melee (1d6+3)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Defective droid, feat sockets, integral weapons, martial programming
Special Qualities: Advanced data slots, construct traits, damage reduction 5/adamantine, radarsight 300 ft. [
max 5 mile, detectable 100 miles], radiospeech 100 miles, robot traits
Saves: Fort +1, Ref +1, Will +1
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 14, Con —, Int 11, Wis 11, Cha 10
Skills: Listen +4, Spot +4, plus crystal card skills* (typically Climb +7, Jump +7, Search* +4)
* Many Warrior Droids substitute another Int-based skill for their crystal card's Search skill, such as Craft, Disable Device or Knowledge.
Challenge Rating: 4
A defective warrior droid gains the following defective droid traits:
Defective Droid: A defective droid has the following traits in addition to a standard droid's Robot Traits.
- Faulty Circuits: A defective droid's misfiring circuitry give it a -2 competence penalty to all its Dexterity-based abilities (including AC, Initiative, Reflex saves and ranged attacks) and a -4 competence penalty to all Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma-based ability checks and skill checks.
- Paradox Break: If a defective droid is presented with a paradox it must succeed at a DC 10 Intelligence check or suffer a cognitive breakdown. An opponent can force paradox check by making a Bluff or Diplomacy check (DC equals 20 plus the droid's HD) to present the defective droid with an anti-logical argument.
A defective droid must also make a paradox check if it in a situation that isn't covered by its programming (e.g. a defective security droid that is programmed to remain within a fortress would suffer a paradox check if it finds itself outside the fortress and has no instructions as to how to address the situation. If it succeeded on its paradox check, it could use its Radiospeech to ask for assistance, or set out in search for the fortress).
Once a defective droid fails a paradox check, it immediately starts performing a random, nonsensical behavior determined by a roll on the Paradox Breakdown Table (see below). A paradox breakdown continues until the defective droid is repaired.
A warrior droid that suffers a paradox break is more dangerous than most other types of droid. Its core function is to fight and kill, so if its safety circuits break down it is far more likely to harm any creature it encounters, including members of a creator or owner race.
Paradox Breakdown Table
d6 Roll |
Behaviour |
1 | The defective droid judders to a stop, emits a shower of sparks, and goes into emergency shutdown (see Power Failure under Robot Traits). |
2 | The defective droid starts moving in a straight line or staggering in circles (50% chance of each) while repeatedly saying "Mite... Mite... Mite...". Sages theorize this word means "error" or "does not compute" in the language of the droids' original creators. |
3 | The defective droid acts as if it were affected by a confusion spell. |
4 | The defective droid obsessively tries to perform its core function - a warrior droid may select a random target and attack it, fighting any creature that tries to defend its objective; a miner droid could try to dig to the center of the planet; a valet droid might try to launder any clothing it sees, and so forth. |
5 | The defective droid gets stuck in a "loop", mindlessly repeating whatever actions it took in the 1d4 rounds before its breakdown. It does adjust its actions to account for changes in the circumstances. For example, a guardian droid that got "looped" after it charged out of its sentry post and attacked an intruder would keep on returning to its post, then charging out to attack a square the intruder was in. If there is a creature or object in that square, the "looping" defective droid attacks it with a 50% miss chance, since this is equivalent to blindly attacking. |
6 | The defective droid goes into berserk spasms, thrashing itself with its limbs and randomly attacking anything near it. Every round the droid moves 20 feet in a random direction and does its slam damage to itself as well as making a single melee or ranged attack against a randomly selected target. If the droid succeeds at a DC 15 Wisdom check at the end of its turn, it goes into Emergency Shut Down to stop damaging itself and its surroundings. The droid can destroy itself if its spasms continue for long enough. |
Heavy Warrior Droid
In addition to the regular human-sized warrior droid there is a relatively common ogre-sized model often used for siege warfare and to guard particularly valuable locations.
Heavy Warrior Droid (Large Construct;
Hit Dice: 8d10+30 (74 hp);
Init: +2;
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares);
AC: 21 (-1 size, +2 Dex, +10 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 19;
Base Attack/Grapple: +8/+19;
Attack: high frequency sword +15 melee (3d6+12/17-20) or concussion rifle +13 ranged (3d10 + special) or laser pistol +12 ranged (2d8 fire) or slam +14 melee (1d8+7);
Full Attack: high frequency sword +15/+10 melee (3d6+12/17-20); or concussion rifle +13/+8 ranged (3d10 + special); or laser pistol +12/+7 ranged (3d8); or 2 slams +14 melee (1d8+7);
Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft.;
Special Attacks: Feat sockets, integral weapons, martial programming;
Special Qualities: Advanced data slots, construct traits, damage reduction 5/adamantine, radarsight 300 ft. [
max 5 mile, detectable 100 miles], radiospeech 100 miles, robot traits;
Saves: Fort +2, Ref +4, Will +2;
Abilities: Str 24, Dex 14, Con —, Int 11, Wis 11, Cha 10;
CR: 7)
Skills & Feats: Listen +11, Spot +11, plus crystal card skills* (typically Climb +11, Jump +11, Search* +8);
Feats: Combat Reflexes, Improved Critical (high frequency sword)(B), Point Blank Shot, Power Attack, Rapid Shot (B), Weapon Focus (concussion rifle)(B), Weapon Focus (high frequency sword)(B), Weapon Specialization (high frequency sword)(B)
*Many Warrior Droids substitute another Int-based skill for their crystal card's Search skill, such as Craft, Disable Device or Knowledge.
Integral Weapons (Ex): Warrior droid can use weapons and wear armor like a standard character, but most also have built-in weapon systems. Integral weapons are powered by the droid's internal energy plant, so they will not run out of power as long as the warrior droid continues functioning.
A heavy warrior droid has a high-frequency sword built into one arm, a concussion rifle in its other arm and a laser pistol in its head. Targeting sensors give the heavy warrior droid a +3 racial bonus to its rifle and laser's attack rolls. The droid does not provoke attacks of opportunity when it attacks with its integrated laser, despite it being a ranged weapon.
Originally appeared in FEZ 1: Valley of Trees (1982).