Servitor Droid Working Draft
Droid, Servitor
Medium Construct
Hit Dice: 2d10+20 (31 hp)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 16 (+6 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/+2
Attack: Slam -3 melee (1d3)
Full Attack: Slam -3 melee (1d3)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: —
Special Qualities: Construct traits, data slots, radiospeech 20 miles, robot traits, toolmaster arms, wheeled chassis
Saves: Fort +0, Ref +0, Will +0
Abilities: Str 12, Dex 10, Con —, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 1
Skills: Craft (any one) +10, Profession (any one) +5, plus crystal card skills (usually two at +5, see Data Slots for more details)
Feats: Skill Focus (Craft [any one])
Environment: Any land or underground
Organization: Solitary, gang (2-4) or team (5-20)
Challenge Rating: 1
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 3-4 HD (Medium); 5-8 HD (Large); 9-12 (Huge)
Level Adjustment: —
This entity is obviously not a living creature, but a metallic construct of some sort. Its body is a tall cylinder topped with two hinge-jointed arms and a spherical head set with clear crystal lenses or eyes. Instead of legs, it stands upon a tripod of supports that each end in a small, fat wheel made of a material resembling unnaturally smooth leather.
A droid is an artificial creature manufactured by nonmagical technologies far more sophisticated than exist in most known worlds. The servitor droid is a common design built for domestic and industrial labour, filling roles from stacking shelves to gourmet cooking. It is normally found working in high technology installations, such as outposts built by an extraterrestrial centauroid species who call themselves the masters.
Servitor droids have built-in safety codes that prevent them from attacking any member of the race or species that created them, as well as any being the droids' creators intended them to recognize as an "owner race". For example, a servitor built by spacefaring elves might refuse to attack an elf or any living creature that is even vaguely elf-shaped, including most humanoids and fey.
These safety codes mean servitor droids are normally incapable of combat, even in self defense, unless they recognizes their opponent as not being a "creator" or "owner". Unscrupulous owners occasionally reprogram their servitor droids to fight, but their safety codes usually still prevent them from injuring members of the "creator race".
However, servitor droids built by alien beings may not recognize standard humanoids as being sapients, let alone "owners", in which case they would have no safety codes against attacking them. Such alien servitor droids might treat a dwarf or human no differently to how they would treat a wild animal.
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 servitor droid speaks Code Standard (the droid equivalent of Common).
In addition, most droids are capable of normal humanoid speech. A standard servitor droid speaks Common.
A servitor droid's cylindrical body stands 5 feet tall and it weighs 200 pounds. It can elevate its head and arms to reach as high as a normal Medium sized creature.
Combat
A servitor droid will only fight to defend its owner or a "creator". If something attacks the droid itself, the machine tries to avoid the threat unless its orders specify otherwise (e.g. if it was forbidden from leaving its post, or instructed to kill or capture any "wild animals" that intrude upon the premises).
Servitor droids are not well suited for combat. Their blows are inaccurate and weak, and most are armed only with their fists and whatever household tools they use for their servant duties. They fight using whatever tactics their owner instructed them to. Despite these failings, they are fearless and implacable, continuing to fight until they are destroyed, immobilized, or their instructions change.
A servitor droid's slam attack is treated as a secondary attack and adds only half the droid's Strength bonus to damage.
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 5 extra skill points. A servitor droid's data slots can process points in any Int- or Wis-based skill. Skill ranks from multiple crystal cards do not stack, so two cards that both contain Appraise 2 SPs, Forgery 3 SPs would give the droid an extra 2 ranks in Appraise and 3 ranks in Forgery, not 4 ranks and 6 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.
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.
Toolmaster Arms (Ex): A servitor droid has specialized tools built into its arms to help it perform its function. These are equivalent to a set of masterwork artisan's tools for whatever Craft skill the droid was designed to perform, giving it a +2 circumstance bonus on Craft checks made with them.
A servitor droid's arms can be removed and re-attached, allowing it to swap its tool limbs for a set configured for another Craft skill. It takes 10 minutes of work to replace a set of tool arms - 1 minute to remove a pair of limbs, 1 minute to add new ones, and 8 minutes for the droid to "configure" them and gain the masterwork tool bonus. Obviously, this also allows the droid to replace damaged limbs, which only takes 1 minute per limb.
Wheeled Chassis (Ex): This droid does not possess the flexible torso and jointed legs of many living creatures, but has a squat, rigid body that moves upon wheels. This gives the droid the following traits:
- Unagile: A wheeled droid has a -6 racial penalty to Climb, Jump, and Tumble checks.
- Stability: A wheeled droid is hard to push aside or knock prone, but also has difficulty righting itself if it falls over. A wheeled droid gains a +4 racial bonus on ability checks made to resist being bull rushed or tripped when standing on the ground (but not when climbing, flying, riding, or otherwise not standing firmly on the ground). If a wheeled droid is in a prone position it can not stand up with a move action like a normal creature, it must take a standard action to right itself.
- Heavy Lifting: A wheeled droid has twice the carrying capacity of a normal creature of its size and strength.
Skills: A servitor droid's wheeled chassis gives it a -6 racial penalty to Climb, Jump, and Tumble checks.
Defective Servitor 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.
Defective servitor droids sometimes have their built-in safety codes fail, so are much more likely to injure their owners or intruding creatures than a properly functioning servitor. See the Paradox Break defective droid trait for details.
A defective servitor droid has the following changes to its statistics block. Any statistic that is not listed is the same as a normal servitor droid.
Droid, Servitor, Defective
Initiative: -2
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 14 (-2 competence penalty, +6 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/+2
Attack: Slam -3 melee (1d3)
Full Attack: Slam -3 melee (1d3)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Defective droid
Special Qualities: Construct traits, data slots, defective droid, radiospeech 20 miles, robot traits, toolmaster arms, wheeled chassis
Saves: Fort +0, Ref -2, Will +0
Abilities: Str 12, Dex 10, Con —, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 1
Skills: Craft (any one) +6, Profession (any one) +1, plus crystal card skills (usually two at +1, see Data Slots for more details)
Challenge Rating: 1/2
A defective servitor 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.
If a servitor droid suffers a paradox break its safety circuits break down, so it may harm 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 rolling 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 miner droid could try to dig to the center of the planet; a guardian droid may select a random object and attack any creature that tries to move or damage it; 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 self-destructive spasms, thrashing itself with its limbs and smashing into objects. Every round the droid moves 20 feet in a random direction and does its slam damage to itself. 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. The droid can destroy itself if its spasms continue for long enough. |
Originally appeared in FEZ 1: Valley of Trees (1982).
