D&D 3E/3.5 Converting monsters from Mayfair Games Role Aids product line

[Cleon]

I'll go for that solution.

Okay, that'd involve something like this rewrite...

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, and qualify for feats and other abilities as if their construct Hit Dice were fighter levels.

Furthermore, a warrior droid's martial programming bonus feats are encoded on crystal chips that fit into internal sockets, allowing the droid to change any of its fighter bonus feats by simply swapping the feat's "combat chip". The warrior droid must still meet all prerequisites for the feat, including ability score and base attack bonus minimums, although it can use other feat shards to meet the prerequisites (e.g. a warrior droid could slot a Power Attack chip, and then slot a combat chip with any fighter bonus feat that has Power Attack as a prerequisite, such as Improved Sunder).​

Although if we're introducing "Feat Chips" it'd make sense to stat them as a separate ability.

Also, I'm not liking "chips" much for the name, how about calling them "shards" or "spikes" instead. Hmm, I'm liking Spike for the name. Has a nice alternative-tech ring to it.

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.

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).​

 

[freyar]

I'd be happy with your second version there.

 

[Cleon]

I'd be happy with your second version there.

I'd be happy updating the Warrior Droid Working Draft.

 

[freyar]

I'd be ready to "whiten" the red text above the "defective droids" block except for the tactics section.

For skills, maybe make Spot and Listen the "regular skills" and maybe Intimidate and Jump or Climb at 5 each for the data slots.

I think I want to wait on feats until after we settle on weapons. Slams and lasers?

 

[Cleon]

I'd be ready to "whiten" the red text above the "defective droids" block except for the tactics section.

For skills, maybe make Spot and Listen the "regular skills" and maybe Intimidate and Jump or Climb at 5 each for the data slots.

We've yet to decide what abilities the Warrior Droid's skill slots can use. Since it's able to use fighter bonus feats as "socket feats" I suggest we consider giving it slots that are compatible with physical skills.

The Jump and Climb skills you suggested are both Str-based.

I'm tempted to allow Dex-based skill cards so it can get things like Balance, Hide and Tumble, which'd be useful for a "commando" type droid, but that depends on how agile we want it - we don't have much to go on, so we could make it a straightforward combat model which isn't supposed to be sneaky.

Intimidate is Cha-based, of course, but I'm not sure whether it should have all Charisma skill slots - maybe it's only experienced Warrior Droids (e.g. ones with class levels) that have the ability to socially manipulate opponents?

How about "Any Str, Int or Wis skill, plus Intimidate"?

Anyhow, I'll update the Warrior Droid Working Draft to un-red most of the text.

I think I want to wait on feats until after we settle on weapons. Slams and lasers?

How about a high frequency sword and laser pistol for the "basic model" with slams as an unarmed backup option? We can include a reference to the d20 Modern SRD and enough of the stats to use the weapons in-game.

I mentioned earlier I'd also like to include stats for a "Heavy Warrior" with a concussion rifle & concussion rod. Come to think of it, I'd maybe like to add a plasma pistol to that...

 

[freyar]

Arg, forgot it was only mental-based skills. Simplest solution: make Jump and Climb the regular skills and Intimidate, Listen, and Spot the slot skills?

I like the weapon ideas...

 

[Cleon]

Arg, forgot it was only mental-based skills. Simplest solution: make Jump and Climb the regular skills and Intimidate, Listen, and Spot the slot skills?

There's nothing stopping us from allowing physical ability-based skills in slots, we just need to tweak the ability to account for that. We've already mentioned the possibility of physical ability data-slot skills in the description, "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."

The current working draft listed all the mental abilities only because that's what we gave the Valet Droid, since it's a "human interaction" model. The Servitor Droid only had Int and Wis, remember.

I'd rather make the Warrior's data-slots Int, Wis and Str and give it Jump and Climb as data-skills, with Listen and Spot as regular skills. I don't think it really needs Intimidate.

I like the weapon ideas...

Fine!

I think we need a special attack to describe them. Do we give them an ranged attack bonus like we did the guardian droid?

Something like:

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.

 

[freyar]

Hmm. So then we can just get rid of the last sentence of the usual Data Slots entry and tweak the sentence starting "A warrior droid's data slots can process..." Sure! We might even make the SQ "Advanced Data Slots" or something. I'll agree to your skill suggestions, too.

Those Integral Weapons look good to me, too.

 

[Cleon]

Hmm. So then we can just get rid of the last sentence of the usual Data Slots entry and tweak the sentence starting "A warrior droid's data slots can process..." Sure! We might even make the SQ "Advanced Data Slots" or something. I'll agree to your skill suggestions, too.

Those Integral Weapons look good to me, too.

Updating the Warrior Droid Working Draft.

Might as well use the "advanced data slots" idea.

Hmm, if they're advanced slots, how about increasing the skill point capacity to 8 points, the same SPs as its base HD max-skill?

 

[freyar]

I'll agreed to bumping the ranks in the advanced slots, too. Keep the same skills as suggested above, though.