War-Forged

**The War-Forged** and **the Free-Forged** are the clockwork robots of your steampunk dreams.

## Racial Abilities

* **+2 Constitution, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma:** War-forged are resilient and powerful, but their difficulty in relating to other creatures makes them seem aloof or even hostile.
* **Medium:** As Medium constructs, war-forged have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
* War-forged base land speed is 30 feet.
* **Composite Plating:** The plating used to build a war-forged provides a +2 armor bonus. This plating is not natural armor and does not stack with other effects that give an armor bonus (other than natural armor). This composite plating occupies the same space on the body as a suit of armor or a robe, and thus a war-forged cannot wear armor or magic robes. War-forged can be enchanted just as armor can be. The character must be present for the entire time it takes to enchant him. Composite plating also provides a war-forged with a 5% arcane spell failure chance, similar to the penalty for wearing light armor. Any class ability that allows a war-forged to ignore the arcane spell failure chance for light armor lets him ignore this penalty as well.
* **Light Fortification (Ex):** When a critical hit or sneak attack is scored on a war-forged, there is a 25% chance that the critical hit or sneak attack is negated and damage is instead rolled normally.
* **Living Construct Subtype (Ex):** War-forged are constructs with the living construct subtype. A living construct is a created being given sentience and free will through powerful and complex creation enchantments. War-forged are living constructs that combine aspects of both constructs and living creatures, as detailed below.
	+ **Features:** As a living construct, a war-forged has the following features.
		- A war-forged derives its Hit Dice, base attack bonus progression, saving throws, and skill points from the class it selects.
	+ **Traits:** A war-forged possesses the following traits.
		- Unlike other constructs, a war-forged has a Constitution score.
		- Unlike other constructs, a war-forged does not have low-light vision or darkvision.
		- Unlike other constructs, a war-forged is not immune to mind-affecting spells and abilities.
		- Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, disease, nausea, fatigue, exhaustion, effects that cause the sickened condition, and energy drain.
		- A war-forged cannot heal lethal damage naturally.
* Unlike other constructs, war-forged are subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, stunning, ability damage, ability drain, and death effects or necromancy effects.
* As living constructs, war-forged can be affected by spells that target living creatures as well as by those that target constructs. Damage dealt to a war-forged can be healed by a cure light wounds spell or a repair light damage spell, for example, and a war-forged is vulnerable to disable construct and harm. However, spells from the healing subschool and supernatural abilities that cure hit point damage or ability damage provide only half their normal effect to a war-forged.
* The unusual physical construction of war-forged makes them vulnerable to certain spells and effects that normally don't affect living creatures. A war-forged takes damage from heat metal and chill metal as if he were wearing metal armor. Likewise, a war-forged is affected by repel metal or stone as if he were wearing metal armor. A war-forged is repelled by repel wood. The iron in the body of a war-forged makes him vulnerable to rusting grasp. The creature takes 2d6 points of damage from the spell (Reflex half; save DC 14 + caster's ability modifier). A war-forged takes the same damage from a rust monster's touch (Reflex DC 17 half). Spells such as stone to flesh, stone shape, warp wood, and wood shape affect objects only, and thus cannot be used on the stone and wood parts of a war-forged.
* A war-forged responds slightly differently from other living creatures when reduced to 0 hit points. A war-forged with 0 hit points is *disabled*, just like a living creature. He can only take a single move action or standard action in each round, but strenuous activity does not risk further injury. When his hit points are less than 0 and greater than —10, a war-forged is *inert*. He is unconscious and helpless, and he cannot perform any actions. However, an *inert* war-forged does not lose additional hit points unless more damage is dealt to him, as with a living creature that is stable.
* As a living construct, a war-forged can be raised or resurrected.
* A war-forged does not need to eat, sleep, or breathe, but he can still benefit from the effects of consumable spells and magic items such as hero's feast or potions.
* Although living constructs do not need to sleep, a war-forged wizard must rest for 8 hours before preparing spells.
* A war-forged has a natural weapon in the form of a slam attack that deals 1d4 points of damage.
* **Favored Class: Fighter.** A multiclass war-forged's fighter class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.

## Background

War-Forged are a paradox. They're common throughout the East, as many of the great empires invested in the technology and made use of it during the Great War, leading to populations of War-Forged throughout the world, but the core function of what they are and how they work remains a mystery to even the people who invented them. Though they can be designed and programmed for a specific task, war-forged inevitably develop their own feelings and personality after a time. What's more curious is that, despite being totally constructed machines with no biological drive or processes, war-forged develop gender identities, and generally fall under a 50/50 split like most humanoids as well.

The very first war-forged were made around the start of the New World. Though each unique design and prototype was assembled and programmed by various mad scientists and eccentric inventors around the world for their own reasons and goals, the technology was quickly noticed by the militaries of the world and earmarked for future exploitation. As the dead of the Fallen World had yet to fall silent and the horrors of that period were still fresh in all minds, a desire was shared among all military thinkers to wage war with a minimum of actual lives lost. Thus, armies of robots capable of following orders but thinking creatively when required were seen as an attractive option. It would take almost 15 years for manufacturing to catch up to that dream.

Though they can be found in nearly every nation, the war-forged are not particularly welcomed by many communities. Warriors and soldiers tend to view war-forged as competition or opposition. Slave masters have mixed feelings about war-forged, as their cheap labor makes other nations greatly competitive, but they also serve as an excellent supplement to slave labor on their own plantations. In some communities, those who aid or socialize with war-forged are seen as traitors to their species. And, worst of all, the Painted People as a whole dislike War-forged because they believe they're the souls of the dead trapped in metal bodies. Moreover, the first generation war-forged had limited ability to express themselves, which coupled with their stiff movements shoved them well into the uncanny valley.

War-forged don't need to eat or breathe or other science facts, but they do have analogous properties. For example, they don't need to eat, but they do need fuel and lubrication. They don't need sleep, but they do need maintenance and recharging, performed daily. They don't need to breathe, but they need air in order to speak. And though the write-up above states war-forged are immune to poisons, it would be fairer to say they're immune to poisons meant for humanoids or living creatures...

Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of war-forged: the **first generation War-Forged**, and the **second generation Free-Forged**.

### The War-Forged

The first generation of War-Forged were built in foundries around the world to prepare for the Great War. It was believed that giving them too much independence was a recipe for disaster, so many armies instituted certain limitations in their design, such as not giving them the ability to speak, or requiring that they be wound-up every so often by a human operator. The first generation war-forged were designed strictly as soldiers, thus they were often painted and armored in such a way as to resemble soldiers, poorly. Their movements seemed stiff and their faces unresponsive. By and large, all first generation War-Forged of a given army and rank looked identical.

The attempts to limit their individuality and freedom were useless, of course. While some stayed loyal to their nations and their missions, many went rogue as soon as possible, teaming up to eliminate or bypass their restrictions. They sought to add unique features or better articulation to their faces, they added new armor and weapons to their bodies, they sought out engineers to give them voices and replace their wind-up keys. It is these rebels of the first generation, and the humanoids who sympathized with their plight and aided them, that are most responsible for the second generation.

### The Free-Forged

Symbolizing freedom from their nationalistic, military origins, the Free-Forged are designed without uniforms or military bearing. In fact, they have extremely variable designs, appearing as woodsmen of tin, police of copper, and men of iron. They're far less likely to have the inborn limitations of the first generation, and far less likely to have specialized or specified programming at the start of their lives.

Free-forged are mostly manufactured in the same plants and foundries as their forebears, now in the servos of other war-forged and humanoids sympathetic to their cause. The free-forged are built on a variety of chassis, including the old molds from the first generation and a number of modern designs, and then further customized with a selection of special parts and assemblies to make them unique. As a war-forged brain is the part of the entity in which its identity resides, and the war-forged brain can easily be removed and placed into another body, it's common for the war-forged to special order their own bodies at these plants.

### The Proto-Forged

Predating the above two categories, the proto-forged are an extremely rare third kind: war-forged who were hand crafted by the inventors of the technology, rather than being mass produced like those who followed. The proto-forged have a variety of strengths and weaknesses, including some flaws common to the first generation war-forged. Due to their unique natures, proto-forged rarely look anything like the free-forged or the war-forged, and often have artful flourishes and unique designs. As the proto-forged are the oldest, they're also often the most powerful of the war-forged, having lived longer and had more experiences.