A place of pure order and precision with motives that are incomprehensible to beings native to any other Planes...
A DM is free to forego any explanations as to why things happen involving the Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanus or its native denizens. They simply have a purpose and will not deviate, and it doesn't need to make sense to any of us mere mortals. They are aware of minute factors across the Planes to the precision of butterfly wings. Any tweak they do to the Planes has a purpose that might not see fruition for many generations across many Planes.
Why do they even care? Who knows? Maybe they don't care and that puts them in a unique Universal perspective that nobody else can possibly achieve—an impossible perfect Universal morality unlike anything else out there.
In 5e lore, the Great Modron March has no known purpose, but it happens with deliberate precision suggesting there is a purpose even though no outsiders know what that is.
For a place that is purely Lawful, you can ironically let your imagination go wild. The more you try to explain them, the less impressive they become as they get boxed into an idea people can grasp.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Then, you have Modron deviants and rogues. Surely, they're also part of the Great Purpose of Mechanus. Right? There are no errors in the Great Purpose. What purpose those errant Modron serve is anyone's guess. It also means that they're not truly errant if they're all part of the Great Purpose.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Do you mean less natural as abiotic? Because if the modrons and mechanus are a natural part of the multiverse, then what makes something natural wouldn't depend on if it's biotic or abiotic but be based on the connection it has to the multiverse.
I always liked Mechanus as a concept because more lore that centers alignments other than "good" and "evil", I find enriching to the game. As a DM, figuring out how a lawful or a neutral entity might impact the world, either as an ally to the heroes or as an enemy due to circumstance, is a good exercise and I feel like those types of dynamics really stand out.
Like, in one homebrew world I'm working on that's sort of old west inspired, I decided I wanted them to be the bad guys, so I have the forces of Mechanus, in pursuing their own ends, basically invading this world with giant reaper-like machines (as in mass effect reapers) trying to consume all its resources before being trapped by the advanced civilization, in a giant, half-continent spanning force-field that contained the threat of Mechanus for the rest of the world, but spelt the end of the ancient civilization. Now, with the magic of the force field fading after untold millenia, people are beginning to settle the deserted west again, completely unaware of the forces dormant beneath the earth, waiting to consume all resources on the surface.
They seem pretty evil in this instance, but my thought process was mostly that the forces of Mechanus must still have need for resources, and from a purely cold, logical standpoint, those resources must come from somewhere, so what's one world out of a thousand if that's the cost of maintaining order?
As far as modrons go, the art has a lot of people treating them like Minions from despicable me (they do look kinda similar), but I don't prefer to treat them as inept. Rather, I like to depict them single-mindedly going about their tasks, methodically, working collectively as a kind of hive mind for more complex tasks, with smaller groups or individuals performing repetitive, beurocratically mindless tasks.
If anyone's played the ps1 jrpg Legend of Dragoon, I basically try to run Mechanus like the Law City of Zenebatos, with the modrons basically as those little robots that go about their business long after their creators and the civilization who's laws they make have died out.
Well, this thread has got me thinking and I might have to introduce an NPC into my campaign, a Warfoged Warlock (EDIT: with Primus or some such individual as a patron), probably porting over the Sorcerer Clockwork Soul abilities in place of the published Warlock subclasses and then give him Pact of Chain and a Modron as a Familiar, although a Fmailiar with truesight 120ft might be a little OTT. If it works mechanically (excuse the pun) then it might be an interesting player option for the future.
You're the DM and it's an NPC, so it being unbalanced shouldn't matter. But since you're considering the possibility of allowing it for your players in the future, then may I suggest using something like a replica monodrone instead? I would also reduce its size considering the vast majority of familiars are tiny with a few being small. I prefer the look and simplicity of a monodrone as a familiar, but CR 1/8 is too weak for a warlock's familiar, so you might want to use a stronger modron's stat block instead.
Personally, I would require the warlock to spend one hour (can be part of a short rest) in order to reprogram it with new instructions and responses (see its Axiomatic Mind trait), which could also be done as part of the find familiar ritual. I would also require the use of the disk and platinum rod from the replica's stat block as material components in order to repair/recreate the replica modron with the spell or ritual. This would replace the spell's normal material components (10 gp worth of charcoal, incense, and herbs that must be consumed by fire in a brass brazier), which would bypass the need to spend money but at the cost of needing to retrieve the disk and rod whenever the modron familiar is destroyed. Should those two components be lost, they may be purchased for a much higher price than 10 gp.
A place of pure order and precision with motives that are incomprehensible to beings native to any other Planes...
A DM is free to forego any explanations as to why things happen involving the Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanus or its native denizens. They simply have a purpose and will not deviate, and it doesn't need to make sense to any of us mere mortals. They are aware of minute factors across the Planes to the precision of butterfly wings. Any tweak they do to the Planes has a purpose that might not see fruition for many generations across many Planes.
Why do they even care? Who knows? Maybe they don't care and that puts them in a unique Universal perspective that nobody else can possibly achieve—an impossible perfect Universal morality unlike anything else out there.
In 5e lore, the Great Modron March has no known purpose, but it happens with deliberate precision suggesting there is a purpose even though no outsiders know what that is.
For a place that is purely Lawful, you can ironically let your imagination go wild. The more you try to explain them, the less impressive they become as they get boxed into an idea people can grasp.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Then, you have Modron deviants and rogues. Surely, they're also part of the Great Purpose of Mechanus. Right? There are no errors in the Great Purpose. What purpose those errant Modron serve is anyone's guess. It also means that they're not truly errant if they're all part of the Great Purpose.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Ding.
I always liked Mechanus as a concept because more lore that centers alignments other than "good" and "evil", I find enriching to the game. As a DM, figuring out how a lawful or a neutral entity might impact the world, either as an ally to the heroes or as an enemy due to circumstance, is a good exercise and I feel like those types of dynamics really stand out.
Like, in one homebrew world I'm working on that's sort of old west inspired, I decided I wanted them to be the bad guys, so I have the forces of Mechanus, in pursuing their own ends, basically invading this world with giant reaper-like machines (as in mass effect reapers) trying to consume all its resources before being trapped by the advanced civilization, in a giant, half-continent spanning force-field that contained the threat of Mechanus for the rest of the world, but spelt the end of the ancient civilization. Now, with the magic of the force field fading after untold millenia, people are beginning to settle the deserted west again, completely unaware of the forces dormant beneath the earth, waiting to consume all resources on the surface.
They seem pretty evil in this instance, but my thought process was mostly that the forces of Mechanus must still have need for resources, and from a purely cold, logical standpoint, those resources must come from somewhere, so what's one world out of a thousand if that's the cost of maintaining order?
As far as modrons go, the art has a lot of people treating them like Minions from despicable me (they do look kinda similar), but I don't prefer to treat them as inept. Rather, I like to depict them single-mindedly going about their tasks, methodically, working collectively as a kind of hive mind for more complex tasks, with smaller groups or individuals performing repetitive, beurocratically mindless tasks.
If anyone's played the ps1 jrpg Legend of Dragoon, I basically try to run Mechanus like the Law City of Zenebatos, with the modrons basically as those little robots that go about their business long after their creators and the civilization who's laws they make have died out.
You're the DM and it's an NPC, so it being unbalanced shouldn't matter. But since you're considering the possibility of allowing it for your players in the future, then may I suggest using something like a replica monodrone instead? I would also reduce its size considering the vast majority of familiars are tiny with a few being small. I prefer the look and simplicity of a monodrone as a familiar, but CR 1/8 is too weak for a warlock's familiar, so you might want to use a stronger modron's stat block instead.
Personally, I would require the warlock to spend one hour (can be part of a short rest) in order to reprogram it with new instructions and responses (see its Axiomatic Mind trait), which could also be done as part of the find familiar ritual. I would also require the use of the disk and platinum rod from the replica's stat block as material components in order to repair/recreate the replica modron with the spell or ritual. This would replace the spell's normal material components (10 gp worth of charcoal, incense, and herbs that must be consumed by fire in a brass brazier), which would bypass the need to spend money but at the cost of needing to retrieve the disk and rod whenever the modron familiar is destroyed. Should those two components be lost, they may be purchased for a much higher price than 10 gp.
Age: 33 | Sex: Male | Languages: French and English | Roles: DM and Player