Homebrew Clockwork Automation Species Details

"Am I alive?  I believe so; or I think I believe so"

--  Wind up, The Wanderer

 There was once an ambitious master engineer who wanted to create life. The engineer gave their all to birth such a creation, until finally, using clockwork prosthetics, the scientist created fully sentient automatons. At first they were mindless machines, blindly following orders, but eventually they grew consciousness, thoughts, and emotions. They'd ask questions and wonder if they too were living beings. No such answer was found, and the scientist died in the wake of their creations - or so it is thought.

The future of this race of machines is a mystery; only a few automatons were made to the complexity of the scientist's original design, and all of their schematics, blueprints, plans, and notes vanished with their death, save for a single note, telling of a secret apprentice that would continue their work where no one could find them. Few automatons exist claiming to have a "soul", but it's likely more will appear when the apprentice comes out of hiding.

Physical Description

Made of gears, metal, and cogs held together by magic, Clockwork Automatons are beings unlike any other. They are constructed out of combinations of thick ceramic and metal filaments built around a metallic skeletal frame, with a pistons acting as a muscular system. A network of tubes runs through the Automaton's body, filled with a blood-like fluid designed to lubricate and nourish their gears.

Automatons are completely sexless and genderless. Though their bodies may have been designed with masculine or feminine features, these are considered by the Automatons to be little more than aesthetics. Automatons are able to be repaired and modified by those with the right training, which makes for an endless array of possible changes to their appearances in the hands of capable engineers.

A Clockwork Automaton on average stands little taller than their creator's race's height and weighs in at 300 - 600 lbs. These numbers will vary among specific Automatons.

Personality

Clockwork Automatons have unique personalities and experience anger, pain, fear, and hatred, just like their human creators. But Automatons naturally seem reserved, stoic, and pensive, hiding an array of emotions behind their minorly inexpressive metallic faces. Their faces were not designed to display facial expressions, merely to replicate talking, so at times they appear to be distant to the conversation. Despite their lack of physical facial expressions, they're not completely without them, as their eyes tend to brighten when experiencing strong or specific emotions. Some Automatons have their faces modified to be more expressive for their companion's comfort, but these expressions are learned rather than natural and often appear stilted and awkward.

Some Automatons can be incredibly naive and lack a sense of introspection. However, many others are the opposite and question their existence, they wonder if, as constructs, they have souls, and ask what becomes of them in the afterlife. More intelligent automatons create complex philosophies about what they perceive and learn. Though they can show loyalty to religions and organizations, typically they become loyal to a small group of comrades.

Automatons built for war understand duty, the chain of command, and conflict. But aside from this, many Automatons often have little life experience as they have spent most of their time working towards one specific duty. If there is one interest all Clockwork Automatons share it is their love of working and the satisfaction of a job well done. Many create endless lists of goals and chores to feed that feeling. They take pride in their work and can work incredibly hard, both traits that make them dislike idleness and failure. Automatons can excel at most tasks, having a single-minded efficiency, especially in combat related roles. But this same single-mindedness can often translate to a lack of creativity and they can be easily surprised or "outflanked."

Clockwork Automatons dislike being called "it" and usually accept the gendered pronoun that they most closely resemble. Some Automatons adopt names from the culture they were created in, though most of their names were assigned at construction and are straightforward and related to their job, abilities or rank. Many Automatons simply accept the nicknames given to them by their comrades while others seek more meaningful names that best describe them.

Clockwork Automaton Names

Clockwork Automatons are usually given names by their creators, either named for their purpose or rank or adopted from the naming tradtions of the race that created them.

Some Automatons adopt a "personal name," chosen for themselves after long periods of soul-searching. This name is usually a special designation an Automaton reserves only for their friends and carries sentimental meaning to them.

Examples of names given in this fashion may be seen below:

Names: Andromeda, Hunter, Legacy, Loki, Babylon, Raven, Harmony, Hercules, Exarch, Nexus, Legionnaire, Vagabond, Vice

Names of Automatons can also be chosen by trusted companions or by parental figures that hold a sort of close bond. Examples of names given in this fashion may be seen below:

Names: Prime, Alpha, Gears, Tick Tock, Brass, Spirit, Silver, Gold, Plexi, Bronze, Steel, Id

 

Clockwork Automation Traits

Clockworks are all individually crafted and therefore they are all unique.

Ability Score Increase

Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1. 

Age

Clockworks are created as adults; they have no childhood or adolescence. Clockworks do not age, they are living constructs.  Each Clockwork is handmade in different ways.  Most are hundreds, if not thousands of years old.  There always could be some that are just recently made.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Size

Clockworks are between 7 and 8 feet tall and because of their steel construction are very heavy, weighing between about 400 to 700 pounds.  Your size is Medium. 

Living Construct

Even though you were constructed, you are a living creature, represented by the following benefits:

• You don’t need to eat, drink, or breathe but you can ingest food and drink if you wish.
• You are immune to disease.
• You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, and you have resistance to poison damage.
• As a Clockwork made of pistons and gears, instead of sleeping, you tune/inspect yourself for 4 hours each day. You can feel the gears and pistons in your body like muscles or a pulse and can therefore mentally inspect your innerworkings; meaning the inspecting can be you sitting there feeling the vibrations of your body, it does not have to be a physically inspection every time.  When doing this you are fully aware of your surroundings and notice approaching enemies and other events as normal.

Integrated Protection

Your body has built-in defensive layers, which can be enhanced with armor:

• You gain a +1 bonus to Armor Class.
• You can don only armor with which you have proficiency. To don armor other than a shield, you must incorporate it into your body over the course of 1 hour, during which you remain in contact with the armor. To doff armor, you must spend 1 hour removing it. You can rest while donning or doffing armor in this way.
• While you live, the armor incorporated into your body cannot be removed.

Piston and Steel Construction

A Clockwork is made up of pistons, gears and made of mostly steel, this gives it increased strength and toughness. This allows you to carry more then your standard size.  Your gears and pistons cause also constant noise making it hard to move quietly.  Your steel skeleton is very heavy, causing you to be unable to swim.

• You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.
• You have disadvantage on stealth checks.
• You have a swim speed of 0. You can't swim, you just sink because of your weight. 

Endurance of Steel

Your steel skeleton can occasionally shrug off injury. When you take damage, you can use your reaction to roll a d12. Add your Constitution modifier to the number rolled and reduce the damage by that total. After you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

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Note: This is to be developed in conjunction with NOT being able to heal with potions or healing spells.  I am thinking of making this increase every couple of levels  either by increasing the number of dice or the number of times a short rest it can be used.  Until then, this is not active.  I will playtest and see what kind of damage this takes (with a martial class) and what kind of system would be good to simulate healing.  

For now, all healing works as normal.

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Natural Historian

Having actually lived for hundreds of years, you have a unique insight into the history of the world.  You have proficiency in the History skill.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common.