Homebrew Rogue Modron Species Details

"Does your over-exuberance in attacking these slavers have anything to do with the fact that it rained yesterday?"

—Unit 87, a rogue modron who still doesn't quite understand human motivation 

No minds in the multiverse are as focused on law, stability, repetition, and the security of harmonious regulation as those of the modrons, the clockwork caretakers of the gears of Mechanus who are virtually unthinking in their strict hierarchical order. But the multiverse isn't perfect, and even in the total law of Mechanus things can sometimes go wrong. Sometimes a modron receives conflicting orders from multiple superiors, faces indisputable evidence that not all is orderly, or becomes exposed to chaotic energies. Sometimes the mind of the modron simply snaps. Circumstances like these create rogue modrons, defects with no place in the grand hierarchy.

The Form of an Outcast

Modrons are formed from the very essence of order and given clockwork limbs and other parts. Their bodies are comprised of both mechanical and fleshy parts, melded together in an orderly whole. Appearances aside, modron bodies aren't all that dissimilar from other creatures', and resting, healing magic, and the Medicine skill all provide the same benefits to modrons as they do to others. While modrons do eat physical food, it is not the substance that nourishes them but rather the energy essence contained within.

A defective unit is most often a base modron, but there also have been rare cases of hierarchs going rogue, though never one of quarton status or higher. No matter what its rank before being deemed defective, all rogue modrons take on the same form once they are cast out from Mechanus. Rogue modrons resemble quadrones in many ways, leading to some confusing the two. A rogue modron stands exactly 6 feet tall and weighs precisely 500 pounds, its body is cubelike with each edge measuring 3 feet. A vaguely anthropomorphic face takes up much of the front face of the cube, a spindly arm and leg—each 3 feet in length—extend from both of the cube's side faces, and a pair of little vestigial wings sprout out of the top face of the cube.

There is a saying: "To look at one modron is to look at all of them." Almost nothing differentiates one modron from another of the same type, but some modrons manage to pick up some distinguishing markings while outside of Mechanus. Sometimes a rogue modron adds such markings to its own body as a show of independence, other times they are added by others trying to find a way to tell the modron apart from others. Your character can have as many distinguishing markings as you want, you can pick from or roll on the table below for some ideas.

Rogue Modron Distinguishing Markings

d10	Marking
1	A crudely painted streak, shape, or pattern.
2	Your own name, either on a sticker or directly written on your side.
3	A tag attached to one of your limbs that reads: If found, please return to and the name of someone you know.
4	The icon of one of the factions in Sigil.
5	A hastily scrawled address, or a rough map of a few city blocks.
6	Several colourful streamers tied to your arms that flutter in the air when you move.
7	An assortment of tiny, rusted forks dangling by strings from the base of your wings.
8	Various coins, shells, or feathers you have collected and decorated yourself with.
9	A length of rope, leather, or cloth affixed to look as if it was a tail.
10	Some note or flier that you have yet to notice.

Near-Absolute Order

To other modrons, the differences between themselves and a defective unit are clear and they see the rogue as some sort of chaotic wild-child, but most others would have trouble telling the two apart. A rogue modron is still a modron, a being of order, and most of them still seem that way to outsiders: still an extremely ordered creature, with law ingrained in its every thought, feeling, and action. 

When first cast out, a rogue modron is a nearly blank slate. It never had any childhood, family, social rank, or even any real history to speak of other than its role in the hierarchy, one of many, another part of the great order of Mechanus. What memories the modron did have as a part of that great machine start to slip away with time as it experiences more of what the multiverse has to offer. By the time a rogue modron adventurer's journey begins, it has likely forgotten most of its past life, and definitely no longer remembers what rank it once held.

Once a modron has set on a course of action, there is little that can divert them from it—they march through the outer planes every 289 years without letting anything stand in their way, after all—they have a focus that few creatures could match in intensity and they never become sidetracked or distracted, and the same is true of rogue units. Unlike a "normal" modron, a rogue modron does have some concept of self, and while they are less motivated by things such as greed, personal happiness, and even self-preservation than another creature might be, they are still ideas that the rogue modron recognizes and (vaguely) comprehends, and often wants to understand more fully. Emotions, friendship, humor, and other concepts familiar to humans and other humanoids are new and strange to modrons, and they seek to either find order within or otherwise impose it upon them.

Law Within Chaos

A modron gone rogue finds itself cast out of Mechanus, the heart of law and often the only world they have ever known, and plunged into the cold, lonely, and, most of all, chaotic multiverse, armed with only the very thing that marked them as defective in the first place: the forbidden and reprehensible glimmerings of self-awareness. A rogue modron is essentially a refugee from a world and society completely alien to the one that it now finds itself in. As it explores existence, the modron continues to learn and adapt, never accepting that there isn't an order to everything, but instead expanding and adjusting its view of what order is, either imposing its own brand of order on what it finds, or simply rationalizing explanations that place a veneer of order over the chaos of the multiverse.

Rogue modrons don't believe in, or even understand, the concept of chance. They never use words or embrace ideas such as "luck." To a modron, there is structure to everything, nothing can be random. Modrons believe that, whether or not they realize it, all creatures abide by a set of cosmic rules and regulations, and while the modrons might not be able to describe what these rules are, some rogue units might use their freedom to try and figure them out.

Even a rogue modron desires organization, rank, authority, regulation, and harmony to be content. A modron would be hard-pressed to join a group without a clear structure and hierarchy, and would need to know exactly what its standing within the organization is, who it stands below and who it stands above. While not as interested in being on top as some are, a rogue modron won't necessarily follow orders blindly, and usually won't look kindly on someone who thinks they understand how modrons operate attempting to take advantage of them.

No longer a part of the grand hierarchy of Mechanus, a rogue modron cannot be promoted, and when it dies it does not reform as a monodrone on Mechanus. While the degeneration of their memory from before their defection leaves them with little to know understanding of the promotion process, rogue modrons do have some vague understanding of the permanency of its death. Although, it is thought that it a rogue modron could somehow regain Primus' favor and be taken back into the fold as a new monodrone.

Quirks

Rogue modrons possess traits and behaviours that may seem odd to others. A rogue modron character can have one or more such quirks, you can pick from or roll on the table below for some ideas.

Rogue Modron Quirks

d8	quirk
1	You never refer to yourself with singular first person pronouns, only plural ones. No "I," "me," "my," or "mine," only "we," "us," "our," and "ours."
2	You have singled one of your companions as your superior, and often look to them for orders.
3	You have no understanding of personal property within your group.
4	You attempt to strictly schedule everything that you and your companions do.
5	You regularly make quiet ticking, whirring, or humming noises.
6	You fixate on certain numbers, such as primes or powers of two.
7	You make siren-like "wee-woo" noises when in danger, until told to stop.
8	You try to find patterns in things that you encounter, often spending a lot of time to see if you can identify any.

Rogue Modron Names

The names of rogue modrons can vary wildly. Some take on names of their own creation, others take on whatever name is given to them, and yet others keep their designation from Mechanus: a name in the modron language that produces a string of letters and digits when translated to another tongue.

Rogue Modron Traits

When a modron is cast from Mechanus for being defective it loses both its form and most of its special abilities, leaving rogue modrons with some common traits.

Ability Score Increase

Your Intelligence score increases by 2, your Constitution score increases by 1, your Dexterity score is reduced by 1, and your Charisma score is reduced by 2.

Age

As a modron, you do not age or grow.

Alignment

Rogue modrons have a hard time fully escaping their origins, and majorly tend towards lawful alignments. Chaotic rogue modrons are incredibly rare.

Size

Rogue modrons are very precisely sized, exactly 6 feet in height and 500 pounds in weight. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Adjustable Vision

You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.

Remnants of Truesight

Though you were stripped of your Truesight when you were cast from Mechanus, some of its effects still linger:

• You have Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
• You have advantage on Intelligence (Investigation) checks to discern if something is an illusion.

Inherent Order

Always acting and responding in the same way, as a modron you roll initiative once. Just once. During character creation, make a Dexterity check and make note of your result. This result is your initiative count for all future encounters. You may re-roll this Dexterity check whenever your Dexterity modifier increases, and take either result.

Law of Averages

Whenever you would roll damage against a target, you instead take the average result for each die. Always round down after multiplying. For example: if you roll 2d6 damage, the result is will always be 7. See the table below for average die results.

Die Type	Average result
d4	2.5
d6	3.5
d8	4.5
d10	5.5
d12	6.5
d20	10.5

Natural Armor

Much of your body is made of metal. When you aren’t wearing armor, your AC is 13 + your Dexterity modifier. You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield’s benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.

Orderly Whole

Comprised of both mechanical and organic parts melded into a single form, the nature of your physical being is a hybrid of both. You have two creature types: humanoid and construct. You can be affected by a game effect if it works on either of your creature types.

Additionally, your shape and weight makes certain things difficult. For instance, you are unable to ride a horse, or fit through openings smaller than your rigid, cubic body. You also require specialized armor as your shape prevents you from wearing armor suited for non-modrons.

Preset Actions

You have a predetermined set of responses to certain conditions and situations. Whenever an event occurs that triggers a reaction from you, you must take a reaction if you can. For example: if a hostile creature that you can see moves out of your reach and you have not already taken a reaction since the beginning of your last turn, you must make an opportunity attack against it. If you have more than one possible reaction to the trigger you can choose which one to take, but if any of them are unavailable for any reason you must use one of the others. For instance: if a hostile creature you can see hits you with an attack and you have both the Uncanny Dodge feature and the shield spell prepared, you may choose which one to react with, but if you have no remaining spell slots you must react with Uncanny Dodge. For the purposes of the counterspell spell, you may decide if a friendly creature within range casting a spell is exempt from triggering your reaction, but once you make this decision you must always stick by it.

The benefit to such a rigid system of responding to stimuli is that you are able to react even when otherwise caught off guard. You are able to take reactions even when surprised.

Structured Mind

Your mind is a strictly ordered system of thought, making you less susceptible to magics that would affect it. You have advantage on Wisdom and Intelligence saving throws against magical effects that would make you charmed or frightened, or otherwise take control of your mind, as well as effects that would deal psychic damage to you.

Unexpected Turn

You are a creature of nearly absolute order in a multiverse that is rarely so structured, when unexpected situations arise you find them difficult to respond to as you take time to recalibrate. When you are surprised, you remain that way for twice as long, leaving you unable to move or take an action on your first two turns of the combat.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common, and Modron.

The Modron Language

The language of the modrons is just as precise, ordered, and inscrutable as the modrons themselves. It's exact, mathematical, and incredibly complex to non-modron. But it has specific rules, and while those rules are difficult to learn they are not impossible. A non-modron can learn the language of the modrons, but must use two language options to do so.

The Modron language is not on the available language list on D&D Beyond, so if you know it you should make note of it yourself.