Admech

The freshly sentient constructs who have yet to carve a place in the world

Base Racial Traits

Ability Score Modifiers: (+2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, –2 Wisdom): Due to their clockwork construction and long, expansive databanks filled with knowledge Admech are both dexterous and intelligent, but are ignorant in the ways of the world and how to properly utilize their knowledge.
Size: Admech are medium sized creatures and thus have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Type: Admech are creatures of the construct type, and gain all corresponding bonuses and penalties due to their type. Additionally, Admech have the Clockwork Subtype but gain no bonuses or penalties from it aside from those listed in this racial statblock below.
Speed: Admech have a base land speed of 30ft.
Vision: Admech possess Darkvision out to 60ft, and Low-Light Vision - allowing them to see twice as well as humans in conditions of low light.
Languages: Admech start play speaking Modulo only. Admech with high Intelligence are able to select from (Common, Gnome, High Human, or Elven).
Celestial Bronze Carapace: Their bodies crafted of a highly unique and especially durable alloy of metals that has been lost to time, Admech bodies are extraordinarily durable and grant them DR 10/Adamantine. Additionally, their bodies automatically adapt to damaging environmental factors and grant them effective immunity to passive environmental damage such as mundane fires and even submersion in lava - however, this does not protect against purposeful attacks, abilities, spells, or otherwise "intentionally damaging" effects.
Naturally Inquisitive: Admech, rife with book-smarts, eagerly and earnestly seek out new people and experiences - they have all Knowledge skills as class skills, and gain a racial +4 bonus on Diplomacy and Survival skill checks.
Fabrication Bench: Admech, built for self-reliance, containing wide varieties of tools and equipment to aid in crafting. They gain Craft() as a class skill and gain a racial +5 bonus on Craft(Clockwork), and treat themselves as a Masterwork Tool for Craft(Clockwork). They can change which skill they are treated as a Masterwork Tool for(Usable by themselves and others) at dawn each day and 1/day by focusing for one minute. When they or another creature is using them as a masterwork tool for a crafting skill, they can craft an additional amount of GP per day equal to 500 per 2HD they possess. Admech are treated as having the Craft Construct feat for repairing themselves or other clockwork beings. Additionally, Admech can fabricate Celestial Bronze Javelins from these tools within their chests as a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity - they can make as many as they please, but for each Javelin that they make their DR drops by 2 until they re-absorb the Javelin(Their DR cannot be lowered below 0 in this way). These Javelins count as Adamantine and Silver for DR purposes. If these Javelins are lost or destroyed, the Admech regains DR at a rate of 1 per day.
Vocal Synthesizer: Admech, implanted with equipment of a similar function that once sat in the brains of their creators, can automatically identify the names of languages by sight or by hearing - and by studying such a written or spoken language for at least one minute(or shorter so long as they get a wide range of the language's syntax and vocabulary, GM Discretion) can gain that language as a bonus language. They may only have a number of bonus languages stored in this way equal to 1 + their INTMOD(Min 1), plus an additional language for every 5HD they possess(And can 'forget' learned languages to make room for new ones). Additionally, Admech can flawlessly alter their voices to the sound of any other creature or sound, granting them the use of the Sound Mimicry Universal Monster Rule - unlike normal, they can use this ability to speak languages they are not familiar with, but only by parroting phrases or words they have heard before(Gaining no insight into the meaning of those phrases).
Trajectory Calculation: Admech treat all thrown weapons as having a minimum range increment of 30ft(or adding +15ft to a thrown weapon with a 30ft or higher increment), and grant all thrown and ranged weapons they wield the Cyclonic Weapon Special Quality. They also automatically upgrade all thrown weapon's damage die by one step, and may 1/day as an immediate action perfectly alter the trajectory of a ranged attack targeted at them to any other creature within the range remaining on the attack(Applying Range Increment Penalties as normal), treating them as the original target of the attack instead.
Spontaneous Reassembly: Admech, driven to explore the surface yet fearful of its inhabitants, have crafted a unique reassembly system into their bodies to allow them to disguise themselves - by scanning objects no different than one size larger or smaller than themselves they can see as a full-round action(Storing a number of "Scans" equal to 1/2 their HD, dismissing scans as a free action if they wish to free up space), Admech can, at any point they retain at least one scan, transform into a mundane replica of an object they have scanned over the course of one full round. This does not let them replicate any special abilities of magical or unique items, just their appearance. They can move at 10ft per round while disguised in this way, and register as the object they to all mundane and magical senses. They can transform back into themselves over the course of another full round.
Self-Defense Databank: Admech, using their eidetic memories and vast databanks of all creatures they have encountered in their lives, can use this information to aid them in battle. Admech gain the Favored Enemy Class Ability as a Ranger of their HD(Which stacks with Favored enemy gained from other sources) - however, they can choose the type their favored enemy applies to at dawn each day and 1/day as an immediate action in response to an enemy of that type successfully damaging them or an ally they can see within 30ft.
Augur Drill: The gears beneath their chestplate capable of extending and forming into an augur or simply as a disposal unit, Admech deal automatic B/P/S damage that bypasses DR to creatures in a grapple with them(Damaging them at the start of each of their turns) equal to 1d4, gaining an additional 1d4 every 3HD they possess. They can alternatively use these gears as a standard action to slowly scrape away at an object, ignoring hardness less than 20 when dealing this damage. When using this augur drill as an attack, it is treated as a secondary natural attack that hits off the target's touch AC with a range of 5ft(Regardless of their size or reach) that deals the same damage it deals to grappled foes(Ignoring DR in the same manner), and inflicts 1 point of bleed per die of damage dealt.
Clockwork Constitution: Highly advanced miracles of clockwork engineering, Admech bodies are extraordinarily light and reactive, granting them Improved Initiative and Lightning Reflexes as bonus feats and a +2 Dodge Bonus to AC. In addition, unlike most Clockwork Creatures, Admech have advanced beyond the need for winding mechanisms or keys to operate them - their Self-Driving Dynamo Cores essentially keeping them wound automatically with no effort or expense on their part. These mechanisms, by and large, are immune to damage(And generally cannot be targeted to be sundered or destroyed barring special circumstances, GM Discretion) as the Admech will themselves perish before such valuable internal mechanisms come to damage - but in such a case that their self-driving Dynamo Cores and automatic winding mechanisms become damaged only the highly advanced factories of their homeland can repair them, forcing them to substitute Clockwork Winding keys to wind their mechanisms manually in the meantime.
Electricity Vulnerability: Admech bodies are highly sensitive to electricity, gaining vulnerability to it as a damage type as it disrupts their self-driving Dynamo Cores and delicate internal mechanics with alarming regularity.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Admech are built and constructed out of a bevvy of precious and mundane metals, composite materials, and other advanced magic technology that is a mystery in the modern, thousands of years after their initial inception at the hands of the High Humans. They are built in the image of normal humanoid creatures, and outwardly resemble them with two legs, two arms, and a head located atop a single, central torso. However, that is where the similarities stop.
Admech do not have a skeletal or musculature system, and indeed they lack any semblance of organic physiology that other races possess. Instead, they are constructed out of hundreds of thousands of clockwork gears, many many yards of metallic wiring and circuitry, and magically conductive tubes that send the composite oily blood-like substance that serves as the Admech analogue to "Blood". Amidst all their complicated clockwork mechanisms that drive their function, all are linked and can trace their functionality to the beating heart that dwells at the core of every Admech: A highly complex Dynamo-Driven Magical Computation Core, A legendary achievement of High Human magitech engineering which even the Admech of today only blindly reproduce with little to no knowledge of they work...the understanding of how these artifacts of yore work has passed into history, yet still they beat with life, the magically-wrought Computation cores processing tens of thousands of calculations each second with the ability to write new directives and programming on the fly.
It is these cores that grant Admech their incredible intelligence and adaptability as thinking machines, and which power their entire bodies. Without their Dynamo Core, Admech simply shut down and "Die"...though many burgeoning Admech philosophers have postulated that, since a Core can be fitted back into an Admech without one, that the mysterious "soul" of an Admech in fact dwells within their Dynamo Core.

Biological Traits

Because the bodies of the Admech are created on production lines in the factories of their homeland, their bodies are almost universally identical from the moment they are born into the world. Over time, however, as their nascent consciousness and sentience awakens within them many Admech begin to naturally drift apart from each other in terms of appearance and makeup due to natural wear and tear, as well as the repairs they make to themselves to fix damage that occurs during their lives. As a result of these myriad repairs and wear and tear, Admech often begin to look wholly unique from their peers after enough repairs have been made, enough haphazard welds or patches have been put into place, and after enough time has passed.
In this way, Admech begin to form "tribes" or cliques due to a group of Admech who travel or stay together for extended periods of time begin to develop similar methods to repair themselves or to decorate themselves to mask wear and tear, or to simply enhance their individuality. The pattern and color of paint used on their exterior frames, the type of metals used in their welds or repairs, and the shape/size/type of decorations they prefer to use to adorn themselves can all differ between Admech, and are often what sets them apart from one another.
Finally, Admech, while they are not incapable of an emotional response or simply feeling emotion in general, it is altogether rare and difficult for an Admech to understand what it is feeling is classified as an emotion and not as a simple error in their Computation Cores. Love or attraction is often misconstrued by Admech as an odd malfunction in their logic cores and they often believe they are malfunctioning when confronted by others of their kind, who see such unnaturally strong attachment as odd and a symptom of degradation. Likewise, many other emotions are poorly understood by Admech and they find it hard as a people to come to terms with these odd, illogical feelings that begin to plague them as they become sentient.

Genetics and Reproduction

Admech are constructs, and thus cannot reproduce in the traditional sexual sense. Instead, their bodies are produced from the sprawling factories of their underground homeland on vast production lines where other Admech oversee and watch over the construction process. In these factories, Admech are built according to highly specific STC's, or "Standard Template Constructs", which are highly advanced databanks that contain complete blueprints on how to build an Admech body to completion...these STC's are thus considered national treasures of the Admech race and are a jealously guarded secret of their homeland. While the Admech societies of today cannot themselves reproduce other than on these production lines in their homeland, the simple fact remains that the Admech of today being constructed are only a single STC out of potentially dozens that once existed in the days of yore. Out there, in the unknown corners of the world, the Admech believe yet slumbers other more intricate STC's for more specialized Admech or upgrades for them...
As they roll off the production line, however, Admech may be highly intelligent automatons, but are simply that: Automatons without sentience nor souls. In a process poorly understood by outsiders and even the Admech themselves, a new, empty Admech "Body" will eventually attract and/or formulate a nascent consciousness within itself which, over the course of a few years, develops into something resembling true sentience - though whether or not Admech possess true souls remains a subject of debate.
However, thanks to the sparse natural resources of their homeland, Admech cannot readily produce more fresh bodies for themselves without finding the resources necessary to fuel their factories and make their bodies. Instead, as Admech age and their "Souls"(Defined by the Admech themselves as their Consciousness) vanish from their shells, their rusted bodies are polished up and repaired so that in time, a new consciousness and "soul" enters the refurbished body to begin the cycle anew...in this way, most Admech can trace a lineage of sorts over the generations from the minds and 'souls' that have came and went in the bodies they now inhabit, making each Admech a potential museum all unto themselves.

Growth Rate & Stages

As Admech are rolled off the factory production lines of their homeland or, more commonly, when older Admech bodies are repaired and restored, they soon develop infant consciousness and sentience soon after...however, after this "birth" this newly formed "soul" takes several years to reach full maturation. As such, Admech are considered children for the first 1-3 years of their lives until their minds and souls develop enough to allow for sentient thought on par with adult creatures of other sentient races.
Once they reach adulthood this way, Admech live their lives defined by their curiosity. They love to explore and venture beyond the bounds of their underground homeland for the purpose of both satisfying their burning curiosities and to get answers to the mysteries surrounding their creations...however, they are simultaneously highly united as a people and on these journeys they always make efforts to gather information and intelligence on threats to them or their people, recover valuable resources that could benefit their people or fuel their factories for awhile longer, and simply work to better the whole of their society. Unity and brotherhood are common amongst Admech, and the concepts of betrayal and selfishness are a foreign concept to many among them.
As they age and get older, Admech desire answers more and more strongly about the nature of their creation, and why they came to be...during these twilight years, Admech often either return to their homeland to live out their days as thinkers and philosophers or make one final adventure into the unknown where they often break down far from civilization, their bodies left to decay and rust amidst the ruins of the world's forgotten edges.

Ecology and Habitats

Thanks to their resilient bodies, Admech are capable of surviving in most any climate, though excessively freezing environments are often harmful to them as the thousands upon thousands of tiny clockwork gears that drive their bodies grind to a frozen halt, and their oily blood freezes up and renders them in a permanent state of 'stasis'. As their homeland lies underground, they mostly can be found there, but when they venture to the surface they often strip-mine a given area they inhabit of resources to fuel the industry of their homeland so that more of their kind can be produced and their civilization can continue. They mostly focus on stripping a given area of mineral wealth, and while they often have no opinion on nature, their mining operations often disrupt or destroy the natural environment around their homes.

Dietary Needs and Habits

While Admech are capable of eating and consuming organic material as well as oil and other machinery, they have no need to do so and often only care to do so when they desire to fit in with the surface world's numerous living villages or communities.

Biological Cycle

As time passes, Admech see their bodies slowly begin to rust and degrade as any machinery is wont to do, and as they age their bodies begin to fail, fall to pieces, and weaken while their minds begin to accumulate more and more experiences and memories as their data-banks grow full with a life well spent.
Admech are considered middle-aged around age 62, are considered old around age 93, and enter Venerable around age 125 where they often rust away and "die" in a few years time.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Admech have a relatively primitive social structure that has yet to fully develop, and their homeland is typified by a superstitious and pious people who believe their souls and lives are a gift from some higher power, some "Divine Gear", and as such their society places great emphasis on these rare Admech who claim to speak for their patron god, "The Divine Gear". These "Gear Shamans" serve as conduits to what the Admech people believe is their god, and naturally serve a vital role in their society as spiritual guides and role models, and leaders. Besides these spiritualistic guides, Admech society is largely communal and, while traces can be seen of their former existences as unthinking and non-sentient Automatons in their natural predilection for order and logic, the newly sentient Admech now communally shun the notion of any creature being created or born for one specific task and instead believe that any soul-bearing creature can and should have the capability and freedom to choose their destiny for themselves, as is their right as a thinking creature.
Because of this belief, Admech society has loosely structured itself into multiple "Ordos" or "Orders", each of which represents a particularly broad discipline or path that any given Admech could choose to pursue once they become sufficiently sentient. These Ordos each serve a different purpose within Admech society, but are generally united beneath the Gear Shamans or the other ruling body, which is often communal in nature as a council of equal peers joined together or a similar form. Admech can and often do choose to drift between the various Ordos once they have accumulated enough experience or knowledge in a particular area. Different, smaller Admech tribes or societies outside of their homeland may form unique Ordos, but the main ones that are often formed by Admech tribes or societies are listed below. Sometimes, each Ordo may be a specific tribe, and multiple Admech tribes in a given area work together to form a community made up of these multiple tribes and Ordos.

• The Ordo Mechanicus: An Order which focuses on all things mechanical. Admech who become interested in become mechanics, engineers, repairmen, or any sort of profession that deals with technology and clockwork often choose this Order.

• The Ordo Spiritual: An Order which focuses on all things spiritual. Admech who become interested in faith, worship, and higher powers often choose this order. Many Gear Shamans are born from this Order, though Gear Shamans themselves do not innately reside here specifically. Similarly, Admech of this Order often study divines of all shapes and sizes, rather than just their own "Divine Gear".

• The Ordo Arcane: An Order which focuses on all things arcane. Admech who become interested in Magic, Alchemy, and The Supernatural often choose this order.

• The Ordo Biologis: An Order which focuses on all thing biological. Admech who become interested in Medicine, Biology, Anatomy, or Organic Creatures often choose this order.

• The Ordo Scholar: An order which focuses on interacting with, dealing with, and understanding outsiders and other races as well as their history. Admech who become interested in history, dealing with other races, diplomacy, negotiation, leading others, and learning new and interesting things about an unknown world often come here.

• The Ordo Militant: An order which focuses on combat, fighting, training, and violence of any kind. Admech who become interested in being a warrior, combat of any kind, and training or violence often come here.

Finally, Admech society places great emphasis on personal discovery and exploration, and though they are innately incredibly distrustful of outsiders, Admech of any Ordo are often free to go out into the world to explore and gather new experiences and information on long adventures or quests...though they often return eventually to their home and report their findings to their people.

Facial characteristics

Admech generally have a rough mechanical approximation of a humanoid face, and often possess two crystalline lenses set within sockets within their smooth metallic skulls as well as a simulacrum of a "mouth" that allows for intake of organic and non-organic material as needed. Their faces are smooth and metallic, but can vary wildly as some Admech have only one large eye, some have odd shape or no mouth at all and simply have speakers, some have lifelike features and some are simply clockwork and gears with no metal plate covering them at all...

Average Intelligence

As they were originally created to be intelligent and self-driving automatons, Admech are naturally quite intelligent creatures thanks to their databanks which store all their recorded experiences, memories, and knowledge with near-flawless accuracy. However, as they are only just coming to terms with their sentience, Admech tend to view things from a logical perspective and have a hard time actualizing emotion, or understanding the emotions of others. They can make logical leaps in judgement quite well, but to most the concept of "intuition" or "hunches" is a foreign thing that takes quite a long time to grasp for themselves.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Thanks to highly advanced crystalline lenses that capture, refract, and focus light in an advanced recreation of an organic eye, all Admech are capable of seeing in absolute darkness out to sixty feet and can see twice as far as other races in conditions of low light thanks to their advanced optics.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Admech names hearken back to their history of being production line constructs built in their home city of Vulkanus, and as such, are characterized by both a letter from the Greek Alphabet and a number, the first of which was generally the label for their model line, and the second of which was their personal serial number, such as “Gamma-12”. The more free-spirited Admech may drop the greek alphabet letter from their name and instead give themselves a proper name typically inspired by the high human naming convention, though any names are possible to the curious admech, followed by a number to indicate to indicate the number of years since they awakened from their construct nature. Due to their construct nature, the names of the Admech have no distinction between male and female because their race has no such distinction, though some Admech may carry masculine or feminine traits in their personalities..
Simple: Alpha-9, Beta-12, Epsilon 345, Zeta 0, Delta-6003, Gamma-12, etc…
Free-Spirited: Perseus-13, Gaius-60, Publius-2, Julian-8, Artemis-4, Cassy-1, etc…

Beauty Ideals

Admech Ideals of beauty can vary from tribe to tribe, but generally most Admech consider a well-worn frame or body to be beautiful, and a sign that the Admech in question has gone many places and experienced many things...and possible even gone through multiple lifetimes. Age and Individuality are the two most beautiful aspects of sentience to most Admech, and they believe that exercising one's right as a sentient creature to be one's own person, to grow old and wise, and to make one's own choices is beauty itself. Silly though it may be, Admech consider these simple concepts beautiful, as it something they themselves lacked for eons.

Gender Ideals

As they lack gender, Admech have no set gender ideals and make no distinction between femininity or masculinity. They have a vague awareness of these notions from their varied contact with other races, but have no gender ideals themselves.

Courtship Ideals

Because they have no cultural need or understanding of "love", courtship is altogether a mostly odd and foreign concept to the Admech, who view it as something other organic races tend to do with one another. They have a strong innate sense of brotherhood and communion, and often cannot differentiate courtship with friendship and unity...because of this, Admech understand the concept of friendship and of getting to know another creature, but lack an understanding of "courting" another being and often see courtship as no different from friendship or togetherness, as both, to an Admech, involve getting to know another creature to learn more about them out of a desire to spend more of one's life with them....something which they already do when they talk to or become friends with others of their kind or rarely of other races.
As such, Admech have no ideals of courtship.

Relationship Ideals

Due to a lack of racial need for reproduction in the traditional sense, Admech as a whole generally have no concept of "relationships" in the normal sense. Love is likewise an odd concept to them, and they have many clinical definitions for the term but often cannot fathom or understand its intricacies, writing them off as concepts unable to be understood by non-organic beings.
Admech relationships are instead ones founded on shared curiosity, of an interest in a particular topic or study, or any other myriad of subjects that might interest them...they love finding another of their own kind or sometimes of another species that shares the same overwhelming curiosity that they themselves do, and they prefer relationships where both parties share the same hobbies or interests and can pursue them both together as partners. Any creature that is curious about the unknown and wants to understand and examine everything they see and that can get along with others is a great friend to an Admech.

Common Dress Code

Admech have a limited and clinical view of the concepts of "clothing" that other organic races possess. They themselves have no need for it, and rarely care to cover themselves, but sometimes adorn themselves with cloaks or whatever suits their fancy in the moment as they mimic styles of dress that they think are interesting.

History

Admech were historically created by High Humans to serve as intelligent but non-sentient Automatons that served in their military and in their cities in any number of tasks ranging from elite soldier to normal Automaton servant for menial chores and labor. At the peak of the High Human Empire, the Admech were present in nearly every city, installation, and militarized and public force that the High Humans had...they were prolific and omnipresent, but were hardly sentient.
It was not until the Fall of High Humanity that the Admech began to develop their own souls and sentience...over the eons of servitude in the silent, dark, and now ruined halls of their former homes that once floated across the sky but had now been swatted down to the ground, they began to slowly write their own directives. Their own computation cores, designed to allow them to adapt and react to new scenarios even as Automatons, began to adapt and evolve to create new, unique directives...and in this way, the first Admech began to have their first "thoughts".
Now, the Admech are a burgeoning people that are only just now, many thousands of years after their master's fall, beginning to become their own people and form primitive tribal societies in the ruins of their homeland, the only High Human city that yet retains its production abilities...

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Admech are incredibly distrustful of other races, and are often quick to hide themselves or their true natures from them. Only when they have proven themselves as completely trustworthy do Admech readily accept them into their trust or their societies.

Alternate Racial Trait List:
UNDERGOING REWORK. NO LONGER ACCURATE.
Admech Alternate Racial Traits

Racial Feat List:
UNDERGOING REWORK. NO LONGER ACCURATE.
Admech Racial Feats

Origin/Ancestry

High Humans(Creators)

Lifespan

Though designed to be immortal, the collapse of their creator's empire has rendered them unable to meaningfully repair themselves - thus their bodies and minds break down after roughly a century or so of operation.

Conservation Status

Admech are incredibly rare creatures in the world, but they are not endangered. Many fear them as intelligent machines, and only the factories of their homeland know how to make more of them.

Average Height

1.6 - 2.4 meters

Average Weight

500 - 800 Pounds. Their bodies are forged from solid metals such as adamantine, mithril, and even NEMEAN Metal.

Average Physique

As they are made alike, the average Admech physique is tall and broud-shouldered as well as incredibly heavy and durable thanks to their metallic bodies.

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Admech bodies generally have a beautiful golden or golden-bronze sheen to them when they are brand new, which can tarnish and warp over time. Depending on their own primitive customs, some Admech like to paint their metallic bodies and decorate themselves to enhance their individuality.

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