Robot, Evaluator RobotWith wings and an unearthly glow, this mechanical being could easily be mistaken for an angel.Evaluator Robot CR 12Source Pathfinder #90: The Divinity Drive pg. 90
XP 19,200
N Medium construct (robot)
Init +9; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, superior optics; Perception +18DefenseAC 27, touch 15, flat-footed 22 (+5 Dex, +12 natural)
hp 158 (16d10+20 plus 50 hp force field)
Fort +5, Ref +10, Will +10
Defensive Abilities hardness 10; Immune construct traitsOffenseSpeed 50 ft., fly 120 ft. (perfect)
Melee bastard sword +22/+17/+12/+7 (1d10+6/19–20 plus stun) or 2 slams +22 (1d4+6 plus stun)
Ranged integrated laser rifle +21 ranged touch (4d6 fire)
Special Attacks memory wipe, stun (DC 19, 1d4 rounds)StatisticsStr 22, Dex 21, Con —, Int 12, Wis 17, Cha 1
Base Atk +16; CMB +22; CMD 37
Feats Blind-Fight, Cleave, Flyby Attack, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Sense Motive), Vital Strike
Skills Fly +17, Knowledge (local) +12, Perception +18, Sense Motive +25, Stealth +10
Languages Androffan, Common; process languagesEcologyEnvironment any (Numeria)
Organization solitary
Treasure noneSpecial AbilitiesForce Field (Ex) An evaluator robot is sheathed in a thin layer of shimmering energy that grants it 50 bonus hit points. All damage dealt to an evaluator robot with an active force field is deducted from these hit points first. As long as the force field is active, the evaluator robot is immune to critical hits. An evaluator robot’s force field has fast healing 10, but once these hit points are reduced to 0, the force field shuts down and does not reactivate for 24 hours.
Integrated Laser Rifle (Ex) An evaluator robot has a built-in laser rifle. This weapon has a range of 150 feet and deals 4d6 points of fire damage on a hit. The weapon can fire once per round as a ranged touch attack. A laser attack can pass through force fields and force effects, such as a wall of force, to strike a foe beyond without damaging that field. Objects like glass or other transparent barriers don’t provide cover from lasers, but unlike force barriers, a transparent physical barrier still takes damage when a laser passes through it. Invisible creatures and objects are immune to damage from lasers. Fog, smoke, and other clouds provide cover in addition to concealment from laser attacks. Darkness (magical or otherwise) has no effect on lasers other than providing concealment.
Memory Wipe (Ex) As a standard action, an evaluator robot can make a touch attack that, if it hits, injects nanites into a target and erases the last 12 hours of its memories. A successful DC 19 Will save negates this effect. This is a mind-affecting effect, and the save DC is Intelligence-based.
Process Languages (Ex) Exceptional processing and data stores allows an evaluator robot to parse language in a way that lets it permanently speak and understand any spoken or written language it observes for at least 1 minute.
Stun (Ex) An evaluator robot’s melee attacks deliver a nonlethal jolt of electricity with each strike. If the robot strikes a creature twice in one round with its bastard sword or slam attack, that target must succeed at a DC 19 Fortitude save or be stunned for 1d4 rounds. The save DC is Intelligence-based.
Superior Optics (Ex) An evaluator robot can see invisible creatures or objects as if they were visible.DescriptionAndroffans, the race responsible for the presence of robots on Golarion, were a spacefaring people who visited dozens of worlds. Masters of engineering, they created robots that could perform a wide array of tasks, even trusting their creations to perform complex surgeries on the Androffans’ own organic forms. In the course of their interplanetary explorations, the Androffans quickly learned that not every world was ready to comprehend the awesome experience of leaving one’s home planet to visit others. Not wanting to risk valuable crew members, the Androffans created evaluator robots as an alternative to sending a shuttle mission to alien planets and interacting in person. When sensors aboard Androffan ships orbiting foreign worlds discovered other humanoid species, evaluator robots would be dispatched to assess the planets’ alien cultures.
Taking forms designed to be recognizable to a planet’s general populace, evaluator robots would drop from orbiting surveillance ships onto alien worlds to collect data so that their masters could determine the readiness of the planets’ inhabitants to accept the existence of creatures from other worlds. Androffans also used evaluator robots to determine how violent or superstitious the indigenous populations were so that they could carefully plan direct contact. Evaluator robots were fashioned into pleasing and majestic forms to command respect and admiration from the humanoids they interacted with, and were usually made slightly taller than the planet’s primary race so as to seem properly impressive. These robots’ advanced construction utilizes sophisticated lightweight materials, making their durable frames weigh in under 400 pounds. The model presented here is the most common design—a radiant humanoid angel with gleaming feathers of brushed metal.DesignThe engineers who designed evaluator robots created each one to serve specific purposes tailored to the world it was intended to observe. These thematic designs were tested through trial and error by the evaluators themselves, who paid close attention to the religions encountered on each planet. They discovered that reverence for angelic beings was common on many worlds populated by sentient humanoids, so the engineers built the majority of evaluator robots in this form.
Although some evaluators were designed for use on worlds that used advanced technology, evaluators were rarely used to observe cultures that had already reached space on their own or that were otherwise accustomed to dealing with beings from other worlds. In some cases, Androffan engineers designed evaluator robots to mimic the form of beings iconic to the populace, gathering information about these individuals from intercepted communication signals. This was often judged too risky, however, as it was found that cultures rarely responded well to the eventual revelation that their resurrected heroes and messiahs were actually alien robots.
Even though redesigning an evaluator robot’s outward form was simple, their complex programming required a vast amount of collected data. If the robot couldn’t reply in a convincing manner, or if its memory-modifying nanites took no hold on the alien humanoids it encountered, then the evaluator’s mission was quickly compromised. The robot’s creators then had to hope that the interaction would be interpreted as a fluke supernatural experience, or that the witness would be disbelieved and derided by its community.
Evaluator robots are universally curious, their programming filling them with an endless need to learn about living creatures. These robots take every opportunity to ask questions of intelligent organic life forms, especially humanoids. An evaluator robot compares these answers to profiles of existing cultures, either installed when it was created or assembled from previous interactions. Complex algorithms capable of parsing the nuances of myriad humanoid societies allow the robot to quickly evaluate and categorize the nature of a particular society using these hundreds or thousands of profiles. Once an evaluator has thoroughly assessed a planet’s cultures, its Androffan masters use this information to plan a landing expedition to make direct contact.Habitat & SocietyAs robots, evaluators have no society outside of their programming, and their habitat is wherever they happen to be deployed. In the Inner Sea region, nearly all evaluator robots encountered to date have been found in Silver Mount.
Since they were designed to interact with sentient organic beings, evaluator robots don’t regularly associate with other robots unless tasked with a project requiring such interaction, and instead keep the company of humanoids (though their cold robotic presence isn’t always comforting).
Crafts that split from Divinity during its crash and fell to other parts of Numeria contained two other known evaluator robots. A tribe of Ghost Wolves destroyed one of these evaluators—designed to resemble a horned, red-skinned fiend—when it appeared before the Kellid barbarians in the Sellen Hills. The robot fought with wicked claws, and after it was destroyed, it exploded in a blast that killed dozens of the barbarians. The other evaluator, reportedly appearing as a six-armed, three-faced woman with bronze skin, was spotted briefly by griffon riders at Castle Urion before it headed south into the River Kingdoms, and hasn’t been seen since.Creatures in "Robot" CategorySource Inner Sea Bestiary pg. 42
Products of technology advanced far beyond even those of the gunsmiths of Alkenstar, robots represent constructs animated by engineering and advanced science rather than magic. The people of Golarion think of robots as “automatons” or “metal men”—their proper nomenclature is known to only a few.
The first robots arrived untold years ago, when a ship from beyond the stars smashed into Golarion. The metal vessel entered the atmosphere in a blaze of fire and broke apart, scattering fragments across the plains of Numeria. Over the following centuries, several varieties of robots emerged or were recovered from some of these ruins. A few still follow the alien dictates of their original programming, while others run amok, their directives corrupted or forgotten. Perhaps the best-known robots are the fabled gearsmen, a veritable army of humanoid robots found stored and awaiting orders in a massive hold in Silver Mount.
The means of commanding robots vary from model to model, a source of endless frustration for Numerian artificers. Some obey orders from any humanoid, some bond to a specific master until her death, and others yield only to the command of brooches or rods recovered from Silver Mount. Still others submit after mechanical surgery, or not all. A surprisingly large fraction of uncontrolled robots already speak Common or Hallit. Most models exhibit considerable linguistic talents, and the robots train each other in their new home’s languages. Despite comprehending Numerian languages, most robots rarely speak save for terse acknowledgments and orders. The Robot Subtype “Robot” is a special subtype that can be applied to any construct without changing its CR. Robots share some features with clockwork constructs (The Inner Sea World Guide 256), and as with clockworks, you can simply remove the robot subtype and its traits to transform it into a typical construct animated by magic. A construct cannot possess both the robot and the clockwork subtypes. All robots gain the following traits, unless noted otherwise. - Intelligent: Robots are intelligent, and thus have skills and feats as appropriate for their Hit Dice. Unless otherwise indicated for a specific robot, all robots have Intelligence scores of 10. The following are class skills for robots: Climb, Disable Device, Fly, Knowledge (all), Linguistics, Perception, and Sense Motive.
- Vulnerable to Critical Hits: Whenever a robot takes extra damage from a critical hit, it must make a DC 15 Fortitude save to avoid being stunned for 1 round. If it makes a successful saving throw, it is staggered for 1 round. The robot remains immune to other sources of the stunned condition.
- Vulnerable to Electricity: Robots take 150% as much damage as normal from electricity attacks, unless they are immune to electricity via other special defenses.
- Difficult to Create: Robots are crafted via complex methods hidden and well guarded in Numerian ruins or other technological bastions. While the Technic League has developed magical solutions to some of these requirements, actual details on creating robots are beyond the scope of this book.
Numerian Technology Miraculous and deadly treasures lie in wait in Numerian dungeons, and the robots that dwell there often utilize these technological arms and tools themselves. A robot’s weapons and defenses are fueled by its central energy core, and unless otherwise indicated, a robot’s weapons and defenses have infinite ammunition and power.
Force Fields: A force field sheathes a robot in a thin layer of shimmering energy that grants a number of bonus hit points that varies according to the robot (typically 5 × the robot’s CR). All damage dealt to a robot with an active force field is reduced from these hit points first. As long as the force field is active, the robot is immune to critical hits. A force field has fast healing equal to the robot’s CR, but once its hit points are reduced to 0, the force field shuts down and does not reactivate for 24 hours.
Integrated Weaponry: A robot that has a technological weapon (such as a laser rifle or chain gun) built into its body treats such weapons as natural attacks and not manufactured weapons attacks, and cannot make iterative attacks with these weapons. Integrated weaponry can still be targeted by effects that target manufactured weapons (such as magic weapon spells or sunder attempts), but as a general rule cannot be harvested for use outside of the robot’s body once the robot is destroyed. A robot is always proficient with its integrated weapons. Integrated ranged weapons do not provoke attacks of opportunity when fired in melee combat.
Laser Weapons: These weapons emit beams of intensely focused light waves that resolve as touch attacks and deal fire damage. A laser can pass through force fields and force effects like a wall of force without damaging that field to strike a foe beyond. Objects like glass or other transparent barriers do not provide cover from lasers (but unlike force barriers, glass still takes damage from a laser strike passing through it). Invisible creatures are immune to damage caused by a laser weapon. Fog, smoke, and other clouds provide cover in addition to concealment from laser attacks.
Plasma Weapons: These weapons emit bursts of superheated, electrically charged gas known as plasma. A plasma weapon’s attacks resolve as touch attacks. Half the damage dealt by plasma is fire damage, and half is electricity damage.Source Bestiary 5 pg. 205
Products of advanced scientific technology, the constructs called robots are animated by engineering and advanced science rather than magic. Most people refer to robots as “automatons” or “metal men”; their proper nomenclature is known to only a few. Unlike most constructs, robots are capable of independent thought. However, they still must obey the programming instilled in them at their creation. Any robot whose creator hard-coded limitations into its programming can never be truly autonomous.
Robots almost always arise from cultures that possess technology that is leaps and bounds ahead of other civilizations, though sometimes they appear due to cultural diffusion from such a society. A wrecked spacecraft, a portal through time, or a group of robots mass-producing others of their kind could all bring robots into a world. Robots that appear from another place or time might still follow the alien dictates of their original programming, or could run amok, their directives corrupted or forgotten. Whatever the case, these robots possess technology that is beyond the means of almost anyone to reproduce, and they represent a stark contrast to other constructs, as they have nothing to do with magic.
Some spellcasters, despite lacking any real grasp on the technological principles required to create robots, have managed to create their own robots by cobbling together spare parts and broken machines, filling in the gaps and completing the design with a mixture of magic and barely understood fragments of science. These inferior designs usually lack the inexhaustible power supplies, advanced intellects, and self-repair systems found in the original robots, and the magic used in their creation can potentially render them more susceptible to techniques that work against other sorts of constructs.
Robots serve a wide range of purposes, from warfare and defense to peaceful tasks like excavation, farming, and maintenance. Small villages that find robots and somehow manage to command them will often put them to work quietly tending fields or constructing buildings all day long. Armies and warlords collect the more dangerous varieties of robots, but even the more ordinary varieties can be deadly. Most robots sport alloyed skin as hard as steel, meaning that even the lowliest worker robot presents a potent threat when altered for battle. Furthermore, since most cultures lack a means to reliably repair or understand how to command robots, even the most benign one might malfunction, or even reach a point in its programming where it changes its activity and refuses to follow orders, leading to untold death and destruction among the its former temporary masters.
The means of commanding robots vary from model to model, which can be a source of endless frustration for any who seek to control them. Some obey orders from any humanoid, some bond to a specific master until her death, and others only yield to the command of technological brooches or control rods. Still others submit after mechanical surgery or rebuilding, or not at all. Many must be given extremely precise instructions, for they are unable to process metaphors or other figures of speech, and may interpret them in unanticipated ways, much to the chagrin of those who would command them. A surprisingly large proportion of uncontrolled robots already speak Common, as most models exhibit considerable linguistics talent, and the robots train each other in their new home’s languages. Though they comprehend language, most robots rarely speak save for terse acknowledgements of orders. Their speech typically excludes words they deem unnecessary with their mechanical efficiency, leading to strange disjointed statements that convey the requisite information without emotion, although some robots programmed to interact well with humans are able to speak in a more fluid and less disconcerting manner.
Constructing a robot requires no magic, but does involve advanced and extraordinarily rare materials and technological expertise. Because almost no one possesses the skills and materials to complete the process of constructing a robot, these entries omit the construction sections provided for most constructs. A GM can add the robot subtype to a different type of construct, such as an animated object or homunculus, to create new types of robots. Typically, this doesn’t alter the construct’s CR. A character can’t create a robot from or add the robot subtype to a construct that has already been created; adding the robot subtype to an existing creature is purely a means for the GM to simulate additional robots beyond those provided here.
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