Metal Heroes: Pregenerated Characters (PFRPG)

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Eight Heroes Ready to Battle through Savage Science to the Stars!

Metal Heroes is our sixth set of 8 ready-to-play pregenerated 1st level characters created specifically to shine in a Metal Gods Adventure Path but ideal for any campaign venturing into the marvelous mash-up of the fantastical and the futuristic! Ideal for use as allies, cohorts, long-running NPCs, or replacement player characters, superstar author Neil Spicer brings you amazingly detailed and lushly developed characters including:

  • Ander Six, android slayer
  • Bersaivius Mendren, human blood arcanist growing his own tumor familiar
  • Drunah Dagur, human bloodrager
  • Falston Katcherby, gnome preservationist alchemist
  • Tavarest Ivaine, oread cleric of the Goddess of Invention
  • Kheldric Lybrien, human steel hound investigator
  • Lyel Vergess, human pistolero gunslinger
  • and last but not least, the clever and conniving Rika Nufhari, ratfolk burglar!

Built according to organized play specifications, using the 20-point-buy method and with scaling notes for 15-point builds, these characters are not just piles of statistics. Each one is as much about story as combat, with robust links built in to each other as well as the official Metal Gods Adventure Path, though every one easily stands on its own in any setting where savage barbarians battle technological terrors. The crunch for every character more than measures up to its incredible flavor text, though, and when it’s time to throw down in combat none of these Metal Heroes will be stepping to the sidelines.

Each character includes a detailed backstory, roleplaying tips, special equipment, and links to the published campaign, including a campaign trait selection from the Metal Gods Adventure Path player’s guide. Each also lists detailed level advancement information for their first few levels, with further suggestions for developing the character's long-term mechanical build. We haven't even mentioned the fantastic character portraits courtesy of Bob Greyvenstein, or the included foldable paper miniatures for every character!

If you are looking for terrific characters where sci-fi meets fantasy, download this 42-page product today and Make Your Game Legendary!

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Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at store@paizo.com.

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An Endzeitgeist.com review

5/5

This collection of pregens is 42 pages long,1 page front cover, 2 pages of editorial, 1 page ToC, 2 pages of introduction, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 33 pages, so let's take a look!

The pregens for the Iron Gods-AP as presented herein are based on a 20-point-buy, with scaling options for the more gritty and lethal 15-point-buy options provided for each of the characters herein. Following the format for the pregens created by Legendary Games, the basic set-up adheres to a pretty concise formula: Each of the characters presented in these pages comes with a one-page full-character rendition in full-color, supplemented by a piece if in-character prose that pertains to the basic outlook of the individual. Beyond the basic statblock for the character, the pregen does provide an excessive array of notes for the background of the character, the personality, advice for further character advancement and yes, roleplaying ideas.

The organization of the pdf adheres to a format of 3 - 4 pages per character, with each being presented in a way that does not overlap with the others. This means that you can just print out the characters and hand them over to the players without having to cut characters apart. While this does result in some blank space, I'm a big fan of the practice since it renders using the pregens easier. Finally, there are fold-up paper-miniatures on the final page, should you like using them - a nice bonus to have!

So what would the characters be? Well, for one, there would be Ander Six - if the uncommon name is no indicator - yes, this would be an android, once enslaved by the Technic League, who has since broken free of their yoke to swear eternal enmity against the technology-using tyrants. Build-wise, he is a slayer and interestingly, his signature katana and proficiency makes sense - the slightly above-average strength of the android-race is thus well-balanced, while, from a narrative perspective, Anders provides ample narrative potential for questions of identity-constituting elements and similar narrative veins.

Bersaivius Mendren would be a blood arcanist who was not supposed to become an adventurer - born to humble origins, when a transport of alien parasites stopped at his home, one escaped, changing the young man forever. Plagued by a strange disease that is rewiring his brain and changing him into something that may no longer be human, his intellect soared as he slowly became entwined with Oturu, his fully-statted tumor familiar - so he wanders, a sickened body wrapped in bandages, looking for means to find the truth about himself and the strange condition and power that has changed the course of his life. The build of Bersaivius is fragile, yet interesting - nothing to complain about.

Drunah Dagur is a savage woman - red-haired and powerful, she not only resonates with the iconic imagery of Red Sonja - her tragic background and vendetta with mechanical beasts also predestine the bloodrager as a powerful foe versus robots and the like: Where Anders is focused more on the humanoid element, Drunah certainly makes for a formidable foe versus the creations of science, especially due to her elemental bloodline.

The gnome Falston Katcherby, an alchemist of the preservationist archetype, certainly could emphasize with the notion of Pokémon - "Gotta catch 'em all!" With well-connected ties, the gnome exhibits the delightfully obsessive and enthusiastic personality that rendered the race interesting for me within the context of Golarion - but beyond that, his passion for the striving for knowledge indeed make him a great scholarly explorer - one that may well go full-blown mad scientist, yes, but that is, ultimately up to the player. Have I mentioned that he actually has a smart rat that follows him and may or may not hold more secrets? Yeah, cool!

Tavarest Ivaine would be not only a cleric of Brigh, she is also an oread on a mission to preach the gospel of her deity, blessed by the expanded perspective her race and calling provide, though also seeming, ultimately, like a bit of an enigma to those among whom she moves. With metal fist and magic stones, she may not be the best front-line fighter, but as support, she does work.

Kheldric Lybrien would be a middle-aged steel hound investigator, an experienced traveler of the wastelands with specific ideas about the metal monuments dotting the wastes; an archeologist by vocation, an adventurer and truth-seeker by calling, his radiant ideology and pure heart seeks to bring justice to the world - though he, like Drunah, has suffered the loss of a spouse, though in Kheldric's case, he may find the truth even worse - still, between the two, there is quite some potential for romantic relationships to be formed - if they can sort out the differences in age and stand up to the loss experienced, thus providing a nice narrative of transcendence.

Lyel Vergess, the pistolero gunslinger, also has a bone to pick with the league - born into money and still opposed to the league's machinations, he has ran afoul of them on more than one occasion. By now, Lyel has had his fortunes take a turn for the worse once again and found himself on the run - only to meet aforementioned android, whom he's been teaching the intricacies and peculiarities of human interaction. While by no means explicitly implied, Lyel and Anders could make for a pretty uncommon relationship, if your group is open to such a constellation. Interesting, btw.: He does the "two-face"-move with a coin - but with a twist. What twist? Well, that I will not tell. ;)

Rikka Nufhari would be a ratfolk burglar rogue, one born into wretched poverty, who has still managed to claw her way to some semblance of prominence, with useful connections and personal ties to Falston, the short-lived ratfolk may have only seen 14 summers, but she is wise beyond her years and ultimately, flames that burn short often also burn the brightest. As a rather versatile character, she also offers some interesting upgrade options at later levels.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, I noticed no significant glitches. Layout adheres to a beautiful two-column full-color standard with superb artworks provided for each and every pregen herein. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience and also provides helpful hyperlinks for all the less common rules-components.

Providing an array of pregens has to generally accomplish more than one task - beyond simply providing a group of NPCs, simply having actual reasons for adventuring, an implicit line of what to do, an ideology, helps indeed. Beyond this component, though, the more challenging aspect would be to ensure that, in spite of class balance and race balance discrepancies, none of them overshadows the others in a given collection -you need to establish a degree of lholistic cohesion and Neil Spicer has here succeeded in this endeavor.

An obvious issue in the case of Iron Gods would also be the temptation of providing technology from the get-go, something the player's guide advises explicitly against. Now if you *do* want technology ASAP, you're covered with a character herein, but no, he does not begin play with it, thus avoiding this pitfall. The android race, represented in a build that does not overshadow his brethren, is also another nice detail that sets these heroes apart, rendering them more fitting for the AP. The discrepancy among their alignments and philosophy are subsumed under the general themes evoked in their backgrounds, so yes, all in all, this is a great collection of pregens and well worth the asking price. My final verdict will clock in at 5 stars + seal of approval - what more can you expect from pregens, after all?

Endzeitgeist out.


The Ferrous Divinity Trail of Interest!

5/5

Legendary continues their quality pre-gen series with Metal Gods. While intended for the similarly named Adventure Path from Paizo, these characters would fit in with any Swords and Circuitry magic meets technology game seamlessly. A diverse lot, ranging from a gnome preservationist alchemist, to a tumor familiar wielding arcanist. Even if you don't play them, I can see these characters inspiring other ideas. Also handy to have for those pesky character deaths, just whip one out, they'd fit into the story just fine. Legendary hasn't put out a product i've regretted buying yet, Game on.


Webstore Gninja Minion

Now available!


I just bought this so hard.

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games

Hope you enjoy!

For all our fans, we'll be uploading a new version shortly to fix a product identity issue; while the CONTENT from the Technology Guide is in the PRD, the NAME of that book is not the allowed list of product names for 3PPs to directly reference. We did (apologies and thanks to Liz for the heads-up), so we'll be removing that reference on page 6. If you've already bought and downloaded it, you can download the new version if you like but that will be the only change.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Who can resist buying a book that's named like a Manowar album!

Liberty's Edge

2 people marked this as a favorite.

My heart is human, my blood is boiling, my brain I.B.M.

Liberty's Edge

I hope this means we'll get some AP plug in adventures for Iron Gods. I've made great use of the ones for Kingmaker and soon will be doing so for Wrath.

RPG Superstar 2009, Contributor

I believe Jason has something in mind (and hence, production) for that. Should be coming up for release soon.

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games

J-Bone wrote:
I hope this means we'll get some AP plug in adventures for Iron Gods. I've made great use of the ones for Kingmaker and soon will be doing so for Wrath.

We've got two in the queue in various stages of completion:

Starfall by Tom Phillips and Mike Welham - a high-level adventure featuring a decaying satellite and alien explorers whose researches have awakened a danger far greater than they knew. Available March 2015.

Scorpions of Perdition by Nic Logue - a low/mid-level adventure focused on strange happenings in a mining colony in the Land of Savage Science infiltrated by mysterious hunters from beyond! Available April 2015.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Jason Nelson wrote:
J-Bone wrote:
I hope this means we'll get some AP plug in adventures for Iron Gods. I've made great use of the ones for Kingmaker and soon will be doing so for Wrath.

We've got two in the queue in various stages of completion:

Starfall by Tom Phillips and Mike Welham - a high-level adventure featuring a decaying satellite and alien explorers whose researches have awakened a danger far greater than they knew. Available March 2015.

Scorpions of Perdition by Nic Logue - a low/mid-level adventure focused on strange happenings in a mining colony in the Land of Savage Science infiltrated by mysterious hunters from beyond! Available April 2015.

Nic Logue and mysterious hunters from beyond? Shut up and take my money! :)

RPG Superstar 2009, Contributor

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Feros wrote:
Nic Logue and mysterious hunters from beyond? Shut up and take my money! :)

And to bring it full circle, what better characters to take through Nic's low- to mid-level romp? Might I suggest some...Metal Heroes, perhaps? ;)

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

Feros wrote:
Jason Nelson wrote:
J-Bone wrote:
I hope this means we'll get some AP plug in adventures for Iron Gods. I've made great use of the ones for Kingmaker and soon will be doing so for Wrath.

We've got two in the queue in various stages of completion:

Starfall by Tom Phillips and Mike Welham - a high-level adventure featuring a decaying satellite and alien explorers whose researches have awakened a danger far greater than they knew. Available March 2015.

Scorpions of Perdition by Nic Logue - a low/mid-level adventure focused on strange happenings in a mining colony in the Land of Savage Science infiltrated by mysterious hunters from beyond! Available April 2015.

Nic Logue and mysterious hunters from beyond? Shut up and take my money! :)

Any updates on these?

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Lord Fyre wrote:
Feros wrote:
Jason Nelson wrote:
J-Bone wrote:
I hope this means we'll get some AP plug in adventures for Iron Gods. I've made great use of the ones for Kingmaker and soon will be doing so for Wrath.

We've got two in the queue in various stages of completion:

Starfall by Tom Phillips and Mike Welham - a high-level adventure featuring a decaying satellite and alien explorers whose researches have awakened a danger far greater than they knew. Available March 2015.

Scorpions of Perdition by Nic Logue - a low/mid-level adventure focused on strange happenings in a mining colony in the Land of Savage Science infiltrated by mysterious hunters from beyond! Available April 2015.

Nic Logue and mysterious hunters from beyond? Shut up and take my money! :)
Any updates on these?

Just chatted with Nick yesterday. He should be turning over maps next week and his manuscript probably in early May. Art for this book is done (and Nick was very enthusiastic about it - really captured his vision).

Talked with Tom and Mike as well, and their target for completion has moved toward around May 1st, so if all goes well we should have both available in time for PaizoCon.

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

Neil Spicer wrote:
I believe Jason has something in mind (and hence, production) for that. Should be coming up for release soon.

Question: Mr. Spicer, since you provided scaling information to go from the 20 build used to a 15 point build, do you have any thoughts on how to scale up to a 25 point build?

Or do you wish to leave that to the purchaser (or better, give the player(s) the opportunity to further customize the heroes)?

RPG Superstar 2009, Contributor

1 person marked this as a favorite.

My preference is to leave that to the purchaser. Research indicates the two most often used point-buy methods rely on basic 15-point or PFS-sanctioned 20-point. Once you go higher than that, you're getting too far outside the Challenge Ratings of the published adventure paths these characters are designed for. If people are going to be taking the time to adjust the encounters for that kind of game, we're going to leave it to them to do the same for the PCs.

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

Jason Nelson wrote:
Lord Fyre wrote:
Feros wrote:
Jason Nelson wrote:
J-Bone wrote:
I hope this means we'll get some AP plug in adventures for Iron Gods. I've made great use of the ones for Kingmaker and soon will be doing so for Wrath.

We've got two in the queue in various stages of completion:

Starfall by Tom Phillips and Mike Welham - a high-level adventure featuring a decaying satellite and alien explorers whose researches have awakened a danger far greater than they knew. Available March 2015.

Scorpions of Perdition by Nic Logue - a low/mid-level adventure focused on strange happenings in a mining colony in the Land of Savage Science infiltrated by mysterious hunters from beyond! Available April 2015.

Nic Logue and mysterious hunters from beyond? Shut up and take my money! :)
Any updates on these?

Just chatted with Nick yesterday. He should be turning over maps next week and his manuscript probably in early May. Art for this book is done (and Nick was very enthusiastic about it - really captured his vision).

Talked with Tom and Mike as well, and their target for completion has moved toward around May 1st, so if all goes well we should have both available in time for PaizoCon.

Did these adventure plug ins just get swallowed by the Planet AP?

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Lord Fyre wrote:
Jason Nelson wrote:
Lord Fyre wrote:
Feros wrote:
Jason Nelson wrote:
J-Bone wrote:
I hope this means we'll get some AP plug in adventures for Iron Gods. I've made great use of the ones for Kingmaker and soon will be doing so for Wrath.

We've got two in the queue in various stages of completion:

Starfall by Tom Phillips and Mike Welham - a high-level adventure featuring a decaying satellite and alien explorers whose researches have awakened a danger far greater than they knew. Available March 2015.

Scorpions of Perdition by Nic Logue - a low/mid-level adventure focused on strange happenings in a mining colony in the Land of Savage Science infiltrated by mysterious hunters from beyond! Available April 2015.

Nic Logue and mysterious hunters from beyond? Shut up and take my money! :)
Any updates on these?

Just chatted with Nick yesterday. He should be turning over maps next week and his manuscript probably in early May. Art for this book is done (and Nick was very enthusiastic about it - really captured his vision).

Talked with Tom and Mike as well, and their target for completion has moved toward around May 1st, so if all goes well we should have both available in time for PaizoCon.

Did these adventure plug ins just get swallowed by the Planet AP?

They didn't. More like swallowed by real life. Nick had a really busy semester at the college where he teaches and couldn't get done what he wanted to do. Tom had a hard drive crash that resulted in a couple of weeks setback on his adventure. Things happen.

Buuuuuuuutttt,

I can tell you that things are moving once again and getting very close to completion. Maps by Michael Tumey are complete for Starfall, Nick's semester is just about over, and some of our other Metal Gods products are coming into clear focus, including one that will be ready to go THIS WEEK (assuming no hang-ups in layout)!


Reviewed first on endzeitgeist.com, then submitted to Nerdtrek and GMS magazine and posted here, on OBS and d20pfsrd.com's shop.

RPG Superstar 2009, RPG Superstar Judgernaut, Contributor

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Thanks for the review, Thilo! These things always lift my spirits, and I definitely needed that given how the intensity and pressure of our current project (i.e., Legendary Planet). I was a;sp curious how much this particular pregen character set might appeal to you. I always try to throw in a few curveball character concepts drawing upon less-used, but still thematically appropriate, options (like Tumor Familiar, etc.). We've also been making it a point to weave in the PDF bookmarks now based on your earlier feedback. So, your reviews have definitely helped us improve the product line. As always, thanks for the time you dedicate to bringing attention to the work of third-party publishers.

::goes back to developing Legendary Planet, which will also receive a set of pregen characters::

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

Other uses and abuses.

My players, quite understandably, decided to make their own heroes.

So, at this point, is there still a good way to use these well developed characters?

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2009, RPG Superstar Judgernaut

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Lord Fyre wrote:
So, at this point, is there still a good way to use these well developed characters?

Sure. You can set aside some of the campaign-specific background elements (and traits) to transform them from PCs to NPCs. Then, you can use them as benefactors/allies or new adversaries, depending on how you want to spin them, level them up, and introduce them in your own encounters. Much of their backstories can remain intact. And, depending on how much your actual PCs interact with them, they'll learn as much or as little as you wind up sharing over the course of the AP. All of them have reasons to be in Torch at the beginning of the campaign, but they could just represent social encounters at that point to give the PCs more NPCs to interact with in the early going.

Good places to introduce them:

Spoiler:

Falston Katcherby makes for a perfect NPC ally in Fires of Creation. He could have worked closely with Khonnir Baine and stand in as Val's guardian while the PCs are trying to find her father. His expertise as an alchemist and preservationist could also provide assistance in analyzing the things they find in the crashed habitat modules belowground.

Rikka Nufhari and Tavarest Ivaine both make excellent NPCs for transitioning to Lords of Rust as they've each got excellent reasons for venturing between Torch and Scrapwall. Rikka could be an adversarial scavenger. And Tavarest could easily take up with the church of Brigh in Scrapwall.

Kheldric Lybrien would likely be using his investigative skills to better understand the technological ruins of Numeria. So, he could easily make an appearance in The Choking Tower either as a rival adventurer or someone who helps the PCs in their exploration.

Drunah Dagur is best encountered somewhere in the wildlands of Numeria. She could easily be an ally to the PCs when they venture into the Valley of the Brain Collectors.

Ander Six and Lyel Vergess could make an appearance in Starfall during the Palace of Fallen Stars. Most likely, they'd be potential allies rather than adversaries, helping the PCs oppose the Technic League.

Bersaivius Mendren could represent a high-level arcanist who's joined the Technic League in order to better research and understand his condition. As a result, he probably makes for a better adversary in The Divinity Drive.

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

Neil Spicer wrote:
Lord Fyre wrote:
So, at this point, is there still a good way to use these well developed characters?

Sure. You can set aside some of the campaign-specific background elements (and traits) to transform them from PCs to NPCs. Then, you can use them as benefactors/allies or new adversaries, depending on how you want to spin them, level them up, and introduce them in your own encounters. Much of their backstories can remain intact. And, depending on how much your actual PCs interact with them, they'll learn as much or as little as you wind up sharing over the course of the AP. All of them have reasons to be in Torch at the beginning of the campaign, but they could just represent social encounters at that point to give the PCs more NPCs to interact with in the early going.

Good places to introduce them:
** spoiler omitted **...

Wonderful.

I might even suggest that such ideas be added to future "heroes" products. :)

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2009, RPG Superstar Judgernaut

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Lord Fyre wrote:


I might even suggest that such ideas be added to future "heroes" products. :)

That would be problematic. We can't refer to any of the actual names from the APs that aren't open content. We use generic names instead, and that would hinder giving specific ways to integrate the characters as NPCs. I'm only pointing out those things here, because it's a speculative messageboard post.

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

Neil Spicer wrote:
Lord Fyre wrote:


I might even suggest that such ideas be added to future "heroes" products. :)
That would be problematic. We can't refer to any of the actual names from the APs that aren't open content. We use generic names instead, and that would hinder giving specific ways to integrate the characters as NPCs. I'm only pointing out those things here, because it's a speculative messageboard post.

That make sense. :(

Scarab Sages Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games

1 person marked this as a favorite.

The next Heroes have been submitted to layout - CRIMSON HEROES approach!

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