Non-human looking androids?

[Dyldor]

As the lore currently stands, is there anything that says androids always look like metal humans? I have a player who might want to play as a catfolk android. At the very least I'll allow my player to flavor her android as "more feline". But could there be Halfling, Trox, Kasatha, etc. androids? What could the mechanical implications be?

[Archmage Variel]

Dyldor wrote:

As the lore currently stands, is there anything that says androids always look like metal humans? I have a player who might want to play as a catfolk android. At the very least I'll allow my player to flavor her android as "more feline". But could there be Halfling, Trox, Kasatha, etc. androids? What could the mechanical implications be?

In pathfinder nonhuman androids can exist if I remember correctly. Not sure about Starfinder.

[Tom Kalbfus]

Sounds like an oxymoron to me. First you want to make android, to distinguish it from a robot, say like C3P0, and then you want to make it look nonhuman? I thought the purpose of having an android was to fool people into thinking it was human.

[David knott 242]

Tom Kalbfus wrote:

Sounds like an oxymoron to me. First you want to make android, to distinguish it from a robot, say like C3P0, and then you want to make it look nonhuman? I thought the purpose of having an android was to fool people into thinking it was human.

That would be the purpose of its human creators. Non-human creators might want to make androids look like their own race -- and independent androids may have their own ideas on the subject.

[Torbyne]

Its easy enough to house rule their appearance and its not likely to raise any eyebrows if the shell superficially resembles some species other than human. I would even expect that the different manufacturers that were making shells before the android rights movement would try to differentiate their product and even individual product lines from their competitors resulting in a very wide spread in shell appearance or closest resembling race, after all the shells made to work in the mines with dwarf consumers would be scaled and aethetically appealing to dwarfs but that shell wouldnt sell nearly as well among the Kasatha customer base.

[Torbyne]

Tom Kalbfus wrote:

Sounds like an oxymoron to me. First you want to make android, to distinguish it from a robot, say like C3P0, and then you want to make it look nonhuman? I thought the purpose of having an android was to fool people into thinking it was human.

While many may wish this there is likely to be just as many against the idea of a "machine" that can readily pass as "real" But for certain applications it would be far more desireable to have them pass, spy work or public relations and such. So justification for some but certainly not all. Perhaps have Pass for X as an alterante race trait or feat?

[Tom Kalbfus]

I think making a nongendered android makes it less of an android and more of a robot. after all R2D2 didn't have a gender, it looked like a dome-topped garbage can with a movie projector sticking out of its rotating dome, it was also a bit of a "Swiss Army Knife" as it had a plethora of tools hidden in secret compartments.

[Torbyne]

Tom Kalbfus wrote:

I think making a nongendered android makes it less of an android and more of a robot. after all R2D2 didn't have a gender, it looked like a dome-topped garbage can with a movie projector sticking out of its rotating dome, it was also a bit of a "Swiss Army Knife" as it had a plethora of tools hidden in secret compartments.

Android certainly provides a starting point for something like this. i wonder if there will be an option to play a Cyborg or more specifically a "full conversion cyborg" that just keeps the bare minimums of the original being and houses them in a completely machine shell.

[Dyldor]

Torbyne wrote:

Android certainly provides a starting point for something like this. i wonder if there will be an option to play a Cyborg or more specifically a "full conversion cyborg" that just keeps the bare minimums of the original being and houses them in a completely machine shell.

It would be cool to implement a "Ghost in the Shell" theme to Absolom Station. Or an option for a high level Hacker Operative to go full cyborg and hack various systems like it's second nature.

[CKent83]

Tom Kalbfus wrote:

...after all R2D2 didn't have a gender...

Actually R2-D2 and C-3PO had male programmed personalities.

[Tom Kalbfus]

How do you know about R2? He just whistles and beeps. The reason I use the pronoun "He" is not because he's male but because He is a character, and the male pronouns are the default pronouns in the English language. Seems to me that a woman could play R2D2 and whistle and beep just as easily as a man could, though C3P0 is played by Anthony Daniels, so you could say that character is male. A silver protocol Droid appeared in Episode I: The Phantom Menace and she was female, if only because of the voice, that one was in the Employ of the Trade Federation.

[captain yesterday]

Androids aren't metal, and while they were created by humans they still have souls and (synthetic) skin and stuff.

[Cthulhudrew]

If it doesn't look human in form, it's not an android by definition (an "An" droid being an anthropoid artificial organism.)

[David knott 242]

I think you mean humanoid rather than strictly human. All you would need to do to make an android resemble a lashunta instead of a human is stick a couple of antennae on their forehead.

[QuidEst]

Cthulhudrew wrote:

If it doesn't look human in form, it's not an android by definition (an "An" droid being an anthropoid artificial organism.)

By one definition, yes. The question is about the game's definition, where androids are a race of constructed sapient beings with souls.

[captain yesterday]

"Who needs a soul when you got money" - Mr Krabs.

[CKent83]

Tom Kalbfus wrote:

How do you know about R2?

Because I know way too much about Star Wars.

[Vutava]

Androids in Pathfinder are synthetic humans originally created by the Androffans, and thus always look human. Robots, on the other hand, can look like just about anything.

[IonutRO]

Vutava wrote:

Androids in Pathfinder are synthetic humans originally created by the Androffans, and thus always look human. Robots, on the other hand, can look like just about anything.

I remember reading somewhere that androids are sometimes non-human looking due to their birthing pods being re-programmable.

[Matthew Shelton]

An android should have little trouble changing its "skinning", going from humanlike to catfolklike or orclike or wolflike or other exotic themes, much like we can change the case of our devices on a whim. It's just clothing to them.

If you want to change an Android's entire body plan, then non-humanoid Androids could benefit a great deal from the rules for Eidolon base forms in the Summoner class.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/summoner/eidolons

Biped (default)

Aquatic (merfolk shape)

Avian (two or four wings)

Quadruped (four legs)

Serpentine (including centipede- and millipede-like shapes)

Tauric (two arms and four legs)

and there could be others if you got creative. Maybe Hexaped (six legs, antlike), Draconic (four limbs and two wings, or two limbs and four wings), Sphere (BB-8), Cylinder (R2-D2 and similar morphology), Tenticular (body with two or more highly articulated limbs, octopus/squid/jellyfish), Decapod (crab), Face (immobile or levitating body, Dr. Theophilus)...

[Matthew Shelton]

I made some changes but couldn't apply the edits...apologies for the double post.

An android should have little trouble changing its "skinning", going from humanlike to catfolklike or orclike or wolflike or other exotic themes, much like we can change the case of our devices on a whim. It's just clothing to them.

If you want to change an Android's entire body plan, then non-humanoid Androids could benefit a great deal from the rules for Eidolon base forms in the Summoner class.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/summoner/eidolons

Biped (default shape)

Ability score adjustments are applied on top of normal racial adjustments.

Aquatic (merfolk shape)
Speed 20 ft., swim 40 ft.; AC biped+2; Attack bite or gore (1d6); Ability Scores unchanged

Avian (two or four wings) [I'm taking some license with the variant fly speeds and maneuverability here]
Speed 30 ft., fly 30 ft. (good) or 40 ft. (poor) or 20 ft. (Perfect); AC +2 natural armor; Attacks 2 fists or claws (1d3); Ability Scores Str -4, Dex +4

Quadruped (four legs)
Speed 40 ft.; AC unchanged; Attack bite or gore (1d6); Ability Scores Str -4, Dex +2

Serpentine (including centipede- and millipede-like shapes) [swim, burrow, and constriction are merely conjecture]
Speed 20 ft., climb 20 ft.; swim 10 ft; burrow 5 ft; AC unchanged; Attack bite (1d6) and tail slap (1d6) and maybe constrict (1d4); Ability Scores Str -4, Dex +4

Tauric (two arms and four legs) [kick and gore attacks are conjectured]
Speed 40 ft.; AC unchanged; Attacks 2 fists or claws (1d4), kick or gore (1d6); Ability Scores Str -2, Dex +2

and there could be others if you got creative. Maybe Hexaped (six legs, antlike), Draconic (four limbs and two wings, or two limbs and four wings), Sphere (BB-8), Cylinder (R2-D2 and similar morphology), Tenticular (body with two or more highly articulated limbs, octopus/squid/jellyfish), Decapod (crab), Face (immobile or levitating body, Dr. Theophilus)...

[Vutava]

Some people don't seem to get that PF androids are far more like the meat-Cylons from Battlestar Galactica than the toaster-Cylons from same. Any alterations to an existing android would be exactly as time- and resource-consuming as performing those alterations on a biological creature. If an android were altered to look like a species other than human, it would be done during the construction process.