RSS RSS Facebook Twitter Email
Kobold Press / Pathfinder RPG / Races

Advanced Races #3: Gearforged (PFRPG) PDF

4.00/5 (based on 1 rating)
OPDAR3E

Our Price: $4.99

Add to Cart
Facebook Twitter Email

Woe to the traveler who treats one of the Gearforged as a mindless automaton!

The gearforged are living constructs: metal forms with mortal souls. Originally created to fight as powerful soldiers, the gearforged must now find their own paths. Some seek knowledge, others divine contemplation. And some seek adventure!

Advanced Races: Gearforged gives you everything you need to play as a gearforged PC in any setting with clockwork creatures. This 26-page sourcebook includes:

  • 12 gearforged racial traits, and 5 gearforged subtypes including Infernal Machines and the draconic Fangforged
  • 7 archetypes including Faithforged, Lawmaster and Heavy Gauntlet Witch
  • 15 gearforged feats including Aquatic Explorer and Constructs’ Bane
  • New gearforged spells, magic items and equipment
  • New clockwork PC options, skills and regional traits
  • How to create a gearforged! (In the game. We’re still working on real-world applications at Kobold World Headquarters.)
With their ticking hearts and minds of brass and magic, the gearforged are a strange new thing in the world. Show it what yo're made of!

Product Availability

Fulfilled immediately.

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

OPDAR3E

See Also:

Average product rating:

4.00/5 (based on 1 rating)

Sign in to create or edit a product review.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

4/5 —

The third installment in the Advanced Races-series is 26 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/ToC, 1 page SRD and 1 page advertisement, leaving us with 22 pages of content, so let's take a look, shall we?

Now the story of Gearforged has been told by multiple supplements and could be pieced together from various Midgard-themed sources, but herein we have the story well-compiled and much like the spread content, this pdf offers also fluff-wise the easiest way of getting the whole story of the creation of the Gearforged - from Stross-tyranny to the Free City of Zobeck's revolution to how Rava (a mask of Ariadne) and her church have guided and shaped Gearforged society, while also going into details on Gearforged psychology and iconic concepts like memory gears, soul gems and everwound springs as well as Rava's write-up. Also rather awesome would be the schematic insights into the anatomy of Gearforged, marvelously illustrated in gorgeous full color by Mark Smylie.

Of course, this pdf offers a significant array of traits - a total of 12 different racial traits are provided for your perusal: From a 1/day discharge of 1d4 fire/electricity or sonic damage à la burning hands to confusing foes by linking via touch with their minds, these traits...are actually fun! I mean it! They're not too strong, but confer significant bonuses and make for thematically fitting, intriguing additions to characters that may well make the difference between triumph or doom. Only rarely do I see traits I enjoy as much as these, so kudos! Especially since 5 racial subtypes with assigned traits add also a sense of narrative gravitas to the selection of these traits - I wish more supplements tied story/setting-information that concisely together. And of course, the cool incantation/ritual to turn into a Gearforged is depicted herein as well in all its glory.

But what do Gearforged characters get crunch-wise? Well, they are medium, get +2 to an ability score of their choice, +1 natural armor, suffer no penalty from wearing medium armor, get low-light and darkvision and also the Gearforged traits - these include +4 to saves versus mind-influencing effects, immunity to nonlethal damage, disease, death effects, necromancy effects, poison and sleep as well as exhaustion and fatigue. Furthermore, they automatically stabilize at 0 Hp or less and are not subject to massive damage death. Even upon complete destruction of the base bdy, as long as the memory gears and soul stone are intact, the Gearforged can be recreated. They also don't need to eat, sleep or breathe and may work properly under water for str-score hours - any longer than that immobilizes them unless they have been repaired. Gearforged incur a -2 penalty on swim-checks.

Gearforged cannot heal damage naturally, and even magic only cures the minimum amount of damage. The psionic repair power (nice to see the inclusion!) works normally, though. Gearforged require 4 hours of daily maintenance by themselves - failing to get this period of uninterrupted rest results in cumulative penalties of - 2 to atk, skill-checks, ability-checks and saves and after character level periods sans maintenance, the Gearforged become immobile, requiring outside help to reactivate. They also get +2 to intimidate and Craft (clockworks). All in all, an interesting race - the vast array of immunities is somewhat offset by the impeded healing capabilities of the class - though the question of type remains: While I assume from the fact that they get their own subtype that the Gearforged count as humanoids for the purpose of spells and the like, not as constructs, it would have been nice to have that spelled out properly. Now we also get an array of archetypes, first of which would be the Clockwork Warrior for the Fighter-class: Learning to utilize gears to supplement his/her/its attacks, developing natural claw-attacks and similar tricks in lieu of armor/weapon training. is nice, though we have a formatting glitch here, with one ability's name not properly in bold. The Faithforged are created paladins, who do not get spells, instead focusing on lay on hands (also on gearforged!) and the option to infuse attacks with elemental bonus damage dependant on level instead of mercies and divine grace. As soon as the Faithforged learn to channel they're rather hard to pin down, for their symbol is their own very being. The high-level abilities are also quite unique - kudos for an uncommon, interesting archetype here. The Heavy Gauntlet Witch gets a permanent adamantine gauntlet enhancement to their physical form, enhancing their physical forms with DRs and even fortification. Furthermore, their pain clasp overrides construct immunity and even, in one check, grapple and make paralyzed foes prone and get a reach. An ok archetype, I guess, though it annoys me a bit that it does not specify which abilities the respective powers replace/change - yes, it's a variation of the gauntlet witch archetype from KQ's issue #23, but still - the information should have been in this pdf.

Next up would be the Lawmaster inquisitor - unable to cast [chaotic]-spells, these inquisitors are specialists of intimidation and they make for superb guards, being able to make relatively easy DC 20-perception checks to discern the invisible, ethereal and later even discern the true form of polymorphed creatures and objects. At high level, regeneration and marks of justice as well as a type of imprisonment are added to their arsenal. rather neat! Barbarian gearforged seem like a contradiction in adjecto, but the Quiet Explorer gets a changed rage-quality as well as the ability to retaliate at higher levels, punishing opponents with AoOs. Summoners of the Gearforged race may opt for the path of Salvager - their summoning spells may be restricted, but do add the new scrap beast mini-template to their summons, making them vulnerable to electricity in favor of +2 AC. Also rather interesting, the archetype gets a flying metal sphere weak to electricity (no offsetting the weakness via evolutions!) that can learn to turn into a swarm-form which may later learn to split, throw swarmed foes and as a capstone disarm and destroy items to have the swarm heal itself.

The final new archetype would be the Tinker Alchemist - faster maintenance (only 2 hours, later none at all), exclusive mutagens for Gearforged, bombs automatically enhanced by the breath weapon discovery and may choose energy to be resistant against and even be healed by said energy make up this archetype's arsenal. Among the new items, we get a claw whip, a polish to dazzle foes and a gear buggy vehicle as well as an amulet that may grow spider-like bludgeoning appendages, anti-construct bombs, a kind of battery (to heal and offset maintenance) and finally, bells to interact with destroyed Gearforged.

We also get 16 new feats herein - improved armor, better underwater adaption, counting as both former race and Gearforged, better skill at dismantling constructs, DR/fire, having an integrated masterwork item usable only for you, more beautiful appearance, less penalties for failing to get maintenance, reflexively magnetically disarming foes 3/day, self-repair and even making a limb autonomous 1/day, the feats per se are rather neat - especially the autonomous limb has quite some potential! Speaking of potential, the 5 spells have some cool ideas, but unfortunately, also flaws - take the first spell. It includes this sentence "While encased, use your touch AC for all AC checks." I have no idea what AC-checks are supposed to be. Also: usually, touch AC is worse than regular AC, so why is this an improvement? Per se the spell offers temporary hit points, which is nice, but I still don't get how this one is supposed to work. Dazzling (and int-damaging) foes via bursts at 4th spell level may be nice, but also a bit weak. You can also transform your metal frame into bone, take on inevitable-like aspects or charge your unarmed strikes with electricity damage.

This does include options for non-Gearforged characters as well, though:

Oracles may now opt for the Clockwork and Industry Oracle-mysteries (both of which are AWESOME, the latter allowing you, if you choose to, to wilder in gunslinging!) and the sorceror may now opt for the mechanical sorceror bloodline and we also get information on the Craft (Clockwork)-skill, Disable Device when interacting with clockwork devices and Knowledge (Architecture and Engineering) as well as Use Magic Device. on another note, if you require some inspiration to expand the Craft (Clockwork)-skill, Storm Bunny Studios has a nice supplement out there that could be well used to supplement this pdf. Finally, we get 3 non-Gearforged clockwork-related traits.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, though not perfect - I noticed minor glitches here and there as well as some minor rules ambiguities. Layout adheres to Midgrad's drop-dead gorgeous 2-column full-color standard and the artworks are ridiculously beautiful for this price - James Keegan, Chris McFann and Mark Smylie all did splendid jobs here. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.

The Gearforged have a hard standing with me - I've read MANY construct-races, with varying degrees of being constructy/human-like and just as many solutions for the obvious problems the immunities bring. Now fluff-wise, the Gearforged are my favorite construct-race, but crunch-wise...not so much. I'm not really sold on their balance. Where e.g. Darakhul, who get a similar amount of immunities/benefits have to contend with multiple drawbacks that balance out their powers, Gearforged only get penalties like the maintenance-requirement that can be mitigated and even bought off with significantly less feat-investment than the Darakhul. Furthermore, their immunities are rather significant and the absence of an age, height and WEIGHT-table is unfortunate - I can already see the discussions on whether the gearforged crashes through those ice sheets, branches etc. in my head....

That being said, the options contained herein more often hit the spot than miss it - Designers Wolfgang Baur, Morgan Boehringer, Chris Harris, Adam Roy, Jason Sonia and the mastermind of this pdf Thomas Benton have crafted some rather ingenious pieces of content that should, even for other construct-races, allow for significant amounts of scavenging. Idea-wise, this is definitely a rich, if not perfect offering, a bit on the stronger side balance-wise and with minor glitches here and there, but still a well-worth purchase. Hence, my final verdict will clock in at a solid 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 for the purpose of this platform.

Endzeitgeist out.

Search Thread

Search this Thread:

Webstore Gninja Minion

Now available!

...yes please...

Payday can't come too soon...

Welp, guess I know what I'm getting next time the Lords of Fate allow me to have this thing known as 'cash'.
Silver Crusade
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Just bought, but can't read until my lunch break :-(

I can't wait to do so though :-D
Dark Archive

...and done.
Silver Crusade
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

There are a couple of references like DR 2/Fire or DR 5/Acid.

These abilities don't actually make any sense. From context I think they meant Fire Resistance 5 and Acid Resistance 5. It's a niggling issue but could cause confusion for a new player.

Just wondering why the price is $1 higher for Gearforged than Tieflings and Darakhul? Is this a new price level for Kobold Press Advanced Races line?
2 people marked this as a favorite.
DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:

There are a couple of references like DR 2/Fire or DR 5/Acid.

These abilities don't actually make any sense. From context I think they meant Fire Resistance 5 and Acid Resistance 5. It's a niggling issue but could cause confusion for a new player.

You're exactly correct. That's a dumb mistake on my part. I've started going through it very closely after many months away - hopefully we can fix a few things up soon.

Just dl'd and took a look. As ever, KP brings the beautiful artwork and layout.

Now I'm obviously biased and in favor of the heavy gauntlet witch, but the other archetypes are the...bomb. Absolutely psyched by the Salvager Summoner archetype and its Sphere eidolon!!!!

Great new spells like the Bone Machine!!!

Loved the Tinker Alchemist artwork!!!

Nice work Tom!!!

Thanks Morgan! The archetypes were my favorite part - especially glad to hear you're digging those. I've got some weird half-finished outtakes that may find their way to your inbox for Yggdrasill.

If Heavy Gauntlet Witch were the name of a band I'm fairly sure that I would absolutely love them.
Liberty's Edge
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Oceanshieldwolf wrote:

Just dl'd and took a look. As ever, KP brings the beautiful artwork and layout.

Now I'm obviously biased and in favor of the heavy gauntlet witch, but the other archetypes are the...bomb. Absolutely psyched by the Salvager Summoner archetype and its Sphere eidolon!!!!

Great new spells like the Bone Machine!!!

Loved the Tinker Alchemist artwork!!!

Nice work Tom!!!

I agree, this is a very cool one. I must admit I was not really a fan of the whole 'automated-race, warforged-type race' thing, BUT the more I read through this, the more I found myself thinking "huh, that's pretty cool, actually.' By the time I had really read through this, I'd pretty much come around to thinking I'd love to play a gearforged at some point!

Oh, and Oceanshieldwolf, I agree - the layout IS beautiful ;)
The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge
Oceanshieldwolf wrote:
Just wondering why the price is $1 higher for Gearforged than Tieflings and Darakhul? Is this a new price level for Kobold Press Advanced Races line?

Good question! This is an exception to the usual price for Advanced Races, because the page count is high and the work done to compile and expand the material was more than usual.

The prior two installments just took a lot less work to get published.
Marc Radle wrote:
I must admit I was not really a fan of the whole 'automated-race, warforged-type race' thing, BUT the more I read through this, the more I found myself thinking "huh, that's pretty cool, actually.' By the time I had really read through this, I'd pretty much come around to thinking I'd love to play a gearforged at some point!

Glad it brought you around, Marc! I like to think that my having basically missed warforged entirely (aside from admiring Wayne Reynold's cool depictions of them) was some kind of weird plus on this project.

And I'll third that beautiful layout. It continues to be a total pleasure to page through. Many many thanks for the fantastic work.
Sczarni

I have a quick question are the new Gearforged Stats going to replace the ones in the Midgard Campaign Setting Book. Also do the Gearforged with the new stats lose Con it is not mentioned(unless I missed it).

Sorry, overdue reply here.

Lucas Servideo wrote:
I have a quick question are the new Gearforged Stats going to replace the ones in the Midgard Campaign Setting Book.

I believe the short answer here would be yes, though if you prefer the MCS version then I would totally encourage you to play that one!

Quote:
Also do the Gearforged with the new stats lose Con it is not mentioned(unless I missed it).

Being living constructs of varying mechanical quality, the new book's GF do have a Con score.

The Exchange
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

How Midguard agnostic are they?
The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

The Midgard material is in sidebars and in some specific cultural sections, like the Gear Goddess that is a patron goddess for them in Midgard.

So, you'll find references to Zobeck in the flavor and history, but most of the rules material is not Midgard-specific at all.

Are there any suggestions on how to incorporate them into Golarion campaign?
The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

The Pathfinder compatibility license does not allow any references to Golarion material, and Kobold Press abides by the terms of the license.

That said, there's no reason we can't discuss how to incorporate them into Golarion here on the Paizo boards. The simplest option is to rename them as Numerian automatons (in particular, the gearsmen mentioned in the Inner Sea guide and City of the Fallen Sky) and call it good.

I hope that works for you, but if not, there are other ways to introduce them to Golarion.

Thanks for the ideas, I have always wanted to introduce Warforged to my Pathfinder games, and I will give this a try. I will let you know later how it went. :)
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Wolfgang Baur wrote:

That said, there's no reason we can't discuss how to incorporate them into Golarion here on the Paizo boards. The simplest option is to rename them as Numerian automatons (in particular, the gearsmen mentioned in the Inner Sea guide and City of the Fallen Sky) and call it good.

I hope that works for you, but if not, there are other ways to introduce them to Golarion.

And I think they might depend on where you decide gearforged come from. If you'd like to treat them as truly artificial life, constructs animated by magic and mechanics, then I would second Wolfgang's suggestion above.

On the other hand: in Midgard canon, all gearforged were once truly alive, their minds and souls ported into new mechanical bodies. This is certainly the more complicated option, but easily more interesting in terms of roleplaying and backstory.

Who on Golarion would be doing such a thing and why?

- Numerian automaton/android cults ("one of us...one of us...")
- Karamoss decided to "immortalize" the last of his flesh&blood minions at some point, turning them into the first gearforged. Since his disappearance they hide out in the Red Redoubt, using the souls of captured intruders to slowly increase their numbers.
- Cults dedicated to the worship of the primal inevitables created and became gearforged in an attempt to take on forms with which their lost gods would find favor.
- Maybe gearforged really are "junior inevitables" of some kind, made from mortal souls and fulfilling some role in Axis. Those insufficiently dedicated to order are banished to Golarion for another spin at life and subsequent judgement.

This points at the broader question of the role that you want them to have in your campaign world (and your appetite for Golarion canon-juggling if they are especially numerous and/or commonplace anywhere other than Numenera). Lots of possibilities. Fun stuff.
Liberty's Edge

#2 on the Top Ten Non-Paizo Downloads list this week!
4 people marked this as a favorite.

There is a lot of clockwork in Caer Maga. I would have a "gear-forge" discovered in the tunnels under the city along with some surviving if possibly insane examples from thousands of years in the past. That way you can introduce gearforged into your Golarion campaign and have a resource for making more.

Reviewed first on Endzeitgeist.com, then submitted to Nerdtrek & GMS magazine and posted here and on OBS. Cheers!
The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Thank you for the review, Endzeitgeist!

#4 +#5 are also done, will probably release those after the next fey-day, where Dark Fey will feature.

@Wolfgang Baur,

Thanks for your reply to my question, and I have follow-up: How many racial points are Gearforged worth under the Advance Race Guide race builder rules?
The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

EZG, there's a new version of Dark Fey coming with a moderate-to-large amount of errata included. Just a heads-up.

George, I've asked the designer to weigh in.
George Velez wrote:
Thanks for your reply to my question, and I have follow-up: How many racial points are Gearforged worth under the Advance Race Guide race builder rules?

Apologies for the late reply - Ben McFarland cheerfully schooled me on Race Building, so it's his fine work that I'm sharing here:

Gearforged = 12 RP (in the neighborhood of Aasimar, Darakhul, Drow, Fetchlings, and Tengu):

00RP Humanoid
00RP Medium
00RP Normal Speed
00RP Human Heritage (+2 to one)
00RP Standard Language

Racial Traits
04RP Resistant (twice)
01RP Natural Armor
01RP Craftsman (+2 Craft)
02RP Skill Bonus (Intimitdate)
-2RP Underwater Penalty (Swim and paralysis)
01RP No Sleep unless it helps
-3RP Can't heal naturally
02RP Autostabilize/New Body
-3RP Can't Raise/Resurrect
03RP Immune to Death/Necro Effects
03RP Immune to Sleep/poison/Disease
01RP Low-light Vision
02RP Darkvision

Might be because I'm a little dense, but after reading this (great supplement by the way) I have a few nagging questions that I just can't shake: 1) does the Lay on Hands of a Faithforged heal GF only for the minimum amount?
2) what benefit does a GF receive for having a second soul gem? what happens if one of them is removed?
3) I believe it mentions in the Player's Guide that GF can wear armor but it has to be installed (same price and regular armor). is that still the case?
4) as a GF gets more experienced/older will their noggins have to be altered to make room for more memory gears? maybe put a bag of holding in there or something?
suomynonA wrote:

Might be because I'm a little dense, but after reading this (great supplement by the way) I have a few nagging questions that I just can't shake: 1) does the Lay on Hands of a Faithforged heal GF only for the minimum amount?

2) what benefit does a GF receive for having a second soul gem? what happens if one of them is removed?
3) I believe it mentions in the Player's Guide that GF can wear armor but it has to be installed (same price and regular armor). is that still the case?
4) as a GF gets more experienced/older will their noggins have to be altered to make room for more memory gears? maybe put a bag of holding in there or something?

I know I typed up a response to these questions when they appeared, but must not have actually posted it. Sorry for that - here’s what I think I said last time:

1) I would call this an exception to the minimum healing decree and say that it works as the standard paladin ability, 1d6 / 2 levels.
2) This predates the GF book and I unfortunately can’t speak to the original author’s intentions or provide any kind of canonical answer. That said, perhaps a second soul gem acts as a something of a psychic backup drive, granting the GF a small additional bonus against mind-altering affects or something along those lines. As far as what happens when one is removed? You go after it and have an adventure!
3) Yes!
4) I would call this a non-issue if you don’t feel like worrying about it, though I do love the idea of some antediluvian GF villain in the mold of MODOC or the Leader. (GF aren’t especially old on Midgard, so maybe they’d have to be from the future or something. No biggie.) I love the bag of holding idea and might take it a step further to an entire demiplane. I think that would be pretty cool. I mean, who’s to say Midgard’s Plane of Gears isn’t actually Rava’s brain?

I love this product because it will be very helpful for my ongoing update to the Dragonstar RPG. These guys are very similar to the Soulmechs, making them just hi-tech versions of Gearforged.
Tom Benton wrote:

Gearforged = 12 RP (in the neighborhood of Aasimar, Darakhul, Drow, Fetchlings, and Tengu):

00RP Humanoid

But but but but but they are construct, aren't they? Then that is 20 rp by default.

Community / Forums / Paizo / Product Discussion / Advanced Races #3: Gearforged (PFRPG) PDF All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Product Discussion