Sometimes, a little wacky flavor is necessary to spice up a session. We all know the flavor. The source is never human; for many groups, it's a gnome. The more eclectic, the better! Rogue AIs: Construct Friends and Foes introduces a varied set of construct NPCs with full backstory, motivations, and statblocks should a little clobbering be what the DM ordered.
NPCs included:
Copper Carl and the Mithril Men - A traveling musical group, Copper Carl and the Mithril Men earn money to purchase constructs who want free of their bondage to an organic. Unlike most constructs, Carl and company are charismatic and gregarious, making them an excellent bit of backdrop to an otherwise humdrum town.
Flint and Tinder - Formerly the bodyguards of the elven witch Aurelia, Flint and Tinder now sell themselves out as mercenaries in an effort to acquire the currency needed to pay for a true resurrection spell. (Two guesses what happened to Aurelia.) Flint and Tinder are best used as allies of opportunity, mercenary rivals, or even the hunters should another NPC want the party dead.
The Maker - Formerly one of the favored toys of a great wizard, The Maker is a master fabricator whose settings are stuck to "dagger". Many a small hamlet reports the sudden disappearance of pretty much anything metal lying around town, only to discover a pile of daggers some weeks later. The Maker is best used for giggles or as part of a humorous low level mystery.
Renee Corithas and Mr. Fixit - The dirty secret of an artificer's guild, Renee Corithas is the product of so many broken laws that her very existence is not tolerated back in her homeland. Resurrected by her brother after a terrible accident claimed both her and her father, Renee is forever stuck as a nearly-dead, part-construct, part-undead... thing whose body will never age past twelve years old. Renee is best used as a random ally in the wilderness or as a stalker of the party should she catch wind of them being evil-aligned.
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This pdf is 9 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 7 pages of content, so let’s take a look, shall we?
And we kick off with a rather cool and extensive background story – Copper Carl and the Mithril Men were once commissioned as a band/roadies to accompany one particularly greedy gnomish bard – upon his death, his avaricious, spiteful testament has been rejected by the law, resulting in the intelligent constructs becoming free. Ever since, the brass band – quite literally, has been entertaining the masses as a weird group of entertainers and champions for downtrodden constructs. Both Copper Carl and the Mithril Men are CR 4.
After these weird creatures, we are introduced to Flint and Tinder (both Cr 6) – the two constructs were created as bodyguards for one wizard named Aurelia an when their mistress was murdered, they have refused to yield to new owners, going mercenary to earn enough money to resurrect their mistress and get vengeance versus the nebulous assailants that vanquished their former mistress. Flint also has some VERY cool signature abilities – with metal resulting in fire damage for attackers and missed attacks resulting in plumes of flame as well, whereas Tinder may extinguish fires, be set ablaze and fire off thorns. A VERY cool due that could make for a cool weird buddy cop-vibe – or just fearsome foes…
The Maker is a CR 3 creature, a sphere set to fabricate whatever its now deceased creator desired, is a sphere with 6 arms currently fabricating obsessively daggers – from anything and every metal it can get a hold of. Uncommon and a potential adversary/escort creature to recruit, yet another cool construct with multiple bleed-inducing abilities and massive crafting prowess.
The final duo is creepy indeed – Renee Corithas is a small undead girl, preserved mere hours after death and fitted with a metal prosthetic arm, she may be gruesome and the result of a guild’s failure and lax safety regulations. Renee, contrary to her appearance, is not evil, by the way and neither is the intelligent, welding torch wielding bodyguard-construct bodyguard Mr. Fixit, which may or may not be inhabited by the spirit of one of her relatives.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting re top-notch, I didn’t notice any glitches. Layout adheres to a two-column, b/w-standard with fitting stock art. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.
I’m impressed – uncommon, weird NPCs, each and every one of which comes with one or more unique signature abilities, this pdf is essentially all killer, no filler, offering massive background information on the cool constructs herein. This is one of the best mini-NPC-collections with a great array of creatures that have VERY cool signature abilities, stories and hooks – for a fair price indeed. I’ve seldom seen so many weird, cool creatures in a short pdf - these constructs are strange and unique in their ideas. I nevertheless maintain that this pdf should make for a great addition to the NPC-roster of any DM – and as such, I award a final verdict of 5 stars + seal of approval – congratulations to author Bradley Crouch!
