Monster Monday - Motocon Loader

The witchwarper squeaked as the operator threw her hand over her mouth and pulled her down beneath a crate. Bright eyes narrowed but before the caster could snap at her companion, she followed the gaze in time to hear thudding, metallic footsteps. Each heavy step echoed over muffled grunts and the pair cautiously peered over their cover to see their mechanic captured in the clutches of a looming machine. The scruffy man desperately pleaded with the unthinking, unfeeling drone as it carried him towards the exit of the vast building. Holding their breaths, the duo watched as forks deployed from the back of the machine. As the machine came to a stop in front of the fence surrounding the compound, it loaded the still-arguing man onto its forks and proceeded to launch him over the fence, his scream fading into the distance as the drone dispassionately watched him disappear.

Motocon Loader, Illustrated by Arturs_Arts

A canny carrier and capable custodian of its confines, this cumbersome construct quickly catapults crooks that creep across its quarters.

I know these aren't the most popular of things, but I love my mechamorphs. So I'm gonna try to keep making them and see if any of them finally stick! Check out my artist over here and the video on the loader here!

The loader here is meant as a work drone, but I'm a fan of the idea that it cheap bosses and the like put security protocols in their drones to save on money. As such, they aren't the best of fighters but their considerable strength means that they sure pack a wallop - almost as well as they pack a package! Naturally, as a drone made by the mechamorphs, the loader has the Convert ability to transform into its forklift alternate mode and I wanted to use the Heavy Load ability from that vehicle. I did specifically want the forks to be on its backs to fold down so that it can stack up gear like it's playing Death Stranding. Along with carrying around crates, it can carry creatures with its Hauler though at a lower Speed. This will allow it to escort creatures off of the premises or deliver them to a holding cell until the proper authorities can be notified.

For some of its more aggressive actions, we have the likes of Command Grab, a fun reaction as I love to include. This is pretty similar to the likes of Reactive Strike, but it is only triggered by movement to make it a bit more limited since it does obviously disrupt the movement just by being a basic success. As an alternative to this way of grabbing enemies, while in alt mode, the loader can make a Pronged Charge. This has some similarities to the Powerful Charge ability but a few caveats have to be made to accommodate it. For example, being in vehicle mode, the loader obviously has to Drive and it can only make Strikes with the prongs in the first place due to the alternate trait that I gave them. If it manages to succeed at this Strike, it grabs the creature thought the Escape DC is only a moderate DC so that it isn't too oppressive for non-martial type characters. Once the loader has a creature in its clutches, whether through its Grab, Command Grab, or even its Pronged Charge, it's set up to use its Launch ability.

I specifically designed this to be two actions as it gives the heroes a chance to Escape before it can pull this off. If it wants to do a fist Strike into a Grab, it only has a single action left. Similarly, Pronged Charge is two actions. If you want to make this a one-turn thing, you'll have to just go straight for the Grapple action and follow that up with another Athletics check against the Reflex DC, which I used because that's what Swallow Whole targets as well. Once it has a creature loaded, it can rocket its forks upwards and decidedly OSHA-noncompliant speeds and send the creature sailing into the air. I defined this height as 15 feet for simplicity. This means that the creature will take 7 damage upon landing, which is in-between high and extreme average damage for its Strikes though there is a slight multi-target aspect of this if it launches its victim into one of their companions. That character gets a high DC Reflex save to avoid the damage, which admittedly doesn't do anything to save the falling creature. And really, why should it?

PF2e Motocon Loader

PF2e Mechamorph Rules

ENCOUNTER HOOKS

Carry On, My Wayward Con: The easiest way to involve a loader in an encounter is by having the heroes need to break into a warehouse for something - whether that be something stored there or records to gain evidence about the owner. This owner could have a loader or two on the premises, which may initially attempt to simply remove the trespassers, granting some forgiveness to early-level PCs messing up. However, the owner likely knows that somebody tried to break in after the first time and may add in some actual security types.

Love 'em or Leaver: For a less criminal crew, you may have the heroes come across a malfunctioning loader. As an additional aspect of its design, the loader may be able to use nearby crates and debris that it can launch at players. Taking it a step further, if there are civilians about, the loader might even start launching at them. If you go for this idea, the heroes could use the Reflex save to try to catch the civilian, reducing the falling creature's damage rather than trying to dodge them.

We've got early and bonus content over on the Patreon, so you should check it out!

If you're interested in joining the discussion on what creatures/builds I'm working on or just talking about your own homebrew works, check out our Discord! If you want to get some teasers or help us get to our yet unlisted milestones for extra content, check out the Twitter. And there is that Patreon I mentioned at the top!

Have a monstrous Monday!