The soldier swore angrily as he felt the click of a plate beneath his boot, pitching to the side as electricity surged from it, pain lancing through his leg. He grit his teeth against the pain as the rest of his squad hesitated, their eyes cautiously scanning the battlefield. Taking cover across from them was a towering machine, his body encased in armor of a drab brown. The giant's fingers fiddled with a series of components, assembling another snare with astounding speed that he launched onto the field before him, awaiting another fool to stumble across it.
Illustration by arturs_arts
A towering titan of technology, this tough trapper tangles targets in tricks and trammels, tempting them to trespass in his territory.
I promise, this is the last mechamorph I'll make until Starfinder 2e has its proper release. But I couldn't put out Silk Road without including her partner in crime - Trapdoor! The arachnid theming is there, but far more subtle with this might mechamorph, apparently mostly in his name, eight wheels rather than eight legs in his vehicle mode, and then a series of lenses inspired by the multiple eyes of a spider. Trapdoor was a very interesting build because he wasn't particularly focused on attacks - instead, he is built durably with a focus on snares that make it difficult for enemies to even approach him.
Central to this entire design is Snare Master, which is one of those necessary but kind of boring features that exists solely to establish the nature of his snares and giving them a blanket extreme DC since they are his primary form of combat. To actually use them in combat, he has the Deploy Snare action, which is borrowed heavily from the Demolitionist in the NPC Core - specifically, his Plant Mine action. Aside from planting his mines upon the field, Trapdoor can rig himself with the snares that he makes with the aptly named Rig Snare. This requires an enemy to interact with him in melee, which is why it's only a single action in the world of Starfinder 2e where getting into melee almost seems to be options. Both of these abilities cost the Trapdoor one of his snare components, so he can't overuse them. It should be enough to last him for a combat, but I could see GMs running out. Fortunately, if he does, Trapdoor does have a few other options available to him. He originally only had a moderate-attack, high-damage melee Strike as that was how I envisioned him, but my test subjects convinced me to give him at least one ranged Strike in the form of the low-attack but almost-extreme-damage mines that he can launch. He also has Rumble - named for and inspired by a classic member of the Decepticons. The Rumble deals unlimited use area damage at a high DC, but can knock enemies prone - setting them up for Silk Road to hit with a Web Trap to keep them down. Finally, he has Upheaval, allowing him to launch enemies about the battlefield. This is based on the mauler's Shoving Sweep though doesn't feature a Stride and can instead be used for Reposition. The entire intent of this ability is to launch enemies into snares that Trapdoor or Silk Road have set up, potentially catching multiple members in a single snare.
Pathfinder 2e:
I debated on Trapdoor's alt mode for a while before discovering that mine-laying vehicles exist. It's not exactly a subtle vehicle, meaning that he'll have to hole up and let Silk Road run missions while they're trying to lay low, but it fits the character supremely well. It's a tanky, burly thing that can lay out areas of mines - which I initially struggled to figure out. I settled on making it a sort of luck-based thing that can be circumvented by moving slowly and cautiously through the area.
PF2e Vehicle:
And just in case, here's some rules on mechamorphs in general.
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
Cat and Mouse and Spiders: The heroes start off with chasing Silk Road, possibly even in an actual chase using the subsystem. While she leads the PCs in a merry jaunt, Trapdoor can set up snares in a predetermined location that Silk Road then tries to drag the heroes to. She and Trapdoor fight amongst his snares, leading the adversaries through them and sometimes only pretending about their presence to slow foes down.
Through the Trapdoor: Though he doesn't like to, there may be times when Trapdoor is flying solo. He isn't terribly interested in fighting and tries to instead create an alley of snares and mines to cover his attempted to escape - creating a sort of 'come back here' type boss with the assumption that the heroes want to capture or defeat him for one reason or another.
I'd appreciate you checking out the video on Trapdoor or take a look at his Monster Mash - that was a fun one. If you're interested in joining the discussion on what creatures/builds I'm working on or just discussing 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.
Have a monstrous Monday!
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