Moving on Upgrades
Several weeks ago we had a Construct Week here at Necromancers of the Northwest, where we (mostly) celebrated a book that we put out a while ago, Codex Mechanica: On the Creation of Fabricants. One thing that shining a spotlight on that book showed me was that we could really stand to expand the library of upgrades available to fabricants, especially in certain areas. Today, I wanted to further expand the horizons of movement upgrades, which tend to have relatively few options, especially at levels 4 and 5, where, until today, there hadn’t been any of them at all.
HOVER FEET
Your feet contain a special propulsion system that allows you to hover a few feet off the ground.
Type movement; Level 3
Benefits You are able to move by hovering over the ground. While doing so, you are treated in all ways as though you were walking normally, except that you ignore the effects of difficult terrain and do not trigger any traps or other effects that depend on physical contact with the ground. You cannot run while hovering. If you hover over an area more than 3 feet off the ground (such as by hovering over the edge of a cliff, etc.), you immediately fall until you are 3 feet above the ground, taking fall damage as normal. Finally, while hovering, you are treated as having higher ground against opponents of your size category or smaller that are on the ground. Switching to and from hovering is a move action.
RETROGRADE LEGS
Your knees are designed to bend backwards, giving you incredible jumping ability.
Type movement; Level 1
Benefits You gain a bonus on Acrobatics checks made to jump equal to your Hit Dice. Additionally, when calculating the DC for a high jump, you use the DC for a long jump of the same distance, instead.
ROCKET BOOST
You are capable of incredible bursts of speed while flying, thanks to a powerful, if short-lived, rocket.
Type movement; Level 4
Prerequisites Powered Flight
Benefits As a full-round action, while flying, you can move up to 10 times your fly speed. Doing so reduces your maneuverability to clumsy until the end of your next turn. Because you are moving so fast, attacks of opportunity made against you while you are moving in this way suffer a -4 penalty. After you use this ability, the rocket booster takes some time to recharge, and you must wait 1d4 rounds between uses of this ability.
TACTICAL MOVEMENT PLATFORM
Your legs are replaced by a set of eight smaller legs, and your torso is designed to be able to rotate 360 degrees, allowing for better tactical movement.
Type movement; Level 4
Benefits You do not provoke attacks of opportunity as a result of leaving a square that an opponent threatens. Additionally, you cannot be flanked except by a character who has at least 4 more rogue levels than your modification level.
TELEPORTATION ENGINE
You have a teleportation engine installed in you, allowing you to disappear from one place and appear elsewhere simultaneously.
Type movement; Level 5
Benefits As a standard action, you can transport yourself to any unoccupied square within 200 feet. This functions identically to the spell dimension door, except that you are able to act normally afterwards. After using this ability, the teleportation engine takes some time to recharge, and you must wait 1d4 rounds between uses of this ability.