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Vanguard-Class Soldier Robot Creature 13

Vanguard-class soldier robots are hulking machines of battle. They often have four clawed hands, digitigrade legs, a long tail, and a featureless, diamond-shaped head. Their back-mounted plasma launcher and burst-duration jump jets give them a hunched, predatory appearance, augmented by top-of-the-line weapons. Each is 8 feet tall and weighs 700 pounds.

Though their striking image has captured media attention, the vanguard-class soldier robot is too expensive to mass-produce on the scale of an army, and so they are used as special forces, vanguards, bodyguards, and even field commanders for all-robotic forces. A lack of large-scale feasibility is, admittedly, poor comfort to any soul within seeker warhead range.

Elite | Normal | Weak

Elite Weak Vanguard-Class Soldier Robot Creature 13

Image of a vanguard-class soldier robot
Source Alien Core pg. 165
Recall Knowledge DC 30 31 32 •
Construct (Arcana)
Construct (Crafting)
Robot (Computers)
Robot (Crafting)
Perception +25 (darkvision, linked senses 60 feet, x-ray vision (precise) 60 feet)
Skills Acrobatics +24, Athletics +27
Str +8 Dex +5 Con +4 Int +0 Wis +3 Cha +0
Linked Senses The vanguard-class soldier robot shares senses with other allied vanguard-class soldier robots within 60 feet.
X-Ray Vision The vanguard-class soldier robot can see through most materials and walls within 60 feet. Its sight is blocked by 2 feet of wood or plastic, 1 foot of stone, 2 inches of metal, or any amount of lead or starmetal, and it can see only in black and white.
AC 33
Fort +26
Ref +23
Will +20
Speed 30 feet
Melee [one-action] painglaive +29 (boost 1d4poweredreachtechtracking +1), Damage 2d10+16 slashing
Ranged [one-action] seeker rifle +26 (analogexpend 1mag 1range increment 100 feetreload 1tracking +1), Damage 2d10+8 piercing
Assault Jump [three-actions] The vanguard-class soldier robot Leaps to a space it can see within 60 feet. All creatures within 5 feet of where the robot lands must succeed at a DC 33 Reflex save or be knocked prone. The robot then makes a painglaive Strike against one creature within reach. The robot can't use Assault Jump again for 1d4 rounds.
Seeker Warhead [two-actions] Frequency once per day; Effect The vanguard-class soldier robot fires a plasma warhead at an intersection within 200 feet it can see. All creatures in a 15-foot burst take 8d12 fire damage (DC 33 basic Reflex save). On a failure, a creature is also dazzled and deafened for 1 minute. The area in which the warhead exploded becomes difficult terrain.

All Creatures in "Robot, Soldier"

Robot, Soldier

Living soldiers are a liability. They have families who don't want them to die, need salaries, have morale, require discipline, commit atrocities, and have opinions on the war. They're a necessary, but unfortunate, part of warfare for any society without an abiding love for necromancy.

Cutting-edge soldier robots promise to solve this problem. Soldier robots have no loved ones, opinions, self-preservation instinct, or tendency toward random atrocities. Many companies market their soldier robots as a humane solution to modern combat.

In practice, they're anything but.

Without lives on the line, soldier robots encourage their owners to engage more often and more violently. Standoffs turn into skirmishes, skirmishes into battles, and inevitably the innocent are caught up in the mix. They're particularly popular with corporations and non-governmental organizations that appreciate being able to throw a dozen soldier robots at any naysayer, public critic, or explorer they dislike while being able to deny true responsibility for what happens.

Though there's constant public fear of soldier robots going rogue, it has yet to prove a serious concern. If a soldier robot wants you dead, it's because someone doesn't mind if it kills you.

Combat Computers

Soldier robots benefit from recent advancements in combat programming that allows them to perform complex tactics and maneuvers. Some bystanders have difficulty telling them apart from intelligent, free-willed artificial beings. However, soldier robots are merely running preprogrammed scripts and don't have the self-determination or ability to change associated with sapient robotic life.

Gideron Authority

The militaristic government of the Gideron Authority has begun to rely on the use of combat robots to control the planets it seized during its rapid expansion. These robots can be found on many of the worlds of the Gideron system except for Gideron Prime, leading some to believe that the government fears having its own weapons turned against it.