Every 289 years, the entire multiverse goes mad. Like clockwork.
Kwint Stormbellow, rock gnome adventurer
Time to talk about a weird one. And by one, I mean five, because of course there are five of them.
Lore: Machines of Law
Inhabitants of the Mechanus plane, modrons are creatures of absolute law, their existences routine down to the smallest detail. Their laws, set out by their leader, Primus, are beyond mortal comprehension. Modrons will carry out orders given to them along their strict hierarchy with absolute efficiency and obedience, completely devoid of their own ego or morality. They have no sense of self, referring to themselves as ‘we’ instead of ‘I’.
Communication among modrons are limited by the ranks; they can only speak to those on their rank, or the rank immediately above or below them. Any gap wider than that would make conversation rather stilted, as one participant will either be too advanced or too stupid for the other to understand. If a modron near the top of the hierarchy has orders for the low-ranks, it must descend through the ranks to reach them like an odd, hyper-specific bureaucracy.
When destroyed, a modron’s body completely disintegrates. A member of the lower rank then transforms, changing its form to replace the recently deceased modron. The promoted modron is replaced in a similar manner, all the way down until they reach the bottom of the rankings. There, Primus will build a new modron from within the Great Modron Cathedral.
Every 289 years, Primus sends an army of modrons across the Outer Planes. He claims it is for reconnaissance, but who can guess the real reason. Whatever the case, the march is long and deadly. Of all those sent, few modrons ever return to Mechanus.
Monodrones are the lowest ranking, capable of limited speech and only performing one task at a time. Duodrones are in charge of them and can tackle two tasks at once. Tridrones lead their lessers into battle. Quadrones serve either as artillery or field officers in the armies. Pentadrones oversee the workers and can improvise whenever necessary.
This is some surprisingly deep lore! You can craft all kinds of stories and encounters out of it! Perhaps the players end up on Mechanus and throw a modron civilization into chaos. Or maybe they come across them while the modrons are out on the 289-year exodus. You could set up Primus as the main antagonist and have them reappear often as recurring enemies. If you want a more cosmic-themed slice for your campaign, these guys are an excellent pick.
Design: You Like Geometry?
You know those nightmare images of biblically accurate angels? These guys are like if those had sex with steam-punk themed geometry. And the result? The weirdest, goofiest, most interesting looking dudes in all of Dungeons and Dragons!
I love how weird these guys look! They’re kinda rustic and charming but also creepy and unsettling. They feel truly alien in a way that few other monsters in the Monster Manual can manage.
And its a small, obvious detail, but I love how easy they are to tell apart simply by their shapes. It is literally impossible to confuse a monodrone for a pentadrone. Line them all up side by side in silhouette and you’d still be able to distinguish them. It’s a basic test, but one that many other five-in-one monsters have failed up to this point.
Cough cough mephits.
Overall, I think these are really strong designs. They’re unique, they’re goofy, and they’re just a bit creepy. A nice, strong balance.
Stats: Five Monsters, Five Disappointments
Alright. Five dudes. Luckily, they’re all pretty simple. Nice for me having to write this article. Not so much for an aspiring dungeon master who has to make a compelling encounter with these things.
Let’s start with the Monodrone. While it has a decent AC, its HP is in the single-digits, making it incredibly easy to kill. Neither its dagger nor its javelin do all that much damage, so it isn’t especially dangerous. A perfectly straight-forward enemy for level one parties.
The Duodrone is basically the same thing. It does have a bit more HP, but not much. And as weak as its fist and javelin are, it does have Multiattack, so it isn’t as pathetic as its subordinate rank. Still, not even a level one party would have a hard time with it.
Tridrones are exactly the same as the Duodrone, only they have slightly higher HP and can attack three times instead of twice. Like, that’s it. Those are literally the only differences.
Quadrones are more of the same. Only this time, they’ve replaced the javelin with a shortbow, which they can fire four times. A dangerous ranged opponent, but pitiful up close. This one is dangerous enough to scare parties higher than level one.
Finally, the Pentadrone. It only has one melee strike, which it can use five times per turn. But it more than makes up for it with its ability: Paralysis Gas. Take a guess what that does. Aside from that one ability, however, it is as straight-forward as all the others.
Two unique attributes are shared by all five of these creatures. The first is Axiomatic Mind, an ability which makes them all immune to being compelled to do anything outside of its nature. Then there’s Disintegration, which just means that their bodies turn to dust when they die. The former does add some complexity to the fight, removing basically all charm spells from play, but the ladder doesn’t do much but add a bit of flavor to their deaths. Boring.
As a whole, these guys don’t make for much of an interesting fight. The only real chance you have of making something even somewhat memorable is simply throwing all five flavors at your party at the same time. Even then, this fight will be just another boring slugfest where all the players have to do is hit the enemies until they die. Yawn.
Placement
This was an interesting entry. The lore is great and the designs are fantastic. Unfortunately, the stats are just so boring that you can’t really get much out of them. It started so strong, then fell off so quickly.
With all that in mind, let’s put the Modrons on the Best of the Bestiary!
- Beholder
- Death Tyrant
- Mind Flayer
- Dragon Turtle
- Green Dragons
- Red Dragons
- Blue Dragons
- Black Dragons
- White Dragons
- Silver Dragons
- Couatl
- Behir
- Aboleth
- Sea Hag
- Lamia
- Bronze Dragons
- Brass Dragons
- Copper Dragons
- Gold Dragons
- Chuul
- Kuo-Toa
- Gibbering Mouther
- Kraken
- Intellect Devourer
- Chimera
- Death Knight
- Fomorian
- Bone Devil
- Dracolich
- Faerie Dragon
- Lich
- Magmin
- Kobold
- Kenku
- Hobgoblins
- Night Hag
- Green Hag
- Ankheg
- Hook Horror
- Storm Giant
- Hill Giant
- Empyrean
- Efreeti
- Grimlock
- Minotaur
- Dao
- Cloud Giant
- Manticore
- Drow (all four of ’em)
- Shadow Demon
- Modrons (all five of ’em) <———————
- Marilith
- Drider
- Aarackockra
- Azer
- Demilich
- Spectator
- Hydra
- Marid
- Harpy
- Werejackal
- Half-Dragon
- Cambion
- Fire Giant
- Animated Armor
- Banshee
- Basilisk
- Yochlol
- Bulette
- Cloaker
- Darkmantle
- Doppelganger
- Ghoul and Ghast
- Ettin
- Medusa
- Pit Fiend
- Erinyes
- Chain Devil
- Bearded Devil
- Barbed Devil
- Spined Devil
- Ice Devil
- Mimic
- Djinni
- Merrow
- Nalfeshnee
- Glabrezu
- Chasme
- Grell
- Barlgura
- Horned Devil
- Balor
- Shadow Dragon
- Werebear
- Lizardfolk
- Vrock
- Dretch
- Gnolls (all three)
- Goristro
- Hezrou
- Manes
- Frost Giant
- Weretiger
- Werewolf
- Duergar
- Quasit
- Dryad
- Flumph
- Goblin
- Wereboar
- Wererat
- Githyanki
- Planetar
- Imp
- Clay Golem
- Flameskull
- Displacer Beast
- Carrion Crawler
- Githzerai
- Grick
- Invisible Stalker
- Rug of Smothering
- Bugbear Chief
- Bugbear
- Flesh Golem
- Vine Blight
- Twig Blight
- Needle Blight
- Mephits (all six of ’em)
- Bullywug
- Hellhound
- Ettercap
- Gas Spore
- Cockatrice
- Lemure
- Homonculus
- Merfolk
- Solar
- Deva
- Gorgon
- Hippogriff
- Griffon
- Cyclops
- Centaur
- Ghost
- Fire Elemental
- Water Elemental
- Air Elemental
- Stone Giant
- Deep Gnome
- Dinosaurs (All six of them)
- Iron Golem
- Stone Golem
- Earth Elemental
- Galeb Duhr
- Helmed Horror
- Flying Sword
- Crawling Claw
- Violet Fungus
- Shrieker
- Gargoyle
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