Summary
Dungeons & Dragons, the world’s most popular fantasy tabletop roleplaying game, has more iconic monsters than you can shake a wand at.Whether it’s dragonsor mind flayers, a Dungeon Master has plenty of creatures at their disposal. That includes the marvelous mechanical Modrons.
Modrons are a favourite for many DM’s, but they don’t share the same fame as other D&D monsters likeliches or beholders. If your DM doesn’t have a love for constructs, you may not even know what a Modron is. Cast your eyes below, brave adventurer, and let us lay out for you just what Modrons are and why they’re so special.
What Is A Modron?
Allcreatures in D&D fall under certain categories. A zombie, for example, would be classified as an Undead, while a wolf would be a Beast. It’s a relatively simple system that lets you know at a glance roughly what you can expect from a creature, depending on what category it falls under.
Modrons are classed as Constructs, the category reserved for mechanical or otherwise artificial creatures. Other creatures you can find in this category would be things like golems or inanimate objects brought to life by magical means.
AlthoughWarforged, a playable speciesin D&D 5e, are artificially created creatures,they don’t count as Constructsand are instead considered Humanoid.
The playable species Autognomes count as Constructsand were introduced in the book Spelljammer: Adventures In Space, which focuses on adventures among the stars, sailing from world to world on magically powered interstellar sailing ships.
They have a variety of appearances, butModrons most typically appear as geometric shapes, like cubes or spheres, with spindly arms and legs. On one side of the shape that makes up their body, they will have a face, but the number of eyes can vary.
While most Constructs are mindless machines, only able to follow orders or carry out programmed instructions, Modrons are completely different. They’re almostnothing like other Constructs.
What Makes Modrons Different?
Modrons are distinct from most other Constructs becausethey have sentience, and more than that, they function as a society. They also aren’t entirely mechanical, featuring some biological components.
Despite having sentience,Modrons are beings of and dedicated to law and order.This is similar to how Devils are creatures of law and evil, or Demons are creatures of law and chaos. Although it isn’t impossible to find a Modron who lives dedicated to law and order, it is extremely rare.
Their society is structured as a direct hierarchy, each Modron obeying the commands of those a rank higher than them, with no notion of doing anything other than obeying those orders completely and without question.
Modrons are only ever aware of the ranks below them and the rank directly above them. Even if one from several ranks higher issued an order to a Modron, they would only be able tosee them as an extremely powerful version of the rank directly above them.
From their home plane of Mechanus, the central point of all order in the D&D multiverse,Modrons would regularly deploy small units out to complete myriad missions, advancing the cause of order in both obvious and obscure ways.
As well as sending smaller groups out on specific missions, every 289 years the Modrons would undertaketheir Great Modron March out across the planesfrom their home plane of Mechanus.
A period of 289 years is what Modrons refer to asThe Grand Cycle, the time it takes for the largest gear in Mechanus to complete one full rotation.
What Is The Great Modron March?
Also known as the Modron Parade,the March would involve several thousand Modrons. It involves Modrons of multiple types, although the most common are Monodrones, the most simplistic kind of Modron with a sphere-shaped body.
The March is a grand expedition, butit isn’t clear what the purpose of it is. The Modrons don’t gather information at the locations they visit, not stopping anywhere for any longer than would be absolutely necessary.
You might assume their mission was to instill order in each of the planes they visited, but the Modrons don’t do that either aside from what their presence achieves incidentally. All it can be confirmedthey actually do on the Great Modron March is, well, march.
In the same way thatMechanus is the central point for orderin the D&D multiverse, other planes are also central points for differing ideals. Some are dedicated to Chaos, so it’s understandable that the Modrons efforts there would be poorly received.
The Great Modron March typically involves so much violence thatvery few of the thousands of Modrons who embarked on it would succesfully return home to Mechanus. Whether they provided any sort of report or just slotted back into their usual routine isn’t known.
What Kinds Of Modrons Are There?
Modrons come in a variety of shapes and sizes,the complexity of their form indicating their place in Modron society. The simplest and most numerous are Monodrones, sphere shaped drones at the bottom rung of the hierarchy.
Following them are Duodrones, Tridrones, Quadrones and Pentadrones in that order, their name corresponding to the shape of their body.At each level there are fewer of any one kind of Modron, you may think of their societial structure as shaped like a pyramid.
Past the Pentadrones, of which there are about 500,000, the number drops drastically at the next tier, the Decatons. Numbered only 100 they are the lowest tier of leading caste of Modrons. Following the Decatons are the Nonatons, Octons, Septons, Hextons, Quintons, Quartons, Tertians and finallythe Secundus, of which there are only four.
From the Quintons on, the Modronsfar more closely resemble humanoidsthan their geometric brethren. Moving away from simple shapes to a more complex structure indicates that they are far more advanced than other Modrons.
After the four Secundus there is only one being higher, the godlike being who resides at the heart of Mechanus and oversees the Modron civilization, Primus.A living embodiment of orderand structure, Primus holds supreme power in Mechanus but does not have the same reach as a true D&D god.
Can You Play As A Modron In D&D?
Modrons are not an officially supported playable species in D&D, so you won’t find any rules available that let you play as one. There is the option to work with your Dungeon Master and find a way to make it work though.
You could use Warforged or Autognomes as a base and just change the name, working with those rules but reflavouring them as a Modron. There is also the option to use the Custom Lineage rules,creating your own version of a Modron with relative ease.
