Epokasite Runner

Family: Epokasite

Medium fey, neutral good

Armor Class 17
Hit Points 104 (16d8+32)
Speed 30 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
12 (+1)	18 (+4)	14 (+2)	22 (+6)	14 (+2)	14 (+2)

Skills Deception +5, Perception +5
Damage Resistances lightning
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 15
Languages Common
Challenge 8 (3,900 XP)

SPECIAL TRAITS

• Tech Resistance. Each runner has an affinity for a particular historical era. It gains advantage on all saving throws against technology that is more recent than its chosen era and takes half damage from any source which requires technology newer than its chosen era. For instance, a stone age Runner would take half damage from swords, because forging was not available in the stone age, but full damage from a club, even if that club is manufactured with new technology, because clubs exist in the stone age. Similarly, it would gain advantage on a saving throw against tripwire trap which fires a crossbow, but not against a simple pit trap.

ACTIONS

• Multiattack. The runner makes two Knife or Bow attacks in any combination.
• Knife. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, 5 ft. reach, one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage.
• Bow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 80-320 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) piercing damage.
• Atavistic Glare (Recharges 4-6). Each creature within 30 ft. of the Runner must make a DC 16 Intelligence saving throw or lose all weapon, armor, and tool proficiencies for 10 rounds. The creature also cannot cast spells or activate magic items. The creature can end this effect early by taking an action to make a successful DC 16 Wisdom or Intelligence saving throw.

ABOUT

Epokasites fixate on specific technological and cultural eras, believing them the purest expression of a culture and, by extension, nature itself. Where new developments interfere with this ideal, epokasites try to preserve historic machinery, even sabotaging new technologies in a stubborn defense of the old ways.

An epokasite most often imprints on the culture and time period in which they came into existence on the Material Plane. Less often, an epokasite might wander until they read about or experience an era that impresses them, thereafter adopting that period as their focus.

Epokasites take two common forms: fixers and runners.

Fixers. Fixers rarely stand at more than a foot tall, whereas runners exceed heights of 5 feet. Sensory papillae cover their noses, helping the fey detect a variety of stimuli, which they normally use to locate technology from their favored time period, such as hints of forge charcoal, motor oil on a combustion engine, or the tang of early lasers. Each epokasite adopts slang, clothing, and gear appropriate to their favored era, from chainmail, hides, outdated suits, or alchemists’ coveralls. Being shy creatures, fixers prefer to operate out of sight.

Runners. Runners instead thrive on infiltrating the modern societies they so disdain, donning disguises and stealing credentials to access delicate technologies.

Both epokasite varieties regularly sneak onto starships or into sensitive facilities as stowaways in the guise of hired hands, largely so that they can sabotage the technological affronts to their favored eras—acts they consider entirely helpful and for which they expect a reward from any who discover them in action. Rarely, epokasites might live openly among a community, most often in groups of stubborn luddites, historical reenactors, or closely aligned cosplayers. In those settings, they might act as excitable consultants and crafters.