A renegade mastermaker applies the secrets of warforged creation methods to his own body, slowly replacing parts of his body with mechanical augmentations. He uses state of the art procedures to enhance his body, slowly becoming more and more like the warforged, which he regards as the pinnacle of craftsmanship. His craft does step over the line into a gray area of legality in most of the Five Nations, so most renegade mastermakers find comfort in a nomadic life, always on the lookout for opportunities to learn more secrets of warforged construction.
Playing a Renegade Mastermaker
Warforged are the next step in the evolution of humanity. They are the most magnificent creation to emerge from the forges, the perfection of Cannith craft, and you are actively attempting to become one. What better goal is there than the pursuit of perfection?
As a renegade mastermaker, you dabble in forbidden knowledge, using the secrets of the creation forges to slowly transform yourself into a warforged. Others, especially most members of House Cannith, frown upon your actions, but they simply don’t understand the enlightenment of the path you deign to follow. Some call you mad, crazed by too much machine and not enough soul, but you are mostly certain that you are perfectly sane.
Combat
Your abilities make you harder to damage and more resilient than your more fleshy companions. As you advance, you maintain most of your spellcasting ability, so the role you fill doesn’t change significantly from that of your earlier adventures. Your battlefist is a reasonable weapon if you find yourself in melee, and even with a low attack bonus you might be able to aid your comrades in melee using the aid another action or taking up a flanking position.
As you attain levels as a renegade mastermaker, you become even harder to hurt. You can take advantage of this by using touch spells in combat, without fearing the occasional blow that lands. If you are an artificer, using personal weapon augmentation and similar infusions can make your battlefist a devastating weapon.
If you really want to focus on your battlefist attack, take advantage of Attune Magic Weapon and feats that increase your attack rolls and damage rolls. Further enhance your weapon with a weapon augmentation infusion (or, if an arcane spellcaster, greater magic weapon), and your attack and damage can be on par with that of a fighter, though you might not have as many attacks.
Once you become a living construct, take advantage of your newfound immunities by placing yourself in harm’s way, making yourself a target for those poison or paralysis attacks that would incapacitate one of your lessresilient companions.
Advancement
Renegade mastermakers come primarily from groups of disillusioned artificers and magewrights of House Cannith, who were promised the secrets of creation forges, but then forbidden to use that knowledge. Other crafters and spellcasters also began experimenting with warforged parts culled from the scattered battlefields of the Last War. You might be one of these individuals, but you could just as easily be an artisan with a desire to incorporate the strengths of the warforged into your own body.
Renegade mastermakers as a group are not particularly social, so you might find yourself traveling to foreboding towers in distant lands to meet another mastermaker. There you might glean some additional secrets of the warforged creation process, perhaps by analyzing the completed portions of your fellow mastermaker. However, advancing in your class is not contingent on learning such secrets directly from your peers; many renegade mastermakers perfect their craft through experimentation, using standard warforged or other constructs as learning subjects.
As you attain more levels in the renegade mastermaker prestige class, you will want to keep increasing your Craft skill, since your daily healing depends upon it. If you are an artificer, choose a homunculus that fits your style, such as a furtive filcher if you require stealth, or an arbalester (see page 152) if you need ranged support.
You can also transform your battlefist into a formidable weapon if you further improve it using your Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat and later take the Attune Magic Weapon feat (from the EBERRON Campaign Setting). With or without enhancing your battlefist, if you are an artificer, your weapon augmentation infusions can also be very effective.
Resources
With no organization willing to support them directly, most renegade mastermakers are forced to find their own workshops in which to perform their experiments. In many cases, such workspace is provided by benefactors as a reward for completing quests or missions. Even in those cases, a benefactor eventually becomes concerned about the dubious legality of a mastermaker’s work, and might be forced to close his doors.
Some of the more advanced renegade mastermakers have found solace in the Mournland, and while it is unclear if the Lord of Blades supports them directly, these mastermakers seem to be less disturbed by the construct denizens of that region.
Renegade Mastermakers in the World
“We made them to be like us, so it is only fitting that we also make ourselves to be like them.”
—Morran d’Cannith, before his expulsion from the Cannith Forgehold
Renegade mastermakers see themselves as a self-made link between the humanoid races and the warforged. Those races seldom share that perception, instead believing most renegade mastermakers to be dangerous mad scientists, obsessed with corrupting the natural order of life. That said, many members of House Cannith secretly admire the ingenuity of the mastermakers, and the house tries to keep tabs on any new technologies the mastermakers stumble into.
Organization
Most renegade mastermakers find the constant persecution to be a detriment to research, and so move to remote or secluded locations where they can attempt to work in peace. They still occasionally deal with inquisitive neighbors and the threat of assassination by any number of private or government organizations, or even by other mastermakers seeking to add to their own libraries.
Some renegade mastermakers fund adventuring groups to handle routine tasks such as retrieving extra warforged parts or gaining access to lost or secret texts and schemas. In these cases, a mastermaker might provide his envoys with various items, some experimental and of questionable reliability. These mastermakers sometimes form a mentor relationship with an adventurer, extolling the virtues of construct life while the adventurer completes the task at hand.
A dirty secret of House Cannith is that Morran d’Cannith, a prominent artisan within the ranks of the house, has started down the path of the renegade mastermaker. At first, his obsession with the warforged was praised as a demonstration of a healthy appetite and enthusiasm for his work in the great creation forge in the depths of Sharn. But his experiments grew beyond the boundaries of propriety, and the house began to question his sanity.
After an incident involving the disassembly of some recently created warforged, Morran was banned from the House Cannith Forgehold in the depths of Sharn. However, Morran was a close friend of Merrix d’Cannith, who could not bring himself to issue an execution order, so he instead provided Morran with an underground laboratory deep within Undersharn, where he continues his experiments and adapts his body to his construct ideal.
Because many of the secrets used by the renegade mastermakers pertain to knowledge that House Cannith jealously guards, they have a certain interest in keeping track of these renegades to ensure that the knowledge remains secret. At the same time, members of the house recognize that the renegades provide a new avenue for research that isn’t available to the house through standard venues. Thus, the house is conflicted. The insular nature of the mastermakers protects them, in a way. In general, House Cannith turns a blind eye to the activities of renegade mastermakers as long as they remain isolated. But at the same time, the house is poised to deal swiftly with the mastermakers should they become a threat.
NPC Reactions
During the first few levels, a renegade mastermaker appears no different from a typical adventurer, albeit one with an oversized metallic hand. Most people stare at the replaced appendage with morbid curiosity and feel uncomfortable speaking to a renegade mastermaker, darting periodic glances at the metal hand. Such situations can be avoided by covering the hand or hiding it within a cloak or robe. Many other folk are simply indifferent to a mastermaker’s appearance.
At the middle levels of the class, a renegade mastermaker begins to experience persecution and disdain, as his body incorporates more mechanical portions than most people are comfortable with. Many common folk perceive mastermakers as abominations, so attempted interactions are likely to garner an unfriendly response, if not outright hostility.
At the pinnacle of his advancement, a renegade mastermaker closely resembles a warforged, and so is afforded the same courtesy (or lack thereof) offered those living constructs. Those folk who have a fear or loathing of warforged might have similar feelings toward high-level mastermakers, and are usually unfriendly, at best.
In Thrane and Karrnath, mastermakers are treated with suspicion, because they are an uncomfortable reminder that warforged might, in fact, not be slaves. The members of House Cannith also afford the mastermakers a degree of respect, even while they attempt to silence those renegades who threaten to spread the secrets of warforged creation.
Many mastermakers find solace working under the auspices of the Lord of Blades in the Mournland, because that warforged scion and his followers are less likely to be hostile toward mastermakers simply because of their apparent mechanical nature.
Renegade Mastermakers in the Game
Renegade mastermakers have only recently begun to appear outside the creation forges. During the Last War, a few mastermakers of House Cannith were significantly involved in the operation of the creation forges that churned out warforged and other material. Once the war ended, the mastermakers found their way out into the world, though eventually they sought refuge in isolated workshops where they could continue their experiments unmolested. Their relative anonymity allows them to be easily added to an ongoing campaign.
A player who chooses this prestige class likely sees the benefits of changing her character’s type to living construct and enjoys the roleplaying aspects of incorporating more mechanical parts into her PC’s body. You should play up these physical features, allowing a player to more fully develop how her PC feels about the world. While many renegade mastermakers have workshops or laboratories, such facilities are not actually required for a PC to advance in the class.