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Player > Races > Androids
Androids are Medium humanoids with the android subtype.
For effects targeting creatures by type, androids count as both constructs and humanoids (whichever type allows an ability to affect them for abilities that affect only one type, and whichever is worse for abilities that affect both types). They receive a +2 racial bonus to saving throws against disease, mind-affecting effects, poison, and sleep, unless those effects specifically target constructs. In addition, androids do not breathe or suffer the normal environmental effects of being in a vacuum.
Androids have low-light vision and darkvision. See pages 263–264 for more information.
Androids find emotions confusing and keep them bottled up. They take a –2 penalty to Sense Motive checks, but the DCs of Sense Motive checks attempted against them increase by 2.
Androids have a single armor upgrade slot in their bodies. Regardless of whether androids are wearing physical armor, they can use this slot to install any one armor upgrade that could be installed into light armor.
A niche but lucrative market before android emancipation was the construction of androids to serve as companions, often as supplemental members of a family. These androids have better personality matrices and might have fewer signs of artificial construction. A companion android has an ability adjustment of +2 Charisma.
Laborer androids were created to perform menial tasks and endure the hardships of space. In many regions, they were considered corporate property for far longer than typical androids. A laborer android’s ability adjustments are +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, and −2 Charisma.
As artificial creatures, androids are
compatible with a wide array of
cybernetics. Androids who have this
racial trait can install one additional
cybernetic augmentation into one
system that already has an augmentation.
This replaces upgrade slot.
Although most androids stand out as artificial beings, some
have intricate personality matrices and physical alterations
that downplay their constructed nature. Androids who have
this alternate racial trait don’t take any penalty to Disguise
checks to change their appearance to a creature of a different
race or type if they are disguising themselves as a human. If the
android also has the xenometric android alternate racial trait
(see page 17), this benefit instead applies to Disguise checks to
change appearance to that of the race chosen along with the
xenometric android alternate racial trait.
This replaces the +2 racial bonus to saving throws against
disease, mind-affecting effects, poison, and sleep from the
constructed trait. The android retains all the other features of
the constructed trait.
The artificial brain an android possesses can allow better
compatibility with infospheres and direct downloads of
information. An android with this trait has a built-in comm
unit that can be accessed without needing to use their hands.
Once per day, whenever the android takes a 10-minute rest
to regain Stamina Points, they can choose one Intelligence-,
Wisdom-, or Charisma-based skill. The chosen skill becomes
a class skill for them, and they gain Skill Focus as a bonus
feat with that skill. This decision lasts until the next time the
android uses this trait.
This replaces exceptional vision.
New languages are easy for some androids to learn. An
android with this racial trait knows four additional languages
at 1st level. In addition, whenever such an android invests a
skill rank into Culture, they learn two new languages instead
of one.
This replaces upgrade slot.
Specialized nanites maintain an android body, but they can be
upgraded to perform additional tasks. Androids who have this
racial trait gain Nanite Integration (see below) as a bonus feat,
ignoring the feat’s prerequisites.
This replaces upgrade slot.
Although most androids are manufactured to resemble humans, those crafted in the likenesses of other species exist. Such “xenometrics†possess abilities that mirror those of other races, sometimes even using hybrid tech to duplicate magic abilities.
An android with this trait selects one of the species detailed in the paragraphs below. This choice cannot be changed. In addition to possessing physical features resembling those of the chosen species, the android’s size category and reach changes to match the chosen race. In addition, xenometric androids gain some of the chosen species’ racial traits, which are noted in parentheses next to the race’s name. If a gained racial trait determines land speed, the android uses the speed as defined by that racial trait instead of that of the android. If the chosen species has a different type than humanoid, the xenometric android’s type changes to match.
Starfinder Core Rulebook options are dwarf (darkvision, slow but steady), elf (elven immunities, low-light vision), gnome (gnome magic, low-light vision), half-elf (adaptability, low-light vision), half-orc (darkvision, intimidating, self-sufficient), halfling (keen senses, sneaky, sure-footed), kasatha (four-armed, natural grace), lashunta (lashunta magic, limited telepathy), shirren (blindsense, limited telepathy), vesk (low-light vision, natural weapons), and ysoki (cheek pouches, darkvision).
Starfinder Alien Archive options are dragonkin (draconic immunities, flight), formian (limited telepathy, natural weapons), haan (firespray, slow fall), kalo (kalo movement, kalo vision), maraquoi (blindsense, prehensile tail), nuar (natural weapons, swift), verthani (skill focus, skin mimic), and wrikreechee (snag, wrikreechee movement).
Starfinder Alien Archive 2 options are hobgoblin (fearsome, sneaky), orc (fierce survivalist, orc ferocity), pahtra (nimble, talented), and vlaka (cold resistance, perceptive).
The Starfinder Pact Worlds option is the strix (nightborn, strix mobility).
This replaces upgrade slot and exceptional vision.
Do the racial traits that a xenometric android (page 17) gains in place of upgrade slot and exceptional vision count as racial traits for the purposes of prerequisites?
Yes.
Complex technological creations crafted to resemble humans, androids were originally a servitor race, but they have since broken free to form their own society. Unlike ordinary robots or ship AIs, androids do not simply respond according to their programming; rather, they have independent consciousnesses and are animated by souls—a distinction crucial to their generally accepted status as people rather than property.
Androids are biomechanical constructs created in technological crèches called foundries. While the first androids are believed to have been mostly biological, difficult to distinguish from the humans they lived among, modern designs are more varied, and many favor metal skeletons and processors that support synthetic organs and living flesh. Nearly all androids feature a humanoid body shape and tattoo-like circuits that glow through their skin when operating at full power, but beyond this commonality, variations in physical appearance reflect an android’s design, role, and personality. Some take pains to blend into human society, while others deliberately display their mechanical nature. Though some androids are constructed or customize themselves to look like other races, such models are relatively rare. Due to their biological components, androids need to eat and sleep, but as constructed beings they do not reproduce in the human fashion and have no biological need for gender—some identify strongly as male or female, while others shift fluidly or ignore it altogether, and still others actively reject it on philosophical grounds as a relic of their former slavery.
Though android bodies are assembled using tiny machines called nanites, their complex nervous systems attract and integrate souls in the same way organic creatures do. Most androids are fully grown at the time of their birth, and can technically live forever through constant repair, though most androids voluntarily release their bodies after a century or so to allow new souls to inhabit them—a process called renewal that’s viewed more as procreation than suicide.
Android technology in the Pact Worlds is generally believed to have developed on Golarion in the time before the Gap, though there are strong indications that the first androids there were actually travelers from a distant star system. In the modern era, various corporations throughout the Pact Worlds system unraveled the secret to android creation and began mass-producing androids as cheap, skilled labor perfect for hazardous work. This practice lasted until about 150 years ago, when the Thyst Rebellion and subsequent android revolts across the system, combined with the now legendary speech known as “The Automaton’s Polemic†by android revolutionary Serphaeus-6, led governments system-wide to officially recognize all androids as independent citizens. This ruling, however, has not completely stopped unscrupulous corporations in less regulated parts of the system from crafting illegal android slaves or forcing newborn androids to “work off†the expense of their creation. Though androids can be found anywhere in the Pact Worlds, many gravitate toward cosmopolitan Absalom Station, the machine cities of Aballon, and the freedom of the Diaspora.
Android society tends to be insular. While androids are treated equitably in most settlements, especially Absalom Station, many androids have not forgotten their people’s bondage and remain keenly aware of prejudice from other races based on their “unnatural†origin or jealousy over the androids’ freedom from aging. This leads most androids to feel a sense of kinship with others of their kind and to go out of their way to help each other, though they may also bond with members of other races who treat them well. Despite popular belief, androids’ impressive deductive reasoning abilities do not preclude sentiment, and most androids feel emotions keenly—they simply don’t always express them well, and different individuals may have trouble processing and communicating particular feelings. The average android alignment is a practical neutrality; they are focused on their own welfare and that of their friends.
Often cautious around strangers, androids have the most strained relationship with humanity, which built them in its image and remains their most frequent oppressor. They feel closest to shirrens, who also know what it is to be enslaved and misunderstood, and respect kasathas’ self-sufficiency. They generally dislike vesk, whom they see as slavers, and only grudgingly tolerate ysoki’s antics.
Androids adventure for many reasons: to earn a living, trace the origins of their race, or rescue androids and other creatures from servitude. Their quick thinking under fire makes them natural operatives and soldiers, while their affinity for machines makes them excellent mechanics and technomancers.
Androids have no single naming convention. Many take names from the cultures in which they first awoke, or from media they enjoy. Some accept call sign–like names based on appearance, personality, or exploits. Still others go by numbers as a deliberate reminder of their mechanical nature, or a combination of name and number denoting how many times the body their soul inhabits has been renewed. Some sample android names include Asha, Blue-17, Emene-3, Flick, Garro, Iseph, Melody, Naga, Olas, Stringer, Twenty, and Yose.
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