Diamonds are a Modron's Best Friend

Is it just referred to as a construct in the fluff, or also in the stat block?

I haven't had a chance to completely read this adventure, though, but from the little I've skimmed it's one of the most Planescape-y ones I've seen in a long time. Actually planar without being "sneak into evil plane and kill stuff".

On the one hand, I do see the symmetry of having them be the "Lawful Outsiders" on par with the celestials, fiends, and slaadi. However, on the other hand, I do like the delicious irony of the lawful side of Great Wheel being the oddball. Perhaps its a deeper balance having the order broken by the plane of order.

But mostly I just comfort myself thinking that the MotP web enhancement did a good Outsider version, and the current Paizo ones are an alternative version. If nothing else, stats are stats and the real meat is the flavor/fluff. The adventure in Dungeon #144, and the article in Dragon #354 are still useful if you use the Outsider versions of the modrons rather than the Construct ones (other than the weird bit about needing diamonds for creation).

However, I have no idea what the final version of the Dragon article is, but beyond the stats and modron background that any Planescape fan already knows, I included some material extrapolating some recent history from the events of the Great Modron March. So hopefully it's not totally useless for those who don't like Construct versions, but we won't know what the final version will look like for at least a month.

Also, the more I think about it, it shouldn't too much work to modify the new Paizo versions to Outsiders.

Give them a Con score (I'd start with 10 + 2 x rank as a basis and modify it based on that rank's role)

Do some math to up the BAB and Saves, drop some hit points (remembering to remove the Construct bonus for size)

Then give some thought to having 6 more skill points per HD

The CR's for the higher ones might drop a point since you would lose a lot of Construct immunities (unless you wanted to keep them in as Modron traits).

I don't think there would be any point to this with the tertian in Dungeon #144 since I think it's just that conversion in reverse (they took the MotP web enhancement and made it a Construct), but I'm not positive. But the Dragon #354 modrons should be significantly different enough to be worth the conversion. Just a thought.

In Matt Sernett's article, I believe it mentioned that there is still a new Primus if I recall, so that answered for me whether I could have the modrons be without a Primus at the moment. I wasn't sure I wanted to go that far anyway, but I had toyed with the idea. Either way, the way I wrote it, things aren't all happy in Regulus. Finally got to write down some ideas I have had for years on the current state of the modrons.

Otherwise, I'll have to re-read it again, but I don't think there was a lot of new modron info in that article and it mostly focused on the Primus-vestige. But it was months ago that I worked on this, so I might have forgotten something.

Okay, I read the adventure. It was an interesting scenario, based more on diplomacy than combat. I liked it. The NPCs were varied and interesting.

After some consideration, I didn't find the idea that diamonds are an integral part of modron creation objectionable. I imagine that Primus, in the Time Before Time, decided to create its servants using, in part, the hardest substance known. Sounds sensible. With its divine powers Primus was able to create as much diamond as it needed, so availability wasn't a problem.

Then the Powers of Creation (possibly the same as what other myths call the Twin Serpents) created the Mechanus mediators, beings of nearly omnipotent abilities tasked with ensuring that every aspect of the Clockwork Universe was in perfect balance with every other. They dramatically reduced the amount of diamonds available to Primus, determining that diamond couldn't exceed any other mineral in quantity. As a result, Primus was only able to create enough modrons to staff one enormous realm - a vast number only the One and Prime, and possibly the moignos, was capable of calculating, but still not the infinity that Primus had originally intended. There was a contest of wills between the three mediators and the One and Prime, the latter creating and the former destroying, but ultimately the mediators won.

Because Primus is a being of Law incarnate, it cannot change the composition of modrons at this late date. It is not that Primus is unable to change its mind, only that it is unable to go back on its promises, and it had (in retrospect, foolishly) promised the modrons would have diamonds.

The vast diamond mine in the Elemental Plane of Earth offers an opportunity to rectify this ancient mistake. While it cannot create more diamonds on Mechanus, it can use diamonds gained elsewhere to make modrons on other planes - even filling the planes with modrons, allowing Law to flourish across the multiverse.

Another improbable thing I'm willing to accept is that issue's Downer episode, which portrays a flying ethergaunt fortress approaching Sigil - from the outside.

This is obviously impossible, since magic doesn't work there, and without magic there's no way to ascend the infinite Spire.

Except it makes a reference to them being ethereal - what if the ethergaunts discovered some way of using the strange connection between Sigil and the ethereal Mazes to bypass the Spire entirely? As brilliant as the ethergaunts are supposed to be, I've decided to allow it - at least, until the Lady of Pain decides to patch the flaw in her defenses that permits this exploit.

-420