Magic lightning and high tech vehicle Armour

[Kfireblade]

Ok, so as I understand magic lightning goes through metal Armour like its butter, no matter what. So my question is how this works with vehicles? I have a TL 7 snatcher character going into a highly magical TL 5 world and his weight limit would allow him to snatch armored vehicles and light helicopters but would they all have an effective DR 1 against magic lightning attacks?

[Nereidalbel]

The vehicle itself would end up fried, and the passengers would only be in trouble if said vehicle is airborne. Ground vehicles would simply end up being shut down, without the horrible effects of gravity vs human.

[Kfireblade]

So basically in a world where battle mages are pretty common me and my vehicles can go sod off?

[Nereidalbel]

Unless you start giving them insulation against electrical attacks, yes. Shouldn't be more than +1 CF to protect against lightning bolts, though.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

The vehicle itself would end up fried, and the passengers would only be in trouble if said vehicle is airborne. Ground vehicles would simply end up being shut down, without the horrible effects of gravity vs human.

That's only the case with real electricity. Magical lightning doesn't respect the faraday cage effect - or a suit of plate would be great, not dr 1. There is Nothing scientific or sensible about how magical lightning works.

[simply Nathan]

I would personally treat magical lightning as "Armor Divisor 10 (Metal Only)" so that a set of DR 20 plate armor counts as DR 2 against it. And yes, it's still be great against a vehicle compared to other magic but its awesome would be scalable.

[starslayer]

Admittedly your TL7 guy may be sodded, but pre TL7 and post TL7 almost all armour is actually a composite and involves layers of ceramic, plastic, etc.

Though even at TL7 composite armours involving ceramic started existing (starting in 1960: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chobham_armour).

Very few TL7 aircraft have long engagement ranges: What are you possibly doing within 100m of the mage you are trying to kill with a helicopter; trying to chop him up in the blades?

Many TL7 aircraft used fiberglass in repairs, and earlier TL7 aircraft still used wood/canvas for hull.

Fiberglass is a thing at mid-late TL7- should not be too difficult to:
1- just outright snatch a fiberglass hull version of the aircraft in question (You loose some DR, but now it is no more vulnerable to lightning bolts then to arrows).
2- Coat the hull with fiberglass- Armour is no longer metal.
3- Powder coat the hull (or snatch one that is powder coated)- started in 1950, puts a plastic protective layer over metal.


Side note: Pretty sure almost all aircraft got a coating of CARC or powder coat to prevent rust (unless made of aluminum or magnesium), it generally goes on thick enough to count as DR1- I have to wonder if that does not mean that any coated vehicle is not 'metal armour'- seems about as finicky as 'all metal armour counts as DR 1'

[Kfireblade]

I was doing some research and found that the metal part of ceramic composite Armour can be made with depleted uranium. depleted uranium is actually a poor conductor, so one could argue composite armor made with the stuff should get its full DR against magic lightning right?

[mlangsdorf]

If your GM will let you snatch custom vehicles, then you could snatch fiberglass vehicles as mentioned upthread or armored vehicles with a layer of kevlar.

Lightning penetrates metal, but kevlar and fiberglass aren't metal and would absorb the lightning damage normally. Even DR8 kevlar armor will make a vehicle fairly resistant to lightning bolts. A 10 damage lightning attack would only do 1 injury and the vehicle wouldn't need to make an HT test.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by starslayer

3- Powder coat the hull (or snatch one that is powder coated)- started in 1950, puts a plastic protective layer over metal.

I wouldn't let this count, otherwise a knight need only wear a cloth tabard to get the full DR of his armor. Magical lightning simply treats any DR from metal as DR 1 - it doesn't matter if the metal is directly exposed to the lightning or not. You do have the option of coating the hull with enough fiberglass to give the vehicle enough DR to avoid damage from the lightning, of course, but that's going to add some weight (it also adds DR against other attacks, however).

Originally Posted by Kfireblade

I was doing some research and found that the metal part of ceramic composite Armour can be made with depleted uranium. depleted uranium is actually a poor conductor, so one could argue composite armor made with the stuff should get its full DR against magic lightning right?

That would be up to the GM. As noted, magical lightning doesn’t follow normal rules - uranium may well conduct it just fine, because magic doesn’t care that it’s a poor conductor, all that matters is that it’s metal.
(Uranium's symbolic link to energy production doesn't do it any favors, although this being depleted uranium might negate that effect)