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Old 06-20-2021, 11:42 AM   #11
Polkageist
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Default Re: Fantasy powered armor

There are lots of ways to slice it I think. Making it a conglomeration of advantages glues it to the character and makes it a unique and intrinsic part of them that can't really be replicated elsewhere. I'd envision something like a sailor-moon-esque transformation sequence as the armor assembles itself around the character for a fight.
Statting that out would be more hunting through books that I'm up for at the moment, but it'd be a combination of the following advantages: Damage Reduction, Clairvoyance/audience, Extra Strength, Extra Attack, Sealed (or protected breathing), protected sight/hearing, possibly even Flight of some flavor and/or Enhanced Move. Sum those all up, give it a discount for it being a gadget (and also arcane-powered) that can be stolen or broken, maybe an operational cost in FP.
What it'll come down to is that the "magitech power armor" is a set of advantages and disadvantages that copy what you want.

So building it as a powerful magic artifact is more my speed. I think it lends a little more flexibility to what you can do and makes the pricing of it more customizable.

The first step is to define what we want it to do. That goes for the above as well, so both ways laying out the abilities is going to be key. Looking at what SF power armor does there are a couple iconic things that power should have.

1. Self-powered, i.e. it holds itself up so for its protection it's lighter for the operator.
2. That same strength helps it hit harder as well (SF means bigger guns, Fantasy means a bigger sword)
3. Battle awareness, on-board functions that give the user a better view of the fight. Possibly even an on-board "AI" or armor-spirit that helps out. I dig intelligent items anyway.

A full suit of plate armor is a great place to start so let's make it a monster and use Extra-heavy plate at a whopping DR 8, covering the full body.
Special materials, since this is magical it can't be Meteoric so we could go with Orichalcum which is both pretty and pretty indestructible. This also reduces the apparent weight, but I have a better idea for how to adjust this monster so Oricalchum is kinda optional.
Since this is powered armor, technically the strength of the user shouldn't matter much so while wearing this armor the user's ST is set to 30 (affects damage and lifting, does not affect HP) and move is set to 4 regardless of their value outside of the armor.
Now, let's give it some abilities. A ghost lives in the armor, and can whisper in the ear of the user telling them useful bits of information like "There's someone behind you" or "That acid is eating through me!", that sort of thing.
It should have some built-in spells it can cast, I'll pick three for starters, offensive, defensive, utility.
Offensive: Flame Jet, up to 3d.
Defensive: Shield, 2 DB per energy point up to 4.
Utility: Mage sight
These spells can only be cast using a 10-point (and ONLY a 10-point) powerstone (or mana-stone for being purely consumable) that is socketed into the armor's chest-plate. The powerstone can be swapped out, which is a 5-second action: eject the spent stone, ready a new stone, insert the new stone, and 2 seconds for the new stone to incorporate.

So far we have a suit of armor that is DR8, ST30, Move 4, allows the user to cast some spells with a (semi)consumable resource.
Donning the armor takes ~10 minutes as the user climbs in, performs the necessary rituals and incantations to awaken and attune the armor, etc. Removing it is pretty quick as it'll just spit you out in a couple-three seconds or so.
The armor powers itself by very efficiently consuming the fatigue point reserves from the user. It can also drain from Energy Reserve making a wizard wearing this an especially potent combatant! While wearing this armor, the user loses 1 FP per hour AND they cannot recover FP (or ER) by any means while inside the armor. If they lose enough FP to become unconcious the armor spits them out and goes quiescent. Other models have been known to also consume the life-force of the user, draining HP in addition to (or instead of!) FP. What happens when the user's HP reaches a point where they die is probably best not spoken of.

Sell Price: Six figures, easily
Weight: 70-100lb, or ~50 for the Orichalcum model
Power-item capacity: Invalid, it uses them for fuel
Treasure!
- Acquiring such a thing would be a significant quest, perhaps culminating in defeating the user of this armor as they wear it to combat the adventurers. It's likely one of a kind, but if there are more than one then each one should have its own unique theme. For example replace flame-jet with air-jet and shield with flight and drop DR for a more mobile and scouty suit. No matter what, this isn't an item that can be found in a shop!
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