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Old 06-20-2021, 03:21 AM   #1
fdsa1234567890
 
Join Date: May 2011
Default Fantasy powered armor

How might I make this work?

While there are obviously rules in Ultra-Tech for traditional and mostly realistic SF powered armor, how could this be done in a lower tech setting using essentially a magic power source and materials science?
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Old 06-20-2021, 04:08 AM   #2
johndallman
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default Re: Fantasy powered armor

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Originally Posted by fdsa1234567890 View Post
While there are obviously rules in Ultra-Tech for traditional and mostly realistic SF powered armor, how could this be done in a lower tech setting using essentially a magic power source and materials science?
I'd suggest making a hollow metal man, and animating it as a golem. Some development work will be needed to get the size and weight right, and the joints bending in the right places. You'll also want a magical set of senses for the wearer, rather than having them peering through small holes in a very thick helmet.
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Old 06-20-2021, 04:21 AM   #3
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: Fantasy powered armor

If you use the Magic as Powers rules, you could buy the armor as a Strength power, with gadget modifiers, and also with the Magical modifier (-10%).

If you are using standard mana-based magic, you could come up with specifications for an enchanted item that casts a strength-enhancing spell on the wearer; there is such a spell in the Body Control college. There aren't any systematic rules for determining the costs and requisites of enchantment, so you would need to improvise those.
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Old 06-20-2021, 05:01 AM   #4
Willy
 
Join Date: Dec 2020
Default Re: Fantasy powered armor

As long as you neednīt a sealed suit, I would buy a full plate, possible of the best available material.

Than you can have it bolstered up via enchantments. The Classic Magic items series has some nice ideas for armor with enschantements. But add selfpowered, so you neednīt to cast all the spells on your own FP, maybe with some Powerstones build into the pieces, on the inside of course, for more power if necessary, and very important Fortify and Deflect, together with other protective spells. If you face ultra tech enemys they will laugh at you only once if you take Reflect Energy, Reflect Missile etc. Lighten is also helpful Full Plate IS heavy.

Also most high tech armor has some sensory equipment, this can be simulated via spells that augment your own senses. Not to mention that magic can tell you if someone is a enemy even if he is playing your friend or ally.

The counterpart of sensors is equipment which allows you to move undetected, here invisibility, blur , camouflage and much more spells help you a lot.

Remember you can enchant the whole suit piecemeal and neednīt to put every enchantment on every part of it.

Oh donīt forget enchantments that let you fight better, even more by adding some build in wands with explosive fireball, lightning, sunbolt etc, dont forget self powered!, you can also simulate the firepower of such a battlesuit.

Last edited by Willy; 06-20-2021 at 05:03 AM. Reason: spelling error
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Old 06-20-2021, 06:50 AM   #5
Gnaskar
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Re: Fantasy powered armor

The more flexible rules for Golems you can find here are a great starting point. Then you combine these with the rules for building vehicles with character points. Give it Payload enough to have a human (or dwarf) inside, add Compartmentalized Mind (Controls) to let your passenger direct you, and then buy IQ down to 0. Note that all of this requires GM permission.

That gives you a basic suit of Fallout 4 style power armor, which just stands dormant when you aren't in it, and which lumbers around slowly when worn. Now if you want to improve it, there are rules for making armors for SM+1 creatures in Low Tech Companion 2 and there's nothing stopping you from putting an iron golem in a suit of heavy full plate...

If you want ironman style sometimes independent suits, just don't buy down the IQ, and you have a golem you can ride when you need to. Build wands into the arms for blasting.
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Old 06-20-2021, 07:57 AM   #6
Varyon
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Default Re: Fantasy powered armor

I explored doing this with RPM in my Zombie Powered Armor thread (while that used Path of Undead to animate leather armor, Path of Matter for steel would work fine). Alternatively, I created a design system for powered armor that you could readily extrapolate from.
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Old 06-20-2021, 08:17 AM   #7
JulianLW
 
Join Date: Apr 2019
Default Re: Fantasy powered armor

If you're only interested in the end result, you might take a look at the concept for the "Juggernaut Armor" in the 3E Magic Items 1. I would build such a Golem as an Alternate Form and use the limitations suggested in Supers: Gadget Limitations, Preventable -10% (i.e. someone can stop you from switching to your Alternate Form by keeping you from getting inside of it), and Nuisance Effect: Real Armor -5% (only if the Golem weighs more than your Heavy Encumbrance and you have to actually get inside of it).

Alternatively, you could use Mailanka's living battlesuit designs, based on (I think) David Pulver's work in Pyramid, on his Psi-Wars Wiki - the "Flesh Carapace" page is what you'll want to search for. In any case, it might be worth looking at Mailanka's blog and reading his series of posts on "Are Battlesuits Broken?"
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Old 06-20-2021, 09:09 AM   #8
thrash
 
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Default Re: Fantasy powered armor

A cost-effective but somewhat more outré method to achieve a similar effect is to use Transform Body (Magic, p. 43) to assume the form of a physically powerful (but still sapient) monster. If the form has enhanced senses, these are included in the package. Since the duration is one hour, self-powered versions are not out of reach. A key limitation is the form must be humanoid, without extra limbs (wings, tails, etc.). Some possibilities from DF are Draug (ST 22, DR 6), Earth Elemental (ST 25, DR 9), Giant Ape (ST 43, DR 2), Golem-Armor Swordsman* (ST 13, DR 17), Siege Beast (ST 30, DR 10), Stone Golem (ST 20, DR 4), Werewolf (ST 18, DR 15), Giant (ST 25-75, DR 2-5), Petriginis (ST 20, DR 8), Tretrold (ST 25, DR 8).

For the more standard version, don't forget Jump (Super Jump) or Flight.

*I contend this is a legitimate use of Transform Body, since the armor in the original is animated and part of its body. YMMV.
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Old 06-20-2021, 09:45 AM   #9
Ulzgoroth
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Default Re: Fantasy powered armor

This might be excessively reductionist, but it might not too:

It's gear. And it's not realistic gear, so calibrating it to realism is outright impossible. So what you really need is simply to give it the stats you want it to have. The nominally-realistic armor in UT doesn't go into any detail on how it works and how it's made!

Now to undermine that a little, it probably should cost more than and weigh at least as much as non-powered armor of the same DR.
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Old 06-20-2021, 10:52 AM   #10
Plane
 
Join Date: Aug 2018
Default Re: Fantasy powered armor

Quote:
Originally Posted by fdsa1234567890 View Post
How might I make this work?

While there are obviously rules in Ultra-Tech for traditional and mostly realistic SF powered armor, how could this be done in a lower tech setting using essentially a magic power source and materials science?
I'm thinking maybe design such vehicles as allies, with that Thaumatology limitation they had for magic-weapons-as-characters which made them go immobile in No Mana.

I'm not sure if maybe in one of the Pyramids someone put together a template for piloted-power-armor-as-ally, I think some combination of Payloads and Compartmentalized Mind : Controls would be the baseline?

For stuff like protecting your cargo (your pilot and any passengers you make room for) you could take Internal Advantages (1/5 cost!) with the "Affects Others" enhancement, perhaps?

For a small 1-hex robot I think you'd only need the smallest 1-ex AE for +25% which got introduced later to protect everything inside (instead of 1 specific char) while for larger multi-hex robots you probably need larger AE, such as the 2-yard one (central hex plus six surrounding) for +50% in basic set.

For a second I thought you might need +50% because humans are 2 hexes tall, but apparently height for AE is always 2 yards so that shouldn't be an issue.

For robots who are 3+ hexes tall I'm not exactly sure how you'd deal with getting enough AE to protect those piloting the feet and head simultaneously though, as B101's "should volume matter" doesn't really talk about how to adjust in that direction...

B109's +60% version of Wall does allow more flexibility with AE design but it only specifies being able to take it for "an attack" ...

Do we maybe have any examples in later books of Wall being allowed more liberally for other advantages, like we've seen with modifiers for other stuff floating from their place of origin to another?
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