Fantasy powered armor

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Anthony

As payload is linear whereas lifting ST is quadratic, if your goal is merely maximizing payload, you want to spend half as many points on payload as you spend on lifting ST (counting from 0).

You could also allow for Lifting ST with Payload Only (which I mark at -80%), which would make things a bit more complex to work out the most efficient build. When I was dealing with this for my Zombie Powered Armor - where I discovered I had so much Payload that simply boosting ST outright actually saved points, due to the reduction in how much Payload was needed. Rather than work out an equation, I opted to just brute force the solution - using a spreadsheet, I basically worked out how much Payload I needed without any "Payload ST," then added Payload ST at +1 at a time to see where the minimum cost was. In that case, because I was starting from ST 7 armor, it turned out the optimal point was Payload ST 19 [8] and Payload 7 [7]. I feel I should note here that I didn't have that armor capable of supporting the character's full weight - I instead had it supporting her full volume (Payload has rules for how much volume each pound of Payload can hold - in this case, a typical ~2.5 cf human would require 50 lb of Payload), and effectively reducing her weight some in the process. That's because I had the character and armor working together (it basically mimicked her movements, using a modified Teamwork Perk), rather than the character piloting the armor (where the armor is doing everything). This "working together" bit is also why having only ST 7 was still worthwhile - ST 7 has BL 9.8, and adding this to the BL of the character results in a +2 to ST for a decent range of ST's (depending on how you round). That's not great for something called "powered armor," of course, but it's useful for your mage to go from ST 10 to effective ST 12 (also, one could justify treating the character as 50 lb less encumbered, thanks to the Payload; that means the character would have to carry somewhere around 80 lb to reach Light Encumbrance, making it easier for the mage to wear the armor in the first place).

I'll note the low ST was essentially due to the limitations of RPM, specifically fitting the whole thing into a Lesser Create Undead + Lesser Control Undead ritual while keeping her in otherwise roughly-normal armor. Using more leather and bone for a dedicated suit and/or tossing on some Strengthen Undead and some Greater effects will result in much more powerful armor (but end up with a much greater energy cost), and of course other magic systems should be able to create more impressive powered armors.