Fantasy powered armor

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

The weight and bulk problems depend significantly on the style. Fantasy power armor could be no heavier or bulkier than a plate harness, with the power-assistive magic adding negligible mass or volume.

Relevant to the bulk question I believe it is in Low Tech where the opinion is expressed that above DR10 (using LT steel of course) plate armor becomes too bulky to wear. You can go to DR14 on the Chest and Head.

This would be for power armor that's worn like regular armor with the user's arms and legs inside the armor's arms and legs. If the user is sitting in the chest and operating the arms and legs via levers or something I'd call it a small mecha rather than a suit of powered armor.

Something else for the OP to clear up.

[Pursuivant]

Modified golems were my first choice as well, but it really depends on style of campaign and which colleges of magic you prefer.

The various "Body of . . ." spells give "battlesuit-like" abilities in some cases.

Beast Possession, Control Person, or Possession could be used to control animals or monsters which could be used like ultratech "cybershells."

Control Elemental, Create Elemental, and the various "Resist" spells or "Breathe Water" could be used to occupy shells made from elemental materials.

Dancing Object variants could be used to "program" a suit of armor to perform various simple tasks on command (e.g., "walk", "strike with right arm")

Animate Object could be used to animate hollow statues or suits of armor. The GM could rule that animated armor doesn't count as encumbrance for most purposes.

Variants on Zombie could be used to animate exoskeletons made from the bones or flesh of some large creature or multiple smaller creatures bound together.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

I think we might have different visions: my vision of power armour is something that encloses the human body and lets the fighter inside wear more armour and weapons than a human can move on their own (as well as providing its own atmosphere and maybe a means of motion like jump jets or contragravity lift). Its not so much about making the wearer stronger or faster. But that gets back to "if the OP can explain what he wants this power armour to to and what role it should have in the story (standard-issue military kit? unique ensouled creations? something the big bad's bodyguards wear?) the forum might have more suggestions."

I think it would be difficult for the armor to let the wearer carry more armor and weapons than humanly possible while not giving them additional strength for other purposes. And fantasy power armor almost certainly wants strength-augmentation because it likely uses strength-based weapons.

Speed certainly varies with the concept. MI are very mobile indeed but some armors trudge instead.

More armor than a human could reasonably carry fits within what I described, though. DR 10-14 full-body coverage is ridiculously heavy - it might be technically possible to wear but you'd need to be superhuman to fight in it if it didn't bear its own weight. But it would have little more difficulty fitting into places than a person in ordinary plate. (I did say extra weight would be avoided, didn't I, that was wrong - unless the armor flies anyway.) Magical climate control by many rules could even be provided by a small piece of jewelry that works with or without the armor.

Not sure what carrying more weapons would look like. Fantasy doesn't usually have support weapon analogues. A two-handed melee weapon and maybe a bow, each scaled to suit-augmented strength, are as far as I can think unless there's some kind of magitech armaments about.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Not sure what carrying more weapons would look like. Fantasy doesn't usually have support weapon analogues. A two-handed melee weapon and maybe a bow, each scaled to suit-augmented strength, are as far as I can think unless there's some kind of magitech armaments about.

If I were doing this I would go for one of the mega-heavy crossbows in GURPS Low-Tech that realistically can only be drawn with a winch or something similar. The powered armor would let them be cocked like an ordinary crossbow, with a belt hitch or stirrup, so they could get off a lot more shots. Or even a repeating crossbow with very high ST . . .

[Tymathee]

Fantasy power armor sounds like my kind of gonzo. The Biomecha article by David L. Pulver from Pyramid 3/24 could easily be adapted to build a suit of magical power armor. Just swap the biotech fluff for the magitech fluff and you're good to go.

[Aldric]

Done as an ally, with a modified Clay Golem:
Bare minimum you need to add payload and sufficient lifting ST, and Compartmentalized Mind (Controls). But I went ahead and gave it more DR and (with more points available) tweaked other stats.
Since it ends up being a vehicle, you want a piloting skill, and some armor for the pilot, since he can take damage if the Golem DR is pierced.
Of course the ally had Summonable and Minion

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Perhaps more important than "How"" is "Where?" and the answer is obviously in a setting where enchantment is both powerful and common.

Not necessarily. The magitech fabrials in The Stormlight Archives are moderately common (they're mostly in the hands of the very wealthy) but not very powerful, but Shardblades and Shardplate - the latter of which is outright magical powered armor - are extremely rare, irreproducible artifacts. Fortunately, the former are (at least to all appearances) indestructible, and the latter can be regenerated from even a tiny fragment (but not duplicated - as missing parts regenerate, the corresponding original collapses into dust). They are highly coveted - at one point it states that they have been traded in exchange for entire (presumably small-ish) kingdoms.

If you want them to be rare but still be producible (rather than irreproducible artifacts), you need to make them sufficiently difficult and expensive (in time and materials) to make to justify their rarity. Maybe the only thing that can power them is a special gemstone that must be harvested from an adult dragon (the guymelefs in Vision of Escaflowne are like this, although those are generally produced on an industrial level by people who harvest the stones from dragon graveyards), and you have to carefully "grow" the armor around the gem so everything syncs up properly. Maybe they have to be inhabited by a spirit of some sort, and it's really tough to convince one to bind itself into such (and then find a "pilot" the spirit is willing to work with). Maybe only one relatively-rare race is able to produce some important component, and everyone else has to either commission them or cannibalize from existing technology (this is the case in Knights & Magic, where IIRC elves are the only ones able to channel magic through their hands, which lets them shape otherwise-unworkable mythril like clay; the main character figures out a workaround - a special glove that can channel magic in the same way, letting him do the work himself - because of course he does).

[LoneWolf23k]

My "Quick and Easy" version of the concept is to start with a suit of full plate armor, than enchant it with five levels of Might and Vigor, this creating the "body enhancing exoskeleton" effect.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Aldric

add payload and sufficient lifting ST

B74 says "Treat your Payload as part of your body, not as encumbrance or carried weight" but then since Payload's pricing is based on your Lifting ST there's probably a formula for making the most efficient version ...

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Plane

B74 says "Treat your Payload as part of your body, not as encumbrance or carried weight" but then since Payload's pricing is based on your Lifting ST there's probably a formula for making the most efficient version ...

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).