Taking off my Super Suit?

[smurf]

I have designed 5 variations of a 800pt power armour with various abilities.
This left 200pts for a character.

Then this got me thinking that the character cannot wear its power armour all of the time and there for the character would have 2 sheets, one in armour and one out of armour.

If this ability is not available all the time but is on tap then it could be classed as an Ally

But then that is bigger issues because the 200pt character could be 800pts (sort of fair) and the suite treated as an ally = 5pts + 50% minion +50% super abilities + summoning +100% gives a grand price of 15pts and available of 15 or less = 45pts

Or is there another way of doing this more fairly?

[Anaraxes]

It's only an Ally if it's a sentient being with its own goals and motivations. (You could make a case for Jarvis animating various Iron Man suits.)

If you just want someplace to keep the armor handy, throw in some Payload. If you like, make the special effects one of those Tony Stark briefcases that somehow manages to contain all the armor, or it all folds up and expands out when needed, or comes flying in from offscreen (also often done in the IM movies).

I wouldn't let someone build their power armor guy as a normal guy with an Ally simply because it's an obvious munchkinism. Also worth keeping in mind that Allies can't exceed the base character value (by much); if they do, they're Patrons -- or better yet, turn it around and have the armor suit be the actual PC, with the normal human as a minion.

[robkelk]

One could also use the Alternate Forms rules for this, with the character having two forms: "guy in suit" and "guy not in suit". This has the added bonus of having the transformation time define how long it takes to get into or out of the suit. Put Accessibility: "the suit is stored nearby" on the morph to finish the build.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

It's only an Ally if it's a sentient being with its own goals and motivations. (You could make a case for Jarvis animating various Iron Man suits.)

No, you can use Ally for nonsapient allies, in fact there's no cap on point value for those (p. B37). I know a lot of people don't like this/use it, but it is in the rules. I did this for the Peshang Dragoon Constructs in Desolation Road and it worked fine.

Now, IIRC, Supers which for some reason I only have in softcover, used gadget limitations instead of Ally for superhero power armor suits.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by robkelk

One could also use the Alternate Forms rules for this, with the character having two forms: "guy in suit" and "guy not in suit". This has the added bonus of having the transformation time define how long it takes to get into or out of the suit. Put Accessibility: "the suit is stored nearby" on the morph to finish the build.

I approve of this Alternate Form method. I've been meaning to redo my Tony Stark build with AFs for his various suits.

[Nereidalbel]

Super Suits are perfect for Gadget limitations. Buy your human attributes as normal, then buy Extra ST with Gadget limitations and you'll only need 1 character sheet.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

No, you can use Ally for nonsapient allies

I should have been clear that that's my own personal rule. Sentience is the dividing line for me between "Ally" and "Gadget".

Most of the Ally rules make no sense for non-thinking objects. (How can you mistreat them? How will they get offended and leave? How can a hammer fail an appearance role and have more urgent business that takes them elsewhere? Etc.)

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Most of the Ally rules make no sense for non-thinking objects. (How can you mistreat them? How will they get offended and leave? )

Minion is required for most, maybe even all, nonsapient ally concepts.

How can a hammer fail an appearance role and have more urgent business that takes them elsewhere? Etc.

A hammer is probably a poor fit for ally, for this and other reasons.

In Desolation Road the dragoon took his assault construct at 15 or less and I didn't actually make appearance rolls, instead I made sure that there were parts of the game that he needed to be unbuttoned, in particular there are places where even a man-sized warmachine isn't appropriate attire, and the character actually spent a good deal of time on foot anyway of his own volition; more than the 4.6% of the time required. Significantly there was a fight in which he was attacked at a formal dinner, caught separated from his construct and had to make it back, under fire, in order to defend the party. Which with 4 HP is no small feat.

The sorts of things that make sense as nonsapient allies are mostly vehicles, which aren't going to be available in many circumstances and also usually have Maintenance and so logically could also be unavailable due to breakdown.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

The sorts of things that make sense as nonsapient allies are mostly vehicles, which aren't going to be available in many circumstances and also usually have Maintenance and so logically could also be unavailable due to breakdown.

I believe the article "The Captain's Boat" advises that things like a fighter jet, starfighter, or battlemech should be treated as a 5-point base Ally with either a FoA of 12 or just not adjusted for FoA, with personalized versions being more expensive.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

I believe the article "The Captain's Boat" advises that things like a fighter jet, starfighter, or battlemech should be treated as a 5-point base Ally with either a FoA of 12 or just not adjusted for FoA, with personalized versions being more expensive.

Yeah, Desolation Road was already going when Rory was writing that, if I were to do it over again I might have pegged the FoA lower. OTOH, the construct was SM 0 so it wasn't quite as restricted.