PDA

View Full Version : Fantasy powered armor



Trekkin
2010-04-23, 01:50 AM
My soon-to-be-used character is faced with a quandary: on one hand, it has a low Dex score and is psionic, and therefore has no reason not to hide in Mechanus Gear armor. On the other hand, it has a low Strength and small size; it can't carry heavy armor, and can't move at all quickly inside it. My question is: can the armor be enchanted to move , ideally at 30 feet/round, on its own, and if so, how cheaply may this be done?

AslanCross
2010-04-23, 02:28 AM
This (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cw/20070212a) might be a good starting point. Problem is it's rather expensive.

Baron Malkar
2010-04-23, 02:45 AM
-Hollowed out Iron Golem (possibly created with the help of a manual)
-Permanent Animate Objects on a Suit of armor
-Control Body on yourself while wearing a normal suit of armor (have your psicrystal concentrate for you)

Sydonai
2010-04-23, 02:50 AM
Control Object on your armor, the saving throw is the wearer(you), so you can voluntarily fail the save.

Baron Malkar
2010-04-23, 04:01 AM
Control object doesn't work because the target has to be unattended and there is no saving throw. In essence you cant fail the saving throw because anything that would let you make the throw cancels the power.

Fizban
2010-04-23, 04:03 AM
If you're small size you could just ride something, since it'll be a medium creature like the rest of the party. Mithril will cut the weight of the armor in half, and small size will cut that in half again to less than 20lbs. It'll cost a bit more than 10,000gp, but that's probably a lot cheaper than finding some way to animate it. After that if you need more strength, a quick Bull's Strength should give you enough to speed up. Or just apply an enhancement bonus, such as Expeditious Retreat.

Otherwise, why not just ride something else? Just being small drops the weight to around 40lbs, so even a medium mount shouldn't have much trouble carrying you and your gear around. How about a custom at-will item of mount to summon infinite ponies? For those with some money to throw around, there's the Onyx Dog or a pair of Golden Lions. A few Bags of Trcks (Rust or Tan) will give you enough mounts to adventure every day of the week, and no one will know what you're gonna charge in on next. Or take Wild Cohort and get a replaceable animal companion.

Not that I'm objecting to powered armor, it's just that it's pretty difficult territory to get right. Either it ends up way too good, because that's just how powered armor is supposed to be, or it ends up just being armor with built in Gauntlets of Ogre Power. I think a series of sacrificial ponies is much more amusing (you might specify that they disappear if not ridden, to prevent trap springing abuse). You could also buy a Talisman of the Disk, and ride the Floating Disk around sidecar style.

Vizzerdrix
2010-04-23, 04:09 AM
Are you allowed third party books? I found a golem in one that is basically power armor.

Sydonai
2010-04-23, 04:57 AM
Control object doesn't work because the target has to be unattended and there is no saving throw. In essence you cant fail the saving throw because anything that would let you make the throw cancels the power.

Use generic telekinesis then, the real kind, not that glitchy spell.

Person_Man
2010-04-23, 09:35 AM
Homebrew solution (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6900315&postcount=3)?

Also, it's not that hard to get magical or psionic flight, which usually ignores your encumbrance. Or you can just use Inertial Armor, which is superior to most armor you can buy.

D Knight
2010-04-23, 09:50 AM
you could do animate dead on a medium or large creature. Now that it is a skeleton build a suit of armor for it out of glass steel and some other metal. once done you sit in the chest area looking out through the glass steel window you put in the armor. now enchant as you see fit. oh do not forget to make the animate undead permanent.

Zanatos777
2010-04-23, 10:08 AM
There is an epic artifact for this...

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/magicItems/artifacts.htm#golemArmor

There it is.

LibraryOgre
2010-04-23, 02:13 PM
Well, first of all, there's the Apparatus of Kwalish (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#apparatusoftheCrab) to use as a base. My idea, and it works mostly from the point of view of an artificer-type:

1) Obtain some very good full plate; of a size larger than you if you prefer to sit, rather than wear. Adamantine would be ideal, but anything awesome would be good.

2) Enchant it with Animate Objects, as one would do for an Apparatus; instead of being a random attacking thingy, it's a full-on suit that responds to your commands.

3) If possible, bind it as an item familiar.

DaedalusMkV
2010-04-23, 03:27 PM
you could do animate dead on a medium or large creature. Now that it is a skeleton build a suit of armor for it out of glass steel and some other metal. once done you sit in the chest area looking out through the glass steel window you put in the armor. now enchant as you see fit. oh do not forget to make the animate undead permanent.

That is quite possibly the best idea I have heard in the last month. Seriously, I have a character running right now who will now be doing something virtually identical to this, and I suspect that another of our characters will do the same once I introduce the concept. We can put together a whole squad of necromantically-assisted power-suited characters! Consider this idea stolen, with my thanks!