Making a power armor pilot?

[Tyuqa]

are there any magisciency power armour type things off the top of your heads?
basically I want a suit of large armour that is controlled by a medium rider inside, the rider should be able to get in and out.

I can always try to homebrew one but I would rather see if it has been done before.

EDIT I have been looking stuff up real quick and have found:
Construct Armor and Construct Limb from PF
and a homebrew called magitech templar

but how to make it larger

[Tohsaka Rin]

Look at the Pathfinder Arcforge beta test topic, several entries down, it's got mech things of various sizes.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Refluffed Synthesist Summoner?

[Crake]

Have you looked at the clockwork armor (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd%2Fcw%2F20070212a)?

[Tyuqa]

I'm liking everything about the arcforge mechs except that they are psionic.
I kinda want it to be magi-tech in nature. I'm going to try refluffing them to be Metamagic and using a robotic familiar instead.

if anyone has any ideas of more magical forms of power armour I'd like to hear them

[Darrin]

My understanding was you make your own power armor via astral construct (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=8955.0).

[Fizban]

If you can find World of Warcraft: More Magic and Mayhem, it's got a pretty good steamarmor table. You can ignore all the WoW-isms, it's all DnD based and balanced based on the market price, or rather the 1/3 market price you're expected to pay in order to build and use one. Essentially they use a combination of str bonus and an hp pool that's added on to your own with the bases determined by the size of the frame, and an armor bonus and hardness determined by the armor material. It's not very fleshed out and only a few pages (a total shame compared to some of the other stuff taking up space), but it's a good start.

Alternatively, you can go a long way just by putting stuff together. You ride it around? Price and general stats based on a horse or other mount of your choice (Elephants are quite tough). It protects you? Add price of equivalent armor. It has weapons? Add those on. Strength bonus? We've got a price for that. Hardness or damage reduction: pricey, but we've got numbers. The hardest part is figuring out how you want to do hp: does the armor take all the hits, none of the hits, can it be sundered, or some combination? The easiest way to answer this is how you want it to go in a fight: does the armor fail before the pilot loses the fight, or can the pilot always push it until he personally collapses and takes a lethal hit? The former means the armor has it's own hit points and should be priced more like a mount or golem, while the latter means it's a tool and the pilot fights using their own hit points. If the pilot makes all the rolls then the armor is passive and shouldn't prevent them from taking damage, but if the mech uses it's own stats for attacks then it's more of a bodyguard that you can't outwit because the VIP is inside.

I would also be remiss if I didn't link the Magitech Templar (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?176276-3-5-Magitech-Templar-Iron-Man), though I'm pretty sure it's not what you're looking for.
Kellus had a custom golem creation system here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?69839-You-re-riding-around-in-a-WHAT), but it's old so the tables are broken and I never got around to reading it so I can't vouch.
I swear I had bookmark for a Gurren Lagann style template for constructs, but I've checked all my bookmark directories and can't find it. Pathfinder has a similar template of course, but it lacked a certain spiral power.
Edit: google trail led me back to it, here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?105858-A-Drill-Is-A-Man-s-Romance!-Monsters-and-Subtype).

[Flickerdart]

My understanding was you make your own power armor via astral construct (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=8955.0).
This is one of my favourite pieces of wishful thinking in the charop community. There are rules for creatures sharing spaces, and "sit inside a creature of the same size as you" is not within those rules. Once you get to "use the STR and DEX of the construct but otherwise act normally" part, it's just houseruling.

[Starbuck_II]

There are a few power armor mechs in Dragonmech: About 5 written.

1) Rebreather (main purpose is can breath underwater) Large, -2 Dex
2) Ashigaru: Large, +6 Str, -4 Dex (again bulky power armor)
3) Dire Armor: Huge, +6 Str, but -8 Dex (really bulky)
4) Fire Armor: Huge, +6 Str, but -8 Dex (really bulky), made to explode on a Crit or choice (12d6 [1/2 fire and 1/2 piercing], 30 ft radius, DC 18)
5) Deep Spider: Huge +2 Str, +8 Dex (looks like a Drider)

These are base models for more money you could have better stat boosts, they could fly, etc.

But in general, Dragonmech goes with bulky armors (think Hulk Busters from Iron Man).

[ATHATH]

Wasn't there a robot crab thing that could be controlled by a bunch of levers on the inside?

[Grod_The_Giant]

This is one of my favourite pieces of wishful thinking in the charop community. There are rules for creatures sharing spaces, and "sit inside a creature of the same size as you" is not within those rules. Once you get to "use the STR and DEX of the construct but otherwise act normally" part, it's just houseruling.
The Skin of the Construct feat is much weaker but RAW-supported. It's not fantastic, and it's not quite what you're looking for, but it indisputably works and is available from level 1. It's a good low-level option until your proper build comes online if nothing else. (Also one of the only was I know to get flight at level 1)

EDIT: Though on closer inspection I notice that only the temporary HP last for an hour, which makes it significantly worse than I thought.

[mabriss lethe]

Ghostwalk style ghosts can use shell mannequins, combined with trap rules abuse to turn your shell into a walking deathtrap, and things could get ugly.

You could also use the advanced psionic tattoos web article to create a "summonable mech". Link together expansion, inertial armor, and maybe claws of the beast into an array with the goodies that preserve them. (or something, it's been a while since I looked over the article.)

[Malimar]

Wasn't there a robot crab thing that could be controlled by a bunch of levers on the inside?

Apparatus of Kwalish/Apparatus of the Crab. (At first I typoed that as "Apparatus of the Crap", because Freudian slip -- it is widely held to be not a very good item.)

[Zaq]

This is one of my favourite pieces of wishful thinking in the charop community. There are rules for creatures sharing spaces, and "sit inside a creature of the same size as you" is not within those rules. Once you get to "use the STR and DEX of the construct but otherwise act normally" part, it's just houseruling.

Agreed. The whole "Astral Construct power armor" thing is not even close to supported by RAW. I mean, if you have a GM who's willing to work with you to make some houserules to do what you want, then godspeed, but as has been stated, it doesn't actually work as written.

Anyway, I don't have a lot to add over what's already been stated, but there's always the old standby of "play a warforged, describe yourself as a gnome in an Iron Man suit." (I believe that Warlock is the traditional class to get Iron Man abilities, but there are lots of power armor concepts that aren't Iron Man, so take that as you will.)

[Aracor]

If Pathfinder is available, The Aegis (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/aegis) is an option.

~Aracor

[Starbuck_II]

Apparatus of Kwalish/Apparatus of the Crab. (At first I typoed that as "Apparatus of the Crap", because Freudian slip -- it is widely held to be not a very good item.)

Well, it is over-priced, weaker than its intended purpose, etc.

1) Combat alone is weak: hp 200; hardness 15; Spd 20 ft., swim 20 ft.; AC 20 (-1 size, +11 natural); Atk +12 melee (2d8, 2 pincers).
Now, hps/hardness are viable for cost.
But it attk bonus is low for 90K.
2) Exporation: It can only hold 1d4+1 oxygen (assuming 2 mediums, this is doubled if 1).

For a 10th of price, 9K you can get an amulet of adaptation for infinite oxygen (both Core so no excuse for apparatus to be weak).

Then the apparatus only works 900 feet deep, but amulet is infinite deep.

Granted, one could argue Amulet is too awesome, but since both core not much excuse for Crab sucking.

[icefractal]

Agreed. The whole "Astral Construct power armor" thing is not even close to supported by RAW. I mean, if you have a GM who's willing to work with you to make some houserules to do what you want, then godspeed, but as has been stated, it doesn't actually work as written.You could make a reasonable case that it's possible to create a construct with a hole in the middle, and then sit inside that hole. It still wouldn't let you take actions as the construct, you'd be controlling it via orders like normal, and while protected you also wouldn't have LoE to the outside. And you'd probably have to leave an opening or use DD to get inside, because summoning it 'around' you is a stretch. But the precedent of Swallow Whole does exist for having a creature 'inside' another one.

[Topaz]

There's a third-party product for Pathfinder, Battlechangers:Ironworks (http://www.rpgnow.com/product/148934/Battlechangers-Ironworks?site=&manufacturers_id=402&), that has options for piloted robots (though it's main focus is Transformer-style AI robots).

There's a suit of power armor in Paizo's Technology Guide, but it's a Technological Artifact.

I've been in PF games with both a Synthesist Summoner and with a Psionics Unleashed Aegis, and I can kind of see the refluffing idea, though both are a lot more modular (and materializable) than I tend to think of mecha.

[Flickerdart]

But the precedent of Swallow Whole does exist for having a creature 'inside' another one.
Unfortunately, having an ability that does this means that you need an ability to do this (otherwise why print the ability). If you can't get Swallow Whole on your ACs, you can'ts it inside them.

[icefractal]

Well, it is a gray area. The question would be whether having Swallow Whole is what grants a stomach capable of holding creatures, or whether any creature could be said to have that stomach, but - without Swallow Whole - no way to get unwilling creatures inside it.

Like, I don't think you'd have too many people saying a human couldn't swallow a marble. And if that marble was secretly an Animated Object (ordered not to move), I don't think it would spontaneously teleport outside the person in order not to be sharing a space.

[Tyuqa]

I was kinda looking at the Rodwalker mech from DragonMech and I really like the overal feel of it and the Animated mech in general but one thing bugs me, 44HP and 8AC is kinda rubbish for a huge walking magical mech. any ideas for something kinda like that but less squishy?

[JyP]

You have Symbiotic Creature template in Savage Species to go the biological way. Or you can use mount rules, where one can always hit the rider.