Powered armor

[Richard369]

How would you handle it?

Steam powered? how would you handle it?

Magically powered/enchanted? how would you handle it?

High technology? how would you handle it?

I've been digging through threads, figured I would start a cohesive 5e power armor thread. Let your Anthem/Fallout/Mass Effect/Warmachine obsessed fanfolk within you fly!

[ZenBear]

I think Brandon Sanderson did an excellent job with the concept in his Sotrmlight Archives series. If you haven’t read it yet, do it now!

[Fishyninja]

I think Brandon Sanderson did an excellent job with the concept in his Sotrmlight Archives series. If you haven’t read it yet, do it now!

Seconded! Sanderson does a brilliant job of mixing powered Armour with magic in a really interesting way! The series is well worth a read but unless you are a voracious reader its going to take you a while. Big books!

I did make a villian whom I shall use soon who has made a mechanical suit of armour to help him walk (he is crippled) and it uses captured water mephits and fire mephits in a extra dimensional tank to power it. Think like the Dwarven centurions in Skyrim.

[bid]

How would you handle it?
Refluffing belt of giant strength.

Make a composite item with those belts and some magic heavy armor.

[Unoriginal]

Take a construct, make it "wearable". Aka you can't give it orders, but if you wear it you use its physical stats and attacks.

[Naanomi]

Well, it stops working when you get a certain distance from Barrier Peaks anyways... hardly worth it

[PhoenixPhyre]

I actually made a whole fighter subclass for this. As well as a full non-spell-casting artificer class.

I basically treated it as a class feature--can't get broken or lost, get upgrades as class features.

I can't imagine doing it as equipment. Too big a variance.

[snowman87]

I've wanted to do this, as well, one day. I imagine a Large-sized Clockwork Golem with a cockpit inside it. Since the Clockwork Golem had the ability to explode in a cloud of shrapnel upon reaching 0 hit points, I thought that could be like ejecting from the cockpit. I imagine being able to imbue it with a couple of different magic item abilities at a time, depending on need. Need to fly on this mission? Add Winged Boots. Need to go underwater? Add a Cloak of the Manta Ray. Need more firepower? Add a wand of some kind to the forearm.

[Kane0]

Magic Item, medium or heavy armor.
Wearing it grants you an extra 10’ move speed and a pool of temporary hit points depending on rarity (uncommon 25 THP, rare 50, very rare 75, legendary 100), which can be refreshed via any method that would recover HP at a 2:1 ratio.
There are rumors of some suits that also function similarly to belts of giant strength as well as these benefits.

Bonus points if they only come in green or orange.

[Vogie]

Ideas

I think you could start with the UA School of Invention Wizard type, and then change up the post-level-2 function, building it up towards your desired goal. That is, your players would need to have at least 13 Intelligence and must invest time/experience/levels/loot into upgrading the armor.
Tapping into some pathfinder items, feats and spells could give you interesting ideas on what effects could be done with powered armor. Things like Clockwork Armor, Folding Plate, Guardian Armor, Instant Armor, Gorum's Armor, Sprightly Armor, Ring of Arming, Prismatic Plate, et cetera.
You could connect some of the effects already available into something like a blend of Mage Armor & Tenser's Transformation that can scale up to the existing spell effects.
Middle Finger of Vecna released The Mystical Talisman (http://mfov.magehandpress.com/2017/02/the-mystical-talisman.html)homebrew Warlock patron, which taps into that Green Lantern/Iron Man/Power Ranger/Blue Beetle vibe.


In most cases, High Technology will function very similar to magic. It doesn't "use spell slots," it "consumes power"; It doesn't require a rest to study, it needs to recharge; it doesn't require "spell components", but does need to reload and have parts swapped out.

[Amdy_vill]

How would you handle it?

Steam powered? how would you handle it?

Magically powered/enchanted? how would you handle it?

High technology? how would you handle it?

I've been digging through threads, figured I would start a cohesive 5e power armor thread. Let your Anthem/Fallout/Mass Effect/Warmachine obsessed fanfolk within you fly!

with steam power i would require coal and water unless they use some magic(decanter and some king of infinitely burning fire)

with magic i would have it work like a spell-jammer. i would let the player chooses witch one.

for high tech i would have some rare power cell they have to find.

all of these should be very expensive to buy.

[bobofwestgate]

In Pathfinder, there is a class called Summoner. They have a varient where they summon their Eidolon, but wear it like a suit.