Read Stormlight Chronicles

>>25763912
You can't, since power armour is science. If you have magic power armour, your players will come up with scores of things they can do with the technology of power armour. And if this isn't in the world, then it will break the suspension of disbelief.

>>25763912
Can't. Power armor would be more science fantasy than SJ.

Make the power armour work thanks to runes, spells and such instead of actual mechanical parts. It's just different names for plot device, anyway.

Magically powered/Shard of a spirit enfused thing/genie or spirit powering it (also providing AI-style support)/draws energy from life force/Naturally grown stuff like a dragon that's been surgically altered/Magical beast embedded inside it/Wizard did it.

>On ye bounce, brethren!

>>25763912
Enchanted Armor. Its magic, it causes Bull's STR/Ant Haul/Expeditious retreat/Haste to be permament on you. Or equivalents in a different version.

>>25763912
Check out David Drake's Northworld trilogy. It does just what you're looking for.

>>25763963
No seriously, read this book. Magic power armor everywhere

Now, what kind of power armor are we talking?

Is the powered aspect that it assists the user's movement and makes him stronger/faster? If that's the case then it is possessed by a bound spirit/demon/ghost of a warrior, the trade off being that your personalities start melding slightly, also the spirit can't keep it up forever and must recharge for 8 hours like sleeping.

The kind where the power is used for defensive purposes would have alchemy shit used during the forging of the armor and this alchemy causes attacks to glide off of you but you must sacrifice one hit point for every point of AC bonus, otherwise the armor just gives you what it normally would for a suit of (insert armor type). That or it's just a bound earth elemental like above

>>25764013

>Sir Jelly's voice reached me from above the din of battle. "Brothers! Like the frog which leaps! Forward!"
>My liege, Sir Johnson, echoed, "Like the frog which leaps! Highborn first! Advance!"

Internally controlled Golems Armour

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>>25764026
This.

It's magic. I ain't gotta explain... oh... wait... >>25763951
already has that covered.

Ok, if you go this route, then you have to explain that it's easy to incorporate stat-boosting magic as part of armour. You'll have to make DEX -boosting and underwater breathing varieties to keep it consistent. Hell, a magic system which is enchanter-heavy would work well enough.

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>>25764065

helmets grant def boost +hightened senses and telepathy to talk to other team members

gloves grant higher dexterity and strength

boots higher strength and speed

torso armor higher def boost and strength
throw in a few single use spells like shock touch on the gloves and there you go powered magic armor

Dude, Construct Armor is basically power armour.

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>>25763912

Don't make it commonplace.

Have it be the standard equipment of only the most powerful and respected soldiers in all the realms, the stalwart loyalists of King and Country who have proven themselves enough times on the field of battle and in service to their lieges as to be deserving of the honor of receiving such a gift.

If such a man falls on the battlefield, his fellows will do everything in their power to retrieve the body before it can fall into the hands of the enemy.

If you are not a member of such an order, magical power armor would likely only be found by delving into the Black Market or seeking out a third party who has either stolen or independently come upon the secrets of crafting said armor. In either case, the mere act of owning a set of said armor would likely be enough to get you a very serious reputation, for good and for ill. All the more so if you're actually ballsy enough to wear it publicly.

>>25764521
>Have it be the standard equipment of only the most powerful and respected soldiers in all the realms, the stalwart loyalists of King and Country who have proven themselves enough times on the field of battle and in service to their lieges as to be deserving of the honor of receiving such a gift.

Wait so you're suggesting that the state (such as it is) has total control of this?

>>25763912
Living armor/construct?

>>25764540

Yes

Make it like what Artillery was for centuries

A dangerous, deadly weapon ONLY in use by the state.

Artillerymen were often from families and bloodlines of artillerymen because it was a line of work that required extreme technical knowledge (compared to the rest of the military) , and each of these families would be sworn to a single liege.

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>>25764540

>you're suggesting that the state (such as it is) has total control of this?

That would be the most logical scenario.

Think about it. Allowing magical arms and armor and other such wondrous items to be used by individuals unaffiliated with the state, such as mercenaries, adventurers, or even criminals is already a rather dangerous affair. However, keeping such items out of the hands of the populace is much more difficult, as they are routinely plundered from tombs and ruins and the like. For the most part, they're not worth the hassle of attempting to regulate.

But assuming that Power Armor isn't just regular magical armor, but something whose construction is closer to that of warforged (ie: not common knowledge, even within the academic community), strict regulation would be a necessity.

We're talking about armor that would not only allow the wearer to shrug off most mundane forms of attack, but grant vastly enhanced strength, fortitude, and agility. Powered Armor in a fantasy setting could turn an average NPC soldier into PC material simply by wearing it. Unlike most other magic items, concealing or disguising it would also be much more difficult, making identification much easier.

Any nation would have to be inept to not try and regulate something of that power getting into the hands of untrustworthy people.

>>25764638

There were mercenary artillerymen in the early days of big guns though

>>25763912
Easy, power armor is just simply enchanted heavy armor. Due to the fact that you will enchant it, you could make armor that would normally be too heavy to wear but because of special enchantments, the armor is a tenth of the weight. You can also create your own system for enchanting and your own enchantment effects.

>>25764739

That's dumb and boring. Reeks of post-2000 game design.

>>25764755

How would you do it in a 20th Century way, then?

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>>25764013
>>25764065

Man, I would play the shit out of a Starship Troopers campaign done in a medieval style.

>>25764081
Exactly what I was thinking

>>25765070
Golems, while having great strength, lack the precision, coordination, and ability to make snap judgements on the battlefield of a human being.

While it is true that creating a pilots compartment makes the golem less structurally sound our land gains since instituting the system speak for themselves.

>>25764660

There could be a few companies of mercenaries who are mostly normal infantry, with their commanders and small teams of elites wearing secondhand, older, modified, or recently stolen armor.

If you have read any Exalted, there are several perfect examples of Magical Power Armor; Ashigaru Armor is my personal favorite, but there are variants on it which make it heavier, faster, or give special bonuses.

I think the idea of having it be rare is valuable, but lower-grade salvaged armor being what makes a dangerous hoodlum go from minor road trouble to a bandit lord, or a five man crew of mercs go from cannon fodder to elite strike force -- this is good stuff.

Another idea is based in Warmahordes; the idea that some armor is both arcane and tech based; Man-O-War shocktroopers are pretty badass.

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>See Synthesist Summoner
/thread

>pic related, it is how I play synthesist summoners.

>>25765325
Oh, and to finish my point without wandering too far,

settings where civilizations have been stagnating and rising/falling due to war, disasters, or just changing culture or climate -- the remnants of ancient civilizations or foreign nations can make for amazing variants.

Oh no, the battle is shifting towards us and a team of those elite armor soldiers is headed this way!!

Wait -- the ancient tomb we're excavating, there's something in the corner...

...

..

The king was buried in his Powered Armor.


Cue epic battle between ancient, perhaps obsolete-yet-powerful ideas or lost and as yet unrediscovered wonders --- and modern, perhaps mass-produced or wildly straightforward sorcery.

I suppose the question would be; what sort of feel do you want for your power armors? Their origins are possibly many, and those origins shape their feel.

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>>25763912
Two options: Super Da Vinci-tech, or pseudo biopunk

I was in a homebrew ala Escaflone+Evangellion years ago, that's whole shtick was basically cthulhutech in a fantasy world

The two predominant ways you can take a fighter class to a functioning level vs. the otherworldly horrors was in Clockharness or Ogre maille.

Ogre maille was armour built literally out of a whole troll. The kingdoms that used it made the acquisition of live trolls into a cultural tradition for the selection of the Ogre Knights. A whole, live troll was basically beheaded, and had most of its torso hollowed out and fitted with an assortment of brass alchemical devices that would interface the nervous system of the troll with the human wearer into what is called an Ogre. Suspended in a nutritious amniotic fluid which kept the (albet controlled and heavily impeded) regenerating troll functioning, the wearer could pilot the ogre maille essentially acting as the brain of the new body. Armour was directly anchored and grown into the regenerating flesh, and this system was the fastest, toughest, and most responsive of the two, with veterans being at one with the suit.

On the downside, prolonged use ran the risk of being unable to cope with the physical function of one's human body outside of the ogre maille. Veterans suffer from all manner of psychological issues relating to bodily dissociation and phantom limb like syndromes.


Clockharness on the other hand, was more readily produced and less specialized/hazardous. An oversized suit of armour, controlled by the wearing through a form fitting internal harness in the limbs and torso. Designed by a savant genius of clockwork, each motion winds two springs, for each spring used through some hand-waving super-energy efficient alloy springs, that only require the mainspring wound once, for 5 hours of combat time.

The cons were that its reactions were delayed to the user, it was not nearly as tough and obviously not self-healing.

>>25765497
Oh that sounds heinous!! :D

I can already imagine the sweet sidequests and fucking magnificent storylines revolving around the phenomena of troll/pilot mergings, as a particular troll's immune system may suddenly absorb its rider, turning the two into one entity.

>>25764949
Armored Knights in Spelljammers hunting down Thri-Kreen for the Empire?

Hell. Fucking. Yes.

Though if I were being perfectly honest, at that point you might as well just do a Destiny campaign. The great thing about it not being out is that you can make a game and it won't play anything like the actual game, so you're damn near original!

>>25763912

Back when I was doing the stereotypical "making my own homebrew..." I wanted to do the same thing. So after some thinking, I finally came up with something.

I call them Augmented Knights, or Augs for short.

They're basically specially selected soldiers who are immersed in a type of gelatinous ooze before being encased in a large, thick suit of armor. The ooze melts their skin and strips the muscles from their bones, attaching the tendrils to specific points of the armor marked by receptors.

Shit, I'm having a really bad time at explaining it but the result is some ungodly amalgamation of Space Marine, Big Daddy and Terminator all wrapped up in an 8 foot suit of armor reminiscent of Warhammer Fantasy Chaos Knights. The guys are practically impossible to kill because you need to totally destroy the body to keep the thing from regenerating.

Oh, and they have booming brass voices and bleed a thick luminescent blue, that's pretty cool.

>>25765604
Actually, the major threat was the regeneration causing total rejection of a long-term pilot.

Think of the psychological implications of spending YEARS as the gestalt being who's physical entirety feels like a demigod in both strength and stature. You tear the wings off of unspeakable creatures like flies, Jump twenty meters at a light sprint, and can shrug off cannonballs.

And then, you're rejected. Not torn away, but pushed out like an invading splinter. You're not separated from you body, but your body dosn't want you.

That is real horror.

>>25765169
Warforged?

>>25765681
I personally enjoy the idea of the armor slowly devouring you -- such that one day they open it up to help you out and you're just layed open to the spine, and the troll's spine is merged into yours, twined, and your heart is dully pumping, surrounded by thick black troll muscle that echoes the weaker beats with hot, eager rhythm. The bones slowly melting as they're absorbed, but your mind -- the body somehow knows that your mind is superior, perhaps by accidental -- and your consciousness becomes flooded by alien thoughts slowly, as you become a different thing.

I love your description of horror, too.

>Construct Armor
>>25764449

>>25764081
>Internally controlled Golems Armour

These are the same thing?

>>25765813
Yeah, but that kind of body horror has long since lost its appeal to me, and has been over fetishized.

>>25765813
by accidental providence or some evolutionary hunger*

started typing somewhere else and forgot my train of thought.

But I love the idea of a renegade half-thing antagonist.

>>25765864
I've yet to lose my interest in it. I like that your world didn't have that. It seems to suit your universe more for that to be lacking.

>>25765681
Wow. Just... Wow. Im seeing a decorated hero banging his hands bloody against the armor of his orgemail sobbing and begging to know what he did wrong.

I just depressed myself.

Them feels. I thought clowns were supposed to make you happy.

>>25764648
OP, you could integrate some kind of quest involving the theft of knowledge to build such armors. Like a rebel group that's trying to get an edge over the state.

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>>25765886
>>25765923
We DID have an antagonist that was a rejected, epic level fighter. Even outside of his ogremaille, he was a terror to behold. 4 decades of military service, 30 as an ogre, and then one day, he's rejected. No rhyme. No reason. The Ogremaille that was his, and his father's before him just no longer recognized him as part of the organism.

He snapped. He would stalk and attempt to tear pilots out of their suits, but would be rejected every time.

My party managed to beat him, and instead of some fierce enemy, in the end, there was only a broken man torn away from the one thing he was raised and trained for.

To this day, I don't know if it was kindness or cruelty to let him live.

>>25765923
>I thought clowns were supposed to make you happy.

No. We inspire emotion.Clowns are exaggerations of the human condition. Sadness and heart break are just as valid emotions as happiness.

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You could try something like this. Always liked the idea of this if it'd leave the folks with a little bit of personality but from what i remember in the book it just made super strong zombies. Still the magic is sound so if you want to keep it more low tech then this would work.

There were also the crystal powered armor in The Thran, from what i remember it was basically the armor from the book version of Starship Troopers. Place power stone in neck socket = OMG WHY CAN HE PUNCH THROUGH WALLS?!

Helmed Horrors. Nothing says you can't ride in them.

>>25766510
>you will never date a suit of enchanted armor

>>25766769
It's all in how you design the codpiece and breastplate my friend

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why not have it function with clockwork, steampunk technically isn't science fiction

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Pushed to desperation by the abberant horrors that stalked the deeps of their underground kingdoms led by the degenerate Druergar, the Dwarves of Kathas Gul put epitome of their genius and technical skill into the creation of their Stone Mind soldiers.

Combining the thundering ring of the hammer against the anvil, the arcane energies of their wizards and the flesh crafting of their psions, young men and women sacrificed any chance of a normal life by undergoing an excruciating ritual that bound plates of psionic and arcane energy to their bodies, fusing plates to the flesh and bone until one was indistinguishable from the other.

So armed, they took to the tunnels, slaughtering the druergars and their horrors in droves. Although now honored as greatly as the Ancestors, they now must sleep until called upon least their condition drives them to eventual insanity.

>>25763912
Depends on what you mean by "power armour". I mean, if you want extra strength and agility bound to a suit of armour, that's pretty commonplace. Helms that grant optical advantages are also pretty common. Most of this is binding the essense of some spirit or a concept into the armour. Think the armour an ancient hero renowned for strength granting you a portion of his strength or a set of greaves studded with the claws of cheetahs and bound with ancient spells, allowing the wearer to unleash a burst of superhuman speed and a helm that allows you to use the clarity and far-sight of an eagle would have similar eagle-related enchantments. Basically, if physical boosts are all you want from "power armour" then enchanted armour is no different in effect or description from the usual fantasy stuff.
If you want the look and feel of powered armour, pistons and what-not, I recommend a combat-rig, designed basically as a golem with the ability for the creator to take more, shall we say, hands on control of the beast. Imagine a mage stepping up to a bronze and iron statue only slightly scaled up, 8 foot, gleaming in the sunlight, the spear and shield in the style of the old empire gripped tight in it's massive burnished hands. As the mage approaches, the plates of the ornate breasplate slide apart, as do it's legs and arms, allowing the man to slip inside before the statue slides back together and closes like a coffin.
By the way, that idea goes into my next campaign, cheers for getting my imagination back into gear.

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>>25763912

>>25767243
Dragon Age Golems?

>>25767762

Funny I didn't think of that until you brought that up. Although I was imagining more that their armor becomes their flesh, like those psychic techno knights from Rifts (can't remember their name atm)

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The engineers in Torchlight 2 were pretty cool. They required the existence of a magic fuel source (ember) that basically powered up their armour.


Just invent some fuel source gimmick for your own setting.

>>25764013
I love this post. Fireball fucking everything from the skies.

Hm, rewrite the B/X Elf as a mobile infantryman? They can cast in armour, all they'd need is jumping and a wand of fireball.

Maybe go through the magic item section on enchanted swords (swords with cool weird powers were a big thing in OD&D & Basic, especially since the less-badass classes couldn't use them) and slap those bits on armour instead of swords?

>>25771066
OK, crafting a wand of fireball takes 30kgp and 120 days. It'd be a state-level thing, or only for the richest warlords, but I can see them buying up half-used wands at well above market rates and outfitting a mobile infantry team for when something absolutely has to explode. When leaders are 9th level and most people are 0th, a first- or second-level trained soldier with 20 charges of fireball can fuck an army up.

>>25771093
As for sleep, modern combat pilots use amphetamines! And only occasionally get paranoid and drop a bomb on a friendly unit despite being ordered to hold off and being in no danger!

(I always ruled that enough appropriate drugs will keep you awake past a Sleep spell, but that's just me)

STEAM! THE CAMPAIGN CAN BE SAVED BY STEAM!!!

>>25764013
>>25764065
MORE

WE NEED MORE

>>25771066
Ive always had the idea of Wand of Magic missile Infantry.

A magic missile can pop most low level army types.

hell you can even have the wands look like muskets

>>25767616
Thats cool as fuck.

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>Power Armour in Fantasy

See Warmachine

Use latches, frames and springing steel

Use SPIRIIIIITS WOOOOO

Use magic, and don't explain shit

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>>25763951

>File name

I just say its elementals that power it.

>>25775047
What is it?

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>>25763951

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>>25765681
>>25765864
>>25766121

Damnit Gropey, You gotta stop coming up in here and making threads more awesome. I can't take all the awesome that flies off of you.

And so I'm Contribootan, Personally, Power Armor is something that is almost in the same genre as giant mecha, more as a term of size. At what point does it change? If you want power armor, maybe make it magio-organic. The growth of armor over your skin due to regular infusions of a magical compound.Something like a green star adept except you need to wear a special harness to make complete use of your armor, something that keeps the armor from closing completely over your skin.

>>25780820
>>File name
Legend of galactic Heroes

daaaaaaaaaayum, you gotta be one dumb mothaFUCKA

>>25764521
>dat pic
I lel'd

>>25764638
>Make it like what Artillery was for centuries
>Implying that isn't still how it is

Man I wish I had a howitzer :,(

>>25763912
>race that is long gone
>relics of aliens
>magically enhanced armor
many ways

>>25766935
>steampunk technically isn't science fiction
As if!

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Did somebody say powered armor?
Cause I think I heard somebody say powered armor.

>>25765497
I fucking love pseudo biopunk. Escaflowne is one of my favorite mechs. The usage of the pilots blood is what really sells it for me as well. For some reason that's a concept that I just adore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czUcj3-I_l8

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>>25765464
What? One suit of Power Armor? You're gonna want an Army's worth.

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>>25765497
>>25787297
>Escaflowne
Greetings, gentlemen of African extraction with whom I share a bond of close comradeship!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI4aft1ZLaQ

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>>25787403