Too powerful? T.W. Armor

[rebis]

I need some help, I have a player who is playing a Mystic and wants to have this T.W. Armor made for himself. I’m thinking that he is power gaming because it seems to me that most of the T.W. items are no were near this powerful. I think that I would feel different if his character was a Techno-Wizard. Am I wrong? Would this be a legit T.W armor?

Below is the copy paste that the player has sent to me.

Device Level: 8
SDC: 45
desired effects:
Armor of Ithan (180 SDC) (level 3 spell @ level 8 proficiency) (10)
Greater Healing (2D4x10 SDC + 6D6 HP restored) (level (30)
PPE Battery (200)
Lightblade (1D4x10+8 damage) (level 7 spell @ level 8 proficiency) (20)
Impervious to Energy (level 6 spell) (20)
Purification (400 lbs of food or 80 gallons of water) (level 7 spell @ level 8 proficiency) (20)
PPE Construction Cost:
24,000 PPE total (240 per day)

Construction monetary cost:
324,480 (includes all features requested and gems) + any mark-up you feel like adding
Activation Cost:
120 PPE per activation
Activation Time:
16 minutes per activation
Required Gems:
Agate (Red-Orange) - 4 carats (greater healing)
Diamond - 4 carats (invincible armor)
Topaz (yellow or brown) - 4 carats (purification)
Quartz (clear) - 4 carats (lightblade)
Zircon (Red) - 4 carats (impervious to energy)

[Khord - Lizard Mage]

How do you get some features at level 8, some at level 20 and some at level 30? It deffinately has elements of power gaming to it. What is the purpose of Purification?

[Killer Cyborg]

Well, if he wants the Armor of Ithan to only have 180 SDC, THAT isn't too powerful.

[drewkitty ~..~]

T.W. Armor
Device Level: 8
SDC: 45
desired effects:
Armor of Ithan (180 SDC) (level 3 spell @ level 8 proficiency) (10)
Greater Healing (2D4x10 SDC + 6D6 HP restored) (level 8 ) (30)
PPE Battery (200)
Lightblade (1D4x10+8 damage) (level 7 spell @ level 8 proficiency) (20)
Impervious to Energy (level 6 spell) (20)
Purification (400 lb. of food or 80 gallons of water) (level 7 spell @ level 8 proficiency) (20)
PPE Construction Cost:
24,000 PPE total (240 per day)

Construction monetary cost:
324,480 (includes all features requested and gems) + any mark-up you feel like adding
Activation Cost:
120 PPE per activation
Activation Time:
16 minutes per activation
Required Gems:
Agate (Red-Orange) - 4 carats (greater healing)
Diamond - 4 carats (invincible armor)
Topaz (yellow or brown) - 4 carats (purification)
Quartz (clear) - 4 carats (lightblade)
Zircon (Red) - 4 carats (impervious to energy)

*If this is meant to repair the armor, then the basic armor, pre-enchantment, has to 'living organic armor'

*In a MDC world this would be 80 MDC, While with a SDC world it would be 180 SDC with AR 18.

*Lightblade and Purification Each need a separate activation cost, and durations.

*There needs to be a armor "physical component" to enchant.

*The TW equations will need some sort of spell for the the PPE battery part of the armor. You also Need the Gems for the PPE battery listed in the gems needed.

*The armor will be limited to what spells the TW and the Mystic knows personally. Not just looking through the master spell list and picking out spells to use.


What I would do would be to get the player to write out a description of what they want as if his char is describing what they want to a real person. i.e. the description can not have any Spell Names or PPE or SDC/MDC in it.

More so because the char is a mystic who just 'have spells' and did not 'learn them' from others who named them.So the use of spell names is out totally.

[rebis]

How do you get some features at level 8, some at level 20 and some at level 30? It deffinately has elements of power gaming to it. What is the purpose of Purification?

I'm guessing that the Purification is for food and water when traveling?

[Khord - Lizard Mage]

How do you get some features at level 8, some at level 20 and some at level 30? It definitely has elements of power gaming to it. What is the purpose of Purification?

I'm guessing that the Purification is for food and water when traveling?

I thought that was what it was for but Purification only purifies food and water, not create them.

[Khord - Lizard Mage]

I don't have the books in front of me so this is off the cuff.

• TW Armor can only have 3-4 spell "features" max.
• Complexity tends to up the material cost, build time, and most importantly, the skill requirement to build. A very complex item will have a lot of -% rolls that only a high level TW with solid assistants will overcome. That means scarcity, and scarcity means higher cost.
• If he wants to design his own armor, it's a custom piece. Custom TW gear costs more.
• Pretty sure you can't take TW spell levels past 15.

Aside from the spell limit thing, the limiting factors should be cost and availability.

The 3 - 4 TW abilites is for adding TW features to non magical armor. Kydian armor has more than 4 features as does the Nazcan Power armor and the Warlock Marine armor from the UWW. I agree that this would be a highly customized suit and would be EXPENSIVE and using very rare components.

[Khord - Lizard Mage]

I would think that Sustain would be a good choice in your suit, perhaps in place of Purification?

[Prince Artemis]

Yeah, the feature limit is only when enchanting existing armor. Creating the armor from scratch has no established limit and the TW Power Armor from the main book has 12 features all together (but then again, that's pretty much an armor made mostly from enchanted gems and not much armor).

Overall, it's not really power gaming but the design is flawed and looks like it was re-worked a few times (for example, there are no diamonds listed for the PPE battery in the required gems and instead the diamonds are listed for invincible armor which is not a listed feature of the suit so you should get that clarified with him).

That being said, I disagree with drewkitty that the armor is limited to spells that the mystic himself knows unless the mystic is somehow creating the armor himself alone or the TW he's getting to do the job is only using his spells. While TW Armor can use spells to activate features, it's NOT a requirement and can be activated for just a set ppe cost.

As for the power level, he might want to re-think things a little. He's essentially going to be spending the cost of the light power armor on an armor that can be destroyed pretty easily. Unless he has a bunch of other PPE batteries or a higher than normal PPE pool, he's only going to be able to activate this thing maybe twice a day. So he best hope that missions never last longer than 30 minutes or that there's never more than 2 fights in a day. Otherwise he's pretty much tossing away the cash.

Drew's idea to have it be an in character discussion is probably your best bet. However, if the character has lore magic he can use the names of whatever spells he wants. Otherwise he would be limited to the names of spells that he's learned in character.

[Galroth]

That armor would be practically impossible to make. A PPE battery that doesn't have a spell behind it applies a -1% for every point of PPE it can store to the design process. In this case that would be a -200% to the Techno-wizardry roll.

[Thinyser]

That armor would be practically impossible to make. A PPE battery that doesn't have a spell behind it applies a -1% for every point of PPE it can store to the design process. In this case that would be a -200% to the Techno-wizardry roll.

Very true... that -1 is a bummer.

However this can be somewhat overcome by making several small PPE batteries that each power a single system. It would mean that each system has only has a couple of activations in its assigned battery but at least the battery is possible to produce. For this armor I say go with 4 batteries with 40-60 PPE each.

[Galroth]

That armor would be practically impossible to make. A PPE battery that doesn't have a spell behind it applies a -1% for every point of PPE it can store to the design process. In this case that would be a -200% to the Techno-wizardry roll.

Very true... that -1 is a bummer.

However this can be somewhat overcome by making several small PPE batteries that each power a single system. It would mean that each system has only has a couple of activations in its assigned battery but at least the battery is possible to produce. For this armor I say go with 4 batteries with 40-60 PPE each.

Or you could just use a spell based mod, like Energy Sphere or Talisman instead of just jamming your suit full of emeralds.

[X'Zanthar]

That armor would be practically impossible to make. A PPE battery that doesn't have a spell behind it applies a -1% for every point of PPE it can store to the design process. In this case that would be a -200% to the Techno-wizardry roll.

Very true... that -1 is a bummer.

However this can be somewhat overcome by making several small PPE batteries that each power a single system. It would mean that each system has only has a couple of activations in its assigned battery but at least the battery is possible to produce. For this armor I say go with 4 batteries with 40-60 PPE each.

Or you could just use a spell based mod, like Energy Sphere or Talisman instead of just jamming your suit full of emeralds.

Yes, just glue a bunch of pennies with the Talisman PPE spell on it to the inside of the armor. Of course you need the spell, but use the money you would spend on the battery one buying the spell.