You could say that imbuing it with a medium only enchantment causes -2 acp and heavy causes a -4. If you end up with improvements that allow the armor bonus to increase, then use the same numbers but dont stack the penalties.
You could say that imbuing it with a medium only enchantment causes -2 acp and heavy causes a -4. If you end up with improvements that allow the armor bonus to increase, then use the same numbers but dont stack the penalties.
That's a possibility. Though, I always have mixed feelings about having a class feature impose permanent penalties. It feels really awful to have the class attach something to your character that hurts your skill checks.
Perhaps the armor bonus could start at +3 and be treated as light armor. At later levels, the player has the choice to either increase it by +2 and treat their armor as medium or gain evasion. This choice comes again at a later level. If they choose to increase the armor bonus to +7, it gets treated as heavy armor. If they choose evasion but already have evasion, they gain improved evasion.
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Something like that. Its a good solution. Not a fan of evasion though.
Or... Allow changes to the armor to be made the same way weapons can be changed. Allow the category to change when he spends time making modifications.
Something like that. Its a good solution. Not a fan of evasion though.
Or... Allow changes to the armor to be made the same way weapons can be changed. Allow the category to change when he spends time making modifications.
Perhaps another suggestion instead of evasion?
And you're suggesting having the higher categories give armor check penalities and movement penalities, but the class can switch the category by each day? I'm almost picturing something like a fighter that can transform his armor at the start of each day in case he wants to be speedy that day or be tanky. That strikes me as an interesting direction that hasn't really been seen before. Such a thing would be difficult to design effectively because it could turn into a book keeping nightmare. Armor has a lot of baggage stats because the game assumes your character won't take their armor off unless it's an unusual circumstance.
Sounds like a rebuild. A rebuild can only happen when a character goes up a level or special circumstances. When I GM the Cleaves, that's going to be a rule.
Sounds like a rebuild. A rebuild can only happen when a character goes up a level or special circumstances. When I GM the Cleaves, that's going to be a rule.
On the other hand, the wizard can basically rebuild each day, which makes this idea appealing to me for a fighter. My favorite quote about this comes from Sean K. Reynolds:
I'm a fire wizard! I love fire! I got my fireball, my fire shield, my fire bolt, my fire butt, and my fire feet! Oh, we're fighting Fire Giants? Okay, then magic missile, and haste, and blink.
...
I'm a fighter! I got Power Attack, Cleave, Weapon Focus (longsword), Weapon Specialization (longsword). Oh, we're fighting swarms. Oh, we're fighting a dungeon full of swarms and creatures resistant to slashing damage? Well, I guess I sit out for this adventure.
Something like that. Its a good solution. Not a fan of evasion though.
Or... Allow changes to the armor to be made the same way weapons can be changed. Allow the category to change when he spends time making modifications.
Perhaps another suggestion instead of evasion?
And you're suggesting having the higher categories give armor check penalities and movement penalities, but the class can switch the category by each day? I'm almost picturing something like a fighter that can transform his armor at the start of each day in case he wants to be speedy that day or be tanky. That strikes me as an interesting direction that hasn't really been seen before. Such a thing would be difficult to design effectively because it could turn into a book keeping nightmare. Armor has a lot of baggage stats because the game assumes your character won't take their armor off unless it's an unusual circumstance.
Maybe he can change each day, maybe it takes a day per point of AC that changes. I don't know what an appropriate amount if time would be. I think the versatility would be a suitable replacement for evasion.
You can start with a base AC bonus that scales a bit with level. Then you have an optional AC boost on top of that. The base AC does not affect movement or acp, but the optional AC does.
Hm, perhaps. I'll see if I can create a couple of drafts. One thing is certain: integrated armor is kind of boring as is and could be made more interesting. I did also think of an idea of a feature where an aritforged could temporarily change the enhancements on their integrated weapons and armor, but I'm not sure.
I'm glad my GM doesn't mind me taking a while on this class. Gives him more time to prepare. He's a new GM, so he's rather nervous.
For your temporary enhancements idea, you could implement 4-level casting that focuses on custom spells. Figuring out appropriate spell levels for the various enhancements shouldn't be too time consuming. Using a spellbook/formulae book would be thematic if it was reflavored as a book containing a bunch of construction drawings.
For your temporary enhancements idea, you could implement 4-level casting that focuses on custom spells. Figuring out appropriate spell levels for the various enhancements shouldn't be too time consuming. Using a spellbook/formulae book would be thematic if it was reflavored as a book containing a bunch of construction drawings.
I really wanted to do something like that. Where the artiforged has a book of schematics, but I couldn't think of enough mechanics around it to justify increasing the book keeping in a class that already makes you keep track of a resource pool, bloodline-like feature, talent pool, a special weapon, and a special armor.
A spellbook for armor and weapon enhancements sounds like a really cool idea. That might be great for some kind of artificer class whose made class feature is something like the magus's arcane pool, except the class learns new types of enhancement abilities like they're learning spells. That might work for the artiforged where everytime they use artiforging to destroy a magic weapon or armor, they can learn a new enhancement, which they can grant to their weapon or armor for 1 hour by raising tension.
How about that tension goes away only when the enhancement ends.
Combustion Source
You have built within your body a furnace that contains a smoldering fire. It consumes the fuel and combustible material you place within it, which creates heat and expanding air to power the other augmentations you have made to your body.
Class Skill: Knowledge (engineering).
Source Modifier: Constitution
Source Quirk: You have developed a superhuman tolerance to fire. You gain fire resistance equal to your artiforged level + your Constitution modifier. You are otherwise still susceptible to damage and other effects caused by long-term exposure to heat, such as from high temperatures.
Source Powers:
As a standard action, you can ignite an object made of combustible material that you touch. During a power surge, your body radiates enough heat to cause harm to others. On the beginning of it's turn, any creature that is carrying you, grappling with you, or has swallowed you whole takes fire damage equal to your artiforged level + your Constitution modifier.
Beginning at 5th level, during a power surge, your unarmed and natural attacks deal additional fire damage equal to your Constitution modifier.
How about that tension goes away only when the enhancement ends.
That's a possibility.
Today, I want to test another draft of power surge/tension where the class has to use a move action to end the power surge
Combustion Source
That;s a cool idea. It might be a fun quirk if creatures that grapple you or hit you with natural/unarmed attacks take damage equal to the amount of tension you have.
I did some tests on a version of power surge where your damage buff is somewhat equal to the amount of tension you have, but it takes a move action to end a power surge. I kind of liked it, but I think it would work better in a system where tension removes more quickly or easily. It might work if tension removed each 10 minutes, but then you'd have to pester your GM about how long as passed. Overall, I'm not sure if this revision is better.
Here's another version of integrated armor. I'd like your opinion on it before putting it in the draft.
I thought very hard on integrated armor's design. I ultimately decided that a simple scaling armor bonus would be both boring and very powerful at later levels. At later levels, it's basically a free heavy armor that has no maximum Dex, check penalties, and such. I wasn't fond of that idea.
Instead, it simply works like normal armor attached to your body, but you can retract it and deploy it at a full round action, similar to the Aegis from Psionics. Additionally, you can spend 1 hour configuring the armor to gain a benefit, most of them negating the armor check penalty for a specific skill. This seemed much cooler, useful, invoke more gameplay, and gives the interesting visual akin to Tony Stark suiting up for Iron Man.
That sounds good.
Does 'treated as studded leather' mean that it is made from studded leather? Because I have a hard time imagining that.
Can you add armor spikes to integrated armor?
It might be a good idea to keep the armor configurations simple and make sure they don't overlap with magical enhancements/ artiforge upgrades. Armor configurations could also give a bonus on saves against individual elemental effects (acid/cold/electricity/fire) or provide a higher but more 'focused' DR (for example DR/bludgeoning or slashing for 'bulletproof' armor).
Does 'treated as studded leather' mean that it is made from studded leather? Because I have a hard time imagining that.
The armor should be made out of whatever appropriate for your power source. I should change that line to "has the statistics of studded leather armor."
Can you add armor spikes to integrated armor?
Yes, there's an upgrade that will add retractable spikes, let you treat them as integrated weapons, and you can raise tension to fire them as missiles. I'm considering making armor spikes a configuration and having the upgrade let you treat them as integrated weapons and have the configuration for free.
It might be a good idea to keep the armor configurations simple and make sure they don't overlap with magical enhancements/ artiforge upgrades.
I agree. That was a big concern when approaching this iteration. Simply having most of them negate armor penalties seemed like a good way to go. I did go over armor enhancements for inspiration, but most of them seemed too powerful, too weak, or better suited for an upgrade. I did use fortification because that ability is cool, but never worth taking as an armor enhancement. Not only is it situational, but also losing enhancement bonuses puts you at higher risk of getting critical hits confirmed, conflicting with the purpose of having that ability in the first place.
Armor configurations could also give a bonus on saves against individual elemental effects (acid/cold/electricity/fire) or provide a higher but more 'focused' DR (for example DR/bludgeoning or slashing for 'bulletproof' armor).
I really like those two ideas. Perhaps a bonus to saves against a type of energy equal to your source modifier? (I'm trying to incorporate more uses of the source modifier other than max Tension since I realized most upgrades don't require saving throws.)
If going the route of specific armies, I would make it chain shirt and breastplate. Using mw studded leather is acp -0, so half of your improvements would do nothing.
I preferred the scaling bonus actually. As more "ac points" are available, the character could alternately use some of them to become mw or a special material, negate speed penalty, etc.
If going the route of specific armies, I would make it chain shirt and breastplate. Using mw studded leather is acp -0, so half of your improvements would do nothing.
I preferred the scaling bonus actually. As more "ac points" are available, the character could alternately use some of them to become mw or a special material, negate speed penalty, etc.
That's a good point. I considered adding evasion as a configuration. Chain shirt might be a good idea then.
A big motivation behind this approach came as a result of the armor bonus having no armor penalties. This made the ability seem rather weak and boring despite actually being quite powerful, essentially becoming a full plate with no maximum Dex or penalties at later levels. Are you suggesting it should have all the statistics of a normal armor but with an armor bonus that gets better and can be traded for special perks?
I am imagining a few ways to go about this. There are more than that of course. I really liked the idea of using iron man for inspiration.
#1
When you spend time configuring your armor, choose an actual armor. The qualities of the intehral armor are identical. There could also be options for adding MW quality, special materials, armor spikes, etc.
#2
Integral armor always grants an armor bonus to AC depending on level. This has no acp or max dex. You also gain a specific number "armor points" depending on level. They can be spent to increase the armor bonus, but this also brings ACP, max dex, and speed penalties into play. If you have enought points, you can also use them to mitigate these three things. Points could also be spent to grant energy resistance or make your float or increase CMD. You have so much room here to get creative. It just depends on how crazy or how simple you want to get with it. There could be an option increase the number of armor points.
#3
Simply start the AC bonus at +X and it incrases by +1 every X levels.
CURRENT DRAFT OF INTEGRATED ARMOR
I tried implementing some drafts of your suggestions, including the following.
1) I tried suggestion #1 from Ciaran, but changing out your armor type seemed rather annoying due to all the extra stats armor has. A player would most likely just choose one and stick with it for their whole career.
2) I tried suggestion #2, but I couldn't really get it to work. I'd need to make the base AC bonus high enough to make it worth using over a normal armor. However, I'd also have to make the armor increases worth having the penalties for.
3) I tried another variation on #2 where each armor point can be spent on a +1 armor bonus increase that also adds a -1 ACP, 5% ASF, and a Dex maximum. In addition to having the same problems as suggestion #1, this made things complicated when dealing with spenditures that negate the penalties of other spenditures.
4) I then created a variation of the draft I showed earlier with some tweaks, which is what you can see here.
I'm also debating on whether this class should get any bonus feats. Since it's feature rich, I don't want to give them too many. But I'm wondering if perhaps a bonus feat at 6th level and every 4 or 5 levels after
1) There is merit in simplifying it, and merit too in giving the player at least the choice between an armor that an armor with a speed penalty and an armor without. I would personally go between two armor as needed, but I am sure you are right that many players would not.
2) I see that as an interesting way to do it, but its all good.
3) This is pretty much what I had in mind.
4) It looks good. I have a few sugegstions though.
-Eliminating the speed penalty of medium armor at 3rd level is a niche of the fighter. I don't now how strongly you feel about this, but I might move this ability back to 7th level, or simply move the customizations back to 7th level.
-You could toss in Heavy Armor as another customization.
-A bit of DR vs something could be a customization, such as bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing.
-A nit-pick, but the spell buoyancy has a contingency for when the spell ends. You should probably simply say what you want it to do instead refering to a spell.
I'd hate to move configurations back because otherwise the ability doesn't really do anything other than give a retractable armor. But I do believe you have a good point that it steals the fighter's thunder, which was a concern of mine (which is difficult considering the fighter is underpowered as is). Perhaps the speed configuration could be an upgrade. I wanted to have an armor-related upgrade anyway, which could be how one obtains heavy armor.
On the other hand, I realized that martial classes typically only receive a minor ability at 3rd level. So, it might be best to push configurations back after all.
I guess you have a point on the buoyancy, too. I'll just borrow some text of that.
Having DR that only applies to one type of weapon damage sounds like a cool idea.
So, I'll go ahead and make the following changes:
1) Armor configurations will not be available until 7th level
2) Remove speed configuration
3) Add a configuration that grants DR against a specific type of weapon damage.
4) Reword buoyancy configuration
5) Add an upgrade that increases the number of configurations, makes halfplate available as an integrated armor. Perhaps this could be an advanced upgrade (only available at 10th level or higher) and can eliminate the speed reduction?
I would be inclined leave the heavy armor speed reduction in place, unless a 2nd armor upgrade is acquired, but that seems ind of steep I guess.
I agree with you. I think I'll deliberately not allow them to eliminate the reduction for heavy armor. I'll allow the reduction for medium armor because any character can do that by getting a mithril medium armor.
(Also, thanks a lot for helping me out with this.)