I've been running a Starfinder campaign for some of my friends and they are VERY interested in using power armor. However, looking at the available sets of it in the core book, It looks more like its a system for a bunch of different types rather than models that can be used for a linear advancement.
So, after talking with them a little, I decided to sit down and look around the forums some. I saw a few people toss around the idea of making leveled versions of the Battle Harness and decided to give it a whirl.
I tried to keep it in line with the Heavy Armor, increasing the AC, Max Dex, and Mod Slots in line with it. There are less mod slots than with Heavy Armor to make up for the Str Score. I wasn't sure how to scale the base unarmed value for the armor, but I still have it a go. I also wasn't sure what kind of prices to set for the higher levels of the armor yet.
Battle Harness mk I
EAC BONUS +9 KAC BONUS +12 LEVEL 5
MAX DEX BONUS +2 ARMOR CHECK PENALTY –4 S SPEED 30 feet
STRENGTH 18 (+4) DAMAGE 1d10 B SIZE Medium
CAPACITY 20 USAGE 1/hour
WEAPON SLOTS 1 UPGRADE SLOTS 1 BULK 20
Battle Harness mk II
EAC BONUS +13 KAC BONUS +16 LEVEL 8
MAX DEX BONUS +3 ARMOR CHECK PENALTY –4 S SPEED 30 feet
STRENGTH 20 (+5) DAMAGE 2d6 B SIZE Medium
CAPACITY 20 USAGE 1/hour
WEAPON SLOTS 1 UPGRADE SLOTS 2 BULK 20
Battle Harness mk III
EAC BONUS +17 KAC BONUS +20 LEVEL 11
MAX DEX BONUS +3 ARMOR CHECK PENALTY –4 S SPEED 30 feet
STRENGTH 22 (+6) DAMAGE 2d6 B SIZE Medium
CAPACITY 20 USAGE 1/hour
WEAPON SLOTS 1 UPGRADE SLOTS 2 BULK 20
Battle Harness mk IV
EAC BONUS +20 KAC BONUS +23 LEVEL 14
MAX DEX BONUS +4 ARMOR CHECK PENALTY –4 S SPEED 30 feet
STRENGTH 24 (+7) DAMAGE 2d10 B SIZE Medium
CAPACITY 20 USAGE 1/hour
WEAPON SLOTS 1 UPGRADE SLOTS 3 BULK 20
Battle Harness mk V
EAC BONUS +23 KAC BONUS +26 LEVEL 17
MAX DEX BONUS +4 ARMOR CHECK PENALTY –4 S SPEED 30 feet
STRENGTH 26 (+8) DAMAGE 2d10 B SIZE Medium
CAPACITY 20 USAGE 1/hour
WEAPON SLOTS 1 UPGRADE SLOTS 4 BULK 20
Battle Harness mk VI
EAC BONUS +26 KAC BONUS +29 LEVEL 20
MAX DEX BONUS +5 ARMOR CHECK PENALTY –4 S SPEED 30 feet
STRENGTH 28 (+9) DAMAGE 3d10 B SIZE Medium
CAPACITY 20 USAGE 1/hour
WEAPON SLOTS 1 UPGRADE SLOTS 5 BULK 20
I'm interested in any feedback any of you have, and if you guys think I did an alright job with this... Do you want me to look into trying to do a similar thing with the other Power Armor frames?
It looks fine overall(except melee damage, see below). But power armor seems so tacked on that i'm not sure its worth dealing with. It seems like its more for playing mech battles than personal usage.
Giving Heavy armor an upgrade that can give strength boosts and the ability for weapon mounts would be a much easier way to simulate the effect people are wanting
Add in something like
Armor Upgrade - S.Booster
S. Booster v0.18 - Sets Armor Strength to 18
S. Booster v0.22 - Sets Armor Strength to 22
S. Booster v0.26 - Sets Armor Strength to 26
Other than weighing a ridiculous amount, personal (non mech sized) power armor seems like its easier covered in Heavy Armor Upgrades.
But if you are wanting to just keep adding Mk frames of battle harness then you are going to have to greatly reduce the melee damage. Even the Large Jarlspayer only gets 2d8 at most and the Huge Flight frame is only packing 2d6
For reference, here's comparing the existing power armor to the best (highest AC) light and heavy armors at the levels power armor is presented (assuming you have the max dex for all of them):
Note that the power armor Paizo designed has worse AC than other armor at level, with the exception of the battle harness. Also the prices are very close with the exception of the flight frame (it can fly), and the battle frame (it has better AC). This is how they decided to balance things. It's also probably part of the reason they didn't make better versions of the battle harness, they realized it would throw the curve they want and be difficult to keep the price within the range of other armor of equivalent level.
I would probably keep the AC around -1eac/+1kac compared to equivalent level heavy armor, in order to not have to make it prohibitively expensive for its level. I would also upgrade the battery in line with other gear of that level and probably add a second weapon slot at some point. I also agree with Kamin, you should reduce the melee damage.
Hey Sandwitches, really liking the leveled Battle Harness system you have. I'm playing a soldier and was really hyped to get into power armor but was pretty disappointed when I saw the complete and utter lack of linear progression for anyone who wants to play with a battle harness type rig at any level above the level 5 model in the core book.
I've taken your numbers and tweaked them a little bit in respect to damage and have changed the Mk VI to have 2 weapon slots (I imagine 1 over each shoulder). In addition to that I looked at the average cost difference between power armor and the most expensive light armor and heavy armor of equal level to find the price differences, and then did so for both at level with the new battle harnesses.
Modified Battle Harness Mk I-VI:
Battle Harness mk I
EAC BONUS +9 KAC BONUS +12 LEVEL 5
MAX DEX BONUS +2 ARMOR CHECK PENALTY –4 S SPEED 30 feet
STRENGTH 18 (+4) DAMAGE 1d10 B SIZE Medium
CAPACITY 20 USAGE 1/hour
WEAPON SLOTS 1 UPGRADE SLOTS 1 BULK 20 Cost 3,450c
Battle Harness mk II
EAC BONUS +13 KAC BONUS +16 LEVEL 8
MAX DEX BONUS +3 ARMOR CHECK PENALTY –4 S SPEED 30 feet
STRENGTH 20 (+5) DAMAGE 1d10 B SIZE Medium
CAPACITY 20 USAGE 1/hour
WEAPON SLOTS 1 UPGRADE SLOTS 2 BULK 20
Battle Harness mk III
EAC BONUS +17 KAC BONUS +20 LEVEL 11
MAX DEX BONUS +3 ARMOR CHECK PENALTY –4 S SPEED 30 feet
STRENGTH 22 (+6) DAMAGE 2d6 B SIZE Medium
CAPACITY 20 USAGE 1/hour
WEAPON SLOTS 1 UPGRADE SLOTS 2 BULK 20
Battle Harness mk IV
EAC BONUS +20 KAC BONUS +23 LEVEL 14
MAX DEX BONUS +4 ARMOR CHECK PENALTY –4 S SPEED 30 feet
STRENGTH 24 (+7) DAMAGE 2d6 B SIZE Medium
CAPACITY 20 USAGE 1/hour
WEAPON SLOTS 1 UPGRADE SLOTS 3 BULK 20
Battle Harness mk V
EAC BONUS +23 KAC BONUS +26 LEVEL 17
MAX DEX BONUS +4 ARMOR CHECK PENALTY –4 S SPEED 30 feet
STRENGTH 26 (+8) DAMAGE 3d4 B SIZE Medium
CAPACITY 20 USAGE 1/hour
WEAPON SLOTS 1 UPGRADE SLOTS 4 BULK 20
Battle Harness mk VI
EAC BONUS +26 KAC BONUS +29 LEVEL 20
MAX DEX BONUS +5 ARMOR CHECK PENALTY –4 S SPEED 30 feet
STRENGTH 28 (+9) DAMAGE 2d8 B SIZE Medium
CAPACITY 20 USAGE 1/hour
WEAPON SLOTS 2 UPGRADE SLOTS 5 BULK 20
I've worked out the price differences as well but can't seem to copy and paste it without the format crapping out so in summary, the average price increase for power armor as compared to light armor is 5.1% while for heavy armor it is 6.07% making the average between the two 5.59% (all numbers were rounded up to the second decimal place).
So with that in mind:
Battle Harness Price as compared to Light and Heavy Armor:
L= markup from light armor, H= markup from heavy armor, A= mark up from the average of L+H
Lvl 5 Core book price at 3450
Lvl 8 (L) 9459c (H) 10872c (A) 10166c
Lvl 11 (L) 25013c (H) 28745c (A) 26879c
Lvl 14 (L) 74936c (H) 76211c (A) 75574c
Lvl 17 (L) 299535c (H) 227989c (A) 260611c
Lvl 20 (L) 975328c (H) 988572c (A) 981950c
These numbers can obviously be changed to make them nice even looking, but that is a fair progression given the maximum price of armor for the given level.
Thoughts? Would you guys change any of the numbers around regarding damage or possibly EAC/KAC?
I'm honestly not sure why anyone is complaining about the damage of his proposed armors being too high, since the damage of the other published armors in the book is too low. The melee attack afforded by the armor should be a secondary weapon, yes, with your guns being primary, but it should still scale something like the other weapons. And other weapons go way, way, WAY higher than 3d10 by 20th level. The doshko is 13d12; you don't want to be THAT good, but the powered fist strikes should still probably be in line with the Pulse Gauntlets, which reach 10d6 by level 16.
That's fair to say, I hadn't considered it from the perspective of the Jarlslayer being under-powered as I was trying to keep the damage in line with it considering it is a large suit as opposed to the Battle Harness as a medium.
So instead of trying to dumb down the numbers, how about we think about them as a secondary weapon at their respective levels:
Level 5 1d10
Level 8 2d10
Level 11 4d8
Level 14 4d10
Level 17 6d10
Level 20 6d12
They may still seem a little under-powered, but they also get that nice strength bonus. I think that my GM will buy into this kind of damage progression as opposed to bumping the scale upwards.
Now if there were only some improved versions of the Jarlslayer...
I doubt it particularly matters what the damage is on the power armor's slam attacks, provided it's not allowed to get high - any wearer who cares about melee damage without needing a weapon slot will just use a gauntlet variant, as others have pointed out. Frankly, I think Kamin_Majere had the right idea. Something like this might work better:
1) Remove all the actual powered armors from the game.
2) Remove the rule permitting light armor to stack with powered armor.
3) Let powered armor be manufactured from any heavy armor, as follows:
Bulk: Multiply the bulk by 10 and add 10, giving you a bulk from 20 to 40.
Slots: Powered Armor upgrade slots may be used to mount weapons. It takes only one slot to mount a one or two handed weapon, and a mounted weapon counts as wielded, as if you had enough manipulatory limbs to hold it in addition to your actual manipulatory limbs. Powered Armor has 5 more slots than the armor it is made from. Mounting a weapon into a slot is a full-round action; the weapons may be jettisoned as freely as dropping an item. Powered Armor may accept a Jetpack (ignore the listed restriction) or Climbing Suckers (treat as a 1-slot item with Bulk -).
Usage/Capacity: Powered Armor can accept any of the stock batteries available, which are sold separately, and consume 1 charge per minute. You may spend an upgrade slot improving this to 1 charge per hour. Powered Armor may divert charges from its main battery to any slotted items, regardless of whether they are weapons or upgrades.
EAC/KAC/Max Dex: Reduce the armor's max dex to -1, and increase its EAC and KAC by the same amount (e.g. reducing +2 to -1 means adding 3 to its EAC and KAC). Then add 1 to its KAC.
Armor Check Penalty: Decrease this by 1 (- becomes -1, -5 becomes -6, etc), a further 1 (-2 total) if the armor is Large or Huge, and a further 1 (-3 total) if the armor is Huge.
Speed: Powered Armor has a "stock" land speed of 30 feet, modified by the speed penalty of the armor it is made from.
Size: Powered Armor is normally Large, with 5-foot reach. It can be made Huge, with 10-foot reach. For 1 upgrade slot, it may either be shrunk down to Medium or gain +5 to its reach, but not both.
Strength: Powered Armor has a strength equal to 18 + item level.
Damage: Unarmed Strikes in powered armor lose archaic, nonlethal, and analog (if you are playing with the house rule that they have analog). Powered Armor may integrate any 1 "glove" style melee weapon, such as a battleglove or pulse glove, without consuming an upgrade slot.
Cost: Multiply the underlying armor's cost in credits by 1.1 (i.e. it costs 10% again as much).
