How do/would you handle magic power armor in your setting, Veeky Forums?

How do/would you handle magic power armor in your setting, Veeky Forums?

Heated to 5000 degrees by the Inquisition with the bearer inside to make sure it's free of warp taint. As you can guess, mostly Salamanders have them

Build a metal golem out of a suit of armor. Then put a mage inside of it.

It's a suit of armor, but it's enchanted, so it gives bonuses to do stuff. Maybe it lets you fly or jump high or shit.

I'd be more interested in getting some Guymelefs in an RPG.

With all the stuff that BESM decided to parody, I'm surprised Escaflowne was never made into a proper sourcebook.

I would like this a lot better if those swords were of a more practical and useable design.

At leastgive the zweihander a place to grip above the hilt that isn't spikey.

Like actual power armor. In that, the magical power armor is actually a magical powered frame, below the plating but above the gambeson. Thus, a knight will equip a gambeson, a magical frame will be fitted over that, and armor will be fitted to/hung over the frame.

Well, they break a few rules.
>weightless
>made from dead fairies
>can't cut living flesh, severs the soul instead

...

Name of the artist in the op?

Ben McSweeny

power armor provides increased power, protection, and utility.
all of those in a magic setting can be provided with magic at a more compact size.
so what would be the benefit of enchanting a larger form factor? that would be the question
does having thicker metal plating help when it's the magic doing the protecting?

it could be a lower fantasy solution like maybe powered armor is the cheaper solution while richer/stronger mages opt for more magic instead of more metal

I don't give a fuck how magic your sword is if you can't swing it at shit

>weightless
>Can't cut flesh
yeah sounds about right

With care.

It's cooler in context, I swear.

It's an armor that has been enchanted to be very light, extremely resistant and give you greater strength.
Then, you put someone with magical abilities in it, and you have an invulnerable explosion wielding warmachine jumping around the battlefield wrecking stuff with a magic sword.

Im playing Warhammer Fantasy Role play, so I would restrict it exclusively to Chaos warriors and Melekith, and keep it that way forever.

A spirit of bronze or of war inhabits (or is imprisoned in) the suit of armor. Its animating force improves the strength of the wearer, but its true power is the mystical strength that flows from it. Having a mind of its own, the armor-spirit may struggle against its wearer if it disagrees with them, though this is mitigated somewhat if the spirit is bound against its will.

Unlike regular armor in which magic is almost objectively a plus regular power armors have quite a few advantages over magical ones. The reason for this discrepancy lies in the core flaw of any magitech which is that even if you are applying it in an enforced and carefully delimited rational context, you are intrusively tampering with a force that is fundamentally illogical, trouble will eventually find its way towards you if you dare wrap youself in it.

This is why often skilled enough warriors prefer regular science-fueled power armor, they are even insecure about inscribing minor magic like runes onto them.

Rip off the Garo anime I guess.

It passes through flesh, it just doesn't cut it. Imagine a 5-7 foot lightsaber made out of thin crystal. It is super lightweight but goes through everything, except when it hits a dude it severs his spirit as it goes through him & the body remains intact. If you wear Shardplate, you can grip a Shardblade in your gauntlet no problem. If you are bare handed & grip the edge you are likely to lose the function of that hand because the slightest "cut" of the blade with sever the connection you have with your hand.

I rip off Shardplate because its the best.

>Extra big full plate
>Translucent visor HUD that has a Armet's narrow faceslit
>Powered by magic crystals placed into a matrix in the armor
>Enhances the user's physical abilities

My melanin enriched compatriot.

that sounds dreadful

Magic enchantments metal feel much lighter to the wearer than it truly is, and this incredible weight given by heavier armor makes them incredibly hard to topple and have even warhammers bounce off the inches thick metal. Due to a limitation in most suits, incredible forces going against the suit can temporarily break the magic, making falling down incredibly serious (comparable to how it would in real life, rather than fantasy land of infinite stamina and people sticking 10 foot drops). Common methods of dealing with these armors include nets, lances, chariots driven by oxen and driven by charioteers with lassos and hooks, artificially poor terrain to traverse, stairs, and gravity. Of course, finding an opening in the armor suits the occasion of killing any knight, but this is a bit less convenient as weightless armor that provides incredible protection enables them to be very restrictive but therefore more tricky to stick with a knife.

Regular armors or even lackthereof are still viable, as while the power armors are incredibly dangerous, they are both incredibly rare and still rely on weapons same as everyone else, so methods of defending oneself still apply, only the act of defeating the opponent becomes problematic.

Symbiotic earth elemental lives on the hosts body, consumes metallic sources, excreted nautilus-shell armor. Byproduct waste is a pure crystaline magic (used in magitek guns and engines) and otherwise brings forward the myth that dwarves eat rocks for breakfast

it wasn't made to kill humans, just giants mades of stone

It would be exceedingly rare, as worked metals have a natural anti-magic quality to them. As such magical armor would be rare and hard to make, doubly so for Power Armor. I could see potentially people using other materials aside from iron and steel to try and make the power armor, like potentially Hornbeam or Bronze, but otherwise you'd be better off just using a normal set of nonmagical plate, as that's good enough protection and provides antimagical properties

By not making it "power armor" so much as a one-man mobile weapon platform. They still need a team to reload and preform maintenance, so you would never have an entire army of them. But the upside of having a ball aof mortars, cannons, and large, explosive objects being able to, fairly quickly, move exactly where you need it most is invaluable.

Since the spirit can move the armor on its own, wouldn't there be fear of it just walking off and getting lost?

It's basically the same as having a legacy item, another character sheet, or NPC act as the vanguard for a single PC really.

A friend of mine established an order of magic armor knights in my world. They worked basically like fucking mechs in that they have their own consciousness "AI", and are made for the purpose of assisting the user, bonding with it, promoting the values of the order, etc

Basically, the power armor is symbiotic with you, although you can remove it at will. To simply wear it as you go about your day-to-day would leave you not particularly more exhausted than usual at the end of the day than if you were not wearing it. Each time it blocks a strike, it drains you more, depending on the strength behind the blow it deflected. Also, the armor can draw even more of your strength to perform incredible feats, whether holding an entire building on your shoulders, or cleaving through near-indestructible materials. When it comes time for heroic sacrifice, the wearer can channel all of their life force into the armor, turning themselves into an unstoppable force for as long as they are needed, but being left dead after the effect wears off.

Looks pretty Exalted to me.