Magical Armor

Magical weapons are annoying because of the weird resistance rules. Taking a page from nethack, armor might be more effective:

The Weightless Armor
PeTe 35
Touch, Sun, Ind
Makes the metal of a suit of armor have minimal weight, removing its load. (base 10, taken from PeIg instead of PeCo, +2 metal, +1 Touch, +2 Sun)

As a constant enchantment this is level 34: +4 for the constant effect, but Personal instead of Touch (the magic of the armor affects the armor, not the wearer.) Prot 9 Load 0 Chain Mail, yeah!

Any other ideas? I'm thinking of an armor or sword enchantment which casts PeTe on any other metal (sword) which touches it; I'm not sure how that'd work as a simple spell.

Did the same thing for the Covenant a while back...similar spell guidelines

Do you really want to make a sword that detroys metal? I know from experience that having a weapon like a sword in your hands can be as dangerous to the person using it..ie you wind up hitting yourself (if only lightly)...would kind of stink destroying your own armor...(mentioned above)
Of course you could make your armor immune to the effect...or have your local Verditius do it...(I charge reasonable fees :wink: )

Now arrows that do that would be cool...ignore the armor value when hitting.
hmmm thats not a bad idea actually

Interesting. A knight-verditius is a concept I want to try out sometime.

Items to increase Soak or provide temporary healing on command are a good idea. Perhaps a power that makes steel even stronger, improving its soak?

Wards to protect the magus from physical harm are even better in a way. A ward against metal works better than Soak against mundane opponents.

In terms of attack, I think simply a PeCo effect enchanted in the sword works best. A ReTe effect can also direct it at a target, allowing you to hit automatically in principle I think. An effect to remove hide and metal Soak would be benefitial too, yes.

Within the abstraction of ArM5 combat I don't think hitting yourself with your own sword should be a concern except on a botch. Nevertheless, some protection from PeCo might be useful, I suppose.

The main problem with enchanted weapons is that they are resisted by Magic Resistance. A MuCo spell might allow one to augment the wielder physically, bestowing unnatural strength and dexterity to improve your performance. Similarly, a MuMe effect might be used to instill skill at arms.

Exotic materials or places might confer high quality, as may supreme weaponcraft skills.

(Of course, one should design the weapons with some penetration. But that's bound to fail eventually.)

I typically fudge magic resistance rules if it's silly.

For example, the 'pink dot' example mentioned at Redcap would be a waste of time in a game of mine. I figure, if magic resistance is smart enough to dismiss magic spikes about to hurt you and keep a magic bridge around that would drop you (of course, I note that the spikes aren't exactly destroyed by the reaction,) then it should be able to discern when a magical sword's magical properties can cause harm (a conjured sword would do, a sword with an enhanced edge would do, a sword propelled by magic through the air, but a sword with a light spell that doesn't hurt you would cut.)

I'm sure there's a loophole in my logic somewhere, of course, but if you spend time finding it than clearly you're spending too much time on it. ;D I will consider the case and judge as needed.

My reasoning for this is that I don't want solutions as simple as making something give off light able to stop attacks entirely. You gotta use your head or work to beat off a man with a sword.

YR7:

The problem with this is that somewhere, there is something that can penetrate that Ward, or isn't affected by it...then you die.

Items that increase your soak work against almost anything. Of course armor doesn't help against cold, but you can build in a Ward there too...

Of course the Wards are nice to have too.. :smiley:

Hear Hear!

With this reasoning, you'd never have to lower your protection to cast a spell on yourself...

Muto muto muto. I once came to the conclusion that Muto sucks big time. from what I gather in 5th Ed, Muto is not well disposed to offer these effects.

Guidelines to augment physical attributes or mental ones through Muto are not defined. Rego or Creo spells have been seen to reflect intelligence ( CrIm(Me) The Human Servant & ReHe The Spear Thing)

Would you care to give out an example on how you would transpose this into Muto?

W

Master William, who let you in the club?

Your Master's cloak, maniacle laugh, and legion of minions are in the mail.

Chuck :wink:

With the new rules from the Mystery Cults book (specifically the Verditius Inner Mystery Quality Items) you can get VERY good armour by spending one season crafting a full suit of chain. The mystery basically allows you to add the Shape or material bonus if applicable... and in this instance:
Full Chain Suit: +9 Soak
Quality Full Chain Suit: +16 Soak

The Shape bonus or Armor is +7 Protect Wearer....

As for the load problem; just design a girdle with a ReTe effect that gives you +5 strength for the purpose of carrying.

Girdle of Ease 19
ReTe (Base 5, +2 Sun, +4 Levels continous effect)
Not very difficult to make, even if you aren't ex Verditius. :laughing: