Character as "living armor" for another character

[megaplayboy]

I have an unusual concept for a character who has one(or more) allies who "merge" into his being to provide him with certain benefits, including various kinds of protection.  I am trying to think of the best way to write this up.  The merged characters can potentially be specifically targeted, though they are not obvious.  Obviously, it's complicated, so I suspect there's a "formally true to concept" approach which is the most complicated but most true to concept, and a "quick and dirty" approach, simply providing extra abilities bought with "restrainable" or somesuch.  Not sure whether duplication is necessary or not(or the reverse, "combination"). 

[Hyper-Man]

One off the shelf but complicated method would be for the 'armor' character(s) to have the Multiform Power and have the alternate form be a vehicle that the other character then pilots.  If using multiple 'armor' characters then build the vehicles with a custom Duplication/Multiform power (like Voltron).

[Grailknight]

Summon allies. Allies have UBO powers.

[Lord Liaden]

Unless the merged "characters" have abilities they can control and utilize independently of the main character, this sounds like the Special Effect of Foci to me. Is there something about how they function that isn't covered by standard Focus rules?

[megaplayboy]

Hmm.  I think perhaps it's best covered by buying powers with a pair of limitations, one of which is unified power and the second is something like "restrainable", "IIF" or "only in alternate ID".  The character can be caught without the abilities, because they aren't innate, and additionally even with the abilities "on", the ability set can be targeted specifically in some way and removed or impaired.  So I think a -1/2 total is appropriate.  Thanks for the feedback.

[Mister E]

What If? the Followers had:

 

Barrier (w/ Feedback, Non-Anchored, AoE(Surface) & Activation Roll) to allow the Followers to protect different parts of the PC's body using the Followers' own bodies...

 

Clinging so the Followers can stick to the PC...

 

Shrinking to reduce the Followers' burden on the PC...

 

... & Shape Shift to make the Followers look inobvious?

 

I imagine that if all the Followers acted together it would negate the Activation Roll on the Barrier. To do this each Follower might represent a specific Hit Location on the PC.

 

I like Clinging, Shrinking & Shape Shifting more than Summon because then the Followers will always be around.

 

"I got your back!"

 

"I got your nose!"

 

"I got your joke!"

[JmOz]

I would probably do my Voltron build on it (Voltron based examples)

 

Main Character (Black Lion) takes a MP with two slots. 

1) Duplication (Red, Yellow, Green, Blue Lions) 25% different

2) Multiform (Voltron)

 

This allows the Powered up form to be considerably more powerful (as the advantage plus advantage alone is worth 125 character build points

[Rockhoof]

Purchase followers, OINormalID.

 

Everything else is just an SFX of your armor/whatever: Restrainable, OIHID, Focus, Extra Time (for 'assembling'), Unified Power (per follower), Individually Targetable, anything else that might make sense.

[Gravitron]

This sort of thing always has multiple solutions, the key being how you actually want it to behave in game.

If you are thinking of it like multiple beings that merge to become one super-being then duplication is probably a good way to go.

The "super" form has all the abilities and buys the duplication while the duplicates don't have all the powers of the original and the original can not use those abilities when duplicated. That's a fairly "simple" write up IMO. But you might also need other abilities like Inivisibility or Desolid that only work for the duplicates depending on what their form is and how easily they can be seen and attacked. It's likely to be quite expensive overall though because of the duplication which is really a hinderance not a helpful power. Making this approach unappealing for actual play. For a villain it is fine though.. 'cause who cares about points, etc for a villain?

 

I wrote up a player character like this where the hero was actually a ghost-like (bio-energy) alien that inhabited his "secret ID". His duplication power split him into the alien and the normal human. The combined form was the base and then he had most of his super-hero abilities (like Deoslidification, etc) bought only usable when duplicated.

[wick]

I would think useable on others armor on the ally with a limitation that effectively removes them from battle while using this UOO armor would be simplest. It can be more complicated if they take damage rather than just disappearing. It makes sense if you think along the lines of summon/unsummon . When summoned they scamper about doing their own thing but when UOO their armor or other abilities they are considered unsummoned.

[wick]

Alternatively make the main guy armored but with lockout lim when using summoned. Maybe put only in heroic I'd so he can be unarmored even when his minions are unsummoned.