The One Point Power Armor Challenge (5e)

[archer]

I'm thinking about converting one of my classic power armor characters to a 5th edition which allows more starting points.

 

I've always liked the idea of armors that have a heck of a lot of powers but are situational, limited use, limited effectiveness, etc.

 

So what I'm looking for are ideas for powers which are effective and useful but have had their real cost reduced to 1 through a cunning combination of exactly the right minimum active points to still be effective and an outrageous number of limitations (but which still doesn't have the effect of neutering the effectiveness). 

 

The hero already has 55 STR and a ranged offensive/movement multipower around 60-65 active points, which are okay. And some kind of nightvision (which needs to be reworked). The power armor is OIF (rather than Only in Hero ID) and the proposed powers should be part of that armor.

 

Go wild, impress me, amuse me.

 

I'm rolling around some ideas in my head but I've lost my copy of 5e which has slowed my own efforts. And I'm WAY too fatigued at the moment to be able to think straight. I seriously need to sleep for 20 hours so I'm off to bed.

 

One thing I definitely want to consider is Invisibility to Mutant Sensors.

 

Oh, and if you have any ideas for clever and unusual slots for the multipower, I'd be entertained to see those as well.

[Duke Bushido]

2 hours ago, archer said:

One thing I definitely want to consider is Invisibility to Mutant Sensors.

 

Don't be a mutant.

 

There.  You got that one for free.

 

[BoloOfEarth]

They're not power armor things, but Dave Mattingly wrote an article on "Knacks" (in Digital Hero #23) -- one-point Perks, Talents, Skills, or Powers that ran the gamut from Armchair Contestant to Weight Guesser.  One of my favorites is Little Black Book:  Summon 25-point Normal, Expanded Class (Appropriate date; +1/4), Loyal (+1/2); 1 Charge (-2), Arrives Under Own Power (-1/2), Extra Time (1 hour; -3), Summoned Normal Must Inhabit Area (-1/2).  9 Active Points, 1 Real Point.

[archer]

1 hour ago, BoloOfEarth said:

They're not power armor things, but Dave Mattingly wrote an article on "Knacks" (in Digital Hero #23) -- one-point Perks, Talents, Skills, or Powers that ran the gamut from Armchair Contestant to Weight Guesser.  One of my favorites is Little Black Book:  Summon 25-point Normal, Expanded Class (Appropriate date; +1/4), Loyal (+1/2); 1 Charge (-2), Arrives Under Own Power (-1/2), Extra Time (1 hour; -3), Summoned Normal Must Inhabit Area (-1/2).  9 Active Points, 1 Real Point.

 

I like that one. I was considering doing something like that (with wildly different limitations) for bots which each has a particular skill or power. I could have Flashlight Bot, Poetry Bot, Lockpick Bot, Body Shield Bot, etc.

[Duke Bushido]

On a more serious note, the mutant scanner one is going to vary way too widely for us to buuld objectively.  Its going to depend, more than most things do, on how your campaign is set up:

 

How common are mutant scanners?  How do they work?  How are they used-- are they all-pervasive or reserved for law enforcement?  Even then, is it as common as a breathalyzer or somerhing uncommon enough that its only brought out on special occasions?

 

What are the ramifications of being a mutant?  Legally?  Politically?  Socially?

 

This one isnt like "only in moonlight" or "1/2 rwnge wh3n used underwater."  This one depends entirely on hiw you set up your world.  For example, in my world, you can have it completely free, because there is no such thing as a mutant scanner.

 

They dont exist becaue, beyond some occasional jealousy, nobody cares.

 

 

[BoloOfEarth]

15 hours ago, archer said:

 

I like that one. I was considering doing something like that (with wildly different limitations) for bots which each has a particular skill or power. I could have Flashlight Bot, Poetry Bot, Lockpick Bot, Body Shield Bot, etc.

 

Auto-Lockpicks:  Lockpicking, OIF (-1/2), Extra Time (Extra Phase; -1/2)

 

I can't get it down to 1 point, but for 3 points, and courtesy of the 1960s Batman TV show, you could have...

Photonic Optical Waveform (POW) Generator:  Images to Sight Group, OIF (-1/2), No Range (-1/2), Set Effect ("POW!", "BAM!", "CRASH!", and the dreaded "WHIFF!", based on the character's attack and success or failure; -1)

Of course, you might have to steal it from Foxbat first.

[HeroGM]

18 hours ago, archer said:

 

I like that one. I was considering doing something like that (with wildly different limitations) for bots which each has a particular skill or power. I could have Flashlight Bot, Poetry Bot, Lockpick Bot, Body Shield Bot, etc.

Sounds like something a young teen hero would have. Franklin Richards original age (4-6) or so.

[Duke Bushido]

2 hours ago, BoloOfEarth said:

 

Auto-Lockpicks:  Lockpicking, OIF (-1/2), Extra Time (Extra Phase; -1/2)

 

I can't get it down to 1 point, but for 3 points, and courtesy of the 1960s Batman TV show, you could have...

Photonic Optical Waveform (POW) Generator:  Images to Sight Group, OIF (-1/2), No Range (-1/2), Set Effect ("POW!", "BAM!", "CRASH!", and the dreaded "WHIFF!", based on the character's attack and success or failure; -1)

Of course, you might have to steal it from Foxbat first.

 

Try "No Conscious Control."  That should get you to 2.

 

 

[archer]

2 hours ago, HeroGM said:

Sounds like something a young teen hero would have. Franklin Richards original age (4-6) or so.

 

Well, Franklin Richards is somewhat of a genius.

 

And yes, the character is starting off as a young teen hero whose hero parents have gone off on a mission and disappeared. 

 

He found the power armor, more or less completely assembled, in his father's workshop. (A little bit on the "less" side.)

 

His father was a gadgeteer. His mother was a martial artist. Both were over-protective and tried to keep their kid out of the hero world except for the occasional foray into assembled hero picnics, weddings, and such.

 

Part of the reason they were over-protective is that the kid showed up on scanners as a mutant at a young age even before his mutation became apparent and anti-mutant hysteria was part of the campaign world.

 

In this reimagining, I may or may not rework the backstory.

 

Part of the idea of this thread is that the kid is going to festoon his armor with everything he can think of in an attempt to answer every eventuality because he knows he's going to be in over his head as he goes out into the world trying to be a hero (and find out what happened to his parents). But he's not a great inventor or a genius. He has his father's lab and some willing helper bots. So his additions will take extra time to activate, cost extra END, and generally be clunky...but have the goal of helping him cope with the challenges of being a hero.

 

He's also scared that GENOCIDE will find out he's a mutant or that people will figure out he's a kid and either put him in the foster system or otherwise separate him from his home and lab.

[steriaca]

I tried to do a 60 point Blast (because a 12d6 Blast cam be the same as a 4d6 Ranged Killing Attack), but the best I could do is get it down to around 8 points or so. That would be one charge, cost END, x2 END, No Conscious Control at the-1 level (can fire but not choose the target), Concenteate (0 DCV), Beam, Real Weapon, Focus (a bracelet gun tapping into his armor and the armor tapping into his mutant physically), among other power limitations.

 

It should be obvious that he doesn't use this power often because of it's unpredictable nature. The energy actually does come from himself, the armor taps into it and the plug in gadget allows him to release it.