The Ghost/Titans of War: Functional Warstriders

The Variant in a Nutshell: What could be more Iconic of the Dawn Caste or the 7th legion than the Warstrider? However as published Warstriders are a joke in terms of what they can do, many of the power armor types in wonders of the lost age are as potent, or more, and the warstrider does not live up to it's promise. These rules are intended to live up to the reputation of the warstrider making them the Titans of War they are supposed to be.

The Base Rules

I will refrain from reprinting the rules for Warstriders from Wonders of the Lost age, but they are: Not strong enough.

The Problem

The soak and hardness of Warstriders are in some cases outmatched by tactical power armor which in addition to that also has other features which make it beyond the power of a normal Warstrider, this; is unacceptable. Furthermore Warstriders have much higher levels of fatigue value and mobility penalty than the power armor, which makes sense, but on top of it's other weaknesses makes it not at all worth the high cost to attune, maintain, and acquire the artifact that go along with it.

The Goals

Warstriders are the mailed right fist of the seventh legion and were the backbone of the forces of the Unified Realm of Creation in the previous age. What these rules will try to do is make this state of affairs make SENSE mechanically: make the Rules match the Fluf. To do this requires 3 main steps: 1: adjusting how the base Warstrider rules work so they are equal to the comparable mechanics of personal power armor. 2: create rules to make Warstriders which match up with the tactical abilities of the Warstriders as outlined in the Fluf portions of the game. 3: Add new mechanics for reflecting the described variation of warstriders, how each one is a unique artifact created from a plethora of designs with differing features and abilities similar to the rules for designing Manses in Odinol's Codex. This is a tall order, and will not be completed all at once, but I will chip away at it as I can.

The New Rules

The three stages are each completed one at a time bellow, each of them will be done and improved upon as I think through how they work, though some simple outlines will be completed almost immediately. When these rules are fully developed Warstriders will not bear much resemblance to how they worked before except at the most basic level.

Stage 1

The simplest and most basic stage of correcting these rules is to adjust the Artifact cost of Warstriders.

This rules change works as follows: FOR Warstriders exactly like those in wonders of the lost age, with all their weaknesses and flaws, the cost to take them as Artifacts is reduced by 1 dot, except for Colossus which is reduced by 2. Yes, this means a Colossus Warstrider is a 3 dot artifact, you will see why shortly.

This rule can be used on it's own to bring Warstriders more in line with the fluff, but it is not actually enough to fully reflect them by itself.

Stage 2

Now, you may be wondering why I consider a Warstrider an artifact 2 device, and especially a Colossus an Artifact 3 device. The Answer is simple, but two fold: 1: A colossus mobility penalty means that without charms geared towards using it effectively a person wearing it CANNOT MOVE. 2: Warstriders, by their very nature as minumum 18' tall Giants, paint the hugest freaking target on your back. You will be attacked not only by the enemy artillery, but also by their own exalted champions, who are more agile and dexterous than you.

Now: how do we deal with this? It's easier than you might think.

At this stage of the rules revision we make a fundamental change to the status and rules system of warstriders: They cease to be armor one wears: and become vehicles one pilots.

We still go at this point with much of the base profiles of the Warstrider, size, soak, attunement cost, and so on, but the following new rules com into play.

1: Health Levels.

Warstriders have their own health levels, following the rules for vehicles, which are equal to their soak divided equally between -0, -1, -2, -3, -4 and Incapacitated health levels. Their pilot cannot take levels of damage until the Warstrider itself takes it's first -3 health level and then may chose to take half the damage from each attack which penetrates the armor instead of the vehicle, and is subject to called shots to target him directly instead of the Warstrider at a -4 external penalty.

The wound penalties from the vehicle and the pilot stack for the purposes of determining things like penalties to speed and dodging, as both the vehicle's ability to respond to the pilots commands and the pilot's ability to give those commands effectively play a role in determining how responsive the device is.

2: Weaponry.

Warstriders may be mounted with integral weapons such as Essence Cannons and Retractable Razor claws, which cost no extra motes to attune. Adding such weapons costs a number of design points as shown in the next stage of this rules change.

3: Speed.

Warstriders Speed is Equal to that of the person wearing it, multiplied by the usual amount for that type of war strider, but NOT modified by it's mobility penalty. Instead it's multiplier is reduced by the current wound level of the Warstrider x2, or reduced to zero if the Warstrider is incapacitated. Even a Warstrider mauled nigh to being non functional is faster than it's pilot would be were he not in control of a 18 foot tall giant simply by virtue of having larger limbs with which to limp along.

4: Fatigue and Mobility Penalty.

Warstriders have conventional fatigue or mobility penalties far far lower than they do in the standard system. These supreme engines of war are air conditioned with blocks of True Ice from near the elemental pole of air and heated if necessary with essence charged plaques of Red Jade. In addition to this their control harnesses are padded and adjusted specifically to accommodate the user comfortably and respond effortlessly to their commands. They therefore only have a fatigue value equal to their base stats -3 to a minimum of 0, and a mobility penalty of their standard level -4 to a minimum of 0.

Final Notes

Implementing these rules does not change the exalted setting one whit: that's the point! The old rules were disruptive to the setting because they didn't match what the setting said about Warstriders. However it DOES change the GAME fundamentally. Warstriders are now potent artifacts which many many PCs and NPCs will quite logically covet. If you are a serious military character you will doubtless want a Warstrider of your own and will naturally also find that acquiring and keeping one is a difficult task. This tone of the game can be adjusted by altering how common warstriders are and how difficult it is to maintain them.