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Armor Of Infinite Potential

Artifact 3

Crafted of the finest silk and embroidery of Moonsilver, the Armor of Infinite Potential can take the appearence of any clothing the owner decides. One moment, he could appear to be wearing the full armor of an Imperial Legionnaire, the next he could be wearing the gear of a Haltan farmer.

System: The armor normally has the following statistics: Soak 7L/5B, -0 Mobility, 0 Fatigue and costs 7 motes to attune. As a reflexive action, once per turn, the wearer may change the shape of the armor however he desires. Copying another outfit exactly requires an Intelligence+Disguise roll, those examining at the outfit receive their normal roll to pierce the disguise if they have reason to suspect the wearer.

Comments

Do you have the Autocthonian's book? I could swear that there was some artifact clothing in there that was much cheaper that does something similar (or the same thing altogether). Could even be non-artifact, just a basic alchemical/thaumaturgical thing. Or I could be dreaming. - GregLink

You are not dreaming. For artifact 1 you have the multi-modal wardrobe unit, which, for the cost of a reflexive action and a mote, you can change its appearance to any style of clothing. For artifact 1 you have the fiberweave bodysuit which you wear under your clothes. 5L/3B, mobility and fatigue both at 0. Committment 3 motes. Gets MM bonuses. For Artifact 2, you can upgrade a fiberweave bodysuit to have the special ability of the multi-modal wardrobe.- Ambisinister

Bugger. I do have it, I just didn't look in there. Where, oh, where could the Canon Artifact index be? Although, I was basing it on the Silken Armor which is 5L/3B 0/0 for Artifact 2 and doesn't count as armor. Anyway, it's on E:Au page 189. -- Somori

Given Ambisinister's nice summary (thank you!), what you've described is essentially a few soak points higher than what the E:theAutocthonian's has, although, if the (ahem) "Omni-modal Fiberweave Bodysuit" is orichalcum based, you end up with a 7L/5B 0 Fatigue -0 Mobility piece of armor that has a 6m commitment (for anyone, 3 for Solars and Orichalcum Alchemicals) that does exactly what you claim. My theory, then, is that the mechanics for your armor of infinite potential not only exist, but indicate that you can get what you want for cheaper. The reason Silken Armor is so expensive is because Martial Artists can wear it, and it stacks with other armor. If you want to stick armor 3 on here, I'd recommend adding something else in, otherwise, I'd claim you can get exactly what you want, in canon, for cheaper (which is always nice to hear, eh?) - GregLink

Just to put all the information on the table, fiberweave body armor (both versions) counts as armor for the purposes of things like martial arts. If your armor didn't, that probably go a long way towards pumping it up to that third dot and raising the committment cost.-Ambisinister

Yeah, I totally agree. In my post above, I note that Silken Armor (which is less effective at soak, and cannot change appearance) is already Artifact 3. My guess is that you can't expect to have this level of soak and power and make it MA compatible, so it'll have to count as armor. More to the point, Silken armor is quite expensive, with only two real benefits - Martial Artists can wear it, and it stacks with armor (to a point). The question is, which one makes it so dang expensive for the amount of soak it provides? The MA-can-use-it, or the Gives-you-mad-soak part of it? Depending on which is more 'valuable', it depends on how high other armors must go to be valid. (Such as the case we're dealing with here). - GregLink

My personal view here is kind of biased as I belive that armor which stacks with other armor is total bunk. I think the value of silk armor comes from the fact that you can wear it in situations where having obvious armor would be a detriment. Likewise, you can sleep in it, swim in it, and perform any other activity that being encased in 80 pounds inch thick carapace would be a hinderance. Where I'm going with this is that there is a fluff bonus to consider as well. - Ambisinister

Intruiging. Given the now three bonuses provided by Silken Armor, one must wonder - is 'armor counting as armor' really that big a deal? At what point of Athletics, Endurance, and Essence do we start seeing the 'As long as the motes remain committed, the character's armor does not count as armor for the purpose of charms that disallow armor'? I mean, it's a simple enough extension of the Armor-fatigue-reducing Endurance tree, but at the same time, would really shift the supposed balance of power between Melee and MA really hard towards MA. That's like having a melee charm that says "with his masterful expertise at weaponry, the Exalt no longer needs to hold true to traditional fighting techniques, and can now wield any weapon as if it were any other weapon. This explicitly allows the use of any weapon with any charm that only functions with a limited weapon selection'. There's a lot of balance-mojo going on there, but if we start to consider that that's really what Silken Armor has built in, it gets interesting. - GregLink

This is only vaugely related, but may be of interest: I use a house rule that all clothing-like armor (silken armor, gossamer robes, demon-embracing robes, etc.) are not counted as armor for martial arts, but they also do not soak aggravated damage. They can still be penetrated by armor piercing attacks. - Wordman