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, though we go back to the normal artifact ratings: but the following new rules com into play...

Health Levels, Soak, and Hardness.

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. As a Vechicle the Warstrider has a Hardness equal to it's soak, however that hardness applies only to damage against the vehicle. It has only half that hardness for protecting it's pilot. Each time the Warstrider is attacked the attacker must chose if they are trying to attack the war-strider or it's pilot.

If attacking the vehicle the attack is resolved as per a vehicle attack, and the damage cannot get through to the pilot. If on the other hand the attacker attempt to aim for weak points and damage the pilot instead their post soak damage is HALVED, and then HALF of THAT is applied to the Pilot and Half to the vehicle. (Round to the higher level of damage in both cases. If they did 13 levels of post soak damage it would be halved to 6.5 dice, rounded to 7, half of which is applied to both Warstrider and Pilot, 3.5 dice to each rounded to 4 dice in both cases.)

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.

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. Additionally ALL Warstriders are equipped as an integral feature of the way they are built with Warstrider scale Smash Fists and God Kicking Boots, these weapons cost no additional motes to attune and are not charged a point cost in stage 3, they are simply part of the nature of Warstriders design parameters.

(It must be noted at this juncture that the minimum requirements of these weapons combine with the rules for strength bonuses later in this section mean that to pilot a standard Scout Warstrider you require a Strength of 2 dots, AKA human average. Apparently being a military scout who operates an 18' tall war-machine in advance of an army is not for people who could not pass basic training...)

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 Combine wound level of the Warstrider and Pilot, 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.

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 -4 to a minimum of 0, and a mobility penalty of their standard level -3 to a minimum of 0.

Strength Bonus.

Instead of the listed strength of the Warstrider being a fixed value this amount is added as a bonus to the users strength.

Mass Combat Power.

Warstriders, due to their inherent power and capability can be employed on both the tactical and mass combat scale. When used in mass combat they count as having magnitude even as solo units, equal to the following values:

Scout: 2

Common: 3

Noble: 4

Colossus and Royal: 5

When tabulating the magnitude of an entire UNIT of Warstriders use the magnitude of the lowest rated Warstrider in the unit as the base line and then add the magnitude they would gain from numbers to that as if that number were magnitude 0.

Large Target.

Piloting a minimum of 18 foot tall warmachine comes with certain issues. Anyone with a clear shot at the Warstrider or an effect which negates cover gains 2 times the listed bonus for Aim actions taken against the target, as they are almost literally aiming at the broad side of a barn. Even if they do not take an aim action they gain a +1 die bonus.

Stage 3

Now comes the hardest task of all. Up till now we have had one standardized set of rules for handling the Warstriders: but NOW, now we come to the segment of the rules that could either make Warstriders truly Glorious, or flip them from being broken by being far to weak, to too powerful.

Base Precepts

Like the Ancillary Systems in Wonders of the Lost Age Warstriders can be upgraded with subsystems that grant them new and useful abilities: however, unlike those systems, which will be referenced here, most of these upgrades do not require commitment of additional motes, as the cost to attune to a Warstrider is already crippling. Even the highest level abilities only cost three motes over those of the base warstrider, though you can under this system add several of those to a Royal Warstrider.

For each dot of artifact rating that the Warstrider costs it gets 2 'design points' to customize it's abilities. A warstrider can be equipped with customized sub systems rated between 1 and 5 points, and any sub system costing more points than the base artifact rating of your Warstrider requires express ST permission and would be impossible for the artisans of the second age.

Systems From Wonders of the Lost Age

The systems outlined in wonders of the lost age form the baseline by which the subsystems in this section will be measured, they are no longer rated as discreet artifacts, but instead as powers for the war strider, though they can add to the cost to attune to the Warstrider.

Aquatic Systems

Naval Combat Mobility System: 2 Design Points, 1 Mote to attune.

Deep Sea Combat Mobility System: 4 Design Points, 2 Motes to Attune

Aquatic High Speed Propulsion System: 5 Design Points, 3 Motes to Attune

Stealth Systems

Elemental Stealth System: 2 Design Points, 0 Motes to attune.

Essence Cloak: 4 Design Points, 2 Motes to Attune

Chameleon Shell: 5 Design Points, 3 Motes to Attune

'Proven' Warstrider Designs

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.