Hello I'm making a character with a homebrew race, he's a sentient suit of armour, I want him to be able to like take off his helmet and throw it somewhere or take off his arm and he can still use it, but my one headscratcher is that I can't figure out how he will take damage, like since he isn't an organic being he can't feel pain, he can't get cut or stabbed like a regular person, I want him to balanced but I can't figure how it would work, does anyone have any help or advice?
I mean, this is entirely flavor, so shouldn't be in rules discussion. However, a few options for how it might work:
-Feels physical damage dealt to the armor (whether or not intentionally detached pieces count is between you and the DM) -Physical damage causes disruption to whatever force might be holding in the spirit
There's nothing special about a suit of armor taking damage, The Helmed Horror and Animated Armour are both published monsters that are basically just magically possessed bits of armour. He'd get dented, scratched up, have screws come loose, or straps get cut, or holes get poked.
For mechanics, I would look at Warforged and Autognome. These are Construct races or Construct-adjacent races.
For throwing bits at people, consider looking at Cantrips that mechanically achieves the effect you want. I can't think of any species with a natural weapon that can be used at range.
Something you might consider for the removable body parts is how you are going to adjudicate the detached parts taking damage. This is how I think I would make it work. For simplicity, I will simply call this species Auto-armor
~You learns the cantrip Mending. You can pick which stat is your spellcasting modifier for this spell.
~You can use an Utilize action to detach your head or arm. When detached, the head or arm takes with it some of your maximum hit points to remain animated. The body part will have hit points equal to your character level. Your maximum hit points are reduced by the same amount until reattached.
~You can control the detached appendage as if it was still attached to your body, but you can not take any [Tooltip Not Found] with it.
~Reattaching the appendage requires another Utilize. Once reattached, your current and maximum hit points increase by those of the appendage.
~If the detached body part is lost or destroyed (as by the disintegrate spell), your can regrow the limb by performing a 1 hour maintenance routine. This routine can be performed during a Short or Long Rest.
Hit Points are an abstraction as it is. They don't measure anything definable or quantifiable, so there's no problem with an animate suit of armor having them just like anybody else.
Hit Points are an abstraction as it is. They don't measure anything definable or quantifiable, so there's no problem with an animate suit of armor having them just like anybody else.
You could make the argument that every suit of armor has hit points, at least insofar as there would be some way of tracking its durability if you started beating on one. So yeah, I'm agreeing :)
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Hello I'm making a character with a homebrew race, he's a sentient suit of armour, I want him to be able to like take off his helmet and throw it somewhere or take off his arm and he can still use it, but my one headscratcher is that I can't figure out how he will take damage, like since he isn't an organic being he can't feel pain, he can't get cut or stabbed like a regular person, I want him to balanced but I can't figure how it would work, does anyone have any help or advice?
I mean, this is entirely flavor, so shouldn't be in rules discussion. However, a few options for how it might work:
-Feels physical damage dealt to the armor (whether or not intentionally detached pieces count is between you and the DM)
-Physical damage causes disruption to whatever force might be holding in the spirit
Remember a suit of armor isn't indestructible.
There's nothing special about a suit of armor taking damage, The Helmed Horror and Animated Armour are both published monsters that are basically just magically possessed bits of armour. He'd get dented, scratched up, have screws come loose, or straps get cut, or holes get poked.
For mechanics, I would look at Warforged and Autognome. These are Construct races or Construct-adjacent races.
For throwing bits at people, consider looking at Cantrips that mechanically achieves the effect you want. I can't think of any species with a natural weapon that can be used at range.
How to add Tooltips.
Something you might consider for the removable body parts is how you are going to adjudicate the detached parts taking damage. This is how I think I would make it work. For simplicity, I will simply call this species Auto-armor
~You learns the cantrip Mending. You can pick which stat is your spellcasting modifier for this spell.
~You can use an Utilize action to detach your head or arm. When detached, the head or arm takes with it some of your maximum hit points to remain animated. The body part will have hit points equal to your character level. Your maximum hit points are reduced by the same amount until reattached.
~You can control the detached appendage as if it was still attached to your body, but you can not take any [Tooltip Not Found] with it.
~Reattaching the appendage requires another Utilize. Once reattached, your current and maximum hit points increase by those of the appendage.
~If the detached body part is lost or destroyed (as by the disintegrate spell), your can regrow the limb by performing a 1 hour maintenance routine. This routine can be performed during a Short or Long Rest.
Hit Points are an abstraction as it is. They don't measure anything definable or quantifiable, so there's no problem with an animate suit of armor having them just like anybody else.
You could make the argument that every suit of armor has hit points, at least insofar as there would be some way of tracking its durability if you started beating on one. So yeah, I'm agreeing :)
"Not all those who wander are lost"