Hey all, so I don't know how many of you have read the Legends novels of the Darth Bane Trilogy, but if you know anything about Bane it's probably (maybe?) his kind of weird-looking, but pretty BA bug-armor.

Well, I want to insert something like that into my campaign, to hopefully coax a player (or two) solidly onto the path of the Darkside.

Here's what I'm thinking for it's mechanics...

When the bugs are allowed to fully "nest" on you:

1. You take your Brawn+1 in Wounds, and an automatic Crit (can/must be healed as normal).

2. Your Wound Threshold is permanently reduced by 2 (you could of course still get Toughness Talents to off-set it, or whatever).

3. Any Crit made against you is made at a +10 (Vicious 1) severity.

4. And it could serve as justification for circumstantial penalties to Social checks, and/or to being noticed in a crowd, etc.

The benefits are:

1. +1 to your Soak (a free rank in the Enduring Talent).

2. +Cortosis Quality, to... you. Or, effectively anything you're wearing.

3. +1 free Darkside pip to any Force Power check (as it's discussed in the book how the constant pain the bugs cause are used by Bane to fuel his anger and thereby the Force/Darkside).

You guys feel that is too bad, too good, or somewhere in between...?

What would you suggest to sway it toward the other direction/balance, if you feel it's not?

Look forward to your input. Thanks in advance.

Another aspect of the Orbalisk armor was that when one died, they poisoned the user. I'd just raise the crit results of attacks against the wearer by +20 or 30 to represent that risk.

Personally, I wasn't a fan of that part of the Bane trilogy, and it isn't something I'd likely ever use in my games, but what you have doesn't seem too awfully broken.

When it comes to orbalisk armor, there should definitely be the option "Too Ugly".

I like your write up, but it should be noted that this is living armor and should be counted as such. With that in mind, should probably bump up the Soak a little bit and perhaps add a defense rating.

The orbalisk's ability to pump adrenaline into the wearer could perhaps also add boost dice to brawn based checks, or even a increase brawn by a point.

Consider that orbalisk armor is more or less permanent, and care needs to be taken that the don't spread to cover the wearer's hand and face, I think it's pretty ok to make it a quite powerful item item, as long as its' social drawbacks are played up accordingly.

9 hours ago, penpenpen said:

When it comes to orbalisk armor, there should definitely be the option "Too Ugly".

I was thinking that it would negate the Indistinguishable talent if the user had it. Bane had to go through pretty serious lengths to hide it.

14 hours ago, Underachiever599 said:

I'd just    raise the crit results of attacks against the wearer by +20 or 30 to  represent that risk.

This is a good point and a good idea, cuz I was personally feeling like it was tending toward the "too good" side. But I might just limit it to +10-20...

12 hours ago, penpenpen said:

... should probably bump up the Soak a little bit and perhaps add a defense rating. 

The orbalisk's ability to pump adrenaline into the wearer could perhaps also add boost dice to brawn based checks, or even a increase brawn by a point.

Consider that orbalisk armor is more or less permanent, and care needs to be taken that the don't spread to cover the wearer's hand and face, I think it's pretty ok to make it a quite powerful item item, as long as its' social drawbacks are played up accordingly.

Yeah, I wasn't (and still am not) sure that I liked going the "it's full armor" route.

Ifelt like that would make it harder to balance, because it couldn't reasonably be modded so it'd have to start out GOOD good to be worth it, which would mean it's a one time BIG power bump, and messes with the role that gear and modding gear can play in mechanical advancement...

Consequently it would be a little different in the fiction (mostly just smaller, lower profile bugs), but if one were going to fully and faithfully replicate Orbalisk Armor, yea, 100% agreed.

The Adrenaline pumping is an aspect I'd forgotten, I kind of like to map these as much as possible to a Talent, so any thoughts where to go with an extent Talent for that? Falling Avalanche, or Physical Training maybe?

Thanks for the input all!

I'd say it's balanced depending on the group you're playing with. Mechanically speaking I'd say it's not balanced granting great defensive perks and a free force point but in game it might be balanced if the social (inter and intra party) consequences and/or personal moral consequences were significant enough that it wasn't an automatic gimme for the PC (e.g., they won't be wearing it all the time and there's circumstances where they can't or wouldn't wear it when it would be useful). I'd say it would be more balanced if that free force point came with some Strain cost.