Artifact Armor: Why no Hearthstone Settings?

[Kyeudo]

I find it rather odd that artifact armor from the Core book don't have any Hearthstone settings, even though they are probably the single largest chunk of magical material an Exalt will be wearing. Is there some reason for this? Any recomendations on how many settings would be appropriate for artifact armor?

 

[Requiem of Forgotten Lore]

I always figured it was one dot for every Hearthstone setting added on. So if you have a level 3 artifact armor and want to place a Hearthstone setting in it (which any master craftsman who knows how to work the 5 MM will be able to do) will make that piece of armor a level for 4 artifact.


Of course I could be wrong, but that would just wind up adding to the total number I need for my end of the world prophesy to be completed. :mrgreen:

 

[Brickwall]

Hearthstone settings only make up a partial dot. The first takes an additional dot, but subsequent settings take up reduced amounts. The next dot should get you at least two more, if not more. Three dots could imaginably get you something like 10 total hearthstone settings.


Why? Because dots are exponential. If a player really has gone through the effort of getting that many hearthstones attuned to them, it'd be tedious to have to subsequently fetch a bunch of artifacts just to make use of them (use besides gaining your full mote pool in an hour).

 

[Arthur]

And core book artefact armour is very weak in first place.

 

[Ker'ion]

In my games we houseruled all Corebook armors at one point less (one point armors are still one point though).


I didn't even think to notice that the Corebook armors had no Hearthstone settings.


We'll probably edit that to give one setting per two dots in Artifact value, rounded down.

 

[Arthur]

In my games we houseruled all Corebook armors at one point less (one point armors are still one point though).

Yeah, I stole that from you a while ago.

 

[strawberryleaves]

I've always preferred the houserule that for Core artifact armors, one- and two-dot armor are now one-dot artifacts, three- and four-dot armor are now two-dot, and superheavy plate is a three-dot artifact. It makes them slightly underpriced, but there's a lot of competition for artifact armor out there.

 

[JerryMcJerrison]

I'm surprised that they didn't change them in the Errata or anything. Superheavy plate is especially weak for the dots, considering all the crazy abilities you get with power armor to go along with the soak. Celestial Battle armor is nearly as good, soak-wise, but with lower penalties, and what equates to like 4 3-dot artifacts and a few more 2-dot ones built in. Especially for Abyssals who can convince their Deathlords to make a suit for them. Holy crap is Oblivion's Panoply good.

 

[RedMantis]

I always thought that the best way for artifact armor to make sense was for the heavier versions to have the artifact bracers (complete with bonuses and hearthstone mount) built in.

 

[magnificentmomo]

Smashfists and God-kicking boots couldn't hurt either, but that is kinda pushing it.


Maybe one or two of those three.

 

[Kyeudo]

So, how much Soak/Hardness/Whatever else would you need to add to existing Artifact armor so that it becomes worth its dots?

 

[Ker'ion]

I'd say add soak equal to it's Artifact value plus half that amount in Hardness (rounded down).


And at least one Hearthstone setting for the medium armors and two for the heavy armors.

 

[Haku1]

I've aways assumed that with armour, you GET as many slots as you fucking want when buying said armour at chargen, otherwise, it's up to the ST or whoever is making said armour.


A hearthstone slot isn't a big deal in the long run. No, it's the custom charms you should worry about.

 

[Bodhisattva]

Artifact armor in the second edition core does not specifically have hearthstone settings because it doesn't need hearthstone settings to power any magitech effects. However, this does not mean that your Storyteller cannot give you a set of artifact armor that has settings for hearthstones.

 

[Virjigorm]

I've found most mainbook artifacts to balance pretty well myself, but I agree that a hearthstone setting is not worth a full dot added to an artifact. The rules for artifact creation in Odaneol's(sp?) Codex are a good way to check published artifacts in other books. I feel that those creation rules are well balanced and give you a little wiggle room to tweak published artifacts. Using those rules, a hearthstone setting is a lvl 1 power, which translates into about 1/8 the total power of a 3 dot artifact.