Ideas for variations on details of some Biotic Enhancements

[Tor]

I think because Host Armor and other non-human stuff is so inherently gritty and strange-looking that it is easy to gloss over some of the descriptions of certain traits. It already looks weird, so slightly different weird doesn't much change the impact.

But since Biotics are by default a human form, these details are critical to figuring out how strange-looking they are going to appear.

The example Biotic on page 146 looks very strange. It doesn't sound like all Biotics have to look that odd (this guy looks like he has a left shoulder weapon, added eyes, and grown armor from his skin, though he MIGHT be wearing a living armor, not really sure) but they could obviously look even more odd (added limbs, modified lower body, wings, etc)

In reading about some of the Resistances on pages 84-85 some of these jumped out on closer analysis when I was thinking about getting them. Resistance to Electricity appears to be the only one which doesn't modify your appearance. That and the Lightning weapon it leads up to seem like good covert/assassination Biotic tools since neither alter your appearance.

RtCold requires a type of insulation. The examples given are blubber or fur. Either of those would be conspicuous on a biotic. Blubber in particular is described as making you look chubby or heavyset. Should this add weight? I'm not sure if it should add a set amount of weight, or perhaps instead it should add a percentage, so it could vary based on the initial weight of a Biotic or Host Armor. I am wondering if anyone knows any other kinds of insulation that a body might utilize for variety.

RtHeat requires methods to vent heat and cool the body. The examples given are glands and water storage organs. I wonder if additional glands and water-storage would add weight to a body. Or perhaps bulkyness. Think of how a camel's hump stores water... it might be easy to overlook on a heavy Host-Armor but it seems like this feature on a Biotic would be very obvious.

RtKinetic mentions that there are fibers under a Host Armor's exoskeleton. I am not sure how that works for Biotics since they don't have an exoskeleton... I assume perhaps under the surface of the skin. For characters who have multiple resistances I am not sure how the layering would work. Would blubber be on top of fibers, or fibers on top of blubber?

RtLasers mentions the exoskeleton being embedded with salt crystals, so I assume that in the case of a Biotic their skin would be growing crystals.

RtPhysical mentions 2 options:
*a heavy-tissue layer (full of fluid, like a bladder)
*a layer of blubber-cushions
The latter sounds like you could easily merge the appearance with the RtCold option. If you have to choose between a bladder-layer and a blubber-layer, may as well get the one which allows you to skip on being a furry.

Slime Coating says -able to generate- which makes me wonder if a Biotic did not want to be slimy if they could opt to turn off the slime generation and then go take a bath. Being able to generate it only when needed would be useful. If it was possible to de-slime like this then if someone did want to re-slime to get the Escape Artist bonus and Hold immunity (I have no idea why this adds a dodge bonus... thoughts?) then there should be some mandatory warm-up period. Like maybe 1d4 melee rounds or minutes to generate enough slime to cover the body?

I think it would also make sense that it should be possible for some kinds of damage to destroy the slime coating (like perhaps getting hit with a plasma or napalm blast, which should burn it off) so it would be nice if they could assign some MDC to it. Should not be very much (so not be good as armor) but should regenerate somewhat quickly. Perhaps have it have 5 MDC and regenerate 1d4 MDC per melee round, but only fire/plasma attacks damage it and all other attacks bypass the MDC to harm the main body directly? Thoughts?

Stealth Field makes me wonder how it works with Biotics... oddly linked to Chameleon Skin (which is not a field) it allows an additional amount of carried weight to be stealthed as well... I wonder for Biotics if this would include 'worn' weight (like how they can wear Living Armor) or if you get that for free. If it counts then it could be more economic for Biotics to get a Stealth Field on their living armor (although most would not have enough bonus BioE to afford that) rather than have it on their person and use up a chunk of the weight to mask the Living Armor.