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So, on my drive home yesterday I was thinking how entertaining it might be to have a tectonic (please forgive/correct the spelling here - don't have access to the books right now) entity as a familiar. You could just buy any ol' set of armor and have a fun companion!

This got me to thinking of how you would address the issue of how the damage assigned to the armor would work in this case. We will use the Gladiator from the original book because that is the one I remember the stats best for. So, the Gladiator has 55 MDC. Now, I am thinking that if you do 55 MDC to the armor, you have essentially penetrated it and gotten the MDC weapon to affect the gooey interior (probably a PC or NPC). But if a tectonic entity were "inhabiting" the armor, merely blowing a hole through the armor wouldn't be good enough - you would pretty much have to vaporize/shred/blow up the whole thing.

How do you figure this should work?

I guess when the main body is depleted (whether it is a turned off skelebot or an unoccupied armor) the entity is forced to abandon it.

Adios
KLM

when the main body is depleted

I guess this is what I am having the question about. Does this mean that when the MDC of the "main body" of the armor is depleted that the enitre torso is gone (which may or may not be a requirement for the entity to vacate - they can animate piles of garbage if I recall...), or just that it is beat up enough to not prevent anything further from penetrating it?

Correction: TWICE the original MDC of the item must be depleted
(actually it takes half damage), but then the armor is blasted to
useless pieces. At that point, the entity cannot occupy or build
a new body for 12 hours.

Adios
KLM

Wow - that would make for a pretty useful familiar (since you could use any old crap to "patch" the armor). In addition, it isn't as if most people wouldbe expecting it, and thus even if they beat the physical form they wouldn't be able to effectively deal with (like exorcise) the entity...

Good Lord - I had a further thought and inquiry... Exactly what is covered by Heavy Borg Armor? Is it sort of like the borg equivalent of Juicer Plate, or is it more encompassing (like, is there a head piece, gauntlets, etc.)?

I believe it is just heavy metal plates which are bolted directly onto the borg body.

So, then if a tectonic entity were to inhabit a suit of Heavy Borg Armor, it would look similar to those weird energy demons you can summon in Warcraft III (without the glowing yellow, of course).

Ah, the tectonic entity... Or, as I call 'em, the "anger elementals."

I don't know. I always loved the gustovich pic of the tectonic entity

can u have an entity as a familiar?

I am pretty certain that it would fall into the realm of "greater" familiar, but I can't imagine why not. You might have to go to the trouble of finding one to do so, which could be rather entertaining as an adventure into and of itself...

According to the Bionics Sourcebook, p. 101, under Bionic Body Armor: "All are full body suits, complete with helmet and face plate or visor."

If that were the case, Heavy Borg Armor is, what, 450, 550 MDC? Good Lord... Imagine having a tectonic entity inhabit that. Any idea what the conversion book says for their combat (i.e., do they have supernatural strength, etc.)? I don't recall and don't have the books handy to look it up (the quote above is from a different post).

Correction: TWICE the original MDC of the item must be depleted (actually it takes half damage), but then the armor is blasted to useless pieces. At that point, the entity cannot occupy or build a new body for 12 hours.

Can someone verify for me is this is the case (like from the Conversion Book)? I haven't had access to my books for 8+ years - left them in the custody of a buddy when I joined the Navy and haven't gotten around to getting them back yet...

I looked up the "half damage" thing from the conversion Book I.

The body takes half damage from most attacks, except (maybe)
from fire and explosions (MD of course) and allways full damage
from psionics and magic.

The body to be inhabited is first mentioned as maximum 8 feet
high, later "typically" 10-12 feet (so borg armor fits, but if you
have a borg body, without a brain... ouch)

Adios
KLM

The body takes half damage from most attacks, except (maybe) from fire and explosions (MD of course) and allways full damage from psionics and magic.

The part in red has always bothered me (I put that in red for emphasis). Don't get me wrong, I am not arguing the way it is written down - I just think that in this case it might be pretty silly. If all you are hurting is the physical body that the tectonic entity has put together, what difference does it make where the damage source comes from? It isn't as if the entity itself is taking damage, and I am pretty certain that it hasn't "enchanted" the pile of whatever it inhabits (I don't know if you can really "possess" a inanimate object...).

Any tho'ts on this one?

Rev. Frank wrote:

The body takes half damage from most attacks, except (maybe) from fire and explosions (MD of course) and allways full damage from psionics and magic.

The part in red has always bothered me (I put that in red for emphasis). Don't get me wrong, I am not arguing the way it is written down - I just think that in this case it might be pretty silly. If all you are hurting is the physical body that the tectonic entity has put together, what difference does it make where the damage source comes from? It isn't as if the entity itself is taking damage, and I am pretty certain that it hasn't "enchanted" the pile of whatever it inhabits (I don't know if you can really "possess" a inanimate object...).

Any tho'ts on this one?

I always figured it's like if I hit you with a flamethrower and you were behind a thin metal wall pressing against it. Yes the actual fire wouldn't hurt you, but the heat conducted through the metal would.



Daniel Stoker

I figured those attacks affected / hit / hurt the entity itself. All other attacks resort to destroying the gubbins they are using to form a physical body until they can't hold it together.