Vestments of the Ancestral Bones

[Pureblood-Sin]

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Affiliation: N/A


Ownership: Darth Maleficar


Intent: I wanted to create a suit of armour that ultimately expresses the darker aspects of Maleficar's nature, as well as provide him some protection in the heat of battle. Also, I don't think there are many suits of armour crafted from the bones of a character's ancestor.


Model: Zaldrosza itzok (Bones of the Fathers)


Weight: 7kg


Composition: The luminous rune-carved main plates and helmet of the armour are shaped from the bones of Darth Maleficar's ancestor, the Sith King Rohu'Qash and a few Tuk'ata bones to add to the aesthetics. Obsidian tipped spikes are also present throughout the armour, for personal defence purposes. Through Sith Alchemy, they were shaped into a more durable form so as to provide protection from blows. While infused with power, the bone plates are still just that; bone, and is simply a little stronger than typical Sith bone. The focus of such Dark Side magics were in the gauntlets, given that Maleficar desires not to grow complacent in the heat of battle.

The skull-helmet is possessed of a corusca gem and transparisteel eyepieces, whilst the armour is adorned with a plethora of gold medallions which glow with the Darth's innate power. A fur cloak of sorts hangs from around the shoulders whilst the Darth's thick standard robes fit from underneath.

It is ultimately safe to say, besides from the gold and obsidian parts, the armour is just over 98% bone..


Rating: Imbued with the powers of Sith Alchemy, the bones that comprise of the faulds, helmet and chest-piece are strong enough to withstand at least 3 shots from a standard blaster and 7 blows from a blunt weapon before ultimately being reduced to dust...whilst being useless before even a glancing blow from a lightsaber. Furthermore, given the lack of additional padding under the plates, concussive blows can still deal the full amount of damage whilst crunching through the plate. Given the segmented nature of the plating, it is quite easy to slip a blade, a slug or an arrow through the gaps. All a skilled swordsman need do is guide a metal sword into the gaps for a fatal blow.

Ultimately, the Alchemy is strongest in the gauntlets; designed with the intent on blocking the blows of lightsabers and blaster bolts. Yet still, they offer very little protection from concussive blows; meaning that bones can still be easily broken by a very strong lightsaber strike.


Description: Given the underhanded preferences of the Darth Maleficar, the horns and tusks of the helmet serve to provide a more dangerous headbutt. The sharpened obsidian-tipped spikes upon the plates serve to ensure that any attempt to grab him is met with pieces of obsidian stuck in the attacker's limb.

 

[Outlander]

Im not sure about this. You say the gauntlets are very strong, capable of neutralizing lightsaber attacks and blasters, and say the armor enhances someone's force powers, which seems kind of abusable in PVP.

 

[Pureblood-Sin]

Not enhance the power that's used, merely ensure there's more to draw upon for purposes of endurance. Also, the gauntlets only block...and that goes away once all the reserves in the armour are used up.

 

[Outlander]

I guess I'd say it depends on how powerful your character already is. Gauntles that can block most things would be very powerful for a Sith that has very good reflexes and doesn't get tired.

 

[Pureblood-Sin]

Darth Maleficar isn't much of a fighter, given that he is High Arcanist. Even then, he is mostly defensive in his style.

 

[Outlander]

But how fast is his reaction speed? If he can raise the gauntlets up quick enough to block attacks, as well as being able to pull upon a resovoir of additional force energy to use powers longer, it would be kind of overpowered.

 

[Pureblood-Sin]

Whilst Maleficar is quite agile, he much prefers to dodge or redirect a blow with his saberstaff. The gauntlets serve more as a tool of last resort/opportunity, especially when a physically stronger opponent could simply force his grip aside and embed their weapon in his torso. Therefore, it means that they are less likely to be used unless under dire circumstances.

Also, if he feels the pressure to end a fight quickly, Maleficar may take the risk and activate his suit's spell, thus stripping the entire thing of its defense. Given his Sith Magic, its even more likely he'll burn through the reserves quickly before necessity calls upon the gauntlets.

 

[Kiro]

Yeah, armour that boosts Force Powers is against the rules, I'm quite certain.

There has been issues with it in the past, where characters that were already quite powerful (Darth level, like this goomba) basically made themselves 'God-level' thanks to armour that boosted/stored/played Liberacé/enhanced the Force potential of the wearer through various (usually the bullshit Sith Alchemy) means, along with storing 'spells' (see earlier comment for feelings regarding "Sith Magic") in said armour.

While it's ultimately the call of the Admins (and obviously NOT Weiss, due to faction bias), I seriously doubt this piece of Force Boosting, lightsaber proof, armour will get approved.

 

[Green Ranger]

Clayton's asked me to handle this one, since he wasn't too sure on the alchemy/augmenting stuff.

Generally, I have no real issue personally with the idea of force-augmenting items, since from a rules POV there's literally no circumstances in which we'd factor it into a ruling, because it's...well, silly. But there have been instances in the past where it's caused more problems than it's worth, even as a purely flavour-based enhancement, so with that in mind, it needs to go. We've never been keen on Force-enhancing artifacts anyway, since it's so hard to estimate what equates to a fair or balanced enhancement in a fairly vague area of RP to begin with. Basically? It's a can of worms we could all live without. I mean, all else aside, the Force is OP enough as is without artifacts further broadening that gap.

It's also rather unclear as to what extent the various parts of armour resist how much - in that I mean it's difficult to determine what protects from what because the writing's not clear enough and the materials for each piece of armor need to generally be more clear as to what is made from which material, and how much protection those materials afford to various damage types.

Since the issues do go to the very core of the armour's write-up, I'm tempted to simply archive this - however, I will leave it open for now, at least to get a response and see where you plan on going from there.

 

[Pureblood-Sin]

Made the necessary additions to explain the armour's full capability, I hope they prove satisfactory.

 

[Green Ranger]

I think you missed a big part of my ruling about the whole nixing of the Force-augment properties there, man.

 

[Pureblood-Sin]

My bad, painkillers and lack of sleep are a terrible combination. Anywho, the enhancing qualities have been removed whilst the spell remains...it just draws its power from the user instead.

 

[Outlander]

I think he just meant to not have it force enhanced.

 

[Pureblood-Sin]

Done and done...should look scary enough anyway. :)