Heres the thing, Im going to direct a more or less lengthy campaign ( a year or more, it depends really ) of kickass epic proportions, so Ive been considering a lot of stuff to make things interesting for everyone, and an option that came to mind is giving the party, or some of the players limited access to one of the above suits (or both).
I dont want the party, or whoever wears the suit to be a walking god, I do want them to be thougher, faster, stronger and be able to shrug off most attacks from small arms.
Those of you who have played Crysis before already know what I mean. You had an unfair advantage (very) but werent by no means immortal, it was very easy to find yourself out of energy and then your health was damaged.
Anyway, im going to link you guys to a few articles so you know what I mean.
Crysis nanosuit.
incrysis.com/wiki/index.php/Nanosuit
Iron Man Armor.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Man\'s_armor
(Scroll down to the Live-Action film part)
So, the Crysis nanosuit operates on energy that depletes rapidly with use of the special features. For all practical purposes it doubles or triples the strength and doubles speed of a normal human when in strength and speed mode respectively, it soaks up a lot of damage when in armor mode (and it auto-regenerates later) and it can render the user almost completely invisible (enemies only notice you if you are right in front of their face). It also has night vision (limited capacity) and a rebreather with unlimited capacity. The only thing im not very fond of is the fact that the user regenerates health with the suit on, or something like that, at least in the game you did, but thats a no go here.
For the stats I was thinking.
When in STRENGTH mode.
STR + 10 (or +12) after all its double the strength of a normal human being (10).
Double or triple the range for throwing purposes.
When in SPEED mode.
Dex + 6 or +8
30 more feet of movement
When in ARMOR mode.
+something extra hit points. I was thinking around 80-100
When in CLOAK mode.
Can hide in plain sight.
+15 to hide
+10 to move silently
On top of that you get darkvision out to 60ft for a limited time, im thinking 5 to 10 minutes with half that number in recharge time. Also theres the waterbreathing.
The only thing I yet have to do is figure out the energy consumption of all this. Whatever it turns out to be the user will have to wait some time before using any of the modes again, and by default the suit reverts to armor mode. In armor mode, the energy regeneration is faster than in any of the other modes (2 or 3 times faster) but it stops for a moment if the suit takes damage.
For all practical purposes anyone can wear the suit, its like wearing a coverall and you dont need any proficiencies for it, switching between modes is a free action that doesent provoke attacks of opportunities.
Maybe a little damage reduction? No hit points (remember the suit "heals itself")
Any comments on this are greately appreciated, specially on the energy management subject.
Onto the Iron Man armor.
Im not gonna give the party "the" Iron Man armor, heck, maybe I will, if they would like to meet Tony Stark, the supplier for "The Company" (where the party operates).
Regarding the stats (im open to suggestions of course, but im thinking)
+ 16 or +18 STR (lift a car over your head and use it as a shield xD)
I dont think It should have a DEX penalty, but not a bonus either, it also shouldt have any movement speed penalties.
The suit of course, has a lot of damage reduction (enough to stop all small arms fire) and can only be lightly harmed by ammunition in the order of 20mm bullets, tank sabots, and...er...(whats more powerfull than that?) hellfire missiles? The "mini"gun under the A10-Thunderbolt?
So, maybe 15-20 DR
The suit of course has hitpoints, which render it basically dead weight upon reaching 0. But how many hit points? I was thinking a LOT, maybe around 350-500.
Then there are all the systems and Heads up Display. Wich grant various bonuses to the wearer senses.
+10 to Spot, Search, Computer use Disable Device, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and In addition the user can understand and "speak" the most common languages (the suit speaks them really, so...)
Also, Darkvision out to 100 ft, and im damn sure the armor also has thermal vision, but im not sure what effect that would have on gameplay, If anyone could elaborate it would be great.
The various aiming assists, threat evaluation and rangefinding information displayed on the HUD makes the user much more skilled in marksmanship and melee combat, giving him a +3 bonus on ranged and melee attacks.
All melee attacks deal 3d6+str mod damage (it could be more, but im not sure)
The suit is also capable of flight at supersonic speeds (though im not sure at which speed and maneuverability).
It also comes with weaponry and is modular and customizable, the standard load out includes but isnt limited to:
================================
4 armor penetration missiles
300 feets of range (with no range increments)
10d6 damage
================================
Shoulder mounted anti-personnel (cannons?)
50 ft Range
4d8 damage (Tony Stark Bullets after all)
If aimed for a full round the attack is an automatical critical hit x2.
Each cannon can rotate and move independently and can target an attacker in a 50 ft cone.
Each shoulder has 5 cannons with 2 spare rounds.
================================
Hand mounted flight stabilizers that also serve as repulsors.
100 ft range
4d8+4 bludgeoning damage.
19-20x2
The user can spend a full round action to further charge the repulsors and do 6d8+8 damage.
After all that the imagination is the limit, if you have read the comics then youll know Tony Stark made several other weapons for the Iron Man system, among them, Arm, and shoulder mounted gatling guns and rocket launchers.
The suit could also be modified with different parts for different situations in order to grant more Strenth, Speed, Camouflage, Damage Reduction and so on. It beat the Hulk.
Again, the most challenging part of all this is figuring out the power management, of course the Iron Man power source, a miniaturized ARC reactor lasts A LOT more than the Crysis nanosuit power source, but I dont know exacly how much.
It was a long thread, but ive talked (not explicitly) about this with the guys and they are really exited to be able to do this sometime in the future. And I'd like to see this made a reality.
Im counting on you guys to share your experience with me.
Thanks a LOT for reading!
I'm starting to feel like I say this too much, but I have superhero power-armour rules in Phoenix, if you're interested. Hit my sig. It's free. Go nuts.
As for your numbers, I like that you're differentiating between the two different kinds of power armour. The only thing I'd say is to make sure that each suit has a certain amount of balance between defence and offence, which you're doing pretty well actually. I made the mistake of loading up characters with offensive weapons in their power suits but then forgetting just how few hit points they have, underneath it all, so you end up with tin howitzers.
The other thing is balance between the PCs. Now, I'm not one to moan and carry on about power balance. I think if players are living out the fantasy that they want to live out, then they should be happy. Kill-count is one of several different possible fantasies, especially in Modern where you have classes like Negotiator. That said, if you have one character whose combat stats are in the superhero range, and then a bunch of others who are regular old d20M characters, you're going to have trouble balancing the threats. A couple of grenades can stop a team of d20M PCs cold; it will barely scratch that Iron-Man armour.
Other than that, I like what you're doing. The downside of my power armour rules is that they're hooked into a whole mess of other superhero/superpower rules; whereas, what you're creating is very immediate, very clean, very simple. The only thing I'd suggest, now that I think of it, is utility powers in addition to the combat powers. Like, having a motorised winch might be super useful. Or think about this: how useful could repulsors be if you could dial down their power level? A create player could get all kind of mad sick use out of those things other than blasting people in the face or abstracting describing them as part of the flight control system.
Just a few thoughts. Hope they're useful.
Just wanted to throw out that d20 Mecha has rules for making powered suits/armor as well as mechs and vehicles. 
Thanks for the info.
Anyone care to take a shot at the energy consumption thingy?
The problem with attempting to limit a powersuit (or robot) by power use
is that the power source has its physical size capped by the application in the suit,
and that definition of the entire powercell being smaller than a 1/2gal ice cream box leads to the frequent, and valid, questioning of
"why we dont just carry a spare powercell (or five)"?
Well, to answer that in regards of the Crysis Nanosuit and Iron Man armor.
The Nanosuit has a NON removable (at least not field-removable) power source. But there is no need to carry an extra power cell in the field as the suit itself recharges pretty rapidly.
The Iron Man armor on the other hand does have a removable power source (as seen in the comics and most lately, in the film). This power source is also self-charging, and it can, according to the comics recharge itself even faster by shyphoning power from other sources, like sticking a bare power cable on your chest (abused in the comics). The main problem with changing it is that in order to remove, and change the power source, the user has to power down the suit, and be a sitting duck, also, it leaves a huge hole on your chest. On top of that, a miniaturized, self charging Arc reactor is not the kind of thing one leaves lying around for the enemy to collect and come up with their own powered armors in 2 weeks.
Plus, we have to remember this is fiction, these things dont even exist in reality.
I need a way to limit the abilities and advantages the suit and armor give to the player in order for them not to exploit it. If I gave them a god suit and let them run amok then the campaign would be very very boring. Plus Id have to drop a nuke on top of their heads to harm them.
"But there is no need to carry an extra power cell in the field as the suit itself recharges pretty rapidly."
Recharging is considered 'pretty rapid'
by the guys that are not getting shot up while waiting for their suit to recharge
This is the same concept used by the troops bemoaning the PortoCannon
that fires a shot then needs 'just 2 rounds' to cooldown
.... 'just 2 rounds' excedes the life expency of troops that miss with their PortoCannon vs OpFor Armor
The engineers at AM General decided how much armor to put on a Humvee,
then the troops in the fields decided how much armor to put on a humvee, resulting in all kinds of stray plate metal getting welded/bolted/taped onto humvees in the field.... despite the engineers (that werent geting shot at) saying it wasnt "needed"
( hmmm... wheres that link to my Track Vehicle BODY Armor posts?)
PTBoats originally didnt come with 37mm cannon, troops corrected that mistake in the field:
"Cheif, can we get a light AT gun here on the deck?"
"Cap, you asking Does it go there, or Can it go there? My manuals say No, but my torch says Yes"