Warmaster
AP 90 EP 50 FF 8 Gen. 1
Described in: Core book (FAQ corrected)
The last first-generation meta-armour Merlin designed answers the needs of Avalon’s seneschals on the field of battle. They required armour with strong combat capabilities coupled with tactical and command functions. The resulting meta-armour, the Warmaster model, is lighter and more mobile than a Warrior. It has a better reactor and on-board tactical and strategic computing devices, thick armour plating, and a strong force field.
Seneschals in particular tend to select this armour, not only because it assists them in their role as banner leaders, but also because it reflects their position in Avalon’s hierarchy. Despite their formal rank being on an equal footing with other Knights, they tend to get greater access to the organisation’s full range of modules and weapons.
Warmasters are, along with third generation meta-armour, the rarest of all models. Some seneschals prefer to wear armour with greater firepower and more ostentatious abilities. A persistent jibe often makes the rounds in Camelot – that Warmaster seneschals hide safely behind their team, never taking risks, and never getting anything heroic done. These rumours are swiftly quelled by those who have seen this meta-armour in action. Without its tactical and strategic assets, they claim, many a mission would have failed catastrophically, and more than a few Knights owe their lives to their seneschal’s quick thinking and organisation. This is neither completely true nor false.
The fact is that Warmaster meta-armour is the only armour capable of fine-tuning other meta-armours and weapons on the fly via ’pulses,’ nanomachine links between the Warmaster and their allies’ equipment. By selecting which parameters to enhance, a pulse can speed an armour up, overclock its force field, and refine its weapons for a short period of time.
With its 2-inch thick armour plating and decent reactor, Warmaster models are midway between a utility meta-armour and a pure combat model. In battle situations, given the right equipment and a few modules, it can perform as well as a Warrior armour. In other situations, its unique abilities give it an edge few other armours possess. Latest generation AR systems grant enhanced control of battlefield situations. Its advanced ’Sword-Bearer’ AI system is designed to help the armour’s user by providing tactical advice and options according to the terrain type and mission parameters. This AI is invasive, capable of discussing options with and contradicting the Knight it is programmed to serve. Its true edge, however, comes from its inbuilt Falcon-designation analysis mode, capable of rapidly analysing an enemy’s strengths and weaknesses. The best Warmasters learn to allocate their armour’s pulses to great effect while obtaining intel on their current foes. Doing this effectively requires a measure of selfcontrol and good coordination with the rest of the Knight’s banner.
Warlord Mode
The Warmaster can enhance other meta-armours’ abilities from a distance for a short duration. These enhancements, called ’pulses,’ give the Knight’s bannermen noticeable increases to their combat performances. Warmasters start with 3 pulses chosen from the 5 listed below. When activated, crackling tendrils of coloured light appear around the affected armour.
Activating a pulse costs a move action. Pulses can be activated at extreme range, targeting any allied Knight, even if they are invisible or the Warmaster has no line of sight to them.
The Warmaster can target itself with most pulses. If targeting one or more allies, the Warmaster can choose to gain the pulse’s bonus as well for an additional energy cost specified in each pulse. Targeting more than one ally and targeting itself does not require spending any additional actions beyond the base activation cost.
Some pulses can be extended by spending EP equal to half the initial activation cost, rounded up (with a minimum of 1 EP / turn). Each turn, the Warmaster decides whether to prolong a pulse effect. If they do choose to prolong it, the corresponding EP must be spent, otherwise the effect stops immediately. Paying this upkeep does not require an action. Several different pulses can affect and be prolonged on a single target, but no armour can have more than one of the same pulse active at a time.
Example: Mike’s character uses a dodge pulse on an ally. The base cost is 3 EP and a move action. Mike decides to use it on his own character as well. He spends an additional 2 EP, half of 3 rounded up, and gains the pulse’s bonus. The whole action costs a total of 5 EP and one move action. If Mike wishes to extend it when his next turn arrives, he will have to spend a further 3 EP, but no action.
Variants
Effect: One ally chosen by the user gains an additional combat or move action on their next turn.
| Energy | 4 (+10 for the Warmaster) |
|---|---|
| Activation | Move action |
| Duration | 1 turn |
Effect: One or more allied meta-armours gain an additional 2 defence and reaction points for a whole turn.
| Energy | 3 per target ally (+2 per turn for each affected ally and for the Warmaster if they choose to get the bonus too) |
|---|---|
| Activation | Move action |
| Duration | 1 turn (can be extended) |
Effect: One or more allied meta-armours gain an additional 2 FF points for a whole turn.
| Energy | 2 per target ally (+1 per turn for each affected ally and for the Warmaster if they choose to get the bonus too) |
|---|---|
| Activation | Move action |
| Duration | 1 turn (can be extended) |
Effect: One or more allied meta-armours gain an additional 1D6 damage and violence to all their successful attacks for the next turn.
| Energy | 1 per target ally (+1 per turn for each affected ally and for the Warmaster if they choose to get the bonus too) |
|---|---|
| Activation | Move action |
| Duration | 1 turn (can be extended) |
Effect: An ally’s meta-armour of the character’s choosing gains a portion of the Warmaster’s energy. This pulse can transfer up to 5 energy points to an ally. The pulse cannotaffect the Warmaster itself.
| Energy | 1 to 5 |
|---|---|
| Activation | Move action |
| Duration | Instantaneous |
Falcon Mode
The Warmaster can detect enemies’ strengths and weaknesses with an advanced scanning device in the Warmaster’s visor. The Falcon module analyses every scar, every movement, every opening left by an enemy, be it human, machine, or beast of the Anathema. By crossreferencing data from all of Avalon’s sources and previous battlefield engagements, the meta-armour can determine an adversary’s strengths and weaknesses with great accuracy. Activating Falcon mode costs a move action.
Effect: The character can detect (once per use): * All of an NPC’s aspects (brutes, badasses, bosses, and behemoths).
* An NPC’s reaction and defence scores (brutes, badasses, bosses, and behemoths).
* All of an NPC’s exceptional aspects (brutes, badasses, bosses, and behemoths).
* An NPC’s weak point(s) (badasses, bosses, and behemoths).
* An NPC’s weapons (and their statistics) (brutes, badasses, bosses, and behemoths).
* An NPC’s health, armour and shield values (brutes, badasses, bosses, and behemoths).
* All of an NPC’s abilities (brutes, badasses, bosses, and behemoths).
* A band’s aspects and substats (cohesion, defence, reaction, overrun).
| Energy | 6 |
|---|---|
| Activation | Move action |
| Duration | Instantaneous |
| GP | Description |
|---|---|
| 150 | The armour’s reactor is upgraded to an Infinity-class core, latest generation reactor capability, giving the armour + 10 EP to add to their EP total. |
| 200 | The armour can now use all pulses. |
| 250 | Falcon mode no longer costs an action and its energy cost is reduced to 3 EP. Another reactor upgrade gives the Warmaster an additional + 10 EP to add to its total. |
Q&A > Meta-armour questions > Warmaster - Jan. 17, 2025, 12:31 p.m.
Additional EP costs are paid when extending the effect. The Warmaster decides whether to extend a pulse effect each turn, spending the first turn’s EP cost when using the ability and spending additional energy as turns go by.
Q&A > Meta-armour questions > Warmaster - Jan. 17, 2025, 12:31 p.m.
Extending a pulse does not cost another move action.
Q&A > Meta-armour questions > Warmaster - Jan. 17, 2025, 12:31 p.m.
A character can only be affected by one of each pulse at any given time. They can, however, have every single pulse effect at once, so long as the Warmaster can sustain the EP cost.
Q&A > Meta-armour questions > Warmaster - Jan. 17, 2025, 12:31 p.m.
They can. The cost is the standard activation cost (as if they were targeting an ally). It is often more cost-effective to target an ally and add the same pulse to the Warmaster for half the cost. The cost for a Warmaster giving themselves an Action pulse is 10 EP.
Q&A > Meta-armour questions > Warmaster - Jan. 17, 2025, 12:31 p.m.
No.
Q&A > Rules system questions > Core system, combos and actions - Jan. 17, 2025, 12:31 p.m.
When not specifically stated (as in the case of the portable force field), the rule is simple: force fields from different sources are simply added together. Two Paladin metaarmour shrines cannot apply to the same target, nor to a target protected by a portable force field. Drone shielding, on the other hand, adds its FF value to Shrines (or portable force fields). Two portable force fields placed by separate knights do not stack (same source, the portable force field), etc.
Q&A > Meta-armour questions > Warmaster - Jan. 17, 2025, 12:31 p.m.
The first Falcon mode activation each turn costs no action, and subsequent uses cost a move action.