Mystic Nights

[Swift-13]

Got a quick question: does a Mystic Knight's Impervious to Energy protect his armor and clothing as well? I wasn't sure if it only protected his body, or his armor as well, much like a Burster's aura does.

[The Beast]

Got a quick question: does a Mystic Knight's Impervious to Energy protect his armor and clothing as well? I wasn't sure if it only protected his body, or his armor as well, much like a Burster's aura does.

AFAIK, there's no official answer. IMO, it'd protect anything that can be worn close to and/or around the body, to include body armor, but not anything as bulky as mecha units, jetpacks/contra-gravity packs, vehicles, and the like.

[Nekira Sudacne]

Got a quick question: does a Mystic Knight's Impervious to Energy protect his armor and clothing as well? I wasn't sure if it only protected his body, or his armor as well, much like a Burster's aura does.

The way it's written, it applies only to the Knight themselves, not anything else.

Letting it cover armor is a very common houserule, however.

[Bill]

I generally default to spell descriptions for innate magical powers that have a common title with a spell. That's not super helpful in this instance, impervious to energy doesn't specify whether it does or does not protect a character's equipment. It states that the caster makes "himself" impervious. Interestingly, the only invocation spells through level eight that even mention the word equipment are create steel and stealthwalk. The former in reference to the equipment necessary to recycle metal without the spell and the latter in reference to masking the sound of worn equipment.

If we look at it from a practical perspective, a character with impervious to energy continues to benefit from armor even if he or she can't protect it with the power. Physical damage is not reduced at all and for casters at least, if they're caught unawares, he or she may be vaporized before the spell can be cast if they are not wearing armor. As a player, I'd be inclined to seek out a magical armor that also has the quality. On the other hand as a GM, depending on group composition, I'd definitely have it apply to worn equipment just to give the MK a power bump.

[Swift-13]

I'll likely have it apply to armor and clothing, but nothing else. I'd hate to see a good character get whacked by a pump pistol.

[Nekira Sudacne]

I'll likely have it apply to armor and clothing, but nothing else. I'd hate to see a good character get whacked by a pump pistol.

Pump pistols are physical damage, not energy!

[Swift-13]

I'll likely have it apply to armor and clothing, but nothing else. I'd hate to see a good character get whacked by a pump pistol.

Pump pistols are physical damage, not energy!

That's what I'm sayin'.
A character immune to energy, likely the most common weapons in Rifts, might think he can go about without armor. A pump pistol, not as obvious as a railgun, would quickly put an end to that character's career.

[Tor]

We can probably assume that at least one Mystic Knight already tried this and had it happen to them, so that any PC who is a Mystic Knight would not rely on this unrealistically and would wear armor.

Major benefit to not having to wear enviro-sealed armor to avoid neural-macing though.

This is like the spell, it only protects the body, unless built as TW into armor, which you can't do with a natural ability. A Mystic Knight wanting to protect his armor ought to invest in that upgrade, though it's a bit pricy.

[Jorick]

Pretty sure there's an "official" answer somewhere, at least after Madhaven, cause there's a mount issue, where the knights acn ride an energy covered animal (this is all off the top of my head, and memory is fuzzy). If the knight can ride the mount with armor, then the armor must be protected as well. I believe the author responded to such queries (either here on the boards or in a rifter) with the answer the the intention is that Mystic Knights' energy resistance extends to armor.

[Tor]

WB29p30 mentions the War Bird being a mount. WB29p107 mentions their 'aura of blue mystic energy' (AOBME)

The problem is: even if Mystic Knights' aura did protect their armor, the aura does not make them immune to magical energy attacks like the spell does, it only cuts it in half, so it would not protect them from this damage.

I think it would stand to reason then that any Mystic Knight using a War Bird as a mount would have trained the bird not to activate this aura (they are able to turn it on and off) while they were riding, and to only use it if they are attacking separately, or if the Mystic Knight is protected by an Invulnerability (preferably after MDC aura is depleted since I don't think that's impervious) or Impervious to Energy spell (unarmored) or if his armor has an Impervious to Energy Techno-Wizardry enhancement activated.

Presumably this would be an exotic riding roll, if you fail then you haven't tamed the animal right and it gets agitated and activates its aura and starts to wreck you or your armor if unprotected. Probably penalties here if you're fighting an MDC opponent since then its instinct would be to protect itself and you would have to train it not to do that.

I don't know if this was elaborated on in the rifter, but page 108 does mention:

The Mystic Knights are impervious to the mystical aura around the War Bird when it launches into combat mode, enabling them to ride the giants without damage or difficulty

So my initial assumptions are wrong: it appears that there is a unique exception to how their aura operates here. Even though it is a mystic aura, magical damage, they are impervious to it like they are impervious to normal energy. It is the one example I know of where magic damage is unable to harm a Mystic Knight.

However it does only mention the Mystic Knights, not their gear, so it may be that Mystic Knights who do this are unarmored, or have gear separately enchanted to resist the damage, like TW-ItE armor. They could delay the birds' activating their battle auras until they active their ItE enchantment to protect their worn armor, if necessary.

If a Rifter FAQ stating this aura will protect normal gear, that would be interesting.

[eliakon]

WB29p30 mentions the War Bird being a mount. WB29p107 mentions their 'aura of blue mystic energy' (AOBME)

The problem is: even if Mystic Knights' aura did protect their armor, the aura does not make them immune to magical energy attacks like the spell does, it only cuts it in half, so it would not protect them from this damage.

I think it would stand to reason then that any Mystic Knight using a War Bird as a mount would have trained the bird not to activate this aura (they are able to turn it on and off) while they were riding, and to only use it if they are attacking separately, or if the Mystic Knight is protected by an Invulnerability (preferably after MDC aura is depleted since I don't think that's impervious) or Impervious to Energy spell (unarmored) or if his armor has an Impervious to Energy Techno-Wizardry enhancement activated.

Presumably this would be an exotic riding roll, if you fail then you haven't tamed the animal right and it gets agitated and activates its aura and starts to wreck you or your armor if unprotected. Probably penalties here if you're fighting an MDC opponent since then its instinct would be to protect itself and you would have to train it not to do that.

I don't know if this was elaborated on in the rifter, but page 108 does mention:

The Mystic Knights are impervious to the mystical aura around the War Bird when it launches into combat mode, enabling them to ride the giants without damage or difficulty

So my initial assumptions are wrong: it appears that there is a unique exception to how their aura operates here. Even though it is a mystic aura, magical damage, they are impervious to it like they are impervious to normal energy. It is the one example I know of where magic damage is unable to harm a Mystic Knight.

However it does only mention the Mystic Knights, not their gear, so it may be that Mystic Knights who do this are unarmored, or have gear separately enchanted to resist the damage, like TW-ItE armor. They could delay the birds' activating their battle auras until they active their ItE enchantment to protect their worn armor, if necessary.

If a Rifter FAQ stating this aura will protect normal gear, that would be interesting.

Unless we are assuming that the knights ride into battle naked and weaponless then their protection has to perforce protect their gear.
Although I guess if the GM is fine with interpreting that the Knights routinely fly into battle in the nude with no weapons or any sort of equipment what so ever that could be interesting too I guess......

[Tor]

Mystic Knights don't need to carry weapons, they can spend PPE to create energy bolts or use spells to attack. Melee weapons don't take advantage of the range a flying mount provides, and the accuracy of guns is compromised when fired off a moving animal anyway.

But who cares? Melee weapons would not be in direct contact with the bird so they wouldn't be subject to damage anyway, you only have to worry about your armor, since it would be in direct contact.

White Knights start off with Barrier Shields which can allow them to rely on Deflect or Wall of Defense to avoid damage instead of letting their armor eat it.

They can also start with any armor in WB29, which includes some with built-in armor spells like AoI (Infiltration/Gateway on pg 86) or IA (Cherubim/Maximilian on 87) either of which could allow the armor to avoid permanent damage while those protections are activated.

There's no reason to actually activate the armor-harming energy field except when the War Bird is being attacked or if it is attacking an opponent in HtH. Otherwise, it can be kept off and there is no need to use a TW-ItE to avoid damage or armor with AoI/IA to absorb the damage.

If there are cases of Mystic Knights flying war birds and they are not wearing body armor that can avoid this aura damage, they'll simply have to accept their armor will get damaged by the aura so long as the animal uses it. It can be well worth the cost since the aura protects the animal.

If you're being targeted and not your animal though, and your animal isn't in HtH range of an opponent to need the bonus, then there's no actual need to have it activated though, so you should try to take it to turn it off.

Although anyone touching it takes damage, it's a bit unclear on how often. Maybe it's a one-time thing, so your armor would suffer a maximum of 6 MD? And you wouldn't take damage again until breaking contact and re-initiating it, or if the bird turned off the aura and re-activated it?

In that case, it's not that bad at all.

Another option that occurs to me: you could simply leave the portions of yourself in contact with the bird un-armored. This way, you could wear armor on the portions not in contact with the beast, and those would not take damage.

So basically, have palmless gloves for where you grip it, and straddle the bird with naked thighs with armor only on the outward portion of the leg facing the air.

Also, Invincible Armor is resistant to energy, If a Mystic Knight uses that before activating the aura, that's no damage 1/6 of the time, and at worst 3 MD.

MKs can wear normal armor in peace-time to prevent damage from surprise attacks, and then remove armor in contact with the bird and use magical protections when they plan to enter the bird into battle and use its aura.