Structural Automatons

In building larger vehicles I have been struggling with the nature of hit points. The largest automatons can still be damages by a sword. Yet when I read the rules for Galleon SHP are used and these can only be damaged by specific sources. Also, Visitor vehicles in BCK follow an advanced form of SHP that makes them significantly more resilient than their hit dice implies, could such rules be applied to an Automaton?

Automatons cannot take immunities to weapons by their nature, they are not magical. But there is a logic to larger automatons potential being immune to normal sized weapons by being a large structure in nature. 

But this “bonus” should also come with a cost, Galleons have restrictions on repairs and movement. A vehicle of this nature would not be a standard automaton in nature. Also to consider, the vehicle rules used on flying saucers and balancing the differences between technological vehicles and automaton vehicles. 

What is SHP?

SHP is mentioned in the sea combat rules in the ACKS core rules and in domains at war. Here I am considering it more in terms of a galley rather than a fort. Under the standard rules a galley can be damaged by artillery (in full) in addition to Gigantic or larger creatures and magic at a rate of 1 damage per 5 hit points of normal damage. This sounds very similar to the visitor vehicle structure rules I explored in the Visitor Trader post. But repairing a galley in the field is limited to repairing 1 SHP per turn with 5 people and can only repair half the damage.

Repairing technological vehicles is not as difficult as repairing a galley. But then advanced material repair options would be available with Alien Parts that make this less concept breaking.

Damage to a galleon with SHP reduces its movement rate proportionately. As such any vehicle using SHP should have its speed reduced at some point, though calculating rates as damage is taken can be a pain in normal play so maybe a threshold would be easier.

Damage from magic weapons is tricky. Structures receive damage from specific sources, and personal scale weapons are not listed. But technology weapons are not considered either. As such I would say the rules I apply to technological vehicles would apply to a mundane structure, that being 1 damage per 5 for a personal scale technological weapon. A squad of visitors blasting at a stone wall with plasma rifles would certainly make a dint. But then in play fighting a flying saucer the question came up “would a magic arrow damage a flying saucer” they are magic but also a personal weapon. I ruled that magic weapons can do 1 damage per 10 to go a little way in between none and zero. This way mundane characters without technological weapons can do something against alien tech, but it’s still very little. I would only apply this rule to vehicles with SHP.

Overall, these rules should not apply to personal scale automatons, only the largest vehicles would have it available. But how large? Using my rule of 5 from the discussion on large sized automatons I would say the limit should be that required to get the maximum weight of an automaton in the gigantic category from L&E +1HD. That is 800 stone at 9HD lifted to 10HD giving 1,000 stone (7 Tons) or 10 HD for a normal automaton.

The Reinforced Structure ability (granting VHP)

As this is not quite the same as the SHP rules from domains at war and applies to automatons, I will refer to it as Vehicle Hit Points or VHP. Applying the rules for VHP to vehicles should be viewed as an optional rule as follows.

At its most basic this is a positive ability costing a full special (*) called reinforce structure. To take this ability the automaton must weigh over 1,000 stone or 7 tons. This grants the damage immunities as follows:

The reinforced structure of this automaton/vehicle is difficult to damage. Primitive personal weapons deal no damage as does any natural attack from creatures of huge size or smaller, though enchanted weapons deal 1/10th damage. Advanced technological weapons, natural attacks from gigantic creatures or larger and magic deal only 1/5th damage. All artillery or technological vehicle mounted weapons and spells that do direct SHP damage do full damage.

A vehicle with reinforced structure that takes up to half its hit points in damage is restricted in its movement and has its move rate reduced by half.

Automatons with reinforced structure can be repaired in the field only up to half their maximum hit points. This requires the assistance of 4 people in addition to the mechanist to perform but otherwise follows the same rules as repairing standard automatons. Full repairs can be performed in a workshop to the value of the automaton following the normal rules.

VHP vs THP

The following table summarises these resistances for SHP types into two categories for vehicle to represent two different tech levels. VHP is used to signify SHP used on a vehicle/automaton hit points. THP is for technological vehicle hit points used in Vistor vehciles.

Damage source	VHP	THP
Environmental	Full	None
Personal weapons - low tech	None	None
Personal weapons - enchanted	1/10	1/10
Personal weapons - tecnological	1/5	1/5
Artillary - Wood	Full	None
Artillary - Stone	Full	1/10
Artillary - Technological	Full	Full
Creature - Huge or smaller	None	None
Creature - Gigantic	1/5	1/10
Creature - Colossal	1/5	1/5
Magic - Spells	1/5	1/5
Magic - Spells doing SHP	Full	Full

Applying this to current automatons

This ability is easy to add to a current automaton build that weights over 1,000 stone as you are just adding a major ability. Given this is an optional rule consider the nature of the vehicle, this would logically apply to a tank, but should it apply to a wooden frame aircraft? Either way the current design just adds the following to hack this ability onto it:

• +5000 cost
• +5 days to build
• +1 difficulty to build