Shardplate vs Aetherbound

[therunner he/him]

So, we have seen first aetherbound, and when powered up by Investiture they were quite a sight. 12 feet tall suit of armor, maps and other objects to be created at will.

They seem to be more versatile and also more powerful in battle than 4th Oath Radiants, so what is the a catch? Typically in Cosmere, stronger magic systems have a catch (fuel requirements, region lock, oath requirements, etc.)

Personally I would expect that at the very minimum, Shardplate should be roughly as resistant as the aether, if only because it was described multiple times as "magical powered armor", and it would be odd to introduce something that is just straight up better in every single way.

[lacrossedeamon]

Same catch as Sandmastery actually. Dehydration. Given that Aethers use spores and sandmasters are actually controlling microorganisms living in the sand that absorb Investiture I wonder if they are the same type of life.

[therunner he/him]

1 minute ago, lacrossedeamon said:

Same catch as Sandmastery actually. Dehydration. Given that Aethers use spores and sandmasters are actually controlling microorganisms living in the sand that absorb Investiture I wonder if they are the same type of life.

True, however once powered by the Dor, this did not seem to be concern anymore (will need to review that section).
Admittedly, this is a bit of a hack, but it still renders at least roseite Aetherbound incredibly powerful.

[lacrossedeamon]

Well I think when you have unkeyed Dor like that it bypasses most of the conventional catches. I don't think we should take this instance as the typical usage of its magic system.

[Proletariat]

The original Aether book had that you got converted to being an inanimate construct of your aether element after a lot of use, which would be pretty heinous. Otherwise the risk of killing yourself through dehydration if you use your powers too much seems like a big catch in its own right.

[kenod]

Another catch seems to be that you seem to be at least partially in service of the core Aether, which will limit what you can do, I suspect. Aside from that, as other noted, unless you're in the right location or have access to unkeyed investure (which seems to be rare and valuable), you need to risk dehydration, and need to remain in contact with your constructs.

[Frustration]

I would say the catch is that the aether armor requires a continuous imput of new Investiture, while live shardplate will function forever so long as it isn't damaged.

[therunner he/him]

Thanks everyone, bunch of stuff to think about.
Definitely looking for Living Plate vs Aether mecha powered by Dor showdown, where is Era 4 when one needs it?

[bmcclure7]

On 11/19/2022 at 5:33 AM, Proletariat said:

The original Aether book had that you got converted to being an inanimate construct of your aether element after a lot of use, which would be pretty heinous. Otherwise the risk of killing yourself through dehydration if you use your powers too much seems like a big catch in its own right.

I like the original better 

[StanLemon]

1 hour ago, bmcclure7 said:

I like the original better 

That could still be present in the form of Savantism to the point of death

[Isilel]

On 19 November 2022 at 0:33 PM, Proletariat said:

The original Aether book had that you got converted to being an inanimate construct of your aether element after a lot of use, which would be pretty heinous. 

Wasn't it just the one metal aether that did that? IIRC, the other heinous thing was that these pieces of infrastructure, called corpates, were still sentient and required companions. 

Edited November 22, 2022 by Isilel

[Rorzikel]

On 11/19/2022 at 6:33 AM, Proletariat said:

The original Aether book had that you got converted to being an inanimate construct of your aether element after a lot of use, which would be pretty heinous. Otherwise the risk of killing yourself through dehydration if you use your powers too much seems like a big catch in its own right.

That's not how AoN aethers worked. The Ferrous aether as its primary use turned its bonded humans into Corpates which were metal machines that could be used to make vehicles or light fixtures etc. It wasn't like soulcaster savants where the body transformation was an unfortunate side effect of the power, the Corpates were the primary use of Ferrous. Bestarin could make you have animal bodyparts, but that was also the main purpose, one would intentionally cut off pieces of an animal to replace parts of their human body or to heal wounds. Neither Verdant nor Amberite or the god aethers made their bonded users into vines or crystal or darkness or light.

[Frustration]

I've been thinking about this for a bit, and I think that Shardplate probably is as resistant as Rosite.

Shardplate is described as harder than stone, which is what Rosite is described as.

Looking at it I think that Rosites ability to increase it's thickness is the real advantage.

[Tamriel Wolfsbaine]

1 hour ago, Frustration said:

I've been thinking about this for a bit, and I think that Shardplate probably is as resistant as Rosite.

Shardplate is described as harder than stone, which is what Rosite is described as.

Looking at it I think that Rosites ability to increase it's thickness is the real advantage.

I know Rosite won't reach shard levels of cutting power but how durable do you think it is if you were to grow it into blunt weapons and such?  Do you think the rosite would be strong and hard enough to damage plate before shattering into a billion pieces?  

[Frustration]

44 minutes ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

I know Rosite won't reach shard levels of cutting power but how durable do you think it is if you were to grow it into blunt weapons and such?  Do you think the rosite would be strong and hard enough to damage plate before shattering into a billion pieces?  

I would say that they are probably about the same durability wise, so that would just be like smashing two rocks together.