Figuring Allomantic Pewter's Speed Enhancement

[Trusk'our he/him]

For a long time, I've wondered just how much faster does Allomantic pewter actually make you. It would certainly be useful for determining just how much you could siphon off as an A-pewter/F-steel Twinborn for extra speed.

Okay, so we from when Breeze rode away from Cett's army in WoA that it was mentioned that Vin could keep up with his galloping horse. I feel that this is the best example we have right now to figure out Allomantic pewter's enhancement to speed.

A thoroughbred horse can run between 38 to 44 mph, though that is without a rider. With a rider, it drops from 38 to 32 mph, and Breeze isn't exactly a light man. Plus, his horse was already exhausted if I recall correctly, so I'll ere on the slow side for the horse's speed and say it was probably running around 32 to 30 mph.

Vin mentions that she doesn't exactly love running in TFE during her extended Pewterdrag with Kelsier; she's not a couch potato, but she isn't going to be running any marathons without a boost from pewter as she hasn't honed her ability to do so. That said, she's also a bit stronger than other Allomancers in terms of raw power (Ham mentions this during their sparring in WoA and Kel when her tin lets her see light sooner in the cave hideout in TFE), so this very well may compensate for her lack of natural athleticism. As such, I think I'll just say she's going to get the average speed for an athlete to cover this discrepancy.

I was going to factor in Vin's 5' height, but there are many conflicting sources that say it does and doesn't (here's a few of them; link, link, and link). As such, I think I'll omit this from Vin's total running speed.

What's more, it seems that Vin is sprinting in the scene with the galloping horse instead of jogging (as would be seen in a longer marathon-like run).

Okay, with these in mind, Vin's sprinting speed without her pewter is probably going to be around 17 mph. Her enhanced speed lets her move closer to 30 mph when sprinting.

Soooo, this means that standard Allomantic pewter's speed may grant you around double your normal speed, at least when Flaring. Despite this number having a LOT of variables I had to fudge, I think this is at least somewhat accurate. If anyone has other ideas on calculating this speed (or would like to point out any mistakes I made with this), I'd would love to hear it though 

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

I always just guesstimate that all of Pewter's enhancements are around the same, Burn for 2x Strength, Speed, Healing, etc. Flare for 3x.

But either way, I like how much thought you put into this.

[Trusk'our he/him]

49 minutes ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

I always just guesstimate that all of Pewter's enhancements are around the same, Burn for 2x Strength, Speed, Healing, etc. Flare for 3x.

Yeah, seems like it's at least in a similar category from what I can tell.

50 minutes ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

But either way, I like how much thought you put into this.

Thanks, I appreciate it 

[Colors]

13 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

For a long time, I've wondered just how much faster does Allomantic pewter actually make you. It would certainly be useful for determining just how much you could siphon off as an A-pewter/F-steel Twinborn for extra speed.

Okay, so we from when Breeze rode away from Cett's army in WoA that it was mentioned that Vin could keep up with his galloping horse. I feel that this is the best example we have right now to figure out Allomantic pewter's enhancement to speed.

A thoroughbred horse can run between 38 to 44 mph, though that is without a rider. With a rider, it drops from 38 to 32 mph, and Breeze isn't exactly a light man. Plus, his horse was already exhausted if I recall correctly, so I'll ere on the slow side for the horse's speed and say it was probably running around 32 to 30 mph.

Vin mentions that she doesn't exactly love running in TFE during her extended Pewterdrag with Kelsier; she's not a couch potato, but she isn't going to be running any marathons without a boost from pewter as she hasn't honed her ability to do so. That said, she's also a bit stronger than other Allomancers in terms of raw power (Ham mentions this during their sparring in WoA and Kel when her tin lets her see light sooner in the cave hideout in TFE), so this very well may compensate for her lack of natural athleticism. As such, I think I'll just say she's going to get the average speed for an athlete to cover this discrepancy.

I was going to factor in Vin's 5' height, but there are many conflicting sources that say it does and doesn't (here's a few of them; link, link, and link). As such, I think I'll omit this from Vin's total running speed.

What's more, it seems that Vin is sprinting in the scene with the galloping horse instead of jogging (as would be seen in a longer marathon-like run).

Okay, with these in mind, Vin's sprinting speed without her pewter is probably going to be around 17 mph. Her enhanced speed lets her move closer to 30 mph when sprinting.

Soooo, this means that standard Allomantic pewter's speed may grant you around double your normal speed, at least when Flaring. Despite this number having a LOT of variables I had to fudge, I think this is at least somewhat accurate. If anyone has other ideas on calculating this speed (or would like to point out any mistakes I made with this), I'd would love to hear it though 

Wasn't Vin running too fast for the horse and then had to slow down to fall into pace with the horse?

I could be remembering wrong.

[Trusk'our he/him]

1 hour ago, Colors said:

Wasn't Vin running too fast for the horse and then had to slow down to fall into pace with the horse?

I could be remembering wrong.

I don't have the book on me right now, but I'll see if I can raid the library this week to double check 

[Colors]

19 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

I don't have the book on me right now, but I'll see if I can raid the library this week to double check 

I re-read it. It's written as if she starts out running too fast out the start so she then slows to let the horse catch up and falls a hair behind, then slowly speeds up to match the horse perfectly.

So I suspect in short bursts when she really wants to she could exceed the galloping horse number.

[Trusk'our he/him]

4 hours ago, Colors said:

I re-read it. It's written as if she starts out running too fast out the start so she then slows to let the horse catch up and falls a hair behind, then slowly speeds up to match the horse perfectly.

So I suspect in short bursts when she really wants to she could exceed the galloping horse number.

Hmmm, in that case, Allomantic pewter's speed boost may be closer in percentage to it's strength boost (100% extra Burning normally, 200% extra when Flaring). That seems really powerful though. I wonder if Brandon will nerf it a bit to help keep it from being OP or if it just won't be considered too much.

Thanks for re-reading it by the way!

[Colors]

1 hour ago, Trusk'our said:

Hmmm, in that case, Allomantic pewter's speed boost may be closer in percentage to it's strength boost (100% extra Burning normally, 200% extra when Flaring). That seems really powerful though. I wonder if Brandon will nerf it a bit to help keep it from being OP or if it just won't be considered too much.

Thanks for re-reading it by the way!

I always roughly interpreted them as peak human similar to Captain America with slower reflexes. 

[Returned he/him]

3 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

That seems really powerful though. I wonder if Brandon will nerf it a bit to help keep it from being OP or if it just won't be considered too much.

Meh, we've probably hit inescapable power saturation already (Radiants hooked up to a firehose of Investiture seemed dominant to me until we got Forged Elantrians and jars of Dor), so I don't know that Allomantic pewter is unworkably powerful. Everyone that counts on Roshar is over 9,000 already and it seems a bit late to worry that pewter is too good. It wasn't enough to save Shan!

The power curve has been spiking up so steadily that I think the structure of future works will change rather than the in-world details. It seems like future conflicts will involve restricted access to usable Investiture (so Cosmere demigods have to ration it and/or have reduced capacity to use what is still outrageous power), or we'll just see fewer people with the really impressive powers. I could see the latter being especially relevant to Scadrial since the Allomancy-based technology will be both easy to mass produce and monitor, while individuals with powers will be less so. Ettmetal already provides a handy limitation in this direction. I will be interested to see how the stories develop in this regard as the various Cosmere settings converge more and more.

Edited February 20, 2024 by Returned