[SPC2] Do multiple Armors not stack?

[Paragon]

I'm building some super-agents for a one-off I'll be running with the Super Powers Companion. They have intrinsic body armor and a force field belt, each of which add 4 points of armor. The program seems to only be displaying them as having 4 total.

Do different sources of armor not stack even as powers? Do I need to construct that in some other way?

 

[zarlor]

SWD p. 48 "A character who wears multiple layers of armor only gains the highest bonus—they do not stack" That rule still applies to "natural armor" as well. So that's the default behavior for armor. If your Force Field belt is from the Force Field power, since that power doesn't override the armor rule, it wouldn't apply. If it is actual gear from a setting, however, that could override that rule.

Still, the PEG forums are still down so I can't check for certain if Clint may have ruled specifically regarding force fields potentially stacking. But even if you could add a piece of armor that was supposed to be stackable (let alone a power) you'd have to set it up so that it wasn't an armor bonus, it would have to just modify Toughness directly but NOT as an armor bonus. Most likely your Force Field Belt is set up as an Armor Bonus so if it's supposed to be stackable you'd have to create a different version that just directly modified Toughness.

 

[CapedCrusader]

The current program does limit it to the highest value. The next update changes that. It will now allow two levels of armor, because certain defenses do stack on top of armor. Interface Zero needs it for Supplemental Armor as well.

 

[Paragon]

I'll just have to buy the Force Field as Toughness or skip it then. Its not that big a deal for a one-off.

Edit: To be clear, I knew the general rule, because I had to do some maneuvering to make certain things in both XCOM and Broken Earth work right (they have things like Edges that improve armor or in XCOM, an undersuit who's whole point is to add extra armor), usually by doing a replacement with the stacked version (or in XCOM by having the undersuit add directly to Toughness). It had just never occurred to me that two copies of the same power wouldn't stack.

(Though to be honest, it might well be a bad idea to have that work anyway, since, given how SFC2 handles power limitations, double dipping is a thing. Unfortunately, the limitation rules in SW are coarse enough I don't think there's any way to represent armor where part of it is unavailable until activated).