[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Call it Ablative Armor, not Smart Armor; an 'overshell' of sorts.  It grows new shell underneath as it grows, and old shell clings to the outside until it gets blown off.

That said ... hm.  I believe Hardened Mystic Armor, working only in astral space as it is, would only apply to mana spells anyhow; direct and indirect combat spells would go against the standard Hardened Armor, or at least I would so presume.

.... hm.  I don't have the 4E stats on the critter, and you're fiddling with it anyhow; can you post what you have so far?  There's something that's bugging me about how the Hardened Armors are set up and how you're discussing it, but I won't know what it is until I see the revised stats.

[Michael Chandra]

Hardened Armor won't apply to Direct Spells, since you only get a resistance test versus the Spellcasting, not a damage resistance test. Anyway, here's a statblock with current ideas for the special powers.


B  A R S  | W L I C | E M
17 6 5 42 | 9 1 3 1 | 4 6

Initiative 8+2d6. Movement x2/x6/+2 (12/36).
Skills (Dicepools): Perception 3 (6), Running 9 (51), Unarmed Combat 7 (13).
Powers: Devouring, Enhanced Senses (Hearing, Smell, Motion Detection), Fear, Hardened Armor (16), Ablative Armor 40, Magical Resistance 3, Immunity (Cold, Fire, Pathogens, Toxins), Natural Weapon (Claws: DV 45P, AP -3, +4 Reach).

Devouring: Voraciously consumes all biomaterial and most non-living objects in an area. Magic/Force x2 Test against Object Resistance of all possible material/objects within (Magic) meters. On success, affect and devour. Barriers lose 1 Structure and Vehicles take 1 damage per round sustained, living critters and characters are unaffected.
*Ablative Armor*: Against any attack with a negative AP value, roll the lowest of current Ablative Armor and -(AP) dice. Each hit remains as AP, all non-hits are nullified as AP. Each remaining AP point reduces the current Ablative Armor value.
*Magical Resistance*: Provides its rating in extra dice against Direct Spells, Illusion Spells and Mental Manipulation Spells.

Devouring needs adjustment because it was made for Insect Spirits primarily. It'd make more sense if it actually requires eating stuff, using the OR test to see whether or not the material is succesfully consumed to recharge the Ablative Armor. Maybe on success roll Structure + nethits, any hit turning into a recharged Ablative point.

The reason to apply Magical Resistance to Mental Manipulation spells is that the dicepool, despite being dual-statted, is rather weak at only 10. Versus Direct Spells targeting Willpower it's only 9. Illusions are at 4 and 10, the first of which is rather problematic. 7, 13 and 12 still give the players decent chances without leaving a massive effect on success.

Since there's only 13 stun boxes, it might be worth giving it a Power that helps compensate more against Direct Spells, either by increasing the Magical Resistance or by giving it extra boxes. Physical attacks have to break through 17 Physical Boxes and the Hardened + Ablative Armor instead.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Hm.  Another place where things somewhat fall apart in 5e, but what can you do ...

All right.  I would change Hardened Armor (16) to Hardened Armor (Body) like it is with the dragons; I'd just outright give them Hardened Mystic Armor (Willpower) and Magic Resistance (Willpower or Magic) as well - presuming you're saying that the former applies only to direct attacks in astral space.  Then again, since it isn't dual natured, who cares? 

For Ablative Armor, I'd say its rating should be either Body or Strength - Strength would get it into the ballpark you want, so go with that, and describe it as old shell, with the rules you defined above.

Change the name of 'Devouring' to 'Consume'.  Like you said, make it to be only what it's actually able to chew on at the time, instead of a radius effect.  This is a juggernaut; no test necessary, it just takes a while to gnaw bigger things.  Add the effect that it rebuilds 1 point of Ablative Armor for every 10 points of Structure / full Body of vehicles it Consumes; it shouldn't get almost the same points for damaging/eating a moped as it does a panzer, you know?

Maybe give it Limited Regeneration (Stun).  Instead of Magic + Body, use Magic + Willpower, regenerating ONLY Stun damage - one roll per Turn while conscious, one roll per minute while unconscious.  Makes knocking it out possible, but capture and transport dangerous ... ?

Everything else ... looks pretty good, actually.  I know I wouldn't want to take one on ...

[Michael Chandra]

Magic Resistance (Magic) seems best, since otherwise you'd make Direct Spells nearly completely useless, versus just reaaaally tough now. Limited Regeneration versus stun has as downside that you encourage pushing it into Physical overflow, completely blocking the heavy gas and direct magic routes which barely do any damage per turn. Maybe make that per minute and per ten minutes, with a duration for waking up so you can employ a biomonitor and keep up the pressure to prevent it from waking. Tying Hardened Armor to Body makes sense, that 1 point will make a lot of difference but eh. Ablative Armor to Strength is nice, makes it less of a random value.

[Michael Chandra]

It went down in 1 Initiative Pass. -.- Should go with Magic Resistance (Willpower). I even made it count against Critter Powers, but they still had really horrible edged rolls and completely nullified its defense rolls with massive penalties.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Hey, if they couldn't be taken down ...   Maybe regeneration's an option.  Then again, they DID throw all their Edge at it, I presume, so it isn't totally unexpected.

[Michael Chandra]

1 guy giving it a -8 on its tests was all that was needed for others to easily hit it and mind control it. -.- Army dislikes them now though, and the events that took place ended all recognizable individuals with Notoriety and Public Awareness.

The Shell is working fine, even rockets had a hard time and required Edge to have most damage nullified (forgot about the Old Shell at that point, retcon-recalc says it took 3 damage), so the levels seem well-picked to make it tough as nails. Scared the living bejeesus out of them all.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

And that's all you really need to do. 

[Michael Chandra]

So, final stats:


B  A R S  | W L I C | E M
17 6 5 42 | 9 1 3 1 | 4 6

Initiative 8+2d6. Movement x2/x6/+2 (12/36).
Skills (Dicepools): Perception 3 (6), Running 9 (51), Unarmed Combat 7 (13).

Powers: Consume, Enhanced Senses (Hearing, Smell, Motion Detection), Fear, Hardened Armor (BOD), Old Shell(STR), Exceptional Resistance (WIL), Immunity (Cold, Fire, Pathogens, Toxins), Natural Weapon (Claws: DV 45P, AP -3, +4 Reach), Limited Regeneration (Stun).

Consume: Voraciously consumes all biomaterial and most non-living objects it eats. Structure Rating x Size determines how long consumption takes. Per 10 points of Structure / Body points consumed, rebuild 1 Old Shell, up to maximum.

Old Shell: Against any attack with a negative AP value, roll the lowest of current Old Shell and -(AP) dice. Each hit remains as AP, all non-hits are nullified as AP. Each remaining AP point reduces the current Old Shell value.

Exceptional Resistance: Provides its rating in extra dice against Direct Spells, Illusion Spells and all Mental Manipulation Spells and Powers.

Limited Regeneration (Stun): The Critter slowly regenerates Stun Damage even when it cannot rest. Each interval it rolls Magic+Willpower, where each hit regenerates 1 Stun Condition Monitor box. While conscious the interval is 1 minute, unconscious it is 10 minutes.