My friend brought this up to me yesterday, if you look at the raider before he gets blown to bits by the Fat Man, his armor almost looks like PA. I'll try and link the time to the video. It made us think, is it the exoskeleton PA or the Fallout 3/NV PA as it didn't have the helmet?

consider you pretty much need the exoskeleton to wear a complete suit and still be able to move I assume such a intact suit is the powered kind, it′s just a NPC version without the helmet and since the PA on the player side acts like a vehicle, I assume it will be a rare case of a armor in a beth game we can′t loot of the corpse.

That's alot of assuming

Well his title was Raider Veteran, so I think he killed a Brotherhood Of Steel Initiate while he was a Raider. And got some power armor training. Or a Brotherhood Of Steel gone rogue.

It could just be power armor that was stripped of most of it's inner workings so it could be used by someone without power armor training. Similar to what the NCR did with the armor they captured from the Brotherhood in New Vegas.

That's what I was thinking. I assume it's just scrapped power armor made into normal armor.

I would lean more towards it being (Un)power(ed) Armor

Raider salvaged, pieced back together. The only real benefit is that it is thick armor, doesn't offer the regular bonuses. If you look at his shoulder it looks reinforced with rebar, or just broken down to the frame perhaps.

well I dont have any fact to back it up, so it′s the best I can do

In the shot where the PC shoots the chestpiece of a raider away,you can see the gears and pistons of power armor underneath it.Just like the ones you see in the power armor customization part of the gameplay.

So yeah,power armor clad psycho rider.This is gonna be fun.

Maybe it's to make up for a lack of lots of power armoured enclave to kill.

Kinda sceptical about that, there has been a clear change of tone about PA in this game, 4 version of PA is clearly the kind where you need the exoskeleton to even move effectively (at least if your wearing a more or less complete suit).

I assumed it was like the salvaged power armor the NCR used in NV, like just the outer plating of a scavenged set of BOS power armor on without all the mechanical elements or 'power', since they didn't have power armor training. less effective and super heavy, but wearable and really protective to all even if they dont know how to use power armor

It's most likely just scrapped power armor that the raiders found and modified to fit their needs, like the salvaged power armor the NCR had in NV.

"They have the best equipment the NCR can get its hands on, power armor salvaged from our war with the Brotherhood. Techs strip out the joint servos so you don't need special training to wear it. It feels like you're carrying a brahmin on your back, but it can take a heck of a lot of punishment."-Chief Hanlon

So assuming the raiders have the tech smarts to get rid of the servos, this would explain why they can use it without special training. It would be a lot more cumbersome without the servos helping you to move but it offers good protection for those that can deal with the weight/ -2 agility.