NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="T. Foster" data-source="post: 3512733" data-attributes="member: 16574">So does that mean they can wear normal armor and just can't wear magic armor?So, again, does that mean clerics can use non-magical edged weapons or not?No explanation offered of how they do this...How does that work, exactly? How, for instance, does an elf determine his hit points -- does he have two different values (one for when he's a mage, one for when he's a fighter)? does he gain a hit die every time he gains a level in either class (in which case an elf will have way more hp than any other character with equivalent XP)? If he's switching between classes, why is he apparently still able to wear magic armor (and can he wear non-magic armor?) when functioning as a magic-user? etc.How?How?How?Bonuses and Penalties to Advancement due to Abilities Table (Vol. I, p. 11): Characters with Constitution scores of 13+ will always "withstand adversity" ("being paralyzed, turned to stone, etc." - p. 10 -- does this mean everytime a character is struck by a ghoul he must make a system shock roll or die?); Constitution 7-12 means a 40-90% chance of withstanding adversity; but what if you have a Constitution of 6 or less -- is your chance 30%? 0%? Does a character with a Con 3 have the same or worse chance of withstanding adversity than a character with a Con 6?Equipment List (Vol. I, p. 14): What, if any, benefit does purchasing Holy Water, Wolvesbane, Belladonna, or Garlic provide? is there any reason to buy a Silver Cross instead of a Wooden Cross? is there any reason to buy a Helmet?LEVELS AND NUMBER OF EXPERIENCE POINTS NECESSARY TO ATTAIN THEM Table (Vol. I, p. 16): How many XP are needed for levels above those shown? To go from Lord to 10th level Lord does a fighter need 120,000 more XP or 240,000 more? And how much does he then need to go to 11th level Lord -- 120K, 240K, or 480K? The same for Magic-Users and Clerics. STATISTICS REGARDING CLASSES (Vol. I, p. 17): Dice for Accumulated Hits:When a fighter goes from Veteran (1+1 dice) to Warrior (2 dice) does he roll 1d6 or 1d6-1? And when going from Lord (9+3 dice) to Lord, 10th (10+1 dice) does he roll 1d6+1 or 1d6-2? And so onFighting Capability: Chainmail (p. 30) says a Wizard fights in normal combat as 2 Armored Foot (or 2 Medium Horse if mounted), whereas a Hero fights as 4 Men -- so does that mean that when a Magic-User goes from Sorcerer (fights as Hero+1) to Necromancer (fights as Wizard) that he actually loses fighting capability of 2 Men+1?ATTACK MATRIX II: MONSTERS ATTACKING (Vol. I, p. 20): Does a monster with 3 hit dice attack as a creature with "2-3" hit dice or as one with "3-4"? How about a creature with 4 hit dice? or 6?So, umm, other than canceling each other out and affecting up to 24 creatures in a 6" x 12" area with a range of 24" and duration of 3 turns, what does either of these spell actually, you know, do?And so on and so forth, with many more examples over the remaining 2 and a half books. Note that all of the above questions are entirely rhetorical and I'm not looking for answers to any of them. My point is simply that someone who is looking for answers isn't going to find them in these rulebooks (which, like the people praising RIFTS in this thread and its companion at RPGnet, I consider to be a feature, not a bug -- I like, as OD&D referee, having the freedom to decide how much of a chance the dwarf has to find traps, what weapons exactly the cleric can use, what Holy Water actually does, how the Haste Spell actually functions, etc.; an approach which I very much realize ain't for everyone...).</blockquote>

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