SKILL QUESTIONSQuestion: I know this may be a crazy question but does anyone know of where there is an official list of all the skills?
Answer: There isn't.
Question: What book has the most recent and up to date list of skills? RUE? BtS?
Answer: Various and None. The various Palladium games use different sets of skills, even though they often overlap between games.
Copy and Paste errors, as well as space considerations, author preference, and inclusion of new skills means that books for games with more than one or two books (such as Rifts) don't have a complete and updated skills list for that game in any one book (YES, that include RUE).
Games with only one book (such as BTS2 in it's current state) could be considered to have the newest and most updated skills list for that game.
Question: Can you learn more than one HtH skill?
Answer: You can but you lose all of your previous hand-to-hand bonuses and start over. The only exception to this, to date, is the Nei Chia Wu Shih from Rifts China 2. It should be noted that the martial art styles from Ninjas & Superspies and Mystic China are NOT hand to hand skills.
Question: 4) Skills and rising them with levels. This was something a few of the people in my group where talking about but made little sens, but when you get the skills, like at level 1, do you also get the +# for the level as well?
Answer: 4) You do NOT get the per level bonus to skills when the skill is first selected.
Question: In a game where literacy is a free skill like heroes unlimited when you take a new language skill do you also have to take the skill literacy in that language to fully understand it. In other words do you have to take a skill to speak/understand a language and one to read and write it. Or is expected that once you know how to read and write that you will learn how to do that in a foreign language as you learn it?
Answer: You have to take literacy in addition to speak/understand if you want to read and write the language.
Question: In most of these games, the Literacy skill is required in conjunction with the Language skill in order to be able to both speak and read a given language. My question here regards different languages that use either the same or extremely similar character sets.
In the simplest example: English vs. Spanish. The main differences in the two alphabets are in the ll, the rr, and the ñ in the Spanish alphabet, and that's pretty much it. Pronunciations vary, of course, and there are some minor intricacies in punctuation, but wouldn't most such things be covered under the spoken language skill?
Formally: If you have Spoken Language: English, Literacy: English, and Spoken Language: Spanish, do you automatically get some form of Literacy: Spanish?
Similarly, does being literate in English automatically confer literacy in French, Latin, etc, assuming that you know the related spoken language?
And in a more advanced example, does being literate in Greek and knowing the spoken Egyptian language allow one to automatically have Literacy: Egyptian Coptic?
If the answers are yes, then are there penalties to be applied?
Answer: No to all the questions. Literacy is more than the ability to understand the alphabet. You would still have to learn how to read each different language as a separate skill.
Question:Are there any RCCs that can't speak certain languages due to the complexity of the language itself or even the biology of the race.
All of the "human" languages were developed by humans (with the same vocal cords, lungs, and tongue movements), so it's never an issue. Different races may require subtleties that human voices can't overcome.
Has anyone come up with an answer?
Answer: Yes. There are several.
Question: Swimming, Advanced
Desert Survival
Castaway/shipwreck survival
Can anyone tell me where these are at?
Answer: Swimming, Advanced is a Physical skill in N&S.
Desert Survival is a Cultural skill in N&S.
Castaway/Shipwreck Survival can be found in Adventures on the High Seas
Question: I am new to palladium and love the book so far. My question is I cannot find how you use skills. I have the second edition and have searched the book over and over and see all the skills and the percentage stuff, but nothing on how to use em? Do you roll percentage dice under your skill number?
Answer: PFRPG 1st Ed, pg 18 -
"This is determined by the roll of percentile dice. To successfully perform a skill, the player must roll under his success ratio."
Question: Palladium Fantasy RPG 2nd edition page 84
Under OCC related skills:
It reads “…to select 2 additional skills at levels 3, 7, 10 and 13”. This implies that a skill can have more than one level. For example: a long bowman could have First Aid at both 3rd and 13th level. This does not make sense to me.
The sentence would be clearer if it read “…to select 4 additional skills at level 3, 7, 10, and 13”. Then you could select one 3rd level skill, one 7th level skill, one 10th level skill and finally one 13th level skill.
Would someone explain to me what palladium meant by “…to select 2 additional skills at levels 3, 7, 10 and 13”?
Answer: Level 3 pick two skills
Level 7 pick two skills
Level 10 pick two skills
Level 13 pick two skills
Question: Certain domestic and other skills can be taken as professional quality. Now if a skill like for instance cooking is given as an OCC Skill is it automatically considered professional? If not do you have to spend a OCC Related skill to make it professional or would a secondary skill suffice? OCC Skills and OCC Related skills are supposedly done at a scholastic level so I think they are professional, however I am not sure the games support me on this (Well maybe the newer books like New West do).
A Mystic OCC in Rifts (main book) gets Dance as an OCC at 15%. Is this amateur level? More importantly, perhaps to better illustrate the point, they also get 2 musical instruments as an OCC Skill. With a 10% bonus for each bonus do they have to select the same instrument twice to be professional at it? If so, or even if not. what is the ending percentage for a first level Mystic who wanted to play professional guitar? According to my calculations it would be 55% but how someone who screws up playing almost half the time is considered a professional is beyond me. Unless they are drunk and on tour. Then maybe....but still in that case their skill would be impaired.
Anybody get a different percentage? If so what's the reason?
Answer: In Rifts, all skills except for secondary skills are considered "professional skills" and receive the OCC/OCC related bonus to reflect that.
Now in other games like N&SS or HU, scolastic skills are considered professional quality and they both state under the seconday portion of the list that choosing multipuls of the same skill is NOT allowed, but again that was for the secondary skills.
In the instance of you druid, the extra 15% for dance and 10% for playing a musical instrument would just indicate a very talented amature, even if that characters skill level is higher than an "actuall Pro"
Question: Ok. Acrobatics and Gymnastics both give a few of the same skills as part of the skill: Climbing, Rappelling, Prowl (or at least bonuses) Back Flip, Sense of Balance, a Kick Attack. There might be one or 2 more. Are these Skilll percentages cumulative?
This sort of leads to another question: can Physicals be stacked, for instance taking Body Building twice? I wouldn't think so but certain Domestic Skills can be. This leads to some other questions but I'll post them in a seperate area.
Answer: No and No.
Question: The skills Wilderness Survival, Holistic Medicine, Botany, and Identify Fruits and Plants (And perhaps use recognize poison) all tend to center around herbs and plants.
Wilderness survival is real general covering everything from food, shelter, water and staying alive. Given players in a wilderness environment particularly a jungle, where diseases run rampant, water is hard to find and knowing which fruits and berries will kill you, which are edible, and which are good for making ointments is it sufficient to use wilderness survival the same way you would Identify Fruits and Plants for instance or some of the other herblore skills? Where does Wilderness Survival end and the others begin? Or is wilderness survival a more encompassing skill than the others and covers all those issues?
Answer: Wilderness Survival is the bare bones. you know which plants are safe to eat, which ones are poisoness, and which ones will give you a rash.you won't even remember half their names, jsut "safe" and "not safe". it also covers making lean-tos, camps, finding water, caves, and everything you need in order to stay alive. your work won't be very good, but you'll live, which is the main thing.
Indentify fruits and plants means you know most plants names by site. you know the kind of nutrition most edible plants give, the toxicity of poison, and where they grow. this covers knowing's what's safe to eat or not, but won't help you find shelter, or game, or build a lean-to or igloo or whatnot to survive the elements
botany is a scientific knowlage of plants. you know the actual chemical forumla that plants use to conduct photosynthsis. know what chemicals are in various plants, the ideal growing conditions, and such. basically you how plants work. that said, you also know a great varaity of plants. you'll know basic hearbal remidies and exsactly how poisons some plants are
basically, Indentify Fruits and Plants is what you'll learn in the boy scounts or spending a lot of time in nautre. Botony is is going to a university and getting a docrate in plants, you'll know a lot more about 'em because you have a formal education
herbal medicne means you know what plants are used to make natural remidies and cures for plant poison. sadly, that's about all...
Question: If I have the skill of seduceat 20% and a +40% to charm and impress. Do I add these 2 numbers together or just pick the higher one? How would one resist seduce? Thx.
Answer: You don't add them together. Seduction already gets a seperate bonus from a high P.B. score, as outlined in the skill description. Note also that you do not have a +40% bonus to charm/impress, you have a flat 40% chance to charm/impress.
You use either the seduction skill or the charm/impress ability, whichever effect is desired.
Question: Gymnastic vs. Acrobatics
1) Which one is better?
2) Also can you take them both or just one at a time?
Answer: 1) It depends on what you consider better.
2) Yes, if your OCC allows, you can select both.
Question: I was reading through the Holistic Chemistry skill (rifter 24 page 20) and couldn't find the Skill %'s. Would I use the skill %'s found in Holistic Medicine for HC? Or Were the skill %'s for HC left out?
Answer: The skill percentage can be found in Yin Sloth Jungles, page 46.
Question: 1) How does the Weapon Systems skill work? How does this work? It give +2 hit, but do you have to roll under your skill in order to get the bonus? Here is how I have been using it in my current Robotech game:
How the Weapon System Skill works.
When firing a built in mecha weapon, such as the TZ-IV Gun Cluster on a destroid, Battlepod particle beams, or when fireing missies, roll % along with your attack roll. If you roll under your Weapon System skill then you add +2 to hit your target. The Weapon System skill DOES NOT apply to mecha rifles or mecha hand to hand, this only applies to weapons that are built into a mecha. These are weapons that are not manually aimed as a gunpod would be and DO NOT get any P.P. bonus to hit!
So, is this right? I bet it is not, and I want some clarification on how this skill works, since I have never ever found any clear explaination.
2) So in other words, the bonus of +2 is automatic if you know the tech? Like a Destroid weapons or gunpods?
3) Does it apply to gunpods?
Answer: 1) According to HU2, p. 58, the Weapon Systems skill is rolled when a character first attempts to figure out an unfamiliar weapon system. If the initial roll fails, the normal strike bonus (which is only +1 in HU2) is changed to a -1 penalty until the character makes a sucessful skill roll, which can be attempted again after every five minutes of study.
2) Correct. As long as the pilot/gunner is familiar with the weapon system, the bonus is automatic. What defines a familiar weapon system is not mentioned, but I would assume it means all the weapons normally used on any vehicle the character knows how to pilot and fight in.
In the Robotech example, a Veritech Pilot who didn't have any Destroid training would automatically be familiar with all standard VT weapons, but would need to make a skill roll to use a Destroid's weapons, and possibly to use optional VT weapon systems.
3) No.
Question: 1) I thought at one point I saw somewhere that a compass would give you a bonus to your land navigation skill but I can't seem to find it anywhere. If I am wrong about it what is the point of having a compass, seems everybody starts with one.
2) The same question also applies to maps. In RUE it says that using a map with land navigation gives you a -20%. So how does that work for the wilderness scout who comes with the handy cartography skill? They can make an accurate and elegant map but aren't really sure what they are doing when it comes to reading it?
3) Having a map and a compass doesn't mean you know where you are going. The image of the typical tourist comes to mind, husband driving, wife has big fold out map all the way open taking up half the car and all the while the 7-11 employee watches them go past the store for the 4th time.
Answer: 1) Merc Ops, page 116.
2) It also incorrectly says that reading maps is done by looking at symbols, not words. Personally, I wondered how the Wilderness Scout could actually make a map using cartography without having the prerequisite skills for actual map making; literacy, advanced math, read sensory instruments (optic systems for those nice surveying tools to make really accurate maps), and art so you can actually draw the map (or computer operation if you're making a computer map...the only one they actually covered).
3) True, which is why some of Palladium's games have a Map Reading skill.
Question: under the skill wp archery and targeting it states that " rate of fire; two at level one, +2 at lvl 3 and +1 at other levels after.
does this mean to imply that the user of this skill only gets two shots ( arrows) per mele at level one and additional shots at subsequent levels?
or does it mean that for every apm your character has they can shoot that many arrows. Ex. my head hunter has 6 apm at first level can he shoot 12 arrows in 1 mele?
Answer: That's how many shots/attacks they get per melee.
Question: Hey guys, sorry for the noob question. I cannot figure for the life of me how to use skills and skill checks. Like, seriously, maybe Im retarded, but Ive looked through the UE skills section like, 123971907 times and I cannot figure out how to roll a skill check. So I've got 77% in mining alien rectums, how do I resolve that?
I assume its something to do with d% dice.
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Answer: Roll under the skill percentile on D100, commonly rolled with two D10s, one representing the tens die and the other representing the ones die, results of 00 being considered "100."
Question: WP Paired Firearms
are the restrictions on this skill written down anywhere ?
I saw the restrictions placed on WP Sharpshooting on p81 of the GMG.
Naturally they left out WP Paired Firearms.
I've got a Fallen Cosmo-Knight with the Mind Melter option, thinking he can use WP Paired Firearms.
Answer: WP Paired Firearms is limited to specific OCCs.
Question: If i got some OCC Related bonuses to Physical skills (say, 10%).
And i get Gymnastics, that gives 40% of climb, without +% per level, the +10% also applies???
Answer: Yes
Question: Is Robot/Power Armor Combat: Basic the prerequisite for RPA Combat: Elite?
Answer: No, though some GMs do consider it a prerequisite.
Question: What is Automatic Kick under Gymnastics?
Answer: etend that you never read the sentence.
What it means is that you automatically get, with that skill, a kick attack that does x damage.
The rules have been updated to where you don't need that skill in order to do that damage.
It's like having a skill that says, "automatically grants the power to breathe in and out".
In short, ignore it.
Question: How many words does a player understand when he/she makes a successful roll on a foreign language? And when would he have to roll again to keep up with a conversation?
Answer: For understanding:
With complicated technical stuff, I'd check for every paragraph or so of speech. For more basic stuff, I'd go with one roll for the whole conversation.
Your language percentile is probably about equal to how many words you understand. For example, 40% skill means you pick out 40% of the words/intent... a successful roll meaning you understood the right words to get the idea of what's being said. A 98% skill means you understand 98% of the words/intent, meaning you're pretty much fluent.
Percentile under 50% I take as what we might consider "highschool" type understanding. Up to 80% or so, a talented but foreign speaker. Above 80% and you're approaching everyday comfort/native fluency.
For speaking:
The percentage represents your vocabulary, and your ability to come up with the right word, right conjugation of it, and proper context. You can probably say most basic things, but it might come out strangely. For instance, if you forget the word for "shoes," you might still be able to say "the things on my feet." I personally do substitutions like that on the occasions I find myself needing to speak French, but I don't recall the right word.
A percentage below 50% would probably allow you to communicate basic ideas, ask simple questions, and make yourself understood, albeit with difficulty. Up to 80% you could likely say what you need and sound like a fairly normal conversationalist, with proper tenses and all, but language may remain simple on more complex topics. Above 80%, you're looking at being able to correctly use native idioms, slang, and double entendres.
For example, in Shakespeare's Henry V, during one scene written in French, the following occurs: A French woman asks her maid how to say something in English. The maid responds, with a French accent, which alters the word a little. The woman misunderstands, and repeats a word which is both a bad word in French, and close enough to the correct word in English to get laughs. That is a high percentile skill in a foreign language.
Question: And while we're on this let me ask the following: Person a has a PB or MA (your choice) of 29. Person B has the same stat at 20. Person B is trying to trust/charm Person A. Does Person A subtract the difference from Person B's % roll as a bonus because Person A's is higher?
Answer: No. You do not subtract percentages. Being gorgeous yourself doesn't mean you don't notice it in others, and being charming doesn't mean you won't fall for another's wiles.
Question: The hand to hand skills - IE: Hand to Hand assassin, basic, martial arts, etc. - are they combat bonuses which represent fighting without a weapon?
Our group is confused as to whether these are skills which apply to weapons as well and which stack with the WP: weapon skills, or if they're completely seperate and are only used for "barehanded" combat.
Answer: HTH skill bonuses apply to melee and ancient weapons but don't apply to "modern weapon" (i.e. guns) combat.
Question: This is a questoin that has been bugging me for a long while now. There are ways to boost every statistic that you roll during character creation, either by taking a skill, getting a mutant ability, bio-wizardy, magic, or taking a certain O.C.C(like the cyber-knight). But in all my years of playing Rifts, I dont remember seeing ANY way of boosting a characters I.Q. score, except, schooling in BTS2 and similar settings(it has been a long while but i think one of the college skill packs allows you to boost your I.Q.). And i want to say Experimentation in the HU2, but i think im wrong on that now that i think about it.
Basically i wanted to play a super genius w/o "tweeking" the character. I wanted to play a mutant, kinda like "Stretch"(but not him!!), of the FF. But i found no way to boost the I.Q. once it is rolled.
Did I miss something?? If so could some one please point me to the correct book and page number to find it. If i didnt miss something, does anyone have any ideas????
Answer: See Rifter #19 for optional Mental skills that can increase IQ.
Question: In making a new Cyberknight using RUE, i came across the skill Fencing, which states as one of its bonuses, +1d6 to damage witha sword, does this apply to a CK's psi-sword( who normally have a 1st level psi-sword that does 1d6 MD, but if this applies, it would be 2d6 MD)or not Question
Answer: No, the Psi-Sword is a weapon that does damage based on psionic energy and the sword shape is entirely dependent on the creator's whim, it is not a sword in the regular sense.
Question: Does a character with Fencing add 1D6 to his damage with Vibro-swords. I would have thought yes as it is a technique based bonus rather than a strength based one. A player called me up on it and i'm interested to hear opinions.
Answer: According to Splicers, yes, it adds SDC or MDC, depending on the weapon.
Question: lets say i have a character untrained in HtH,but they pick it up at,say,3rd level.do the bonuses apply retro-activly,or will they always be 2 levels behind?
Answer: They start at 1st level, so they'll always be two levels behind.
Question: I've recently gotten back into Rifts, and I've scoured and scoured the WP listing and the Combat rules of both the Rifts Ultimate Edition book, newly released, and the RGMG (game master guide). Does anyone have any suggestions on how to go about rules for dual wielding modern or futuristic weapons, such as pistols, etc...? Also, does it sound reasonable that with augmented, or SN PS or PE, one should be able to dual wield rifles (as depicted on the cover of the Palladium book of Contemporary Weapons)
Answer: Several OCC's get Paired Firearms as a special skill/ability. As mentioned there are several in the New West worldbook and a couple of the Headhunter OCC's can also get the skill. I beleive China 2 has some kind of a OCC that is centered on two gun fighting.
You could simply expand this list of OCC's that can get the skill, this would be the easy solution and what I have done. See also RUE, page 327 for using paired firearms without the appropriate skill. Firing rifles one handed require's the Sharpshooting skill, if attempting to dual wield I'd apply penalties to both weapons fired.
Question: Aside from the generic W.P.: Swords, are there any other ways to demonstrate a char as beign very good with a sword? Can you stack W.P.s like a 'specialization' from D n D? Etc.?
Answer: No, you can't stack W.P.s, however, there are several optional methods such as getting the fencing skill, certain martial art styles, and various things from Rifters.
Question: in what rifter does the hand to hand form for dragons and other four legged creatures/monsters appear?
Answer: Neither are found in a Rifter.
Hand to Hand: Dragon Martial Arts can be found in RUE.
Hand to Hand: Bull Fight (for four legged creatures) can be found in ATB2.
Question: I have noticed several OCCs, RCCs and MOS skill lists have skills with prerequisites that are not listed.
Do the character also get them?
Answer: Yes, according to page 299 of RUE.
Question: How do you guys handle a character without a particular skill trying to accomplish an action based on the skill in question ?
There are two options that would seem to come into play here:
1) You say that the character absolutely can not attempt the action because the skill is so specialized.
2) You let the character attempt to use the skill because for that particular skill, there's always a chance it can be accomplished.
Assuming the second option above - in the example below, how is this generally handled in the Palladium system, and is it discussed in any of the rule books ???
Say a character doesn't have the 'Prowl' skill, but wants to try and sneak past someone ?
Answer: It is suggested that you roll against the appropriate attribute.
Question: Hello all,
I dunno if this was a typo or what, but I was scanning through my Rifts Collector's Edition Book in the skills section and I came across the "Sniper" skill and it didn't have a Base Skill starting point. It just told the effects of using it. It didn't have a Base Skill or a "+% per level of experience".
Is this a typo or is it on purpose? If it is a typo, does anybody know the Base Skill % for "Sniper"?
Thanks!
Answer: Not all skills have a percentile effect, particularly weapon proficiencies and other weapon skills.
Question: I have a question about the Recognize Weapon Quality skill.
Do you have to have the separate skill in order to tell what quality a weapon is, or can one do the same thing as this skill with Weapons Engineer? I would think that you could, as Weapons Engineer is a more advanced skill, but there isn't any canon proof as far as I know.
Answer: I would say that the Weapon Engineer skill would determine the quality of a weapons construction, but only if the character had the opportunity to crack the thing open and take a look at it's inner workings.
The Recognize Weapon Quality skill would enable someone to know what to look for in a casual, almost superficial exam of the weapon without disassembly, and how to look for its traits, tells and characteristics.
Question: If a character has the skill Mechanical Engineer, is there any point to having Basic Mechanics, or Auto Mechanics for that matter?
Answer: Auto Mechanics- Lets you work on cars and trucks.
Basic Mechanics- Lets you work on doorknobs, toasters, and perfrom minor engine repairs.
Mechanical Engineer- Should allow you to do everything that the above skills can do, and a whole lot more.
The difference is that Mech Engineer requires 2 rolls. One for diagnostics, one for actual work.
This gives a person with Auto Mechanics an edge when fixing a car, simply because he only has to roll once. Apparently, he is assumed to have a large enough body of knowledge of cars and engines that diagnosing the problem is easier. A Mechanical Engineer first has to figure out how the machine is supposed to work, locate the components, and figure out what's wrong, THEN fix the problem... but an Auto Mechanic could well just say, "The engine is making a pinging noise. With a model x truck built in y year, that's probably just problem z" and wade right into the problem.
Question: Is there really any point to have Recognize Weapon Quality if you have the Weapon Engineer skill?
Answer: Higher Percentage. Not to mention the complete lack of overlap between the two skills. Weapons engineer does not include the ability to appraise weapons, nor does Recognize Weapon Quality provide the ability to build, repair, modify, or install weapons.
Question: Can someone please explain exactly what can and not be done with the prowl skill as a rules clarification please, and also how the skill is used (rolled)?
Answer: It states in the skill description, "If the Prowl roll is successful, then the character is not seen or heard..."
Use the skill when you really want to make sure that you're not seen; you know, so the GM can't say something like, "OK, you want to sneak quietly inside the darkened room. Too bad, enemy still sees you." To successfully prowl, you need to roll under your skill percentage on 1D100. Against someone using Perception, both characters roll 1D20, with the prowl skill providing a bonus of +1 for every 10 points in the skill percentage, rounding down.
Question: Which PF book is the pair weapons rules in?
Answer: PFRPG2E, page 60.
Question: Does it say anywhere (and I guess more importantly, where) how well you might have accomplished a particular skill? Like are there "critical successes" or something along those lines?
Answer: With the exception of the Brewing skill, where a lower roll on the second percentile results in a tastier drink, no.
Question: What is the skill for forging jewelry? Like rings, necklace, bracelets, etc.
Is there a skill for that or do I make something up.
Answer: Depends on what type of jewelry was being made. Armor & Weapon Decoration, Art, Flint Working, Gem Cutting, Metalworking, and Smelting would all be useful skills (primarily Art, Gem Cutting, and Metalworking, the others are for specific applications).
Question: For skills that it seems like anyone could attempt, like climbing, prowl, aand swimming, how do you determine a base chance of success for characters who have not learned them?
Answer: Attribute checks are the recommended method of determining success in these situations. Kevin Siembieda generally has the attribute equal the percent chance of success against a percentile roll.
Question: I need to ask if there is a list of all the languages used in the Palladium games.
If not then where could I find the most complete list?
Answer: There isn't a list since several of Palladium's games use contemporary languages. Try
http://www.ethnologue.com/ Though I think you will find
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_la ... f_speakers and/or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_of ... s_by_state more useful.
Question: 1) One of my players keeps saying that an RPA pilot gets the skill Robot Combat Elite in all SAMAS while I argue that you have to have Robot Combat Elite each specific type of SAMAS (like Pale Death SAMAS or V-Sam, etc) - which is right?
2) Also, does an RPA Side Kick in Free Quebec just get Robot Combat Elite in the Glitter Boy Side Kick and SAMAS?
Answer: 1) By the old rules, you are, but your player is right under the current rules.
According to RUE, p. 319, Robot Combat: Elite covers all robots and power armor units of a similar model type (that is, the alphanumeric designation at the beginning of each machine's description). Thus, if a character has Robot Combat: Elite with a Titan Combat Robot (TR-001), he also has the Elite skill level with all other Titan Robots whose model types follow the pattern TR-### (basically all Titan robot vehicles, but not the FT-005 Flying Titan power armor). Similarly, a CS RPA pilot with elite SAMAS (PA-06A) training can use all SAMAS armors that bear a PA-##A designation.
2) Just the GB Side Kick.
Question: Where is the ancient weapon prof Bola
Answer: Yin-Sloth Jungles, RGMG, Splicers, Rifter #25, and Chaos Earth. The skill is mentioned in South America 2, but only with the note "Treat as Archery and Targetting."
Question: Hello, I have a question, about the Old High School, College, Military, Espionage, Secodary Skills sytem in the FIRST Edition (not revised) of Hero's Unlimited (which I don't have and can't find) and how this translates to to HU 2nd Ed. skills. I need help here because I can't make Heads or tails of the Conversion Rules for adapting RECON to the Palladium Megaversal System on pages 119 to 120 of Deluxe Revised RECON (this could also help with making First Edition After the Bomb Mutant Animal Caracters as well: yes there are still people who still play first edition) Military, Espionage and Secondary Skills are pretty obvious, but I'm having trouble deciding on what should be considered High School or College skills though.
Answer: The only examples we really have to go on so far are those listed in the Mutant Animal Backgrounds for the ATB & TMNT books (Transdimensional TMNT, Mutants of the Yucatan, Mutants Down Under, and Mutants in Avalon). In general, it appears that for every 2-5 (with an average of roughly 4) College and/or High School skills, the character can select one skill program.
Question: Which is the best skill to open a trap-door with an electronic digital combination lock?
Answer: Locksmithing is the ideal skill for these locks, particularly if combined with the Electrical Engineer and Computer Hacking skills. Electrical Engineering alone will also work, but with a massive skill penalty. In HU, Hardware: Electrical Genius characters can also open electronic locks with their special Hot-Wiring skill.
Question: Which book is the construction skill in, as in making buildings?
Answer: Rifter #25, p. 19. There are also various construction related skills, including Carpentry, General Repair & Maintenance, Masonry, and Military Fortification (all found in RUE and other books), Pilot Tracked & Construction Vehicles (RUE, BTS2), Pilot Construction & Farming Equipment (ATB2), and Physical Labor (RUE, BTS2, Splicers).
Question: There's been vast bickering and arguments about chemistry and demolitions. Could a character with either or both go into a store and make his own homemade bomb? And if they could, how potent would it be? Would having both mean making a better bomb or what not? Or either skill could be used? And what sorts of damages?
Answer: You'd really need both skills to even have a hope of this, and unless the character were a trained military specialist (or raised by violent anarchists, perhaps), there should be some massive skill penalties for making and using "homebrewed" explosives. For rules, damages, and penalties of homemade bombs and incendiaries, see the Explosive Construction Gizmoteer Skill Program in N&S.
Question: Can Prowl be used if you are under observation?
Answer: You can't prowl if someone actually sees you and is looking directly at you, but if you can distract or misdirect the observer (with a flash bomb, magical/psionic illusion, etc.) you can conceivably attempt a prowl roll to get out of sight.
If you haven't been seen yet, but someone is actively watching the area you're trying to prowl in, then it becomes a Perception contest, the rules for which may be found in Nightbane (p. 66), RUE (p. 368), and BTS2 (p. 170).
Question: When you are flying under your own power, but are doing things that require a piloting roll... what percentage do you use? Specifically, a Heroes Unlimited: Experiment with APS: Void, CEF: Void, and FTL Flight wants to 'pilot' himself through a black hole/gravity well... what percentages does he use to see how the flight goes?
Answer: Maneuvering one's own body in tight situations usually involves combat rolls (dodge, roll with punch, backflip, leap, etc.) or physical skill checks (acrobatics, gymnastics, swimming, climbing, etc.). As it happens, personal movement in outer space (without recourse to thruster packs or space suits) is covered by the Zero-Gravity Movement skill, found in Phase World and Mutants in Orbit. I've not seen an equivalent skill for flying under the effects of gravity, but one could possibly adapt something form the aforementioned skill.
Robots with a vehicular body configuration would use the appropriate pilot skill for their vehicle type (helicopter, jet aircraft, hyperthruster, space shuttle, etc.)
Question: Regarding the W.P. Paired Weapons skill, would a character make this choice only once, or as my friends think, multiple times for different weapons?
Answer: According to HU2, p. 61, if you get Paired Weapons as a bonus from your hand to hand combat skill or some special ability (e.g. ambidexterity), it covers all one-handed melee weapons; if you spend a W.P. on it, it only covers a single combination of one-handed melee weapons, e.g. paired swords, paired axes, paired sword and knife, etc.
According to RUE, p. 327, if Paired Weapons is acquired through one's hand to hand skill, it applies to all one-handed weapons that the character is proficient with (including guns, albeit with a slight penalty to strike). Unfortunately, RUE doesn't really say how it works when selected as a skill, although I am inclined to believe that you would have to choose a specific pairing, as with HU2.
In N&S/Mystic China, some Martial Art Forms offer Weapon Kata with Paired Weapons. In these instances, not only are you restricted to particular combinations of weapons, you're restricted to using them with the particular Martial Art Form.
Question: In the description of W.P. Targeting in RUE, it clearly states that it is not for use with bows. Fine. However, later on it says that if you have this AND another missile W.P., you can add the bonuses for both W.P.s together. Does this mean that if you take Archery and Targeting you get the strike bonuses from both W.P.?
If the answer to this is yes, does it then mean that you can take a modern W.P. (energy rifle for instance) and stack it with the bonuses for Targeting? If not, why not?
Answer: You can only combine the bonuses when using bows, crossbows, and spears.
Question: In RUE, W.P. Axe gives +1 to strike and parry at certain levels, and then also gives +1 to strike when thrown or to parry at other levels. Is this a typo, or does it mean something about parrying thrown, or...?
Answer: The second parry bonus listed appears to be a misprint. You only get a bonus to throw at those levels.
Question: I have a charater that gets disarmed or drops his weapons a lot so the last game session I was in the GM gave me a pair of gauntles with retractable claws what wp would they fall under?
Answer: W.P. Knife, according to p. 205 of the RMB and p. 259 of RUE.
Question: What skill(s) do I have to take so my character can some welding.
Answer: Weapons Engineer, as far as the books are concerned. However, many other mechanical and fabrication related skills (e.g. vehicle armorer, safecracking) should arguably include some welding expertise as well.
Question: In Palladium games, skill bonuses can come from a variety of sources. Does one always choose only the best single bonus, or are some bonuses cumulative?
Answer: Skill bonuses from attributes, race, class, super powers and other innate characteristics are generally cumulative unless otherwise stated. Other bonuses depend on circumstances. For example, Prowl belongs to both the Physical and Rogue categories, but O.C.C.-related bonuses to both categories do not overlap; only the higher bonus applies. Similarly, high quality tools can provide bonuses to electrical and mechanical skills, but using multiple tool kits would not provide multiple bonuses.
Question: I was designing a Spatial Mage and was going to make someone that had lived in the Three Galaxies, Skraypers, Old Robotech, Nightbane, and Rifts Earth and was just now moving onto a Heroes Unlimited world. To show his previous experiences (2 or 3 years here and there) I was planning to take skills that represent his experiences and I am rather fond of Arzno's TW Power Armor but in my Pilot skills it says, "Any except Robots," so is Power Armor also unavailable?
Answer: That is correct.