Need official ruling on 2 questions

[Tinker Dragoon]

If by official you mean an answer from a Palladium author, then it's not likely to happen, but I wish you luck all the same.

As best as I can gather from the books, though:

1. Yes; Half damage, because a psi-sword is an energy weapon.

RUE, p. 64: "All Psi-weapons are energy based [....] As energy weapons, even those with a 'blunt' weapon shape [...] inflict the same damage as the traditional Psi-Sword."

In other words, the energy "blade" does not inflict sharp or blunt force injuries; it inflicts damage with psionic energy, and the Nemean lion pelt takes half damage from all energy attacks.

2. The magical M.D.C. protection of a Corrupted Millennium Tree cloak would be negated by the Anti-Magic Cloud, leaving body armor as the character's only protection. According to the RUE rules, the character's armor would take all of the damage, leaving the character naked but unharmed. Of course, GMs are entirely within their rights to let common sense override this.

[Tor]

Being energy-based that also means you don't add force-based damage bonuses to it right?

Although I am not sure but I get an impression cyber-knights can add horsemanship MD bonuses to their swords...

Or use psi-axes to climb GBKs.

[drewkitty ~..~]

#1 There are the words of the text and then their are the "In Game" meaning of the words of the text.

On the face of it TD's answer is canonly correct, going by what is directly said in the lion skin text and what he quoted from RUE. And keeping on the subject of Psi-Swords doing said damage.

However, there is some room for the GM to bump up the damage done to the wearer because it says that blunt damage is passed through to the one wearing the lion skin. Since most damage ratings do not distinguish what %'s are piercing/cutting/blunt damage and it is generally accepted that it is one of the three w/o being some of the others, to keep things simplified, it is the GM to decide if there will be any "pass through blunt damage".

Yes, an "at speed" damage bonus could be applied to the damage as a "pass through blunt damage" but that is for individual GMs to decide how complex they want to make their games.

So while what you suggest is in the realm of what is "possible" Tor, it is for Individual GM's to decide how much of that additional complexity they want in their games. i.o.w. their house rules.

[Tor]

Whether GMs want to add additional rules is ALWAYS an option so it's not worth mentioning here, we're trying to puzzle out the RAW canon.

[The Oh So Amazing Nate]

2. If a character is at ground zero of a 1600 mdc explosion, what happens to him? He was wearing a corrupted millennium tree cloak but anti magic cloud was up. Player says his cloak took all damage and nothing else. His full body armor was untouched.

1600 MDC did you say? As in One thousand Six Hundred points of Mega Damage?

My thoughts.
I agree that anti magic cloud would render the cloaks protection useless.
Unless I'm super wrong (and it is possible) 1600 MDC is going to vaporize any body armor AND the PC inside. ESPECIALLY if they are at ground zero when the explosion goes off.

[Tinker Dragoon]

Being energy-based that also means you don't add force-based damage bonuses to it right?

That would make sense. Based on the above description, a Psi-Sword would essentially be an Energy Melee Weapon, like a Wilk's laser sword.

But having said that...

Although I am not sure but I get an impression cyber-knights can add horsemanship MD bonuses to their swords...

Or use psi-axes to climb GBKs.

Some illustrations in the books give the impression that a psi-sword has solidity, at least to the wielder; many Cyber-Knights and Mind Melters are depicted gripping their weapons tightly, and even using two hands in some cases.

As you hinted, Sir Thorpe is described in Siege of Tolkeen 4 performing many feats one would associate with a physical weapon, including parrying his opponent's blade, hooking his psi-tomahawk over a weapon turret for leverage, and cleanly slicing his opponents to pieces.

Additionally, the Psi-Slinger's Energy Conversion ability specifically does not work on Psi-Swords and other psionic energy manifestations.

So, how do we reconcile these apparent discrepancies? I tend to think of a Psi-Sword as being a kind of solid energy field, like a Psi-Shield or TK Force Field, but I can find no concrete rules to support this. It may simply be that the wielder's own perception and belief endows the weapon with qualities of both energy and matter.

However, there is some room for the GM to bump up the damage done to the wearer because it says that blunt damage is passed through to the one wearing the lion skin. Since most damage ratings do not distinguish what %'s are piercing/cutting/blunt damage and it is generally accepted that it is one of the three w/o being some of the others, to keep things simplified, it is the GM to decide if there will be any "pass through blunt damage".

Investigating this further, I notice that the S.D.C. versions of Psi-Sword in HU, PF, etc. include this little nugget (emphasis added):

The psi-sword does full damage against creatures of magic, demons, supernatural beings and creatures or armor that is impervious to normal weapons (this is not a "normal" weapon).

So, there is a valid argument for inflicting full damage to the Nemean lion skin, at least outside of Rifts.

Unless I'm super wrong (and it is possible) 1600 MDC is going to vaporize any body armor AND the PC inside. ESPECIALLY if they are at ground zero when the explosion goes off.

RUE introduced the rule that armor reduced to 0 or fewer M.D.C. in a single attack absorbs all of the damage inflicted by that attack, regardless of how much damage is inflicted or how little M.D.C. the armor has left. Unsurprisingly, this remains controversial, and has spawned many arguments on the Rifts forum.

[eliakon]

1. Can the nemean lion pelt (worn by Hercules in Rifts Pantheons book) take damage from a psi-sword? And if so, full damage?

2. If a character is at ground zero of a 1600 mdc explosion, what happens to him? He was wearing a corrupted millennium tree cloak but anti magic cloud was up. Player says his cloak took all damage and nothing else. His full body armor was untouched.

Please give me clarity on this. I need official ruling on this please.

Well I can't give an official ruling, but I can give some hints.
Assuming that you do not use the Rifter suggestion on curbing the "GI Joe Rule". (pg 355 RUE) then yes, in theory the RAW says that a suit of armor will protect from the last attack.
There are a couple points to make though
First in an AMC the cloak is just a big leaf, and not armor....so his body armor will be the layer affected
Second is that they will take 80 SDC from the explosion, even inside the armor (pg. 355 RUE)
Third is that there is the question of what sort of explosion this was. If it was a nuke (I am guessing from the blast size it was nuke) then there is the potential of there being several damages, in series
Fourth a blast that large is likely to throw a person a ways (ie miles if you are extrapolating from the Nukes again) which will have even more damage.

None of this of course matters if the GM decides that either "the blast is to big your dead" nor if the GM decides "GI Joe Rule will not stop a blast that big"

[Prysus]

Greetings and Salutations. Tinker Dragoon, if it helps, RGMG (Q&A section about adding damage bonuses to weapons) mentions that the Psi-Sword has no physical component (or something like that). RCB1 (I believe both versions, but not positive) in the section about parrying energy blasts, mentions MDC items, then gives Psi-Sword as an example of one. At work, so no quotes or page numbers in front of me. Farewell and safe journeys to all.

[drewkitty ~..~]

However, there is some room for the GM to bump up the damage done to the wearer because it says that blunt damage is passed through to the one wearing the lion skin. Since most damage ratings do not distinguish what %'s are piercing/cutting/blunt damage and it is generally accepted that it is one of the three w/o being some of the others, to keep things simplified, it is the GM to decide if there will be any "pass through blunt damage".

Investigating this further, I notice that the S.D.C. versions of Psi-Sword in HU, PF, etc. include this little nugget (emphasis added):

The psi-sword does full damage against creatures of magic, demons, supernatural beings and creatures or armor that is impervious to normal weapons (this is not a "normal" weapon).

So, there is a valid argument for inflicting full damage to the Nemean lion skin, at least outside of Rifts.

Since it was a question about a Rifts NPC I noted that I limited my answer to using Rifts canon. Using just the RUE text quoted in the 1st response and the Item Text in RCB2.
Importing rules from other settings is with in a GM's prerogative, but they can't be said to be canon for the setting you are importing those rules into.

[The Beast]

Unless I'm super wrong (and it is possible) 1600 MDC is going to vaporize any body armor AND the PC inside. ESPECIALLY if they are at ground zero when the explosion goes off.

RUE introduced the rule that armor reduced to 0 or fewer M.D.C. in a single attack absorbs all of the damage inflicted by that attack, regardless of how much damage is inflicted or how little M.D.C. the armor has left. Unsurprisingly, this remains controversial, and has spawned many arguments on the Rifts forum.

IIRC, that rule was ammended to include an upper limit as to how much MD would be ignored once the armor is gone. I think Killer Cyborg may be able to answer this more acurately though.

[eliakon]

Unless I'm super wrong (and it is possible) 1600 MDC is going to vaporize any body armor AND the PC inside. ESPECIALLY if they are at ground zero when the explosion goes off.

RUE introduced the rule that armor reduced to 0 or fewer M.D.C. in a single attack absorbs all of the damage inflicted by that attack, regardless of how much damage is inflicted or how little M.D.C. the armor has left. Unsurprisingly, this remains controversial, and has spawned many arguments on the Rifts forum.

IIRC, that rule was ammended to include an upper limit as to how much MD would be ignored once the armor is gone. I think Killer Cyborg may be able to answer this more acurately though.

There was a Rifter that had such a limit, but it was unofficial.

[Tor]

RUE introduced the rule that armor reduced to 0 or fewer M.D.C. in a single attack absorbs all of the damage inflicted by that attack, regardless of how much damage is inflicted or how little M.D.C. the armor has left.

This just occurred to me... how many layers of MDC clothing from NGR could one wear?

Surely they come in different sizes so you could put big-man MDC pants over little-man MDC pants.

[eliakon]

RUE introduced the rule that armor reduced to 0 or fewer M.D.C. in a single attack absorbs all of the damage inflicted by that attack, regardless of how much damage is inflicted or how little M.D.C. the armor has left.

This just occurred to me... how many layers of MDC clothing from NGR could one wear?

Surely they come in different sizes so you could put big-man MDC pants over little-man MDC pants.

As many as your GM allows. PERSONALLY I would rule that all layers of armor, combined, form the GI Joe defense.
So if you have 19 layers of armor, and get hit with a nuke.....you lose all 19 layers, and survive, NOT that you lose layer 1, have 18 left, and survive. But that's just me. (in other words I am using 'armor' in the generic 'external protections' instead of the singular 'specific suite of that protection')

[drewkitty ~..~]

To not look like you are wearing multiple layers of clothing....One.

[Tor]

What if I don't care about that?

*imagining a dragon who watches pre-rifts TV shows and shrinks to the size of a gnome and uses their supernatural strength to wear progressive layers until they are Cyclops-sized*

[Alrik Vas]

I don't have enough face-space for all these palms incomming.

[eliakon]

What if I don't care about that?

*imagining a dragon who watches pre-rifts TV shows and shrinks to the size of a gnome and uses their supernatural strength to wear progressive layers until they are Cyclops-sized*

I doubt that would be physically possible. After a certain point your going to run into mobility issues. And I would STILL say that is 'your armor' and that even though it has ______MDC its still 'your armor' so a missile blast will whittle it down all at one go, and not let you have umptyzillion 'last bit of MDC' protections.

[eliakon]

I don't have enough face-space for all these palms incomming.

I have found that combining Hydras with Hundred Handed is useful in this situation.

[say652]

The lions pelt of hercules........

[Tor]

Idea: TW underwear linked to an external wardrobe enchanted with teleport: simple which teleports a new pair of MDC pants onto you every time your previous pair is destroyed.

[drewkitty ~..~]

Idea: TW underwear linked to an external wardrobe enchanted with teleport: simple which teleports a new pair of MDC pants onto you every time your previous pair is destroyed.

Or soiled?

[Tor]

Naw, I think Cleanse costs less PPE than Tlesser.