Prysus wrote:Greetings and Salutations. Well, that'll at least partly depend on whether you're referring to Palladium's stance of mages not being warriors, or the context of the original comment that started this thread. I think Killer Cyborg has addressed his original context enough that I don't feel the need to readdress that.
No offense to KC.. but uh... Didn't I start this thread?
Admittedly, real life reared it's ugly head and i never made it back (though it appears to have sparked a decent conversation, so, there's that, i guess).
To the former, why Palladium made such statements, I'd guess (but can't necessarily prove) by the context of the passages that basically they're not as good in a stand up fight as Men at Arms. Mechanically, there may be little difference in combat capabilities (put a Practitioner of Magic and a Men at Arms in a fist fight, both have HtH: Basic and the same P.P., they'll probably be rather evenly matched, barring additional factors such as level or only one of them having Boxing, etc.). Conceptually though, I think most (though I'm sure some will argue against it) will agree that a trained soldier should be able to defeat a magic user in a straight fist fight, because a soldier is supposed to be the fighter or warrior. Make sense so far?
I follow your train of thought, at least, yes. Mechanics need to support the fluff, though, and they dont. Now, like i said, i follow your train of thought and would say its probably very similar to Kevin's train of thought, where he just cant seem to get past the D&D/Palladium-fantasy/typical fantasy trope of Wizards being dress-wearing sissies that can (if you let them) blow away bad guys in job lots.
It even WORKS in Fantasy, because you dont have guys armed with laser rifles that are 3x the range of any spell ruining your day. So, while i disagree that soldiers are "supposed to be the fighter or the warrior" (because the crunch simply does NOT support that assertion), i certainly agree that your train of thought is similar to Palladium's (Kevins), and is what leads to the statements in the book that Mages are supposed to be weak combatants, even though they arent and there so not even a lot of back-up for it in their own fluff. (For a bunch of dress wearing non-combat trained sissies, Tolkeen sure put a pretty hard fight with an army that was 50+% magic users, for instance.)
Now, mechanically a Practitioner of Magic (considering equivalent skills) won't be much worse off in that fight.
Agreed. That's sorta why i started the thread - the disconnect between the poorly conceived fluff and the crunch that doesn't support it at all (or really even make it possible. You'd have to deliberately remove skills from your own character to sheet to make the fluff match up to your character).
However, Palladium likes to say that a magic user will use magic, even for combat.
And i don't disagree, particularly if itll give you an advantage over that mundane guy. But that doesn't mean youll be stupid about it.
Now, a magic user using a Fireball that's inferior in every way to a laser rifle is probably silly for most,
It certainly is for me. I dont think that any mage character is going to be so deluded as to thinking his Fireball is the best tool for every situation. Palladium's fluff sometimes tries to say they will ALWAYS want to use magic, but that's just... nonsensical. Magic Users arent mentally handicapped. Why have to risk sneaking into range to use magic when i have a perfectly good laser rifle right here?
but that doesn't mean that the mage can't still use magic to control the battle such as summoning monsters to fight, Carpet of Adhesion to limit enemy movements, creating a magic wall to serve as cover or block a retreat, etc.
100% agree. This is where Magic Users are brokenly strong, really.
However, magic is ill-suited for direct confrontation.
Disagree.
It is ill-suited as a replacement for damage-dealing for tech, but it is WONDERFULLY suited to direct confrontation. Impervious to Energy + Armor of Ithan/Armor Bizzare/Invincible Armor (take your pick) + Power Weapon + TW Flaming Sword = hell on two feet. One mage can handle 3-4 tech using (edit: infantry-scale, when you start adding PA and Robots and stuff, things change) opponents in that situation, no problem. Add in any combat boosters (Superhuman Speed, for instance, and there are a few different spells that give you extra attacks, some available at quite reasonable levels), and you're supremely suited to direct confrontation. Now, this isn't a universal truth (you might run into a pack of Juicers who can handle you in melee, or a squad of guys atypically armed with solid slug weapons (APRJ, Rail Guns, whatever), but there are ways to plan for that too.
And before someone brings the range thing up - Mages can turn invisible. Getting into range isn't a problem except against the MOST alert enemies. (Most things that can see the invisible cant se that far - a few hundred feet AT BEST).
So Palladium is figuring magic users will use magic, which we see in RBoM and even in RUE under the Magic Combat section. On page 190 (last paragraph of Step 7), they tell us how a "smart" mage will fight (and it's not toe to toe).
And this is where Palladium's writing falls down. Game mechanics have to support the fluff, or the fluff is pointless and often doesn't even make sense. If they want mages to be bad combatants, they need to alter the mechanics to support that. Period.
A "Smart" mage will fight in whatever way gives him the upper hand. If that means popping a flaming sword and jumping into that squad of dog boys armed with C-12s and energy pistols to carve them up, sure. Now, some mages will have preferences - not everyone wants to go melee - but "toe to toe" means a lot of different things. Maybe i dont like melee as the character im playing (im a frail elf); but ill happily pop Impervious to Energy, Armor up, and sit back at 1200 feet and trade shots with guys who cant hurt me all day long, until they are dead, or run away.
In this section, they even compare a magic user to a sniper. So, for a moment, let's replace mages with snipers for the description.
A sniper can fire from the hip (effectively) and it'll take one action (equivalent to a low level spell). The sniper can fire an Aimed Shot and/or Called Shot in two or three actions (equivalent of a mid- to high level spell). The act of parrying, dodging, or striking back will break the sniper's aim. Likewise, getting popped in the mouth or stomach, or getting knocked down or blinded, or anything that breaks his concentration and makes him stop in the middle of his aim, will prevent him from finishing his attack. Most snipers can handle themselves in a fight, but they aren't warriors, they just aren't.
Bad analogy. At least in modern first world armed forces, Snipers are definitely warriors. All Snipers in the US armed forces receive better-than-basic-infantry training. A LARGE portion (and certainly the best trained) are special forces operators - Marine Scout Snipers and Army Rangers.
Again, back to my earlier point, put a sniper and a marine in an unarmed cage match, and which will probably win?
Since there's a pretty good chance (especially if we're talking the "best" sniper) that the sniper is ALSO a Marine... a Marine. Probably the one that took more extensive elective hand to hand training, which is a pretty common hobby among marines (and Rangers, and SEALs).
While there might be exceptions, and regardless of what some may argue is reality, most people would probably put their money on the marine. If in the midst of a battle, a sniper stops, crouches down on the ground, adjusts his scope, and starts taking aim, do you think he'd be making himself a target and people might start thinking: "Hey, sniper! Take him out before he starts getting head shots!" I think that's the concept Palladium is going for with their Practitioners of Magic. They can handle themselves in a fight if need be, but denying your strengths while fighting to another's isn't generally a good idea. And if you stand in clear sight of the enemy, you're making yourself a target to be interrupted.
I agree, however, in most cases, you dont need to stand in plain sight... and if you do, there are steps you can take to mitigate the possibility of being interrupted. (Turning Invisible, Impervious to Energy, illusiory or natural cover).
Anyways, that would just be my take on why Palladium said it the way they did. Take that for what you will. Farewell and safe journeys for now.[/justify]
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Like i said, i agree with your assessment of why Palladium (Kevin) says it the way he does.
I just think it's bunk that isnt even well supported by the setting material. Its supported in a few general spots (Book of Magic, a few spots in the RMB and later RUE, some in FoM) and then contradicted in a LOT more (sometimes just a page or two after it is stated that they are bad combatants, the entire SoT series, numerous other places with societies of warlike mages), and isn't supported by the crunch, either.
I think Kevin had a vision for Rifts as Palladium-Fantasy with Tech. So he imported all his preconceptions of fantasy into Rifts, including "mages are bad at combat", but with little to nothing to back it up in the actual setting material and NOTHING in the mechanics. (In fact, a well played mage is far and away better than a lot of the basic men-at-arms style classes, particularly in RMB before the RUE overhaul). Other things that point to this "vision" of Rifts as fantasy+tech is how he expects North America to be some vast wilderness (which, geographically, sure) that, like the PF World, takes weeks and weeks to get anywhere (because even on horses, 20-25 miles a day, when you have to set up camp, take down camp, cook food, etc, is pretty damn good).... but it just doesn't work.
Even going "reasonable" speeds on hover-vehicles you can be literally anywhere on the continent that isnt impassible due to other reasons (extreme terrain like high mountains with no passes, weird magical stuff (like why nothing ever comes back from the other side of the Rockies despite Archie 3 literally sending thousands of bots to investigate) in about three days.
Kev's "vision" for Rifts isn't entirely workable, either on the "its a big empty world that takes forever to get anywhere" front or the "magic users suck at combat" front.
I've been (very slowly) kicking around a revamp of Palladium's combat system (to be clear - as a game designer myself (though not often tabletop, mostly live action, but im good at mechanical systems - i could easily write a more mechanically balanced/"better" system - but what im trying to do is preserve the active-defenses/opposed rolls/action-bound nature of Palladium, and just make it less slow and broken) and part and parcel of it is going to be a ... very major "Minor" retcon of the setting to better fit Kev's original vision.... by careful utilization of a few McGuffins and re-writing some mechanics to just favor certain flavors.
Non-mecha scale Men at arms need some love.