Ladies ... Gentlemen ....
It is a historical fact that primitive tribes’ magicians were simply healers and they are also called shamans.
This is not fantasy but history, and in South America as well as in Africa we can find some till this day.
Many such characters wear bone rings and wild animal teeth necklaces; they wear head decorative covers with brilliant feathers, wild animal skulls or preserved skins. The Aztec sacrificial priests did wear gold and jewellery. On the other hand, warriors rarely wear rings and gaudy amulets as they encumber holding weapons and swift movements with stealth.
However, nowadays soldiers do wear a necklace with a name/ number tag and also occasionally bracelets of the same sort.
What I am getting at is that the item of rings could be divided into two categories, the defensive/ protective category and the offensive/ casting category.
Warriors should be allowed to wear a single protective amulet only because the hands are very busy with weapons and their power is in ranged or melee articles. OTOH, mages should be able to wear only two protective rings and weapon slots could take as many as four rings of offence per hand with spells that could be cast instantly. A mage may also hold a sceptre with an orb on top or even a double-orb-ended-sceptre with one on each side. A mage should be able to wear multiple amulets and necklaces as well as cloaks because they cannot wear weapons of melee or ranged weapons’ backpacks. A mage does not need a legging but a leg-bracelet of protection per leg, to balance the bracelets of offence on each wrist and each biceps.
A true fantasy mage does not carry a physical shield or wear any traditional armour but enchanted belts and shirts of protection that fit a set topped with a cloak of disappearing; the shirt of deflection or illusion and the belt of antigravity for example.
A warrior would be much more interested in seeking a charmed sword that is augmented with lightning strike and cold metal frost, a sword so sharp that it could split an air born feather without disturbing its flight yet so durable that it could cut down a small tree trunk in one blow.
I also think that warriors may not resist fire with other than shields and fireproof wear. Imagine a footwear called the boots of magma with which the warrior can literally walk on molten rocks, or chest-armour that resists fire and cools the wearer and finally shields with huge surface area but very light in weight and made of special materials that resist fire, which may include magically charmed materials of course.
Now considering that RR has no such classes and it is a very open system, the rules of equipment should be the key to classing by the player. On wearing the third ring, the left hand can carry no shield and on wearing the seventh ring the right hand can wield no weapon. Every extra necklace more than the allowed emulate for the warrior should come with a penalty for tactical engagement with melee and ranged weapons.
This system of logical charming should be expandable to cover survivors/ assassins/ thieves class too.
This reminds me of an interesting issue; a thief would pick the lock of a locked chest but a mage would unlock it by magic while a warrior would simply smash the chest’s lock to open. It should be against the dignity of a powerful mage to sit beside a box on his knees with a pair of lock picks and it is disgraceful for a mighty warrior with a war hammer in his hand to pick a lock he could break to pieces in one single blow.
{Sight} That is why it is not that simple to make the ultimate RPG any way but those were my six pence and a bit of suspense. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />
