I've been consulting a few RIFTS and Palladium system forums online to try and figure out exactly how the Automatic Dodge system in the games work and have been rather unsuccessful. So I'm turning to the RPG stack to try and come up with a legitimate explanation for the ability and its mechanics.
Automatic dodge is an ability conferred by certain Hand to hand skills, classes such as Juicer, super powers such as Extraordinary Physical Prowess, Super speed, etc. that confers the ability to dodge without using up one of your melee actions for the round.
There are other dodge bonuses in the game systems that confer similar bonuses to dodging. It doesn't state anywhere in any book I've read in the Palladium system whether or not the dodge bonuses from hand to hand, or other skills can be added to automatic dodge bonuses to determine if an attack is dodged.
So my question is thus:
Can Automatic-Dodge Bonuses and Dodge Bonuses added together to determine whether or not an attack is evaded without using up a melee action, and where if any can I find the rules to support said answer?
Best Answer
Dodge bonuses and automatic dodge bonuses are tracked separately; they are not combined to determine a character's automatic dodge bonus
Automatic dodge as per Rifts Ultimate Edition (fourth printing, June 2010) says, in part, that
Automatic dodge as per Heroes Unlimited, Revised Second Edition (first printing, Mar. 1998) says, in part, that
This is a big enough deal that the Palladium FAQ (which isn't technically official but which pulls from official sources for answers) for Combat includes this exchange:
The FAQs were last updated June 2002, so it appears this issue was clarified over a decade ago, but, given that my version of Heroes Unlimited is older than the last FAQ update and that I prefer the original Rifts softcover to the fancy Ultimate Edition (which vastly and unnecessarily limits the availability of secondary skills ), it wouldn't surprise me that many folks still play with a character's regular dodge bonuses applying also to the character's automatic dodge. Here is even a 2014 thread on the Palladium messageboards curious about how this affects products not yet updated for this change.