[Cerek the Barbaric]

Originally posted by Megachihuahua: Wasn't raistlin sick? I only read up to book three, so I don't know. I think Irenicus could beat him, or Bodhi would get him after Irenicus turned the cleric to stone.

He wasn't really sick, just extremely frail physically. Anything that required physical exertion caused him to become short of breath and to start coughing up blood. However, his magical abilities more than compensated for his physical shortcomings.

Keep in mind that all of the Dragonlance characters were actually roleplayed by them members of Weiss and Hickman's PnP group. Raistlin had a very low Strength and Constitution, and this was just their way of representing that frailty in literate terms. They also said they would never have thought to have Raistlin whisper all the time. They added that after the person playing Raistlin did it one of their gaming sessions. One of the characters had made a very acidic remark to Raistlin, and the player gave Raistlin's reply in a low, coarse whisper. The effect was to make his threat sound MUCH more sinister...so it became a permanent trait of his character.