Items and dropping classes

[Qu4lity]

New Munchkin-er/-ite here. My wife and I picked up Munchkin a few weeks back and have been playing it non-stop. We taught a few friends how to play last week and an issue came about that I could not find the answer to.

My friend is very brainy and likes to deconstruct games and analyze rules to oblivion. The question was raised in regards to items that you are carrying during combat. We both understand that you can play items that at the point you play them cannot be used by your character. A "Usable only by a warrior" item cannot have it's bonus active on a Thief-only Munchkin. But can you, as long as the limitations allow (no conflict in item slot in your active items), make one of these items "active" so that during a fight the bonus may be used.

Example: My LVL 3 Warrior is fighting a LVL 6 Whatever monster. I chose to play the pantyhose of giant strength before I kicked in the door. This item gives me +3 as long as I am not a warrior. It has no "slot" and I choose to play it in my active card row. I discard a card from hand to beserk the warrior. I then discard the warrior from combat. Because my pantyhose were "active" just not providing a bonus to me they would give me the +3 and I would be winning the battle.

My friend suggested we display non-bonus providing active items by turning them upside down to differentiate them from items that were inactive. This was his idea to combat the fact that if someone were to curse away his class mid-combat he would have some sort of out as opposed to having the bonus supplying card in front of him and not being able to activate it during the combat.

Confused? I am too.

[Mister Ed]

The pantyhose don't just give you a bonus as long as you are not a Warrior, they can't be USED if you ARE a Warrior.

You can't have them in use, but not providing you a bonus, if you are a Warrior (the exception being if you became a Warrior in the middle of combat. In that case you couldn't change the status of your item, since you can't do that in combat, but you wouldn't get the bonus any more). So the sequence of events you describe is not legal.

When you entered that combat, your Pantyhose would have to have been turned sideways, not in use, since you were a Warrior. You could then discard your Warrior class, as you can do that at any time, but you wouldn't be able to then change the status of the Pantyhose to in use and get the bonus, since you can't change the status of items during combat.

Here's the Rules Quote:

Originally Posted by The Rules

You should indicate items that can’t help you, or extras not being worn, by turning the cards sideways. You may NOT change your used and carried items during a combat or while running away.