Rifts: Mind and Magic, Part One

One of the aspects that set Rifts apart from other post-apocalyptic and cyberpunk games (well, except for Shadowrun) was it's inclusion of Magic and Psionics.  In the original book there were four magic-casting classes, and in addition to the four purely psychic classes, anyone in the game had a chance to possess some psionic ability.  Power levels between the classes were varied, as were the powers and spells themselves.  With the conversion of Rifts over to SAGA Edition, there comes with it a few hurdles, many pitfalls, and a lot of monkeying around to be done to get it all to fit together into the SAGA System, but still feel like Rifts.

The Easier Path

If you thumb through the Rifts core rulebook, you'll find Ley-Line Walkers, Mystics, Shifters, and Techno-Wizards.  These are the four most prevalent magic-using classes in Rifts, especially in North America.  Sure, there are others, even a casual glance through extended source material reveal Warlocks (read as "Elementalists"), Witches, Battle Magi, Druids, Elemental Fusionists (don't ask, kinda neat, but don't ask), and a host of other spellslingers.  But usually the magic users in Rifts fall back on one of the four originals.

Looking at SAGA Edition, the easiest and most natural fit for the spellslingers is to make Magic work a lot like Force Powers do.  You get a skill, based on Charisma called "Use Magic".  This skill will allow you to perform a series of minor magical effects.  You can use this skill untrained as long as you have the Magical Sensitivity feat, allowing you to Detect Magic and conjure a Globe of Daylight.  If you're trained in Use Magic, you can also use a Wizard's Assistant ("move a light object") and Sense the Supernatural.

In addition, the Magic User can learn talents from a variety of sources that utilize their magic skill in other ways.  Here's a two of the talents from the Ley Line Walker Talent Tree:

Ley Line Travel: You gain flight speed 4 while on a Ley Line.  You may travel effortlessly along the Ley Line without growing tired.  As a Standard action, you can teleport yourself and your belongings anywhere along the ley line you are currently on, and at any altitude within the line (most ley lines are a ½ mile high).

Ley Line Rejuvenation: Once per encounter, you can spend a Standard Action and instantly heal hit points equal to your character level x your Charisma bonus (minimum of 1) if you are within 10 squares of a Ley Line.  If you are not near a ley line, you heal your character level in hit points.

Ley Line Rejuvenation is a standard power all Ley Line Walkers get in Rifts, and only works when they're on a Ley Line.  I didn't want to front load all the class abilities with the Archetypes, just the really Iconic ones.  I wanted talents that would allow characters to grow and gain neat abilities.  This power would be nigh-useless as a Talent in SAGA Edition if it only worked on a Ley Line, so I gave it an ability to allow a Ley Line Walker to get a mid-combat heal.

"But DarthGM!", you cry, "If it's once per encounter, won't that mean I can just pop it all the time out of combat and always be at my full hit points?"  That's up to your GM, but I'd say "HELL NO."  Once per encounter means you need to be in an encounter to use this ability.  You're in a battle, people are dying around you, releasing mystic energy as their spirit leaves their body (Rifts world-mechanic, don't blame me).  You're gathering that as it releases and quickly empowering yourself, recovering some of your resolve and strength.  You're not going to just pop this off while shopping around the Burbs. 

Unless a Coalition Patrol happens by; then it's an encounter!

There are a lot of talents that will mirror Force Talents from Star Wars; Damage Reduction, Deflect, Battle Mediation.  Abilities that you would expect mages to be able to use repeatedly and often.  They fit in well, and I think they fit in nicely.

Spelling It Out

Once you're Magically Sensitive, you can take a feat, let's call it "Magical Training", and you get a number of Spells equal to your Wisdom Bonus +1 (minimum of 1).  This represents the number of spells you can cast per Combat.  You can choose a spell more than once, and thus be able to throw the spell twice per combat.  You can also spend an Action Point as a Free Action to recover a spent spell.  If you roll a Natural 20 when casting a spell with your Use Magic skill, you get all your spent spells back.

But what about the spells themselves?  I was planning to do over a mostly direct port from Star Wars to Rifts SAGA, just rename the abilities where needed.  That was until GM Chris had his playtest for Legends, and his Fantasy edition of the SAGA rules set.  It gave me the Mage class, a class where the hit dice are lower than a Jedi, but gave access to may of the Jedi's Force Talents (and gave them more wizard sounding names).

Chris also came up with a balance point for Light-Side and Dark-Side powers; he gave them the Taxing descriptor.  Now if you want to cast a lightning bolt (Force Lightning), or a healing spell (Vital Transfer), you move one step down the condition track when you finish casting the spell.  If the spell is sustainable from round to round and has the Taxing descriptor (Like Force Grip), you move 1 step down the condition track each round you sustain the spell.

But I wonder if this method removes some of the versatility of spellcasters in Rifts.  And for discovering and learning new spells.  Should the Magical Training feat earn you "Spell Points" that you can spend on spells you know, however you wish.  And how do you determine what spells you know in the first place?

As you can see, Magic is a work in progress. Next time I'll go over Psionics; from the overly complex to the underwhelmingly useless and some of the powers in between.  As a teaser, it's gonna look a lot like magic, just with a different description.

Until next time; 20 side up, 1 side down.

Episode 77: Tactical Savvy and Predictive Defense

This is DarthGM, bringing you the 77th installment of Fragments from the Rim.

When I think of Nobles, I think of two stats; Charisma (naturally), and Intelligence.  Sure, many Nobles are socialites and negotiators, able to defuse situations with just their words and personalities, but I’ve also seen an equal number of nobles with very high intelligence scores, literal “skill-monkeys” with just about every skill in the game as a trained skill.  A heroic noble with a bent towards Military Strategy can use their exceptional intelligence to help their allies and increase their survivability with two character choices from Galaxy At War.

If you’re building a Noble with a talent for directing combat and aiding your allies, take a good long look at the Tactical Savvy  talent from the Leadership Talent Tree.  It can be found on page 19 of Galaxy At War.  You need to have taken the Born Leader talent to take this one.  If you do take this talent, any ally who you can see can add your Intelligence Modifier to their Force point die roll when they use a Force point to enhance an attack roll.  If Intelligence is your character’s big thing, and their primary stat, odds are you’re looking at a +3 or even a +4 bonus to another character’s Force point.  That means the ally is at least getting a +4 bonus to their attack if they spend a Force point to try to make their near miss a hit.  

This talent is great for party support and providing a serious bonus to any ally within line of sight.  I haven’t run a combat encounter yet where SOMEONE hasn’t spent a Force Point on an attack roll.  And more often than not, they’re spending that Force point to try and get between 2-4 more points to hit their target.  Take this talent and you can help ensure that no Force Point used to modify an attack roll is spent in vain.

So Tactical Savvy is great for keeping your friends happy and hitting the bad guys, but what can someone with a high Intelligence do to help themselves in combat?  Here, I would like to present a feat from page 25 of Galaxy at War, Predictive Defense.  Taking a page from D&D 4th Edition, this feat allows the character to use their Dexterity Modifier or their Intelligence Modifier to determine your Reflex Defense.  This feat is a bonus class fear for Scoundrels, and Nobles.  That same Intelligence bonus that’s giving your allies a +3 or +4 to their Force points for hitting bad guys is now also giving you a +3 or +4 to your Reflex Defense, something most Nobles have a low score with anyway.

With these two options, you can support your team, save your bacon, and get more mileage out of your smarts.

And that’s it for this review.  Until next time Gamer Nation, 20 side up, 1 Side down.

Episode 76: Frightening Cleave

DarthGM here with the 76th Installment of Fragments From the Rim.  

I’m heading back to the Unknown Regions for a Feat that…well…it scares the crap outta me.  Which is appropriate, because it’s called Frightening Cleave.  You need to have a Strength of 13, Power Attack, Cleave, and a Base Attack Bonus of +4. Given these requirements, any 4th level soldier built for melee combat could take advantage of this Feat.  Any Jedi built for melee combat could too; it would just take some creative character building.

What this feat does is immediately after you use the Cleave feat, each enemy within a 6 squares of you and with line of sight takes a -1 penalty to its reflex defense, attack rolls, and skill checks against you until the end of the encounter.  This penalty stacks to a maximum of -5.  This effect is a mind-effecting effect.

If you’re a rampaging Wookie with a vibro-axe, or a droid-wrecking Jedi with a lightsaber, you can potentially layer on the pain of a major villain by ruthlessly eviscerating their minions before them.  One thing that concerned me, and always has about cleave, is that it’s hard to use round after round.  As you go up in levels, the opponents get tougher, and the major villains get meaner.  That makes it really tricky to be the one to drop a target, and have another enemy nearby to cleave into.  Plus if you’re obeying the The List, your GM has spread out the foes and kept them from clustering up too much.

That being said, if you could still get some good mileage out of this feat with a little help from your friends.  If you have a Force using buddy who likes to toss people around with Move Object, get on their good side and talk them into constantly moving opponents into adjacent squares to you, injuring them, and letting you finish them off.  If you’re toe to toe with a Sith Warrior, you can keep finishing off his minions, cleaving into the Sith, and imposing a cumulative penalty to them, lowering their defense to your attacks, hindering their Use the Force checks against you, and distracting their attacks so they miss.

Maybe this feat isn’t scary…maybe it’s just mean.

Ah well, on that note, we’ll see you next time, Gamer Nation.  This is Darth GM wishing you the 20 side up, and the one side down.

Episode 74: Defensive Thoughts

*rolls a d20* …miss...

*rolls a d20* …miss...

*rolls a d20* Huh... another miss...

Welcome to the 74th Installment of Fragments from the Rim.  I’m DarthGM and today I want to talk about something that’s come up recently in my Legacy Era game.  

One of my PCs plays an Imperial Knight, and through most of his career he’s had the Block and Deflect talents.  He’s 12th level now and running around with a Reflex Defense of 31, thanks to the Armor Mastery Talent, the Imperial Knight Battle Armor, and a fairly decent Dexterity score.  The player has actually found that the Block and Deflect talents are now useless to him, because if the attack does hit him, it’s highly unlikely he’ll be able to roll the number required to beat the attack roll.  It’s a good thing he never took Redirect Shot, or he’d never use the Talent at all.  He would actually get a lot more mileage from his talents and a greater defensive benefit by replacing both talents with two selections of Lightsaber Defense, which is what he did.

This led me to ponder situations and character choices where having both a high defense and having Block or Deflect would be helpful.  Several feats out there imply a penalty to your Reflex Defense, and still having Block and Deflect to fall back on could be a benefit.  Desperate Gambit, Flurry, and Sniper Shot all come to mind.  For Flurry and Sniper Shot, you’re getting a +2 to your attack rolls with melee and ranged weapons respectively, but take a -5 penalty to your Reflex Defense.  Desperate Gambit, covered by Alex back in Fragments from the Rim 15 [by Alex and Trevor], allows you to reroll a failed attack roll at a -2 penalty to your Reflex Defense, or a -5 penalty if you’re rerolling a natural 1 on your attack check.  Charging imposes a -2 penalty to your Defense, and there are several useful feats and a couple feats out there that modify your charge attack.

If you put all your effort into a charge, roll a 1, and decide to reroll with the Desperate Gambit feat, that 31 defense is now a 24.  That’s a Reflex defense score that your average CL 10 opponent shouldn’t have too much trouble hitting.  You now have a situation where Deflect can still protect you.

So if you’re rockin’ a high defense, and like to stack up Flurry, Critical Strike, and Improved Rapid Strike on an attack roll, and want to use Desperate Gambit to help make sure it hits, you may just want to hold on to Block and Deflect for insurance.

That’s it for this installment.  If you have any questions, drop me a PM on the D20 Radio Forums.  Until next time Gamer Nation; 20-side up, 1-side down.

Episode 71: Artillery Shot, Flash and Clear, Targeted Area

I’m Darth GM, and you’re [reading] the 71st segment of Fragments from the Rim.

Every now and then you come across a player that…well, maybe they played a few too many first-person shooters in their day, and they really enjoy the idea of lugging around a weapon as big as they are.  Something that has a shoulder strap not just to sling it when not in use, but because you need it to be able to balance and aim the damn thing.  Weapons that, for lack of a better phrase, go “BOOM”.

Saga edition provides us with a bunch of heavy weapons for our cannon-loving players to use.  They also provide us with a few feats that really work well together.  Individually they’re nice, but stacked together these feats can wallop anyone that gets in the character’s way.

The first two feats come from the Clone Wars Campaign Guide.  The first one is situational, the second is highly useful.  Artillery Shot says that when you make an attack with a burst or splash weapon against a target at greater than point blank range, you can affect two additional squares adjacent to the normal burst or splash area.  This is nice, if you’re using grenades, since those are thrown weapons, but it’s hard to get off with a cannon that has a Point Blank Range out to 50 squares.

The next feat, however, is much more useful, and can really help out the survivability of your gunner.  Flash and Clear provides your character with concealment from a target you damaged with a burst or splash weapon.  Anyone you hit with your blast is taking a -2 penalty to shoot back at you.  Not only that, but you have concealment from that target now, and can employ a host of benefits and abilities with that requirement against that target.

The last feat is from the Unknown Regions; Targeted Area.  This feat you have to wait until you have a +5 base attack bonus to pick up.  This feat states that when you make a successful area, attack, select a single target hit by the attack.  That target takes an extra 5 points of damage from the attack before applying the effect of the Evasion talent.  A feat that gives you +5 damage to a target?  Sign me up!

All of these feats are Soldier Bonus Feats, and Flash and Clear and Targeted Area are Scout bonus feats.

I feel that these three feats work best with Blaster-cannon style weapons and grenade launchers.  Missile launchers, too; the weapons that hit an area for splash damage or affect a burst radius.  They could work with repeating blasters, or other autofire weapons, but with the inherent -5 penalty to auto-fire attacks, you’ll have to brace your weapon and likely invest in a level of Elite Solider to have the best chance to utilize these feats.

With these three feats, you can saturate an incoming column of soldiers with your cannon or grenades, gain concealment from your targets as you flood their vision with flashing spots, and really put the hurt on specific individuals within your area of effect.

By the time this segment airs, I will have subjected my PCs to an elite Stormtrooper with these feats.  We’ll see how well they work together in a live field test.  KA-boom, baby!

That’s all for this week.  Until next time, Gamer Nation, 20 side up, 1 side down.

Episode 67: Instinctive Attack and Instinctive Defense

I’m DarthGM, and this is the 67th installment of Fragments from the Rim.

Force Points; unless you’re a Force User, odds are you only have a few options for how you spend these resources.  You’re either going to be adding to an attack roll, or to a skill check.  Don’t get me wrong, getting another 1 to 6 points on your roll can make the difference between success and failure, but those dang Force Users get so many neat things to spend their Force Points on.  Isn’t it about time for the mundane to get some love too?

Well, in the Unknown Regions, on page 27, you get two new feats that let anyone spend their Force points to do more than just improving a die roll by a few points.

With Instinctive Defense, you can spend a Force Point as a Free action to increase all your defenses by 2 until the start of your next turn.  That ain’t bad; if you know you’re going to be the subject of a lot of attacks in the next turn, that extra 2 points can really save your bacon.

Generally, if you really tank an attack roll you know that a Force point won’t help you get the number you need to hit your opponent. With Instinctive Attack, you get to really beef up your benefit from spending a Force Point on an attack roll and turn a clear miss into a successful attack.  With this feat, when you spend a Force Point while making an attack, you can reroll the attack and take the better result.  You even apply the results of the die from the Force Point to the better result!  You can use it on any roll, and since you can decide to spend a Force Point after you roll the attack, you can use it even on a roll of “1”.

There’s one drawback to these feats; well...two, really.  The first is that you have to be a living creature to take these feats.  Sorry droids, you just don’t have the right instincts in your computerized body of yours.  The second is that Instictive Attack isn’t a Bonus Feat for any class, and Instinctive Defense is only a Bonus Feat…for Jedi.

...damn Force-Users…*sigh*  Ah well, they’re still very worthy choices for your Character.

That’s all for this week.  If you have any questions, send them along to d20darth@gmail.com.  Until next time, 20 side up, 1 side down.

Originally aired on the Order 66 Podcast Episode 122 "M4C-GUV3R".

Episode 63: Assured Attack

I’m DarthGM, and this is segment number 63 of Fragments from the Rim.

Damage; admit it, you love it.  You love dealing it.  You love seeing how many extra dice you can get for a damage roll.  You love seeing the highest possible value come up on the dice you roll for damage.  You love the sound your cupped hands make as you shake those many-sided polyhedrons, like some demented, nerdy maraca player.  You love the sight of all those dice bouncing as they are unleashed upon the table.

What you don’t like is when one of "dem bones" comes up as a 1.  Or even a 2, depending on the die.  You see that rogue polyhedron sitting there, it’s taunting you.  Laughing at you. Woe is me! If only there were some way I could remove that offensive die from my total!  Well, you can.  With the Assured Attack feat.

Found on Page 28 of the Rebellion Era Campaign guide, this worthy feat states “Whenever you deal damage to a target with an attack and you roll multiple dice, you can reroll the lowest damage die but must keep its second result, even if it’s worse.”  This feat has no pre-requisites.  It has no limitations.  It can be used any time you make an attack.  It can be used on the ground.  It can be used in space.  It can be used with single target weapons, area attacks, or vehicle weapons.  It can be used multiple times in a round.  It’s a Bonus feat for Jedi and Soldiers.  Just about the only thing you can’t use this with is Force Powers, and it’ll even work with some of those (I’m looking at you, Lightsaber Form Powers…).  So any time you roll horrifically on damage rolls, you can try to reroll that lowest die and hope to get something a little bit better.  Or a lot better, if you turn that 1 to an 8 or a 10.

Let’s face it, there aren’t too many attacks out there where you only roll one die for damage.  This feat can really help bump up the average damage for your character.

We’ve come to the end of another episode, Gamer Nation.  Until next time; 20 side up, 1 side down.

Originally broadcast on the Order 66 Podcast Episode 117 "The Vanguard's Meat"