Adventurers
Legendary Figures
The narrator for the game, who often provides contextual exposition. A longtime adventurer and writer, she has traveled across Rifts Earth and even visited other dimensions. Her writings are published by her fans in her home city of Lazlo, which is a haven for learning of magic and science. To her chagrin, she is the most famous person on Rifts Earth and her books have even been read by beings in other dimensions. The Coalition States consider her Public Enemy Number One for her criticism of them and promotion of literacy and education. Fortunately for her, the only public photos of her are from when she was young, and most people do not recognize the roughly 70 year old lady as the legendary adventurer.
- Badass Bookworm: Has outlived most humans in the harsh world of Rifts Earth, despite a lifetime of extreme adventuring and facing godlike foes. The Coalition States views her as an even bigger threat than demons, dragons and evil wizards!
- Big Good: Erin is the embodiment of Good in the game, with her perspectives used to establish the baseline for what is right and moral. Extremely humble, she often has trouble understanding why super-powerful good beings defer to her wisdom and follow her around.
- Cool Old Lady: While "old" may be debatable, she's well past the average lifespan of a human in Rifts Earth North America. And yet she's still running around, seeking knowledge, and having adventures.
- Famed In-Story: Is the single most widely-known person on Rifts Earth, and even beings from other dimensions have heard of her or read her writings.
- Germans Love David Hasselhoff: In-universe. Much to the annoyance of the Coalition States, the people of the New German Republic, the most powerful human nation on Rifts Earth, absolutely worship Erin Tarn and adore her writings. They even have television series and movies about her adventures (both fictional and real). She is also hugely popular in most other nations that are not specifically run by evil beings. Even many CS citizens have (secretly) read her essays (or had them read to them in the case of the illiterate majority), which only makes the CS government want her dead even more.
- Humble Hero: She's embarrassed by the way people venerate her, and tries to maintain her anonymity even in places where the entire population would gladly fight to defend her from her many enemies. She often worries that her personal bodyguard, Sir Winslow Thorpe, is missing out on greater adventures by following her around. Considering that he's crossed the dimensional barrier several times, and faced the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse at her side, one has to wonder what kind of adventure could be out there he hasn't seen yet.
- Informed Ability: Erin Tarn is repeatedly described by other characters and by the setting material as an excellent writer and masterful storyteller. The actual quality of her excerpts is... about on-par with the rest of whatever book it's appearing in. Which is to say, about as good as a poorly-edited opinion piece written by an amateur, definitely not worthy of the heaping praise that characters put on the work in-world. Tarn herself, however, has claimed that she isn't much of a writer, so it could be that other people are overstating her skills due to her status as a fearless and beloved seeker of knowledge. Also, literacy is very unusual on Rifts Earth, as is comprehensive education in general. Thus it's the content of her writings and the fact that she can even write at all, as opposed to the style or proper use of language, that is compelling to her readers. It's also been stated that her simple writing style is preferred by the uneducated masses than more scholarly works that would probably go right over their heads.
- Pals with Jesus: The list of beings who consider themselves her personal friends stretches all the way up the goddess Isis!
- Villainous Rescue: At least twice in her life, she's been saved by Coalition troops who did not know who she was, only that she was an old lady in danger.
- The Ageless: For reasons unknown even to him, he stopped aging at some point in his life and looks the same way for a thousand years.
- All-Loving Hero: Coake aids all peoples regardless of species out of his inherit sense of justice, his order welcomes people from all backgrounds and even after pushing some members away because of the Siege of Tolkeen affair, he holds no real hard feelings against them and welcomes those that wish to return back.
- Ambiguously Human: Even though he was born from human parents, for some reason he doesn't physically age beyond his 40s and he is not sure why. It's unclear if he is just ageless or straight up immortal since no one ever managed to kill him but he speculates that he might be long lived like elves.
- Broken Pedestal: He caused a schism in his order when he refused to aid Tolkeen against the Coalition States because of their use of demons and sorcerers, viewing them as no different than the CS. This resulted in many Cyber Knights disobeying him and aiding Tolkeen, despite the order avoid getting involved in politics in general.
- The Fog of Ages: He can't tell how old he actually is or his real name, but he knows he is at least 250 years old.
- Living Forever Is Awesome: While he acknowledges its not natural for a human to live as much as he did, he views his condition not s a curse but as a blessing that allows him to right wrongs wherever he passes by.
- Knight in Shining Armor: A literal knight that lives up to the chilvaric standard and stills it in his followers, he genuinely plays this trope straight.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: "Coake" is not actually his real name, but a nickname from his youth he used at some point. His real name is unknown, possibly because he can no longer remember.
- Seen It All: He mentions in his diaries having visited other worlds before being displaced Earth like seeing a world of Undead, a realm of trolls, a place where time repeated and a place where time did not exist.
- Zen Survivor: The very reason why he is such great and noble knight is because his immortality made him adjust after several ages that he can live up to an ideal of justice rather than grow detached and bored.
A young Native American man who first accompanied Erin Tarn on her trek to the Vampire Kingdoms and has served as her faithful companion and bodyguard ever since on many strange and wonderful adventures that have taken them all over the multiverse. As a cyber-knight Winslow is loyal, kindhearted and fearless in the face of villainy, using his many powers and abilities to defeat evil wherever it arises alongside his dear friend and companion.
- Cyborg: He has a few minor cybernetic implants like his companion Erin Tarn.
- Knight in Shining Armor: He's a member of the cyber-knights after all, it kinda comes with the territory.
- Named Weapons: He wields a magic sentient rune flail named Isabart Wind.
- Undying Loyalty: To Erin Tarn. Even when the safety of the entire world is at stake her protection and wellbeing is always his number one priority.
A powerful Line Walker and worshipper of the Gods of Light with a mysterious past and unknown abilities. Katrina is a hero cursed with extraordinary power that she can neither understand nor comprehend. At random times of extreme duress or crisis she will suddenly manifest powerful abilities that she had no prior awareness of and will be unable to repeat afterwards. She doesn't even fully realize that she is the one doing these things and will often attribute her sudden rescues to the favor of the gods or an unknown protector. The reality of her situation is that she's not a mortal at all... but the Egyptian goddess Isis in the guise of a human! For more information on her true form see Deities, Demigods & Demons.
- Depower: She was infected by a Splugorth Bio-Wizard microbe that drained much of her power and left her with no memory of who she really is.
- God in Human Form: She thinks she's just an ordinary human adventurer but she's actually the missing egyptian goddess Isis. Even in this mortal human guise she still retains much of her godly power but she can't remember how to use it properly, leading to her powers activating on their own when she least expects it.
- Identity Amnesia: Katrina has no idea that she is really the egyptian goddess Isis. How long she remains in this state is ultimately left to the Game Master to decide.
- Statuesque Stunner: She stands at a total of six feet tall and is a very powerful and beautiful adventurer.
The Lonestar Raiders
- Badass Crew: They may not be as famous as other mercenary groups but they can seriously kick ass and take names when they need to.
- Punch-Clock Hero: They're all soldiers of fortune primarily motivated by money rather than any noble ideal or cause. That being said, they're all decent enough people and try to do the right thing when they uncover what's going on at the Lonestar Complex.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: They're a tiny but skilled mercenary team consisting of a badass gunslinger, a pyromaniac psychic, a massive lizard man, a completely insane lunatic, a dog man, a superstrong drug addict and an interdimensional wizard.
A young but experienced Headhunter who serves as the unofficial leader of the team. She grew up in a merc town called Kingsdale alongside her five brothers who taught her how to shoot and do mercenary work. It wasn't long, however, before she managed to complately outclass them at sharpshooting and decided to head out and follow her own path. She is known to be very smart, tough and physically capable, all traits which give her the natural disposition of a good leader.
- Action Girl: She's the leader of the Lonestar Raiders and one of their strongest fighters.
- Artificial Limbs: Her left arm and hand are bionic but designed with fake skin to look like a natural arm.
- Cyborg: She has several bionic enhancements, including Artificial Limbs and Electronic Eyes.
- Electronic Eyes: Or eye, rather, since she only has one.
- One of the Boys: Her bio states that she had this kind of relationship with her five brothers back in Kingsdale. Nowadays she belongs to and leads an otherwise all male team of mercenaries as the sole female member.
- Statuesque Stunner: She's over six feet tall and has a P.B. score of 19.
A large 8 foot tall orange lizard man who was transported to Rifts Earth during a battle with a magical enemy. Finding himself stranded and alone with no foreseeable way to return home he began traveling around with various mercenary groups until joining up with the team that would become known as The Lonestar Raiders. He is a friendly and good-natured individual with a love of guns, explosives and his fellow mercs, all of whom he sees as family.
- Cigar Chomper: He is rarely seen without a large gun in his hands or a cigar in his mouth.
- Demolitions Expert: All of his people have good mechanical skills and his area of expertise is in demolitions and explosives. He even has trap/mine detection as one of his major special skills.
- Lizard Folk: He's a member of a D-Bee race known as Jin-Ro (called "Grackle Tooth" on Rifts earth) that came to our dimension through a stray rift during a fight with a rival D-Bee.
- Prehensile Tail: His tail has this ability, though he mostly just uses it as a cigar holder when his hands are full.
A free-born Dog Boy (Psi-Hound) Operator who serves as the merc's main driver and mechanic. As a free-born Dog Boy he had a natural birth between two Psi-Hound parents and has never served in the Coalition Army, unlike most other Dog Boys. His Racial and Occupational Character Classes give him a wide varietly of invaluable skills and powers to aid the group with such as superior senses, masterful repair abilities and even a slew of psychic powers.
- Badass Driver: Most of his mechanical skills focus on auto repair and he has a very good driving ability.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Like all members of his species he has a keen sixth sense when it comes to detecting magical, psychic or otherwise supernatural energy sources and entities.
- Psychic Powers: He has quite a few useful ones. Since he's a Dog Boy Operator most of them either revolve around mechanics or detecting supernatural beings and energy.
- Scarily Competent Tracker: Dog Boys in general are created with this purpose in mind so its a given he'd have this particular ability as well.
- Super-Senses: His Dog Boy R.C.C. gives him several greatly enchanced senses such as improved hearing and smell.
A cocky and wisecracking Burster that kicks off the plot in Machinations of Doom when he intercepts a secret Coalition package from one of their transports and barbeques a few of their soldiers before making his escape. Because of his immense power and special abilities he often rushes into situations without thinking things through and often finds himself getting into trouble as a result.
- Badass Biker: Though he more oftens rides a futuristic hoverbike a large amount of his personality traits are based on the image of a stereotypical biker. He also has hovercycle, motorcycle and (ironically) snowmobile piloting as some of his driving skills.
- Fiery Redhead: Both figuritively and literally. The cover of Machinations of Doom depicts him with orange hair, he has a brash and impulsive personality and has the power to actually set his hair on fire due to being a Burster.
- Playing with Fire: Like all Burster class psychics most of his powers revolve around different forms of pyrokinesis.
- Psychic Powers: Though pyrokinesis is his specialty he has some psychic abilities not related to fire as well such as Mind Block, Resist Fatigue and Suppress Fear.
A powerful, intelligent and mysterious Ley Line Walker who rarely speaks and hides his face behind a mask. Despite having a humanoid appearence he is actually a member of an unknown species of D-Bee and is keeping this fact secret from the other members of the team for fear of how they might react upon finding out. Despite his intimidating appearence and deadly powers he is actually one of the kinder and more honorable members of the group and hopes to help make the world they live in a better place.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Moses tends to wear dark clothes and covers his face with a strange mask but he is ultimately an idealist at heart and actually seeks to make the world a better place to live in.
- Horned Humanoid: The horns on his helmet are completely real rather than just some sort of decoration. Though his actual face is never seen unmasked he is described as "looking like a demon" in his character bio.
- Mysterious Past: Very little is known about his past aside from the fact that he's actually a D-Bee that came to Rifts Earth from another dimension at some point in the past.
- Really 700 Years Old: According to his bio he is actually 227 years old and seems to still be fairly young in terms of physical appearence judging by his physique in the bonus section of the Machinations of Doom book.
A young Juicer who has recently begun to enter the early stages of "Last Call" which is a point of no return where a Juicer's body begins rapidly breaking down from the stain of the chemicals used to give them their powers. Knowing that he has, at best, another year or two to survive before his drugs kill him he has decided to live his remaining time to the fullest while hopefully scrapping together enough money to help provide for his friends long after he is gone.
- Deadly Nosebleed: He has begun to get nosebleeds at a rapidly increasing pace from the strain his body is undergoing due to dealing with all the drugs in his system.
- Secretly Dying: Like all Juicers his days are extremely limited to begin with but he has recently crossed the threshold into "Last Call" where he will be unable to attempt detox and save his life like younger Juicers could. At such a critical stage he has maybe a fews years left to live at most and has so far not told any of his friends about it.
- Super-Strength: Thanks to his Juicer drugs he's one of the strongest members of the group and can lift a giant vehicle all by himself with his bare hands.
- Your Days Are Numbered: Like all Juicers his total lifespan is capped at about half a decade. More critically he has recently entered into the beginning stages of "Last Call" which gives him about a year or two left to live before his Juicer drugs finally kill him.
A perpetually cheerful and easygoing (but completely unpredictable) Crazy with a love of bombs, birdies and bowler hats. Shakes treats everything as a big joke and laughs in the face of death which often annoys his teammates, especially during their more dangerous missions. Luckily, he's also good to have in a fight and is fairly competent despite his various insanities so the group tolerates his more eccentric qualities so long as he doesn't go too far with them.
- Mad Bomber: He has a love of heavy explosives such as grenades despite not having any sort of demolitions skill to speak of.
- Psychic Powers: Like all Crazies he has a few minor psionic abilities.
- Sanity Slippage: He wouldn't be a Crazy otherwise after all.
- Super-Senses: One of his Crazy powers are massive enhancements to his natural senses.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He's deathly afraid of worms for some reason. This is especially ironic given his love of birds.
Occupational Character Classes
Introduced in Rifts
Borgs are human beings (or D-Bees) that have traded part (or, more usually, almost all) of their flesh for robotic equivalents and enhanced abilities, sometimes unwillingly. Most Borg characters fit into one of three main categories: Merc Borgs, Coalition Borgs, and Slave Borgs. Merc Borgs are pretty much your standard adventurer cyborgs, Coalition Borgs are soldiers in the Coalition army, and Slave Borgs are normal folks who were captured and turned into robotic slaves against their will. Furthermore, there are two main classes of Borg modification: Partial Bionic Reconstruction and Full Bionic Conversion. Partial Reconstruction Borgs are cyborgs who only replace the arms and legs but leave the head, neck and torso mostly untouched while Full Conversion Borgs replace their entire body (save for most of their head) with entirely mechanical components.
- Artificial Limbs: Partial Bionic Reconstruction Borgs opt to only replace their arms and legs with cybernetics while leaving their main body and head mostly untouched.
- The Big Guy: Borgs are larger (and stronger) than any normal human, so they tend to gravitate to this role.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Borg augmentation permanently replaces the character's body with that of a machine, eliminating any supernatural powers they may have had — and precluding ever developing more. Even going halfway with Partial Reconstruction will heavily cripple psychics by removing a large chunk of their I.S.P.
- Cyborg: It's right there in the name. Borgs in Rifts come in two main flavors, those who have exchanged only their limbs (and maybe a few internal organs) with robotic replacements and those who go for full body conversion, sometimes leaving their original brain and face as the only remaining biological components.
- Full-Conversion Cyborg: Full-conversion cyborgs have their entire bodies except for their brain and spinal column replaced with machinery. Many lean into the unsettling aspect of their appearance, opting to have their facial plates sculpted into demonic, skeletal, or otherwise monstrous shapes. Others prefer a facsimile of their original face. Some will go so far as to have their original face transplanted onto the robot body, kept alive with artificial blood vessels, assuming that they don't just keep their entire head and only switch the skull out for cybernetics
- Mundane Utility: While Borgs were created in the Time of Man as supersoldiers, and still do on Rifts Earth, there are non-combat Borgs now and then. A prime example is the Miner Borg in Rifts: New West.
- Sense Loss Sadness: Becoming a Full Conversion Borg means losing almost all of your sense of touch; while the cybernetics have some systems to compensate, a Borg's sense of touch is roughly 20% of what it used to be. This bothers them, though most who willingly underwent the procedure ultimately consider it a fair trade for the sheer power and endurance of their robot bodies.
- Super-Soldier: Merc and Coalition Borgs begin their careers as this, with strong metal (and cybernetic utility) replacing their weak flesh, and a soldier's skills on top of that. Slave Borgs are still strong and tough, but don't have as much training as free Borgs get.
- Super-Strength: Free with every Full Conversion Borg body!
- Unwilling Roboticisation: Slave Borgs are ordinary people who are forced to become Borgs against their will to serve as slaves or soldiers.
- Wetware CPU: Full Conversion Borgs are little more than a brain (and a few other vestigial organs) encased in a robot body.
Powerful madmen who have been augmented with special M.O.M. (Mind Over Matter) implants that give them superhuman and psionic abilities at the cost of slowly whittling away their sanity. As they level up the Crazy hero... well, goes crazy and must make rolls on special insanity tables to see how their mind unravels. They could end up with crippling phobias, weird obsessions and all other manners of strange disorders that affect the way they play... but then, that's what makes them interesting, isn't it?Crazies are immediately identifiable due to metal bolts sticking out of their heads. This is a holdover from the Dark Age immediately after the Coming of the Rifts. Crazies during that period where outfitted with large implants, which were prototypes that wore down the recipient's sanity even faster. Crazies these days have more cutting edge technology from just before the Coming of the Rifts, which are the size of pinheads. However, Crazies like being recognized on the spot, so they still get bolts in their heads, even though now they're cosmetic.
- Chrome Dome Psi: Crazies are nearly always depicted with bald heads. The books don't say if this is necessary, but having bolts sticking out of your head would make maintaining a hairstyle difficult at best, and Crazies aren't interested in hiding their implants anyway.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Their M.O.M. implants give them great power but also slowly drive them insane.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Often called "Momma's Boys" due to their M.O.M. implants.
- Feel No Pain: The M.O.M. implants let Crazies ignore all but the most crippling of injuries.
- Lightning Bruiser: Though not quite as much as a Juicer, Crazies are stronger and faster than a normal human.
- Psychic Powers: They get some minor psychic abilities in addition to the various boosts to their physical attributes.
- Sanity Slippage: Represented by the character making rolls on insanity tables at certain levels. At level one they're fairly normal, but as they increase in level their various psychological disorders start to build up and players begin to see why they're called Crazies...
- Super-Reflexes: In the Savage Worlds version, Crazies have the same bonus to evade attacks that Juicers do.
- Super-Senses: They get some rather potent boosts to their basic senses such as perfect eyesight that lets them see for miles and an enhanced sense of smell for tracking people.
- Super-Soldier: The Crazies were an attempt to create a breed of super-soldiers, with mixed results. In high-risk situations, they're fantastically capable commandos... but good luck getting them to play the role of a proper, well-disciplined soldier.
- Super-Strength: They get a pretty sizable bonus to P.S. in addition to their other benefits. With a high enough P.S, a Crazy can do Mega-Damage with a power punch.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Their main gimmick. All Crazies get several superhuman abilities and some psychic powers as well in exchange for slowly losing their minds as they level up. Played up even more in Savage Worlds, where Crazies who ascend in Rank gain both a new psychological degredation and a bonus roll on the Psionics table.
Rifts take on the classic noble knight of the middle ages adapted to a more futuristic setting. Cyber-Knights are powerful warriors who roam the land in search of evil to slay and innocents to rescue, which makes them a natural enemy to supernatural monsters and despotic tyrants alike. They live by a strict code of chivalry that dictates they conduct themselves in a benevolent and respectful manner at all times and never use dirty or underhanded methods to win a battle. Not much is known about the Cyber-Knights (at least by the Coalition States) aside from the fact that they serve as a heroic inspiration to the many oppressed and overlooked people of Rifts earth.
- Dual Wielding: Higher level Cyber Knights can summon a pair of Psi-Swords (though this power wasn't available in the original edition of the game).
- Knight Errant: A lot of their design and mechanics were clearly based on the concept of classical heroic wandering knights.
- Knight in Shining Armor: They're basically the classic noble knight heroes from folklore and fairy tales that rescue and protect the innocent while slaying evil monsters adapted to the futuristic post apocalyptic world of Rifts earth.
- Laser Blade: One of their main powers is the ability to conjure an energy sword that grows in strength as they level up which can take on a variety of forms.
- Law of Chromatic Superiority: Inverted with white Psi-Swords. A Cyber-Knight can make a white blade, but the effort needed to maintain a weapon that radiates all colors of light is not worth it.
- Magic Knight: Or "psychic knight" in this case. Most Cyber-Knights get a small handful of psionic abilities to compliment their other skills and abilities.
- The Paladin: Despite most of their imagery and lore being based on the classic medieval knights their class more closely resembles a paladin than a knight with players being granted a host of powerful abilities in exchange for a strict code of morality.
- Psychic Powers: Most Cyber-Kights are granted access to a limited number of psionic abilities, though there are a lot more restrictions on what powers they can pick compared to true psychics like the Mind Melter.
- Walking Techbane: The fourth entry in the Siege on Tolkeen series of sourcebooks expanded on Cyber Knight's powers. Among other things, it gave them a number of abilities that give them an edge when fighting technological foes, such as enemies not being able to lock their sensors on the Cyber Knight. This, and Dual Wielding, were also included when the class was reprinted for the Ultimate Edition.
The Glitter Boys are pretty much the face of Rifts. Anyone even slightly familiar with the series has likely seen them at least once on book covers, various artwork, or somewhere else. Named for their shiny power armor (both the armor and the pilot are referred to as "Glitter Boys") and known for their big guns, they have remained an extremely popular player class since the first Rifts book hit the shelves. They are still going strong even in the modern era, with a number of variations on the original design appearing in several books. Standing at nearly a dozen feet tall and commanding a strong presence of hope and power on the battlefield, these legendary warriors are well known by the people of Rifts earth. They inspire both fear and awe in their enemies.
- Ancestral Weapon: Many Glitter Boys are handed down within family lines, parent to child, going back to the Coming of the Rifts.
- BFG: Their iconic "Boom Guns" which stand at about 7 feet in length... nearly as tall as the Glitter Boy armor itself.
- The Big Guy: Their most common role in any given player group. Of course, when your character class comes standard with a ten foot tall suit of power armor and a giant gun, it's kinda hard to avoid this trope.
- Bling of War: They aren't called Glitter Boys for nothing, each individual pilots a large suit of reflective power armor that is easily identifiable and instantly recognizable all across Rifts earth.
- Hope Bringer: They are frequently depicted as symbols of hope and reflections of humanity's past glory in the modern day.
- In-Universe Nickname: While in modern times they are known the world over as Glitter Boys, during the Time of Man, the armor was called the "Chromium Guardsman." Or by its model number, USA-G10.
- Mighty Glacier: There's no two ways about it, the Glitter Boy's famous Boom Gun is powerful. It does more damage than any other weapon usable by a single operator, able to kill a lightly-armored opponent in a single hit. Even more heavily armored foes can be felled in one shot with a lucky dice roll. The drawback is that the weapon's recoil is so powerful, the Glitter Boy has to be literally rooted to the spot when it fires. This, combined with its large size, shiny armor, and fearsome reputation, makes the Glitter Boy a big fat stationary target on any battlefield it participates in.
- Ragnarök Proofing: Most Glitter Boys suits, especially those not in use by Free Quebec, were built during the Time of Man. This means that the typical suit of Glitter Boy armor is roughly 300 years old, and still in perfect working condition. In fact, Free Quebec uses Glitter Boys because the found a sealed Military Bunker containing hundreds of units built by NEMA before the Coming of the Rifts. They were able to reverse-engineer the technology, and as such, are one of the few manufacturers on Earth capable of creating more Glitter Boy armor.
Headhunters are elite mercenary bounty hunters that primarily favor cybernetics and just about any type of weapon they can get their hands on. For the most part, Headhunters lack any particular special ability or power that sets them apart from other classes in favor of just having a large compliment of practical and useful skills, such as military and combat training. They also tend to make pretty good pilots, which is sure to come in handy when traversing the dangerous wilderness of Rifts Earth.
- Ace Pilot: They have access to some very useful piloting skills that can make them an invaluable part of the team when the group comes across some of the more heavy duty vehicles like military aircraft or giant robots.
- Artificial Limbs: They get to start with one and also get a few extra cybernetics to boost its power a bit.
- Bounty Hunter: Their main stock in trade. This choice of profession has actually earned them a bit of a negative reputation due to a few of the more evil mercs that prioritize money other ethics. Of course, Headhunters can be just as noble as Cyber-Knights and most players who choose this class will probably be at least anarchist in terms of character alignment.
- Cyborg: They get to choose a small assortment of cybernetics to start with, including at least one artificial limb and some gear for it. About the only class more augmented than them are the Borgs, which often replace their entire bodies with machinery.
- Walking Armory: They get a very large amount of W.P. compared to other classes and can use just about any type of weapon they come across effectively. High tech or low tech, if it causes bleeding, bruising or burning a Headhunter has probably used it against at least one enemy at some point in the past.
The Juicers are basically what happens when you take a normal merc, pump them full of every single drug from the Fallout series, make the effects permanent... and then unleash him on an unsuspecting world to tear up any poor SOB that gets in his way. Juicers typically embody the motto "Live fast. Die young... and leave a massive trail of corpses in your wake." By being implanted with a special drug injector, Juicers gain superhuman abilities such as enhanced reflexes and strength... but all of that power, naturally, comes at a heavy price. In just a few short years the Juicer's body will be completely burnt up from the heavy drug use and they will inevitably die... but until then they'll be living it up as borderline superheroes kicking ass and taking names all across Rifts ruined earth.
- Brought Down to Normal: The only way to survive the inevitable death from being a Juicer is to remove the drug-injection devices and detox, which naturally takes away all the bonuses you got from them (and because of the side effects of detoxing, usually leave you significantly weaker than when you started). Detoxing ex-Juicers must roll on a table to see how they handle it psychologically; if they botch the roll, they kill themselves out of a complete inability to accept losing what they had.
- Deader than Dead: A Juicer who dies from the effects of their drugs leaves a corpse so utterly burned out and used up that nothing can bring them back short of literal divine intervention - and even that is basically a coin flip.
- Deadly Upgrade: The Juicer drug cocktails makes them incredibly powerful, but the side effects will kill them in a maximum of seven years from the installation.
- Drugs Are Bad: There are a ton of side effects to the Juicer drugs. They need to inject themselves with sedatives to sleep at night, they're constantly edgy and nervous, and if they're lucky they'll die in seven years. Some "upgraded" Juicer types are even shorter-lived.
- Healing Factor: On top of their boosted strength and speed, Juicers also recover far more quickly from injuries than ordinary humans.
- Lightning Bruiser: They combine massively boosted agility with increased physical might to become quick and lethal fighters that can overpower weaker foes in seconds.
- Power at a Price: PHENOMINAL PHYSICAL POWER!!! ...itty bitty lifespan.
- Super-Reflexes: They get several agility based bonuses that give them a dangerous edge in combat. They are one of the few classes, and the only one from the main book, to get an Automatic Dodge (meaning that they can dodge attacks without using up an action).
- Super Serum: Their superhuman abilities come from a very potent drug cocktail that is injected into them via a special harness.
- Super-Soldier: This is what Juicers were meant to be, and no one is about to argue that they don't qualify.
- Super-Strength: One of their many superhuman abilities is a large boost to their P.S. stat.
- Younger Than They Look: Juicers tend to be unnaturally aged by their drug use, and it gets worse if they try to detox.
- Your Days Are Numbered: The price they pay for their heavy drug abuse is a drastically shortened lifespan that will kill them in just a few short years. Don't do drugs, kids.
Considered to be the "standard" or "classic" wizard in Rifts. Masters of spellcasting, Ley Line Walkers are attuned to the magical energies surrounding them in ways no other mage can match. They can "see" the magical energy inside every living being, and can see the currents of energy that flow through even the weakest of ley lines (normal people can only see the most powerful lines, and usually only at night). All mages' powers are enhanced at or near ley lines, but Line Walkers can perform a number of other feats, like communicate with anyone standing on the line, "read" the line to know the terrain it follows, and even teleport at will along the length of the line.
- Glass Cannon: Like other magic classes, Line Walkers can work really devasating spells, but can only wear light armor. Heavy armor, which is usually made of metal or synthetic materials, interferes with the mage's ability to work magic. Heavy armor made of natural materials does exist, but is usually hard to find and expensive.
- Living Battery: Like all magic users in Rifts, Line Walkers are living batteries of magic energy. Their hypersensitivity to magical energy allows them to hold more inside them than other magic users. In game terms, this means that Line Walkers have more P.P.E. than other spellcasters.
- Post-Apocalyptic Gas Mask: Classic garb for Line Walkers always includes gas masks (or air filters). This is a throwback to the early days after the Coming of the Rifts, when the eruption of the Yellowstone Supervolcano created tons of ash that fell from the sky. Other elements in a Line Walker's wardrobe include loose-fitting robes (which conceal plates of light armor), and wrapping around the arms and/or head, like a turban.
- Surveillance Drone: One of the Line Walker's special abilities is to create an Observation Ball while on a ley line. It looks like a ball of light the size of a soccer ball, and can be used by the Line Walker like a spy drone.
- Teleportation: After "reading" a ley line to get the lay of the land, a Line Walker can phase to any point along it (even small ley lines are at least a few miles long, and can be up to a mile wide). They can even bring other things (including people) with them.
The Mystic is an intuitive scholar that is always seeking to learn more about both the physical and metaphysical aspects of the world they live in. Gifted with both psionic powers and magical abilities they possess a level of versatility unlike anything most other psychic or magic users could ever hope to see. In addition to being masters of philosophy and meditation they also have a host of powerful supernatural senses for seeking out and interacting with the various unknown forces at work on Rifts earth.
- Badass Bookworm: They are renowned philosophers that are also one of the few O.C.C. in the game to have access to both magic and psionic powers.
- Detect Evil: One of their main class abilities is Sense Supernatural Evil. No points for guessing what it does.
- Living Battery: As is the norm for magic users in Rifts.
- Psychic Powers: One of their two main special abilities, though they can only select powers from the Sensitive and Healer categories.
- Psychometry: One of the many psionic powers they can get is "Object Read" from the Sensitive category.
Powerful magic users that have learned to apply and combine their magical skills with technology. The Techno-Wizard is a special type of mage that can manipulate and transmute energy to bolster and improve the various forms of technology around them. In addition to having a host of useful special skills and abilities they also have some minor psionics as well, making them a very versatile and useful class of character to have around, especially in more technologically advanced areas.
- Ace Pilot: Their design seems to be heavily based around this. Bomber jackets and other classic pilot apparel are considered fashionable among Techno-Wizards, and many of their most iconic devices are flying machines of one sort or another.
- Flaming Sword: TW Flame Swords, created by affixing a gem to a sword hilt. Activating it creates a blade of fire, basically a magical Light Saber. An electric version exists as well.
- Gadgeteer Genius: You could say that they're real wizards when it comes to handling technology.
- Improbable Piloting Skills: They have a special piloting ability that lets them use any sort of ley line vehicle with a high level of skill.
- Lightning Gun: Techno-Wizards can create literal versions of this, guns that fire bolts of lightning at the enemy.
- Living Battery: Like all magic users in Rifts, Techno-Wizards are living batteries of magic energy. Which gives them a ton of useful powers.
- Mundane Utility: While they're mostly known for gimmicky flying vehicles and magic weapons, Techno-Wizards can build just about anything that can be built with mechanics/electronics. One Sourcebook mentions a vault where the Coalition keeps a large variety of magical artifacts. This includes things like household appliances and children's toys built by Techno-Wizards.
- Noodle Implements: Since TW devices are powered by the magic energy of the user, they don't need to be built on sound engineering principles. In fact, to an average person not knowledgable in the working of TW devices, a non-powered device mostly looks like a pile of junk held together with spit and chewing gum.
- Power Gem: TW devices require gems infused with magic spells to work. The main book includes a comprehensive list of what gem is needed for each specific spell.
- Sky Surfing: One of the best-known TW devices is the Wing Board, which works like a surfboard in the air.
- Techno Wizard: It's right there in the name. They're wizards and they like technology.
- Weak, but Skilled: Techno-Wizards aren't as good at traditional spell casting as other mages. Spells they cast are only half as powerful as one cast by another mage of the same level. However, their skills as inventors can more than make up for this disadvantage.
Introduced in World Book 2: Atlantis
Stone Masters are an elite group of mages that, as their name would imply, primarily specialize in various forms of earth magic. (They are actually masters of three entirely different classes of it, in fact, with abilities centered around Stone Magic, Gem Powers and Pyramid Technology. That's a lot of special skills for just one class!) Many of them are True Atlanteans and thus have access to their unique racial powers but several other races can be Stone Masters too. In addition to being very formidable in combat Stone Masters are particularly well known to be expert artisans and craftsmen that can build great works of art out of just simple dirt and rock.
- Detect Evil: They have a natural sense for detecting vampires.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Well yeah, it's kind of their thing. What else could you say about a class that has several pages of their sourcebook dedicated to listing and explaining their three seperate schools of earth manipulation magic?
- Gemstone Assault: Their "Gem Powers" school of earth magic gives them access to various magical spells and abilities based on what different types of gemstone they use.
- Power Tattoo: Usually limited to just the "Marks of Heritage" that all True Atlanteans get and only if the character is a True Atlantean themselves. Other races that become Stone Masters don't start with any. Of course, given all the special abilities they get from their class it's not like they really need any additional magical powers anyway.
An elite group of True Atlantean monster hunters that travel from world to world across dimensions slaying and eradicating various menaces. Their favorite targets are vampires and the various minions of the Splugorth, both of which they consider to be their most hated foes above all others. To assist them in their goal they command several high level magical powers and abilities including tattoo magic and many other unique skills. They also typically carry various weapons and equipment for hunting vampires speciffically, such as crosses, stakes and squirt guns.
- Animated Tattoo: Their Animal and Monster type tattoos can summon the creatures they represent to fight alongside the Undead Slayers in battle.
- The Beastmaster: Again, their Animal and Monster type tattoos ensure that they always have some backup to call upon in a dangerous situation.
- Detect Evil: They have a special power for locating nearby vampires.
- Elemental Powers: Their tattoos give them access to a huge variety of deadly elemental abilities, like shooting fire or electricity from their hands.
- Immune to Fire: One of their many tattoo powers.
- Hunter of Monsters: They travel all across the Megaverse hunting down various supernatural threats.
- Vampire Hunter: Vampires are one of their primary targets alongside the Splugorth.
- Power Tattoo: They actually start out with even more than the Tattooed Men and have tons of extra P.P.E. to use them with.
- Walking the Earth: They actually travel all across many different dimensions and alien worlds hunting down their foes, so it's more like walking the Megaverse.
- Weather Manipulation: Another one of their many tattoo powers.
Introduced in World Book 4: Africa
A deadly mage class that comes from and mostly inhabits the areas surrounding Egypt, including several parts of Africa and Europe. True to their name, they represent the classic death wizard that can animate the dead to serve as minions for their wicked goals and schemes. Due to the way magic and alignments work in Rifts most characters of this class are considered evil by default, though a few selfish and anarchist Necromancers exist as well and can serve as player characters, with Savage Rifts specifying that heroic Necromancers have a stringent code of honor that treats the dead as equals, being very careful to ask ghosts if it's okay to borrow their bodies for minions. Due to their nature they are often treated as the enemies and rivals of Biomancers, a similar class that has abilities based around giving and manipulating life rather than death.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Originally, they were always kind of evil and unable to select a good alignment. This has been retconned; at least in the Americas, heroic Necromancers can be good guys, though most are selfish.
- Biomanipulation: Of a darker variety than the Biomancer. These guys can manipulate dead flesh and graft human and animal parts to their own body.
- Combat Tentacles: One of their abilities lets them use squid, octopus and supernatural monster tentacles to grant themselves various bonuses and utilities.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Ethical necromancers are even more bone-covered than their evil counterparts, as they need to rely more on deathly magic items. They're also respectful of both the living and dead, and are a massive boon against the Vampire Kingdoms (since they can play havoc with the undead biology of vampires and create mummies that are Nigh-Invulnerable and have no blood), and the Xiticix (since they can animate Xiticix scent glands, confusing their living brethren and allowing stealth against the bugs).
- Human Resources: As well as raising the dead, the books mention that Necromancers often decorate their dwellings with bone furniture, because they like the look and feel of bone. The class even comes with a handful of spells that make bone function like wood, stone, etc, to make using them as a building material more practical. Savage Rifts makes this even more vital to them, as heroic Necromancers quickly discover a lot of the more advanced undead, barring mummies, are mutilations of the dead that anyone with a scrap of ethics or a genuinely Affably Evil side will have to drop, but the dead are far more willing to sell their corpses as raw materials for the Necromancer's help.
- Make Them Rot: As befitting such a class they can gain several powers that let them decay and infest living organisms with blights such as afflicting clean food with bugs or withering plants.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: They can temporarily graft several extra appendages to their body with magic, including both human and animal parts such as arms, claws and talons, tentacles, horns and even wings.
- Mummy: The most basic kind of Elite Mook a Necromancer can make - and generally the only one a heroic one does, as a ghost needs to be a willing participant in the process of merging back into their own corpse during the mummification ceremony to prepare for reanimation.
- Necromancer: Right there in the name. These guys are the classic spooky zombie summoning spellcaster class known for being evil, or at least morbid, and deadly.
- Pest Controller: They have several abilities focused on summoning and manipulating insects, both the mundane and supernatural kind.
- Skeletons in the Coat Closet: Necromancers like to adorn themselves in bone, and other parts of corpses. As mentioned elsewhere, they can use these remains to magically enhance themselves.
- The Undead: Natch. One of the most basic abilities of a Necromancer is to raise "animated dead," basically corpses the necromancer can control like a puppet. They're also skilled at creating true undead, such as mummies and zombies.
Introduced in World Book 6: South America
A powerful supernatural warrior class that specializes in killing monsters and other threats to humanity such as vampires. No one is sure exactly how they are created but everyone would love to get their hands on this closely guarded secret and claim some of their immense power for themselves. Whatever the method is, the results cannot be denied: all subjects who successfully undergo the transformation into an Anti-Monster become bigger, meaner and all around more badass. Sure, there are a few costs to the process, such as permanet loss of humanity, PPE and ISP... but nothing in life is free and who wouldn't want to become a kickass monster slayer if given the chance?
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: One of the big drawbacks of the class is a permanent loss of humanity. Anti-Monsters are generally good poeple but also tend to have less patience for normal humans and can come off as cold and distant. They also lose most of their P.P.E. and I.S.P. in the transformation process.
- Dark Is Not Evil: They look like giant mutant bodybuilders with spikey armor and are known for their many highly lethal powers and abilities. They also protect humans from evil creatures and are generally of a good or neutral alignment.
- Hunter of Monsters: It's right there in the name, these guys specialize in cleaning up vampires and other dangerous menaces to protect humanity.
- Power at a Price: They get several super strong combat powers, don't need to eat, sleep or breathe and even get some magical abilities to boot! They also lose all but a small handful of their P.P.E. and I.S.P. as well as their humanity and gain a few big weaknesses as well to offset their immense strength.
- Super-Strength: With some lucky dice rolls these guys can start out with a P.S. of 40. (The average for most other classes is about a quarter of that.)
- Unskilled, but Strong: They tend to have extremely few abilities and powers that are not meant for direct combat and can easily come up short when it comes to more domestic and mundane skill checks. Of course, when the upside to this is regenerating M.D.C. skin, physical strength that would make a Juicer or Crazy blush and a ton of nifty supernatural abilities like magic and immunity to about half the things the game can throw at them most players consider it to be well worth the trade off.
Nature mages that mostly live in South America that are in harmony with nature and view all life as sacred. Each Biomancer belongs to one of three subgroups: The Acceptors, The Patient Ones or The Defenders depending on their stance on protecting nature and fighting against those who would harm or destroy it, though all three groups tend to shun urban areas and technology as a general rule. Because of their immense bond with the natural world they have access to many unique powers and abilities and have pretty good versatility even among spellcaster classes.
- Biomanipulation: A lot of their powers revolve around reshaping the natural world to suit their needs. In addition to giving themselves animal attributes like fangs and claws they can mold and form plant life into food or weapons.
- Evil Luddite: At their worst Biomancers may attack cities or slaughter people who harm the environment in their quest to defend the natural world. Luckily, this behavior is mostly confined to a few small extremist groups rather than the majority.
- Friend to All Living Things: They love and respect nature and are natural enemies to supernatural monsters like demons and the Splurgoth and view most forms of technology as "dead things" with no life energy.
- Good Counterpart: the Splugorth Bio-Wizards; they can invoke some Bio Punk life manipulation just as easily as High Lords, but they come from a place of respecting and symbiosis with their creations rather than viewing them as mere tools or repurposed slaves.
- Green Thumb: As nature mages they specialize in spells and abilities that use the natural world against their enemies and can use various forms of plant life as deadly weapons.
- Nature Hero: Goes without saying. Their main mission is to protect the vast wilds of Rifts Earth from those who would plunder, destroy and exploit it. While some will travel in vehicles or use basic technology they have a strong preference for natural magic involving plants and animals.
Introduced in World Book 16: Federation of Magic
Fearsome mercenaries for hire that are aesthetically designed as a sort of cross between a classic black knight and a wandering ronin. They hold no true loyalty for anyone but themselves and will work for any depraved or evil entity so long as the pay is good. They mostly operate within the Federation of Magic but can be found all along the eastern coast of the United States and are usually in pretty high demand for dirty jobs due to to their immense supernatural powers, combat prowess and infamous reputation. However, a sub-order, the White Rose, turned on the others in disgust when they were ordered by a Siege Commander to spitefully attack a town who refused to sell him the near-legendary plant of the same name, and now seek to turn their arts to protecting people from the dangers of the Magic Zone.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Depends on the sourcebook. Their debut in Federation of Magic had their evil be a matter of being trained by an evil organization, with a good-guy splinter group, but Mystic Russia's Mystic Knights are inherently evil. Madhaven goes back to the former, with the Knights of the White Rose being statted up in detail, and kept in Savage Worlds, where the Mystic Knights proper are evil and the Knights of the White Rose are a heroic reformer faction.
- Black Knight: If Cyber-Knights are the Rifts version of the Knight in Shining Armor then these guys could be seen as their wicked counterparts. Knights of the White Rose are a different, Knight in Sour Armor version who seek to break the power of the nastier kingdoms of the Federation of Magic.
- Code of Honour: Mystic Knights have a code that's halfway between a mercenary code and mocking the very concept of chivalry. The Knights of the White Rose have their own code of chivalry; compared to the Cyber-Knights' code, it's more pragmatic and far less formalized, focusing on defense of the innocent and the fight against evil.
- Energy Absorption: They can drain P.P.E. from Ley Lines and even siphon P.P.E. from other nearby mages.
- Eye Beams: One of their many abilities allows them to fire mega-damage energy blasts from their eyes.
- Hand Blast: Same deal as above, just with the hands instead of the eyes.
- Hitman with a Heart: Knights of the White Rose are still mercenaries and assassins, but have a strict ethical code to Never Hurt an Innocent and refuse to work for tyrants.
- Immune to Fire: They're actually outright immune to most energy type attacks period, including fire, radiation and electricity. Magical energy and Ley Line storms can hurt them, but only do half damage.
- Magic Knight: In addition to extremely deadly skills in combat they get access to several supernatural spells, magical immunities and even some psionic powers for good measure! These are some guys you really don't want to mess with, just as with the Cyber-Knights.
- No-Sell: Most forms of energy just flat out don't work against them, though normal weapons, rune weapons, holy weapons and most magical weapons will still do full damage. They can also take half damage from Ley Line storms and magical attacks.
- Pragmatic Hero: The Knights of the White Rose are a splinter group of the Mystic Knights. They are still mercenaries and assassins like their rivals, and their Code of Honour does not mandate honorable conduct or fair play. They can show as much compassion for the weak and innocent as any Cyber-Knight, but they are ruthless when dealing with evil adversaries.
- Psychic Powers: They get access to some pretty useful stuff at base level and can even get Super tier psionics when they reach a high enough level.
- Renegade Splinter Faction: The Knights of the White Rose are an inverted version of this to the Mystic Knights, keeping their powers and training while rejecting their evil values in favor of a more heroic code of honor.
