Rifts: Steel and Chaos

In most video games and indeed classic table top RPGs a caster is a glass cannon. Like the wizard from gauntlet they have devoted their life to the study of magic and risked their soul to arcane forces, they gain an massive power at the cost of fragility. This is not the case in Rifts, instead they sacrifice one set of knowledge for another and overall lose power to gain supernatural abilities. Most casters in Rifts will do well to carry an energy weapon and wear light armor since their spells do not provide enough power to make up for their lack. To be clear I've used the example of combat equipment, but they should also ride a hover bike and carry a toolkit for it. Also, power levels in Palladium are--at best--loosely balanced, so this is not meant to imply that anything is balanced, only to discuss expectations.

For the purpose of this article I'll consider three kinds of casters; the learned caster, the intuitive caster, and the specialty caster. The learned caster is the the most typical, these are the ley line walker, the shifter, the dragon hatchling, and so on. Studied casters can learn spells anytime they are available, so they will generally have a lot of spells--subject to the GM providing them. The intuitive casters are the mystic, the warlock, the mind melter, the chaos mage, and similar. Intuitive casters get spells as they level, the player can predict what spells they will get to fit their theme. The specialty caster includes the Techno Wizard, the Burster, the Tattooed man, however wide you want to spread your definition of a caster.

Starting with the specialty casters, I think the design intent is apparent. A Techno Wizard is going to be dependent on his gadgets, the Burster will burn, the Tattooed man will be enhanced and limited by their tattoos. The nature of these characters is written on the label and that is what you get, a character with supernatural abilities. Unless the class is very combat focused they will need a weapon, but do have their own reserve.

Continuing backwards, intuitive casters get a nice range of spells that allow them to do many more things than a mundane character, at first level the effects are minor things like creating light or darkness, sensing things beyond the natural world, scare crowds, or floating. Their abilities are only slightly above mortal, but they are not abilities that can be replicated entirely by mundane skills and they are wide.

The learned caster takes this further, they have a selection of spells and--when they encounter another caster--they can get more. Again their starting spells are very low, but they can get higher or lower level spells. They won't get really powerful offensive or defensive spells until they get at least level 4 spells with fireblast doing 3d6 MD. Before this it's a matter of using the wide variety of spell that they do have in creative ways. Spells like Shatter, Create Wood, or Paralysis: Lesser. Their flexibility will be limited by their ability to marshal up PPE to cast spells. Some of this is gained by leveling but if they want to do something truly significant they need to work with places of power, sacrifices, and so on. Other than class specific differences generally Learned casters have more PPE, but they will not get an equal number of spells unless they purchase or receive some as treasure.

All casters in Rifts seem to be more designed around being magic than any particular role in the party and I urge players considering them to build this into their concept, as it says in the Rifts Book of Magic, "Mages are convinced magic is superior," and any player should be including that into their concept. Your character is not someone who could have been a Glitter Boy Pilot, rather they are someone who would have been a peasant except for magic. If they are using something mundane they are not only using it until they get something better, but rather until they can replace it with magic.