This is a new addition over here at L.C. Rifts. This here is the start of our help section for players and G.M.'s. If you have a problem like P.C.s are killing off all of your N.P.C.'s, or you're a player and you need to get past a certain N.P.C., or you just want to know what to do if you ever have to face 6 Coalition Grunts with just your second level City Rat. We can help. Our crack staff of real life Juicers and Crazies will set out to determine just what you need to do. With nearly 22 years of exclusively Rifts gaming under our belts we can do it.
All you need to do is send us your problem, with as much info as possible (i.e. available weapons, setting, any possible help you could call on, and relevant skills) on your P.C. and your opposition and we'll send you a few possibilities on what to do. No one will be turned away and everyone will get a solution that is a little more fun than running like a girl and screaming like a wuss!
This month's Troubleshooter.... The Word is out on which is the best R.C.C.
Last Chance Troubleshooter's Guide "Who Do You Think is Best Racial Character Class?" answered by Dennis Glover.
Welcome to the Troubleshooter. This month I'm going to help you on the path of creating one solid, BAD ASS, character. Now, I know that this is usually a very private and solitary act but I just can't help but help you guys out. It's impossible to work my way through the litany of Palladium's catalog of races, as well as it's abundance of random generation tables, so I'm just going to stick with the top dogs. Out of the millions of characters we players come up with, 90% of them probably belong to one of the following races; Human, True Atlantean, Elves, Superheroes, or Dragons. Although a dragon is a VERY popular character race, I'm going to veto it for the purposes of this study. "Why?" you ask. First, because I can, and secondly because it is held apart from the rest of the group by the fact that a dragon is just a dragon. It doesn't get to select an OCC. There aren't any Dragon City Rats or Operators or Wilderness Scouts, just plain ole boring dragons. So to round out our top 5 choices I'll replace the ancient and mystic dragons with the ancient, mystic, and damn freaky looking Nightbane.
To make this easy we'll take it by the numbers. I'll go through the regular table of R.C.C. information (i.e. Stats, Appearance, Bonuses, etc.) and do a side-by-side comparison of each race. Let's set a couple of things straight first off. What I believe makes a great character is not how strong they are, how many weapons they can carry or how many spells they know. It's the way they can do each one of these in relation to the other to A: Survive and B: Prosper. Versatility is the key here. The more you can do, the less you have to worry about. A ninja makes a better assassin than a Gigante because the ninja can do more than walk up and smash shit. But if you like the Incredible Hulk approach, we can cover that too. Let's get started.
Alignment: N/A. All of our contestants have the same general moral ambiguity that we love so much. Any race/ Any alignment.
Attributes: This is the big one here. Attributes are probably what put the majority of characters in a given race. I'm not going to go through all the individual attributes but I will give you the highlights. Humans come in at dead last on just about all of these. The 3D6 leaves you with work to do buffing them up with a hand full of skills. Elves are the light heavyweight division of humanoids. They are only as strong as humans but they do have a big edge in both looks and prowess. Next I'm going to rank the superheroes. They only start off as humans but are augmented by their natural and random powers. Depending on the powers they may only be as strong as humans but could easily have supernatural strength attributes in the high fifties or sixties. It's this inherent uncertainty that keeps them out of the top spot. Our runner up is the Nightbane. With a supernatural origin (creatures of magic naturally) the Nightbane start the game with supernatural stats and a bonus of at least +6 on all of the physical ones. Nightbanes would win this category if it was based solely on the physical but for some reason palladium added mental stats as well. That leaves the True Atlantean. Their stats are well above and beyond the starting numbers for just about every other race, plus the addition of possible magical tattoos that could turn those high numbers supernatural. The thing that put the True Atlanteans on the top of the heap would have to be the bonuses of +4 or better to all the mental stats to back up the muscle. Winner: True Atlantean
Hit Points/SDC: This is an easy one that has the clearest winner. Elves, while quick and smart, surrender faster than the French. Humans stick around a little longer, but hey, they're only human. True Atlanteans hold the top spot in the SDC arms race, even making a decent showing with the higher ups with the aid of magical tattoos, but when the duration elapses, so do you. Superheroes make honorable mention because of the Invulnerability power alone, but if you don't have that power you might just end up like the elves. Nightbane are MDC. All of them are. Even French Nightbane are MDC. And they only get tougher. Winner: Nightbane, and smile when you say that.
Horror Factor: Far and away the easiest category. True Atlanteans get honorable mention for that big 12 if you know what they are but I've accidentally made a dozen Nightbane with a H.F. of 18 (the max). Be afraid, be very afraid.... Winner: Nightbane
Size: Who's the biggest? Aside from the few freaks of nature, humans, superheroes and Nightbane are all normal sized folks. Elves come in second at a little above average with Atlanteans taking the cake at 6'4 and growing. Winner:True Atlanteans
Combat: Another of the easy categories to judge. While all of the races boast tremendous warriors only the Nightbane are NATURAL warriors. While all the other children need to learn how to fight, Nightbane automatically receive H2H: Martial Arts. A case can be made though for the humans, who have the market otherwise cornered on hand to hand skills. They are the only race with easy (relatively) access to Ninjas & Superspies type skills as well as H2H: Commando. Winner: Nightbane Honorable Mention: Humans
Magic: Like the previous category, Nightbane have the early advantage but here they don't win. Nightbane haven't had ample time to rediscover magic and barely 3% of them know it. Humans can learn just about anything that can be taught. Elves make better students but no one likes them so no one teaches them anything. Superheroes can't even HAVE magical abilities. That leaves the True Atlanteans. They have mastered two of their very own forms of magic, plus they can learn any other form of magic. Winner: True Atlantean
Psionics: This one has just about everyone coming out the same except for two that fall behind. Superheroes are said to "burn up" their potential psychic abilities developing their powers. Nightbane are so naturally resistant to them that they cannot posses them either. All of the other three are at the same level of expertise, with about the same number of master psionics per population. If it all came down to a mental showdown the True Atlantean would win because of the higher Mental Endurance Statistic. Otherwise we have a 3-way tie. Winner:: Human-True Atlantean-Elves
Natural Abilities: Here is where we separate the men from the boys. Humans have absolutely zero natural abilities other than to reproduce like bacteria and force out other life forms. Elves have night-vision and pointy ears. True Atlanteans have magical tattoos and a host of abilities akin to Ley Line Walkers. Nightbane have Supernatural senses, a litany of supernatural powers (talents), natural immunities to transformation and vampires and Psionics, limited dimensional teleportation via mirrors, and the ability to shape shift between there human façade and supernatural Morphus form. The king of the hill though is the Superhero. If there is one thing that superheroes have is natural abilities. The sheer range of possible power combinations that they can posses gives them the ability to do anything from walking through walls, become invisible at will, grow 50 feet tall, run faster than a speeding bullet, leap tall buildings in a single bound, to just stompping out your piddly little ass for no damn reason at all. Winner:That's MISTER Superhero to you punk!
Occupational Character Class: Superheroes can only be Adventurers. This basically limits them to wilderness scouts, gamblers, and city rats. Elves are just naturally bookworms. They tend toward "highly skilled and prestigious" occupations (i.e. scholars and mages). Nightbane are mostly normal folks that find out they have amazing abilities. They tend to go in the opposite direction to the "everyman" O.C.C.s like wilderness scouts, operators, or mercenaries. True Atlanteans are an ancient and proud people. In layman's terms this means that Atlanteans are kind of uppity, holier than thou types. Only 8% of Atlanteans follow non-magical O.C.C.s. Humans go the distance here. Humans will do anything for money. They will take any O.C.C. and be good at it. They have almost no restrictions on their selections and that's what wins categories. Winner: Humans
The Final Round
With the final tally coming in it looks like stand atop the pile of carcasses with 4 clean wins. True Atlanteans take 2 clean and one tie. Humans take one clean win, one tie, and one honorable mention. Superheroes only win one category but at least they're not elves. Those poor bastards only got a tie out of the whole mess. If you want to factor in a bunch of intangibles I'll make this a little easier.
Elves are stupid looking, pointy eared snobs who can't fight or do much else.
Humans can do anything but they aren't great at any of it. Best suited for future corpses.
Superheroes can have a PS of 70 and 1000 MDC. But you are so fucked if you roll up some dumb shit like Alter Metabolism.
NightBane are physical and magical powerhouses that would get picked up in 6 seconds inside the Coalition.
True Atlanteans are virtual supermen, but how would you like to go through life named Ahziree Aerihza. Sunaj or not you'd get fucked with.
Next time, How to pick a weapon.... Good luck and good gaming
