A Touch of Power

Created by Brett Hegr
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This file gives a way for players to create characters that have some minor special powers, whether magical, psionic, or genetic! Those with a little psionic power have been covered already in Step 4 of character creation in the Rifts® RPG. This file is geared to expand that some. A character may only have one of the special, "extra" options in this file. If a GM chooses to do so, he could require the player to make a roll of 01-30% before rolling on the below chart - this would make such special powers more infrequent.

GMs should probably decide against letting true magicians, psychics, mutants, skill experts (like power armor pilots and super spies), and augmented beings roll on the table below. If you do let your players with strong character classes roll on this table, don't let them get anything that will boost their normal O.C.C. abilities through the roof (so magicians can't get the major or minor magical talent selections). Of course, if you don't care at all, then just ignore me and my little GM notes.

Characters with a touch of magical power know just a few low- level spells and are not magicians - they follow a non- magic O.C.C. but have learned enough about magic to cast simple spells.

Anyone with a bit of genetic power (read, super abilities) has a couple of minor super abilities. They also seem to be "superior" in some ways to non- mutants, whether mentally or physically (it varies).

Four relatively benign special options follow the major and minor "paranormal" ones. These four could be used with just about any kind of character.


Step 4: Extra Power

Consider this a minor update to the character creation steps found in most Palladium games. This table is geared towards creating a Rifts® level character. It is by no means a requirement - it's entirely optional for the player to roll on unless the GM says otherwise. If a selection is marked by a "*" then the character with that additional power or ability must halve all their skill bonuses and halve the number of "other" skills, as a reflection of the dedication needed to develop the talents and/ or skills.
01-07 * Major Psionics: Select either eight powers from a single minor psionic category, six powers from among all three minor categories, or select one super psionic power (with the standard limitations) and three powers from a single minor category. The character saves as a major psionic, has a base I.S.P.tm of 4d6 plus the M.E. attribute, and gains another 1d6+1 per level of experience.

08-20 Minor Psionics: Select two powers from a single minor category. The character saves as a minor psionic, has a base I.S.P.tm of 2d6 plus the M.E. attribute, and gains another 1d6 per level of experience.

21-27 * Major Mutant Abilities: The player may select one minor super ability and roll randomly for two more, or may roll randomly for one major super ability.

28-40 Minor Mutant Abilities: The player can roll randomly for two minor super abilities, or may choose one extraordinary attribute and select two super vision or heightened sense powers.

41-47 * Major Spellcasting Talent: The character was, at one point, an apprentice to a magician. For whatever reason the training was stopped and the character went on to learn another O.C.C. The character's base P.P.E.tm is equal to 4d6 plus the P.E. attribute, gains 2d6 per level of experience, and has a spell strength of 12 (+1 more at levels four and nine). The character knows one spell from each level one through five, for a total of five spells at first level.

Spells are not gained automatically with experience - they must be sought out and learned. The character has the ability to perform scroll conversions (to gain spells), but suffers a -15% penalty (remember that literacy skills are also needed). The character can learn only common magic spells of tenth level or lower and only has enough magical understanding to learn a few simple magic circles (mostly protection). No other kinds of magic can be learned. Of course, Techno- Wizardtm items can be used.

48-60 Minor Spellcasting Talent: The character was a late student (started in the late teens) and so never really developed their full magic potential. Alternately, the character may have been an apprentice at one point but didn't possess the talent or desire (or both) to become a full fledged magician. The character's base P.P.E.tm is equal to 2d6 plus the P.E. attribute, gains another 1d6 per level, and has a spell strength of 12 (+1 more at level five). The character knows one spell from each level one through four for a total of four spells at first level.

Spells are not gained automatically with experience - they must be sought out and learned. The character has the ability to perform scroll conversions (to gain spells), but suffers a -25% penalty (and must have the appropriate literacy skills). The only magic the character can learn to use is common spell magic, and even then he cannot learn or cast any spell of a level higher than six. Of course, Techno- Wizardtm items can be used.

61-70 Skill Talent: The character has a natural aptitude with skills in a certain category. Choose a single skill category, and apply a +10% bonus to any and all skills in that category that the character possesses. Add another +5% to those same skills at levels three and eight (in addition to the level increase bonuses). The player may select one skill from the category with the standard bonuses (a free skill)!

71-80 Combat Talent: The character gets +1 to the P.S., P.P., and P.E. attributes. He also has a natural +1 to parry, +1 to dodge, +2 on initiative, and +2 vs Horror Factor (a cool head in battle). Lastly, the character has one free "other" skill that can be used only in selecting hand to hand combat forms (so if it normally costs two other skills to get Hand to Hand: Expert the character need only give up one other skill).

81-90 Photographic Memory: Increase the character's I.Q. by +1d6, minimum of 18. The character is a minor psionic, has an I.S.P.tm base of the M.E. +10, and gains 1d6 more per additional level of experience. The character possesses the psionic powers of Total Recall and Speed Reading.

When using Total Recall, for each 1 I.S.P.tm spent a +1% bonus (up to a maximum of equal to the character's I.Q. attribute) can be added to one entirely mental skill roll. Thus it cannot be applied to Swimming (entirely physical) but can be used with any lore, language, electrical, mechanical, medical, or science skill (many others too - GMs use your discretion).

91-00 Resistance: The character is naturally resistant to many things - not enough to be considered a super ability, but enough to be noticeable. Add a +2 on all save throws, add a +1d6 to the M.E. and P.E. attributes (min. of 14 for both), and add +20% to the final S.D.C.tm (or M.D.C.tm) of the character.