A collection of all the magic spells and items from many Rifts books all in one huge book. If you are looking for magic tattoos, parasites, symbiote, invocations, techno-wizard items, equipment, magic items and more.
Gm Material
There is a good section at the start of this book dedicated to game masters. It discusses dealing with mages and various aspects related to them.
Player Material
If you are looking at this for a character other than a caster, try again. For the caster though, there is so much to look at. The number of spells, even if just just invocations, is mind boggling, same with all the items.
If you want a single reference book for your spellcasters to look through, this is the one book to get.
Story material
Nothing new to the Rifts storylines added within this book. There is a section that reminds players and GMs alike how the Coalition States doesn’t like magic and how they deal with those that use it. Put simply: “mages are the enemy”.
While the CS(Coalition States) completely reject magic in all forms, magic users are not that way with technology. In fact the conveniences that technology affords mages only compliments magic more. Think of the mage that doesn’t focus much on extra vision spells, well a good multi optics helmet can do the same.
Originality
Nothing new was added to this book. You can find all the material within the Book of Magic in others. You will have to get a lot of books as compared with this one single handy reference book.
Game breaking
Some of the stuff within this book could be game breaking depending on what you are doing. There are rune weapons and items, as well as Splugorth Eyes of Eylor and other things from supernatural sources. These items are on the extreme end of magical power items, and spells. Take should be taken with them and the Spells of Legend.
How good are the occs
Not many O.C.C.’s are listed in the book. It does list The Stone Master, however this occ has had a few revisions and is better viewed in the Secrets of the Atlanteans Dimension book.
With that in mind, the Stone Master is an interesting class. For a mage they have some really fun options for molding and crafting buildings with stone, especially pyramids. The major downside to the class is that they become very stationary.
What I mean by this is that as they grow in levels your character will become less and less likely to leave his stronghold of power. As you gain strength it becomes tied to the Pyramids that you build. In addition the amount of time needed to build and maintain a good pyramid become increasingly higher.
For example, lets say you have a stone pyramid tied to a ley line nexus. The location alone will make it a desireable place for demons, alien intelligences, and more to want to take it over. So as you make the pyramid more useful, you then increase the likelihood of being attack, but also the requirement of working to defend it.
Aside from that, the powers they have are unique and intriguing. While they are more of a niche magic class to pick, if you want to play something out of the ordinary they are a great pick. You could start your character out as a Stone Master with the intention later on of adding another class, or perhaps Stone Master could be your “retirement class”.
How well does it mix with the core book
This is THE book to get if you have any interest in playing mages, having mage NPCs, bad guys or anywhere in between. There is just so much extra to pick from that it can add tremendous depth to the Rifts Ulitamte Edition.
The Rifts Ultimate Edition doesn’t have much in the way of ocean only magic, or elemental magic, but this book does into detail on those. You can use this book to expand your Rifts games into the oceans, underground, and in the air.