How to play Practitioners of Magic (General)
Playing as a mage in Rifts requires a strategic approach to combat and problem-solving, as well as careful consideration of the character’s abilities and limitations. However, playing as a wizard in tabletop roleplaying games is an excellent way to exercise your creativity and problem-solving skills. The wizard class specializes in arcane magic, allowing you to cast powerful spells and manipulate the elements to your advantage.
Nevertheless, playing as a wizard can be challenging, as it requires careful planning and strategy to get the most out of your abilities. To help you make the most of your wizard character, here are a few tips to consider.
To begin, it’s essential to understand the different types of spells available to wizards. Spells can be categorized into offensive, defensive, and utility spells, each with its strengths and weaknesses. Offensive spells are great for dealing damage to enemies, while defensive spells can protect you and your allies from harm. Utility spells can be used for a variety of purposes, such as creating illusions, teleporting, or divination. Knowing which spells to use in each situation is key to being a successful mage.
As you progress in the levels, you’ll want to focus on building up your spellcasting abilities. Mages have a limited number of spells they can learn, so it’s crucial to choose your spells carefully and use them strategically.
Finally, don’t neglect your roleplaying abilities when playing as a wizard. Wizards are often portrayed as being reclusive or eccentric, so don’t be afraid to get creative with your character’s personality and backstory. Embrace your character’s quirks and use them to inform your decision-making in-game. By embracing your character’s unique traits, you’ll be able to fully immerse yourself in the world of the game.
Mage guide: Notable Spells
Offensive spells
Swap places– As the description states, this is a nightmare for commanders. It takes one of your group members and swaps their position with that of a single enemy. If you combine this with the fleet feet combination below it becomes a true nightmare to the opposing force not just the commander.
Carpet of adhesion– Almost every mage that can take this spell, would do well to do so. Most groups.. no, all groups, Ive been in have this as a must have spell. The crowd control options it offers are second to none. Being able to lock down opponents entirely, or at least slow them down for minutes is incredibly useful for all kinds of reasons.
Fleet feet/magical adrenal rush/speed weapon– This combination of spells is rather short lived but during the time they are active you will have an insane number of melee attacks. The short gist of these spells is that each one doubles the number of melee attacks you have. Instead of going with full doubling its best to take the base number of attacks and add that each time. For example of how this can be lets use a necromancer as an example.
I have a Necromancer named Me’anoth that has expert hand to hand (4 attacks), WP sword, boxing (+1 attack per round), fencing (bonus damage and +1 to strike). As a necromancer he has 4 arms that can animate giving him 2 extra attacks per round for a total of 7. If we went with double attacks we would end up with 14, 28, then 56, an absolutely mad number. If you simply use the base its a much more reasonable 21 attacks per round.
Anti-magic cloud– The Rifts Ultimate version of this spell is an absolute monster. In most games I prefer to consider it just a myth both for NPCs and for players. It is so disruptive that when players use it they wipe out anything they are against, and if the opposite happens the end result is players die. Turnign your players into SDC beings or incapable of casting is ludicrously strong. Situationally it can make for a great spell use to end a fight with far stronger enemies, but I try not to use it very often.
Influence the Beast– If you want to play more of a summoning mage then this is a great spell for those purposes. Just cast it on a dog or wolf, or even MDC dinosaurs and other animals and bam you have a walking biting tank. With a couple of these as loyal animals you can cause havoc and pose a serious threat to a group of enemies. If you then cast supernatural strength, Armor of Ithan, impervious to fire, or other buffing spells they get even more threatening.
Summon cannine/summon rodents– Summoning cannines and then using influence the beast is a great way to get some extra allies to help in a pinch. Both of these spells require preparation as they are rituals that can take a while to cast. Imagine summoning 50 rats and giving a handful of them other buffs like superhuman speed, strength, or other things. The deadliness and usefulness goes way up. Even if you don’t though they can be used to great effect: poison a water supply forcing the people to leave, destroy food for the same effect, distract a group of enemies to slip by unseen, and more.
Sanctum/protection circle superier– Using this combination you can create a really good defensive base for yourself and/or your group. Having the protection circle will allow you to stop any supernatural entities from coming into the sanctum if that spell doesn’t work.
Defensive spells
Cloak of darkness/aura of death– This is a great spell combination to basically create true invisibility for yourself. It would best be used amongst undead, or maybe after a major battle in a graveyard area and at night. During the day its going to be rather obvious something amiss is going on, but in shade can still work well.
Wall spells– Using the book of magic you can find a large number of wall spells to pick from. Each one has different uses but under the correctly chosen defensive positioning they are incredibly potent. Some stop weapons fire from passing, others stop beings from walking through or slow them down tremendously. An example is Shadow Wall, it reduces speed to 2 feet per melee action, which could seriously help against juicers, cyborgs, or supernatural creatures to keep them at bay to get the time needed to escape, cast another spell, etc.
Armor Spells– Armor of Ithan, Armour Bizarre and other spells exist that are just common sense to get. They don’t just have to be used on yourself though. You could argue that “other by touch” could include a door, vehicle, or power armor, just for example. You could bizarre a door and then carpet of adhesion it to help keep it closed and slow down enemies.
Utility spells
Teleport: lesser– You can use this spell in really clever yet subtle ways. Some examples are teleporting a grenade in the middle of your enemies from a distance. Or, you could teleport an objective item from the midst of your enemies or a building to your allies.
Astral projection– This spell is incredibly good for scouting. There is no need to actually leave the material plane to use it. Simply stay on Earth (or whatever planet you are on) then zip around at nearly match 1 speed, go through walls, and see whats going on. Downside to this spell is running into psychics, mages, some spirits, and force fields (magic or tech).
Dig– This is one of the most useful spells to create a defensible area for your group. You can use it to tunnel down into the ground, out of a collapsed area, and make a complex underground. If you make the tunnels the same height as a shadow wall then you can create choke points that are near impassable by enemy forces.
Blind/sleep/paralysis– As a mage you are trying to do things that aren’t standardly possible. Things that wouldn’t be considered a threat to a non mage. These spells could be used to great effect to infiltrate an area and get out without them being the wiser, especially if you combine them with invisibility, shadow meld, or other spells.
Charismatic aura– Sometimes all you need to win the day is a good conversation. Using this spell you make yourself more likeable to others. It could be a great way to gather information, or slip into an area you aren’t normally allowed. As a spell cast on yourself or another person that affects those you come in contact with, there’s no need to have a target. This avoids any line of sight issues or being caught casting.
Ley line transmission/message/magic pigeon– These spells are fantastic at communicating with your own teammates without using a radio. This makes it a method of talking that is nearly impossible to be overheard.
Equipping your character
Armor
One major thing to understand when buying armor for a mage is that natural materials are needed to avoid reductions in spell casting. There are a few ways to create MDC materials like the ironwood spell that turns wood into an MDC version. In addition you could use skills to create your own clothes/armor and then cast ironwood or a tweaked version of the spell to make cloth MDC. There are a couple books with mage armor you can use as examples, those books are: Arzno Vampire Incursion, and Rifter #22.
Getting the magic enhanced versions is one the most important things you can do as a mage. Most enhanced armors can have 3, sometimes 4 spells that can be activated from them. You can purchase multiple armor types with different spells on them each for different situations.
Weapons
When starting a character your options are limited. While its great to start with magic weapons, it is also a good idea to have some back up energy weapon and maybe even melee weapons. While you may not use them all the time, you definitely will use them for a while starting out.
When thinking about magic weapons wands are a great options. Now the base system doesn’t have rules for them but Rifts #19 has an example rule set of how to create them. Theres no need to make it super complicated or difficult to create magic items because they are often a niche item. Your juicers, cyborgs and other OCCs have access to weaponry that is incredibly potent so making an option for mages is no big deal.
As to rune items I suggest caution. These items are sought after by all magic wielding beings. So if it becomes known that some low level human has one, they will find themselves increasingly targeted by more powerful foes wanting to take it. These items should be the reward of very major battles or other significant events during a campaign that warrant a large reward.
Races to consider
A LOT of races exist that are really good to use as mages. My main go to race is Atlantean. If you don’t want to allow other exotic races, or they aren’t options in the group you are joining then you cant go wrong picking them.
D-Bees of North America– This book has a lot of races common to Rifts North America so it makes a great addition to expand racial options. Plus most of the races that can be mages aren’t game breaking. A few exceptions do exist but they are so obvious that you’ll just say no, or won’t have to because they are outside the character creation rules you have in place.
Dramins– Mostly the same as humans with slightly higher PPE and also can see through illusions. Great option if you just want a slight difference than standard human.
D’norr Devilman– These beings get bonus PPE to cast spells with so they make great spellcasters of any kind.
Phlebus– Can shapechange and be a mage. How much more intriguing can you get!
Slurmph– This race would make for a super fun Mage. They are basically a slime person that cant speak but have telepathy at a 500 foot range. This gives them the ability to talk any language and even skim others thoughts. They have a handful of psionics as well, can alter their bodies size (hence slime), and fling slime as an attack. All around the idea of this race as a mage makes me laugh every time.
Rahu-man– Are 4 armed giants with natural psionic abilities to augment your mage class. They are quite potent so often aren’t allowed in games.
Ratling– Wouldn’t make for a “better than human” choice as their mental stats are lower, still a unique and different option for a player.
Ogre/Elf/dwarf/Wolfen/Trolls/Giants– Basically all your standard fantasy races are listed in this book and make for great variety in racial choice. Some are better than others, depending on the choice. Ogres and trolls make great necromancers, though it may be cliche- sometimes thats what you are going for though. Elves are good for your standard Ley Line Walker, while dwarves tend towards the Rune Smith option.
Dimension book- Phase World– This setting is much more powerful in general so Its best to consider these races when playing a dimension spanning game or a more superhero type game.
Slihouette– natural spell casters that are quasi shadow elementals. They are weak in sunlight but get bonus MDC and strength in darkness. Gain 2 spells every level as they increase. As shown in the book they don’t get to pick an OCC they are just magical in nature with low supernatural strength.
Create your own race– You can make up some very fun races of your own using this book. So if the above options don’t suit you, dive into this option.
Races of note in other books
Palladium fantasy land of the damaned book 1
These races are considered dying races, and are usually evil in nature. Theres also this thing about them being unable to leave so you may find it hard to allow, but they can be fun for players and terrifying as enemies.
Kildred– Mages of great renown plus low level psionics.
Vorloc– Immune to natural heat and cold, take half damage from magical heat and cold. Combining this race with Sustain make them an incredible space faring race.
Croval– This race can become an absolute terror in melee. As they gain levels they gain crab like limbs that allow them to become increasingly more mobile, able to pin their enemies and more. They also speak all languages magically, can dimensionally teleport (hello recurring enemy??) and are also immune to natural heat and cold as the Vorloc. They can only be miscreant or diabolically evil though.
Jeridu– 6 armed extremely agile race with innate auto dodge and can be mages.
Conclusion
To summarize playing a mage it comes down to preparation and clever thinking. While you can potentially make your character a great melee fighter or ranged caster, its more important to give yourself advantages that take great to terrifying like jumping out of an alcove in a dark hallway into the midst of unsuspecting enemies.
It’s not just one spell or item that will win the day as a mage. Picking a race with extra abilities and then combining those with what you get with your preferred spell casting class will make a far more formidable mage. After that you then combine arms and equipment to augment your capabilities even further. Taking the entire process into account including skill selection make you able to accomplish so much more.