Rifts has many classes to choose from, the shifter is one of the magic classes. The Shifter is often overlooked but once you delve deeply into their options then it can become difficult to play anything else. There are few things a good player with a shifter cant do through his summons.
Years ago when I started roleplaying again with Roll20, I found a game that suggested playing a magic OCC. I chose Shifter because the Ley Line Walker had been chosen and I wanted something new. Little did I know the rabbit hole this would lead to.
When I started reading the shifter class I realized I would have to learn more about different races, supernatural creatures, animals, familiars, and equipment to complement my play/build style. I went from book to book looking for descriptions that stated “supernatural creature” in order to know what I could summon and not. There were many contradictions I ran into, so I started reading the conversion book, the Frequently Asked Question section of Palladium Books, and more to find clarification.
I want to offer my insight regarding what I found to be the best ways to use and GM what a Shifter can do. This guide will cover the things I learned in as much detail as possible.
One quick note regarding playing mages in Palladium is that it’s much more fun to use the PPE channeling optional rule from the Rifters. To put it simply, mages are able to cast 5 PPE worth of spells per level of the caster per action, instead of the standard casting rules.
Shifter guide: What is a shifter
A shifter is a practitioner of magic that specifically focuses on opening dimensional portals to summon creatures. The fast path to power for them is to enslave evil supernatural creatures so they have a reputation for evil themselves.
Evil and selfish shifters are going to deal with powers that serve themselves regardless of how it affects others. Good shifters will mostly deal with creatures that share their regard for others’ lives. This does limit good shifter’s options but doesn’t remove them all.
Shifters are masters of magic and can learn magic like Ley Line walkers, use ley lines to draw PPE from as well as sacrifices. Their magic spell selections to start with are more limited as they tend to focus more on rituals but that doesn’t mean they can’t get more. Why focus on spells that require them to be there to do things when they can get other creatures to do them instead?
Shifters have such an innate understanding of magical Rifts that they can sense them as acutely and accurately as Temporal Wizards and Temporal Raiders. While those classes are referred to as the masters of time magic and dimensional travel, Shifters are the masters of the rifts. This in turn is why they have a natural ability to dimensionally travel home, and deal with supernatural creatures.
I made a shifter guide on the palladium forums but wanted to expand on that here.
Shifter guide: Best races for a shifter
Demi-God and Godling. Pantheons of the Megaverse. These options are an obvious answer. While you can create some very intriguing options they often take a bit of the fun away from a player as you just “get” all the magic spells as you level (to say the least). I recommend dropping that rule and using normal OCC spell learning unless all players are similar.
Atlantean: Atlantis and Secrets of the Atlanteans books. Atlanteans have a lot of benefits without being MDC beings. They boast better stats, dimensional pyramid knowledge, a minimum of two magic tattoos, augmented strength, and more. The pyramid knowledge lets them dimensional travel alone. When you combine that with all the other options they become incredibly well-positioned as men of magic. The race is generally well-intentioned and good-natured lore-wise. For those that want to incentivize cooperation, this is a great racial option to allow. Tattoos can also be a great help, phoenix for resurrecting and healing, fire powers, third eye, and many others.
A’rac: D-Bees of North America. Their spider-like qualities make them slightly different than humans, without having a tremendous number of strengths.
Aviane: D-bees of North America. These people are flight capable from the start which is an incredible advantage. What I’ve found though is that adding flight ability to a party can totally shift the dynamic. For GMs, it can completely destroy the adventure they have planned when you can just take to the sky and disappear. That said they are still SDC beings and are offset with lower mental stat options. A long-time player will know that flight usually comes to mages anyway though.
Blucies: D-bees of North America. A noble race with high regard for intelligent life. If you want to help ensure good in your Shifter this is a great race choice. They also have improved strength, bonus PPE as a mage, and other bonuses. They do have a vulnerability though to heat.
Dragons: Rifts Ultimate and conversion book. A lot of dragons have the ability to learn magic. Some start with magic but usually, it’s only adult dragons that can follow an actual OCC. That said, gaining some levels as a hatchling and using summoning spells could be super fun. As an adult dragon though, being a Shifter would make for a truly fearsome foe.
Changelinges: Conversion book. This option is really dependent on the game you are playing in. If you are playing a game that is more city running than combat this could be a great race. They are shapechangers which could allow you to create a lot of intrigue and infiltration options. Plus, they have some of the highest numbers of dice to roll for mental stats.
Nimro: Conversion Book. Rather good mental stats, supernatural race, immunity to fire and energy does half the damage. Mostly though they are just cool because this is one of 2 giant races that can be men of magic.
Sphinx: Conversion Book. The Sphinx starts with a lot of bonus PPE and has quite a lot of MDC. They are considered magical creatures and have some crazy high-skill percentages to start with.
Titan: Conversion Book. Not the best mental stat for summoning but have an innate dimensional teleport ability. Shifters usually have to expend PPE to teleport back to their home, so the ability to teleport to any of their traveled dimensions is really strong. If you made a Titan Shifter that focused on traveling dimensions and that’s all then sold the info to others that could be an intriguing concept.
Noro: Phase World. These are basically humans with guaranteed major psionics and high bonuses to mental stats.
Sea Titan: Underseas. Superhuman in just about all regards. Double the psionic potential, supernatural strength, and endurance, potentially immortal. A great option if you are in a game with others like Prometheans, dragons, or any other MDC race.
Race generator from Phase World. You can create some really fun races that have Shifter as either their only OCC or a racial trait. After playing some of the other options I recommend playing around with this generator and looking at all the fun things you can create.
Races from other Palladium games
Jeridu. Palladium Fantasy, Land of the Damned Chaos Lands. 6 arms, duel wielding, acrobatic sword masters. They are a really fun idea for many different classes, though I’ve actually not had the chance to use them.
Croval. Palladium Fantasy, Land of the Damned Chaos Lands. This race can only be evil but they grow crab-like legs as they level up. An interesting race for an NPC behind the shadows. Knows all languages as well.
Kildred. Palladium Fantasy, Land of the Damned Chaos Lands. Legate (another author for the site) is the one that discovered this race and it is probably THE race for Shifter. They have many useful skills regardless of OCC, regenerate, have a mental stun ability, and gain followers as they level, plus a few more. Their followers are devoted to the character, essentially true believers in them. They also magically speak and understand all languages like the Croval.
Vorloc. Palladium Fantasy, Land of the Damned Chaos Lands. If you are looking for a race that is superb at dimensionally traveling then this one is really good. They have environmental resilience against any normal heat or cold. This makes them fantastic at jumping through rifts and exploring new areas. Lifespan is unknown as well, a minimum of 300 or 400.
Shifter Guide: Notable Spells
There are a lot of spells listed in Rifts. In addition, there are spells that were left out by accident. I say that to point out that the spells listed are not the only spells available so you can make up your own also. Nightbane has some rules if you want to incorporate those. I want to cover some of the most useful spells I’ve found, why they are good, and other notes.
Sustain: How much do you get done in an 8-hour workday? How much could you get done if you didn’t have to sleep? Only requires they sleep 2 hours a day. It also removes the need to breathe and can tolerate any environment. This is essential for the use of dimensionally traveling. It makes just about any place they go to liveable at least for a short time. The spell description does contradict itself some so we typically just disregard the limitations and use it in the spirit it’s meant to be used.
Summon and control Canines, Influence the beast and tame beast: Animals are easy to come by and why not tame some supernatural animals and then use them as guard/attack dogs? There are dogs and cats in the dinosaur swamp that are animals but possess supernatural strength and MDC bodies. This makes them great for starting Shifters. The downside to animals is that they typically do not fight to the death, and are in fact pets so treating them in any other way will cause them to run. Of course, armor of ithan, impervious to energy, and other protections make them even more hideous.
summon zombie: Personal butler that is nigh unkillable? Yes PLEASE! Aside from that, this form of undead can be used to great effect in so many ways. You can use it to lead people into ambushes (if evil), and you can use it to rescue people without risking lives. You could strap a nuke to it and it could intelligently navigate some terrain and blow it up in the middle of somewhere even while reforming later (oh was that evil.. oops).
summon and control entity: Entities can do a lot for you. Techtonic entities for example can possess items. So why not summon 5-10 and have them possess trees, or rocks and then act as a small army of guards?
energy sphere: Something many will note is that Shifters have low PPE. This spell allows you to create a floating PPE battery that follows you around. It takes the help of others in order to make it but that’s not a problem for your party right?
Shifter Guide: Link to the supernatural
The shifter’s link to the supernatural is mentioned as being the fast path to power. It’s also mentioned that supernatural beings often try tricking unwary shifters into accepting a link before knowing who they are dealing with. That may work for those that are stupid, but any shifter worth his salt is going to use a communication rift first. Why? Well because the description states a successful casting opens at the exact location desired.
The link I chose for my first Shifter is to a god of magic giving him additional spells and PPE. For a Shifter, this can be a brilliant and powerful option. In the game I played him we held off on finishing it until level 5. That’s when the GM decided to sort of “upgrade” all of the players.
The link is mentioned as being optional, so you can take that as being optional for character creation, or optional during gameplay to achieve. Either way, any of them offers great roleplaying options. I really thought it would be an odd twist to have a link to a vampire intelligence as an Atlantean.
Spells to get from link
There are some incredibly powerful spells you can pick up for a Shifter that is difficult to get without using a link to a god of magic. This is a list of many good options, what you go with will depend largely on what other classes are in your group.
| Sanctum | ensorcel |
| create zombie | amulet |
| anti-magic cloud | shadow wall |
| circle of travel | talisman |
| annihilate | ironwood |
| create golem | create magic scroll |
| summon and control storm | purge self |
| dimensional pockets (temporal spell- get GM permission) | Purge other |
| Summon Fog |
Note about supernatural link and summoning
As a shifter in a campaign, you may want to be careful what you summon as to not overwhelm the party or GM. Summoners are a really fun class and you have many options to go with outside of combat options.
Want to build some sort of tech? Get a couple of gremlins, take apart items, and then have them create new stuff.
Want to drown some vampires? Get a gargoyle mage, have it build some walls then cast summon storm in a small area and watch the flood of water fill up a stadium in like 20 minutes (a bit of an exaggeration, but 3inch rainfall is a LOT of water, do the math). Need a base built? Gargoyle mage or earth elemental can clear area using Dig.
Spy? If you can’t get in with or risk using your familiar, then a greater familiar may be great (use a succubus or other shapeshifter for a short period). If you don’t want to use demons at all then you could go with a selfish Brodkil with invisibility (so long as a 9-foot-tall monster isn’t a problem). The best options for good Shifters happen to be an air elemental, or a Cheruu (metamorphosis at will and turn invisible).
Shifter Guide: Summons for a Shifter
This is a list of as many things as I could find that stated “supernatural creature” in their description. This is a TECHNICAL list. The description from the Shifter OCC states “manipulate inhuman creatures..” and goes on to say “..a lesser supernatural being”.
After your first read-through, you might say “only demons, deevils, etc…” but it says “most notably” in regards to those examples. The point I’m making here is that not all options and examples can be listed. In addition, the understanding of what a supernatural being is has been misunderstood, mixed up, or omitted. Everyone makes mistakes so let’s give Palladium a break in that regard.
When looking over the FAQ I came across a statement that part of what makes a supernatural being is immortality. So, mortal beings should not be allowed as summons, but that’s up to you(we generally say if it can have an OCC then it’s not summonable). You may be saying to yourself, “This is too confusing I’m done”.. not so fast OK.
Im bringing this all up so that you have an idea of what I’ve already gone through, to show examples of all the options, and to give you the choice on how to use the description in your own game. Just recall that anything you can do, so can the game master. So do you want to open the can of worms that saying you can summon a Cosmo-Knight will cause? If the GM then says “OK, my shifter summons Fallen Cosmos, and Demon Knights” how will that turn out for the group? (Demon Knights are in Dimensional Outbreak)
If you are playing an adventurer game, then summon beings that align with the idea of exploring. If you are in a combat-focused game with a few hundred MDC then go with things that match that. You can do a lot of things within the context of the game your game master has in mind. Even if you can do far more, there’s no need to as it would go against your party’s goal of having fun together doing “this kind of game”.
During gameplay, the simpler a rule is the better. So what we basically say is that if it’s an optional player character it can’t be summoned (unless specifically stated like the Brodkil).
| Good beings available | Evil beings |
| amazons(south america 1) | Demon(Hades book- about 30 to pick from) |
| Seeker (Mindwerks) | Deevils (Dyval book- about 20 to pick from) |
| Lycanmorph(mindworks) | Undead |
| Ugakwa Explorer(mindwerks) | Grave Ghoul (conversion book) |
| (all)Werebeasts(vamp kingdoms & dark conversions) | Spectre(conversin book) |
| Ramen (Africa) | C’ro Demon Mage(mindwerks) |
| Crocodillian (Africa) | Worm Wraiths(new west) |
| Ki-Lin (conversion book 1) | Kryygorths Lesson(splynn dimensional market) |
| Cosmo-knights (phase world) | Demonic cannibal(africa) |
| Mokoloi (australia) | Oni Ninja(phase world sourcebook) |
| Mega Juicer (juicer uprising) | Cerebellus Demon(megaverse builder) |
| Rune Warrior (australia 2) | Dybukk Demon Ghoul(vamp kingdoms) |
| 1st & 2nd stage Prometheans(phase world) | Spider Demon(vamp kingdoms) |
| Enlightened Demon(china 2) | Syvan (conversion book) |
| Pheonixi(africa) | Goqua (conversion book) |
| Fox Spirit(mystic china) | Mindolar(conversion book, & vamp kingdoms) |
| Monro(phase world sourcebook) | Fenry(conversion book) |
| Anti-monster (south america 1) | Morphworms(wormwood) |
| The Nightbane(nightbane) | True Naruni(phase world) |
| Sowki(mindwerks) | Necrophim (nightbane between the shadows) |
| Draconid (phase world) | Hound Masters (Nightbane core) |
| Seljuk (phase world) | Horune Pirate (underseas) |
| Elementals (conversion book) | The Hounds (Nightbane core) |
| Spirits of light (conversion book) | Ellal(south america 1) |
| Tautons (Africa) | |
| Murder Wraith Zombie Juicer (juicer uprising) | |
| Lanotaur hunter (psyscape) | |
| Lorica Wraith(underseas) | |
| Zomba(underseas) | |
| Servants of the deep(underseas) | |
| The buti-fas(africa) | |
| The Cernun Mystic (england) | |
| Temporal Raider(england) | |
| Xibalbans demons(vampire kingdoms) | |
| Flesh Lamprey(nightbane nightlands) | |
| Great Hound(nightbane nightlands) | |
| Living Chariot(nightbane nightlands) | |
| Mamu the dingo creature (after the bomb mutants down under) | |
| The Boschola(beyond supernatural 1st edition) | |
| The Banshee(beyond supernatural 1st ed.) | |
| Sup. Creatures of russia(mystic russia page 18) | |
| Malignous (beyond supernatural 1st ed.) |
Misc
Beyond supernatural, and the end of the original Rifts book, has a creation table for random supernatural natural creature creation.
Shifter guide: How to GM the summoning pact
The summoning pact for Shifters states how your summons will actively work against the summoner unless they align with your alignment, or like your orders, or this that, and other things. I want to get across here that the pact description itself can be confusing, and you may say it contradicts itself. So here is some practical advice on how a game master can look at it.
Would you pick a class that has an ability that contradicts itself to the point that it felt like the very act of using it takes away the essence of what it is?
In practice when you read how the pact works and have summons start working against the player, they may feel like it’s a useless ability or class. Why play a character that can’t use the abilities it has? Why pick an item, spell, etc. that is going to punish me just for trying to play my class?
These are some of the questions that I had when reading the pact description. In my experience, and our group’s experience is that it’s not fun to use the pact as the description specifically states. Instead, look at the essence of what the class is supposed to be able to do and then within reason play it that way.
In my case I was a good aligned True Atlantean, so I chose to only summon at worst selfish entities. I refused to deal with evil beings and would not summon demons, deevils, and vampires. We still chose to roll the battle of wills, but in the end, realized we could avoid that by making contracts with beings. If the arrangements were within the nature of the being and had specific start and end conditions, then they would have little room to say no.
The challenge we found with the battle of wills is that it’s easy to get a character to have a 20 in mental Endurance(ME), making failures almost impossible. To offset this, Palladium Books added some modifiers in the Megaverse Builder. Those modifiers are often not sufficient to stop a well-rolled stat.
That said, I’m of the opinion that it’s better to let a player play his class than to punish him with silly rules. This doesn’t mean just letting a Shifter do anything they want. I’m just saying it sucks when you are a fighter given a sword and you can’t play as a fighter. Why make classes(for that matter, spells, items, skills, etc) then disallow players to do what that class supposedly can do?
Shifter Guide: familiars
The Shifter has the ability to choose a familiar and have it do things for him. The things it can do is very limited and not terribly useful. Just like in DnD, the downside of its death is so horrible that it is almost never used. I suggest that you put the familiar death part aside and rarely ever bring it up.
How often do you see animals running around outside? I see dogs, birds, insects, and others all the time. It is so common that even in a world of magic, it would be extremely rare to actually run into an animal that is connected to a mage. It would be a full-time job to track down every animal you saw and dispatch them just because they “might” be someone familiar.
So the reality of gameplay is that you should not be looking at animals around you as if they are familiars. Instead, just look at them like animals, and treat them accordingly. If you saw a mouse in your home, you would step on it simply because it’s in your domain and poses a health risk.
Generally speaking though, let a player have a familiar as a part of his character class because it adds to the flavor of playing a mage. Only cause dire consequences to that familiar when circumstances are obviously against using it. Examples could include sending that mouse through a minefield, or a hawk into anti-aircraft fire or some other explosion.
The abilities of familiars can be expanded upon using some of the Rifter books as well as Nightbanes Through the Glass Darkly. You can also use a ritual spell to get a Greater Familiar. I never looked up if that spell takes the place of the normal familiar as we found it more fun to use both. The greater familiar is vastly different so having both never seemed like a problem.
Possible exotic familiars
Familiars are a fun way to sneak around and gather information for a Shifter. Often times the downsides of their loss keep a lot of people from using them. Nightbane (Through the Glas Darkly) has some rules to improve your familiars, and Rifter 21 expands that further.
While I like these rules, in practice I have never really found the rules useful. Between all the summons, spells, gear, possible psionics, or tattoos, you will have so many options that a boost to your familiar generally is negligible. If you can, have a look through these books to see if they make sense in your game.
When looking for a familiar a couple of things to know are important. First, it must be listed as an animal. If it’s listed as a predator or monster it cant be selected. Some good books for a long list of animals can be found in Palladium Fantasy’s Monsters and Animals, New West, and Dinosaur Swamp.
Shifter guide: Equipment to look for
Shifters spend a lot of time traveling dimensions and dealing with supernatural creatures. As masters of magic, they have many spell options available, plus their summons can augment those options. Equipment that is really helpful for shifters focuses mostly on utility.
Equipment that broadens the scope of using the skills and spells they have will reduce their weaknesses. While many times I think it’s best to double down on your strengths, for this class it’s usually better to pick up gear that will shore up their weak points.
Example equipment options:
Rifter 22: Mage armor (use the natural materials option).
New West: horse barding. Many shifters get the horseriding skill so this is a fantastic way to protect the horse you have (even if it’s just a phantom mount spell).
Arzno: TW active shield. This is a fantastic defensive option for any mage that wants more protection. It can be set to activate when going unconscious so that can be a great couple of minutes to recover after a failed summoning.
Arzno: TW flash bang. Great distraction option. The fact that it’s a magical device means it can be taken to nearly any dimension and used as intended.
Arzno: TW reading glasses. You will probably be doing a lot of research, so having something that allows you to read any language can be an incredible time saver.
Arzno: Concealment Cloak. You are going to all sorts of places where laws will be totally different. This can be a total lifesaver allowing you to smuggle equipment in and out of cities if needed.
Arzno: TW body armors. All of the armor options available are fantastic to use. I recommend having several sets depending on the use. A light body armor version is great with magical spells like armor of ithan, sustain, swim as a fish, flight(any of them), and similar options for dimensional travel help. A suit of Exterminator armor is a great option for use when being imposing and threatening on the battlefield with summons around.
Non magical options
Merc Ops: Peacekeeper. This body armor is modular, starting with a light version and being upgradeable to medium body armor. It includes a radio with a farther-than-normal range and a vitals tracker. Some of the features may not be used for nonpolice but overall this is fantastic armor for many classes. I like to use it as a base, then get it upgraded to a techno-wizard variant with magic options like the above items. It’s also fantastic because it reminds me of the Halo series.
Merc ops: Automated Rail Gun. Mages in general are all about preparation so why not have some walking heavy ordinance to back yourself up with?
Merc ops: Stinger Anti-Flyer Mines, scatter mines, and other explosives. Similar to the theme above, having explosives set out in known areas to use as backup locations to retreat to or as means to protect your bases cannot be understated. So many options are available that you can get truly creative with how your bases, lairs, and ambush locations are set up.
Northern Gun 2 vehicles: You are going to other dimensions so you can expect to have a tremendous amount of resources and clutter to have to deal with. Well, this book has a bunch of different-sized vehicles that can be used to haul and store your stuff. From the Cargonaut, Big Boss, Salamander Cargo Hauler, and Mammoth APC, to Robot drones that can help you collect it all.
Northern Gun 2: Armor and clothing. The Huntsman clothing line is a great option for minor MDC protection. It can be worn under your regular Shifter getup or used to augment your primary armor choices. There are new types of body armor as well that may fit your personal image.
Side note- Some of the above descriptions make it sound as if the only enchanting possible is via techno-wizardry, yet we know from palladium fantasy, rune work, necromancy, etc that magic items exist without it. Below are some possible thoughts on creating magic items.
Rune item notes
While rune weapons and items are extremely powerful and awesome sounding, they typically don’t fit most adventure games. It’s stated in several places that rune items are sought after by all-powerful beings. Given this, if you obtain one then you also should be required to defend it on occasion, which means that your standard vagabond is going to get defeated easily by the first cyborg that walks by, much less a dragon or demi-god. If you are playing games with those kinds of beings then by all means include them, but have them as significant rewards.
Wand Creation rifter 19
The Rules for the Creation of a Magic Wand in this book can be a bit cumbersome when you are tracking every point of PPE you use. I like to keep general track of PPE usage rather than be a stickler on it. The reasoning for this is that I don’t like feeling as if I’m in an accounting class. A lot of gameplay with tabletop games starts to feel more like a game of accounting that loose and fast rules of creation to enhance gameplay.
So mostly I use the rules from this on how many spells can be put on a wand. Other than that I allow the players to make a wand with spells they know. As for how many wands that really depends on your game and the feel you want for it. My characters usually only have 3-5. I may have 1 or 2 combat ones but usually, they are utility wands like supernatural strength, mystic portal, etc.
Personal magic item creation idea:
If you want some rules that help limit the number of items able to be made, then the following idea is a good basis to start with.
To prepare an item an equal amount of PPE must be channeled into an item for a number of days = to the number of spells to be added to the item. After this, each spell must be channeled into the item for a number of days = to its spell level. Offensive spells can be limited to weapons, defensive to armor, and utility to rings, amulets, etc. This could be used to take SDC cloth for instance and channel armor of ithan into it to turn the cloth into an MDC equivalent permanently.
This is a very simplified method of creating magic items. You could also require gems or precious metals to be included in the creation. Or perhaps the base item must be of exquisite quality.
I think that allowing players to create magic items either eventually or to start with, only makes sense. Most game settings have us believe that magic items are everywhere, yet go on to give truly high-cost or time-consuming methods of creating them, contradicting themselves. Make some sort of simple idea you can use that makes the game fun. If players try to abuse it, add more limitations or simply ask them to stay within reason on the number of items they have/sell.