RIFTS Session 2

I returned to the RIFTS game I just recently joined. A few thoughts:

During the course of the week, one of the players pointed me in the direction of a RIFTS source book that contained a class almost identical to the Mystic, but generally superior. (The Grey Seer) The GM allowed me to convert my character. One thing about RIFTS that I find somewhat tiresome is that it seems you can always find a better character, suit of power armor, magic spell, or whatever if you just get the next numbered sourcebook.

I find also that magic-users are not offense-oriented in RIFTS, as opposed to D&D, for instance. Most of the offensive spells I could find do jack compared to my handy energy blaster. Many of the spells are taken from Palladium Fantasy but not scaled for RIFTS... meaning they do SDC damage and are therefore useless. (Literally...for those of you not familiar, RIFTS has two scales of damage, and the first scale cannot harm the second scale) We had another combat, during which the only spell I employed was Chameleon, and hid until I could take pot shots with my energy pistol as missiles and lasers blazed around me. My energy pistol has actually been more useful than all my spells and psionics combined.

This session, the GM was kind enough to provide a trading Techno-Wizard who had magic armor that we bartered for. The magic armor temporarily lets me step into the Major Leagues, with MDC totally about 100 or so and the ability to do MD with my bare hands. Of course, activating all these abilities takes a heavy toll on my PPE (magic points, essentially), but it's either that or I spend the campaign hiding in the armored vehicle.

One thing is for sure: I am gradually reaching the opinion that I will never play a magic-user in RIFTS again. I'm sticking with this character, but my next character is going to be a Power Armor Pilot or a Mega-Juicer or something like that.