Kittenstomp wrote::shock:
I don't know what's weirder: that you're responding to a post I made 10 months ago, or that I've begun to peruse the boards again at the same time you responded.
Killer Cyborg wrote:Kittenstomp wrote:It's totally unnecessary!
Go read the psi-stalker section. You need a minimum of 50 PPE a week. That means 2-3 secondary vampires or 1-2 Xiticix. In a world where Psi-Stalkers are totally SDC creatures all the time, even if wooden weapons could be found to fight vampires, it's one, maybe two hits before you're dead. So you have a hyper-aggressive anti-supernatural mutant psychic which is just begging to be killed and turned into a vampire or sludge for the Xiticix larvae. How are wild psi-stalkers drawn in most art? Semi-naked, with blades and tattoos for the most part which makes them sound more like a useful farm animal for vampires than a playable character. As written, from the beginning of the game, Psi-Stalkers, especially wild psi-stalkers have been broken.
In a world where psi-stalkers are totall SDC creatures, all the time, they are no worse off than normal humans. That's why they wear body armor and use mega-damage weapons.
Sure, they're drawn semi-naked. But Mages are drawn without armor. Most people who have armor are drawn without helmets.
If the art represented how the characters were actually supposed to go into battle, everybody would die. All the time.
There was nothing wrong with the original psi-stalker, and the new rule IS unnecessary.
Anybody who thinks that psi-stalkers couldn't survive against supernatural foes (without being MDC themselves) is just plain wrong.
CS Grunts do it every day.
That's a fairly facetious argument. You're comparing the soldiers of a military industrial complex with access to high tech weaponry, 80+ MDC armor and air support to a group of "Wild" nomadic mutants. Psi Stalkers as described in the old books are wasteland scavengers that somehow eke out an existence feeding off of creatures hundreds of times more powerful. [/quote]
No, they're not. Read the main Rifts book.
First of all, Wild Psi-Stalkers come standard with:
-Megadamage body armor
-back pack
-a couple sacks
-utility/ammo belt
-sunglasses or tinted goggles
-Air filter or gas mask
-Weaponry including 4 knives and four other weapons of choice, possibly including techno-wizardry.
These guys aren't stone-age primatives; they have access to the same armor and weaponry as anybody else in the main book. Essentially the same stuff that "the soldiers of a military industrial complex with access to high tech weaponry" have, only Psi-Stalkers can also use techno-wizardry items if they can find some.
Now lets look at the second part: "feeding off of creatures hundreds of times more powerful".
That just isn't true.
A wild psi-stalker with MDC armor and MD weaponry, which they start with, is more than a match for many MDC creatures. Roll up some random monsters from p. 249-250 and put them up against a psi-stalker with a NG-P7 and Gladiator armor.
At best, the monster is on even footing 1 on 1.
But that's not even necessary. Psi-stalkers can feed on any psychic creature, and all cats, dogs, horses, and other domesticated animals are psychic. You don't even have to kill them to feed on them, although wild psi-stalkers might prefer it.
Or they could prey on any of the lightly armed or unarmed psychic humans or D-Bees around. Again, they wouldn't even have to kill them.
It never made sense. Your average supernatural creature can punch a hole through a psi-stalker without blinking.
Not if the psi-stalker had the intelligence to put on the armor that he starts with.
Wild Stalkers didn't even have reasonable equipment available until after New West whereupon you could kill 300-500 MDC dinosaurs for 10-30 MDC armor. Not the kind of thing you want to be fighting vampires or demons in.
Absurd.
Find me ANYTHING in the books that restricts psi-stalkers' equipment. They have access to the same weaponry and armor as everybody else.
And whereas a wizard can summon MDC armor and soldiers are blessed with tons of gadgets, Wild Stalkers are mutants with no industries, factories or technology to speak of.
Ever hear of trade? They don't have to make tech gear; they just have to buy it. Or, for that matter, steal it.
The only way they could have fed on the supernatural is by making them laugh themselves to death. And that's barely scratching the surface; a CS grunt gets to blow his competition away into ash with his handy rifle from 2000 feet. A Psi-Stalker has to be within a few hundred feet (an easy distance to close in a melee) and he has to successfully kill supernatural monsters 2-3 times a week to feel healthy.
No, he doesn't.
First of all, he can feed on animals, humans, and D-bees.
Let's look at a particularly pathetic psi-stalker who was stupid and unlucky enough to lose his mega-damage armor and weaponry. In fact, he has lost every bit of his gear except for one knife and his horse.
And the poor guy likes a diet of 100 PPE per week!
Whatever will he do?!
He'll feed off of his horse.
An average horse has 14 PPE (his horse happens to be exactly average), and PPE regenerates at a rate of 5 per hour of sleep or rest. Which means that he can cut his horse, drain its PPE, and it will be back to maximum PPE after 3 hours of sleep or rest.
Feeding on the horse every day will net him 98 PPE per week. If he feels particularly hungry some week, he can feed an extra time by waking his horse up in the middle of the night once.
Second, it is perfectly possible to disable a supernatural monster from a distance using an energy rifle. Just make called shots and shoot its legs off. Heck, shoot one leg off and move in to finish the creature off at your leisure.
a Burster has 30 MDC +6 a level, (+4 in psyscape). Even then, it finally made Bursters playable. I had far too many people in my games from 95-97 read through the main book for Rifts, get excited at the possibility of playing a pyrokinetic followed by the crushing disappointment of how poorly protected the class was.
A lot of us had the same problem. We solved it by adjusting our expectations. Basically, we quit treating every OCC like a one-trick pony and expecting them to use ONE trick to solve every problem. For Bursters, this meant that we had them actually use their armor and weaponry for the most part, only using their pyrokinetic powers when it was appropriate.
No real problems since.
At least they could produce MD blasts, something that the poor wild psi-stalker couldn't do without a weapon that would cost 3000+ tanned hides and ornate bonecarvings. The MDC force field didn't make them a playable class without armor, but it gave them enough of an edge to be playable. THat's how I look at the psi-stalker write up but even more vital; a wild psi-stalker was expected to fight and capture wizards, psychics and demons 2-3 times a week and stillbe succesful enough tocongregate in tribes. Totally impossible under the old system. Now they have enough of an edge for my players to not just dismiss them out of hand and play a human mercenary (who has more toys) instead.
Not impossible at all, if you use your head, and if you ditch your erroneous preconceptions of what the class is supposed to do.
And why fight a mage when you can sneak up on one while it is asleep?
And why kill the mage, when you can keep him bound and gagged (or cut his tongue out), and feed off of him for weeks or months?
Play things smart, and the original psi-stalkers worked out perfectly fine.
