Do Shifters need a Nexus?

[Godslayer]

Can a Shifter open a Rift to any location, or is he limited to the nearest Nexus?

When he's on a Ley Line, a Shifter can open a rift to any spot along that Ley line. But the way I'm reading the text he couldnt open a rift to spot along a Ley line if he wasn't in contact with that Ley line, he'd have to go to the nearest nexus. But some of the text is ambiguous, because it mentions that he can go where he has a communication portal.

The reason I'm asking this is because I'm wondering if a Shifter could Rift into a Dimensional Envelope or other type of pocket dimension. There wouldn't be a Nexus there (how awesome would that be). So im just not sure if they could Rift to a place like that.

[Nekira Sudacne]

Can a Shifter open a Rift to any location, or is he limited to the nearest Nexus?

When he's on a Ley Line, a Shifter can open a rift to any spot along that Ley line. But the way I'm reading the text he couldnt open a rift to spot along a Ley line if he wasn't in contact with that Ley line, he'd have to go to the nearest nexus. But some of the text is ambiguous, because it mentions that he can go where he has a communication portal.

The reason I'm asking this is because I'm wondering if a Shifter could Rift into a Dimensional Envelope or other type of pocket dimension. There wouldn't be a Nexus there (how awesome would that be). So im just not sure if they could Rift to a place like that.

A shifter can Rift anywhere in the Megaverse, in theory, from anywhere. Nexus is not even required let alone a Ley Line, it just helps with the high PPE cost, that is all.

You are confusing it with Ley Line Phasing, which is teleportation only along a particular ley line or Ley Line Nexus. At least that's the only thing I can think of, sinse no text i've read limits the destination of Dimensional Portal to anywhere.

[Colonel_Tetsuya]

Can a Shifter open a Rift to any location, or is he limited to the nearest Nexus?

When he's on a Ley Line, a Shifter can open a rift to any spot along that Ley line. But the way I'm reading the text he couldnt open a rift to spot along a Ley line if he wasn't in contact with that Ley line, he'd have to go to the nearest nexus. But some of the text is ambiguous, because it mentions that he can go where he has a communication portal.

The reason I'm asking this is because I'm wondering if a Shifter could Rift into a Dimensional Envelope or other type of pocket dimension. There wouldn't be a Nexus there (how awesome would that be). So im just not sure if they could Rift to a place like that.

A shifter can Rift anywhere in the Megaverse, in theory, from anywhere. Nexus is not even required let alone a Ley Line, it just helps with the high PPE cost, that is all.

You are confusing it with Ley Line Phasing, which is teleportation only along a particular ley line or Ley Line Nexus. At least that's the only thing I can think of, sinse no text i've read limits the destination of Dimensional Portal to anywhere.

Shifters have several powers that are not the Dimensional Portal spell that open Rifts, though, so he may be referring to those.

If you could give us some clarity on which Shifter Power or spell were discussing, OP, thatd be a big help.

As Nekira said, though, Dimensional Portal (the spell) can go anywhere from anywhere. Having enough PPE to cast it is the only restriction.

[Axelmania]

I think I know what OP means.

RUE122 has 2 abilities, "4. Dimensional Travel" and "6. Dimensional Teleport Home". The first I can't see any mention of ley lines nexuses. It's pretty inaccurate, you're looking at "I don't fall in the ocean or get stranded in a desert" until 5th level where you get the "I can can pick the continent" benefit, and finally at 10th the "I'm within 50 miles of where I want to be" benefit.

The second ability under "Rifting on the Same World" which is done at half the PPE (I'm not sure if half of 75 would be 37 or 38...) and there's 2 guides related to ley energy:

1) "typically one appears on a ley line nexus near the desired location" (stone pyramid can substitute, those things can be built anywhere on a line, not just on a nexus)

note that (1) requires "must have visited the location in the past" OR be actively linked with an OPEN communication rift to it
2) "can Rift from one location on a ley line to another or any connecting ley lines without ever having been to that exact location"

Now I assume that (2) would also bypass the need for an open communication rift, so THAT (along with the free PPE) is a major reason you would want to be using this ability on a ley line, because it gives you options to target places you haven't been.

Moreso than that though, (2) seems to just be more accurate. Instead of "I'm going to appear at whatever nexus or pyramid is closest to whatever place I have in mind" you can say "I can appear at this specific point on a line" that I've never even seen."

One thing I think which may be confusing to readers is (1) also mentions (after talking about appearing near a nexus and making "bus stop" analogy" is:

Ley line nexus points serve as a sort of bus stop, only the Shifter can teleport from one nexus "bus stop" to the next.
A stone pyramid works the same way and functions as a man-made dimensional bus stop

The "one..to the next" might give the impression that a nexus isn't just required as the end destination, but the start destination too.

"can" isn't "must" though, so I don't think it was necessarily meant to restrict the preceding text. Most telling is the opening "can open a Rift in a Chi-Town Burb"... are there even any ley line nexuses in the burbs?

- - -

One interesting idea about a Communication Rift: rather than opening an entirely new rift (full cost) what if you considered the Communication Rift a "down payment" on the Dimensional Teleport Home ability (kind of misnamed since it opens a rift, doesn't teleport you)? That'd be a cool house rule and it would reflect you basically just expanding the Communication Rift and perhaps lessening the cost of other abilities by piggybacking off your initial investment.

Maybe not a perfect transfer... maybe something like you get a 25 PPE discount off your new portal if you make it via expanding the Communication Rift? Seems like it ought to be worth something! That would also give a mechanic for that "open the rift further" risk from Alien Intelligences mentioned under communication rift... or am I missing an existing spell that does that?

- - -

this isn't canon for Rifts AFAIK but HU2p338 halves the cost of Dimensional Portal if it's cast at a nexus. When you compare it to the discounts that Communication Rift gets (50% within 2640 feet of a line, 75% off within 2640 feet of a nexus) that's actually pretty conservative.

I think it would be a super-cool idea to allow all mages this benefit (500 PPE dimensional portals at nexi) and then let the Shifter stack their OCC ability (1/2 PPE if cast as a ritual) on top of that, to let them cast Dimensional Portal at 250PPE. Then you'd have an added reason they would seek out nexi besides getting discounts on Communication Rifts.

[Godslayer]

Okay, so let me define how I came to my conclusions:

The Dimensional Travel ability can target the Shifter's home dimension, a random dimension, or a dimension visited by the Shifter at some time in the past.

It says dimension, not location.

When targeting a random dimension, the Rift can open anywhere within the resulting dimension. However, portals are drawn to high PPE. places like planets rich in P.P.E., so it is exceedingly rare that a random portal will appear in the depths of space or on a completely lifeless planet. However, it could lead to a place like Rifts® Wormwood™ which is inhospitable and dangerous to humans.

Obviously here, the Shifter has no say in where he ends up.

Targeting one's home dimension will create a Rift on a world the Shifter has visited previously. but the portal will open at a random but viable location on that planet. A human Shifter targeting Rifts Earth will not end up in the ocean, but on a landmass, and not in the middle of a desert either. Mid- to high-level Shifters (levels 5-9), can target a specific country or continent, and the highest level Shifters (level 10 and above) can arrive within 50 miles (80 km) of their desired destination. Targeting a world previously visited in another dimension means the Shiner (and any passengers) will arrive at a reasonably hospitable,
but random location on the desired planet.

So here we see that most Shifters can't even determine which continent they arrive at.

Confusingly, they mix terms when talking about "Targeting one's home dimension."

Targeting one's home dimension will create a Rift on a world the Shifter has visited previously.

This almost makes it sound like any world you've visited previously can be considered a "Home Dimension."

But other than that, the above is all pretty well worded. I don't see how there can be a lot of confusion there. When going from one dimension to either a random dimension or their home dimension (a world they've visited previously), a Shifter can pick the dimension, but rarely the location.

The verbiage on Rifting on the Same World isn't anywhere near as precise.

Although we keep talking about travel from one world or dimensions to a completely different one, the Shifter can open a Rift of any kind to anywhere on the same planet, and for half the usual P.P.E. cost of jumping dimensions. Thus, he can open a Rift in a Chi-Town 'Burb, step through it, and be in Rifts Russia, or Atlantis or anywhere.

This makes it sound like he can go anywhere. His apartment, then to McDonald's, then to a friends house, to a Shop in Lazlo, then back home, etc.

But later on in the text, they start putting all sorts of limitations on it:

The only limitation is he must have visited the location in the past, or be linked to the location via a Communication Rift before he opens the portal.

This doesn't sound like much of a limitation.

Typically one appears on a ley line nexus near the desired location.

This on the other hand sounds like a huge limitation. If I live in Lazlo, do I have to arrive at the Nexus there, or can I Rift straight into my apartment?

Rifting on the Ley Line makes sense. It allows the Shifter to go to places he's never been to before, etc.

But I guess this has helped to answer my question. The Dimensional Envelope is a Pocket Dimension. A Shifter can randomly transport themselves to any Dimension. The fact that the dimension isn't that big doesn't really factor in.

[Axelmania]

It is a pretty big limitation. Firstly is the separate PPE cost of opening a communication rift, and secondly is how unreliable they tend to be. You need to pass the % roll to hook the communication rift up to the right spot first before using ability 6 (Dimensional Teleport Home) based on that, and even then, it only probably only lets you go to whatever nexus point was closest to where you opened that rift.

The only way you could possibly land in your apartment would be if your apartment was on a ley line and you started off on a connecting one. It sort of is a really expensive ley line phase when you want to be accurate, though probably higher carrying capacity.

Teleporting into a dimensional envelope, as long as you've been there before, does sound liek a good trick for ability 4. I don't know if it would work for ability 6, what do you gravitate towards in dimensions without nexuses?

[Nekira Sudacne]

Typically is not always, that makes it sound like a preference rather than an actual limitation.

[Axelmania]

We already know what the exception to the typical nexus is: stone pyramids, which can exist on lines. Since no other exceptions are listed, there's no need to invent them. Those are the nearest bus stops.

[Nekira Sudacne]

We already know what the exception to the typical nexus is: stone pyramids, which can exist on lines. Since no other exceptions are listed, there's no need to invent them. Those are the nearest bus stops.

Except the language doesn't mandate either. It reads more like "They usually come out at a conviently close nexus, provided one is there", but it doesn't read like they actually need to. To the point i'm not convinced it's a limitation at all.

[Axelmania]

More like... except there isn't any "provided". Every point on Earth has a "nearest nexus", the only way you could potentially have problems is trying to teleport into a nexus-less dimension.

DB7p14 for example has 1/5 of all dimensions as "no magic energy" with no ley lines (and thus no nexi... not sure why they felt the need to list that separately) where it costs twice PPE to cast magic. That's probably a good assumption to take for a tech-heavy setting like Recon, maybe even Splicers? It might be appropriate to apply that to pocket dimensions/envelopes too. It makes sense since there wouldn't be lines in them and would discourage spellcasters to do stuff like hide in the dimension and power up a bunch of spells, due to the doubled cost.

I would've thought Systems Failure but it specifies on the next page it's a "Low Magic Energy" world like pre-Cataclysm "Rifts" Earth, BTS and HU (kind of fuels the speculation about Rifts' past being a BTS/HU parallel of sorts).

- - -

The Wujcik settings (TMNT / ATB / N&SS / MC) don't get mentioned, but I'd probably peg them here too. Same with "Dead Reign", due to the magical-ness of the zombies.

Nightbane is also not mentioned, I'm wondering if it belongs in the prior, or maybe in the next "Intermediate Magical Energy" like Hades + PF (no mention of Dyval, but guessing it's also this). Perhaps it differs like Nightbane Earth is Low while Nightlands are Intermediate?

Guessing "Chaos Earth" would be a "Super High Magic" just like Rifts. That's the highest (1 in 100) category. Chaos Earth might even be a theoretical category above this? There ought to be a higher category, after all PF2p277 ranks the "Age of Light" as possibly 10-50% greater than Rifts Earth (that sounds about right for Chaos Earth too) while "Age of Chaos" was "easily ten times more powerful" than Rifts Earth (I think the Old Ones had a monopoly on that kind of power)

I think if you roll 100% for "Super-High" you should roll a 2nd time, with 1-89 being normal Super-High (like Rifts), 90-99 being Mega-High (like Chaos Earth or Age of Light) and 100% a 2nd time (1 in 10,000 dimensions) being Ultra-High (10x Rifts, like Age of Chaos).

- - -

Pg 15 of course says Wormwood is a "high magic" dimension (it and Phase World are both just a step below Rifts) with deeply buried lines/nexi (inside the planet rather than atop it... or maybe it's atop some smaller planet with wormwood flesh grown atop it?) so that causes an interesting consideration for Shifters like Salome who might use their power to teleport back to Wormwood from a place they might visit often, such as the Homeworld of the Demongoblins...

My guess at why this hasn't happened (or has it?) is that a similar-but-unwritten "you don't fall into the ocean, you don't get stranded in a desert" policy might govern "6." like it does "4.", so Salome will appear far enough away from the nearest nexus that it doesn't strand her inside the solid body of a planet, causing instant death like a bad teleport.

On Rifts Earth, this should also prevent problems like rifting smack into the flesh of a Millennium tree parked on the nearest nexus to your intended destination.

In her case, I would assume that the destination would thus be the nearest cave. Since caves act like being near a ley line (and not a nexus) I'm thinking this means that the thickness of wormwood around nexuses is much thicker (more than 200 feet) whereas there are points where wormwood's lines could be covered by somewhere between 1 and 199 feet of surface-flesh.

- - -

Anyway, since there are places with "nexi buried in concrete" (so to speak: Wormwood) or "no nexi" (20% of all dimension, "No Magic") we definitely need a way to resolve how that affects this ability.

I suggest floating 4's protections to 6 to avoid situation 1. Although it's not 100% necessary: it's not true teleportation, you always have the option to just not step through the portal. Perhaps to enjoy the "no oceans or deserts" benefit, the more expensive ability 4 ought to be used?

As for situation 2, you could simply say that you just can't use the ability and must use a more expensive ability that doesn't imply a need for a nexus-bus-stop, such as ability 4, or the Dimensional Portal spell.

There might be ways around this problem. Some ideas:

1) hire a Nazca Grand Master to Create Ley Line twice ("X marks the spot")
2) teleport a huge chunk of planet into another dimension, perhaps ley lines come along for the ride?
3) create a coexistence phenomenon between a place that has a nexus and the nexus-less dimension (like in Yucatan, or Psyscape)
4) build Stone Pyramids OFF of ley lines.

Re the last point, I've been under the assumption a long time that a pyramid must be touching a ley line, but I'm re-examining that assumption right now.

Atlantis 104 establishes there are such a thing as pyramids with "NO mystic powers!". Specifically this is what happens when you build more pyramids on a ley line beyond the 1 per 5 miles. I assume this is tip-to-tip, otherwise you could have smaller gaps between larger pyramids if it was measured between their centers.

As such... there could also be no-powers pyramids built off of ley lines. Reading 104's "Pyramid Technology" I can't see anything forbidding this, for example.

"All stone pyramids are mega-damage structures" is listed under ability 4 (the focus and control of available PPE) so despite "all", since it's mentioned under "The Powers of Stone Pyramids" (or POSP) it may not apply to these superfluous "late additions" pyramids, and thus not to Pyramids built off of ley lines either.

Of course even without being MDC, SDC pyramids could still be pretty sturdy structures.

Perhaps Salome has one of these stashed somewhere on Wormwood allowing her to use ability 6 without opening pointless portals into the nexus-flesh of the planet?

- - -

DB7 p 70 mentions for Spires:

Shifters who are familiar with the Dimension of Spires think of it as a "backdoor" to any continent on Rifts Earth, and use it to travel to specific destinations.

This appears to imply that Shifters have difficulty traveling to specific destinations. We know how unspecific (4) is and I don't see any reason to think that (6) would necessarily be ultra specific.

We do already know that (6) does have a specificity advantage over (4), as 'nearest nexus or pyramid' is a lot better than 'same planet' or 'same continent' and could sometimes be better than 'within 200 miles' (I'm a little unclear how frequently we find nexuses in certain areas of the world). With it already being that much better, I don't think it needs to be any more accurate than that.

This could explain why a Shifter might prefer to use Spires: go there often enough that you can "Dimensional Teleport Home" there, and then walk your way to a specific portal to a known destination that may not necessarily be a nexus or pyramid.

It also makes setting up "Circle of Travel" next to major pyramids/nexuses very valuable, since then you could hop through those rifts to get to more specific places away from nexuses without needing to go full DP.