Mind Mage

[Dice Collector]

I was thinking about making a new mind mage. What race would work best? By the way we are 7th or 8th level.

[Library Ogre]

Super-basic?

Changelings have a high ME.
Humans are pretty unremarkable anywhere.
Wolfen give you some decent physical abilities on top of your mental powers.

[Nekira Sudacne]

Gonna be honest, Mind Mages are powerful enough, if played well, to make race irrelevant. Play whatever you find most fun to play and make sure to get Bio Manipulation, super telekinesis, and TK Force Field. Every turn your either making someone save vs paralysis, or throwing boulders at them, while hiding behind a huge SDC Wall. The only stat that matters is your ISP pool.

[ShadowLogan]

What race would work best? By the way we are 7th or 8th level.

Please define the parameters for "work best". Or put another way, what racial "perks" are you looking for.

ME would be a prime attribute to look at as it drives both your save vs psionics and ISP pool. The best race in the main book would be the Changelings, though I can't confirm if they hold that title with additional books.

An Emirin (giant psionic cat, they might be challenging to play) gets a higher than normal ME (not as good as a changeling), they don't start with a better ISP pool (equal), but their ISP gained per level is slightly better than the baseline Mind Mage (all things being equal would add up over time). The Emirin is found in Rifts Conversion Book 1r (pg149-50), but I don't have the original PF sourcing for it.

If comfortable with importing from other dimensions (and have them available) see here or else ignore this

Spoiler:

Mechanboid, likely AbM type are all psychics and some of them can have very high ISP. As cyborgs getting repairs could be a factor to consider.

Rifts also offers the:
Shaydor Spherian (WB2 pg77-9) Master psychics who use the Mind Melter table and have better starting ISP though slower per level ISP. Will need to work out their SDC/HP conversion.

Dirari Ectoman (WB30 pg66-71), Master Psychic Race, ISP is a bit stunted by comparison (offset by some stuff for free I guess), natural SDC race (recommend reduction of values)

Ecto-Traveler (SB3) could be visiting the Palladium World via the Astral Plane, maybe (host body is on Rifts Earth and traveled via an ectoplasmic "avatar") though off hand I don't recall their power level.

The South American World Books have psionic mutants and a race of psionic giants (#1 IIRC). Psycape might also have something in terms of race (conversions might be necessary, I forget if PB was doing built in HP/SDC conversions by this time).

[/spoiler

[Veknironth]

Well, as people have said, a 7th level Mind Mage is going to be a dominant force with a whopping 28 lesser abilities and 21 Super abilities. But if you REALLY want to cheese it, Female Eandroth Rogue. They start with 2d6x10 +140 ISP. That's the RACIAL ISP.

-Vek
"Now a GM might decide that that ISP is in place of the Mind Mage ISP, but if not, then you could have ISP in the 400-500 range at 7th level."

[Curbludgeon]

The Kildred (lands of the damned 1:chaos lands, pg 73) are pretty ridiculous. but arguably make better Wizards with psionics than a dedicated Mind Mage+.

Not that it applies here, but a Mind Mage brought over to Rifts is almost always a stronger mechanical choice than playing a Mind Melter from Rifts Earth. In addition to Conversion Book bonuses the Mind Mage can select more powers per level.

[ShadowLogan]

Not that it applies here, but a Mind Mage brought over to Rifts is almost always a stronger mechanical choice than playing a Mind Melter from Rifts Earth. In addition to Conversion Book bonuses the Mind Mage can select more powers per level.

Regardless though both classes will run out of powers before reaching max level, though I forget when that will happen off hand for each (at least sticking to the main book listings for powers, though additions have been added post MB I don't know how well those might offset that).


Additional Rifts find (if one doesn't want to import don't look)

Spoiler:

Though if looking to create an ISP pool, the Rifts Psymbiote (WB12 pg105-7) has the potential to "break" ISP pools with the right host. The creature is a Master Psychic, with better than Mind Melter/Mage starting ISP of 4d6x10 + ME (which is 3d6+6, so high) which is pooled/combined with the host. Which means with the right host selection one could be looking at a large pool of starting ISP at level 1 (and technically access to level restricted powers).

Note the creature stats are MDC w/no HP/SDC conversion.

[Curbludgeon]

Using their settings' main books only, a Mind Mage runs out of Super Psionic selections at levels 10+, while a Mind Melter only selecting Super Psionics when available doesn't run out. It's a non-issue for the other categories. Folding in the newer psionics from Coalition Manhunters, as well as options from Nightbane and elsewhere, lets the Mind Mage make selections through 15.

[ShadowLogan]

The PF2E Mind Mage will not have any remaining options at Level 10 (the available 27 Super Psionics are reached at Level 9 unless I goofed) and hits 44 Lesser Psionics (out of 53 available) at Level 15. That means the Mind Mage misses out on a selection of 18 Super Psionic Power Slots that are available to them. (I don't object to megaversal importing either, but if one doesn't have the books to import from or isn't/doesn't allowed to it can be a potential issue is what I am saying).

The Rifts Mind Melter is a bit more complicated. I noticed the issue back in RMB-era, not RUE-era. The RUE-era doesn't have the issue after computing it (never looked into it for RUE). The RMB-era does but it doesn't per say. While the RMB-era can max out any Category, the level advancement is for 2 powers per level in Rifts (PF2E had 2 Lesser AND 3 Super per level) though any given category can be reached before Level 15 (MM can have selected all MB powers at Level 10 for example, Psycape and/or CSMH can raise the level). So while the MM doesn't leave unfilled slots, they can still max out Categories (my bad)..

Something I never noticed really until doing this comparison is that the Mind Melter should be less power "cookie cutter" than the Mind Mage (using only Main Book) by 15th Level. The Mind Mage will have 68 out of 80 powers available (with 18 open super slots), versus a Mind Melter-UE with 48 out of 89 powers available or a Mind Melter-MB with 48 out of 58 powers. That means powers will differ by 15% for a Mind Mage (using just main book), versus 47% for Melter-UE (18% for MB) when they reach Level 15. Adding Rifts Supplments (like Psycape, which is largely integrated with UE) to the Mind Melter just allows more diversity to that line, I'm not sure of any dedicated for PF and megaversal importing applied uniformly would increase the diversity, still means that the Mind Mage ends up more "cookie cutter" than the Mind Melter though.