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There are lots of magic classes that get a familiar if that is the sort of thing you mean. The Old Believer in Mystic Russia is good for that.
Palladium Fantasy has the Beastmaster in Yin-Sloth Jungles but that OCC has yet to be updated to the second edition, so it might not be too useful for you.
Rifter 51 has an optional article titled "Wolf Blood" which is about a barbarian-like tribe of people that bond with Wolves.
Dead Reign has the Hound Master OCC which is basically a guy that has an army of dogs as his command.
After the Bomb has an animal psionic which allows you to have two-way communication with animals - if you can communicate with an animal, I'm sure you could convince one or two to become your pet easily enough. Heroes Unlimited probably has an array of powers to control animals too.

You want a Shifter. Besides Supernatural "pets" and a familiar, there is also an invocation called "Tame the Beast" that, when used by a Shifter, allows for one animal/monster pet per level.

As I don't have Lemuria yet, I can't comment directly as I am not familiar with the class, but in a general sense there are a few options.

Humans are one of the few races that can get Magic Tattoos, so one of those classes that start out with Magic Tatts (Atlantis and Splyn Dim. Market books) as they do have magic animal/monsters that they summon.

Conjurer OCC (Fed of Magic) can also create animals, though there are stated limitations and you might want to check with the GM to see what they would allow. It may or may not be what you are looking for.

Blood Rider OCC (SA2pg133-5), get a mount (Blood Lizard). It should be noted that classes do start out with horses or other mounts in their equipment, so you have "pets" so to speak beyond this example (they are regarded as D-bee, but are human).

New West does have the Robot Dog and Horses models available, so one could take a regular OCC and purchase one (or more) of these.

A TW (or Operator type classes) could also make/enhance pet/mounts with the right knowledge and materials. Operator could build 'bots easily enough (I wouldn't count on being the best), and the TW would need some spells beyond baseline to make the magic equivalent. Both could theoretically make weaponized/enhanced barding for horses or other animals to be more effective (think "Dinoriders"). In either case you are likely looking at spending skills to be effective with the creatures as they are not ready out of the box.

wittie2m wrote:So quick question, having recently read World book 32: Lemuria I am enamored with the Serpent Hunter O.C.C, but my GM insists that his game has to be all human characters, I know the serpent hunter can be human, but my initial dice rolls weren't favorable enough to allow me too.
so I ask you all, the wealth of Rifts knowledge, are there any other pet classes? if so could your reference the book your using (main rifts setting only, no nightbanes, fantasy etc)

Animal Handling classes in rifts....
If the char is a Simvan then there is the Simvan Monster rider RCC.
But for humans, outside of the ones already mentioned I do not thing there is any more even in the settings outside of rifts.

Going the HU route, Power Cat's that give superpowers can lead to a char having animal controlling abilities with the right selection of super powers.
Pre-RUE, according to the RCB1 the Vagabond class is the only class in rifts that has a possibility of getting super powers. Off the top of my head I don't remember what the RCB1r says about who can get super powers. And since the RCB1r is Pre-RUE I am not sure how the rules set down in that interact with the new rules sets in RUE. (Because I really have not spent the time going over RUE with a fine toothed comb cause some changes made are so minor they really don't effect the game too much and the 'big' changes are stupid.)

Were-people can control the animals of the same type as their "beast" form. But those are racial powers, not class powers.

As to the Rifts only comment. My view on it is that if the char is native to rifts earth & play starts on rifts earth then they are a Rifts char even if a class is imported from another PB setting.

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:Going the HU route, Power Cat's that give superpowers can lead to a char having animal controlling abilities with the right selection of super powers.
Pre-RUE, according to the RCB1 the Vagabond class is the only class in rifts that has a possibility of getting super powers. Off the top of my head I don't remember what the RCB1r says about who can get super powers. And since the RCB1r is Pre-RUE I am not sure how the rules set down in that interact with the new rules sets in RUE. (Because I really have not spent the time going over RUE with a fine toothed comb cause some changes made are so minor they really don't effect the game too much and the 'big' changes are stupid.)

The original Conversion Book 1 said that all scholars & adventurers could have super powers, the vagabond just gets an extra minor ability. As far as I know the revised CB1 is still the same.

The Nazcan Line Maker also has line magic rituals which let them create energy versions of animals and monsters. You could inscribe the patterns on a sphere and throw it at your enemies as you conjure them for added effect.

Good options in any NA campaign for pet classes are shifters, Psi stalkers, Simvan, warlocks. If you want to range a bit farther afield tattoo warriors are great for somebody who wants a "pet class".

If he wants them to be all human shifter is probably one of the better options although Psi Stalkers are human'ish.

Oh forgot to mention one fun option from rifts canada which is the eskimo shaman class I don't have my book near me so I am not even going to attempt to spell it but their whole schtick is they have low PPE but have a big spirit bear companion. They can use that spirit bears PPE to power spells and to create fetishes. It is a pretty nifty balance you can have a really strong pet and a weak spell caster or a weak pet and a strong spell caster depending how they balance their PPE usage they are human and they don't suffer the goofy restrictions that show up in spirit west.

kaid wrote:snip...
If he wants them to be all human shifter is probably one of the better options although Psi Stalkers are human'ish.
...snip

Psi-Stalkers are mutant humans. What the book does not say is whether or not they is if they randomly occur with in the population. Or if their the mutations breed true to their offspring. Thus creating a sub-set of the human race that are PS's.
-------------------
There is the "Not the 'Deck of Many Things'" in R13 that you might, if lucky, get a "pet" animal or a Familiar, even if your char is not a mage.
There is also the Familiar Wrangler in one of the Rifters.

Or if you give your char "Breed Dog" that could be thought of dog training too. And thus you can make your own dog into a trained pet.

wittie2m wrote:are there any other pet classes?

There's a velociraptor-riding class in South America 2. You are pretty tight with your mount. She's a clever girl.

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:Psi-Stalkers are mutant humans.

Naw, humans are just the most well-known kind. So much so that RUE left out the d-bee option and simply packaged them with human stats.

RMBpg104 "can be a human, or a D-Bee, or a mutoid", SA2 says Amaki can be'm. The Psi-Slayer is similarly also available to Noli Bushmen (Canada) in spite of Psyscape's initial "human only".

Now that Psi-Stalker is an OCC, so long as psychci OCCs aren't excluded for a race I don't see why Slayer or Stalker should be off limits anymore.

Of course, Noli Bushmen can't be Mind Melters since that is explicitly forbidden. Similarly, any race which says they can't be a Psi-Stalker, can't.

If you guys start at level 4 go with a warlock.

Apologies if someone else posted this and I missed it, but I am surprised no one mentioned the Psi-Druid yet. They gain a number of "pet" class abilities like seeing the aura of potential pets/threats, the ability to heal them, and an empathic animal friendship ability that specifically works on both mundane (i.e. wolf, bear, cougar) animals as well as exotic (griffon, mega steed, etc) animals. Add to that a healthy toolbox of psionic powers, useful class skills, and even 2d4 Magic Herbs from Rifts England on character creation and you're good to go.

The "best" pet class is actually an RCC, the Simvan monster Rider. They also have a very powerful array of skills and hand to hand abilities, but if you're running a strictly Humans Only game your Rifts choices kind of boil down to Shifter and Psi-Druid. Though really, if your GM is cool at all, if you want a pet and expect minimum in-game advantage from it (i.e. an Operator with a house cat who usually sleeps on warm, flat surfaces) they will let you have a pet.

Shifter with a Psi-Implant that gives him Psi-Druid powers.

Tor wrote:Shifter with a Psi-Implant that gives him Psi-Druid powers.

Only powers 1-4, the actual animal affinity, Simvan-style, is power #5.

There are all kinds of possibilities.

+Simvan Monster Riders are the quintessential pet class of Rifts.
+The PF Summoner and Rifts Shifter are excellent as pet classes.
+Warlocks can summon and direct elementals, too.
+The Cernun Mystic from England is basically a pet class that uses Gigantes as pets.
+The Necromancer is very much a pet class (hordes of animated dead FTW)
+Many psychics can effectively be pet classes (if your pets are sentients).
+The Vampire can do much the same as the Mind Mage.
+The Herbologist from England is effectively a pet class (if your pets are plants).
+Any spell caster who can take on a familiar animal can be a pet class.
+Anyone with the appropriate Herbology magic wand from England can control a lesser elemental.
+Anyone with Animal Powers super abilities can control a bunch of one type of critter.

One ironic aside I forgot to mention before. Is if your Gm wants an all human team note out that lemurians are human. Genetically tinkered a bit but they are more close to unmodified humans than psi stalkers.


Other options not mentioned is having an operator who owns some robots like the NG light worker drone or Triax dynabots. People with comp skills can modify change them to give them combat skills and operators are more than capable of that.

Richardson wrote:

Tor wrote:Shifter with a Psi-Implant that gives him Psi-Druid powers.

Only powers 1-4, the actual animal affinity, Simvan-style, is power #5.

Pg 153 of the first printing says 1-5, was this possible nerfed in later reprints of Psyscape?

BEST Pet Class: T-Monster Man (I think this is in South America with all the other overpowered stuff). All you need is the PPE to summon something and to have it tattooed on your person. Canonically speaking I believe you can have a MAX of 4 active tattoos at one time...or maybe 5. But there's some SICK-ASS Tattoos and Tattoo classes in Rifter #52 or something...forgot which one.

Witchcraft wrote:BEST Pet Class: T-Monster Man (I think this is in South America with all the other overpowered stuff). All you need is the PPE to summon something and to have it tattooed on your person. Canonically speaking I believe you can have a MAX of 4 active tattoos at one time...or maybe 5. But there's some SICK-ASS Tattoos and Tattoo classes in Rifter #52 or something...forgot which one.

Any of the T men are excellent "pet" classes as they can get very strong MDC monster pets that are 100% reliable in their duration for reasonable PPE costs. The T monster mans specials is not so much of a pet class but a weird magic power armor class as they pretty much "wear" the monster form and pilot it.

That said any T man is a good pet class option if you take a couple of the MDC critter tattoos.

Tor wrote:

wittie2m wrote:are there any other pet classes?

There's a velociraptor-riding class in South America 2. You are pretty tight with your mount. She's a clever girl.

more Allosaurus or Abelisaurus than Velociraptor. for one, no foot claw. for two, it's the size of an Elephant, not a Doberman.

glitterboy2098 wrote:

Tor wrote:

wittie2m wrote:are there any other pet classes?

There's a velociraptor-riding class in South America 2. You are pretty tight with your mount. She's a clever girl.

more Allosaurus or Abelisaurus than Velociraptor. for one, no foot claw. for two, it's the size of an Elephant, not a Doberman.

I do think he means the "Blood Rider" class. The one where the humanoid psychically bonds with the Near Sentient Quazy-Dino.

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:

glitterboy2098 wrote:

Tor wrote:

wittie2m wrote:are there any other pet classes?

There's a velociraptor-riding class in South America 2. You are pretty tight with your mount. She's a clever girl.

more Allosaurus or Abelisaurus than Velociraptor. for one, no foot claw. for two, it's the size of an Elephant, not a Doberman.

I do think he means the "Blood Rider" class. The one where the humanoid psychically bonds with the Near Sentient Quazy-Dino.

i know. just commenting on his description of the Bloodlizard. it's more a Allosaur or Abelisaur than a Dromaeosaur.

it's really not any of them, but if we're going to be using real species for metaphoric description, we might as well use an accurate one.

kaid wrote:

Witchcraft wrote:BEST Pet Class: T-Monster Man (I think this is in South America with all the other overpowered stuff). All you need is the PPE to summon something and to have it tattooed on your person. Canonically speaking I believe you can have a MAX of 4 active tattoos at one time...or maybe 5. But there's some SICK-ASS Tattoos and Tattoo classes in Rifter #52 or something...forgot which one.

Any of the T men are excellent "pet" classes as they can get very strong MDC monster pets that are 100% reliable in their duration for reasonable PPE costs. The T monster mans specials is not so much of a pet class but a weird magic power armor class as they pretty much "wear" the monster form and pilot it.

To clarify: you can activate up to 6 tattoos simultaneously...

and the T-Monster Man class is from Atlantis and are simply guys who pay 1/2 PPE to activate monster tattoos. Kaid is describing the Monster SHAPER from SA who have the monster power armor stuff.

I prefer the Men to the Shapers since you can launch expendable minions at enemies from a distance rather than put yourself in danger.

Tor wrote:

kaid wrote:

Witchcraft wrote:BEST Pet Class: T-Monster Man (I think this is in South America with all the other overpowered stuff). All you need is the PPE to summon something and to have it tattooed on your person. Canonically speaking I believe you can have a MAX of 4 active tattoos at one time...or maybe 5. But there's some SICK-ASS Tattoos and Tattoo classes in Rifter #52 or something...forgot which one.

Any of the T men are excellent "pet" classes as they can get very strong MDC monster pets that are 100% reliable in their duration for reasonable PPE costs. The T monster mans specials is not so much of a pet class but a weird magic power armor class as they pretty much "wear" the monster form and pilot it.

To clarify: you can activate up to 6 tattoos simultaneously...

and the T-Monster Man class is from Atlantis and are simply guys who pay 1/2 PPE to activate monster tattoos. Kaid is describing the Monster SHAPER from SA who have the monster power armor stuff.

I prefer the Men to the Shapers since you can launch expendable minions at enemies from a distance rather than put yourself in danger.

Ah yes you are correct when they were talking about south america was thinking they were talking about the weird ones who wear their tattoo critters.

Ya I much prefer the monster men although the shapers can get some STUPID MDC levels at really low levels. Not a ton of offense but they are damn hard to ever kill and on a ley line its not even worth trying you will die of boredom before the shaper dies.

I'd just wait out the shapers. I can't remember if T-Men can tap ley lines normally.

I think shifters are the most common pet classes.

The Sumner from PF/convertion book 1 can be a pet class.

The least expected pet class I think will be a TW that specializes in robots. They may not start out with a pet but could build maintain one.

There is a spell in I believe source book 1 a common invocation summon greater familiar. Allows most mages to a pet, about equal to lessor demon is subject to GM discretion but might allow fae, sprits of light and possibly lesser Elementals.

Super psionic ability of empathic transmission should work. So a mind melter would be feasible "This incredible ability enables the psychic to instill a powerful emotion into another living creature, person, animal or supernatural being" Includes despair/sorrow, confusion, fear, hate/anger, love/peacefulness or trust." I think it could be argued that although the power is temporary, that repeated use of the love/peacefulness or trust power in conjunction with trustworthy behavior while an animal is under its influence could tame that animal, depending on its nature. Still, that's up to GM interpretation, so you can never be sure.

Hypnotic suggestion could also play a potential role "the power is limited to relaxing/calming somebody down, putting a person or animal into a light sleep.."

Also, I don't think tattooed men can "tap the lines". So no extra PPE - just those from the tattoos. However, all magic is enhanced in strength at a ley line e.g. extra mdc for a "spell" that generates it, it's not just extra ppe provided..

BlueLion wrote:I think shifters are the most common pet classes.

The Sumner from PF/convertion book 1 can be a pet class.

The least expected pet class I think will be a TW that specializes in robots. They may not start out with a pet but could build maintain one.

There is a spell in I believe source book 1 a common invocation summon greater familiar. Allows most mages to a pet, about equal to lessor demon is subject to GM discretion but might allow fae, sprits of light and possibly lesser Elementals.

It allows them to summon a lesser supernatural being. The megaverse book has some charts that seem to indicate this would be demons/dyvals/spirits of light/entities such as tectonic entities/lesser elementals. So if you don't want to play around with evil critters as a shifter lesser elementals/native american spirits from spirit west would be pretty good targets for non evil shifters.

Eclipse wrote:Super psionic ability of empathic transmission should work. So a mind melter would be feasible "This incredible ability enables the psychic to instill a powerful emotion into another living creature, person, animal or supernatural being" Includes despair/sorrow, confusion, fear, hate/anger, love/peacefulness or trust." I think it could be argued that although the power is temporary, that repeated use of the love/peacefulness or trust power in conjunction with trustworthy behavior while an animal is under its influence could tame that animal, depending on its nature. Still, that's up to GM interpretation, so you can never be sure.

Hypnotic suggestion could also play a potential role "the power is limited to relaxing/calming somebody down, putting a person or animal into a light sleep.."

I have always thought the same with empathic transmission. Do it over a long enough period of time and act in a way that bolsters the belief you are trying to instill and you could turn somebody into a super loyal lackey although you would have to be really careful that it does not morph into into the obsessed girlfriend/boy friend zone which could get dicey.

Tor wrote:

wittie2m wrote:are there any other pet classes?

There's a velociraptor-riding class in South America 2. You are pretty tight with your mount. She's a clever girl.

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:Psi-Stalkers are mutant humans.

Naw, humans are just the most well-known kind. So much so that RUE left out the d-bee option and simply packaged them with human stats.

RMBpg104 "can be a human, or a D-Bee, or a mutoid", SA2 says Amaki can be'm. The Psi-Slayer is similarly also available to Noli Bushmen (Canada) in spite of Psyscape's initial "human only".

Now that Psi-Stalker is an OCC, so long as psychic OCCs aren't excluded for a race I don't see why Slayer or Stalker should be off limits anymore.

Of course, Noli Bushmen can't be Mind Melters since that is explicitly forbidden. Similarly, any race which says they can't be a Psi-Stalker, can't.

After referencing the Psi-Stalker text in RUE.
Now as of RUE, the Psi-Stalker are a human sub-race of people mutated by the energies of the coming of the rifts that breeds true with itself. As such they are race unto themselves. Which does make the labeling that was placed on it wrong. Their classes are Racial Classes (even thou they stuck with and mislabels as one of the POCC's) since they are limited to the Psi-Stalker Race.

Yes, I know NM you hate me pointing out how KS and crew messed up in their labeling and will insist I am wrong. But I am only taking what they have written and pointing out their , let's say, "Inconsistencies" in it, whatever the inconsistencies are due to.

However, for the rest of you, while I say what they are according to what the text of the class says they are w/o any style filter applied to the labeling. The Rifts canon labeling will often be different (i.e:stupidly wrong) from I state here.

Tor wrote:... I can't remember if T-Men can tap ley lines normally.

No, t-man can't gather power from LL and LLN.

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:

Tor wrote:... I can't remember if T-Men can tap ley lines normally.

No, t-man can't gather power from LL and LLN.

Actually they can. Pg 93 Atlantis Bottom right corner.

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:as of RUE, the Psi-Stalker are a human sub-race of people mutated by the energies of the coming of the rifts that breeds true with itself. As such they are race unto themselves.

The RUE-stalkers are certainly human-only, but the Main-stalkers are still open to D-Bees

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:t-man can't gather power from LL and LLN.

Greyaxe wrote:Actually they can. Pg 93 Atlantis Bottom right corner.

I was actually thinking they couldn't as Drew did. I think maybe we mixed up our memories with those pertaining to the Rune Warrior (a different kind of tattooed warrior in SA2pg29) since they can't draw on ley lines, living beings or other sources. Although being close to a line/nexus does boost their personal recovery rate.

Tor wrote:

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:as of RUE, the Psi-Stalker are a human sub-race of people mutated by the energies of the coming of the rifts that breeds true with itself. As such they are race unto themselves.

The RUE-stalkers are certainly human-only, but the Main-stalkers are still open to D-Bees

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:t-man can't gather power from LL and LLN.

Greyaxe wrote:Actually they can. Pg 93 Atlantis Bottom right corner.

I was actually thinking they couldn't as Drew did. I think maybe we mixed up our memories with those pertaining to the Rune Warrior (a different kind of tattooed warrior in SA2pg29) since they can't draw on ley lines, living beings or other sources. Although being close to a line/nexus does boost their personal recovery rate.

I do not think they where intended to be D-bees that seams type-o in the fluff as the are a RCC.
You can not have a RCC and pick a race as your race is your class.

Why you quote the T-man stuff?

If Kev wrote they could be D-bees or Mutoids in addition to human, that's what he intended. It's not just 'fluff' because you have a different idea of what RCC means compared to the author.

You can indeed have an RCC and pick a race. That's how it always was, and why we can have Elven Mind Melters and Dwarven Bursters.

The meaning of RCC got changed a bit with the 'psychic classes are OCCs' bit, of course.

Yet Psi-Stalkers and Dog Boys are now OCCs. Why's that?

BlueLion wrote:

Tor wrote:

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:as of RUE, the Psi-Stalker are a human sub-race of people mutated by the energies of the coming of the rifts that breeds true with itself. As such they are race unto themselves.

The RUE-stalkers are certainly human-only, but the Main-stalkers are still open to D-Bees

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:t-man can't gather power from LL and LLN.

Greyaxe wrote:Actually they can. Pg 93 Atlantis Bottom right corner.

I was actually thinking they couldn't as Drew did. I think maybe we mixed up our memories with those pertaining to the Rune Warrior (a different kind of tattooed warrior in SA2pg29) since they can't draw on ley lines, living beings or other sources. Although being close to a line/nexus does boost their personal recovery rate.

I do not think they where intended to be D-bees that seams type-o in the fluff as the are a RCC.
You can not have a RCC and pick a race as your race is your class.

The RCC term has morphed a bit over time and is used sloppily.

Originally an RCC was a racial character class where if you made something of that race like a dragon then you always were that class and there were no options.

The RCC tag sometimes got mentioned on things like elves/dwarves but they are not an RCC they are just a race.

Over time the RCC tag and race have gotten super muddied as it stands now you pretty much have to check each race description to see if it mentions access to any other OCC. For races that have an RCC and have occ options you can either chose to stick to your racial RCC or give that up and go with your OCC.

These days it is about a 50/50 chance of if you are looking at some DB race if you will have an option to pick an OCC or if they can only be the default RCC for that race.

And to make it even more murky some newer OCC specifically give some races an option to be that OCC even when that race cannot otherwise pick an OCC such as the faerie bot as of the black market book can be a black market refurbisher as it specially says faerie bots are an available option for that OCC.

The more I hear about that Black Market book the more I like it. Un-numbered books are easy to forget to look into though. Pleasant surprise they remember the Fairie-Bot.