Spitballing ideas - Mineral Alien Stone Master

[Daniel Stoker]

I was talking about various non-human mages with a friend the other night who's interested in Rifts and she brought up the question if being a Mineral Alien would have any effect on someone who's a Stone Master and would their body count a some type of gem.

[edit]One of my thoughts was being able to make a type of 'tattoo magic' with gems and their bodies, but I wasn't really sure how to look at/work this so I figured I'd see what others thought about this.


Daniel Stoker

[Nekira Sudacne]

I was talking about various non-human mages with a friend the other night who's interested in Rifts and she brought up the question if being a Mineral Alien would have any effect on someone who's a Stone Master and would their body count a some type of gem.

[edit]One of my thoughts was being able to make a type of 'tattoo magic' with gems and their bodies, but I wasn't really sure how to look at/work this so I figured I'd see what others thought about this.


Daniel Stoker

I have to say nothing in the Stone Masters powers indicates gem tattoos could work for any life form, mineral or not. they have the power to draw power from certain stones to cast spells out of them with said power. Nothing lets them grant this power to anyone else. Maybe a Stone Master could have some gems implanted in themselves to make it easy to draw on, but sinse they lose all magic within 3-6 uses, it'd be really painful to have to replace them constantly to boot. (if of course, your friend wants to INVENT gem tattoos out of whole cloth, that's going into pure homebrew territory)

Likewise, as far as using the mineral alien AS a magic gem, I have to say no. it says that the gems must be "pure". to be alive, the mineral alien has to have biological processes, which requires more than one kind of thing. there's no alien that's just "A solid ruby". it has to have other systems in order to live and move, no matter what kind of metabolism it has, and so isn't pure, and cannot be used for gem magic. if they ARE just a moving hunk of Ruby or other gem, then they would have to be a supernatural being and not just an alien, as they would have no biological processes, in which case it'd probablly just have it's own magic as some kind of quasi-earth-elemental being.

Overall, I hate to disapoint your friend, but i'd have to say I don't think stone masters could really interact with mineral aliens in any meaningful way, at least, not in any way they couldn't interact with normal people. the requirement for pure, polished gems with no flaws rules out living beings which are impure and flawed by definition of biology

[glitterboy2098]

i could see a mineral Alien being very interested in stone master magic, and studying to become one though.

[Nekira Sudacne]

i could see a mineral Alien being very interested in stone master magic, and studying to become one though.

Oh, sure, I imagine they could, i'm just saying a biological mineral alien wouldn't be pure enough to BE a gem for stone magic.

[Brayon]

By canon rules, I don't see the Stone Master's abilities working on a Mineral Alien. I am in agreement that they could study, & become a practitioner like other races can. It could be argued that a Diamond Mineral Alien, could do the Diamond gem powers, & sacrifice some HP to pull off the power. HP regens as normal. So, in that case, & would be GM's call, the Alien might be able to do the powers of what they are made off.

[Blue_Lion]

By canon rules, I don't see the Stone Master's abilities working on a Mineral Alien. I am in agreement that they could study, & become a practitioner like other races can. It could be argued that a Diamond Mineral Alien, could do the Diamond gem powers, & sacrifice some HP to pull off the power. HP regens as normal. So, in that case, & would be GM's call, the Alien might be able to do the powers of what they are made off.

Most mineral aliens on the books become mdc in rifts so would be md not hp.

[ShadowLogan]

I was talking about various non-human mages with a friend the other night who's interested in Rifts and she brought up the question if being a Mineral Alien would have any effect on someone who's a Stone Master and would their body count a some type of gem.

[edit]One of my thoughts was being able to make a type of 'tattoo magic' with gems and their bodies, but I wasn't really sure how to look at/work this so I figured I'd see what others thought about this.


Daniel Stoker

Honestly I think it would depend on the nature of the mineral alien.

If the mineral alien in question is the actual alien (like the Obsedi in DBoNA) then I agree with the others. However, if the alien is an energy being who uses it as a vessel/body (like the Spherians in 1E RT) I would have to say yes, a Stone Master could go to work on them depending on the specific materials in their body. Off hand I don't know of any aliens in Rifts that work like Spherians from 1E RT.

As far as "tattoo magic" via Gem Powers, a Stone Master could go with piercings that can hold gems that are replaceable since Stone Magic slowly destroys the gem in question with each casting. This wouldn't require them to be mineral either.

[say652]

I made a mineral Alien warlock.

By adding themed minor super powers, dual class megahero things can get pretty cool.

For your stone master.
Body weapons or regrow limbs would be cool.
Aps Plant, with a cool gm tack on Growth.

Alie power category.
Jungle homeworld, prehensile feet and tail.

Mutant.
Ambidextrous.
Double Jointed.
Monstrous clawed hands.
Stocky.
Tough lumpy skin.

Cef Earth.
Flight Wingless.
Underwater Abilities.
Wizardly. Blackvault power.

Dual class Megahero.
Stone Master.

[say652]

I liked the idea of an Earth Child Stone Master.

[Blue_Lion]

In theory a mineral based life form could add gems to there body as a type of body art without a piercing to hold them. As such it could cast spells from the gems implanted in its body. I am going to check AU later for a good candidate for the idea.

[Blue_Lion]

Found two possible candidates on the books from AU revised.

Bassanite pg 132 are a smooth crystal life form that can be mages. They use a unique crystal based technology. Draw back they give off radiation.

Lassinikes pg 137 are a dense clear glass like aliens, that are all natural mages. According to the book about 20,000 where captured and sold as slaves on a multi dimensional market. They do not eat but feed on PPE from the environment.

I would recommend the Lassinikes as a stone master mage. Giving that some where sold as slaves it is possible that some wound up in Atlantis and where trained as stone masters. -using implanted gems like tattoos might make a interesting twist not sure where my Atlantis book is but if I recall right it said they needed a gem to cast a spell but do not remember it saying it was consumed so it seams feasible. (if the gems where consumed it would make them extremely poor choose as a caster)