I'm a Leyline Walker & don't know what to do

[Anderlith]

I'm in a RIFTS game playing a D'norr Devilman leyline walker. I'm an experianced RIFTS player but I've always played Powerarmor/Samas pilots & other tech inclined characters with a few psychics thrown in. I've never played a magic user & I don't know which are good spells & which aren't & what a leyline walker's role in combat & out of combat is.

By the way my MA is a 30 & plan to play as a charming spell-slinger of texas

[LibraryOgre]

Carpet of Adhesion is pretty much, flat out, the most broken spell a wizard can have. Chameleon is also terribly useful, especially as a combat buff... cast Chameleon, then cast, and move slowly. You're almost impossible to see, and can do a fair amount of damage.

For the most part, mages in Palladium are about debuffs and information. Your best bet on spells are going to be debuffing. You won't do as much damage as a gunner, and certainly not as much as anyone with a missile, but you can throw out a lot of "you suck now" spells.

Focus on spells with either no save OR a "roll X on your dodge" kind of save... the numbers are wonky in the extreme, so you can usually trash people with those.

[Crazysaneman]

First off, allow me to say I hate you. I have been trying to find a RIFTS game in my area FOREVER! XD
Rifts was the first tabletop I ever played, and I played a ley-line walker to boot. I played him to be an info gatherer, and kind of an early-warning system for our home city. The specific game system was like the RIFT MMO, but many, many years before that game came out.

I don't remember a specific loadout but I remember the roleplay for that toon was the best I ever had. Inquisitive, young, naieve walker... :sigh:

[hamlet]

Yeah, let me second that hate and jealousy. It's been absolutely forever since I've been able to play a Palladium game, and I miss it dearly.

As for a ley line walker, really Mark Hall has it mostly right. You're best stuff, especially at early levels and without other circumstances working for/against you, are going to be little things that hamper enemies and help your party in modest ways.

HOWEVER.

That being said, as a Leyline Walker, leylines and nexuses (nexi?) are your friends. And there are, in the Palladium Magic book which I recommend if you can get your hands on it, a bunch of spells that are straight up nukes, but require big buckets of power to throw out there. Lure somebody within range of where you get a nice big power boost and just unload on them. You can make Hiroshima look like a great big nuthin' if you really want to go all out.

Off the lines, stay mobile, stay unobtrusive, stay out of the way of the guys with the really big guns and while they're raining down fire on the big bads, you can definately work on the secondaries.

It's kind of a role reversal from D&D 3.x, really.