Bountyhunter

Overview

The Bountyhunter is Rifts' cyber-augmented mercenary and bounty hunter: a professional who has traded part of their body for integrated weapons and hardware, but stopped well short of full conversion. Where a Full-Conversion Cyborg gives up their body entirely, a Bountyhunter keeps their flesh, their face, and their freedom — they're a contractor, a tracker, a hired gun who takes the job, finds the mark, and gets paid. They favor firearms and field gear over magic or psionics, work alone or run small crews, and treat cyberware as tools to be swapped for the contract rather than a permanent identity.

The Bountyhunter owns the scenes between the set-pieces: running down a fugitive across the wastes, walking into a settlement and knowing exactly who to ask, reconfiguring their loadout the night before a hit. In a fight they're dangerous and adaptable; out of one, they're the party's way of finding the person who matters.

Two pillars define the class. Mark the Bounty lets you designate a target and grow more dangerous against that specific individual — the only class whose power scales against a chosen person. Modular Armaments are built-in cyber-weapons you reconfigure between jobs. Pick STR for a heavy-weapons bruiser or DEX for a precision shooter; either way you stay a partial conversion, never the full chrome of a Cyborg, and you keep every skill and contact that makes a mercenary worth hiring.

At a glance

Two chassis notes. The Bountyhunter is Will Trained at L1 (reaching Expert only at L13) — like the Redliner and Cyborg, they're tough and fast but not mentally fortified, a deliberate, exploitable weakness against mind-affecting effects. And the STR-or-DEX key is chosen at L1 and locked: STR runs heavy weapons and melee, DEX runs precision shooting, and your class DC uses whichever you picked.

Class features by level

Armament Profiles

The integrated mount can run any of these. Damage shown is the base; Armament Upgrades at L5/L11/L17 raise the dice. All are cyber-integrated — they can't be disarmed, but they're suppressed by EMP and anti-cyber effects.

Armament damage progression

Penetrating values rise by +2 at L11 (Armament Upgrade II).

Specialties

Choose one at L1. It shapes your Mark benefit and scales at L7 (Greater) and L13 (Master).

Manhunter — the tracker who brings them back

• L1 (vs Mark): Track your Mark at full Speed with no penalty, and sense its direction (not distance) while it's within 1 mile. Your nonlethal Strikes against your Mark take no penalty, and you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Athletics to Grapple or Trip it.
• L7 Greater: Direction sense extends to 10 miles, and you learn whether your Mark is wounded, fleeing, or holed up.
• L13 Master: While your Mark is on the same plane, you always know its precise location. The Restraint Launcher's immobilize requires a critical success to end against your Mark.

Triggerman — the precision shooter

• L1 (vs Mark): When all your Strikes on your turn against your Mark are ranged armament Strikes, your multiple attack penalty is −3 on the second and −6 on the third (−2/−4 with an agile armament).
• L7 Greater: Your ranged armament Strikes against your Mark deal +1 weapon damage die.
• L13 Master: On a critical hit against your Mark with a ranged armament, the Mark takes persistent damage equal to one weapon die and is slowed 1 until the start of your next turn.

Enforcer — the front-line muscle

• L1 (vs Mark): Your melee Strikes against your Mark deal additional damage equal to your key ability modifier, and you gain a +1 circumstance bonus to Athletics and Demoralize against it.
• L7 Greater: On a critical melee hit against your Mark, you knock it back 10 feet and it's off-guard until the start of your next turn.
• L13 Master: Your Mark is frightened 1 while adjacent to you and can't reduce that fright below 1 in your reach.

Class feats

Class feats available at each feat level — you gain one at every even level, and can always pick a feat of your level or lower.

Level 1

• Quick Loadout. Reconfiguring your Modular Armaments takes 1 minute instead of 10.
• Marked for Death. When you Demoralize your Mark, you can use your key ability modifier in place of Charisma for the check.
• Steady Aim. Brace your armament; your next ranged armament Strike this turn ignores the target's cover entirely.
• Reinforced Mount. Your armament mount is hardened: anti-cyber and EMP effects take a −2 circumstance penalty to suppress it, and if suppressed it reactivates at the start of your next turn.

Level 2

• Practiced Reload. The reload of your Heavy Slug Cannon (or any armament with the reload trait) becomes a free action once per turn instead of a 1-action activity.
• Read the Mark. When you Mark a creature, you immediately learn one of the following about it: its lowest saving throw, one resistance, one weakness, or its Hardness.
• Quick Draw. You can Deploy or stow your armament as a free action, and you can draw a stowed weapon and Strike with it as a single action.

Level 4

• Hunter's Reflexes. Trigger: your Mark moves and would leave your reach or line of effect. Effect: Stride up to half your Speed toward your Mark.
• Dual Mounts. Install a second armament mount; run two profiles at once (e.g., Carbine + Vibro-Blade) and switch which is active as a once per turn.
• Suppressing Burst. (Carbine only) Fire a burst into a 15-foot cone; each creature attempts a basic Reflex save vs. your class DC against the Carbine's damage.

Level 6

• Crippling Shot. Your next armament Strike against your Mark this turn reduces the Mark's Speeds by 10 ft until the start of your next turn on a hit (by 20 ft on a critical hit).
• Marked Quarry. While a creature is your Mark, it is off-guard to your allies' attacks the first time each round any of them Strikes it after you have. You call the shots and your crew follows.
• Bounty Network. Your Mercenary's Eye sharpens into a hunter's web: +2 circumstance bonus to Track your Mark and to Gather Information about any Mark or its known associates, and you can learn a Mark's last known whereabouts with a downtime check.

Level 8

• Run Them Down. While moving toward your Mark, you ignore difficult terrain and gain a +10-foot status bonus to your Speed.
• Armor-Piercing Rounds. Your next armament Strike this turn gains +3 to its Penetrating value.
• No Escape. When your Mark attempts to Step, Stride, or Sneak away from you, make an armament Strike against it.

Level 10

• Trick Shot. Make a ranged armament Strike that ignores all cover and can ricochet around a corner to a target you can locate but not directly see. On a critical hit, the target also drops one held object of your choice.
• Relentless Hunter. Once per round, when your Mark drops below half its maximum HP or moves away from you, you may Stride toward it as a free action.
• Hardened Operative. You gain a +1 status bonus to Will saves, and reduce the value of any frightened condition on you by 1 — the Bountyhunter's mid-career answer to its own mental softness.

Level 12

• Second Contract. You can designate a third Mark (raising your maximum to three).
• Overwhelming Fire. Make two ranged armament Strikes against your Mark at your current multiple attack penalty; both gain a +1 circumstance bonus to the attack roll.
• Field Chopper. Install or reconfigure cyberware on yourself or a willing ally as a 1-hour field procedure without a surgical bay (increased critical-failure risk per the cyberware rules).

Level 14

• Overwatch. You set overwatch until the start of your next turn. The first time an enemy you can see acts within your armament's range, make a ranged armament Strike against it as a reaction.
• Headshot. When you critically hit your Mark with a ranged armament Strike, the Mark must succeed at a Fortitude save vs. your class DC or be stunned 1.
• Relentless Pursuit. While your Mark is on the same plane as you, it can't become hidden or undetected to you, and you sense its direction at any distance (as the Manhunter's Greater benefit, for any Specialty).

Level 16

• Apex Tracking. Maintain Marks on up to four creatures, and your Specialty's direction/location sense works regardless of plane.
• Executioner's Window. Against a Mark at or below one-quarter HP, a critical hit with an armament reduces it to 0 HP (no save) — lethal or capture per your Specialty.
• Master Loadout. Every Armament Profile you know is active at once on your mount(s); you can change which is in use as a free action, and you never need to reconfigure.

Level 18

• Inescapable Mark. Your armament Strikes against your Mark ignore its concealment and cover entirely, and ignore an amount of the Mark's resistance to the armament's damage type equal to your level.
• Hunter's Endurance. You've studied how your Mark fights. You gain resistance equal to half your level to all damage dealt to you by your current Mark(s).
• Changeover. When you reduce a Mark to 0 HP or capture it, you may immediately Mark a new creature you can perceive and Stride toward it, both as a single free action; your first Strike against the new Mark this turn gains a +2 circumstance bonus.

Level 20

• Perfect Hunt. Your Termination Protocol capstone triggers against a Mark at or below three-quarters of its maximum HP (instead of half), and its Success result deals triple the Strike's damage instead of double.
• One-Man Army. There is no limit to how many creatures you can have Marked at once; you may Mark any creature you can perceive, and all your Mark benefits apply to every Mark.
• Apex Hunter. Your armament Strikes ignore all Hardness when they target your Mark, and your Specialty's Master (L13) benefit applies to every Mark regardless of plane.

Where the class fits the scene

The Bountyhunter is defined by gear, but most of its identity is training, which survives losing the chrome.

What you keep without your cyberware

• Mark the Bounty and every Specialty benefit — these are skill and discipline, not implants.
• Full weapon and armor proficiency. You carry conventional weapons; a Bountyhunter is never unarmed.
• Saves, Perception, skills, and Mercenary's Eye (contacts, tracking, finding work).

What you lose

• Modular Armaments — the integrated mount is cyber, suppressed by EMP and anti-cyber effects until restored. Carry a conventional backup for exactly this reason.
• Any benefits from your installed cyberware while it's suppressed.

Spotlight

• Pursuit and the hunt: the Bountyhunter dominates — tracking, running down a fugitive, finding a specific person in a city, and out-fighting much of the roster against its Mark.
• Mercenary work and information: Mercenary's Eye makes it the party's way into contacts, contracts, and leads.
• Mind-affecting, magical, and arcane scenes: reduced. Will Trained and no magic/psi means a Mindbreaker or a dragon is bringing a fight the Bountyhunter can't answer in kind — the casters and psychics carry those.