Field Researcher

Overview

The Field Researcher is Rifts' independent researcher of tech and natural phenomena. Where the Archivist studies pre-Rifts history and magical anomalies, the Field Researcher studies modern science — physics, chemistry, biology, dimensional physics, exotic materials. They identify unknown technologies, replicate captured devices, conduct experiments, and work to understand the post-Rifts world's strange new phenomena from a scientific rather than mystical angle.

Field Researchers are skeptical, analytical, and methodological. They tend to be in service to specific research programs or operating independently with their own labs. They can be Federation-aligned (much of Federation science is rogue from a Pre-Rifts standpoint), corporate (Naruni, Northern Gun), or wasteland independents.

The class is built around Crafting and Society, the Specialization framework, and a research Lab that turns downtime into reverse-engineered gear and hard-won intelligence. Where the Operator fixes the engine, the Field Researcher understands why the new alloy is stronger.

At a glance

Class features by level

Sub-Specializations

Lab Scientist

• L1: +1 status bonus to Tech Lore.
• L7 (Greater): identify the origin of unknown tech via lab analysis (a research activity, no daily cap).
• L15 (Master): Predict technological-advancement trajectories.

Field Researcher

• L1: +1 status bonus to Salvage.
• L7 (Greater): Field-test prototype designs in the wilderness.
• L15 (Master): Identify entire ecosystem dynamics from limited samples.

Inventor

• L1: +1 status bonus to Improvisation. Build a Prototype Device from Improvisation with a downtime build (gated by build time, no daily cap).
• L7 (Greater): Prototypes operate at −1 status (vs. −2 for standard Improvisation).
• L15 (Master): Prototypes operate at full status (no penalty).

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. Like the Archivist, the Field Researcher isn't a martial; its combat relevance comes from reading the machine and feeding the party an edge, plus a little improvised hardware.

Level 1

• Skill Specialist. Gain an additional Specialization beyond your class's 3 starting.
• Research Network. Query a web of fellow researchers for information on a tech or scientific topic; a response arrives in 1–2 days.
• Tech Specialist. Gain another tech-themed Specialization.
• Tech Analysis. When you Recall Knowledge about a construct, vehicle, machine, or tech-using creature, you may grant one ally who can see or hear you a +1 circumstance bonus to their next attack roll or skill check against it before the end of your next turn. Once per round.

Level 2

• Quick Analysis. You can Recall Knowledge about a device, construct, vehicle, or tech-using creature you can perceive as a single action.
• Improvised Tool. You're always considered to have appropriate tools for Crafting and Thievery, and you gain a +1 status bonus to Crafting checks to Repair.
• Jury-Rigged Gadget. Requires salvage or scrap on hand. Produce a single-use improvised gadget — a flash-charge (dazzle one creature, Reflex save), a shock-prod (electricity + off-guard on a hit), or a smoke pop (concealment). Keep one prepared at a time; out of combat you make them freely.

Level 4

• Combat Lab. Your Lab includes minor defensive measures — tripwires, security drones, automated alarms — that you can deploy to defend a position.
• Improvisation Mastery. Improvised gear operates at −1 status instead of −2, and the penalty fades after a week of break-in use.
• Field Lab. Your Lab's analysis bonus and basic functions travel with you in a portable kit, working in the field for the duration of an expedition.

Level 6

• Comprehensive Scan. When you Recall Knowledge about a construct, vehicle, or tech-using creature, you learn all its resistances, weaknesses, and immunities at once and can relay them to the party as a free action.
• Scientific Insight. Once per 10 minutes, ask the GM one factual question about the current situation that your science would plausibly cover.
• Exploit Schematics. Trigger: a construct, vehicle, or tech-using creature you've Recalled Knowledge on targets you or an ally. The target of its action gains a +1 circumstance bonus to AC or the triggered save.

Level 8

• Mass Reverse-Engineer. You can Reverse-Engineer up to 3 captured items at once in a single research effort.
• Field Theory. You can apply lab-rigor analysis in the field, without your Lab.
• Master Analyst. Your Tech Analysis bonus increases to +2 and applies to every ally who can see or hear you against the studied machine.

Level 10

• Improviser. Your Jury-Rigged Gadgets gain an additional effect or larger area, and you can keep up to three prepared at once.
• Reverse-Engineer Master. Your Reverse-Engineer works on any captured technology, takes a fraction of the time, and lets you craft the result at reduced cost.
• Field Engineer. From salvage, deploy improvised defenses or sabotage in the field — a trap, an EMP charge (devastating to constructs, vehicles, power armor, and cyberware), or a breaching charge.

Level 12

• Custom Prototype. Over a multi-week downtime project, build a high-tier prototype device to your specifications. The project time is the limiter; no daily cap.
• Cross-Discipline Insight. Apply your scientific method to magical or social problems, using Crafting or Society for Recall Knowledge where another skill would normally be required.
• Weakness Exploit. When you reveal a machine's or creature's weakness, the first ally to deal that weakness's damage type to it each round treats the weakness value as one step higher.

Level 14

• Encyclopedic Tech. You can never critically fail a Recall Knowledge check about technology, you're always treated as having an applicable Lore, and your tech-knowledge bonuses apply to all allies within 30 ft.
• Master Researcher. Your downtime research and analysis take a fraction of the normal time, and you can study any subject regardless of how exotic it is.
• Sabotage Savant. With a successful analysis-based action, you can disable or cripple a construct, vehicle, or piece of cyberware you can reach — shutting down a system, jamming a weapon, or seizing a drivetrain.

Level 16

• Living Theory. Your Lab becomes a research engine, producing hypotheses about local phenomena automatically; you can search it for any topic in 10 minutes.
• Predictive Mastery. With a focused analysis, predict the likely behavior of a person, place, or situation over the coming week (a research activity; the GM controls what's foreseeable). No daily cap.
• EMP Specialist. Your anti-machine effects (gadgets, Field Engineer charges, Sabotage Savant) ignore Hardness and deal a devastating extra effect to constructs, vehicles, power armor, and cyberware.

Level 18

• Prescient Analyst. Trigger: an ally within 30 ft fails an attack roll or save, or is critically hit. The ally rerolls the failed roll, or you reduce a critical hit against them to a normal hit. Once per round.
• Master Inventor. You can build prototype and improvised devices in a fraction of the time, and your prototypes operate at full quality (no improvisation penalty).
• Universal Schematics. You can operate, pilot, or interface with any technology, vehicle, or computer system at your highest proficiency rank, and bypass tech security as a routine action.

Level 20

• The Sum of All Science. When you Recall Knowledge about a creature or machine, you learn everything about it and mark it for the party: until the end of the encounter, all allies gain a +2 status bonus to attack rolls and skill checks against it.
• Master Scientist's Lab. Your capstone Predictive Analysis gains broader scope (any complex situation) and you can perform it on a moment's analysis rather than only after focused study.
• Foreseen Outcome. Once per round, grant an ally attacking a machine or creature you've studied this encounter an expanded critical range — a critical hit on a natural 19 or 20 against it.

Where the class shines

The Field Researcher is primarily a downtime and investigation specialist with a light combat presence, much like the Archivist. The class earns its spotlight by turning the unknown into the understood:

• Unknown tech: identify, classify, and reverse-engineer captured devices — including unfamiliar cyberware, which makes the Field Researcher a strong intelligence-gatherer alongside the Chopper.
• Strange phenomena: Experimental Hypothesis and Predictive Analysis pull truthful facts out of the post-Rifts world's mysteries.
• The lab bench: reverse-engineering and prototyping convert downtime into gear the whole party uses.
• Open combat: not the Field Researcher's arena — this is where the party's martial classes carry the scene.