Redliner

Overview

The Redliner is Rifts' bio-augmented combat specialist: a human who has voluntarily had a complete bio-mechanical rig installed — hormone injectors, neural accelerators, dermal plating, reflex boosters — that grants superhuman speed, strength, and reaction time at the cost of an inescapable burnout clock. Most Redliners live five to seven years after activation before their body can no longer keep up with the demands the rig places on it. They know this when they sign up. The class is defined by that bargain: the best years of a soldier's career, compressed into a brief candle that burns at both ends.

Redliners in canon are jittery, paranoid, fast-talking, and constantly running on a chemical edge. They're not magical, not psionic, not particularly heavily armored — they're biology pushed past its limits, and the limits push back.

The rig is biology, not arcana. It cannot be unequipped or set aside — it is the class. You fight as a fast, hard-hitting martial whose every burst of augmented power feeds a Burnout track that grants real combat benefits at higher tiers while threatening to drop you into a debilitating Crash. Pushing the rig is always a tactical decision, never pure cost.

At a glance

Two chassis notes worth flagging. The rig boosts physical resilience and reaction speed simultaneously, so you start both Fort and Ref Expert at L1 — unusual for a martial. But the augmentation isn't a mental enhancement: Redliners are notoriously easy to charm, panic, and manipulate, so you begin only Will Trained. Your mental fragility is part of the class, not a weakness to paper over — your entire identity is physical.

Class features by level

Burnout states

Speed bonuses in this table represent the L1 baseline. Augmentation Mastery I (L9) and II (L17) add +5 ft each to every state except Crash.

Variants

The Standard Redliner described throughout this page is the default. Rifts has heavier and stranger rigs that play as alternative builds:

Standard Redliner (default)

The iconic combat juicer. Balanced augmentation rig, 5–7 year lifespan, standard burnout curve.

Mega-Redliner

• 6 starting bio-augmentations instead of 4 (extra hormone systems, secondary neural rig).
• +1 status to damage on all Strikes, +5 ft additional Speed in all Burnout states.
• Lifespan compressed to 2–3 years. The clock runs much faster.
• Each Juice expenditure advances Burnout by 2 instead of 1. The Mega-Redliner hits Crash dramatically sooner — a few spends push them straight into shutdown.

Phaseline Redliner

Experimental variant integrating limited reality-bending tech into the bio-rig:

• One starting bio-augmentation slot replaced with a Phase Generator ( short-range teleportation, 30 ft, spend 1 Juice point).
• Resistance 5 to force damage in Fresh state.
• Higher cost of failure: a critical failure on a Burnout save causes a brief involuntary phase shift (1d4 force damage to self).

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

• Combat Reflexes. Trigger: an adjacent enemy moves out of your reach. Spend 1 Juice and make a melee Strike against them. Once per round.
• Augmented Recovery. You gain early access to Stim Shot at L1 (instead of L3). Other Stim Shot mechanics unchanged.
• Iron Augmentation. Your starting cyberware allowance increases by 1 (5 starting bio-augmentations instead of 4). Choose the 5th from L7's Augmentation Upgrade list.
• Wired Reflexes. Your Reflex Boosters are finely tuned: the flat check to negate being flat-footed improves from DC 11 to DC 6, and you gain a +1 circumstance bonus to initiative.

Level 2

• Adrenaline Junkie. When you advance your Burnout track, you can gain temporary Hit Points equal to your level until the start of your next turn. Once per round. The surge that frays your nerves also armors your body for a moment.
• Combat Tumbling. You can Tumble Through using Athletics in place of Acrobatics, and the first time each turn you move out of a creature's reach you don't trigger reactions from that movement.
• Intimidating Twitch. You can Demoralize using Athletics or your class DC's key statistic instead of Intimidation, and while you're in Burnout 2 or higher, Demoralize is a single action for you.

Level 4

• Bio-Adrenal Surge. Spend 2 Juice to gain +20 ft Speed and a free Stride for 1 round.
• Pain Threshold. Reduce damage from each Strike that hits you by your CON modifier. The augmentation chemicals dull pain signals.
• Headlong Rush. Stride twice, then make a melee Strike. If you moved at least 10 ft in a straight line toward the target, the Strike deals 1d6 additional damage of the weapon's type.

Level 6

• Reactive Surge. Trigger: you take damage from a Strike or are critically hit. Spend 1 Juice to Step and gain +10 ft Speed until the start of your next turn. Advances Burnout by 1.
• Overclocked Strike. When you use Redliner Strike, you may advance your Burnout track by an additional 1 to add another damage die of the same type to that Strike.
• Adaptive Metabolism. When you Refocus to recover Juice, you also reduce your Burnout track by 1. The downtime that recharges your rig lets it bleed off heat.

Level 8

• Multi-Strike. Spend 1 Juice to make a Strike at full attack value (no multiple attack penalty applied to this Strike). Cannot trigger more than once per turn.
• Steel Will. +2 status bonus to Will saves while not in Crash state. Helps cover the Redliner's iconic Will weakness.
• Bloodlust. When you reduce an enemy to 0 HP with a Strike, regain 1 Juice point (up to your maximum) and gain a +10 ft status bonus to Speed until the end of your turn. The kill feeds the rig.

Level 10

• Whirlwind Augmentation. Spend 1 Juice. Make a melee Strike against each enemy within your reach, each at your current multiple attack penalty. Advances Burnout by 1.
• Hardened Augments. Your Dermal Plating Hardness increases by 2, and it continues to function even in Crash state (when the rest of your rig is suppressed).
• Relentless. You are immune to the fatigued condition, and the Drained value you suffer from entering Crash is reduced by 1.

Level 12

• Augmentation Reroute. 10-minute activity (no daily cap). Reduce your Burnout track by 2 (without resetting Juice or clearing any Drained from a prior Crash). A planned "tune-up" that lets you manage the clock proactively — distinct from Stim Shot (full reset, costs your whole Juice pool) and from Refocus (refills Juice, doesn't touch Burnout). The 10-minute cost keeps it out of combat.
• Crystalline Reflexes. Gain Resistance 5 to physical damage while in Fresh state (Burnout 0). Lost the moment you advance to Burnout 1 or higher.
• Berserk Surge. Toggle. While active and you are in Burnout 2 or higher, your melee Strikes deal 1 additional damage die of the weapon's type, but you take a −1 status penalty to AC.

Level 14

• Apex Predator. The first Redliner Strike you make each round costs no Juice and does not advance your Burnout track. The motion has become instinct.
• Overdrive Heart. Your Juice pool maximum increases by 1.
• Pain Is Fuel. When damage brings you below half your maximum Hit Points, regain 1 Juice point (up to your maximum). Once per round.

Level 16

• Burnout Veteran. Reduce the Will-save penalty from your current Burnout state by 1 step (stacks additively with L19 Augmentation Veteran if both are taken — combined, Fatiguing's −1 becomes +1 net, Burnout's −2 becomes 0, Crashing's −3 becomes −1).
• Death Defier. Trigger: damage would reduce you to 0 HP from any source. Attempt a flat DC 20 check. On success, you remain at 1 HP, your Juice pool is depleted, and you enter Crash state (advancing Burnout to 4 with Drained 2 applying). This is the augmentation's final reserve burning to keep you alive.
• Unkillable Edge. While in Crashing state (Burnout 3), you gain Resistance to all physical damage equal to half your level — the body floods with everything it has left in the moment before the Crash.

Level 18

• Master Augmentation. Install two additional bio-augmentations at no cyber cost (from the L7 Augmentation Upgrade list), and you may swap which bio-augmentations you have installed during a daily rest.
• Adrenal Apex. Your Adrenaline Burst (L9) no longer advances your Burnout track, letting you push for a fourth action each round without burning toward the Crash.
• Living Weapon. Your unarmed Strikes and Redliner Strikes use your highest weapon proficiency, gain a +2 circumstance bonus to damage, and can never be disarmed or sundered — the weapon is your body.

Level 20

• Eternal Engine. Spending Juice can no longer push you into Crash: when your Burnout track would advance to 4, it instead stays at 3 (Crashing) and you take 5 damage that can't be reduced. You can still be driven to Crash by outside effects (such as Death Defier).
• Perfect Metabolism. You are immune to the Drained condition, and Stim Shot now also refills your Juice pool when used.
• Apex Redliner. While in Crashing state (Burnout 3), you gain its benefits (Speed, +damage, +attack) but suffer none of its drawbacks (no Will, skill, or AC penalty). You have learned to live on the edge of the Crash.

The rig is the class

The Redliner's "gear" is integrated into their body. There is no out-of-gear state in the Chromeboy or Linewalker sense — the rig cannot be unequipped, set aside, or temporarily removed in play. The rig is the class. Without it, the character is a normal person (statline of a Soldier of class level −5, no class features) and the class is effectively retired.

Rig integrity and removal

• Damage to the rig. The rig is internal and protected by your body. Direct damage to it requires either highly specific surgical intervention or extraordinary trauma (the kind of attack that would kill a normal character outright). Standard combat damage does not threaten the rig.
• Voluntary removal. A Redliner can have their rig removed by a qualified surgeon (cyberdoc or comparable). The procedure is non-trivial — DC 35 Medicine check, 1 week of downtime, significant cost. Failure causes severe complications; critical failure can kill the character.
• After removal. The character is no longer a Redliner. They retain their levels in the class for narrative purposes (training, history, contacts) but lose all class features. Their statline reverts to non-augmented baseline.

Burnout clock end-state

When the character's narrative lifespan (5–7 years from rig activation) runs out, the GM and player should agree on a transition:

• Retirement. The character voluntarily steps back from active Redliner life. They retain limited use of the rig (treat as Fatiguing state permanently) but cannot enter Fresh or use most class features. They become an NPC or shift to a different role.
• System collapse. The character dies from rig failure — usually at a dramatic moment of the GM's and player's choosing. The Redliner goes out with one final Stim Shot and a Boom-Gun-loud death.

This is not a mechanical fail-state that triggers in active play (unless the campaign runs a literal multi-year in-game span). It's a narrative anchor for the class's identity.

Where the class fits the scene

The Redliner is always playing the spotlight it has — it doesn't have an off-mode. The genuine off-spotlight scenarios:

• Indoor / urban / social: twitchy and intimidating, but lacking the social tools of a Psi-Knight or Chromeboy. Plays as the party's enforcer, not the negotiator.
• Magical / dimensional / cosmic: the Redliner has no tools here; the party's casters carry these scenes. The Redliner can still fight things, but the interesting obstacle is non-physical.
• Stealth: speed helps, but the augmented body is heavy, mechanical, and hard to hide. Possible, not their strength.