Street Rat

Overview

The Street Rat is Rifts' urban survivor — the street kid, the fence, the operator who knows every alley, every gang, every black market, and every safe house. Where a Wilderness Scout tracks through forests, the Street Rat tracks through abandoned warehouses and Federation checkpoints. They are the party's urban guide, infiltrator, and line into the underworld.

Street Rats are wiry, sharp-eyed, and often morally flexible. They range from honest informants and runners to outright criminal masterminds — in larger settlements, the Street Rat is frequently the local crime boss's lieutenant. They know things, and they know people, that other classes simply don't.

Mechanically the Street Rat is built on Society + Stealth with a trio of street-focused Specializations layered on top, backed by a personal Safe House and a reputation that grows with you across the wasteland's cities.

At a glance

Class features by level

Sub-Specs

Street Trader

L1: Diplomacy +1 status for trade. Discount on illegal and black-market purchases. L7 Greater: acquire a specific item via your network at 50% cost (delivery time gates it). L15 Master: reduced cost on all illicit purchases.

Operator

L1: Streetwise +1 status. Networked with crime syndicates. L7 Greater: request a favor from your crime contacts — a small contract job, intel, or transport (the GM adjudicates availability). L15 Master: become a respected name in the criminal underworld — your contacts respect you significantly.

Survivor

L1: Urban Survival +1 status. Reduced cost of food and shelter in cities. L7 Greater: with a moment's read of the area, identify an escape route from a dangerous urban situation. L15 Master: pass as "uninteresting" — civilians and patrols treat you as low-priority.

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. The Street Rat is the urban combat-capable skill class; its feats mix Rogue-style precision and infiltration with underworld reach.

Level 1

• Skill Specialist (general). Gain an additional Specialization beyond your class's 3 starting.
• Pickpocket Specialist. Gain Pickpocket-related skill feats and bonuses.
• Disguise. Gain the Disguise Specialization.
• Opportunist. Your Strikes against a flat-footed or off-guard creature deal 1d6 additional precision damage.

Level 2

• Sprint & Vault. Urban parkour: ignore difficult terrain from urban clutter, climb sheer surfaces and cross gaps with reduced checks, and gain a +10-ft status bonus to Speed while moving through a settlement.
• Streetwise Read. Recall Knowledge about a person, faction, or organization (using Society) as a single action, and once per round grant an ally who can see or hear you a +1 circumstance bonus to their next attack roll or skill check against someone you've read.
• Concealed Carry. Hide weapons and small gear on your person (found only by a thorough search), and draw a concealed weapon as part of the Strike you make with it.

Level 4

• Hidden Compartments. Build hidden storage into cyberware, clothing, or gear.
• Lock-Pick Master. Thievery checks at reduced DC, and faster.
• Distracting Strike. When you hit a creature with a Strike, you can make it off-guard to your next attack against it, or to the next attack from an ally, before the start of your next turn.

Level 6

• Backstab. Your Opportunist precision damage increases to 2d6, and you also deal it to any creature you're flanking.
• Slip Away. Trigger: you're targeted by an attack, or you Strike a creature. Step, or attempt to Hide if you have cover or concealment.
• Underworld Contacts. +2 status to Gather Information and to acquiring illicit goods or services; in any settlement you can reliably find a fence, fixer, or safe contact.

Level 8

• Cross-City Network. Your Safe House network extends to multiple cities.
• Counter-Surveillance. Detect when you're being followed, and turn the tables.
• Ambush Expert. When you make a Strike that initiates combat from Stealth, deal +2d6 damage and the target is off-guard until the end of its next turn.

Level 10

• Evasion. When you roll a success on a Reflex save, you get a critical success instead.
• Crowd Work. In a populated area you can Hide and Sneak in plain sight by blending into crowds, gaining concealment from being singled out among bystanders.
• Deft Escape. You Tumble Through and Escape at a higher proficiency, and the first time each turn you move out of a creature's reach you don't trigger reactions.

Level 12

• Underground Royalty. You're a recognized power player in the urban underworld.
• Faceless Identity. Shed and assume identities in 10 minutes.
• Deadly Precision. Your precision damage increases to 3d6, and your critical hits against off-guard creatures inflict persistent bleed equal to one of those dice.

Level 14

• Vanish. Once per round. You become hidden — or even undetected — to creatures observing you by slipping behind cover, into a crowd, or through a doorway, provided there's somewhere to vanish to.
• Master Infiltrator. You bypass mundane locks, alarms, and security systems as a routine action, and can infiltrate a guarded facility with greatly reduced complications.
• Assassinate. When you Strike a creature unaware of you or off-guard, the Strike deals an additional 4d6 precision damage; if that reduces a creature of your level or lower to half its HP or less, it must succeed at a Fortitude save vs. your class DC or drop to 0 HP.

Level 16

• Living Legend (Street Rat variant). Your reputation makes city authorities reluctant to act against you.
• Master Information Broker. You can query three different cities' networks simultaneously.
• Ghost in the City. Within a settlement you can't be tracked or remotely surveilled, you're permanently concealed unless you choose otherwise, and you can't be identified by name or face without magic.

Level 18

• Master of Identities. You maintain several persistent false identities and can assume any of them in seconds; impersonation is nearly flawless without magical detection.
• Through the Cracks. In urban terrain, you can squeeze through gaps, vents, windows, and tight spaces as part of a Stride, letting you appear where pursuers can't follow.
• Lethal Opportunist. Your Opportunist precision damage increases to 4d6 and applies to all your Strikes against off-guard creatures, not only the first each turn.

Level 20

• Untouchable. City authorities are reluctant to move against you, your Safe Houses are effectively inviolable, and once per round you can use a reaction to avoid an attack by slipping into cover or a crowd (a +4 circumstance bonus to AC against it).
• Kingpin. Your underworld reputation gives you a working network in every settlement you've ever visited; you can call on it for major support, intelligence, or muscle.
• Perfect Heist. Your capstone Urban Heist broadens to any operation you can plan, executed with minimal complications and compressed timing.

Off-spotlight mode

The Street Rat is moderately combat-relevant — comparable to a Wilderness Scout. Strong in urban scenes; weaker in wilderness, dimensional, and magical settings. Street Rats often carry minor cyberware (lock-picks built into fingers, hidden compartments); as a non-magical class, that cyberware costs nothing from the Cyberware resource system, just the normal money and downtime to install.