Character Concept: Lou Pine, Freeborn Dog Boy-Magic User

[Hotrod]

Someone on the Rifts Reddit was asking about how to make a lower-powered werewolf-like shifter, and my mind went wandering, and now I feel like I need to roll up yet another character I'll probably never use.

Background: Lou Pine was born to a pair of experimental wolf-breed Dog Boys who escaped from Lone Star a few decades ago. Early in his puphood, a hit squad of CS troops tracked them down and killed them. A friendly Wolfen magic user took in the young freeborn Dog Boy, raising him and training him as an apprentice.

As a freeborn Dog Boy, Lou Pine is a master psychic who can sniff out magic and the supernatural. He's also a trained magic user.

My initial plan was to make him a shifter (like in the Reddit prompt) and bind him to a supernatural force of... nature (I love that little oxymoron in the Shifter class) to allow Lou Pine to shapeshift into a wolf at will, but I'm wondering, which magic classes and abilities would be particularly well-paired with the supernatural sensing powers of this freeborn dog boy?

Specifically, which classes might be well-suited for a generally good-ish player character? Which might be better suited to write up Lou Pine as a villain?

Limitations: As a Dog Boy, Lou Pine is already a master psionic with defined powers, so he can't be a Mystic. Since he could have the physical psionics mutant abnormality, he could be a techno-wizard.

Edit: *Bonus points if you can think up a punnier name for this character*

[Marcethus]

LLW would work. Temporal Wizard would work as possible villain especially the 10 year apprentice.

[ShadowLogan]

Someone on the Rifts Reddit was asking about how to make a lower-powered werewolf-like shifter, and my mind went wandering, and now I feel like I need to roll up yet another character I'll probably never use.

Well Dogboy isn't your only option (want to say also that it seems out of place for them). IIRC were-wolfs can't select an OCC (at least the ones in Canda can't). Race wise the most likely fit would be the Septumbran Witch Wolves D-Bee (WB30 pg177-9) with a full 25% of the 50% that practice magic being Shifter.

Wolfen (CB1r, PF2E) might also work for a low-powered werewolf-like race.

If shape-shifting is required perhaps a Zenith Moon Wrapper (WB12 or WB30) who has made a witch-pact, they have some magic spells automatically but they can't take an OCC. The witch-pact might have to be "home brew" though.

The only other Canine-like-Race that comes to mind is the Darkhound (WB12 or WB30), and they can't even touch magic, and the Arkhon (WB9) while they can it is presented as "might" as the practice/belief was "lost millennia ago".

Maybe a mutated wolf/canine either via ley lines (WB7 has ley line mutants for aquatics, which might provide some guidance here) or more mundane like HU/ATB mutant animals coming to Rifts Earth or a genetic engineering experiment (gene splicers, lonestar, south american powers) or magical experimentation. Or just roll up an alien from DB2/PW/HU and make some selections instead of rolling for them.

[Hotrod]

Someone on the Rifts Reddit was asking about how to make a lower-powered werewolf-like shifter, and my mind went wandering, and now I feel like I need to roll up yet another character I'll probably never use.

Well Dogboy isn't your only option (want to say also that it seems out of place for them). IIRC were-wolfs can't select an OCC (at least the ones in Canda can't). Race wise the most likely fit would be the Septumbran Witch Wolves D-Bee (WB30 pg177-9) with a full 25% of the 50% that practice magic being Shifter.

Wolfen (CB1r, PF2E) might also work for a low-powered werewolf-like race.

If shape-shifting is required perhaps a Zenith Moon Wrapper (WB12 or WB30) who has made a witch-pact, they have some magic spells automatically but they can't take an OCC. The witch-pact might have to be "home brew" though.

The only other Canine-like-Race that comes to mind is the Darkhound (WB12 or WB30), and they can't even touch magic, and the Arkhon (WB9) while they can it is presented as "might" as the practice/belief was "lost millennia ago".

Maybe a mutated wolf/canine either via ley lines (WB7 has ley line mutants for aquatics, which might provide some guidance here) or more mundane like HU/ATB mutant animals coming to Rifts Earth or a genetic engineering experiment (gene splicers, lonestar, south american powers) or magical experimentation. Or just roll up an alien from DB2/PW/HU and make some selections instead of rolling for them.

Your line of thinking parallels a lot of the replies on that reddit discussion. The OP was looking for a lower-power werewolf-like solution.

I know this character is out-of-place as a dog boy magic user, and that's kind of the point of the concept I'm going for: a freeborn who's a misfit among other dog boys and embraces the supernatural that most of them avoid. I'm just wondering if there are any particular synergies to exploit for a magic user who has exceptional abilities to track down other magic users, psychics, and the supernatural?

I suppose it could be useful in tracking down creatures who might make useful PPE sacrifices for high-cost ritual magic.

[Marcethus]

For a more combat oriented mage you could go for Temporal Warrior, especially combining the Hunter aspect of the Dog-boy.

[Grazzik]

Not sure if the normal form of the PC has to be canine-like, as the flip side of a werewolf is a human form. So will try to give options that work for both...

A couple low power ideas for the PC named "Miwan Skratchums":

• A dog boy or even a psychic human who is not anything special, just has a TW wolf metamorphosis device in the form of a dog collar or similar accessory that was passed down as an family heirloom... if they have to be a magical OCC, see below for options
• Monster-shaping tattoos for transforming into what looks like a werewolf or fenry demon... note if they have to be a dogboy to start and the GM agrees with the following, then argue that dogboys are sufficiently made up of enough human-like DNA for magic tattoos to work on them using Ogres as an example of genetic drift allowing the tats to work... bit of a stretch but an interesting twist since we really don't have genetic details in the books as to the Golden Age bioengineering tech they use... but only if the GM is okay with it
• A Super Spy (Mercenaries) with a HU super power similar to wolf metamorphosis
• A modified version of the Totem Warrior (WB15) for a wolf totem
• A Conjurer (WB16) who conjures up a really bad and obviously fake Halloween wolf costume... maybe the costume's fake fur falls off in patches
• No psychic abilities, but is actually a Nightbane with a giant wolf morphus (depending on how you play NB, the story re the parents could be a cover story re Nightbane not having parents, but that is a debate for another thread)... technically a freeborn dogboy might actually be a Nightbane using the Between the Shadows rules if you can spin a good backstory

[Ace, TW]

A wolf or Husky type dog boy free born could work.

Palladium Fantasy Wolfen and Coyle(humanoid coyotes) could work as well.

There are also 7 canine races in the Aliens Unlimited book. Canis (who have color coded white mages and brown psychics) and look like Dobermans, Dergins(barbarian with bony parts), Latran (who can transform into 4 legged wolves) who seem to have a shamanistic/mystic culture, Lupis who are techies, Toyocs who survived nuclear war and are magic/psi/super powers vs techies like on Rifts, Vulpese who have psi, magic, and tech but have a big problem with a "big brother" govt, and the Wulfs who all have pyrokinesis as a psi ability.

I'd shy away from Dark Hounds. AFAIK they are supposed to be magically tortured and brainwashed dog boys turned evil and sent back against the Coalition.

If you don't want a full on were wolf (which are normally evil and dangerous) I would personally suggest a Latran.