Melee Specialists

[HarleeKnight]

Are there any OCCs based around melee attacks as opposed to ranged attacks, beyond the Cyber-Knight, I mean?

[Father Goose]

Are there any OCCs based around melee attacks as opposed to ranged attacks, beyond the Cyber-Knight, I mean?

What exactly do you mean by "based around?"
Are you looking for thematic focus, or combat bonuses, or something else?

[HarleeKnight]

Are there any OCCs based around melee attacks as opposed to ranged attacks, beyond the Cyber-Knight, I mean?

What exactly do you mean by "based around?"
Are you looking for thematic focus, or combat bonuses, or something else?

An OCC that's better with swords than guns. The sword version of the Gunslinger.
I was re-reading the Sword-Dancer series and wondered why there isn't something like that.

[Orin J.]

I mean, if you aren't consistantly leaping into close combat, abusing entanglement and body flips while dodging gunfire and letting it hit the people you're fighting, then striking from behind the people you've forced into facing the other way, are you really playing a juicer correctly?

[drewkitty ~..~]

South America 2 is the place to look.

[Sohisohi]

Mage Bane, that's a pretty good melee build. Though, in general, picking a race like Titan pretty much turns every class into a melee class.

[Giant2005]

The Samurai is great in melee obviously, but most things can do it exceptionally well. Notables are basically anything with Auto-Dodge (so you can attack with both weapons while still being able to defend yourself) and Cyborgs. Cyborgs in melee make for some epic punchers though, their sword play is perfectly ordinary.

[ShadowLogan]

Are there any OCCs based around melee attacks as opposed to ranged attacks, beyond the Cyber-Knight, I mean?

What exactly do you mean by "based around?"
Are you looking for thematic focus, or combat bonuses, or something else?

An OCC that's better with swords than guns. The sword version of the Gunslinger.
I was re-reading the Sword-Dancer series and wondered why there isn't something like that.

Samurai (Japan, though this is almost exclusively from the HTH skill)
Amaki Duelist (SA2, while technically a RCC subtype it is established that humans can learn it and presumably others)
Psi-Warrior (Psyscape)
Tearval (sp?) Sword Fist RCC (CWC or DBoNA, they have swords for hands and racial bonuses by 14th Level = +8 strike)

Other classes have to get there by taking the proper skills (and a HIGH PP would help), WP: Sword and Fencing almost exclusively, though HTH: Kendo is also an option IIRC IF YOU CAN GET IT. This though requires character driven choices in terms of focus but won't necessarily have the best bonuses relating to sword use. A TW after taking the right skills, could in theory gadget themselves up (or some one else) given there are examples of TW melee weapons that would be useful to a melee fighter (ex. "Battle Fury Blade", FoM/BoM).

[Mouser13]

Ok with magic say Mystic Knights, Battle magus both are very good with melee. Though both can be ok with guns and the battle magus really good with both.

[Curbludgeon]

Martial Expert Advanced Training (Heroes of Humanity pg91) is great, and can combine well with most O.C.C.s either when taken at level 1 or 3. While there are rules earlier in the book for bonuses stacking when a previously known skill is duplicated with Advanced Training, it doesn't say how that might apply to W.P. choices, which can be important in this case.

WB25 has Dragon Blade Kung Fu, which adds a bit of damage to specific weapons as well as some other flavorful stuff. Characters in Rifts China can combine this with certain other martial arts, such as Drunken Boxing with its continuous automatic dodge with full bonuses(!!!), Dog Boxing which gives almost as good a dodge with more APM, and Eighteen Weapons which gives lots of W.P.s to use on Adavanced Training (or Rifter 30 options described below). Any of the Rifts China Martial Warriors can do this combo, as can the Geofront's Chi-Commando and Shadow Warrior. I think the Meditative Warrior and Chi-Commando give a little more bang for the buck in this than the others. Note that these classes take a little hit outside of China.

WB8 has the Samurai and Ronin, with their exclusive H2H, but Kendo is a solid option as well that's available to more classes. The Demon Queller (not to be confused with the Demon Quellers in WB25, even though it says most of the ones in the Japan book are from China), for example, gets spell access and a P.P.E. pool, a couple of hundred MDC from body hardening, and can be a D-Bee for extra oomph. I'm not sure if it's ever really detailed which D-Bees are most prevalent in that part of the world, though.

H2H:Gladiator (Mercenary Adventures pg24) is good, but like the Samurai is limited to one O.C.C.: Professional Gladiator.

The Amaki Duelist gets two extra attacks/melee with a sword, but is really limited otherwise. The Amaki TW Psi-Blade is nice but only works for Master Psychics, which rules out fun stuff like custom fitting one for a Tirrvol Cyberknight that opened its Third (in their case second) Eye and got a Psi-Booster Implant.

Rifter articles that aren't "official" that one might want to look at include Rifter23's "The Blade Mage", which has an O.C.C. with an exclusive H2H and form of magic, and Rifter30's "A Cut Above", which introduces all kinds of modifications including Weapon Specialization and Mastery.

Note that a lot of this stuff can be used together. For my money a WB8-style Demon Queller with Martial Expert Advanced Training arguably best hits the goals of semi-exclusive H2H/ability to use TW items like Battle Fury Blades/doesn't lose a disproportionate number of skills if they take a second or third Advanced Training. To really cheese out their toughness make the DQ a D-Bee with a lot of S.D.C. like an Amaki (say that last part 5 times fast!). If Rifter30 is allowed in a game, I'd check out a Meditative Martial Artist with Martial Expert, using all those free W.P.s to snag Weapon Mastery:whatever and Weapon Mastery: Paired whatever, and use that with a couple of Chi Blades while autododging all day.

[Axelmania]

anybody with a pair of battle-fury blades able to power them?

[Orin J.]

anybody with a pair of battle-fury blades able to power them?

what's that got to do with the O.C.C.?

[Curbludgeon]

Well, they're described as being two-handed weapons (maybe a one-handed polearm+shield deal), so using a pair of them simultaneously might be difficult. They don't have the blurb about using double the PPE in ISP that other entries have, but that seems like an editing for space issue. As if anyone could use it, anyone with the PPE or ISP should be able to. Most of the OCCs in WB25 would have a hard time, just because 80 ISP is often for them a tall order.

[rem1093]

Blade Mage from Rifter 23. A friends have fun with it as we house tweak it for them.

[Hotrod]

Are there any OCCs based around melee attacks as opposed to ranged attacks, beyond the Cyber-Knight, I mean?

Yes.

[Father Goose]

Are there any OCCs based around melee attacks as opposed to ranged attacks, beyond the Cyber-Knight, I mean?

Yes.

Lol, clearly! Welcome to the party, Hotrod.

[Hotrod]

Are there any OCCs based around melee attacks as opposed to ranged attacks, beyond the Cyber-Knight, I mean?

What exactly do you mean by "based around?"
Are you looking for thematic focus, or combat bonuses, or something else?

An OCC that's better with swords than guns. The sword version of the Gunslinger.
I was re-reading the Sword-Dancer series and wondered why there isn't something like that.

In no particular order:

Rifts: Ultimate Edition has dragon hatchlings (who don't shoot guns) and psi-stalkers (who feed by drawing blood, so yay, knives). It also has Dog Boys, who tend to use more melee weapons per C.S. policy, especially in urban environments.
Rifts: Manhunter has the Bloodletter
Psyscape has the Psi-Warrior and Psi-Slayer, both of whom tend to focus on close combat.
Black Market has the Eforcer
Heroes of Humanity offers several options for this, including close combat training and the Death Knight O.C.C.
Pantheons of the Megaverse has the Hundred Handed and... heck, most of the playable stuff in there that isn't magic-focused is melee-focused.
Half the stuff in Rifts: Japan is melee focused.
Most of the stuff in Rifts: China 2 is melee-focused.
Most of the stuff in Wormwood is melee-focused.
Phase World has Cosmo-Knights and Fallen Knights.
Many tattooed warriors can be built with a melee focus.
Mystic Kuznya in Spirit Russia.

...

Look, you can find or make a melee-focused character in most of the books. Can you be a bit more specific about what you're looking for in terms of flavor/abilities?