THE BERSERKER!!!

[doc]

There has been some discussionlately on adding the berserker option from M&M as a full character type. I've been doing that since my earliest gaming days, with the first berserker in our campaign being a character by the name of Suicide Mike.

Here, in brief, is how I handle it:

A berserker is a fighting man of neutral or chaotic temprament; those who are beholden to Law cannot tap into their raw primal rage deep enough to be a true berserker. Traditionally only humans and dwarves may be berserkers, but if a player really, really wants to have that berserker hobbit, it's all good.

To qualify as a berserker, the character must have a CON score of 13 or higher. A berserker may wear any sort of armor and use any sort of weapon while not berserk.

When facing human, demi-human, or humanoid type creatures between kobold and troll/ogre size, the berserker may enter into a blood frenzy. He will throw down any shield he might be carrying and toss away any missile weapons, relying only on melee attacks (preferably with a 2-handed weapon if one is available).

While berserk, the berserker is +2 to hit and damage and immune to any sort of natural or magical Fear effects. In addtion, they gain +2 to any saves vs. mind control type spells (there is really little mind to be controlled at that point).

During his berserk rage, the berserker loses any DEX bonus to his AC and will fight in a direct, aggressive style until all of the enemies in his field of vision are down or until the berserker is slain. He cannot flee or back away from combat while in this state and cannot willingly end his berserk state until there are no further enemies in the area. Again, this applies only to human, demihuman, and humanoid type creatures. The character cannot berserk against dragons, non-humanoid monsters (like maniticores), true giants*, or tiny creatures (like sprites).

Contrary to popular belief, not all berserkers come from lost barbarian tribes. Many are soldiers who were thrown out of their army for not being able to control themselves, pit fighters who had to cultivate a brutal fighting method to survive, or even high-born dwarves who simple cannot control their rage against ancestral enemies.

* In some Norse style campaigns, berserkers may indeed berserk against giants if the DM finds it appropriate to the genre.

Doc

[Zulgyan]

I like what you have done very much! But... who would still play an ordinary F-M if he can be a berserker?

Just a question to understand your berserk better and not a critique.

[ffilz]

Who would play an ordinary fighter? Anyone who doesn't want to lose the option of retreat.

Actually, in my experience, this lack of retreat option for berserkers has been problematical for the friction between players it causes. And if the fight is going well, I've seen the kill frenzy (from whatever sourse) be problematical when the other PCs want to take prisoners (or spare women and children, or whatever, I've seen lots of varieties of drives for kill frenzy and problems with the resulting player disagreements over how to handle things - and lots of jerk behavior hiding behind "my character would..." statements).

Frank

[Zulgyan]

I would do 2 things so that the player gets a better feel of the berserker rage:

1. Instead of activating it at will, set a percentage chance of involuntary entry into berserker rage. Maybe a 2 in 6 chance every combat round.

2. While berserk, the player loses knowlegde of his HP total, and DM handles that secretly.

[Zulgyan]

Who would play an ordinary fighter? Anyone who doesn't want to lose the option of retreat.

The thing is that, if you can enter the rage at your sole will, you can still control this. So there is no real benefit of being a normal F-M.

[ffilz]

Ah, but once you enter the rage, if the battle turns bad, your SOL.

Frank

[badger2305]

One way to deal with this is that "going berserk" is increasingly under the control of the character. At lower levels, the chance might be 2-in-6, and then this gets better as the character goes up in levels; 3-in-6, 4-in-6, and so on. Maybe the chance for going berserk is their level or less on a six-sided die.

Once initiated, the character stays berserk until combat is over. You might even include a small chance for higher level characters to regain their senses before combat is over. Starting at 7th level, there is a 1-in-6 chance of regaining their senses, and never more than 3-in-6.

Just some thoughts; I like this idea of a berserker - it matches well with the variant archer we've discussed before, in terms of simplicity of game mechanics.

[wulfgar]

What happens if you're fighting orcs AND a dragon at the same time? Can you berserk? but only against the orcs?