Barbarian vs Frenzied Berseker

[SlagMortar]

Other things that might help are the Luck domain or the Luck Blade's re-roll powers. If you only fail the will save on a 1, a re-roll makes failing the save a 1 in 400 chance. Of course, then you are spending money on shoring up your weaknesses instead of getting stronger so it starts to balance the power of the class at least a little. Multiclassing a level of cleric is not without cost and spending 22,000 gp on a Luck Blade is not exactly pocket change.

 

[Kunimatyu]

That's not entirely true anymore. With the Steadfast Determination feat (from PHB II, I believe) you gain two benefits... The first is that you use your Con modifier (instead of you Wis modifier) for Will saves. The second is that a roll of a natural 1 on a will save is no longer an automatic failure.

Later
silver

Only rolls of 1 on Fort saves. Will can still be very bad.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

Only rolls of 1 on Fort saves. Will can still be very bad.

Ah. My mistake. That's what I get for posting without the book in front of me.

Later
silver

 

[Hautamaki]

In my opinion, any spell, special ability, etc, that makes a PC lose control of their character is a big mistake. When the DM starts telling players 'your character does this' instead of players telling the DM 'my character does this' it starts to seem a little masturbatory to me. Who needs players if the DM can dictate the actions of the PCs? I had a DM who did this a little too much; he'd even go so far as to tell me that I was role playing my character wrong, that he 'wouldn't do that' and that he 'would think/do this'. I had to ask myself why I was even there.

So to answer your question, as everyone above said already; FB makes a great NPC, but as a PC it's probably a mistake to introduce it to the game.

 

[Nifft]

^ Yeah. What they all said. FB is a middle finger extended upwards, facing towards the rest of the party. It's like playing a Kender or a Foresaker, but worse, because your bad behavior is mechanically mandated.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Darklone]

The only party where I heard a FB worked well was a party of invisible flying spellcasters and archers FAR behind the FB. Who died a few combats later after he killed everything in reach.

 

[dirkformica]

1 Level of Cleric with Pride and Luck means you are pretty safe. Re-roll any 1's from Pride, and Re-reroll and die from Luck. You've got to roll 3 1's in a row to attack your party. Then you still get a chance next round where you again get at least two rolls for your Will (assuming you've set yourself up where only a 1 on a Will save fails.) That's not too hideous.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

FBs aren't really meant for PCs (like everybody else has pointed out).

But they can be entertaining for the occasional WTF game. Like a one-shot where the entire party are frost giant frenzied-berserkers pillaging the Dalelands of FR.

 

[Jack99]

1 Level of Cleric with Pride and Luck means you are pretty safe. Re-roll any 1's from Pride, and Re-reroll and die from Luck. You've got to roll 3 1's in a row to attack your party. Then you still get a chance next round where you again get at least two rolls for your Will (assuming you've set yourself up where only a 1 on a Will save fails.) That's not too hideous.

Fact is, that unless you have insanely good saves (from levels and/or loot) and have done some sort of dipping into a cleric with the appropriate domains, you will screw over your partymembers regularly. A PrC that only works in a party situation under such extreme circumstances, definitely qualifies as broken in my book.

Example. Bar6/cle1 is needed to qualify for FB, assuming you want the domains to help control the frenzy. Now, I dont have my books at hand, but going from memory, that should give him a +4 base will bonus. He wont have any spare feats to spend on Iron Will or similar feats, so they will, if wanted, have to come later.

So at 8th level, when he gets his frenzy ability (bar6/cle1/fb1) he has +4 base will save, and must roll vs DC20. Even with a generous DM, that doesnt seem like good odds.

Of course, you could make a bar2/f4/cle1/fb1 type, giving you 3 feats more, which could bump your Will save some. But unless you have a monty haul DM, you will still be far away from being able to control the frenzy.

Sure, spells like calm emotions can help, if your team has access to them, but lets face it. A FB is a ticking time bomb that any sane DM should ban or at least change.

just my 2cp

 

[Seeten]

What about a Warblade/Barbarian/Frenzied Berserker? Would Moment of Perfect Mind make him less dangerous?

What about a couple of luck feats for saves, where you can treat a save roll as a 20?