Dwarven Battleragers: my 3e pet peeve

[Dinkeldog]

Er, here I thought it was Celtic history.

The Celts had dwarves?

 

[HellHound]

In RPG terms, the Battlerager was predated by the Troll Slayer & Giant Slayer in Warhamster Fantasy.

Especially the descriptive text.

 

[Sagan Darkside]

The Celts had dwarves?

I would not call them dwarves, but when you compare the early days of pro basketball to the height of todays players.. err.. oh..

nevermind

SD

 

[Henry]

For Psion and Hellhound: The concept of the Faerunian Dwarven Battlerager to my knowledge originated with R.A. Salvatore's novels, though I know of the historical parallels.

Pwent's Band in the books did not strike me as being particularly high level, though really and truly the only thing you need to recreate them is a fighter/barbarian, proficient with armor spikes and spiked gauntlets, with plenty of bull rushing and overrun proficiency. I can understand a desire for a prestige class, but if a DM doesn't wish to allow one, there are no barriers to creating them through the base classes - there are no abilities they had in the books that need any rules that don't already exist, which I thought was one of the checks when considering whether one needs a prestige class from the Dragon article in #274. If the role can be filled by existing classes, it is less likely to need a new one.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

In RPG terms, the Battlerager was predated by the Troll Slayer & Giant Slayer in Warhamster Fantasy.

Especially the descriptive text.

Yeah, I'm sure you're correct. There is even such a character on the cover of my copy of the Warhammer RPG that I've had for maybe 12 years or more.

 

[Felix]

Didn't their concept begin with the House Carl? You know, the guys who carried the big ol axes and went in front of their army's shield wall to break up and demoralize the other guy's shield wall? I was under the impression that those guys were germanic, although it could be Celtic.

And certainly not dwarves were these House Carls.

As for not needing a PrC to make a dwarven battlerager, you don't really need a PrC to finish off any character concept. All the PrC does is give your concept a name, and possibly an orginization. What is an Arcane Trickster but a Rogue/Wiz? Or a Bloodhound but an uber tracking Ranger? You get specialized with the PrC, but lose out on diversity of abilities. I think a desire for crazy psycho dwarves hurling themselves at brick walls is a healthy one and should be rewarded with a well designed PrC; not that I've seen one yet, but hey, people are trying.

 

[Greatwyrm]

What, the Frenzied Berserker from MotW doesn't make a perfectly good Battlerager? I figured that's what it was basically supposed to be, just changing the names because the splatbooks are supposed to be supportive of Greyhawk.

 

[Chun-tzu]

The original source for Battleragers unless I am mistaken were Salavatore's novels.

I recall Battle Ragers appearing as a kit in the Complete Dwarves Handbook, which I believe predated the appearance of Thibbledorf Pwent. So I don't think Salvatore created the idea, but that was probably the first appearance in print of a dwarven battlerager character.

Poking around on the Net, I find (and this data could be inaccurate):

Complete Dwarf's Handbook was published Nov 1991.
Thibbledorf Pwent was in Legacy, Starless Night, and Siege of Darkness.
Legacy (I think is the earliest) was published Oct 1993.

 

[Dave Blewer]

Thibbledorf Pwent

A poor name for anybody...

Thibbledorf Pwent the Dwarf

A really poor name for a dwarf...

Thibbledorf Pwent the Dwarf Battlerager

This is terribly poor name for a Dwarf Berserker

I have only read one Salvatore book and that included seagoing dwarven sailors who propelled their ships by pedal power... Apparently they were feared as one of the most dangerous races in the world, can't remember their name but it was not exactly fear inducing.... Pepps?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Is that gutbuster a magic potion (eg Potion of Resist Poison + Alchohol)?