Dwarven Battleragers: my 3e pet peeve

[krunchyfrogg]

Ever notice how many people try to come up with a PrC for this idea?

It pisses me off when this happens, and I'll tell you why:

K.I.S.S.: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Just play a dwarf Fighter/Barbarian.

A Battlerager should rage at 1st level, not start at 6th or 7th (when characters usually start qualifying for PrC's).

Players just seem to try to max out things not already in the rules by making up their own PrC's! AAaargh! -- But wait: in that almost completely useless book Hero Builders Guide they even list a Battlerager as a Dwarf Barbarian alternate! AAaargh!



Maybe I've just spent too much time reading stuff on wizards.com

 

[Ravellion]

Yes, but people don't want to be Savages. They want to be part of Dwarven society, but they want to be battleragers. It's just the poor design of the Barbarian class. It should have been named berserker, lost the illiteracy, and lost Wilderness Lore as a class skill --> Someone who gets furious during combat on occasion.

Rav

 

[Quinn]

Yes, but people don't want to be Savages. They want to be part of Dwarven society, but they want to be battleragers. It's just the poor design of the Barbarian class. It should have been named berserker, lost the illiteracy, and lost Wilderness Lore as a class skill --> Someone who gets furious during combat on occasion.

Rav

Every description that I've read of the battlerager also portrayed them as being on the very fringes of dwarven society, and normal dwarves certainly did not associate with them. I think the Barbarian class is a natural for a battlerager. The problem with most of the PrC's that I see for battlerager is that they do not add anything to the concept that wasn't accomplished with the barbarian class.

 

[drnuncheon]

Yes, but people don't want to be Savages. They want to be part of Dwarven society, but they want to be battleragers. It's just the poor design of the Barbarian class. It should have been named berserker, lost the illiteracy, and lost Wilderness Lore as a class skill --> Someone who gets furious during combat on occasion.

None of this requires any mechanical changes, of course.

1) Call your character a 'berserker'. The names of your class have almost nothing to do with what they are in the gameworld.

2) Multiclass for one level with fighter, or just pay the 2 points for literacy.

3) If Wilderness Lore doesn't fit your character...don't spend points on it. Just because it's there doesn't mean you have to take it.

Right now, the barbarian will handle a "berserker" character as well as a "savage" character. Why do you want it to only handle berserkers?

J

 

[Dave Blewer]

In my Sundered Sky setting There are racial names for most of the classes Dwarves just call Berserkers Battleragers. Here are some of the ideas from my website:

Berserkers Dwarven Battleragers are greatly feared by all who face them. Very few Battleragers survive their ten years out in the world, but the few who do are mightily skilled indeed.

Bards The very few Dwarves that are drawn to this profession favour the drums and bagpipes as their chosen instruments. Dwarven society on the whole looks down on Bards as not "useful to society", this does not stop an elite corp of Bards being barracked at Deepsky. This contingent called The Grim Troupe, has been seen supporting the occasional Dwarvish militia actions.

Druids Dwarven Druids are very rare indeed, those that do exist are almost all Stoneshepherds, subterranean Druids who care for, and protect the natural caverns within some of the islands.

Rangers There are two types of this class, Spelunkers; those who range through the caves and mazes found within the bedrock of some of the larger islands and Wayfinders; Rangers who map and memorise the routes through the void

Rogues Every race has it's fair share of Rogues. Dwarvish Rogues fall into two types. The Antiquarians an order who specialise in uncovering and investigating lost Dwarven citadels or Darkhomes and The Distrusted, The Dwarven name for those who follow the more traditional Rogueish pursuits.

Sorcerers Dwarven Sorcerers call themselves the Blood They are more common than their Wizard cousins, but are also much more secretive.

Wizards These are called Spellsmiths, tasked with creating potent magical items on the enchanted forges of their order. They infuse these items with their own lifeblood. Weapons and armour created by Spellsmiths are rightly thought to be the most potent of their kind.

 

[Sagan Darkside]

I can understand the need for the PrC- it would help balance out the huge morale penalties for having a dwarf with a mohawk.

SD

 

[Psion]

Ever notice how many people try to come up with a PrC for this idea?

It pisses me off when this happens, and I'll tell you why:

K.I.S.S.: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Just play a dwarf Fighter/Barbarian.

A Battlerager should rage at 1st level, not start at 6th or 7th (when characters usually start qualifying for PrC's).

Um, okay sure. Since such a class would most likely have rage as a prerequisite, that character WOULD have been raging at first level. Prestiges classes are not the whole character concept. Rather, they are something of a pinacle of acheivement in that field.

 

[Dave G]

Does anyone have stats for the battle-rager armor and weapons? I recall seeing this somewhere in 2E, but I don't have the info I need on it now.

Thanks! I think I can do it on a fighter/barbarian mix - after all the battleragers I remember started out as warriors and had to prove themselves before being trained to rage... but maybe I'm on the crack?

 

[Henry]

The original source for Battleragers unless I am mistaken were Salavatore's novels. Salvatore's Battleragers (Such as Thibbledorf Pwent) were truly on the edges of Dwarven civilization, though they lived within it. They were hygenically filthy, they had the odor of the fould Gutbuster concotion (an alcohol and anti-poison brew they carried and drank), and they were not very bright, often making half-orcs look like rocket scientists. They were trained by repeatedly ramming a wooden door backed by an iron plate, head-first. They could have learned to read, and STILL be functionally illiterate due to the intentional brain-damage.

 

[Psion]

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

Er, here I thought it was Celtic history.