Frenzied Berserker: should I worry ?

[Sejs]

As long as her frenzy continues, she is not treated as disabled as dying at -1 to -9 hit points. Even if reduced to -10 hit points or less, she continues to fight normally until her frenzy ends.

As far as I know scorning something has no in game function. Unless disliking or having disdain for something makes one immune to it.

Oh, okay. So by that reasoning an FB isn't disabled and dying, and can continue to fight normally at negative hitpoints, but he's also unconcious.

So he's unconciously fighting normally.

Makes perfect sense to me.

 

[Cheiromancer]

Just to add a little fuel to the fire..... try a FB with SKR's Thoughtless Mind feat?

Here's the text from his site:

Thoughtless Mind [Fighter, General]
You can shut off your mind and act on pure instinct, protecting yourself from mental attacks.
Prerequisites: Base Will save +2
Benefit: Once per round as a free action you can shut off your mind, which means you are treated as a mindless creature (no Intelligence score). This gives you all of the normal benefits of not having an Intelligence score, such as immunity to mind-affecting effects. However, you suffer all of the limitations of your mindless state. For example, you cannot use combat tactics requiring any intellect, activate any other abilities, spells, items, or feats that require a conscious action or choice for you to activate (including combat feats such as Power Attack, but not automatic ones such as Blind-Fight or Weapon Focus). You don't think to draw weapons if your hands are free, but can use any weapons you are holding. While mindless you can recognize your allies as allies and creatures they attack (or creatures that attack you) as enemies, just as vermin can.
This effect ends if you fall unconscious or if you will it to end (this is the only action you can take requiring thought). Ending this state is a free action, but once ended it cannot be started again until your next turn.
This feat does not dispel mind-affecting effects placed on you before or while you use it; they are merely suppresed for the duration of your mindlessness. Therefore, if you are dominated and then shut off your mind, your controller cannot give you orders while this feat is in effect, but would immediately be able to assume control if you allowed your mind to resurface. Likewise, if someone cast dominate person on you while your mind was gone the spell would have no immediate effect but could be used once you were a thinking creature again.

Basically it's a tradeoff ... you can use your instinctive stuff at the expense of having no tactics, and the benefit of being uncontrollable by outside sources. Handy for the fighter-type who's sick of being mind-controlled because of his poor Will save.

Of course this makes the problem worse rather than solving it...

 

[Camarath]

Oh, okay. So by that reasoning an FB isn't disabled and dying, and can continue to fight normally at negative hitpoints, but he's also unconcious.

So he's unconciously fighting normally.

Makes perfect sense to me.

She is not prevented from fighting normally because she is at negative hit points but she may be prevented from fighting normally because of other causes such as spells and non-leathal damage. I do not believe that "Even if reduced to -10 hit points or less, she continues to fight normally until her frenzy end." means that nothing can prevent the Frenzied Berserker continuing to fight normally until her frenzy end. IMO that sentence only prevents the Frenzied Berserker becoming unable to fight normally because of be reduced to -10 or less it points.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Deathless frenzy is the most abominably stupid ability of any sort I have ever seen. The designer ought to be ashamed of himself, it is the kind of thing I'd expect an eight year old to come up with. It simply breaks a FUNDAMENTAL factor (hit points). You couldn't even find a 9th level spell to enable you to ignore all hit point damage, could you?

"The frenzied beserker takes 5,682 damage"

"he keeps on frenzying"

For the first time I'm sorry to see the back of the rolleyes smiley. The frenzied beserker truly deserves it.

Cheers

 

[Doug McCrae]

The ellipsis (the "...") is used only for signifying that you have left something out of a quote.

It's... also... used... for... talking... like... Swamp... Thing...

 

[Doug McCrae]

I believe I may have the solution:

A party composed of nothing but Frenzied Berserkers. All berserk. All the time.

 

[Asmo]

I once played in a party with 2 FB:s. I was playing a druid, and I was able to cast an Anti-Life shell when things started to go bad.. the rouge and the cleric was inside it so we could only watch when they beat each other to death. The funny thing was that they were brothers....

Asmo

 

[fafhrd]

You couldn't even find a 9th level spell to enable you to ignore all hit point damage, could you?

I'm not certain but Thanee's oft referenced Hide Life might do the trick. Doesn't mean it ain't broken though. There was some horrible Al'qadim spell where you put your heart in a jar that prevented death from hit point loss as well.

 

[Sejs]

You couldn't even find a 9th level spell to enable you to ignore all hit point damage, could you?

Heh, yeah as mentioned - Hide Life.

Not that it excuses either one, really. Both are horribly broken and poorly thought out.

 

[El Ravager]

I don't much like the class. It seems fairly balanced mechanically, but it poses real problems.

I have had a Frenzied Berzerker in my game for about a year now. I say its fairly balanced because what the class gains in damage dealing power, it loses in AC defense. My main problem is that we typically spend more time dealing with the psycho PC after all the bad guys are down than we do fighting said bad guys.

The PC will typically have real low will saves, so just about anything will make him flip out and kill stuff. That same low will save will also keep the PC from voluntarily ending the flipping out and guarantee that he will put the hurt on the party. All of the bonus abilities that the PRC gets to keep him going, like deathless frenzy and whatnot, also prevent the party from stopping the dude without actually killing him. My campaign does not have a lot of instances where the party will get into many fights within a single day of gametime, thus we will go many sessions where every single fight the barbarian goes into frenzy.

The problem is further compounded by the players cursed dice. The party is pretty smart about trying to deal with the Frenzied Berzerker. They load up on hold person and other such spells to try to neutralize the rampaging psycho. But it seems that the Frenzied Berzerker player always rolls too low for his will save when trying to end the frenzy himself and then follow that with a high will save roll and pass the party's spell saves.

So no, I really doubt I would allow another player to take that class. Unfortunately I have a player pumped to play a Forsaker with his next character.....

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El Rav