Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - [Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Bad Temper and Berserk

Maz · 11-27-2017, 11:21 AM

Bad temper is something my players often pick for their characters.

A few players however tend to use it as an excuse to go off on NPC's they don't like but forget they have it in other social situations. :/

Berserk is also often popular and tends to not be forgotten. It has been very close to costing PC's their life many times. More than once only saved by crit-failing a "stay conscious roll". (So they didn't stay fighting in the middle of the fray, making bad guys focus on others who where still standing).

I have however completely stopped making monsters go Berserk. They simply die too fast when they do. I had a DF game where the group was attacked by a "SM+2 Berserker deamon with ST:30 and a decent DR." Yet it only lasted 2 rounds of combat. As soon as it made an AOA all of the PC's made Telegraphic attacks against it's skull. With no chance to defend and a x4 damage multiplier for skull hits and the +4 bonus from making Telegraphic it was no problem for the PC's to deal well over 100 injury in 1 sec.The next round they dealt even more damage as they figured "If they just made AOA as well, then they would probably take it out completly. And they were right.

Turned what should have been a deadly boss battle into an easy kill.

... so I save it for "mindless" monsters like zombies or automatons. If I want some monster to seem reckless they make Committed attacks.

11-27-2017, 11:21 AM	#7
Maz Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Denmark	Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Bad Temper and Berserk Bad temper is something my players often pick for their characters. A few players however tend to use it as an excuse to go off on NPC's they don't like but forget they have it in other social situations. :/ Berserk is also often popular and tends to not be forgotten. It has been very close to costing PC's their life many times. More than once only saved by crit-failing a "stay conscious roll". (So they didn't stay fighting in the middle of the fray, making bad guys focus on others who where still standing). I have however completely stopped making monsters go Berserk. They simply die too fast when they do. I had a DF game where the group was attacked by a "SM+2 Berserker deamon with ST:30 and a decent DR." Yet it only lasted 2 rounds of combat. As soon as it made an AOA all of the PC's made Telegraphic attacks against it's skull. With no chance to defend and a x4 damage multiplier for skull hits and the +4 bonus from making Telegraphic it was no problem for the PC's to deal well over 100 injury in 1 sec.The next round they dealt even more damage as they figured "If they just made AOA as well, then they would probably take it out completly. And they were right. Turned what should have been a deadly boss battle into an easy kill. ... so I save it for "mindless" monsters like zombies or automatons. If I want some monster to seem reckless they make Committed attacks. Last edited by Maz; 11-27-2017 at 01:09 PM.