Heat Aura triggered by going berserk

[Mordantus]

Hi all,

I'm building a minotaur with fire-based magic/abilities, and wanted to have an aura of heat that emanates from her when she goes berserk. I gave her an Innate Attack (Burn) with the aura and Melee Attack Reach C modifiers. I'm trying to figure out what I need to do to specify that it's NOT always on and is triggered by her going berserk. I did give her the Berserk DisAd. Having the Innate Attack not be always-on would be some sort of enhancement, no?

Any thoughts? Is there a better way to model this skill?

Regards,
Sam

[mlangsdorf]

Originally Posted by Mordantus

Hi all,

I'm building a minotaur with fire-based magic/abilities, and wanted to have an aura of heat that emanates from her when she goes berserk. I gave her an Innate Attack (Burn) with the aura and Melee Attack Reach C modifiers. I'm trying to figure out what I need to do to specify that it's NOT always on and is triggered by her going berserk. I did give her the Berserk DisAd. Having the Innate Attack not be always-on would be some sort of enhancement, no?

No, it's a limitation: Only While Berserk, -20%. See DF Denizens: Barbarians p 22. You get another -20% for Always On on the fire aura.

There's already a precedent for a limitation making an attack power somewhat more useful: Smite (from Powers: Divine Favor) is an area attack with an accessibility limitation that limits it to use against supernatural targets. As long as you and your allies aren't supernatural and your foes are, that accessibility is nearly as good as Selective Effect.

The limitation here is that if you go Berserk, your fire aura turns on, even if you don't want it to because you're standing on an oil slick or holding on to one of your allies.

[Bruno]

Aura (+80%) already includes the ability to switch it on and off, which is good so you don't set your tavern on fire. An Aura that you can't turn on at will, and can't turn off at will, is significantly limited from the default state.

This is not a usual "Always On" aura, however - it's only on when you're berserk, so frex you can still sleep in a bed, have friendly relations, etc. I would give it half value from the usual "Always On" for a destructive ability (so down to -10% from -20%) as it is only on when you're already in a violent situation, which is a situation where it's inconvenient, not socially destructive and isolating.

Compare and contrast Uncontrollable (advantage potentially turns itself on when you're stressed, Berserk is certainly stressed but it also covers other circumstances - and it should be treated as a bit malicious/hostile...) and Unconscious Only (an "upgrade" for Uncontrollable that prevents you from turning it on voluntarily).

Your combat aura is predictable; you can "voluntarily" turn it on by making the roll to go berserk, and you can turn it off by making the roll to snap out. It also doesn't turn itself on randomly in other circumstances, like when you have to make a Bad Temper/Berserk check and succeed. An Uncontrollable advantage has a chance of turning itself on even if you succeed your self control roll, because you had to make that self control roll because you were stressed.

[Mordantus]

Thank you for your advice! Love how helpful the GURPS community is!