The Story of the Poor Unkillable Dire Badger

[Tallor]

A very long time ago I had convinced a friend to play a quick one-shot GURPS session with me. He was playing a heavy fighter build, and I was simply rolling random encounters out of one of those other game books to get monster ideas.

What I rolled was a dire badger.

Now a dire badger is a decent combatant for a whole team of peasants, but one heavily-armored character can take nearly no damage from its bites and claws, unless they're tackled and/or toppled, and/or bitten somewhere less armored. Dire badgers, by my math, could also go Berserk, but that didn't directly increase their damage output.

Suffice to say I hadn't thought the encounter through, because shortly after the first attack by the badgerous monstrosity, my player struck its left paw, which caused it to go berserk--but that didn't help it much. It only had one good forepaw to use, which was also quickly crippled by my player's powerful swordsmanship.

Seeing (in the theater of my mind) this majestic creature go from combatant to Monty Python's Black Knight had made me realize the error of my ways. Berserk was not really an offensive trait, it was a defensive one that keeps the creature alive. If your PCs have a decided superiority--in this case, simply having better reach--a Berserk creature will be tough as heck but still not be an interesting fight.

That's all. I just wanted to tell that story. :)

Amendment: In retrospect, dire badgers should have armor-piercing claws...

[Ulzgoroth]

Berserk isn't really a defensive trait either, considering that it forces you into very suicidal behavior. (...unless you're able to keep in ranged combat mode, which is more ineffectual than risky...)

It's a Disadvantage for pretty good reason.

[tshiggins]

Back when I ran a GURPS Harn campaign, one of the players wanted to take Berzerk, because he thought the fact that he didn't need to roll HT when the character dropped below breakpoints made it a great advantage. In fact, he didn't really grasp why it should be a disadvantage, at all.

I explained that, while berzerkers are pretty terrifying for badly-armed, untrained peasants, that's about it. The prohibition of any defensive actions, when combined with aimed blows and the presence of rules for crippling injury, made a berzerker dead meat for any opponent with reasonable skills.

I postulated a scenario quite similar to yours, in which the character faced an opponent as skilled as an NPC they'd already met -- who had fewer points than the PCs, but who was a bit more specialized.

Within two rounds, the skilled fighter would cripple the berzerker's weapon-arm, or even lop off the hand, completely. After that, he'd make telegraphed aimed blows for the neck until the berzerker died.

Four rounds, tops. Maybe even only two, if the opponent wields a bastard-sword two-handed, and rolls well.

The player changed his character.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

The prohibition of any defensive actions, when combined with aimed blows and the presence of rules for crippling injury, made a berzerker dead meat for any opponent with reasonable skills.

It's the defensive actions that make the difference to people used to playing games that don't have them. I played a D&D campaign as the only non-berserker in a party (I was the healer), and there, having bonuses for attacks and damage sort of balanced against the inability to use tactics or decide a fight was too tough. Still had a pretty high death rate, though.

[AlexanderHowl]

Berserk is best for very strong characters with high DR, if you do not mind having a PC (or NPC) that could potentially kill everyone in a village if they fail their control rolls (I never allow a control rating below '12' with Berserk because of that reason). A properly designed pre-modern martial artist with Berserk could be almost unstoppable, at least until they kill enough people to get the local government to come after them with a small army. Berserk tends to be a death sentence for improperly designed characters, as going Berserk without the benefit of any armor is a good way to die quickly against an opponent with equal capabilities.

[Donny Brook]

I once set a mind-controlled horde of monkeys against three PCs. It looked kind of dangerous at first, because they were hard to shoot. But then one guy took out his knives and started to AOD. The monkeys (programmed to attack without regard for safety) basically shredded themselves against his parries.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

I once set a mind-controlled horde of monkeys against three PCs. It looked kind of dangerous at first, because they were hard to shoot. But then one guy took out his knives and started to AOD. The monkeys (programmed to attack without regard for safety) basically shredded themselves against his parries.

Yeah, if you're Berserk (or effectively berserk) and unarmed you'd really better hope you've got a lot of DR, or regenerate like Wolverine.

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Yeah, if you're Berserk (or effectively berserk) and unarmed you'd really better hope you've got a lot of DR, or regenerate like Wolverine.

Or just have Strikers, as those aren't automatically injured when striking weapons.

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Berserk isn't really a defensive trait either, considering that it forces you into very suicidal behavior. (...unless you're able to keep in ranged combat mode, which is more ineffectual than risky...)

It's a Disadvantage for pretty good reason.

In the context that badgers (dire or otherwise), boars, and other animals that have berserker type tendencies, armored opponents aren't really a common issue, and it's more of a species-level defense than an individual one. Basically, if it's known that badgers go berserk when threatened, most things will avoid threatening them, because even if they win they could be injured, which is painful and potentially life-threatening if it impairs hunting and/or fleeing, so they don't want to take the chance.

[Railstar]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

I once set a mind-controlled horde of monkeys against three PCs. It looked kind of dangerous at first, because they were hard to shoot. But then one guy took out his knives and started to AOD. The monkeys (programmed to attack without regard for safety) basically shredded themselves against his parries.

I like that. It's a really great tactic, and also a really great encounter, because it's a challenge where the group has to use a different solution to the one they usually rely on - which does a lot to keep the different fights fresh.