The Story of the Poor Unkillable Dire Badger

[Humabout]

Also, I recall a session in D&D 3.5 when the party's cleric summoned a celestial badger that proceeded to destroy the opposition thanks to some good usage on the players' part. If anything, I'd expect a GURPS badger to get slaughtered really quickly when its unarmed attacks get parried by weapons.

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by 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.

Berserk is one of those weird traits where it's underpriced for relatively weak characters (Because you'll die), then probably overpriced for reasonably built low-tech characters of a sufficiently high power level (because you probably won't die), and then underpriced for supers (because then everyone else dies).

[Wavefunction]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

Berserk is one of those weird traits where it's underpriced for relatively weak characters (Because you'll die), then probably overpriced for reasonably built low-tech characters of a sufficiently high power level (because you probably won't die), and then underpriced for supers (because then everyone else dies).

No, it is never, ever overpriced. Trust me on this, berserkers are a pet hobby of mine, trying to make them halfway effective. It is a VERY bad disadvantage. Even if you have DR 20 everywhere (just layer lots of armor, the penalty to DX matters less than staying alive) the +4 to hit for a Telegraphic Attack means that it's no longer impossible for low-skill enemies to target your eyes, and even non-fantasy games have armor divisors in the form of bodkins.

That said, here's a fun idea for a highly cinematic game, play an extremely high-ST monk, buy Blind Fighting up to enormous levels, then wear extremely heavy armor with no eyeholes. I see no way this can go wrong.

[swordtart]

Doesn't blind-fighting require some other sort of sensory capability (usually hearing).

That sensory effect needs to pass through the heavy armour requiring some sort of orifice (ear holes in the case of hearing). That orifice then becomes the route to bypass the armour (like the eye-holes did previously).

I presume also that your monk has to take off the helmet to do toehr things (like eat). In which case there is a mechnism to open or remove the helmet, that would also be the route to bypass the armour.

In a cinematic campaign that allows you to have blind-fighting to da max, then I can equally have some trick fighting to disarmour you. Maybe not for every fight, but one day you enemies will call the man in scarlet... ;)

[Anders]

Originally Posted by swordtart

Doesn't blind-fighting require some other sort of sensory capability (usually hearing).

Yep. The penalty goes down to -7 for not being able to hear at all. I would probably give -5 or -6 to the roll if you wear a completely encased helmet. Also, how do you breathe in that thing?

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Anders

Yep. The penalty goes down to -7 for not being able to hear at all. I would probably give -5 or -6 to the roll if you wear a completely encased helmet. Also, how do you breathe in that thing?

He's a monastic æsthete. He's got a Diamond Body.

[Anthony]

For characters who would be all out attacking anyway Berserk is free points, but all out attack is generally really really bad in GURPS. If you want an effective berserker, though, consider IT(Diffuse).

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Anthony

For characters who would be all out attacking anyway Berserk is free points, but all out attack is generally really really bad in GURPS.

The final bullet point means it's still a dangerous trait unless you take it at a very high self control rating, though for the AoA-anyway type the second-to-last point is very nice.

[DouglasCole]

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.

We did that against some sort of undead sprite - Tinkerbell Zombies or something - in MLangsdorf's game. We couldn't hit them, but aggressive parries (perhaps?) worked real well.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Hellboy

B79 mentions on a critical failure of Rapier Wit you enrage the opponent...

"possibly" triggering disadvantages such as Bloodlust/Berserk

I take it this means that they have to make a self control roll.

But since badgers do not understand language... I am curious how you would have to modify it to affect a badger.

I figure possibly ask the GM to modify it to work with Kiai or Singing since former bypasses sound barrier and latter bypasses language barrier, with penalties in either case but still doable.

The other case would be Powers 70 "Words of Power" but I'm not sure if it's the +100% basic version or the +300% cosmic version.

I'd suggest that Animal Empathy should usually be a prerequisite for that sort of thing.