The Berserker: A Love Story

Many classes in Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition have the capability of fulfilling multiple roles in the party. Whether it is a fighter built to deal damage with huge weapons or a warlock that can disable an enemy with weird status effects, classes have always been able to cross roles to some degree. Unfortunately, in order to do this, those classes usually give up some capability in their primary role. If you wanted to play a character that could pull off multiple roles you had to hybrid or multiclass. That is, you did until now.

I am NOT compensating for something!

The Berserker, which appears in Heroes of the Feywild, is a subclass of Barbarian. The Berserker is also the first dual role class in 4e D & D. It’s a Martial and Primal Defender and Striker.  Although the Berserker can function as both a Defender and a Striker, its true strength lies in its versatility. Like all Essentials Defenders, the Berserker has a defender aura. It also has a built-in extra damage feature. In many ways, it is similar to hybrid characters because it can’t deal the extra damage at the same time it is trying to defend. The unique thing about the Berserker is that it can switch from Defender to Striker by using the Berserker Fury Class feature.

Hulk SMASH!

There is a lot to be excited about with this class. First is the novelty. Being the first of anything is always exciting. The Second exciting thing is being able to be a Defender and a Striker. I have a post explaining Defenders here. I contend that Defender is the most important role, but Striker is probably the sexiest role. Being able to defend while also being able to pull out all stops in the damage department may just be the definition of awesome. The third thing I am excited about with this class is the flavor. I really like the idea of a disciplined warrior who goes into a Hulk Rage and lays waste to things with an axe. I have always liked Barbarians, but the Berserker is actually better because the Barbarian always seems a bit off. The Berserker, on the other hand, really captures the Dr. Jekyll/ Mr. Hyde dichotomy. Finally I have loved the Feywild as a concept since the beginning of 4e. The tie between the Berserker and the Feywild is a bit tenuous, but it’s still nice to have a bit of a Fey connection.

Berserker as a Defender

According to this guide there are really three ways to play a Berserker. You can try to play a Martial focused Defender, you can try to play a Primal Striker or you can do what the class does best and try to keep them in some sort of balance. Though balancing each Role is difficult it is also rewarding. Let’s take a look at how well the Berserker does at each Role. 

As a baseline, the Berserker is a solid Defender. They compare well to the other Essentials Defenders. The Knight is a little stickier because of some of the At-will stances, but the Berserker is at least able to hold his own. Its Defender Aura is identical to all the other Essentials classes and works the same. The punishment mechanic, Vengeful Guardian, may even be better because it does Striker level damage.

The Berserker also holds its own in the survivability department. The Berserker can use light armor and shields and with a high enough Dex score they have no problems with AC. They even have a class feature, Poised Defender, which makes you harder to hit as long as your Defender Aura is active. Your will defense can be a bit of a problem, but that is true for most Defenders. The main problem with the Berserker is a problem shared with all the other essentials Defenders. A determined enemy can get away from the Berserker and attack the squishies often with no penalty because the -2 to attacks only functions while in the aura. If you want to play a determined Defender pick up a Theme like Guardian and you will also probably want to MC fighter because fighters are the stickiest Defender.

I'd like to axe you something!

As a Striker the Berserker also does well at the baseline. The Berserker has a solid extra damage feature, Berserker Fury, which turns on when you use a Primal power or you can turn it on as a minor action when you are bloody. Berserker Fury adds extra damage to your Berserker At-will and melee basic attacks. In addition to the extra damage the Primal Encounter and Daily powers tend to be high damage weapon attacks. The main drawback to Berserker Fury is you can’t use your Defender Aura or Vengeful Guardian while you are in Fury. This has the added drawback of turning off Poised Defender making you easier to hit. The real problem is that once you fury there is no way to go back to being a Defender so make sure you are ready to smash-face before you use a Primal power.  If you want to play a full Striker pick up a theme like Mercenary and pick a lot of Barbarian Primal powers.

As a Defender a Berserker is never going to be as good as a single classed fighter and as a Striker it is never going to be as good as an easy button ranger. What the berserker has that they don’t have is versatility. One of the best strategies with a balanced Berserker is to keep everyone from dog piling the main Defender in the early parts of the fight and then picking the right moment to get angry. With so many good options it is hard to be truly in balance so it is probably best to pick either Defending or Striking and focus on it a little more, while not ignoring the other.

I am Jack's raging Barbarian

I like a lot about the Berserker. I really enjoy being able to play a sexy Striker, but not feel like a douche for refusing to play the tank. I also enjoy exploring the Bruce Banner/ Hulk dichotomy inherent in the class. In fact, recently in a Planescape game, I argued philosophy with a dustman, which would have been very out of character for any other type of Barbarian. I then was able to take a Demon from full to dead in one hit because it made me mad. I also like bringing in something a little Fey and mystery without going all out Fey. If there was one thing I would change about the Berserker, I would give some way to switch back to Defender after you Fury. It could cause a real problem, especially if you play a Berserker as the only Defender and a second wave of enemies show up. Still I really enjoy the class and look forward to playing it more.

Until next time, remember, don’t let your DM tell you no. It’s always “Yes and…?”

Yo Ho Yo Ho a Pirate's Life for Me

I have, for a very long time, wanted to play in a pirate game. Not just any pirate game , a good pirate game. I think the best explanation of what I was looking for is the song Life of a Pirate, by the Rambling Sailors.

Yo Ho!

Chorus: It’s wonderful living the life of a pirate
With the freedom to take what we can
And we’ll sail the world over, searchin’ for plunder
Not fearin’ to face any man, not fearin’ to face any man

We call no man our master, no lord and no king. 
Not long in one place do we stay.
And this world is for those who can grab it, and hold it. 
Possession’s the law of the day.
So we take what we want, we don’t bother with buyin’. 

 After several failed attempts I was finally involved in an excellent pirate game this weekend. It’s hard to get a pirate game right, because pirates can mean different things for different people. I’d like to share what some of the bad things were in the games that didn’t work. Then I’d like to share some of what worked for me in the game that did.

Don't ask what his wife's name is.

The first pirate game I got involved in was late in Third Edition. We had just finished a fairly long running campaign that was ostensibly Roman themed. To be honest,  the only thing Roman about it was every other NPC was a high ranking Senator who we dared not upset, and we all had names like Bigus Dickus. By the end I think we were all looking forward to some freedom. Freedom which comes from being pirates, having the wind at our backs, the open ocean at our feet and the only Senator the one we had kidnapped and were holding for ransom.

 I think my first clue that it wasn’t going to be all the awesome pirate-y goodness I was looking for was when one of the other players decided to play a Were-Shark, and he was our captain. Alright, our captain is nicknamed Sharktooth, I can deal with this. At least we’ll have the freedom of the high seas where we can capture treasure laden merchantmen.

No I don't know what that has to do with being a pirate either.

Unfortunately, that’s where I was wrong. It seems the dm thought it would be awesome for the game for us to explore a new continent and open diplomatic relations with an empire of wasp people. Now, if you are like me, you may wonder what that has to do with being a pirate. So, we got bogged down in negotiations with the wasp people and found out that they were an Evil Empire ™. I’m really not sure what exactly happened after that because my life kind of fell apart so I had to drop out of the game. In any case, I really did not feel like I got to actually be a pirate in that game.

You heard me 11!

The second game actually had a lot more promise. Not only was it a pirate game which had real dm buy in,  it was also an Airship pirate game. We really turned the idea up to eleven. The game had a great deal of potential. We had a good party that worked well together. We even had some really great adventures, like when we crashed a burning ship into the floating fortress of Captain Blood to cover our infiltration. The real problem was that the dm was kind of a jerk. First, he had a hard time with any deviation from his plans, and anytime the players started to feel awesome he ramped up the difficulty. That campaign ended in a tpk and we all decided it would be better to take a break from gaming rather than make up new characters.

This brings me to the awesome pirate game. I think there were several reasons why this game worked for me. The most important was the atmosphere. Everything in the game contributed to the feeling of being pirates. It began with an excellent hook, which could have been written by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Note: The weirdest person in the room was not Gonzo

We were escorting a strange old man to Tortuga. He was paying us handsomely and said there would be more for us once he arrived. Unfortunately, he was being chased by the infamous scalawag Captain Black Jack. Just as we were about to escape the villainous Black Jack by sailing into a storm, a stray shot mortally wounded our passenger. Before he died he cut open his stomach and pulled out a magic egg and left us with a cryptic clue. “There is more treasure waiting for you where the Sun meets the sky, and she is waiting for you.” It was just enough information to get us started, but not so much that we felt like we were being railroaded. 

As we continued, the game’s atmosphere continued to portray the life of a pirate. Tortuga was just as rough and immoral as you would expect. We had the opportunity to interact with sea dogs and wenches. Of course, the people we talked to warned us to stay away from the treasure. The DM did an excellent job tantalizing us with threats and really made us want the treasure and the mysterious lady waiting for us on the island “where the sun meets the sky.”

Isla de Meurta

When we arrived on the island the DM’s description brought to mind lost Atlantis and the Isla de Muerta. It was creepy, but there was plenty of treasure to keep us going forward. Everything was frozen, as if the people were turned into statues in the middle of their daily business and a glowing spirit woman kept beckoning us downward, deeper and deeper into the heart of the lost city. At the end, we had to escape back to our ship with the city falling to pieces around us and the water closing in on us. From beginning to end it was a pirate adventure.

Sorry this post is not about you

In addition to the atmosphere, there were a couple of other things that made the adventure successful. First were the DM’s naming conventions. It may seem small, but it is hard to keep immersed in a pirate game if none of the people or places have pirate names. By using names like Tortuga and Captain Black Jack the DM was able to keep us engaged in the game in a very simple way.

Second, the DM gave us the freedom to pursue our goals in our own way. For a very linear treasure hunt style adventure we had plenty of opportunities to explore the world and make decisions which affected the game. For example, I set up an ambush for Captain Black Jack on the docks so instead of having to fight him and his whole crew we just had to fight him and his first mate.

A wretched hive of scum and villany

I have learned a lot about running theme games from examining what worked and what didn’t in the pirate game. First, atmosphere is very important. A little bit of research and description can help a game immensely. It was obvious the DM had seen and enjoyed some of the same pirate movies that I had. We even had a moment where we broke into songs from the movie. Second, little details like names can make or break the atmosphere. Calling the pirate town Tortuga may have seemed cheesy, but it worked quite well. Finally, give your players interesting choices and have them affect the game. If you have a huge combat planned but the players come up with an interesting way to circumvent it, don’t punish them, run with it. It will improve your game. One final thought; at the end of the game we talked about the game and it brought up an interesting difference in perspective. From my perspective, the game was very open and I felt like the players were driving the adventure. The DM, on the other hand, asked us if we felt she had pushed us too much. If she pushed, then she pushed the exact right amount.

Until next time, remember, don’t let the DM tell you no. It’s always “Yes and…?”

You Shall Not Pass: A Treatise on Defending

I would like to delve a little deeper into this post than I have in some of my last posts. Although all of the roles are important, it is possible that the Defender is the most important role. Without a good Defender the enemy Brutes and Skirmishers will be able to rip apart the other characters whose defenses tend to be lower and which are less able to recover. A good Defender sets the tone of the battle and dictates where the enemy is able to engage the party. A good Controller is also key for this aspect of combat, which is why many of the best Defenders have a strong control secondary role. So, what is a good Defender?

I'll save you Hobbits!

Let's start at the core: What does it mean to be a Defender? As a defender, it is your job to counter and negate enemy attacks. The importance of the role is obvious: If you and your allies are petrified, unconscious or dead, you'll lose the fight, no matter how much damage your group can put out. If your group takes too much damage, they burn through healing surges too fast. If a group's healing surges are used up before they win the final fight of the day and can take an extended rest, they'll have to flee or risk a TPK. The classic defender is the frontline of the party, holding of the brutes' and soldiers' attacks, and preventing them from reaching softer targets. This is a valid tactic, of course, embodied by the shield-bearing Fighter and Paladin, but effective defense can be done in other ways as the highly mobile Assault Swordmage shows.

The above  is from an excellent Wiki on the art of Defending on the Wizards of the Coast community page. Unfortunately, the game has evolved somewhat since the wiki has been updated. The new Essentials style classes deal with the same issues as their pre-Essentials counterparts, but they have a different set of tools to use. The article talks about creating a Catch 22 as a Defender and that is a great way to think about it. You have to make the enemy decide between two really bad choices; either he must attack the Defender, who has high defenses and is usually the most resilient character, or try to circumvent the Defender and suffer the punishment the Defender dishes out.

The article talks about two things every Defender needs to do.  As you will see I believe there are three. First, a good Defender needs to have survivability to avoid being a drain on the party’s resources. Survivability includes having higher defenses, more hit points and a better ability to recover from attacks. This is a bit of a balancing act because if you’re too hard to hit (or kill) the enemy will simply ignore you no matter how bad your punishment is. A good rule of thumb is to keep your defenses about 2-3 points higher than the rest of your party. I’ll get into why in a minute. If you are building a character in a vacuum, you should try for 19-20 + your level for AC and around two points lower for your Non-AC defenses. You also want to make sure you have decently high HP and some way to prevent damage, like resistance or temporary HP. Finally, you need to have some self-recovery and a way to shake off status effects. Dwarves are excellent for this because they can use their second wind as a minor action and have bonuses to Constitution and Wisdom or Strength, abilities which are important for most Defenders. Additionally, Dwarves take less of a penalty for wearing heavy armor than other races, because they are already slow and heavy armor does not decrease their speed further.

This is what happens when you hurt my FRIENDS!

The second thing Defenders need is punishment, or a way to keep enemies from ignoring them. Early in Dungeons and Dragons Fourth Edition this was handled by Marks. Every Defender had some sort of a Mark as a class feature which gave a flat -2 to all attacks which did not include them. That is why you should have your defenses be about 2 higher than the rest of the party. If it is much higher it would make sense for the enemy to ignore your mark. The best part of the Mark system was that each class had a unique punishment mechanic. The wiki does a good job explaining the punishment mechanics of the early Defenders so I won’t repeat that information here. Generally the punishment consists of doing some damage and perhaps imposing a status effect on the enemy who dares to attack your friend. The key difference for the Essentials Defenders is, instead of a Mark, they have a Defender Aura which works in the same way. An enemy in your aura takes a -2 on all attacks that don’t include you and have some sort of punishment mechanic. The Essentials Defenders also have one advantage over pre-Essentials Defenders. A pre-Essentials Defender can only punish one enemy a round because, with one notable exception, the punishment is an immediate action. All the Essentials Defenders have a punishment attack, which is an opportunity action, so they can punish each enemy that ignores them instead of just the first one. The trade off is that Essentials Defenders need to keep an enemy in their aura for it to work, which brings me to the third thing I think all Defenders need.

Don't you dare walk away from me!

Defenders need stickiness, or a way to keep enemies from moving away from them. Many of the pre-Essentials defenders, and all of the Essential Defenders, cannot punish effectively unless they are adjacent to an enemy. Even those Defenders who can punish at range still benefit from some level of stickiness. Usually the stickiness comes in the form of soft control. This is why a Defender with a good secondary in control or a Defender with a good controller can be so successful. At a minimum, a Defender needs some way to restrict enemies’ movement or needs to be very mobile themselves.

I am going to do an in-depth look at the Berserker in a future article and there are many good guides for each Defender on the Wizards of the Coast Community site. You can play without a Defender, but if you want to keep your friends alive and like to take a bit of punishment I hope this helped you understand how important you are. Until next time remember don’t let your DM tell you no. It’s always Yes and?....

Happy New Year

Happy Mayan Apocalypse Year to all my loyal followers. I know many people had struggles last year. Here is hoping this year will be better. 

It can hardly be worse

Saturday Chain-mail

I think it is the distraction factor that adds to the AC

As promised here is the weekend Chain-mail. 


I love this first one.Not only is it delicious eye candy but there is a lot going on in the picture as well. She has a lovely choker which does an excellent job drawing attention to her um... Breastplate. She has a reach weapon which is a good idea if you want to keep the enemy at bay. My favorite though is the chain helmet. Most fantasy chain-mail forgets to protect the head. 

I will take all of your booty now. 

Yet another excellent picture. I think my favorite part of this picture is that you aren't quite sure what the assassin is looking for. Is she going to kill the woman or does she want to seduce her? Perhaps she is just trying to rob her at sword-point. I think she might be a vampire and is out for some blood, but maybe that is just me. 

Now if you think I am only posting for the male gamer here is my final picture which I will let speak for itself. Until next time remember, don’t let the DM tell you no, its always “Yes, and?....”

Role vs. Role vs. Roll

We're all mad here

I was looking for some great articles on Roles in 4^th edition D & D. I'm sure they are there because I've read them before however I can’t find them now so if anyone knows of any feel free to post links to them in the comments.

I’m sure many of you are familiar with the role system in D and D 4e or, if not, at least with a similar idea in World of Warcraft. If you aren’t then sit down professor James the Mad is about to school you.

What is a role and why do you care?

Mark? Defender Aura? What's that? I just want to hit things!

Roles in D and D serve a dual purpose. The first is to give players an idea of what things their character can and should do. Maybe you just want to play a fighter because you remember that fighters hit things. Well if all you want is to play a fighter that hits things you may be sadly disappointed in the 4e fighter. You will have a mark to keep track of, and exploits, which are a lot like spells. You may get frustrated because all you want to do is hit things. Why, oh why, can’t you just hit things? The reason is that all classes in D and D 4e have a role or a mechanical definition of their job or purpose. Fighters are now Defenders which, in addition to hitting things, they now have ways to make the monsters focus on trying to hit them. If you are just picking up the game for the first time, picking a role before you pick a class can be a good idea. The roles give you a good idea of what your character can do, and can give you a bit of a guide on how to have them act, or role play them in combat situations. The second purpose is to provide links between class design and how a class needs to perform in a group. In essence, role is a label that identifies what your character should be good at and how to have them perform in the party

I will rule you all with my iron fist. You! Obey the Fist!

There are four roles in D and D. The roles are similar to World of Warcraft Roles but withsome subtle differences. The first role is Controller. Controller is the hardest role to define and suffered a bit from identity crisis early in the edition. Controller doesn’t have a perfect analogue in the World of Warcraft role system, but is an AoE caster and debuffer. The second role is the Defender. Defenders are the World of Warcraft Tanks, as mentioned they stand at the front and keep the back lines safe. Leaders are the third role. Leaders are like a World of Warcraft healer plus. Of course they heal, but they also provide bonuses to their friends and can even debuff though not usually as well as a Controller. The final role is the Striker. In World of Warcraft the Striker is known as the damage dealer. Each of the roles has special tools, usually in the form of class features, to help them perform their role, or job.

No Gandalf I said it first.

As   I wrote this I realized that I have a long way to go before I am done. I would like to spend some time talking about how I feel about the role system, and I would also like to share some thoughts on each role and how they work together. For now I hope you have a better understanding of roles in D&D 4e, and why they are important. Until next time remember, don’t let the DM tell you no, its always “Yes, and?....”

The Year of Suck

All work and no play make James something something.

Hello to my loyal readers (all two of you). I’m back! And like Jack Nicholson in the Shining I appear a bit worse for the wear. Someone close to me recently referred to 2011 as “The Year of Suck” and who am I to argue. I do have to say it hasn’t been all bad there have been some bright shining moments of awesome.

Here are the highlights from my year:

 I finished my degree and got a job teaching middle school. Then I got fired. I must say it is a mixed blessing. I wasn’t really happy teaching middle school, but I don’t really want to be fired.

I have become a Virtual Table convert. If you read my last post, I was very upset at the new online only character builder. I was also very upset when they did the same thing to the Monster builder. In fact, I may have to check out the online Monster builder and see if they have fixed it yet. But, I have to say I am impressed with how far the character builder has come. In addition, I am very pleased with the Virtual Table. Now, to be fair, I had not played a lot of online D and D before this and I have heard there are some other very good systems out there. However, in the last 6 months, I have played games with people in New York, England, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Spain and Estonia. I am actually now pretty good friends with people I would never have met otherwise. At some point I will probably do a detailed review of the table but for now just know I have enjoyed more games and met more people than would otherwise have been possible, for which I am thankful.

I have a couple of ideas for the blog as well. Right now, I am working on a review of the Berserker, which is one of my favorite new classes. Before I get to that I may do a piece on Roles, but if I find a really good one (there are a lot out there) I’ll probably just pass out a link. I am also working on a banking clan of dragons and some tales from games I have known. I am also looking forward to my first weekend chainmail post so keep your eyes open for that.

It’s good to be back and remember, don’t let the DM tell you no, its always “Yes, and?....”