Berserker Hit Die: d8 + 2 Gain 3 Skills: 1: Animal Handling, 2: Athletics, 3: Nature, 4: Perception, 5: Stealth, 6: Survival Starting Equipment: Any heavy weapon, leather armour (+2 AC, 0 slots).
Berserker Level 1: Iron Hide, Rage Level 2: Danger Sense, Taste of Home Level 3: Feat of Strength, Die Hard Level 4: Rage for the Ages
Iron Hide
You can only wear light armour, or no armour. However, you have a base AC as 14 instead of 10, and you have the highest Hit Die.
Rage
You can enter a savage frenzy known as a rage. You can choose to enter a rage at the start of your turn, or in response to taking damage. You might froth, or stare in battle-focus, or merely let a facade drop and give in to your ancient urges, brutal warrior training, or religious fanaticism.
Your Rage Bonus starts at +1. You have +X to attack rolls, damage rolls, and your critical hit range, where X is your Rage Bonus.
You get advantage on STR-based checks, CON-based checks, and FOR saves.
You are immune to pain and fear.
You can’t do anything defensive, curative, or tactical – all you can and want to do is attempt to kill things. You can only cast a spell with the goal of killing things.
Anyone who injures you during a rage becomes an enemy.
Your rage lasts until you kill, subdue or drive off all enemies.
You can use an action to stop raging prematurely if you make a WIL save at the start of your turn. An ally can also attempt to do so by beating you at an opposed check: they use CHA (Persuasion) against your WIS.
Danger Sense
You have a 3-in-6 chance of acting in a surprise round when ambushed and A* on Saves against effects you haven't seen yet.
Taste of Home
Invent a weird delicacy or roll on Skerple's Table of Barbarian Delicacies. You can consume this special ration to regain 1d6 + Berserker Level HP.
This takes 1 round (two actions).
One “dose” costs 1sp and can be purchased in any trading city.
3 doses fit in a single inventory slot.
You cannot eat while raging, but you can immediately enter a rage after eating the ration.
If an ally waves the ration under your nose while you’re at 0 HP but stable, you can roll FOR to wake up.
Feat of Strength
Once per Long Rest, you can treat your Strength to be 24 (+5) accomplish one mighty feat of strength, or make a single attack with A* that does double damage if it hits.
Rage for the Ages
Your Rage Bonus increases to +2. If you kill an opponent while raging, you may make an additional attack. You can’t make more attacks in a single round than your Berserker level.
Credits: Art by Evlyn Moreau (https://chaudronchromatique.blogspot.com/), appearing in Arnold K’s Lair of the Lamb (https://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2020/04/lair-of-lamb-final.html).
Arnold K (https://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/) and Skerples (https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com/) for the core of the features.
Good Quirks are - dare I say it - essential for having memorable characters. Here's 100 of them.
Give them to your PC's or use them when coming up with NPC's.
If you can spot which ones came from the absolutely brilliant Mynock series of the Campaign Podcast, you get bonus points and all my love and adoration.
1. Is convinced they have a special, unique relationship with animals. Maybe they do.
2. Completely illiterate—adamant to hide the fact.
3. Frequently misuse big, complex words.
4. An avid, some would say obnoxious, evangelist for their religion.
5. Devourer of romance faction.
6. Writing a novel based on their adventuring experiences.
7. Really clumsy - always knocking things over, or dropping important items.
8. Have a very personal diary which they share out loud at (it feels like) every opportunity.
9. Your dream is to be the next star of the theatre. This adventuring is just method.
10. Completely and utterly convinced the world is round - what a lunatic!
11. Wear an eyepatch purely for fashion.
12. Pronounce 'R' as 'W'.
13. Completely and utterly convinced of an apocalypse that will strike the world very soon - they're most likely wrong. But what if they're right?
14. Tattoo’s bearing the name of every friend and loved one they've lost on their strong arm.
15. Have a reputation for constant, sometimes ill-advised, practical jokes.
16. Write a letter to their mother as often as they can.
17. Flips a coin to decide the course of action, even in meaningful decisions.
18. Have an extensive collection of large, impractical hats.
19. Desperately want an unorthodox pet.
20. List their long and pretentious list of names and titles in every introduction.
21. Compulsive, but obvious and implausible liar.
22. Choose a new, completely different fashion style for themselves each week.
23. A constant flirt with members of the opposite sex.
24. Strong regional accent.
25. Absolutely hopeless sense of direction.
26. Obsessed with personal hygiene. As an adventurer. In a medieval society.
27. Have a catchphrase. Don't you forget it.
28. Extremely superstitious.
29. Have a tendency to fall in love with enemies, or with people who live very dangerous lives.
30. A mad alchemist, always creating crazy concoctions and bonkers bombs.
31. Absolutely will not ride any animals.
32. Amateur magician - kid's party style.
33. A very 'sensitive' ear to potential innuendos.
34. Useless at remembering names - in denial of the fact.
35. Addicted to a randomly chosen drug.
36. Impossibly polite to even the most hostile or barbaric creatures.
37. Fond of challenging anyone and anything to a noble duel.
38. In denial of some serious daddy issues.
39. Take no notice of the volume of their voice, which can become embarrassing at social gatherings, or when trying to be stealthy.
40. Navigating social conventions is a mess.
41. Fall in love both very easily, and fall hard. Once they meet the new 'one', they can't recall having met or loved anyone else.
42. Can count numbers of objects above 7 rapidly, but cannot count 7 objects or below - there's just a mental block.
43. Misuse figures of speech constantly.
44. Find unusual creatures to be adorable. They have a tendency to want to keep dangerous creatures as pets.
45. Had some sort of deficiency as a child with loving contact, and satisfied it with your family pet. You now need to stroke furry animals - like an addiction you must sate.
46. In denial of their poor hearing - repeat an incorrect version of what someone told them, bewildered as to why they're telling you to "catch a bee" when you're meant to be catching them when they jump. Otherwise known as Calculus syndrome.
47. Very quick to hold rarely reciprocated vendettas. They have so many nemeses they need a book to record it. They frame your grudges as epic showdowns between two life-long enemies destined to be in an eternal duel. This feeling is not always shared.
48. A keen musician, and will take any chance to share one of their new songs. Fortunately, they have been blessed with a truly special gift for music.
49. A keen musician, and will take any chance to share one of their new songs. Unfortunately, they're dreadful with all instruments, and their singing voice is akin to the wails of a dying cat.
50. An atheist in a world where deities show their divine power very obviously, and often. They try to explain clear divine signs away with science, no matter how increasingly deluded the explanations are.
51. Had a very privileged upbringing, and as a result, they're completely deluded. They think all rich people are marvellous. Everyone who isn't rich is there
to serve them. Oblivious to the concept of money management - "I find these things just tend to sort themselves out".
52. If there's a plan - they'll forget it. Maybe they just love to 'improvise'?
53. A master of disguise! If a problem can be solved this way, you bet they'll want to give it a go.
54. A fervent member of a radical political ideology, and spread it relentlessly. The soap box is their happy place.
55. Always honest. Lies, deception - these are alien concepts.
56. Believe they're the hero from a (probably made-up) prophecy.
57. Frequently spout philosophical statements, that they believe are gold nuggets of wisdom, inspiration and display your highly developed insight into our existence. Maybe they are, maybe they really, really aren't.
58. Spend a concerning amount of time speaking to their imaginary friend.
59. Painfully convinced of just how impressively wonderful and superior they are.
60. Excessively maternal, and will not rest until all of their friends (and some strangers) are well fed and cared for.
61. Love talking to strangers about anything and everything. Everyone is a potential friend.
62. Convinced they're a werewolf, but really they just have sleepwalking problems.
63. They need to look cool at all times. They obsessively map out dramatic entrances, witty one-liners, and elaborate combat moves.
64. Brazenly blunt.
65. No grasp of sarcasm, irony or statements said in jest.
66. You have the memory of a goldfish.
67. Actively avoid words with the letter S, due to insecurity over their lisp.
68. Clinically diagnose other people's physical and emotional flaws in front of them. Whether the diagnosis is correct or not is up to you.
69. A fantastic cook. They delight in the opportunity to cook for others, and produce beautiful dishes of masterful quality.
70. A horrid cook. They delight in the opportunity to cook for others, and produce horrible slush of repulsive quality.
71. Spend much of their free time honing their skills at something extremely obscure and probably useless.
72. Always have to one-up people. They hate losing a competition.
73. Have a weird, very niche talent.
74. Claimed to know an obscure language, and now hope never to meet someone who actually speaks it.
75. When idle and bored, they make neat stacks of nearby objects, including small animals and other people's valuables.
76. Extremely passive-aggressive.
77. Occasionally pronounce things weirdly, like putting the emphasis on the wrong syllable.
78. Introduce themselves by a different name every time.
79. Dresses all in one colour. If a choice of colour is to be made, you bet it'll be that one.
80. Get extremely defensive when someone disagrees with you.
81. Nearly always speak in hypotheticals.
82. Obsessed with a celebrity.
83. Extremely conscious of the proper posture of yourself and others.
84. When people are conversing with them, they must stare into the other person's eyes intently or it just won't go in.
85. Default mode of speech is Shakespearian.
86. Give nicknames to everyone, whether they like it or not.
87. Overexaggerate when telling stories of their past deeds.
88. Pretend to not know the language in awkward social situations.
89. Art is their passion. They keep a notebook full of sketches of the people, places and things you encounter.
90. The walking-talking definition of stubborn. Will never admit to being wrong.
91. They're so chill in even the most stressful situations - this isn’t always helpful to others.
92. Very forgetful of the anecdotes they've already told, and repeat the same ones frequently.
93. Gets jokes a fair few moments after everyone else laughed.
94. Napoleon complex.
95. Like to reference how “mother” / “mummy” would feel about a topic in conversation.
96. A passionate follower of an obscure religion that no-one's heard of. Many people think they just made it up.
97. They know 'fun facts' about everything. They are usually wrong.
98. Daredevil - the more dangerous and daring the course of action, the better.
99. You have a pet, which you call, and treat, as if they were your son/daughter.
100. "So, the first thing to say, is this is not a pyramid scheme".
Sunder
If you sacrifice a piece of combat equipment (shield, weapon, armour), you reduce incoming damage from a successful attack on you by 1d6. If you choose to sunder your shield, you can reduce the damage by 2d6.
Fighting Styles
When wielding the appropriate weapon, you get the bonuses from relevant styles you know. If you are wielding weapons that qualify for multiple styles, all applicable styles apply. If you’re wielding 2 weapons that qualify for different styles, the styles only apply for their specific weapons.
Attack Surge
If you have advantage on an attack, you can forgo it to attack twice that turn instead.
Threat Assessment
After a successful attack, or 10 minutes of uninterrupted observation, you may choose one question to ask the GM about the target creature:
How many HD do they have?
What’s their AC?
How many attacks do they have, and how much damage does each one deal?
If you make strong eye contact with a humanoid, you can ask the GM how many creature’s they’ve killed: None, One or Many.
Sentinel
When a creature disengages, you can still make an attack of opportunity against them, but you have disadvantage on the attack.
You can choose to take attacks aimed at allies adjacent to you.
Whirlwind of Death
When you get a critical hit or kill an opponent, you may make another attack. You can’t make more attacks in a single round than your Fighter Level. Your critical hit range increases to 18-20.
Fighting Styles
1. Archer (missile weapons)
You can shoot inanimate targets within range without making a roll.
You have a knack for headshots and hitting the critical spots - your critical hit range increases to 18-20. If you get a critical hit against a humanoid, deal 3x damage.
2. Brawler (unarmed)
If you score a critical hit with an unarmed strike, the target is stunned for 1 round. Your critical hit range increases to 18-20.
If you hit a target with your first unarmed attack in a round, you can make an additional unarmed attack against them.
3. Crusher (bludgeoning weapon)
If you miss an attack against targets of AC 14 or more, you still deal 1 + STR damage.
When you deal natural 6+ damage with a bludgeoning weapon, you reduce their AC by 1.
4. Dual Wielding (two weapons)
You can add your attribute modifier to the damage of the second attack.
If you hit a target with one weapon, get advantage against them with your other attack.
5. Duelist (one-handed sword)
If an opponent critically fails a melee attack roll against you, you may make a free attack with advantage against them.
Reroll 1s and 2s when rolling damage with a one-handed sword.
6. Greatshield (shield)
When a creature you can see attacks someone adjacent to you, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll by thrusting your shield in front of your ally.
Shields only count for one inventory slot.
7. Great Weapon (two-handed weapon)
Reroll 1s for damage with two-handed weapons.
You deal 3x damage on a critical hit.
8. Reaver (slashing weapon)
If you miss an attack against targets of AC 13 or less, you still deal 1 + STR/DEX damage.
When you deal natural 6+ damage with a slashing weapon, you inflict a vicious wound on your target, imposing disadvantage on their next attack.
9. Spearwall (reach, piercing melee weapon)
When you’re wielding a reach, piercing weapon, adjacent allies get +1 AC.
You deal 2x damage on a charge or when readied against a charge (doesn’t stack with critical hits).
10. Throwing (throwing weapon)
You can throw at targets within long range without incurring disadvantage.
You can throw a throwing weapon on your person as a bonus attack on your turn if you have a free hand.
