The Berserker Talent as described on pg18 of Conan the Barbarian states that “Anyone facing you gains Momentum equal to your bonus Momentum” and I’m wondering how this is to be interpreted?
Does this mean your opponents gain momentum (or doom) as they are ‘faced’ off against you?
Is this a one time thing or every round?
Considering becoming Enraged costs a fatigue, limits your action choices, lets the GM make you attack allies, and is difficult status to remove, it seems to make Enraged a poor choice unless you have further talents down list which make it worthwhile.
My understanding is that it lasts until your next turn. If you take 2 bonus momentum- then anyone attacking you - between the end of your turn and the start of your next- gains an automatic 2 momentum on attacks that hit.
How then is this Talent an advantage? Even with Wild Fury its the gift that keeps giving… to your opponents.
My players are interacting with a barbarian gladiator and I was thinking he might join them in a fight in order to showcase the Berserker talent tree. Not sure how impressed they will be
The key advantage is being able to kill the enemy more quickly - hopefully quickly enough that they can’t spend the bonus Momentum your berserk rage is giving them.
Right. Well I’ll build the character out with the full tree and see how it goes. I have no doubt it will be a veritable blood bath as he and his warband wade into the enemy lines. Was Cranky correct in that the momentum going to the adversaries is also considered ‘bonus’ momentum that is granted only after a successful attack?
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Yes, it’s bonus Momentum, generated after a successful attack. I generally recommend not allowing bonus Momentum to be saved (it’s a rule in some versions of 2d20, but I can’t recall if Conan is one of them).
My group has always played it that way, perhaps intuitively. The term ‘bonus’ just implies it should be used as part of that skill test. Thanks for the answers.
Rules as written, pg 101 of the Core book, Bonus momentum is only applied to a test that succeeds and not necessarily one that hits since succeeding at a test isn’t the same as succeeding at a Struggle. For example, a D1 attack test succeeds if you score a single success in which case you would gain bonus momentum as appropriate to whatever talent you are using. In the case of Berserk the base is +1 Bonus momentum. The above test scored no momentum but succeeded so it gain the 1 bonus momentum. Now your opponent makes his test and if successful gains the same bonus momentum (assuming the Berserk talent is in play) and then you compare momentum to see who wins the struggle. Apologies if I explained anything obvious but my reading of the above thread lead me to assume that bonus momentum was only being awarded to the winner of a Struggle which isn’t correct.