Any way to "improve" Fighting Madness?

[Conan-the-Librarian]

I know that Crimson Mist improves over time and in D&D the Barbarian's Rage ability certainly improves (both in the stat bonuses and more importantly in the number of times one can induce the Rage)... but what about Fighting Madness?

Would having a Feat like "Improved Fighting Madness" and perhaps even "Greater Fighting Madness" unbalance things?

I'm not even thinking so much about boosting the bonuses to stats (though that would be nice) but rather increasing the number of times per day that one can use Fighting Madness. Sometimes a "raging" barbarian finds himself getting into more than 1 fight in a day and it can be tricky deciding just when to "turn on the juice".

What are people's views on this? I know FM doesn't suffer the drawback of Rage (ie. no "fatigue" once it is over) but I would still like to see some way of being able to enter a "rage" more than once per day (without resorting to Crimson Mist which can only be used under specific circumstances).

 

[Andronicus]

Firstly, welcome to the forums. Secondly, one thing to bear in mind with Fighting Madness, is that only certain races can get it. Boosting Fighting Madness in anyway risks unbalancing the game. Consider how the more civilized races will be outclassed by someone who can boost their Str, Con and saves multiple times a day. It's a critical edge.

Other things to consider. The Conan game encourages cutting loose, not husbanding your resources all the time. Use Fighting Madness when you feel like destroying your enemies or really need it. Don't worry about it!

If you still want to come up with game mechanics to enhance Fighting Madness, I would recommend the Extra Rage feat, and NOTHING ELSE. There are a lot of goofy Rage feats out there which would either be unbalancing or unConan like.

 

[Conan-the-Librarian]

Well thanks for the welcome Andronicus.

I guess the thing that gets me is that there's really no way to extend the length of Fighting Madness aside from just boosting Con but even with the extra stat boosts at 6th level and so on, that can be kind of slow.

Also you get into a position where you have to choose between boosting Con to improve the Fighting Madness or boosting Strength and/or Dexterity.

How many fights in 1 day's time do most PCs find themselves in usually? Obviously in the typical D&D dungeon crawl (which Conan most certainly is not, and a good thing too )... one can find themselves in repeated combat going from room to room.

Also assuming someone was playing with an 18 Con (or perhaps a 20 Con if he is a Nordheimer), that would be a Fighting Madness lasting 3 +4 (+5) +2 (FM's enhanced Con)= either 9 or 10 rounds long. How many rounds long are most combats in Conan (based on your experience)?

 

[argo]

I suppose that I could back a feat that improved the stat bonuses granted by Fighting Madness (a la Greater Crimson Mist) however I would recomend against a feat that lets you enter Fighting Madness more times per day.

You hit upon the central issue yourself Librarian in your second post. In dnd most groups will see 3-5 combats per "day", or at least that is the assumption the system was designed around. Dungeon crawling is a war of attrition where the players expend resources to gain ground, about 20% resource loss per "balanced" encounter. However Conan lends itself well to a different style of play, one where encounters are intentionally "unbalanced" and death can come at any time. I have had great success running games with only 1-2 combat encounters per "day" (plus sometimes a mook fight that lets the players power-trip but doesn't threaten them much). So if you go much above 1 rage per day then there is little to prevent the player from raging every fight.

:shrug: or maybe that is what you want, a rage every fight, if so then go nuts.

Oh, and as for your other question. IME the "average" combat will last about 6-8 rounds unless both sides spend the first few rounds hiding behind cover and waiting for the other side to engage; the HP just don't last much longer than that.

Hope that helps.

 

[Krushnak]

one thing ill be changing in my campaign with fighting madness is the time it lasts for. if the character has both crimson mist and fighting madness then madness lasts for turns instead of rounds. really for mass battle berserking more than anything else.

might even allow "greater rage" as an extra madness per day but have the prereqs at like BAB of like 6 and a con of 16 or higher.

 

[René]

One thing about Fighting Madness in general: REH gives this "feat" many of his characters - it doesn't matter if they come from Cimmeria or modern America ("El Borak", the various boxers) or are civilised crusaders.

So in my game I don't restrict it to savage races. If a PC (or NPC) is sufficiently barbarian, he can choose this feat.