Barbarian Berserker Target Choice (Rifter #40)

[PalladiumBrony]

How does this work? The article describes how a "true Berserker" will fly into an insensate rage, attacking anything and everything it can get its hands on - friend, foe and innocent bystander alike - until everything within their line of sight is either dead, incapacitated or running away. But the article never comments on how they choose who to attack, and I'd be curious to see how anyone else would handle this: Do they pick a target at random, try and attack everyone equally, go straight for whoever's closest, or try and pick the biggest, meanest sumbitch as the most "worthy" or "glorious" opponent to fight? Would you leave that decision up to the player? Obviously this only really applies when they're not directly in combat yet, as once they get in melee range they'll just focus on their current opponent(s) until they go down, then choose another victim I mean opponent.

Obviously this doesn't apply to a regular Barbarian warrior who happened to pick the "Berserker Fury" OCC ability, because those characters retain enough self-control to discern friend from foe, so I would rule that they also retain enough control to make conscious decisions about who and what to fight, and so I'd leave that decision up to the player as usual.

[JuliusCreed]

When in doubt, keep it as simple as possible. When the Berserker goes into his rage then whoever he is fighting at that moment is the obvious first target. After that, determine the Berserker's Line of Sight and he charges in swinging at whoever happens to be the closest to him, friend, foe, bystander or otherwise. Of course this can be sort of directed, but only if an adversary is brave or foolish enough to directly engage the Berserker during his rage. In this case, whoever attacked him becomes the new priority target. From there, simply rinse and repeat until everyone is dead, crippled or on the run. If the Berserker is engaged by multiple opponents then combat pretty much continues normally until no one is left within reach. Then he simply proceeds to the closest target and continues pounding.