Here’s an item my PCs might discover next session, based on (or, more accurately, stolen wholesale from) the manga Berserk:
Berserker Armor 3 armor, worn, clumsy, 4 weight
A suit of blood-stained black armor that allows its wearer to fight on past normal limits by nullifying pain. When you’re reduced to 0 HP but not killed outright (eaten by a dragon, stepped on by a giant, etc.), you may instead bump yourself up to 1 HP and delay taking your Last Breath until the end of combat. When you take your Last Breath, take -1 to the roll. You may delay your Last Breath up to five times per combat, taking -1 to the roll each time you do. If you delay a sixth time, you automatically fail your Last Breath.
Thoughts?
Really theme and picture but i think what you’re trying to motivate the character to do and the mechanical effect are disconnected. Seems like you want to entice the character to “fight past their normal limits” and as a reward you let them delay last breath, but they have to take a minus one to it. i think the cost out weighs the benefit a bit too much and as a result you will continue to see the player behaiving as normal (i.e. avoiding hitting 0 HP). Sure it will delay LB until after combat, but your more likely to die. You may just see the magic item used as armor.
I would attach it to something HP or “fictional” damage related. Off the top of my head maybe:
When you take a big hit (greater than 6hp damage, forceful or messy) and you continue to fight past normal limits describe what vision or memory drives your inner rage and take 1 hold. spend hold to take +1 against your attacker or +1 to last breath.
i’m not a fan of +1s normally so i would probably spend some time adding in some more fictional stuff but i think something like this would motivate the player to dive into battle and “fight past their normal limits”. Trying to take big hits and continuing to build hold for a strong attack or better chance at last breath.
Just some thoughts. Hope it helps!
agree, I don’t think many players would choose to keep fighting if they have to take a -1 to Last Breath later. Here’s my take:
When you’re reduced to 0 HP or below but not killed outright (eaten by a dragon, stepped on by a giant, etc.), you keep fighting up to -10 HP. When you go below -10 HP, or when the battle ends, roll Last Breath as normal.
As written, I agree with Andrew Alwood and Dion Kurczek: there’s no incentive to fight any differently than normal. Making a Last Breath roll with a penalty later doesn’t seem worth gaining a single HP now.
It’s also very mechanical for my tastes. I know nothing about the Berserk manga. What does the armor do fictionally? “Nullifying pain” sounds like you’d never have to mark a debility while wearing it. Does the person wearing it always die if they fight past their normal limits?
My players can’t use it because they were all eaten by a dragon. I kid, my campaign takes place inside a dragon large enough to swallow a village whole, but in all seriousness you might want to say destroyed outright, bodily destroyed, or something of that nature.
What if you make it where it lets them keep fighting until the battle is over, since berserkers would do that fictionally, and instead do something like this:
While wearing the Berserker Armor, when you are reduced to 0 or less HP while in combat without your body being broken beyond repair you take your last breath as normal, but the result is delayed until the end of combat. If you manage to survive (Your body isn’t torn asunder or made useless before the battle is over) then you have impressed Death itself with your ferocity. Treat your Last Breath result as one step higher.
Thanks for your replies, everyone. In the manga, the guy who wears it is basically the only competent fighter in the party, so if he goes down they’re all toast. That’s why he often uses the armor to keep going. The downside is that it works by making it so he doesn’t feel pain. The actual injuries he takes are still exactly as bad as they would normally be. So it’s like, when you break your arm, the pain you feel is your body telling you not to use that arm until it’s fixed. He doesn’t feel that, which allows him to keep fighting but ultimately means he ends up very, very hurt. I suppose it doesn’t quite translate to Dungeon World…
The other thing about the armor is that it sometimes possesses the wearer. What if it were something like:-
While wearing the Berserker Armor, when you take damage, ignore it and mark a box. When you’ve marked five boxes, roll+WIS. On a 10+, erase all marked boxes; you don’t succumb to your inner rage. On a 7-9, erase one marked box; you don’t succumb to your inner rage. On a 6-, you’re berserk! Attack the nearest living creature, friend or foe, with reckless abandon.
Something like that. There has to be some way to “come out” of the berserk status, though. Thoughts?
Maybe instead of a box, mark actual debilities but say that they don’t take affect until after combat? Basically making it like Bloody Aegis, where he can choose to mark a debility instead of taking damage. If he marks all 6 debilities while in the armor, it takes control of him until everything around him is destroyed or the other players think of a way to bring him out of it (Cast sleep on him, defy danger with CHA to talk their way into his human conscience, etc).
I rather like Scott Selvidge’s suggestion: delay the Last Breath roll until the end of the fight. That allows the character to keep fighting despite grevious injury.
Or do something where you mark boxes to ignore damage. Then at the end of the fight, you roll + boxes marked. On a 10+, you drop to half your HP. On a 7-9, you drop to a quarter. And on a miss, you make a Last Breath roll. Or something.
As written, marking boxes to ignore damage, but having a chance to clear them all with a decent roll feels way over powered to me. But then again I think really powerful artifacts should have nasty drawbacks.
I got ninjaed by Scott Selvidge, but marking a debility that doesn’t take effect until after the fight to ignore damage is a great idea. That says you pushed your body past it’s limits as those debilities will stick around.
Chris Stone-Bush lol sorry to ninja you! I just feel like if something is similar to what you are looking for (like Bloody Aegis doing pretty much what the armor does) then it’s easier to work off what’s there.
I should also probably elaborate, when you hit 0 hit points you would still die as normal with the method I mentioned (marking debilities to negate damage). So killing your companion while they are raging would also technically bring them out of it lol.
Thanks again for all the suggestions. I’ve tumbled them around in my head up and come up with a third draft. I didn’t replicate Bloody Aegis since the PC most likely to get this item already has this move and I want it to be a little more special for him. Here we go:
Berserker Armor 3 armor, worn, clumsy, 4 weight
A suit of blood-stained black armor that allows its wearer to fight on past normal limits by nullifying pain. When you take damage, you can choose to ignore it, but mark one box (of five). When the battle is over, if you’ve marked any boxes, roll+WIS-boxes marked. On a 10+, take 1 damage per box marked (ignores armor) and erase all marked boxes. On a 7-9, take 2 damage per box marked (ignores armor) and erase all marked boxes. On a 6-, you’re berserk! Attack the nearest creature, friend or foe, until it’s dead or someone, somehow, manages to bring you to your senses.
I’m still struggling with it for a few reasons. First, armor of 3 is pretty high as is and if he’s a paladin, he probably already has decent HP, as such, he may not pick to use a box very often. If he does, it would only be for a few more HP loss at the end of the fight. Also, if you’re going around the table with other characters AND using more interesting GM moves than deal damage, those boxes may get filled only occasionally. Last, and most important IMO, there isn’t interesting fiction being pushed with it’s use, just fill a box. It’s another thing for the player to track rather than supplementing their fictional descriptions. What about:
When blood has been split (yours or anothers) and the sight of it makes you go berserk with rage, describe it. While berserk you do +1d6 damage and your attacks are messy and forceful, but every time you deal damage to a monster it deals damage back to you in addition to any other GM move being made. Every time you take damage in this way, take +1 to Last Breath. When a fight ends, describe how you regain your composure and lose all your bonuses.
Still a bit crunchy for my taste, but getting there.