Rotes & Procedures

Uncaging the beast inside man’s heart, this timeless martial art instills bloodlust in the warrior’s bosom. Story-wise, the character works herself into a frenzy through whatever methods suit her practice (drugs, self-mutilation, prayers to the war-gods, meditations upon death, and so forth). Once the ritual’s effects take hold, the warrior launches herself into action, stopping only when the magick wears off, the warrior dies, or some other force prevents her from killing again.

System

-wise, this technique combines Life 3, Mind 3, and possibly some other elements as well:

• Life 3 boosts the warrior’s Physical Attributes, as described earlier in this section, and enables her to soak both lethal and aggravated damage. This requires one success per dot in the boosted Trait, up to the maximum of 5, and two successes per dot above 5.

• Mind 3 sustains her berserker state, allows her to shrug off wound penalties, and drives all fear from her mind. For details, see The War-Dance and The Pain-Shrug, above, as well as the Berserker/ Stress Atavism Merit/ Flaw in Mage 20, Appendix II. This requires three additional successes, total.

• An additional Life 3 Effect lets her grow claws and sharp teeth, so as to use the Bite and Claw combat maneuvers described in Mage 20’s Combat section. This demands one additional success.

• Yet another Life 3 Effect helps her heal whatever damage she suffers in combat. This works as detailed under