Alright so while possibly old most of the conversations concerning Frenzied Berserker seem to be very very negative. While some of this might be justified I tend to believe its a bit unfair. My longest played character (the game went on for some 5 years) reached level 26 and I would say was one of the most beloved PCs in the party. So much so that me and a few friends decided to start up a Pathfinder game and I was talked into giving my old character a second try.
Id like to tell you a little about why he was so beloved. Meet Drake.
Drake was played in 3.0 and was converted to 3.5 at the tail end of the game. He was a (Not in this order) Barbarian 5/Sorcerer 1/Dragon Disciple 10/Frenzied berserker 4. I continued to take Epic Dragon disciple for my 6 epic levels. Frenzied Berserker was taken midpoint in Dragon Disciple as I recall so I was berserker for most of the game. Not the most optimized... he wasn't some uber-charge build or anything but with the 3.0 DD he was Large and I used it to great effect. Even before epic his Strength was higher then any mob in every dnd source we had excluding Kord and Thrall. Somewhere in the 60's. He was the meat shield and had a billion true strike's a day since he got 8 bonus spells and only had 2 spells known lol.
Now as to why the party loved him. Well first of all I RPed him as a fun loving barbarian that took people at their word and considered almost everyone a friend until proven otherwise. He was a good hearted soul that had a draconic raw fury burning within that he took great pains to control and channel into destroying those that would harm his friends and allies. He felt it was his duty to protect the "Little ones" around him. To that effect the cleric had my back the entire game. She would cast a persistent shield other on the two every day, I took half her damage and once she hit epic spellcasting... it really got crucial. She created an epic Shield other that was permanent, worked across planes, transferred 100 percent of the damage to me and was keyed to every one of our party members. Thats right. I took 100 percent of the damage for the entire party. She would keep several heal spells ready ( we continued to use 3.0 heal the entire game even after the 3.5 conversion) for when Drake's Frenzy would almost burn out. Some fights I would be thousands of points in the negative before the heal. This worked out for the DM... he hated pulling punches and Drake was the perfect punching bag. And the party loved him cause he was the ultimate damage absorb. So there you go.
Now I hear pretty much the same argument on most post against Frenzied Berserkers. They are loose canons. They kill party members. That a single point of damage, a trap, a snikity D Door Mage with a 0 level spell could cause the Frenzied berserker to fly off the handle and make some clothy in the party very very unhappy. This is all true, but if played smart this can be avoided. My above example for instance had taken 10 levels of a good will save class had a decent wisdom and had a cloak of resist. He only failed to leave a Frenzy if he rolled a 1. I did kill one party member but it was unavoidable. I was several 1000 points of damage in the negative, on the ethereal plane trapped in a force cage with a brand new party member that hadn't received the epic shield other yet. It was kill him and continue my frenzy in hope the cleric would get in gear and get over to the ethereal to heal me ... or end the frenzy and die. I killed him and apologized after the true rez. It was only that one extreme circumstance that caused a death. The wizard almost killed us more than me. All in all the party would have revolted had drake tried to leave the game it think.
So enough of my rant. On to the new game. We are starting up a Pathfinder game. I thought I would try to convert a few of my favorite Barbarian Prestige classes and post em here for your amusement. Frenzied Berserker and Rage Mage. I found a homebrew of the Frenzied berserker on the Pathfinder Database but it really seemed that the class had been watered down far to much. You can find his at
http://www.pathfinderdb.com/character-options/prestige-classes/722-frenzied-berserker
