Berserker Barbarian - Heros of the Feywild.

I've been looking at the Berserker option in the Feywild book.

Correct me where I've gone astray.

1. Powers which lack the 'Primal' keyword can't be used when the character is 'berserk'. That's why the new 'at-wills' gain the 'Primal' keyword when the character enters the 'Berserker Fury', true? (see pg. 44 under Feats, 3rd paragraph)

2. The only two ways to enter the 'Fury' state is to use a 'Primal' attack power at any time or to 'go berserk' as a minor action... but only when Bloodied, right?

3. The standard Barbarian Lvl 1 Daily 'Rage' powers are useless because the Berserker loses the 'rage strike' feature?

I was thinking that there are two ways to go with a Berserker at Lvl 1.
Either take a 'Primal' Encounter attack that would allow the PC to enter the Berserker Fury at some point during each encounter (without needing to wait until 'bloodied') but leaving the PC with no Martial Encounter attack.

Or take a Martial Encounter attack and depend on waiting until bloodied to 'go berserk'.

The other option is to look to your Daily attack as the Berserk trigger. Take a Martial encounter and a Primal daily... but this really limits the PC's access to the Berserker Fury.

I'm kicking around some ideas for PC's that work for small 2 or 3 person parties - without going the Hybrid route. With the Berserker you get sort of a Defender/Striker. I've never really used Multiclass feats... and I've been told that they're not that great an option, really.

The berserker barbarian is tremendous fun. You could actually use any barbarian powers from PHB2 and Primal Power. So you can have at-will and encounter power that have the primal keyword in them and trigger your fury. Any of the barbarian dailies work because they all have the primal keyword, so any of them will give you a fury state, even if you can use the rage feature.
Just take life-ending strike for the daily. You can't beat 4[w] damage...
If you take human as the race, and take an extra at-will power instead of heroic effort you could have 2 martial at-wills and 1 primal, then bust out striker whenever you like. Though the berserker has the best mark punishment of the aura based defenders and the aura give you an extra +2 to AC and you can already lay down some decent hits with the martial powers, so the fury isn't needed unless you really want to.
I played a berserker during an encounters season and it was a super fun character, but I put a fair amount into the role playing and character development, which also helps. But it was a very capable defender, hit well and was pretty survivable. Mechanically great, lots of room for fluff building/character dev/role play.
TjD

Kazadvorn wrote:

1. Powers which lack the 'Primal' keyword can't be used when the character is 'berserk'. That's why the new 'at-wills' gain the 'Primal' keyword when the character enters the 'Berserker Fury', true? (see pg. 44 under Feats, 3rd paragraph)

There is no express written rule stating as such. One little blurb in the feats column doesn't count, so stack up on good martial powers all you like :)

Kazadvorn wrote:

2. The only two ways to enter the 'Fury' state is to use a 'Primal' attack power at any time or to 'go berserk' as a minor action... but only when Bloodied, right?

Yes.

Kazadvorn wrote:

3. The standard Barbarian Lvl 1 Daily 'Rage' powers are useless because the Berserker loses the 'rage strike' feature?

Not really. The rages themselves are often more potent than saving the powers as batteries for Rage Strike (unless you're optimizing Rage Strike out the wazoo), so some of those powers are still plenty useful for a Berserker. Especially since the rages themselves are not tied to any sort of class feature, and will allow you to pick up Rage centric Barbarian feats for extra oomph.

Kazadvorn wrote:

I was thinking that there are two ways to go with a Berserker at Lvl 1.
Either take a 'Primal' Encounter attack that would allow the PC to enter the Berserker Fury at some point during each encounter (without needing to wait until 'bloodied') but leaving the PC with no Martial Encounter attack.

Or take a Martial Encounter attack and depend on waiting until bloodied to 'go berserk'.

The other option is to look to your Daily attack as the Berserk trigger. Take a Martial encounter and a Primal daily... but this really limits the PC's access to the Berserker Fury.

Taking a Primal at will power from the rest of the Barbarian's power selection would work better if you really want to have a "kill switch" for entering the Fury. If you're unable to do this due to DM content limitations, any of the ideas you posted above would work.

Kazadvorn wrote:

I'm kicking around some ideas for PC's that work for small 2 or 3 person parties - without going the Hybrid route. With the Berserker you get sort of a Defender/Striker. I've never really used Multiclass feats... and I've been told that they're not that great an option, really.

If you prefer sticking the Defender route, limiting selection on Primal powers would work fairly fine. Multiclassing isn't such a great way to get powers, but it is a really great way to diversify your abilities. Since you would still be able to use marks and mark retaliation powers while in Fury, multiclassing Fighter isn't too terrible an idea at all, even if it's only for a few moments per encounter.

If you'd like to stick to the striker route, building full of Barbarian goodies is as good as anything else, but a few multiclass options do exist that can boost your damage too, so some of them may be worth the feat slot depending.

Hope this helps. Happy Gaming :)