Clint wrote: ↑Sat Jan 19, 2019 3:29 am
"when you Charge, you gain +1 Damage to all Melee attacks per level in this talent"
It doesn't say anything about advantage.
Now, under the lists of what gives advantage, charging is listed "Charging: charging headlong into battle grants +1 advantage".
Wether you have the talent Berserk Charge or not doesn't impact on whether you gain advantage
Lets clear out any and all misunderstandings once and for all.
You are absolutely correct - the advantage you gain from charging has nothing to do with the Talent.
However, the OP was asking about the general value of the Talent. It is imperative we all understand the importance of the easily-missed line "Test:" for many (but not all) Talents. This is explained in the sidebar on page 132, and yes, it is easy to miss, and no, it is not mentioned anywhere else.
In the case of the Berserk Charge Talent, we have:
Tests: Melee on a Round when you Charge
So, if you have the Talent, in addition to whatever the Talent says it does, it also provides +1 SL on any Test that is successful (which makes you more likely to actually win the opposed test and/or dish out more damage).
If you pay 200 XP to take the Talent a second time, this bonus increases to +2 SL and so on. Just remember that you only gain the bonus on
successful Tests. If you fail your Test by -1 SL and your opponent fails by -2 SL, you still
win the opposed test (your charge hits for damage), but you don't get the SL bonus from the Talent.
Let's illustrate. Don't feel bad if you got it wrong -
calculating the outcome of a combat attack is extremely complicated in 4E (compared to 1/2E, and honestly to many other fantasy rpgs as well).
Example: you have a 45% Melee skill, and two levels of Berserk Charge. You didn't have any advantage before the charge. You have a standard hand weapon of +4 with a standard Strength Bonus of 3.
You roll 49. Since you have advantage, your effective skill is 55 and you
succeed. Your SL is 1
plus the 2 from the Talent's Test line = 3.
If the foe gets -1 SL on its parry/dodge, you
win and deal your regular 7 plus 4 (for relative SL) plus 2 damage (
because the Talent says so) = 13 (before deducting Toughness and Armour).
Yes, this means that the damage bonus is
effectively twice what its description says for this particular Talent. First you get a bonus to SL (that ultimately results in more damage) from "Test:", then you get an outright damage bonus from the main description.
The point here is that
the main text description of the Talent is arguably the lesser bonus!
(You deal no damage unless you win opposed tests. Bonuses to skill are (much!) more important than bonuses to damage in 4th edition.)
worthy commitment