Hey everyone, its been awhile hope every things well. Hope to catch up on some topics on here.

But first, a player in my group is playing a berserker type character with the Berserker Magnus, it says a few things and i was hoping you guys had some clarifications.

1. when it says enters the Berserker state, is this the same as the Rage state located in the book in which the person must exhaust all of their fatigue, or is it its own unique state?

2. it says in the dominion of ki "the character must make a Willpower check, which, if he passes it, will immediately cause him to emerge from his Berserker state. " this means they must roll a characteristic check right? so a person with willpower 8 must roll a d10 and get below an 8 to pass?

​3. oh this also brings up a question I've had on characteristic checks for awhile, what happens if the person in question has a willpower of 13 instead? does he auto succeed since he can never roll above 13 on a d10

It's times like these I wish I had the Spanish Dominus Exxet, since it would make my life so much easier. That being said, since I don't, we're gonna push on forwards as though I know what I'm talking about.

We've got three relevant passages, so let's start there. First, let's pull up Berserker...

A character with this Magnus can enter the Berserker state voluntarily. While in that state, he applies a bonus of +10 to his Attack Ability and a penalty of –20 to his Defense Ability, and he ignores penalties to physical actions resulting from Pain or Fatigue (although not to those from physical deprivation). As a further disadvantage, the thirst for bloodshed sometimes blinds the character, making him incapable of distinguishing between friends and enemies or recognizing when he should retreat. A character in a Berserker state continues fighting at all times, even going so far as to attack companions and allies if there are no more enemies left within his vicinity. In order to avoid these consequences, the character must make a Willpower check, which, if he passes it, will immediately cause him to emerge from his Berserker state. If his Life Points are below a fourth of his total, he suffers a –2 penalty to that check . (Dominus 82).

Then, let's look at the Rage State from the Core and Core Exxet...

Rage: This state represents much more than anger or fury. The character loses his temper completely and assails the object of his Rage, or, alternately, anyone around. He is forced to employ his most powerful Abilities in the combat – magicians will cast their spells, fighters will use their Fatigue points and psychics will spend their Psychic Points to enhance their attacks. Characters remain in this state for one minute for every point of difference between the Resistance’s target number and the character’s roll – unless otherwise stated. (Core 213 & CE 231)

And, finally, the original rules for Characteristic Checks, along with the new rules from Core Exxet.

These checks are made directly against Characteristics. To make one roll 1d10; the goal is to get a result less than the attribute being tested. The difference above or below its value is the level of success or failure of the check. Naturally, the greater the value of the Characteristic, the greater the possibility of success. (Core 6)

Aaaand...

Estos controles son chequeos que se realizan directamente sobre las características. Para efectuarlos se lanza un único D10 se suma el resultado al del atributo que se pone a prueba; si el valor iguala o supera la dificultad a superar, el personaje habrá tenido éxito en su control, y la diferencia por encima o por debajo de su valor es el nivel de éxito o de fracaso.

Por lo general, el Director de Juego es quien debe determinar cuan elevada es la dificultad del control, usando como referencia los valores de la Tabla 1. Si en algún momento una regla pide que un personaje haga un control de una característica sin precisar su valor, se considera automáticamente que el control tiene dificultad normal, o lo que es lo mismo, de 10. (CE 8)

Which, in English, is...

These checks are those that deal directly with characteristics. In order to make one, roll a d10 and add the result to the attribute the test is trying to check. If the value is equal or superior to the difficulty set, the person has succeeded in the check, and the difference is the level of success achieved.

In general, the GM is the one who determines how high the difficulty is for the check, using Table 1 for reference. If a rule states that a person needs to make a check without specifying the value, it is considered to automatically have a normal difficulty, that is to say, a 10.

So, whew. That's a lot of information, but it helps us answer your questions pretty straightforwardly.

1. when it says enters the Berserker state, is this the same as the Rage state located in the book in which the person must exhaust all of their fatigue, or is it its own unique state?

The states are pretty obviously not the same from their descriptions. While it could be argued that they are the same and the Ars Magnus modifies the Rage state, that would still be a new state which would be called "Berserker."

2. it says in the dominion of ki "the character must make a Willpower check, which, if he passes it, will immediately cause him to emerge from his Berserker state. " this means they must roll a characteristic check right? so a person with willpower 8 must roll a d10 and get below an 8 to pass?

It says they must do this "In order to avoid these consequences," which is important but, yes. It's a Characteristic Check. The second part of the questions is harder to answer. I believe that Core Exxet came out after Dominus in Spanish, but the English Dominus was released after Core Exxet. Either way, what the target number is depends on which system you use. Using the English Core, you're right, you roll under your score. Using Core Exxet, you'd want to roll over a 10 instead, since no difficulty is set.

​3. oh this also brings up a question I've had on characteristic checks for awhile, what happens if the person in question has a willpower of 13 instead? does he auto succeed since he can never roll above 13 on a d10

This is correct for the Core Rules, unless there are check modifiers involved. If the character has an AAP, for example, every... I can't believe I'm drawing a blank for references but it's something like every 20 points of AAP = 1 point penatly on characteristic checks (I will return with references when I have them), and there are other ways those penalties can come about too (different states, spell effects, etc.). It's one reason that the new system came into place (besides rolling under on one type of check being ridiculous in a system that's otherwise entirely roll over).

I hope this answers your questions, even if I did go a bit overboard... maybe.

no, not overboard, the more info given the easier it is to understand something like this, when theres a possible translation issue or something thats hard to understand its best to piece things together from each book.

But no you didnt go overboard, thanks a lot i understand it better now. ill look into the all action penalty part shortly.

There it is. Under "States and Accidents," literally one page away from where I'd been looking.

Furthermore, for every 20 penalty points, the character loses one point from of all his Characteristics for purposes of performing Opposed Checks. A character’s Movement Value and Weight Index will drop one point for every 20 All Action Penalty points suffered, as well.
In addition, these penalties affect the MA of wizards and Ki Accumulation of martial masters – even if none of the Abilities require rolling dice for using them. Characters suffer a penalty to their MA equivalent to half the total All Action Penalty, rounding the number up. Characters suffer a decrease of one point in Ki Accumulation for every 20 penalty points incurred . (Core 212)

I knew I was missing the obvious...

Also, good to know I wasn't being too verbose. XD I can get that way sometimes.