Rage and / or Leadership Skills?

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I'm looking to create a character who acts as a leader type, who inspires others and tries to help them be better, and to that end, I've been looking for tips on how to write (and by extension roleplay) such characters.

One of the best things I've found is this article I found on Springhole: On Writing & Roleplaying Characters Who Are Good Leader Material.

The catch is that the class I plan on using is the Bloodrager, which is a fun class to play, but its style seems to clash with some of the qualities the article details, namely "keeping a cool head when things get tense."

The article claims that keeping calm helps one think clearly and rationally and is essential to managing a crisis or problem. Bloodragers, however, are most effective when they cast their calm aside, when they give in to their emotions and become empowered by their anger. And in a Pathfinder adventure, a lot of problems tend to be solved via combat.

How exactly does someone roleplay a character with good leadership skills when the source of their adventuring strength comes from doing something that is NOT good leadership skills? More broadly, what's a good way to roleplay the level of anger implicit in a barbarian or bloodrager character without having the character just degenerate into a screaming lunatic with a giant sword?

I'm used to playing characters who don't lose their tempers when the going gets tough, so playing a raging character like this is new territory for me. Any and all advice would be appreciated. If more detail to the specifics of the character is needed, please let me know. Thank you! :)

[Alexander Augunas]

The destined bloodline for bloodragers offers Leadership as a bloodline feat.

Make of that what you will.

[Dafydd]

I think the class you want for the "Inspire others with bouts of screaming and sword swinging" is Skald (Bard/Barbarian) their singing drives others into a fury.

Now for barbarian/bloodrager leaders, I think the key here is not that they make sound tactical decisions but that they are not (usually) asking their underlings to do anything they are not willing to charge into themselves. In other words, you are gonna charge the dragon and try to kill it yourself. Your bravery and daring are admirable and something your followers want to live up too, so they charge in after you.

[Alexander Augunas]

The other thing about "rage" is that it doesn't need to be balls-to-the-wall yelling and screaming. You can have a character who enters a state of hyper focus. Fight or flight, except you fight, and you fight HARD. Rage can be quiet. As a matter of fact, quiet rage is not only the most inspiring, its the most terrifying.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Alexander Augunas wrote:

The destined bloodline for bloodragers offers Leadership as a bloodline feat.

Make of that what you will.

Oh, yeah, that's his bloodline. He's Shoanti-blooded, and the Advanced Class Origins book mentions that Destined-blooded bloodragers are common among the clans. :D

[Froth Maw]

If you've ever seen Gangs of New York, Bill the Butcher flew into crazy battle rages all the time but was still a super effective leader. You could just play it as "I'm a crazy, axe swinging lunatic, follow me if you want to make it out of this battle alive."
In combat situations, or situations that might result in combat, being the best at fighting makes you a pretty good candidate for group leader, especially since most "intellectual" characters in tabletop groups just overcomplicate problems that can be solved with anger and axes.

[waterwashesstuff]

Alexander Augunas wrote:

The other thing about "rage" is that it doesn't need to be balls-to-the-wall yelling and screaming. You can have a character who enters a state of hyper focus. Fight or flight, except you fight, and you fight HARD. Rage can be quiet. As a matter of fact, quiet rage is not only the most inspiring, its the most terrifying.

This ^^^^

In literature, the most notable leaders are not the ones that fly off the handle at the smallest slight. They are the ones that count every slight until the time arrives to unleash their rage.

I'm thinking of Vader abstactly ; rage does not always manifest as "screaming and throwing a fit" type rage. A good leader can be calm, rational and collected and then totally flip his s*!+ when the time is perfect.

The PC: this cult of personality [Leadership] can be so dispassionate, and then fly into a massive frenzy when their abilities are truly needed or able to be harnessed is a great roleplaying mechanism now that I think about it - I have a great idea for my next PC. Recalcitrant Rager.

Edit: From a game mechanics standpont... consider having higher INT and WIS scores. Depending on the level of optimization at your table this offsets the whole "grar I smash with sword" complication.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Froth Maw wrote:

If you've ever seen Gangs of New York, Bill the Butcher flew into crazy battle rages all the time but was still a super effective leader. You could just play it as "I'm a crazy, axe swinging lunatic, follow me if you want to make it out of this battle alive."

In combat situations, or situations that might result in combat, being the best at fighting makes you a pretty good candidate for group leader, especially since most "intellectual" characters in tabletop groups just overcomplicate problems that can be solved with anger and axes.

I'm looking to be honorable too, though. Shoanti, remember?