Rage: offensive or defensive?

[Ardantis]

Rage in 5e grants 2-4 bonus damage and resistance against physical damage (all damage except psychic if you are Bear Totem.)

I know how difficult it is in this edition to get damage bonuses, and the major spells that add damage add 1d6 (Hex, Hunter's Mark,) but 2-4 damage from a central class feature still seems meager.

Is the damage bonus the main reason to use Rage, or is it the resistances? I feel as though the main damage ability for Barbarians is Reckless Attacks because of how good advantage is, but maybe combined with rage it is significant?

Barbarian players:

Why do you rage? Is it for offense or defense?

Please consider this separately as well as in addition to the benefit from Reckless Attacks.

[Basch]

My wife plays a barb and she uses it mostly for it's defensive benefits. And she almost never uses reckless attack without rage. She used reckless once without rage, then the 2 enemies in range crit her down to almost nothing on that same turn. The other benefits of rage are nice, but it's still primarily an "oh-****!" button for her.

[SharkForce]

it depends quite a bit.

most of the barbarian's base abilities don't require rage, but the archetypes do. frenzy, for example, is an obvious offensive buff (with an unfortunately high cost that makes it something you can't use often).

looking elsewhere though, eagle totem at level 3 gives you a mobility buff, and wolf at level 3 gives a major party buff to any melee allies.

the level 14 bear totem is a defensive party buff, wolf is a definite offensive buff, and eagle is another mobility buff.

so i don't consider it to be entirely defensive. there are definitely some compelling reasons to use it offensively, depending on your choices, though.

[Gurka]

Honestly, it's completely situational.

Reckless attack is an amazing way to get on-demand Advantage, which stacks amazingly well with GWM to offset that penalty. The downside to reckless attack however, is offset greatly by having resistance to the majority of damage you're likely to take while your opponents have advantage. The 2-4 bonus damage is just the icing on the cake; it's the same statistically, as having an extra D6 damage (skewed low at lower levels, and high at higher levels). Used in this way, it's DEFINITELY offensive.

On the other hand, when you're the target of multiple foes, it gives you the ability to double down on defense, and become a really hard nut to crack when you need to be, making it a really great DEFENSIVE option.

It can be either one, as YOU need it to be.

However, looking at Rage in a vacuum, without the synergy of Archetype abilities or other class features, I'd say it's a better Defensive ability than offensive. It's just not IN a vacuum, so it's a great all around ability.

[Ralanr]

Both.

My normal play style in gaming is to build something that is able to survive long enough to figure out what I need to do. The resistance from barbarian rage is incredibly useful in that regard.

Offensively, the damage is useful depending on your level. Simply put, 18 strength and rage makes my fist deal 7 damage everytime. Not very powerful, but at level 1 it's great.

Plus small static extra damage can make your attacks get very big. Things add up.

Not to mention the strength checks

[D.U.P.A.]

Could be rage used also as utility? Like climbing some difficult cliff or carrying something very heavy, which requires an extraordinary amount of strength. Just like in gym where are you trying to lift your maximum weight you can still lift.

[SharkForce]

Could be rage used also as utility? Like climbing some difficult cliff or carrying something very heavy, which requires an extraordinary amount of strength. Just like in gym where are you trying to lift your maximum weight you can still lift.

as long as you have someone to keep lobbing darts into you or something like that, maybe. or if you're pretty high level. at low levels, your rage kinda wears off if you don't attack or take damage.

[Once a Fool]

That damage is per attack, which, with Reckless Attack, can be significant. Especially given that the barbarian is already a top-tier melee damage dealer.

Reckless Attack is really the determining factor of whether or not Rage is more for damage or defense. If you use it, your damage goes way up (with GWM), but you're still taking a lot of damage, even with the resistance.

If, instead, you want to tank, raging without using Reckless Attack lets you do that well.

[Ralanr]

Could be rage used also as utility? Like climbing some difficult cliff or carrying something very heavy, which requires an extraordinary amount of strength. Just like in gym where are you trying to lift your maximum weight you can still lift.

Not long term utility. But let's say you have a steel door that's locked and you don't have the pleasure of even considering lock picks (something chasing you maybe). Rage and rip the door off its hinges.

Or maybe roll investigation to figure out the structural weakpoint. Rage, smash it, and watch it crash.

[Gurka]

See mom-strength

5'2 110 lbs woman activates barbarian rage and lifts car off child.

Only good for one round worth of action... but what a round.

[PoeticDwarf]

Rage in 5e grants 2-4 bonus damage and resistance against physical damage (all damage except psychic if you are Bear Totem.)

I know how difficult it is in this edition to get damage bonuses, and the major spells that add damage add 1d6 (Hex, Hunter's Mark,) but 2-4 damage from a central class feature still seems meager.

Is the damage bonus the main reason to use Rage, or is it the resistances? I feel as though the main damage ability for Barbarians is Reckless Attacks because of how good advantage is, but maybe combined with rage it is significant?

Barbarian players:

Why do you rage? Is it for offense or defense?

Please consider this separately as well as in addition to the benefit from Reckless Attacks.

Defensive, because I prefer bear totem. A berserker is offensive and the eagle and wolf are more on tricks and helping.

[Giant2005]

Definitely defensive.
Although my opinion doesn't count for much due to Rage doing nothing for my Dex-based Barbarian's offense.

[ruy343]

I think that you'll get the majority of the comments stating that it's defensive, because it really is. It's an interesting design decision: it's built for tanking. You are most useful when you're the one taking damage, since you only take half, and thereby prevent your friends from taking that same damage.

However, to further bolster the offensive abilities that rage gives you, why not try multiclassing to monk, and spending ki points to use the dodge action as a bonus action, while using reckless attack? Suddenly, your damage output is the same, but you're just as hard to hit as before...

interesting...

[Ralanr]

I think that you'll get the majority of the comments stating that it's defensive, because it really is. It's an interesting design decision: it's built for tanking. You are most useful when you're the one taking damage, since you only take half, and thereby prevent your friends from taking that same damage.

However, to further bolster the offensive abilities that rage gives you, why not try multiclassing to monk, and spending ki points to use the dodge action as a bonus action, while using reckless attack? Suddenly, your damage output is the same, but you're just as hard to hit as before...

interesting...

Or fury of blows.

Cause nothing says rage like a punch into the face after swinging a greataxe.

[Once a Fool]

Or fury of blows.

Cause nothing says rage like a punch into the face after swinging a greataxe.

I think you mean two punches to the face after swinging a handaxe.

[Ralanr]

I think you mean two punches to the face after swinging a handaxe.

I think it's just a melee weapon attack.

If you're able to deal two bonus hits after hitting once, I'd imagine they could take their hand off their weapon to punch them at least once.

Though a hand axe then two punches to the face sounds fun. Go fighter 3 for action surge, dueling, and battlemaster...

I want to play this now.

[Dralnu]

Do this:

Take the feat Great Weapon Master.

Pop Rage.

Use Reckless Attacks every swing and power attack (-5 to hit, +10 to damage).

Chuckle when the DM says "you do HOW MUCH?!"

Laugh harder when the DM says how much you're hit for, and you get to subtract half that damage; a mere dent in you beefy D12 health pool which is further augmented by CON being a primary stat for you already (just STR and CON baby!).

Congrats, you are top dog of tanking and damage dealing for the first 11 levels of the game. Yes, it's that simple. Do not underestimate Rage.

[Ramshack]

The barb in my group is always reckless attacking every swing and using power attack from the gwm feat with it every round. He always uses rage for the defensive benefits it grants.

My players are level 3 in my campaign at the moment, Fighter I do 1d8 +3, wizard i do 1d10, barbarian i do 2d6 +15, he's dead? Bonus attack 2d6 +15. It's pretty obnoxious lol.

[Coidzor]

I've been in ~6 combats so far, but we're at low level, so typically my base damage as a half-orc wielding a 2-handed weapon with 20 strength has been enough to kill most things in one or two hits even with minimum damage.

Rage has definitely come in handy since my barbarian started with the lowest AC in the party and the highest HP, and there have been several times where I'd have been whittled down or dropped outright if not for the fact I was raging. The first couple of times I raged I completely forgot to factor in the bonus damage and I was still killing things handily, so I'm definitely inclined to say defensive so far.