Rage change

[Theodoxus]

Would you play barbarian with this slight change to the way Rage works?

"Rage: When you enter a rage, you either go into a defensive rage, gaining resistance to all damage, but can choose to recklessly attack or not from round to round.

Or you fly into a mindless rage, gaining temporary hit points equal to your maximum instead of resistance. However, you must recklessly attack every round until your rage ends."

[NaughtyTiger]

The first condition:
resistance to all damage -> aka bear totem at level 1... plus your archetype abilities?

The second condition:
double the HP but must reckless attack every round. Are you still getting resistance to BSP damage?
if yes, then heck yes no hesitation. (aka bear totem at level 1, plus double for BSP damage!!)
if no, then nope, worse than normal rage.

[Man_Over_Game]

Would you play barbarian with this slight change to the way Rage works?

"Rage: When you enter a rage, you either go into a defensive rage, gaining resistance to all damage, but can choose to recklessly attack or not from round to round.

Or you fly into a mindless rage, gaining temporary hit points equal to your maximum instead of resistance. However, you must recklessly attack every round until your rage ends."

Let's assume we're talking about a Barbarian with 100 max HP:

Option A:

HP: 100. Effective HP: 200
HP: 50. Effective HP: 100

May choose to attack Recklessly

Option B:

HP: 100. Effective HP: 200
HP: 50. Effective HP: 150

May not choose to attack Recklessly

Considering Option A is how the current Barbarian works, I don't see any alarming problems to this. It adds some longevity to the Barbarian if they can't heal themselves at the cost of some defense, so it's kind of hit-or-miss on how good it is. Doesn't sound bad, though.

[NaughtyTiger]

Option A:

HP: 100. Effective HP: 200
HP: 50. Effective HP: 100



I don't understand the 2 sets of numbers, can you clarify?

[Man_Over_Game]

I don't understand the 2 sets of numbers, can you clarify?

With Option A:

Barbarian has 50 HP out of 100. Resistance halves all damage the Barbarian takes, so every 2 damage they take, they really only lose 1 HP. As a result, they can take effectively 100 damage before dying.

The same is true with a full health 100 HP Barbarian, except they can take 200 damage before dying.

With Option B:

Barbarian has 50 HP out of 100. Since their Rage gives them temporary hitpoints equal to their max HP, they get 100 Temporary HP. This stacks with their current HP, meaning they can take 150 damage before dying.

With a full health 100 HP Barbarian, they have 100 HP and 100 Temporary HP, so they can take a total of 200 damage before dying.

[NaughtyTiger]

Thanks for the clarification.



Considering Option A is how the current Barbarian works, I don't see any alarming problems to this. It adds some longevity to the Barbarian if they can't heal themselves at the cost of some defense, so it's kind of hit-or-miss on how good it is. Doesn't sound bad, though.

His option A differs from current Barbarian.

"defensive rage, gaining resistance to all damage"

The level 1 ability would be strictly stronger than the level 3 bear totem ability.

Option B would grant reckless attack at level 1 instead of level 2.

[Man_Over_Game]

Thanks for the clarification.



His option A differs from current Barbarian.

"defensive rage, gaining resistance to all damage"

The level 1 ability would be strictly stronger than the level 3 bear totem ability.

Option B would grant reckless attack at level 1 instead of level 2.

I just figured he was generalizing, rather than saying "Bludgeoning, Piercing, Slashing".

As is, I'd probably just make the default Rage, and then add the THP version available at level 6, when the Barbarian starts to wind down in terms of power.

[Theodoxus]

I should clarify, this would need to activate at level 3.

1) This would be a permanent choice made at level 3, though I could be talked into allowing on a 'per rage' basis, though I think it makes less sense doing it that way.

2) The resistance provided by option 1 would follow the current rage / resistance guidelines provided by barbarian Paths. So while bear would still grant resistance to all but psychic, the others would only grant resistance to B/P/S damage.

3) Option 2's THP would replenish every time you used a Rage - so, in theory, you could burn through nearly all your THP and end the fight with full hit points. And if the fight was particularly hard (probably because you're getting advantage used against you), you could drop and re-enter Rage to garner a whole new set of THP. Due to this, I could see reducing the amount of THP gained to 1/2 your maximum instead of all of them... it gets quite powerful in Tier 3 and beyond - and the Barbarian Capstone... well, it makes onion druids cry... bad thing?