A Small Barbarian Tweak

[KOLE]

Point one: Rolling dice is fun. Rolling MORE dice is more fun! Rogue is one of my favorite classes to play if only for that thrill of rolling fistful of d6's when that sweet sweet sneak attack connects.
Point two: Static bonuses are boring and more prone to be overlooked than extra dice, especially for new players.
Point three: Barbarians are continually neglected and could use some homebrew love to spice them up. Their whole shtick as a class is deal big damage, take big damage, and crit like monsters. They're no slouches in DPR, obviously, but I feel they could use a little bump...

Proposal drawing from these points: Rage damage is no longer static. Instead, while raging, when you hit with a weapon attack, you roll a d4 and add it to damage. This becomes a d6 at level 9 and a d8 at level 16. When you crit, you roll an addition relevant die along with Brutal critical and the base weapon die.

Results:
-Funner, easier to pick up mechanic for newbies.
-Very slight increase to DPR, by literally half a point per tier.
-Even more brutal criticals! Considering how few goodies it feels like Barbs get, this relatively small power boost feels thematic and appropriate.

Thoughts?

[GalacticAxekick]

Certainly balanced, and I'm sure this will be a fun change for some players.

But I understand why the barbarian is written the way it is.

One of my players hates leaving damage up to dice. He's frustrated by scoring clean hits and then rolling 1s and 2s for damage, and especially frustrated by rolling poorly for critical hits.

People like him revel in static bonuses, and favour classes like the Barbarian over the Rogue for precisely this reason. If he could deal a flat number of damage with each hit, he would.

[Sindeloke]

I've been using this exact tweak for a couple years now, so I certainly support it.

It did drive one of my players to finally go get some eight-sided d4 dice, though. I suppose depending on your feelings on caltrops lying around your game space you may consider that a side bonus.

[Amechra]

I've played at a table that did this. It felt great, and I highly recommend it.

Another small tweak that I'd love to see tested at some point:

1. While Raging, a successful Grapple or Shove check deals bludgeoning damage equal to your rage die.
2. Whenever you successfully Grapple or Shove someone while using Reckless Attack, you deal bludgeoning damage equal to your Strength modifier.

The end result is that you have an incentive to pick up Shield Master or Tavern Brawler, and it points out to newbies that Barbarians are pretty good at the grappling (and generally doing the luchador thing).

[KOLE]

1. While Raging, a successful Grapple or Shove check deals bludgeoning damage equal to your rage die.
2. Whenever you successfully Grapple or Shove someone while using Reckless Attack, you deal bludgeoning damage equal to your Strength modifier.


I love this. Adding to my house rules!