Should Rage damage be slightly higher?

[Mr Adventurer]

Because it doesn't feel that impactful. Two options suggest themselves to me:

1. Rage bonus damage is equal to Proficiency Bonus, though still tied to Barbarian level

2. Rage bonus damage is equal to 1 plus 1 per Tier, though still tied to Barbarian level

Option 1 is a greater improvement. Option 2 is very similar to the current table, but a little smoother and a point higher earlier and at the end.

Has anyone had any experience with house ruling this?

[JNAProductions]

I don't think it's needed.

Barbarian Rage is a powerful defensive ability, with the addition that it helps grappling, Strength saves, and a minor damage bump. It provides enough other benefits that the damage bit is and can stay minor.

Now, with that being said, you ain't gonna break the game with +1 or +2 damage per hit. But I don't see it as needed.

[HappyDaze]

Barbarian Rage is a powerful defensive ability

It is, and that's a bit of a WTF moment...until you combine it with Reckless Attack (and maybe GWM if you use the optional feat rules).

[Tanarii]

Barbarian damage is deceptive, because they hit 20% more often than the next guy due to Reckless attack. But since you only see the straight damage roll after a hit, it can feel low.

[CTurbo]

The 5e Barbarian is weird. I personally think it should have been MORE offensive focused and less defensive focused. I find it a bit odd how tanky they made Barbs. I think the Barb should edge out the Fighter in DPR and the Fighter should edge out the Barb in defense, but the opposite is true.

Yes I think Rage damage should be slightly higher especially if Barbs are restricted to just 2 main attacks. Something mirroring proficiency bonus would be fine(tied to Barb levels of course)

[HappyDaze]

The 5e Barbarian is weird. I personally think it should have been MORE offensive focused and less defensive focused. I find it a bit odd how tanky they made Barbs. I think the Barb should edge out the Fighter in DPR and the Fighter should edge out the Barb in defense, but the opposite is true.

Yes I think Rage damage should be slightly higher especially if Barbs are restricted to just 2 main attacks. Something mirroring proficiency bonus would be fine(tied to Barb levels of course)

I agree. That's why I said that the Barbarian inspired some WTF moments for me from looking at its class features.

[MrStabby]

Possibly. To be honest I do find the damage boost to be a little unexciting. I am a bit conflicted though.

If rage damage were to be a bigger part of the class then it would feel like narrowing down good options - fewer sword and shield barbarians and more pole arm master ones.

I wouldn't mind if rage were to be a bit more like the zealot damage boost or the cleric one that only works once per turn. Something that doesn't push you to just making as many attacks as possible... but yeah, an average damage increase is not bad.

I kind of think that rage is also a bit problematic for being so much of the focus of the class. When not raging a totem barbarian feels pretty similar to a zealot or an ancestral guardians one... which wouldn't be a problem if you could be raging each fight. Whilst I feel that barbarians could use a tiny bit of a damage boost I would prefer to see something related to the type and to NOT be rage related so that you would feel like your subclass more of the time.

[Amechra]

My personal tweak to Rage damage is to make it a d4 at 1st level, a d6 at 9th level, and a d8 at 16th level.

[Kane0]

Plain Barbs do trail ever so slightly behind other classes in damage output, but that is balanced out by their better defense and easy access to at-will advantage. Maybe at level 11 you could put in an extra little bump to damage output but otherwise i'd limit it to alternatives to features they already get.

[Mr Adventurer]

My personal tweak to Rage damage is to make it a d4 at 1st level, a d6 at 9th level, and a d8 at 16th level.

I actually really like the sound of this. Only 0.5 extra damage on average, but decent chance of an upgrade* - and doubles on a crit, which synergises with Reckless Attack and Brutal Critical.

* 50% chance of more damage, with 25%/16⅔%/12½% chance of the same damage, and 25%/33⅓%/37½% chance of less damage.

[Tanarii]

The 5e Barbarian is weird. I personally think it should have been MORE offensive focused and less defensive focused. I find it a bit odd how tanky they made Barbs. I think the Barb should edge out the Fighter in DPR and the Fighter should edge out the Barb in defense, but the opposite is true.

The problem is half plate and scale mail being viable Barbarian armors. Or too good AC relative to heavy. If they're running around as shirtless raging reckless attacking barbarians it might be a different matter.

Also I'm fairly sure Barbarians out DPR fighters until Tier 3, and may until level 20 if GWM/PAM are in the mix. But I can't recall for sure on the last one I'd have to go look up the Kryx numbers.

[Spiritchaser]

I wouldn't add a consistent damage adder to rage. My experience with Barbarians IS somewhat limited, but my feeling is that if more damage is to be added, it should be the capacity to provide more spike damage on demand, but only a limited number of times per day.

Yes, the berserker can get an extra attack, and yes there IS reckless attack, but I'm thinking of a baseline class tool that more directly compares with a fighter's action surge or a paladin's smite.

Barbarian sustained damage isn't out of line, at least with feats... but sometimes you need to barrel into someone like a train. Conceptually a barb SHOULD be good at this, even without feats and I think there is some limited design head room to add this.

I would have suggested adding con mod extra attacks per day, except the echo knight took that one... though since most echo knights likely MC barb for a few levels, I suppose that works out.

you want to break concentration, you want to kill that really dangerous... whatever before it eats the wizard's leg, you want to flatten that guard so you can slam the portcullis down right the hell now.

Maybe try allowing the barb to deliberately end rage early and gain an extra round of attacks or extra damage or... heck even autocrit that one attack, or one round... There's probably a more elegant solution, and I suppose you'd have to be careful with the exact wording at high level... but whatever the exact solution, thjs is what I perceive as the "problem"

[MaxWilson]

I think maybe Rage damage should be added both to damage and to-hit, because that incentivizes the Barbarian to stick with Strength-based attacks instead of e.g. dipping Barb and going mostly Hexbladelock. (Reckless Attack likewise only works with Strength, but it comes with enough downside that it's not 100% clear to me that relying on Devil's Sight + Darkness instead of Reckless Attack is a bad thing. Especially if someone else in the party is available to concentrate on the Darkness, like an Alert Shadow Monk.)

It would be fun to play an GWM, PAM, maybe-eventually-Elven-Accuracy Devil's Sight Warbearian, but letting Rage add to-hit would make leaving pure Barb more painful, and painful dilemmas are good game design.

[Satori01]

Changing the Rage damage bonus to be equal to one’s proficiency bonus is inline with the later released Hexblade.

Yet, changing the Rage damage bonus to something that is not class level dependent is going to encourage more barbarian multi-classing.

Now maybe, encouraging barb m/c is not something to be fearful of, but it makes a 1-2 level dip in barbarian more attractive.

[Dork_Forge]

Personally I think Rage damage is okay as it is and prefer it as a flat number rather than a die. The point of the Barbarian in 5e isn't to be the hardest hitting (and certainly isn't burst damage, that's the domain of the Paladin), it's to be hard to put down with the option of high chance to hit and steady, consistent damage. Even then there's some nuance in the subclasses for the type of Barbarian you want to play: Want to be hardest to kill? Bear totem. Want to do more damage? Beserker/Zealot. Support? Ancestral/Storm Herald. Playing a one shot? Battle rager....

[Chaosmancer]

I changed it to follow proficiency bonus (not my intent though, I just realized it matched up when I went to go look) mostly because it felt incredibly weird to have them not improve for 9 levels. It is still a very minor bonus, and it has a slightly better curve to it for me.

[Damon_Tor]

Because it doesn't feel that impactful. Two options suggest themselves to me:

1. Rage bonus damage is equal to Proficiency Bonus, though still tied to Barbarian level

2. Rage bonus damage is equal to 1 plus 1 per Tier, though still tied to Barbarian level

Option 1 is a greater improvement. Option 2 is very similar to the current table, but a little smoother and a point higher earlier and at the end.

Has anyone had any experience with house ruling this?

They also have the combination of Reckless Attack and Savage Critical boosting their damage considerably. Rage damage doesn't exist in a vacuum, you have to consider it a part of the whole class. Several of the barbarian subclasses add even more damage on top of this.

And it's not entirely irrelevant that at level 20 a barbarian gets another +2 to damage and to attacks because of their +4 str capstone. Of course level 20 is level 20 and to many people it doesn't matter because they either never get that far or when they do get that far the character is near retirement anyway.

I don't think this is the problem you think it is.

[Joe the Rat]

My personal tweak to Rage damage is to make it a d4 at 1st level, a d6 at 9th level, and a d8 at 16th level.

Dice gives a little more variability, and adds to the Crit Monster effect. A straight upgrade, and a fun one.

Changing the Rage damage bonus to be equal to one’s proficiency bonus is inline with the later released Hexblade.

Yet, changing the Rage damage bonus to something that is not class level dependent is going to encourage more barbarian multi-classing.

Now maybe, encouraging barb m/c is not something to be fearful of, but it makes a 1-2 level dip in barbarian more attractive.

You could switch so that the rage bonus on the table is the same as the proficiency bonus, but the feature does not refer to the proficiency bonus.