Urgent! New to barbarian role... Need help!

[dzammit.1988]

Hey all,

Our group has played one adventure which i ran of 4e however our new campaign has one of the players as a GOLIATH BARBARIAN.

I have a query about his abilities and mine as a cleric as we plan on working together mainly due to deity relate in game roleplaying. anyhow,

barbarian with CON +5 rageblood vigor, improved rageblood vigor, macetail rage

allows him to get temp hp for 5 + xtra 5 then rage allows him to get STR +4 temp hp every hit

does this all stack until extended rest? or if he hits a minion he gets +4 tmep hp then because he dropped it to 0 he over writes those hp with +10?

either way i then as a cleric can set him up with temp HP from buffs, do this overwrite the 10 or 14 he already has or does it stack?

this is urgent as i get the impression that my cleric ability may stack onto his barbarian ability thus granting him large amounts of hp when he only wears leather armour?

[Garthanos]

Temporary hitpoints do not stack.

[mneme]

Specifically, though, you always use the best TH you have.

So if he has 10 th, and gains 5 TH, he remains at 10 TH. If he has 5 TH and gains 12, he now has 12 TH.

[jester_gl]

If you want to supplement him, I suggest giving him bonus to hit, either with lance of faith if you are wisdom based or with righteous brand if you are strength based. Setting up a flanking position can also help him. Also take some power that let him save against effect if you can. Nothing is sadder than an immobilized barbarian raging alone in his dark corner of the room.

The barbarian need to keep hitting his target to get those temporary hp. You can always heal him up when he takes real damage. Those temporary hp wont last forever and the surge value of a barbarian is normally quiet high.

[dzammit.1988]

really helpful guys! appreciate the fast responses lol

i will give it a trey and see how this game pans out.

the story behind use involves me focusing on the barbarian so i wanted to go the right way about support ing him.


lance of faith - boost attack
sacred flame - temp hp / make saving throw
astral seal - minus defence and gain hp
healing word - with feat for +2 defence and feat for extra heal
healer mercy - buffing my defences
bane - penalty -5 to attack and defence
astral condemnation - damage and -9 penalty to damge sustainable
armor of faith - +4 to a defence

sound alright for buffing the barbarian as he is our only fighter

we also have shaman, invoker, ranger, assassin

but evil party so everyone is on edge but barbarian and i are long time friends in game so like i said focus on buffing him

[Dr_Ruminahui]

What type of ranger is it? If it is a melee ranger, you should give some thought to helping him out too - there's a reason why the people at Radio Free Hommlett refer to such as "suicide rangers" - they have less HP, less temp HP, and similar AC to a barbarian.

If its a bow ranger, on the other hand, he/she shouldn't need as much help.

Assassin's are also very squishy (I've heard, haven't seen one in play), with even less HP - that said, the assassin should be fine provided he/she doesn't run out of invisibility powers.

That said, without a defender, you may find that the "back row" (yourself, the shaman, the invoker - the ranger (if a bow ranger) should have powers to get out of Dodge when needed) gets more attention than you might like. The shaman's companion will help somewhat with this, more so if its a panther shaman. Even so (or especially so if the shaman isn't using the companion in a defendery way), you may want to build your cleric so that he can hold the line and protect the squishier shaman and invoker when needed - either with a shield/better armour and/or powers/feets that are useful in melee.

[dzammit.1988]

hmm interesting, totally get what your saying, it is a ranged ranger lol

i will talk with our shaman and see what his build is, i know he is using bear spirit but perhaps instead o fpushing him into battle we should concentrate his spirit on protecting the back line

game on sunday, will be using all this input and give feedback

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Well, that he has a bear spirit is both good and bad - it means he is less squishy as he has higher HPs, and he hands out HPs and temp HPs right left and centre. On the other hand he's a lot less controllery/defendery than the panther spirit shaman.

As I see it, the ones you need to look out for are the barbarian and the invoker - the ranged ranger can look after himself, and so can the bear shaman provided he stays close to his companion. The problem is that the barbarian and the invoker are unlikely to be anywhere near each other - assuming its a rageblood barbarian, he'll be in the thick of things, while the invoker will be hanging out near the back.

That said, given the lack of a defender, I think the group is best off using the shaman to boost the barbarian (as he can dish out temp HPs healing as well as you can, and at greater range), and have you concentrate on helping keep enemies off the rest of the party. That said, the shaman's healing mechanism is really interesting - ideally, he wants the spirit to be close enough to the low surge players to give them surgeless healing, and for the shaman to be close enough to the barbarian for barbarian to take advantage of his high surge value and number of surges.

In any case, I think it will be an interesting group with very dynamic fights - you''ll have lots of healing available, but it may be challenging to both support the barbarian and keep baddies off of the yourself, the shaman and the invoker - hence it may be a good idea to boost your own defences and take feets that boost your "stickiness" (superior weapon, weapon focuse, melee training if a wisdom cleric) so that you can partially fill that defendery role.