Rage vs Unconciousness

Amazing as it may seem, I never had this problem creep up until last week. A barbarian who was currently in rage took enough hit point damage to knock him out (-7 rage hp).

The question I have (for which I can't seem to find an official answer anywhere) is this. Is rage a concious ability? I know the barbarian can voluntarily end the effect. If he is knocked out, does the rage automatically end?

In the case above, had the rage ended when the barbarian was knocked out, his damage taken would have put his hit points at -13 instead, killing him. So for sake of leniency due to an unknown rule, I decided that it remained in play. I was just curious if there were an official rule that anyone knew about.

Thanks.

This has been debated pretty often... the rules as written do not say the rage ends, so you were right. Some people try to find arguments against it, but there is nothing written anywhere and no example where a similar ability ends just because someone becomes unconscious.

It may sound logical that it would end.... but this would kill most high level barbarians pretty fast and IMC they die soon and often enough.

As Darklone says, this question has never been settled. Technically, Rages have a set duration of 3+Temp Con modifier. To end it before this requires a voluntary effort by the barbarian.

Personally I'm on the side that says that the adrenalin influx doesn't imeaditaley dissapear just because you passed out. The barbarian class is all about offense and no defense. Or to be a bit clearer, the only defenses a barbarian get's are it's hitpoints, since generally it's AC sucks (unless a considerable amount of effort and money goes towards pumping AC). If you force him to loose those raging hps when unconcious, you might as well not consider them at all.

No, because:

A) It's not stated anywhere that rage stops when you go unconscious. As said above, it has a set duration.

B) Above level 5, if rage did stop when you go unconscious, dropping to negative hp while raging would be a death sentance, pure and simple.

I say rage continues. The main reason is that, otherwise, you just ruled that if a barbarian sticks it out in a tough fight he's dying if he doesn't win. I'd rather encourage barbarians to stay in the fight than to flee.

steev42 said:

The question I have (for which I can't seem to find an official answer anywhere) is this. Is rage a concious ability? I know the barbarian can voluntarily end the effect. If he is knocked out, does the rage automatically end?

Click to expand...

Rage actually pretty acurately describes this situation. But not stating anything, but rather by not stating anything. Ok, I'll explain that.

The Rage ability states that rage end when the duration runs out or the barbarian can voluntary end it. That's it. That's the only things that can end a Rage. So if the Barbarian is knocked unconscious then he can't voluntarily end it, so Rage continues till the duration runs out.