Barbarian Playtest Experiences

[StormHarbinger]

Barb Experience

DMing for my monthly group Sunday night and one of the players couldn't make it. Wouldn't have been a problem except his Warlord (the party's only tank) bit the dust the previous game session (dang ghouls and zombies in Rivenroar!).

He's going to try out a swordmage, but since he wasn't around I rolled up Ogg the Barbarian, level 3 and full of piss and vinegar. Executioner's Axe and Hide Armor, gave him 14's in everything since he's a one-shot. Certainly not optimized.

He kicked some major ass. While he could not suffer a great many attacks (and did drop once), he dealt a ton of damage. The Brutal 2 aspect of Executioner's Axe certainly helped a couple of times with that. But since we're here to discuss the barbarian powers, here goes:

Like one of the posters above, I completely forgot about Rageblood Vigor and Swift Charge. Nor, obviously, was I able to use Rage Strike at 3rd level. Howling Strike is VERY powerful as an at-will, especially since Ugg (my player's changed his name; later he became Gog and Grog) charged just about everything he saw. 12.5 average damage is nothing to sneeze at, for sure.

Recuperating Strike he used a couple of times, but with his generic Con of 14, was less useful. I'm very interested to see the effect of a Con build with this ability, as it basically results in DR 4.

Avalanche Strike was also very interesting. In keeping with the theme of giving up defense for offense, you get a 3W Encounter power which gives any attacker against you +4 to-hit next round. I liked it for the 3W, which gets crazy with a weapon doing 1d12. And he wasn't made to pay this time, but with multiple enemies around you you'd probably be wishing for Great Cleave.

As his Daily Rage, Ugg took Bloodhunt Rage, which when he used it he critted on it, leading to 52 damage and one dead Boneshard Skeleton. IN-tense.

Overall, I'm very excited for Barbarian. I don't want to get into the Rage Strike discussion here, but I do like the way they've handled Rage in 4E. Ugg will continue to fill in for missing party members, and we'll see what happens as WOTC responds to playtest reports. One thing that is clear (and that has been belabored to death) is that they need editors. 'Nuf said.

 

[beeflv30]

I would agree with this. My friend was playing a level 2 dragonborn barbarian, and they do take a lot of the damage dished out in combat.
I was a cleric and had to use Healing Word often ,but with his amount of healing surges the party managed to get through a decent amount of combats before resting. Though if you want some range with a dragonborn barbarian grab the hurl breath feat in the ecology of the dragonborn article in Dragon #365.

 

[alfredbester]

Funny. One of my players tore up their warlord in favor of barbarian also.

The current thing I'm pondering about with the barbarian is rage + veteran's armor. Rage feels like something "more" than just a daily attack, so it makes the clear choice of armor for any barb veteran's armor in my opinion. Or am I wrong? Veteran's armor lets you convert an action point into a recharged daily once per day as a free action. An extra rage is much more potent than an extra Lead the Attack or whatever.

Thoughts?

Otherwise it seems like the barb's toughness will drastically depend on the type of encounter. If there is a pile of minions the barbarian can get themselves in the center of, the barb will take them out and gain a zillion temporary hp.

 

[Ander00]

I would've liked to have a more thrilling report after the second session with the barbarian, but here goes:

I made the mistake of bringing my own dice again. So while the mage did her thing, and the player of the ranger (with a vicious bow) and paladin once again rolled crits left, right and center, I rolled a crapload of 2s (both on d20s and on d10s) and not much else (not a single crit either). Add to that a few tactical blunders, and the barbarian spending a good part of the first encounter inside a shambling mound, and saying that he didn't accomplish much of anything would be a bit of an understatement.
Unless you count going down first as one. And staying down, because he was also the first one out of healing surges (despite receiving that precious lay on hands earlier).

One rage effect ended up doing very little, while the other did nothing at all (the initial daze was a little help, at least). He scored one killing blow, but at the time the monsters were so far apart, he could not even use his swift charge power.

Overall, an exercise in frustration, though few characters would've shone under the circumstances.


cheers

 

[Cadfan]

Anyone play a barbarian past level 9? They ramp up in power pretty quick as they learn more rages per day.

 

[Mengu]

Anyone play a barbarian past level 9? They ramp up in power pretty quick as they learn more rages per day.

Did an 11th level test. The he does indeed ramp up in power because he can frenzy in at least 3 encounters during the day. That's typically half the encounters in an adventuring day. The raging only became fun at this level. It was too infrequent earlier. This is part of why I would like to see the raging mechanic tied to action points (or milestones somehow), so the barbarian can rage every other encounter, regardless of level.

I also have to say Stone Bear Rage is a bit overpowered. During the particular encounter where the Barbarian used that evocation, he was right down untouchable. All the ongoing damage, aura damage, damage from minions bounced right off the resistance (or did nickel and dime damage for a more potent aura). Add some temporary hit points into the mix, and even the decent skirmisher damage didn't put a dent in the barbarian's hit points. This one daily power prevented over 100 points of damage to the barbarian. That is more than any other 9th level daily power can do. The numerous ways he had (plus the ways the warlord had) of giving temporary hit points meant that the Barbarian hardly had to spend any resources other than the one daily power to survive what was a difficult encounter for everyone else (level+3).

 

[Rechan]

I also have to say Stone Bear Rage is a bit overpowered. During the particular encounter where the Barbarian used that evocation, he was right down untouchable. All the ongoing damage, aura damage, damage from minions bounced right off the resistance (or did nickel and dime damage for a more potent aura). Add some temporary hit points into the mix, and even the decent skirmisher damage didn't put a dent in the barbarian's hit points. This one daily power prevented over 100 points of damage to the barbarian. That is more than any other 9th level daily power can do. The numerous ways he had (plus the ways the warlord had) of giving temporary hit points meant that the Barbarian hardly had to spend any resources other than the one daily power to survive what was a difficult encounter for everyone else (level+3).

Hope you're sending that observation to WotC's feedback email.

 

[Mengu]

Hope you're sending that observation to WotC's feedback email.

Yup, already done.

 

[Insight]

I find Raging Strike to be a waste of time as written, and completely unusable until 5th level. Can anyone name a CLASS FEATURE that you can't use at 1st level?

I think you should be able to use Raging Strike any time, and then when you blow the Rage power to get the extra damage, you count as raging as if you had used the Rage power (you don't get the extra benefits, but it would affect other powers and possibly feats etc because you count as raging).

 

[chitzk0i]

I find Raging Strike to be a waste of time as written, and completely unusable until 5th level. Can anyone name a CLASS FEATURE that you can't use at 1st level?

I think you should be able to use Raging Strike any time, and then when you blow the Rage power to get the extra damage, you count as raging as if you had used the Rage power (you don't get the extra benefits, but it would affect other powers and possibly feats etc because you count as raging).

But that would be pointless. At first level, it would be strictly worse than activating the power.