Battlerager Vigor... by the book

[Garthanos]

In its original form Battlerager Vigor, had a hulk like, "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry" flavor to the mechanics... hitting the battlerager induced gaining THP these then would both defend the fighter subsequently and make you regret hitting anyone else, it had a damned if you do and damned if you don't aspect that I think of as very much fighter style even if it was less pure "Defender' than subsequent modified brv. It had the effect of making the Fighter very hard to harm by minions.

WOTC fixed it, presumedly it was too good... I really liked its original context from the book.

I have felt in some case WOTC were a bit heavy handed in how they changed things.

I thought several ways might exist to tone it down if it was too good.

My ideas included

• Tie it to Charisma (alah the spirit stat instead of the already hit point driving Con)
• Halving the THP gained.
• Only gaining THP if the attack did real damage

 

[JamesonCourage]

Hey man, any way to keep most of this to one thread? It feels like you're spamming this forum over the last week.

 

[Garthanos]

Hey man, any way to keep most of this to one thread? It feels like you're spamming this forum over the last week.

how exactly does this relate to any of the other posts? Aside from I made it?

 

[The Human Target]

How about Garthanos 4e Houserule Discussion Thread?

You might get more traction than filling up half the front page with different but mostly similar threads.

 

[JamesonCourage]

It's not about your post. But because you have 15 posts on the front page that were made within the last week, I thought I'd request you consolidate it into one thread.

But I can't police you, nor am I trying to. It was a simple request. Feel free to indulge or disregard, as you see fit.

 

[Garthanos]

The Battlerager Modification didnt even bother me much even though it significantly undermined the style of the characters it affected, because it seemed a legitimate motivation was involved in the change.

Changes which patched the game so that Essentials elements integrated instead of making Essentials so it worked along side the original game they honestly did not feel like they were an attempt to fix anything broken.

one such was the Feat : Melee Training fixing it nerfed classes like the Avenger (or did they actually nerf the warlord)

I wonder if there is a cataloging of those? I heard the removal of the warlock feat Pact Blade manifestation may have been a nerfing of a pre-essentials game element similarly.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

That ability basically canceled ongoing damage, auto-damage, and minion damage. With a +4 or +5 Con you could counter half the incoming damage at the lowest levels. It needed hitting with a nerf stick. At best, I might have accepted that as a paragon path ability.

It reminded me of this ridiculous Pathfinder feat where you could take total defense, and counter a single attack with a huge bonus to making a counterattack. It was aimed at monks. So you could put a monk in hallway, have her block it, and any creature that could only take a single attack against her couldn't do anything. People said that DMs were too lazy in using single attack creatures (and should use thri-kreen or bears or something). Low-level fighters get only one attack (usually). Charging creatures (including classed PCs) get only one attack. Creatures that had to move more than 5 feet made a single attack. Etc. I don't like any ability that basically tells the DMs what sort of encounters they are "allowed" to use.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Maybe the question should be more "why is the errated BRV no good and can some small tweak fix that?"

 

[Garthanos]

That ability basically canceled ongoing damage, auto-damage, and minion damage. With a +4 or +5 Con you could counter half the incoming damage at the lowest levels. It needed hitting with a nerf stick. At best, I might have accepted that as a paragon path ability.

Yes but a nerf stick that changed its function completely... just seems meh

The most consistent might have just been halving the amount of thp generated.

Changing it to thp only created when real damage was taken could make it bouncy. And that bouncy ness would mean none of those things would be cancelled completely.


(Not thinking my idea of pushing it off on Cha would do the trick though.)


Although a part of me looking at Conan for inspiration is not sure I totally mind the battlerager having some solid defenses against minions.

 

[Garthanos]

Maybe the question should be more "why is the errated BRV no good and can some small tweak fix that?"

I do like the errated one as a different ability entirely...