Barbarian Playtest Experiences

[ricardo440]

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).

Veterans armour from the adventures vault would allow its use at 4th level.

Also who is to say there wont be other classes that can restore dailies. Possibly a power that allow you to spend an action point to restore a daily, or a class that allows you to trade in a power to restore an allies power...

The feature is jsut so you do't waste your multiple dailies if you ever wanted to blow them all in one fight. e.g. when you mean the end of game boss.

 

[ricardo440]

As for our experiences of the barb, well the warlord player got bored of his character (less than fun with a cleric and a paladin in the group too) and decided to play a barbarian.

I was pleased because our group needed a striker.

The barbarian fell over once which has radically changed the group dynamic. But he doesnt reallly know how to play the arbarian yet so we are still learning.

Nothing seems OTT (he is 5th level at the moment)

 

[Sphyre]

but his Reflex and Will defense will still fall behind the curve at later levels.

One of the mathematical things they've done is correct the "curve."

The difference between two different barbarians at first and 30th levels of the same race and exact same gear is the difference of their ability scores. There is no cascading effect of different progressions that existed earlier because there's no "1/2, 3/4 and 1 bab per level" mechanic, where things can get more pronounced.

There is a curve at later levels (where monsters get +1 hit per level, while you only get +1/2 to defenses each level + stat increases + itemization) but it's not based on having a low score, or by virtue of being a barbarian. There's not much, other than itemization you can do to make up for the built-in curve.

 

[alfredbester]

Veterans armour from the adventures vault would allow its use at 4th level.

Why would you have to wait until 4th level? Veteran's armor +1 is only a level 2 magic item.

 

[Victim]

One of the mathematical things they've done is correct the "curve."

The difference between two different barbarians at first and 30th levels of the same race and exact same gear is the difference of their ability scores. There is no cascading effect of different progressions that existed earlier because there's no "1/2, 3/4 and 1 bab per level" mechanic, where things can get more pronounced.

There is a curve at later levels (where monsters get +1 hit per level, while you only get +1/2 to defenses each level + stat increases + itemization) but it's not based on having a low score, or by virtue of being a barbarian. There's not much, other than itemization you can do to make up for the built-in curve.

Actually, there is. Keeping up in terms of defenses requires allocating stats to defense increasing stats. But only two stats can be increased at a time, so either one defense is falling sigficantly behind, or points are being spread around, so two defenses are falling behind somewhat.

And if the class is emphasizing two stats in the same defense grouping, then TWO defenses will lag because they aren't getting the major stat ups. And since the only barbarian set up we have at the moment is STR/CON...

 

[Cadfan]

I don't know that one defense is falling "significantly behind." Your favored stats (those you put points into) will gain +8 over the course of your career, meaning that the defenses related to those stats will get +4. Meanwhile, your unfavored stats will gain +2 over the course of your career, meaning that the defenses related to those stats will get +1.

So its a difference of +3 at level 28. Enough to notice, but I wouldn't call it "falling significantly behind."

 

[Ander00]

Sure, they may already start with a difference of around 5 points between their good and bad defenses. That doesn't mean falling behind by another 3 (or 4, if you factor in demigod or eternal defender), while monster attacks generally get better relative to PC defenses, is not significant. Having any level-appropriate monster hit two of your defenses on anything but a natural 1 isn't particularly desirable.

That said, the rageblood barbarian is not the only character with that problem, but I wouldn't just shrug it off.


cheers

 

[ricardo440]

Why would you have to wait until 4th level? Veteran's armor +1 is only a level 2 magic item.

because rather bizzarely I typed 4th instead of 1st.

I really have no idea why
I meant at 1st.

 

[Morrus]

We had someone play one last week. A repeated refrain was: "You do HOW MUCH damage?!?!?"

Seemed pretty overpowered to me.

 

[amysrevenge]

We had someone play one last week. A repeated refrain was: "You do HOW MUCH damage?!?!?"

Seemed pretty overpowered to me.

I'm imagining something similar. As long as there is a good Defender nearby (good build AND good player), that is. I can imagine some horrible splats on the barbarian's end without a good team around him.