Is the Barbarian overpowered?

[The Crimson Binome]

1) Rage apparently gives you resistance (half damage) to absolutely all physical attacks, is that right?

2) Unarmored Defence allows for a better AC than a fighter in heavy armor, possibly?

It's counter-intuitive, but these two points actually work against each other. In a party, the barbarian's job is to be a large, salient threat, which can grab the attention of the enemies. You want them to attack you, instead of your allies, because you're better at taking a hit. (You also have a lot of free healing, every day, in the form of Hit Dice.)

Having a high AC makes you less of a target. If the first three enemy attacks just bounce off of your rippling pecs, then they aren't going to keep attacking you, because it's futile. They're going to focus on hitting anyone that they can actually hit. You want a lower AC, because it makes you a better target; low enough to invite attacks, but not so low that you take unnecessary damage from an enemy that was going to attack you anyway. Something around 17 is probably ideal, for low-mid levels.

 

[Blue]

1) Rage apparently gives you resistance (half damage) to absolutely all physical attacks, is that right?

EDIT: Corrected that is also affects magical B/P/S damage.

It gives you half damage to B/P/S attacks. The limitation is it is only when you are raging, which is about 1/3 or less encounters when you start considering the 6-8 encounters the DMG recommends per day.

This is also offset by Reckless Attack, requiring that you grant advantage (and get hit more) to unleash your offensive capability.

2) Unarmored Defence allows for a better AC than a fighter in heavy armor, possibly?
In this case one could eventually hit 20 in both Dex and Con, for an AC20, and use a shield with that for a total of AC22, while losing very little damage potential if you're using a Finesse weapon.

1. That really only applies to the last few levels fo play, which few reach (see the recent news article about 90% of play is in levels 1-10).

2. You will lose a great deal of offensive capability using a finesse weapon to attack since you can no longer use Reckless Attack - it is STR only.

3. Reckless Attack almost doubles the chance of crits. Add in the barbarian ability Brutal Critical to add 1-3 weapon dice to the attack, and barbarians have some of the stiffest reduction in offensive power going from two-handed down to one-handed. 5d12 total vs. 5d8 total, and close to twice as common.

 

[Kupursk]

You may also want to pay attention to how rage works -- skip a round of attacking and don't get attacked and rage is done, soend another. If you're doing set pieces, this is no big deal, but a running encounter absolutely murders rage efficiency.

From the text in the book I had the impression that you could end the rage voluntarily as long as you stopped attacking for 1 round. Might have misread it. Does it end automatically if you don't attack?

 

[BookBarbarian]

You may also want to pay attention to how rage works -- skip a round of attacking and don't get attacked and rage is done, soend another. If you're doing set pieces, this is no big deal, but a running encounter absolutely murders rage efficiency.

Good advice.

Rage management is Barbarian 101. I like to have a Longbow on my Barbarians as I'd rather shoot an arrow and miss and keep my rage, than lose rage by not getting close enough to attack.

 

[Kupursk]

Partially. It gives you half damage to non-magical B/P/S attacks.

So a magical weapon ignores the damage resistance?

Again, I'm not entirely familiar with all 5e rules, so specific wording like that might imply more than I've realized.

That's kind of a trend since the days of 3e in how they write the rules. I personally wish they'd write slightly longer and more descriptive paragraphs, sort of like they did in 2e. Sure it made the reading longer and somewhat harder to pinpoint a quick rule, but generally speaking you were left with less confusion or misunderstandings of how things worked. I remember some cases from 3e, for example, where people thought a certain rule or ability worked a certain way, and after much debate and realizing that X term was used specifically instead of Y term, made for a very different interpretation of how it actually worked.

 

[Yunru]

Oh, and DEX-Barbarians, while their AC is potentially ridiculous, deal no damage to speak of (since both Reckless Attack and Rage damage bonus only works with STR).

Maybe not if we mix in a little cavalier.

 

[Mort]

Partially. It gives you half damage to non-magical B/P/S attacks. And only when you are raging, which is about 1/3 or less encounters when you start considering the 6-8 encounters the DMG recommends per day.

Pretty sure this is flat out wrong.

Rage gives you resistance to B/P/S attacks magical or not. Magic weapons etc. definitely qualify.

There are some features that apply only to non-magical B/P/S damage but it is expressly stated - I can think of the Heavy Armor Master feat, as an example.

 

[5ekyu]

Partially. It gives you half damage to non-magical B/P/S attacks. And only when you are raging, which is about 1/3 or less encounters when you start considering the 6-8 encounters the DMG recommends per day.

This is also offset by Reckless Attack, requiring that you grant advantage (and get hit more) to unleash your offensive capability.



1. That really only applies to the last few levels fo play, which few reach (see the recent news article about 90% of play is in levels 1-10).

2. You will lose a great deal of offensive capability using a finesse weapon to attack since you can no longer use Reckless Attack - it is STR only.

3. Reckless Attack almost doubles the chance of crits. Add in the barbarian ability Brutal Critical to add 1-3 weapon dice to the attack, and barbarians have some of the stiffest reduction in offensive power going from two-handed down to one-handed. 5d12 total vs. 5d8 total, and close to twice as common.

I am pretty sure the resistance applies to all BPS not just non-magical BPS, right?

 

[Mort]

There was a pretty good thread comparing the various martial classes for survivability and damage. It was a years ago so some of the new books aren't in there, but the analysis holds up.

 

[Blue]

I am pretty sure the resistance applies to all BPS not just non-magical BPS, right?

You're correct. Let me adjust me original post. [MENTION=762]Mort[/MENTION] said the same thing, thanks for the correction you both. Teach me to post from memory.