Rage feats

[SlagMortar]

Did you intend to limit the first feat to granting the bonus once per round? For example, if Rogar the barbarian with a falchion and great cleave charges a group of kobolds and cleaves 3 times dealing two critical hits, does he get 6 rounds of extra rage or 1 round of extra rage? I'm not sure that it would be unbalanced either way, but it should be spelled out.

 

[B4cchus]

I totally agree on that. The effect should not occur more than once per round (charge, critical hit, kill the enemy and cleave the next, also critical: makes four extra rounds, not taking great cleave into account). I'll change the wording.

 

[Rystil Arden]

I don't like that the first one adds on a charge, since that is totally in control of the player, who can keep it up indefinitely by charging about. Crits and Cleaves are fine though.

 

[B4cchus]

Mind that this is a succesfull charge, so a succesful attack on the charge is required.
As far as i see it, a raging barbarian doesn't charge, retreat, charge again etc. Doing so costs an extra round per go:
round 1: charge
round 2: attack and move away (also provoking an attack of oppertunity)
round 3: charge

If the enemy moves too far away or too close by, the second charge cannot be made.
Also, the barbarian provokes an attack of opportunity with this routine.

I agree, if all charges are succesfull he could hold this up indefinately. But if all charges are succesfull, the bad guy(s) will be dead long before any rage would end.

To restrict the extra round to cleaves and critical hits only is too restrictive in my opinion. As comparison: the WOTC feat gives you 5 rounds extra on every rage.

Maybe i should combine the two: double your con bonus and gain an extra round for every critical hit or cleave. Some prerquisites would be in place, for instance Fury of the Wolverine.

 

[Velmont]

If the enemy moves too far away or too close by, the second charge cannot be made.
Also, the barbarian provokes an attack of opportunity with this routine.

Combine with Spring attack, you can finish to charge every round... but it is 3 feat you must spend to get it...

 

[SlagMortar]

Spring attack does not work with a charge. For spring attack, you can only take one move action and make a standard attack so at best against a single opponent you could charge every other round and not provoke any attacks of opportunity.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Oops, missed that the charge needs to hit an enemy. That's definitely better then (I was thinking along the lines of "I charge the tree!" "Okay, now I charge the rock!" "Whee, my rage will neeeeeeever die!!").

The Con bonus, however, I don't like as much. Assuming WotC's feat is balanced at 5 (and 5 rounds is an awful lot in a fight), most Barbarians are going to have 5 or more Con bonus in Rage very quickly. Unless they were really skimping on Con, they would definitely always have at least 4.

 

[Someone]

I don´t get the worrying about a feat that extends a rage being so powerful. Assuming the barbarian has 14-16 Con, a normal rage will last 7-8 rounds: it´s quite rare the battle that extends so much, and then it´s rare among those the battles that aren´t decided by that point. Even then, if they last so much it´s because other factors, for example when they hold a defensive position that´s difficult to reach (and in those cases the barbarian isn´t likely to rage earlier)

So we´re talking about a feat that will be very rarely useful. And we know we can be lenient with those, can´t we?

 

[Rystil Arden]

So we´re talking about a feat that will be very rarely useful. And we know we can be lenient with those, can´t we?

I agree, but I worry about extending it too much leading to the following scenario:

"Umm shouldn't we question this..."

"Thurg still have 9 round of Rage! Charge to next room NOW and KILL!"

It's the same reason I don't like those few minutes spells.

 

[Someone]

Nah, that´s why you don´t like dungeons.