D&D 5E Barbarian Frenzy

[kerbarian]

The Path of the Berserker grants the Frenzy feature. The effects and aftereffects (exhaustion) are clear, but I'm a little confused about how you can initiate it. The feature says

"you can go into a frenzy when you rage. If you do so, for the duration of your rage you can make a single melee weapon attack as a bonus action on each of your turns after this one."​

So you can decide to frenzy as you first start your rage. Starting your rage costs a bonus action, so you can't take the bonus action attack until "your turns after this one." What I'm unclear on is: Can you decide to go into a frenzy if you're already raging? It looks consistent with the wording that you could decide to go into a frenzy at some later point during your rage, but you wouldn't get a bonus attack right away -- you'd start getting them on "your turns after this one." That also implies that the decision has to be made on your turn.

Or it could just be that you can only decide to frenzy when you first go into a rage. Has there been any clarification on this?

 

[Leatherhead]

It takes a bonus action to go into a rage, I am thinking the intent is that you pick to frenzy when you use the bonus action to rage.

 

[Piratecat]

DM opinion, not RAW: it's consistent with genre to let barbarians get EVEN ANGRIER, and it doesn't break anything. If anything it's less powerful than going into a frenzy right away. I'd certainly allow it.

 

[Plaguescarred]

I believe you go into a frenzy when you take a bonus action to rage as it says you can go into a frenzy when you rage.

 

[AstroCat]

Yeah I was playing my barbarian at GameholeCon over the weekend, and at first I thought Frenzy was like "Stage 2" Rage, but realized after a session that yeah, it's meant to be used when you decide to Rage. You don't get the extra attack until the next turn because the Rage/Frenzy is your bonus action for your current turn. Although whatever works good in your game is probably fine.

 

[Azrothan]

Any point in time during a rage is when you rage?
It does not state on the turn you begin your rage, or anything similar, right?

It is the better option to go into a frenzy directly if you know you need the bonus attack, but if a bigger monster shows up mid rage...

 

[aramis erak]

The frenzy is part of the rage from then on. So when you rage, you get the damage resistance AND a bonus action melee attack. The only way that hampers you is if you're a rager with paired light weapons, but if going that way, you're already getting a bonus off-hand attack, so the difference is the damage bonus.

 

[77IM]

"When you rage" implies right at the moment of raging, similar to "when you hit with a melee weapon attack" or "when you are reduced to 0 hit points," which triggers right when you drop to 0 and not just any time you are laying around at 0 HP.

If it were meant to happen during raging I think it would say something like "while yo are raging" or "during your rage." Also the 5e authors are pretty good about saying what kind of action something takes, so it would probably say something like, "You enter the frenzy on your turn as a bonus action" or "Initiating frenzy requires no action but can only be done on your turn" or similar.

All that said, allowing the frenzy to start later seems balanced to me. In fact does anything prevent you from raging while raging?

 

[Tormyr]

You don't get the extra attack until the next turn because the Rage/Frenzy is your bonus action for your current turn.

Good catch.

 

[Stalker0]

I think the raw is you frenzy when you rage.

That said I see no issues allowing frenzy later in the round