Barbarian is up!!!

[Drakhar]

Let me say, this class does look like a lot of fun to play. As a person playing a "barbarian" right now using the fighter class, I could see a lot of potential for a switch over.

As far as balance goes, at first I was in the camp that the barbarian is the all offense, no defense striker. He does crazy damage compared to the other strikers, but he has no AC with his light armor and no dex or int.

But then someone pointed out that he's just one armor feat away from a decent AC, with the HP of a defender and the damage of a striker.

I can't see how that's balanced honestly.

It's important to remember that the other strikers can get the same armor with a feat that a barb can, the only reason it's not optimal to do so is because they all use Int/Dex, although a TWF Ranger could go the Heavy armor route I suppose easily enough.

I think rage strike is neat in concept, but kinda dumb at 1st level. So do I get Rage Strike as 1 At-Will and I pick one more At-Will like the Warlock? If so, that sucks because I have one less At-Will then everyone else.

Rage Strike is a Barbarian Feature At-will, not a Barbarian Attack 1, so you actually have 3 at-wills but only 2 are actually usable at will.

 

[That One Guy]

Let me say, this class does look like a lot of fun to play. As a person playing a "barbarian" right now using the fighter class, I could see a lot of potential for a switch over.

As far as balance goes, at first I was in the camp that the barbarian is the all offense, no defense striker. He does crazy damage compared to the other strikers, but he has no AC with his light armor and no dex or int.

But then someone pointed out that he's just one armor feat away from a decent AC, with the HP of a defender and the damage of a striker.

I can't see how that's balanced honestly.

Well it's not out, yet. I think people need to playtest/number crunch. Also, I think if wearing Heavy armor prevented them from raging or using the free action charge thingy it'd be a decent nerf. It would also preclude the Rage Strike ability. What say ye?

 

[Stalker0]

It's important to remember that the other strikers can get the same armor with a feat that a barb can, the only reason it's not optimal to do so is because they all use Int/Dex.

But they don't get the HP that the barb does, they don't get the extra temp thing, and they don't do as much damage.

 

[Zsig]

As I said on the other forum, I'm a bit disappointed with Rage Strike.

I think it's bad design when you make somthing that people won't get to use up until they're lvl 5 (or more).

I mean, there should be support to all levels of gameplay. And this feature looks... wrong.

EDIT:
To me it should work somewhat like this:

Rage Strike
bla bla bla

Requirement: You must be raging.
Attack: Str vs. AC
Hit: You deal damage based on the rage you're currently "using" [Or whatever term they think it's appropriate]
1st level 2[W]+str
5th level 3[W]+str
...
25th level 5[W]+str
29th level 6[W]|+str

[Always 1[W] less than the "standard" higher damage for a daily of that level]

At first level it gets slightly better than Howling Strike... maybe unnecessarily... anyways, up to them to balance, I'm just pointing that the way it is right now, it looks pretty dumb.

 

[Gloombunny]

There's nothing wrong with Rage Strike. It's a necessary patch given the way the barbarian dailies work.

See, any other class can just use daily after daily if they think the fight is important enough for it. A barbarian who does that is is losing out on much of the strength of his dailies, because all of them have a buff that lasts the entire encounter but can't be combined with the other dailies' buffs. Rage Strike makes up for that by letting him trade the buffing and secondary effects of a daily for more damage. (Unless you expend a level 1 daily. Rage Strike should do more than 3[W] on a level 1 daily; hopefully that'll get fixed before the book comes out.)

Yes, you can't use it until level 5. That's because Rage Strike is there to solve a specific problem, and that problem doesn't exist until level 5.

 

[That One Guy]

There's nothing wrong with Rage Strike. It's a necessary patch given the way the barbarian dailies work.

See, any other class can just use daily after daily if they think the fight is important enough for it. A barbarian who does that is is losing out on much of the strength of his dailies, because all of them have a buff that lasts the entire encounter but can't be combined with the other dailies' buffs. Rage Strike makes up for that by letting him trade the buffing and secondary effects of a daily for more damage. (Unless you expend a level 1 daily. Rage Strike should do more than 3[W] on a level 1 daily; hopefully that'll get fixed before the book comes out.)

Yes, you can't use it until level 5. That's because Rage Strike is there to solve a specific problem, and that problem doesn't exist until level 5.

I concur with the Bunny.

 

[Zsig]

Yes, you can't use it until level 5. That's because Rage Strike is there to solve a specific problem, and that problem doesn't exist until level 5.

That's actually a very good point.


Even though the fighter and some other classes also got dailies that works somewhat on a similar way (stances), and they don't have that kind of treatment.

EDIT: Hum, yeah, maybe that other perspective might make me change my mind...

 

[ppaladin123]

That it took us all this time debating it to figure out what it actually does suggests that, while there might not be anything wrong with it mechanically, rage strike is not a clearly worded/presented power. It could use some revisions on that front.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Yes, you can't use it until level 5. That's because Rage Strike is there to solve a specific problem, and that problem doesn't exist until level 5.

It would seem to me then that the more elegant option would be to have Rages that aren't all Daily Attacks. They could be utilities, like the fighter Stances, possibly.

It just feels very sloppy to have an ability you can't use for 5 levels and that only exists to patch a problem that a weird design choice forced you to need to fix.

 

[Drakhar]

But they don't get the HP that the barb does, they don't get the extra temp thing, and they don't do as much damage.

I'm still not convinced that a Barb is doing all that much more damage then a Ranger or a Rogue. A TWF Ranger can easily have as much or more HP then a Barbarian, a Bow Ranger and a Warlock are attacking from range so they don't need that high hp and a Rogue is focusing on not getting hit. I'm going to assume by the extra temp thing you mean the temp HP which an Infernal Warlock does get, and possibly gets more of.