Barbarian is up!!!

[JVisgaitis]

All it is is a way that allows a barbarian to use multiple dailies.

Sure, but what ever happened to standard progression for all the classes? Sorry, I agree with Kamikaze. Its kludgy. Given the choice of having rage strike and having it kick in at 5th level or not have it all? For me? No thanks. Give me something else.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I think it's evocations are fine, though I wish that a few more encounter powers had added benefits from raging (some do, most don't).

I see a potential for abuse from multiclassing some of their powers, but multiclassing into rogue or ranger gives you access to their extra damage abilities.

I find it entertaining that Tide of Blood could easily get ridiculous if there's a lot of minions around. Even more amusing when combined with those Artificer powers that makes a party member into a "fireball".

I think there should be a feat or something that allows one use of rage strike not reliant on burning through rages. Or maybe just the ability to recover 1 rage after an encounter if rage strike was used in the encounter.

I also don't like the potential infinite loop with the Frenzied Berzerker's Final Confrontation power.

I can tell that the Thaneborn is probably the charisma-build for the Barbarian, that's sort of leaderish.

 

[ProtoClone]

Ooooo, thinking of multi-classing my dwarven cleric of Kord with a barbarian and calling it the zealot combo.

 

[filthgrinder]

The only problem with Rage-Strike is it's presentation. It's the first power in the article, so it's the first thing people look at and try to grok. People look at it and go, "THIS IS THE MAIN DAMAGE DEALING MECHANIC!" when it's not. It's just a way for a barbarian to use mutliple dailies (LIKE EVERY OTHER CLASS CAN) without being penalized.

You get into a fight with the big baddie. You blast off a daily with the bonus you want for this fight. However, the fight turns south, and you are going to need to use some more dailies. Every other class in the game can go ahead and dip into that second daily. Your barb on the other hand would lose his current bonus. So instead, you can not just use that second daily for an attack without losing your bonus.

It's a pretty simple mechanic. Without it, you are discouraged from using multiple dailies. With it, you are now balanced with every other class in daily using.

I think if it wasn't the first thing people read and try to absorb, it wouldn't be causing a problem. It's NOT the main damage dealing mechanic, so don't worry about it.

 

[zsek320]

I agree with most of what the thread is saying. Rage Strike is klunky as is and my main beef is that you cannot use it until level 5.

My quick fix is that if you are bloodied you are considered raging for the purpose of powers requiring you to be in a rage.... that way if you really want to you could use your level 1 daily at level 1.

I don't see a problem with paragon multiclassing for howling strike. You are spending 4 feats and missing out on the goodness that paragon paths give... Although the quick fix is require weilding a 2-handed weapon...
I am more concerned with having an entire encounter long buff on... at level one Swift Panther giving +2 speed and shift 2 squares seems very good to me...

The feel of the barbarian seems to be there. They take damage and deal damage. I am especially a fan of the level 20 daily of the frenzied Berserker, thats the kind of thing I think of when I think barbarian... Sure it can lead to constant back and forth... but if your DM is going to constantly have the mob attack back then they are dumb.

I am excited to see how the barbarian plays out in some play tests.

 

[GorTeX]

how about:
Rage Strike
at-will, primal weapon
standard action Melee weapon
Requirement: you must be raging
target: one Creature
Effect: Before the attack, you may expend an unused rage power to increase the damage (see below)
Attack: Str vs AC
Hit: 1[w] + str + con (increase to 2[w] at 21st level)
If you expended a rage power, add the following damage depending on the level of the rage power you used
1st level +1[w]
5th level +2[w]
9th level +3[w]
15th level +4[w]
19th level +5[w]
25th level +6[w]
29th level +7[w]

Miss; half damage

 

[amysrevenge]

Regarding using Rage Strike before 5th level.

Two words: Veteran's Armor (AV)

 

[amysrevenge]

This, or something similar (1[W] + 1d6 + Str, increase to 1[W] + 2d6 + Str at 11 and 2[W] + 3d6 at 21) might be a decent workaround. But then it just duplicates Howling Strike...

Maybe combine Rage Strike and Howling Strike into one power, and come up with a different At-Will Attack 1 altogether.

how about:
Rage Strike
at-will, primal weapon
standard action Melee weapon
Requirement: you must be raging
target: one Creature
Effect: Before the attack, you may expend an unused rage power to increase the damage (see below)
Attack: Str vs AC
Hit: 1[w] + str + con (increase to 2[w] at 21st level)
If you expended a rage power, add the following damage depending on the level of the rage power you used
1st level +1[w]
5th level +2[w]
9th level +3[w]
15th level +4[w]
19th level +5[w]
25th level +6[w]
29th level +7[w]

Miss; half damage

 

[Lakoda]

The strikers in the PHB1 have bonus damage dice from a class feature but Barbarians have powers that just do more damage. This will create a multi-classing problem when other classes swap for these powers to boost their damage. The powers should really only do this extra damage when accompanied with a class feature so it cannot be gained via multi-classing. Multi-classing to a Ranger, Rogue or Warlock only provides a boost to damage once per encounter but to a Barbarian gives you the ability to boost damage for each power swapped. This is opposed to what I thought multi-classing was about in 4th edition, although I don't want to get into the multi-classing debate here, just pointing out the difference I noticed.

 

[jensun]

Just cause Conan has a low Int

What would possibly make you think this?