Barbarian Playtest Experiences

[Cadfan]

Monkey Boy- you have some rules very wrong. Rage damage does not work the way you think. Reread.

 

[Marshall]

You're playing the rage wrong. VERY wrong. You only get the 3[w] damage on the round you spend the daily. After that, its only +CON bonus to each attack.

 

[Rechan]

I played a minotaur barbarian with a two handed maul. He dominated the game. He was the main damage dealer by a long shot. He eclipsed the rogue and humbled the fighter. He had more survivability than the rouge as he could generate temp HP to stay standing.

Reasons he rocked

Huge Damage - oversized 2 handed maul [W] = 2d8. Rage and this goes to 6d8+5 (str) Half on a miss is still a ton of damage. Rage lasts all encouter. On a crit I did 53 points. I regularly did >30. All this at level 1! Doing lots of damage, butchering monsters in one hit and winning is fun.

Aside from the two posts above me, I'd like to point something out.

No duh that a minotaur with an oversized weapon playing a Barbarian is going to be better than the next guy. Larger weapon + racial bonus to Str and Con + Charge mechanic racial feat?

It's like saying "My Bugbear brutal scoundrel rogue, who has 20 in Dex and 18 in Str, does more damage than anyone at the table, what with his Predatory Eye and Oversized Short Sword and Katar. Rogues are broken."

 

[James McMurray]

I get the impression you were playing it very wrong. Neither the rage itself nor Rage Strike change your base damage to 3[W] for the extent of the entire rage. It looks like you were doing 2[W] too much for much of the fight.

 

[abyssaldeath]

Wait, I'm confused. He was using Rage Strike at will with an over sized maul and didn't think "Hmm, maybe I'm not doing something correctly here?" I know that might sound a little harsh, but come on REALLY?

Regardless of that "little" mistake, You still can't play test with a MM PC and call a class overpowered.

 

[DracoSuave]

The rage abilities do not change 1[W] to 3[W] all encounter. They give you the one heavy 3[W] strike Miss: Half attack, and then as an effect give you a buff that lasts all encounter, and the raging condition. One of those effects is +Con Mod to damage if you or the target are bloodied, and the other is +2 speed, and the ability to shift 2 as a move action.

I suggest your understanding of the class is a bit faulty.

Also, playtesting with non-PC-geared classes is also faulty.

Have I said anything new yet? No? Oh. *sulks at being sarnath'd*

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Reasons he rocked

Huge Damage - oversized 2 handed maul [W] = 2d8. Rage and this goes to 6d8+5 (str) Half on a miss is still a ton of damage. Rage lasts all encouter. On a crit I did 53 points. I regularly did >30. All this at level 1! Doing lots of damage, butchering monsters in one hit and winning is fun.

Problems

Rage and charge interaction - rage damage does not interact logically with the at will howling charges. You go from dealing 3[w] to 1[w] when charging? It doesn't suit the theme. Maybe I was playing this wrong?

yes. You ar playing it wrong:

you don´t get an at will which does 2[w] when you have an unspent rage left...

you get an at-will which allows you to spend a daily (rage) power if you already used one before that encounter.
So usually if you have x daily powers, you can use rage strike a maximum of (x-1) times a day.
You also need to use a daily (rage) power normally first during each enounter to start raging...

 

[Monkey Boy]

No duh that a minotaur with an oversized weapon playing a Barbarian is going to be better than the next guy. Larger weapon + racial bonus to Str and Con + Charge mechanic racial feat?

It's like saying "My Bugbear brutal scoundrel rogue, who has 20 in Dex and 18 in Str, does more damage than anyone at the table, what with his Predatory Eye and Oversized Short Sword and Katar. Rogues are broken."

I don't think the oversized weapon on its own is broken. Nor do I think your bugbear rogue example is broken. Lets be realistic here, once the Goliath is published we are going to see a lot of oversized weapons at the table. I would not be the least bit surprised if Goliaths get +2 str and +2 con. Small power-ups sure, but not broken. My problem was with the 3[w] all the time when raging which did, in my opinion, break the game. As has been pointed out I was using rage very wrong.

I've gone back and edited my original post. Turns out I didn't playtest the barbarian after all.

 

[Mengu]

Except that the Katar is considered a dagger, so in a rogue's hands its +4 to hit, 1d6, high crit.

How do you figure? I believe this is wrong; there is nothing to support it that I can find. Rogues gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls when they wield a dagger. Katar is not dagger.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Um, the player does the point fiddle; not the Character.

Bob hasa job in real world as a lawyer but is Archemuk the Grumbled as a Barbarian in D&D.
Bob does the fiddling; Archemuk does the dismembering.

I know - still I find it cool if "gameplay" and "in-game" can match. Of course it's not high on the 4E priority list, and I'm also fine with that...