Barbarian swift charge issues

[Kingreaper]

Perhaps because you prefer that everyone have fun to everyone mastering the system?

 

[Dan'L]

Would it break things badly if I changed Swift Charge's effect to read "you charge an enemy, or make a basic melee attack against an enemy "? This would still deny him Howling Strike and all his charge goodies when in the mob, but at least the class feature would do something.

I would note that a charge ends the player's turn of actions, barring spending an action point. As such, you might want to put a similar rider on allowing the MBA in lieu of the free action charge.

And you might want to allow the action to provoke OAs from enemies other than the target, since that's pretty much a risk that's built into charging, too.

Outside of these, since this could only really happen once an encounter anyway, I don't think it'll break too much.

-Dan'L

 

[DracoSuave]

Perhaps because you prefer that everyone have fun to everyone mastering the system?

This isn't a question of system mastery, it's a question of the basics.

Yes 'Try to get one of each role' is basic level advice.

It’s a good idea to cover each role with at least one character.
.....
If you don’t have all the roles covered, that’s okay too—it just means that the characters need to compensate for the missing function.

Hey, there it is on p15. Really early on.

The point is, because they are missing two roles, defender and controller, they're finding that they need to compensate. Sadly, they're using a barbarian to compensate for both... which means he can't use his class as efficiently as he'd like.

That means someone else has to step up and also contribute instead of having one character shoulder -three- role's burdens. The bard can do the job if he'd bother.

 

[Herschel]

Agreed. Sucktastic party composition can be mitigated by team play and good tactics. And sucktastic parties in a campaign can be mitigated by players actually communicating during character creation or being flexible when the first lineup is created. With the Barbarian being the entire front line, as a DM I'd have blade-wielding baddies making squishkabobs because there's no reason for them to stick to him and get pummeled.

 

[On Puget Sound]

re his choices: this player had never played 4e before, doesn't own the books. Hasn't played D&D since the 90s. When he joined the game he wanted to be "a norse-type berserking barbarian human". At the time we had five other players; the two we've lost since then were a fighter and a paladin. So for a lot of reasons, I don't feel like he made any bad decisions at character creation that he ought to be penalized for or coerced to change; I'm just trying to make the group work better until we recruit another player or two.

And re his non-stickiness....yep. All the others get hit a lot. Most fights end with all 5 heals (cleric w bard multiclass, and bard) used, and sometimes one or more characters on the floor. The current fight they are in may well be a TPK. So believe me, they are feeling the lack of a defender!

 

[Shin Okada]

Have you got PHB 3 already?

Hybrid rule helps really much when there are less than 4 players. Talk with your players and consider re-constructing some or all of their PCs. Maybe you guys can make up better-balanced adventuring party without completely changing each characters' basic concepts.

 

[bganon]

If you're anticipating another player joining as a defender eventually, I'd just try to temporarily "patch" things by messing with encounter design. You've got a pretty ranged-oriented party, maybe try using fewer melee monsters against them? Encounters with two skirimishers/brutes at most plus 3-4 artillery/controllers might give the barbarian more chance to move around, and the rest of the party will still be able to do their thing as ranged attackers.

 

[On Puget Sound]

bganon, I think you have nailed it. I need to plan encounters differently for this party than I did before. Thanks, everyone, for your advice.

 

[korjik]

Two words:

NPC Fighter

 

[eamon]

You could give out a Badge of the Berserker in the next batch of loot, or encourage the cleric to make him one. He would still have to charge away from the enemies he is currently engaging to Swift Charge, but at least he wouldn't be taking OAs for it.

This. No house rule needed, and suits him perfectly. There's a reason it's called a badge of the Berserker ;-).