barbarians rage - who is my friend?

[Scion]

A dm I know told me the other day that barbarians cant tell friend from foe. His reasoning was that the barb cant use int based skills and being able to tell friend from foe is an intelligence based skill

Does this arguement hold any water? Are there any other strange fringe effects of things that dont make any sense in game but are probably true according to the barbs rage entry?

 

[CRGreathouse]

Does this arguement hold any water? Are there any other strange fringe effects of things that dont make any sense in game but are probably true according to the barbs rage entry?

Nope. Now, the frenzied berserker prestige class has trouble telling them apart (or, at least, from stopping himself from killing everyone) -- but that's a different issue.

 

[Scion]

I agree.

But there is apparently a feat in the book of exalted deeds that, 'allows barbarians to tell friend from foe no matter how deep into his rage he is' or something like that.

Which seems to lend his thought patterns credence. But I could put this under the same heading as 'poisons are evil' which it also says erroneously.

 

[Parlan]

I agree.

But there is apparently a feat in the book of exalted deeds that, 'allows barbarians to tell friend from foe no matter how deep into his rage he is' or something like that.

Which seems to lend his thought patterns credence...

That feat might lend his point some credence, but from a common-sense point of view:

(1) Nowhere in the PHB/DMG does it say that a Barb loses the ability to tell friend from foe.

(2) Losing that ability would have SERIOUS implications for playability (by greatly reducing a barb's friend's life-expectancy ), so it s hard to imagine that the game designers didn't find this point worthy of mention.

From a rules-lawyer perspective:

(1) Knowledge (Friend or Foe) or whatever is not listed as an Intelligence Based Skill (note the capitalized I, B, and S) in SRD material. Therefore raging barbs don’t lose the ability.

(2) (I don t have the books in front of me, forgive any minor inaccuracies) Any support lent his argument by the Book of Exhausted Deeds is negated by the description in the Frenzied Berserker, which clearly indicates that the FrBs inability distinguish friend from foe is different from the “normal” rage of a barb.

 

[dren]

I have always ruled, that they are incredibly sensitive at this time. While they know who their friends are, if an ally commits a questionable act that they dislike, they may have to roll a will check (DC 12) to avoid becoming angry and scream at their friend. But, only the player may state that they are attacking that friend.

 

[Flyspeck23]

A dm I know told me the other day that barbarians cant tell friend from foe. His reasoning was that the barb cant use int based skills and being able to tell friend from foe is an intelligence based skill

What and what isn't an intelligence based skill is clearly defined by the rules. In this case, it isn't a skill, int-based or otherwise.

Additionally, the barbarian isn't that great a class (IMHO of course), and weakening his most usable class feature (IMHO again) would obviously hurt him. If he couldn't tell friend from foe while raging, why would anyone but a solo player take that class?

 

[Darklone]

Take into account that the barbarian can stop his rage whenever he wants, so he's not losing control.

 

[Plane Sailing]

A dm I know told me the other day that barbarians cant tell friend from foe. His reasoning was that the barb cant use int based skills and being able to tell friend from foe is an intelligence based skill

With respect, this dm sounds like a fool. For all the reasons outlined above there is absolutely no support in the core books for this kind of reasoning.

 

[shilsen]

With respect, this dm sounds like a fool. For all the reasons outlined above there is absolutely no support in the core books for this kind of reasoning.

What Plane Sailing said. A raging barbarian (with rogue levels) can sneak attack, run away, use combat maneuvers such as disarming, sundering, etc. That's why the description of the Frenzied Berserker PrC specifically explains that the character cannot differentiate friend or foe, since that is not normally the case for a raging barbarian.

 

[swrushing]

What skill would you use to tell the difference between two people? Spot.

Spot is a wisdom based skill.