Does rage end when a creature goes unconscious?

[buzz]

So, my barbarian gets knocked into negative HP while he's raging. If raging ends at this point, he loses the HP he gained from raging, and thus dies. If raging does not end, he lives for a few rounds, allowing comrades to heal him (or just dying later if they're jerks ).

Which is it? My DM checked the SRD and says there's nothing that specifically says that raging ends other than when the player willfully ends it or its duration runs out. I could have sworn it ends if you're knocked unconscious, though.

 

[Liquidsabre]

You've got it. Unconciousness ends the rage, and in most cases, ends the barbarian. as well.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Um? I thought every time this came up, the strong majority was "There's no reason to think it should, and a very good reason to think it shouldn't".

I thought a Sage Advice had even weighed in on that side at one point.

The main reason being "As soon as a barbarian hits 5th level, Rage becomes a potential death sentence".

But there's nothing in the rules to suggest Rage ends upon unconsciousness.

Links:

Rage vs Unconciousness
Rage stops when unconscious?
Barbarian Rage and Unconsciousness?
Does Barbarian Rage end at -1 HP?
Barbarian's Hit Points gained by Rage

... and, well, there's this one, but I think you can safely ignore it

Recent Sage rulings...what in the Nine Hells???

-Hyp.

 

[Sejs]

Unconsciousness doesn't end the rage - it continues ticking along on its 3+con mod rounds duration.


If unconsciousness ended a rage, dropping to 0 or less hp would be a death sentance for any barbarian over 5th level. They'd just instantly die.

 

[Liquidsabre]

Sweet, I stand corrected. I'm off to inform me game group that the pile of barbarians in the corner should be revived!

 

[Al'Kelhar]

There appears to be no rule which requires that rage ends when a barbarian lapses into unconsciousness. IMC we've rationalised this as the rage being a physical response to the act of a conscious mind; the barbarian enters rage when his mind wills him to, but its physiological manifestation is a saturation of his body with adrenalin. His body is still "pumped" whether he's conscious or unconscious, but can only remain so for a limited period of time.

The issue my group has encountered in our games is when the raging barbarian becomes unconscious because his hit points drop below 0, then his rage ends before he can be cured.

Cheers, Al'Kelhar

 

[Longbow]

I go by the book with this: nowhere in the rules about the Barbarian rage does it state that it ends when the Barbarian goes unconscious. And I would find it extremely harsh if that would be the case.

 

[mikebr99]

Or this could be a good reason to start taking Diehard???





Mike

 

[Thanee]

Well, if you don't like barbarians to rage on, when they have gone unconscious, but got back into the positive all during the duration of the rage, you could just remove the Str and Will save bonus from then, but leave the Con bonus for the entire duration, to be fair. That would be a house rule, of course.

Bye
Thanee