Frustrated with Barbarian paragon paths. If you MC you are always better off

[Obryn]

Just curious -- is the main problem in your experience that the Barbarian has low defenses, or that the opponents focus fire on him/her?

I have a high-Dex (ergo high-AC) Barbarian ready to roll, and I'm curious whether she will be dropping as often as you suggest.

IME, it's both.

Frankly, you will be doing a scary amount of damage every round. As a DM, I will focus-fire the hell out of a Barbarian at every opportunity. Not only will dropping them remove a major offensive target, but their defenses are a tad lower than most other melee PCs'.

Barbarians also have a few powers which open them up to attack. Avalanche Strike is a big one. Every time the Barbarian PC used that, I had just about every enemy on the field gang up on him. It was sometimes even worth violating the Fighter's (though not Shielding Swordmage's) Mark.

-O

 

[renau1g]

Yeah I love barbs, but they are bigger glass cannons than any other class. But man are they fun.... if you go shifter, you can at least get some benefit to being bloodied.

 

[Orcus Porkus]

Barbarian Agility really improved the situation though, compared to the playtest.

 

[Prestidigitalis]

I consider any power that brings your defenses down substantially as a side-effect to be either a) a bad choice or b) a "finisher", used late in an encounter to knock out a key enemy at a time when the reduced defenses will a limited downside.

 

[Prestidigitalis]

BTW, my Barbarian may not do as much damage as some. No Bloodclaw weapon, no Iron Armbands of Power. I suppose she will still wear a big bullseye, anyway.

 

[hvg3akaek]

Hmmm... Idk I like them. As a Warden, I was actually thinking about MC barbarian PP for a while.

Indeed. I am playing a goliath warden, and although I wanted to, not a single warden PP beat out the barb's bear warrior PP. The goliath racial came close, but still the barbarian PP won.

 

[BlightCrawler]

After reading this, maybe my idea of focusing on mobility as an elf barbarian (instead of a crush/charge everything Minotaur) and going into Windrunner isn't such a bad plan.