D&D 4E How does the 4E Barbarian Rage ability work?

[Narkaious]

I don't call it better, and I don't call it worse. I think that this is a pretty good starting point for the barb. I believe any changes they make will be minor. I look forward to all of the new classes in the PHB 2

 

[blargney the second]

It'd be neat if you could use Rage Strike to burn encounter powers as well as dailies, just with a lower return on investment.
-blarg

 

[mattdm]

The problem here is: the way Rage Strike is presented, it's easy to mistake to for THE barbarian rage ability. As well-explained everywhere, it's clearly not — but since it's the first thing you see when looking for class crunch, it's easy to get confused as the original poster in this thread here.

I assume this sort of feedback is exactly why WotC wants to do these kind of previews — way better than a playtest with only a few hand-picked people who possibly already know what's going on.

 

[CarlTheNecromancer]

But the other strikers in the PHB have "extra damage" they can deal that do not expend any resources (Rogue's sneak attack, Ranger's Hunter's Quarry, and Warlock's curse), let alone cost that precious daily ability. If they wanted Barbarians to be a striker class, shouldn't they have a similiar mechanic? Perhaps there is an At-Will that I missed which generates the extra damage strikers are supposed to have.

Plus you must have missed where the barb gets at least 3w for almost every power. when I read through the powers I was blown away at how much the barb would be able to dish out in a single encounter, made all the better with a choice rage. It also breaks from the "Striker" mold of that extra mechanic, so WotC can introduce classes that are more than slightly edited versions of the rogue or warlock. I don't know about you, but I'd rather not have cookie-cutter classes.

 

[Kordeth]

But the other strikers in the PHB have "extra damage" they can deal that do not expend any resources (Rogue's sneak attack, Ranger's Hunter's Quarry, and Warlock's curse), let alone cost that precious daily ability. If they wanted Barbarians to be a striker class, shouldn't they have a similiar mechanic? Perhaps there is an At-Will that I missed which generates the extra damage strikers are supposed to have.

Rage strike is not the barbarian's equivalent of sneak attack/hunter's quarry/warlock's curse. It's a way to let the barbarian spend multiple daily powers in one fight without hosing himself out of the Effect of his first rage power.

 

[WalterKovacs]

Rage - A stance-like effect that comes with a Barb daily power. For the rest of the encounter, as long as they remain concious and don't start a new rage, they get that benefit. ALSO, whlie raging each of their at-wills improve. They have the ability to charge better with one [charge without provoking OAs for the move part of the charge], they get more temp HP [add 5 to their charisma mod], or they just get to add extra damage [the shifting one].

The Raging Strike is just a means of using a daily power without switching the rage effect. They also do a bit more damage [most of the time ... 1st level do the same damage].

 

[Bagpuss]

Rage
You fly into a furious rage, wreaking havoc upon your foes.
Encounter (Special) ✦ Primal, Rage
Special: You can use this power a number of times per day
equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1), but only once
per encounter.

No thanks.

Better to have it recharge with milestones for example, every encounter. 4th Ed isn't about "number of times per day"

 

[Bagpuss]

Rage strike is not the barbarian's equivalent of sneak attack/hunter's quarry/warlock's curse. It's a way to let the barbarian spend multiple daily powers in one fight without hosing himself out of the Effect of his first rage power.

Exactly. It's really there for the rare occasion he wants/needs to get the upped damage of one of his Dailys but doesn't want to lose the rage effect of the one he has going already.

Personally I see it as something that will rarely get used, because more often than not a Barbarian will blow his low level dailys first to get into a rage, and save his higher level ones for the big fight at the end (by which point he wont' have the low level ones to use with rage strike).

 

[WalterKovacs]

The Paladin does have a number of times per day mechanic [lay on hands].

They do want to limit the number of rages per day of the Barbarian ... I think part of the problem is that, on the one hand, with the at-wills all benefitting from the rage [and the rage strike showing up right away], it would seem like Rage is the main thing a Barbarian does. But, because it's tied to daily powers, you can only Rage once per day until 5, twice per day until 9, and from that point on, you are pretty much stuck at 3 unless you have ways to recharge your daily powers [or a Paragon Path gives you a Rage daily]. With so many things referring to Rages ... it is a bit odd to make them happen so rarely.

So if there is some other way to Rage, they'd probably want to limit how often you could do it, giving you a few additional ways to Rage each day, but not so much that you could do it every encounter. Maybe go the Lay on Hands route of referencing a non-main stat [maybe Wisdom again] with a mimimum of 1. So you could get 1 or 2 additional rages per day, more if you are willing to take a hit in some of your other stats, and by the time you get to 30, you may be able to rage about 6 times per day, with the possibility of more through daily powers recharging effects.

 

[Gorrstagg]

My personal feeling on this.

Too complicated, and exceptionally unsatisfying. The Rage mechanic is someone just getting WAY to clever.

The thematic feel of the Striker class is that it allows you to do X bonus damage, and gives you ways to enhance that mechanic.

This Barbarian right now, gives you your special. Once per day, that provides a minor enhancement for the rest of the encounter. And then as you go up in levels, you can dish out "Some damage" and then go on.

Right now, if I were rating this class, I would say it's a failure. Plain and simple. Go back figure out how to make Rages, provide different options to ALL attacks, (even if its only against one target, or some variable to that per round). And then let us try it.

Right now, this just comes across as way to clunky and not well done.

I don't like it and would not encourage someone to playtest this further. Cause as it stands, it's not friendly, or coherent. And I recognize it's a playtest class. And not fully finished. But they seemed to think this was a good direction and I feel in all honesty it's a gigantic miss.

Go back and find some mechanic that allows significant damage dealing, but in this case, change the mechanic to something that feels like one of the other strikers. Bonus damage, figure it out. But this way just feels wrong.