How does unconsciousness affect Rage?

[SolitonMan]

Hi,

In our game last night, my cohort, a goliath barbarian, was in battle and raging, and so his hit point total was 10 higher than normal (70 instead of 60). He got trapped in bad terrain and got hit for enough to have taken a total of 72 points of damage over the course of the battle.

So he dropped at that point, but what none of us knew nor could find any reference for was the result of falling unconscious. Does that mean that the rage ends immediately as opposed to the normal duration of 3+adjusted Con modifier rounds? If the rage ends immediately upon unconsciousness, then he's dead (at -12) but if not then he's at -2 and can still be saved.

I can see it either way frankly, and I've never found any good rulings on unconsciousness in general and the effects of abilities and spells. If anyone has any rulings links on this I'd appreciate seeing them. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

 

[Herzog]

I could have sworn there was a thread about just that not more than two weeks ago.

Can't find it though.

As far as I can remember, the conclusion most people seemed to draw was that since the rules don't mention any other condition that would end the rage, it would simply continue for the specified period.

 

[Keith Robinson]

From the 3.5 FAQ:

Does a raging barbarian lose the effects of his rage (including the extra hit points from his increased Constitution) when he falls unconscious?

No. Nothing in the rage class feature indicates that the effect ends if the barbarian is rendered unconscious. The Sage shudders to think how many more dead barbarians would be lying around the battlefield if being reduced to –1 hp meant that the barbarian instantly lost additional hp equal to twice his HD! As a general rule, activated effects remain active even if the activating character is rendered incapable of acting (paralyzed, unconscious, dead, and so on) unless the effect stipulates otherwise.

 

[SolitonMan]

Thank you! I'll be certain to forward that to the DM. I'm just getting the dude developed, losing him this early would be very disappointing!

Thanks again!

 

[green slime]

Yep, this is one of those things that frequently pop up. By RAW, they continue to rage even after falling unconscious. Some DMs rule otherwise. Pays to be careful around that ability when playing with an untried DM.

Personally, I just don't like the imagery of a barbarian lying on floor, frothing at the mouth, while unconscious. Good thing death is only a state of mind in DnD.

It also helps to have a lower death thresh hold. We use -[Con stat] -[HD]. So a 4th level barbarian with 14 Con only dies at -18 hp. Helps cusion the effect of suddenly losing consciousness while raging.

 

[Starbuck_II]

Yep, this is one of those things that frequently pop up. By RAW, they continue to rage even after falling unconscious. Some DMs rule otherwise. Pays to be careful around that ability when playing with an untried DM.

Personally, I just don't like the imagery of a barbarian lying on floor, frothing at the mouth, while unconscious. Good thing death is only a state of mind in DnD.

It also helps to have a lower death thresh hold. We use -[Con stat] -[HD]. So a 4th level barbarian with 14 Con only dies at -18 hp. Helps cusion the effect of suddenly losing consciousness while raging.

I like the threshold/view of a frothing unconscious Barbarian.