D&D 5E Q&A February 8th: Barbarian Rage, Converting Basic to Advanced mid-campaign, Weapon Damage Dice

[Klaus]

http://community.wizards.com/dndnex...a:_rage,_transitioning_character__weapon_dice

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

The one answer I didn't like is on the first question, which asked whether rage had to be limited times per day. Yeah, I get his point that you want it to be a Big Deal to pop rage, but the other restrictions on it (max once/encounter and it ends if you don't attack on your turn) seem like they'd make the x/day restriction unnecessary pretty quickly.

Like, by 9th level, you can rage 4 times a day. The game is balanced around having 3-4 encounters per day, isn't it? So by that point you're still raging pretty much every encounter. I mean, I guess it keeps you from popping rage to smash open a door, but that's about it.

What if you just took like 1d4 damage whenever rage wears off? That'd keep people from spamming it.

 

[Klaus]

I'll paste here my reply on the Q&A above:

The flipside of a daily rage is in one-encounter days, when the huge benefit of the rage is essentially an "at-will". And the barbarian with a daily, powerful rage has a bazooka: if the encounter is just average in difficulty, he either overkills by spending his biggest resource (without knowing if he'll need it again) or doesn't spend it and is left feeling like he's not really a barbarian.

One way to address both sides of the rage coin: have more granularity in the rage. Instead of "rage" being a barbarian ability, it becomes "rages", a type of barbarian ability:
- Raging Strike: the reckless, "I dare you to attack me" attack where the barbarian throws caution to the wind.
- Battle Frenzy: the "must keep attacking to maintain it" rage, with moderate benefits. By its very nature, won't last an entire fight, but ends at the end of a fight.
- Raging Trance: the "daily" rage, where the barbarian surrenders his body to a deeper, instinctive level of being. This one has the huge benefits.

 

[Nikosandros]

I'll paste here my reply on the Q&A above:

I like your suggestions. The first one is more or less already there with reckless attack.

 

[Klaus]

I like your suggestions. The first one is more or less already there with reckless attack.

Reckless attack just needs to be a bit more interesting (maybe give a choice of extra damage or pushing opponent?), if it's to be spammed at will.

 

[CAFRedblade]

I like the idea (mentioned elsewhere/elsewhen) that different rage abilities(stances) could give passive bonuses related to the type of rage, so that they always have a benefit, but can then go to the extreme and kill things in a battle of his choice.

Also, every battle should have a chance, however small, of death for PC party members, but that's my playstyle preference. So no matter how little meaning a fight is in the grand scheme, there is always a chance of death. Thus, expending a rage is never a waste, just not optimal.