D&D 5E Requesting help building a barbarian

[Paul Farquhar]

The question was if you can concentrate on things that are not spells anyway.

When the PHB was written, there where no things that where not spells that you could concentrate on.

So the sense is "for those of you who happen to be multiclassed as spellcasters, this rule will only apply to you...". This is, of course, no longer the case, but the intent of the rule is you can't concentrate whilst raging full stop, not that being a spellcaster makes it harder to concentrate.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

When the PHB was written, there where no things that where not spells that you could concentrate on.

So the sense is "for those of you who happen to be multiclassed as spellcasters, this rule will only apply to you...". This is, of course, no longer the case, but the intent of the rule is you can't concentrate whilst raging full stop, not that being a spellcaster makes it harder to concentrate.

Yes. As I said in my first post: it is not totally clear if you can concentrate on favoured foe or not. I think you should double check with your DM.

With the reading focus on "if you can cast spells" it gets weirder, because you could concentrate as a level 1 ranger, but not as a level 2 or more ranger. So I would really ignore that part and focus on the other one: rage mentions concentrating on spells. Favoured foe says concentrate (as if concentrating on a spell).
I could see both readings here. If a DM uses your explanation: the PHB could not anticipate non spell concentration abilities, I woul not think about protesting.
I as a DM would probably be more lenient however.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Yes. As I said in my first post: it is not totally clear if you can concentrate on favoured foe or not. I think you should double check with your DM.

You can't. It says "as if you where concentrating on a spell". The only ambiguity is what you are reading into it.

With the reading focus on "if you can cast spells" it gets weirder, because you could concentrate as a level 1 ranger, but not as a level 2 or more ranger. So I would really ignore that part and focus on the other one: rage mentions concentrating on spells. Favoured foe says concentrate (as if concentrating on a spell).
I could see both readings here. If a DM uses your explanation: the PHB could not anticipate non spell concentration abilities, I woul not think about protesting.
I as a DM would probably be more lenient however.

That's because it is written in plain English, not legalise. "If you can cast spells" is the context, not the rule. It could rewritten "If you can't cast spells, the following rule is irrelevant to you:" Which was correct advice at the time the PHB was written.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

You can't. It says "as if you where concentrating on a spell". The only ambiguity is what you are reading into it.

I disagree. And lets leave it at that.

As I said, I would not argue with a DM reading it that way.

I already agreed with you on the second point so why reiterate that?

 

[Redwizard007]

For pure durability, a bear totem barbarian is the traditional go-to, but zealots being so easy to bring back from death, combined with some slight offensive boosts, makes them my absolute favorite. Single-class, they tend to get pretty boring, but splashing a few levels of fighter and a casting class can make them a lot more interesting.