Setting Spears against a Charge...

[Rallets2]

"guess in future, enemies will STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM THAT CHARACTER when he's got a spear readied"

Thats what bows are for

 

[Felix]

Be sure to Power Attack on that readied action as well... you'll get your attack penalty x2 to damage, and then that damage will be doubled as well.

[1d8+6+8(PA)]x2 = 2d8+28. Yay. All for a measley -4 to hit.

 

[Insight]

Am I the only one who finds it ridiculous that a RAGING Barbarian could ready an action? My understanding of the Rage ability rather implies they cannot take actions that rely on caution and forethought. I would assume readying and holding actions are pretty much waiting and caution.

Also, using Power Attack on a set weapon should not be allowed. After all, you are in essence using the attacker's force against them. I don't see how a Power Attack would apply in this instance. But I guess it's whatever your GM decides.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Am I the only one who finds it ridiculous that a RAGING Barbarian could ready an action?

Pretty much.

While raging, a barbarian cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills (except for Balance, Escape Artist, Intimidate, and Ride), the Concentration skill, or any abilities that require patience or concentration, nor can he cast spells or activate magic items that require a command word, a spell trigger (such as a wand), or spell completion (such as a scroll) to function. He can use any feat he has except Combat Expertise, item creation feats, and metamagic feats.

I can see you possibly hanging your hat on the "require patience or concentration" wording, but that's speaking specifically to "any abilities."

Readying an attack isn't really an ability, as far as the rules go.

I mean, if you can Disarm someone, Dodge, or Deflect Arrows while raging, I don't see "Spitting the stupid running orc on my spear" as such a stretch.

 

[Mekabar]

Pretty much.

No he's not alone. I can see there are no problems rules-wise, but a berserking on the one hand and and waiting for the enemy on the other instead of running into the fray doesn't fit at all IMO. As a DM I would definitely penalize the Barbarian for inadequate roleplaying behaviour.

 

[Creat]

What level are your characters? I have a small barbarian-frenzy berserker (total level 9) in my group that usually has a bulls strength cast on him (in most cases that results in +2 to str. mod) who wields a medium sized mercurial greatsword (exotic, 2d4+1.5str, x4 on a crit). Now since he has 20 str. without rage or anything which leads to a strength of about 34 when both rages are active, which means he does a nice and sweet 2d4+12 damage, now add the weapon specialization (+2), the magic bonus (+2 I think) and the maximum power attack of +9 and you have 2d4+25.
If he makes a critical (which he recently did, btw.) he makes 8d4+100 damage, and you are concerned about 2d8+18?

Well I assume your group isn't 9th level, but more like 3rd or something, but just substract the 10 from the simple damage and that sounds like what he did back then.

I do of course have to pick enemies for them more carefully since he might just split mages of his level in half with a single strike (also, has happened about 5 levels ago), but it's a lot of fun once you're used to that

bye
Creat

 

[IcyCool]

Pretty much.

*coughs and points to his post earlier in this thread*

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

So, what, there's three people out of how many hundreds who have read the thread?

That marks him as pretty much alone, in my book.

 

[IcyCool]

So, what, there's three people out of how many hundreds who have read the thread?

That marks him as pretty much alone, in my book.

Just pointing it out. Bit cranky today, are we?

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Just pointing it out. Bit cranky today, are we?

No, not really. Bit smarmy today, are we?

He asked if he was alone in his understanding. I said, "Pretty much." I did not say, "unequivocally, absolutely alone - no one else in the universe agrees with you."

People getting all smart and pointing out that there are a small number of people who agree with him does not change my initial point.