When to Rage

[Saeviomagy]

I've got a barbarian, with a grand total of 2 rages (for 7 rounds worth each) a day.

I rage when I've lost more than half my hitpoints. because as the groups primary front-row fighter, that's usually a good indication of a tough fight. I've yet to run out of rages at an inappropriate time.

 

[hong]

Actually in the comic books and the upcoming film it's Bruce Banner:
http://www.incrediblehulk.com/bannerhistory.html

In the TV show with Bill Bixby he was David Banner:
http://www.scifi.com/hulk/

Changed because, apparently, the network thought "Bruce" was too pansy a name.

MAD Magazine had a great treatment of this. In their spoof of the show, a TV is running in the background in one of the panels. It's tuned to the Olympics, and an announcer is saying: "... and Jenner wins the decathlon! BRUCE IS THE GREATEST MAN IN THE WORLD!"



Re reminding players of their powers: smite is another one. Let me tell you about the time I forgot to smite all through a session....

 

[Dingleberry]

If you have MotW, you might also suggest that your player take a look at the section conveniently titled "Choosing When to Rage" (p. 7).

 

[dpdx]

As luck would have it...

I play a Ranger in our normal campaign, and Masters is the only WotC splatbook I don't have. I'm saving up for an xbox...

 

[Morose]

My advice is to rage early and rage often. In my 3 years of 3E gaming experience I have only seen one situation in which the Barbarian was later sorry he raged, and that was a combat situation that went on for several turns which is by no means standard.

 

[Rashak Mani]

When you have only 1 or 2 rages a day you should keep them for the big encounters or a dangerous situation.

You have to remember that most rages last only 6-10 rounds depending on constitution. If combat wont be fast and furious it might not be the case. Prolonged combat with the after rage penalties can be very dangerous.

Armor Class (AC) also determines when to use it. Against a Dragon that has very high attack bonuses your measly AC usually wont matter. So rage away. Against less formidable foes like a big group of orcs who have a good chance of missing you its not a good idea to rage. Better off without -2 AC.

Not ever Raging is silly unless In Character reason. Rage gives you those extra Hitpoints to keep fighting.

 

[Zhure]

IIRC, it was Bruce David Banner, for both tv and the comics (or some combination thereof). Stan Lee in an interview said the change to the name was because the network said Bruce was too prissy a name.

Greg

 

[Halma]

Raging

Well having played a Barbarian through the first year and a half of my D20 experience I found that holding back on the rages is quite silly. Getting them out early in a combat is very important, why because you get the extra Hit Points.... If you take it in the Middle or close to the end of combat, and you lose a substantial amount of Hit points, then you drop out of Rage you could go below zero hp, or even worse, DIE. (almost happened to me twice)

Raging could be a role playing facet that your characters could use, mine was a hatred of ORCS. Halma would go into a rage when ever he saw an orc no matter how many there were.

Now I do remember that my first few adventures with Halma I would forget to rage often. One of the other players would mention that Raging was an option (Wulf Ratbane, or "Mr. Obvious"). But "role playing" wise I hadn't seen any Orcs yet, so I played it off with that.

It really is up to the player when and where to rage the Barbarian, but little prods here and there are not bad... They won't forget that often once they get into the character.

Raging in my mind is what makes the Barbarian one of the Toughest characters for 6 - 10 rounds (Which is how long most combats last anyway) +4 Str. +4 Con +2 hp per Lvl +2 Save vs. Fear -2 AC.... No brainer in my book....

But it can also lead to trouble......





Halma --- The Dead Barbarian.......?