Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (
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David Serhienko wrote:
> Alex Johnson wrote:
>
>> One more thing I wanted to mention, but forgot in my reply (buried
>> somewhere in the thread) is that the barbarian will gain hp when
>> raging. He's 5th level. That's +10hp from raised Con. When his rage
>> ends, his Con drops and he loses 10hp from where-ever he is. If you
>> can manage to get him to or close to 0hp, he should start thinking
>> about the risk of raging. If you knock him out, his rage will end (at
>> least we play that a barbarian can't keep himself worked up in a rage
>> if he can't keep himself conscious), and he'll instantly die. From
>> -1hp to -11hp...dead.
>
>
> Whoa. Right now, he's gaining 8 HP per Rage. Gotta remind him that
> *is*not*healing*.
>
> Knock him down to -2 and he's dead. Next level, 0 hp + end of rage ==
> dead. Whoa. I'll have to see if I can, in the course of a combat,
> arrange to get him into the low single digits while raging, so he falls
> unconscious when the Rage ends.
>
>> I'm not saying you have to kill him, but maybe you can start getting
>> him close to 0 and point out the risks. As he gains levels higher
>> than 5th, he can drop from "fine, i'm over 0 hp" to "dead" with no
>> warning at the end of the rage. That's why my barbarian reigned in
>> his fury and only rages in emergencies where the party is in imminent
>> danger of obliteration if he falls.
>
>
> Yeah, I don't want to kill him, nor Nerf his abilities in anyway. But
> teaching him a lesson in teh School of Hard Knocks, esp when I ensure
> the follow-up results aren't fatal, will reign in the use of Rage
> somewhat, I'd expect.
>
> And if he DOESN'T learn the dangers, when I'm secretly setting up a
> 'Learning Experience', well, Life's Tough in the Big City.
>
>> Another thought. The fighter has good AC from armor. The barbarian
>> has not-as-good AC. When he rages it gets even worse. Powerful
>> monsters will probably be more aware of this fact and you can power
>> attack more. That means the monster that can hit the fighter once in
>> a while doing X damage can power attack against the barbarian to do
>> X+5 or X+10 PER HIT. That will add up quickly and even the extra
>> barbarian hit points won't matter.
>
>
> Excellent point. I freely admit to not making much use of Power Attack.
> That'll probably be because when I've played 3e Fighters, the opponents
> we faced usually were so tough it took every bonus to hit I could beg,
> borrow or steal to smack em. I only took Power Attack as a pre-req to
> other feats I wanted, since I never got to use it.
>
> The Barb's AC is, I think, 18. Any self-respecting monster can hit that
> with a 50-50 chance at CR4/5. I can definately sacrifice 3 to 5 hit
> bonuses into damage, especially since they'll prolly have multiple attacks.
>
> DWS
I've never really used Power Attack either. But in our high level game
last time the 12th level fighter was doing insane amounts of damage. He
ran up to one monster so only got 1 attack instead of his normal three.
"29 damage" he called out. I looked at him shocked and asked a
politer version of "what the hell kind of weapon are you swinging? 29
damage on a single hit!" He turned to me and said "These guys are AC14
flatfooted. I'm power attacking for all I'm worth." I am now a
believer. The high level group usually encounters things with AC around
20, so even then it makes sense to power attack a few points. The low
level group (6th) faces foes they can't afford to waste attack bonuses
against. I play a barb in the low level game and a wizard in the high
level game so I haven't been in a situation where I could PA.
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