paizo.com - Messageboards / Rules Questions / Barbarian rage v. shadow attack

IconoclasticScream (Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber) Sep 26, 2009, 04:35 PM

I just finished running a session that ended in a battle between the PCs and a shadow. The party's barbarian was tagged twice by it, for a total STR damage of -6. The barbarian was raging at the time, but I think that PC would still have the -6 applied to his normal STR score. The player grudgingly agreed that made sense. As it was right at the end of the session, however, I promised I'd look into it before we meet again.

Can anyone think of a reason to not take that total from his normal STR? I want to be fair to the player (he's running a first level character, he's the party's tank, and there's still much of this crypt to explore), so if there's a loophole I've missed I'd be more than happy to change how I'm going to rule this.

Quandary Sep 26, 2009, 04:43 PM

Right, he should suffer the -6 penalty until the condition is removed.
Whenever he enters Rage, the Rage STR Bonus still applies ("on top" of the penalty, i.e. net -2).
I can't really imagine any other scenario that would even make sense, much less be fair...

concerro Sep 26, 2009, 05:23 PM

IconoclasticScream wrote:

I just finished running a session that ended in a battle between the PCs and a shadow. The party's barbarian was tagged twice by it, for a total STR damage of -6. The barbarian was raging at the time, but I think that PC would still have the -6 applied to his normal STR score. The player grudgingly agreed that made sense. As it was right at the end of the session, however, I promised I'd look into it before we meet again.

Can anyone think of a reason to not take that total from his normal STR? I want to be fair to the player (he's running a first level character, he's the party's tank, and there's still much of this crypt to explore), so if there's a loophole I've missed I'd be more than happy to change how I'm going to rule this.

The penalty should be applied to his current strength score, whatever that may be. As an example if his normal str is 16 and he rages to make it 20 the -6 would make it a 14, but after his rage drops it would be a 10. I dont remember if there is still penalty for being fatigued after a rage. If there is then his strength would be below 10.

Beckett (Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber) Sep 26, 2009, 06:22 PM

Yah, at this point, it is either call it a day, go back and rest a week, get a Cleric a few scrolls or a wand of Lesser Restoration, or he just needs to suck it up. It's hard, but that's what happens sometimes.

A few potions of Bull's Strength can also help out, if they use them wisely.

IconoclasticScream (Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber) Sep 26, 2009, 06:34 PM

I'm running...:

Crypt of the Everflame. The party doesn't want to go back because they don't want to let their mentors feel like they weren't ready to set out on their own, even though at this point they realize something has gone terrible wrong at the Crypt. Like I said, I was 99.7% sure he'd take the damage to his normal STR when the rage went away; I was just trying to see if I had missed something somewhere in an obscure rule.

Quandary Sep 26, 2009, 07:05 PM

Like Concerro brought up, Fatigued is another -2 to STR/DEX but disappears after so many rounds. Just tell the guy try not to get Exhausted (-6 to both), though that would still leave him at 4 STR (still conscious).

It's not too bad, he's just basically lost his offensive bonus (vs. a NPC Warrior).
If he plays it safe, rolls OK, and the rest of the party is up to snuff, he should be OK.
If they get in further danger, HP or condition-wise, I'd probably strongly recommend turning back.

Spoiler:

One technique I might try if they're forced to turn back, is having them immediately encounter an old (but low level) Cleric (or Adept) who followed them from town "on a hunch" they might get in trouble and need healing. Have the old guy be too feeble to adventure with them, but he can provide enough healing/ Strength damage removal to get them back in the game... If they make it thru everything and the truth of the situation gets out, the fact they were assisted with some healing mid-way probably won't impact their new-found status as minor heroes :-)

Recent threads in Rules Questions