Bloodrager vs barbarian part 2:The Achilles heel.


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion

Silver Crusade

So on paper the Bloodrager seems uniformly superior to the barbarian in almost every category......until you realize that as soon as someone decides to drop some anti magic on your face you're kinda screwed.

Would bloodrager still be considered superior knowing this?


Outside of some really niche builds, antimagic field is a a emanation centered on the caster. So it's unliekly that you'll be hit with antimagic, or you can just move away from the casty who did so.

I think the barbarian has some niche uses. The bloodrager has to poach rage power using the primalist archetype, so if your GM doesn't allow that the bloodrager is loses out (because of pounce).

Barbarians also are great anti caster's with superstitious and the human FCB that enhances it.

Bloodragers have a lot more general utility, and I would generally consider them the better class, but generally not quite as capable of putting up big damage numbers. But unless you're optimizing super hard you probably wont notice.

Silver Crusade

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Claxon wrote:

Outside of some really niche builds, antimagic field is a a emanation centered on the caster. So it's unliekly that you'll be hit with antimagic, or you can just move away from the casty who did so.

I think the barbarian has some niche uses. The bloodrager has to poach rage power using the primalist archetype, so if your GM doesn't allow that the bloodrager is loses out (because of pounce).

Barbarians also are great anti caster's with superstitious and the human FCB that enhances it.

Bloodragers have a lot more general utility, and I would generally consider them the better class, but generally not quite as capable of putting up big damage numbers. But unless you're optimizing super hard you probably wont notice.

I generally assume primalist is banned because....lets be real here primalist is an archetype that in all honesty shouldn't even exist


To be fair a Anti-magic field hurts the barb a ton too. Their "best" thing of pounce from beast totem is also magical and all their gear and stuff. Like sure they maybe might not be AS HOSED as a bloodrager, but they still will be significantly worse.


If you aren't using a bloodline with great defensive powers (arcane, destined), I would generally say barbarian is superior as a tank- it can get more DR and it has superstition. I think everyone here is familiar with the 'one true build'- invulnerable barbarian.

While pathfinder doesn't usually have the traditional 'tank' role (unless you do something weird, like a lust phantom), it is useful to consider 'being sturdy' as a subrole that supports the main role. In the case of barbarians, the main role is 'hitting really hard', and being sturdy means 'you can hit more before you are taken down'.

While magic is almost always useful, and no one would complain if you grabbed bloodrager... barbarian does fill its role as a hammer quite well. Sturdy, heavy, hits hard. So it isn't hard to let other players handle casting with their wizards and clerics while you just focus on tearing apart the enemy.


As a tank Bloodrager hands down. Access to defensive spells make them very survivable (Displacement, Mirror Image, Shield..). Some barbarian archetype builds can be better at it than a general bloodrager but then a bloodrager archetype build can do the same they can. This is no contest unless we ban certain archetypes which defeats the purpose of the question.
If you ban all archetypes and stick to vanilla versions...bloodrager.


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BARBARIAN AM ALWAYS WINNER.

EVEN AGAINST CASTY BARBARIAN WITH BARBARIAN POWERS, AM LESS ABLE FOR MAKING SAVES AND TANKING VERSUS FACES, ALSO MORE BAD AT SMASH.

THIS AM WHY GISH AM WORD WITH BAD MOUTHFEEL. SERIOUSLY. GEEESH.

AM DISGUSTING.

Liberty's Edge

AM BARBARIAN looks like a cutey. Want to visit Candi’s Booze-O-Rama and Booty Call-A-Palooza, big boy?


Errant Mercenary wrote:
As a tank Bloodrager hands down. Access to defensive spells make them very survivable (Displacement, Mirror Image, Shield..)

It is surprisingly easy to counter most of this with Blindfighting. A feat chain you should already be looking at given the number of higher level opponents with access to Darkness, Greater Darkness and Invisibility.

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