It certainly seems legal. There is a general consensus that at 17th level, a Barbarian (at least by RAW) can end his rage and restart it each round, thus recharging the 1/rage powers. (At that level, he is no longer fatigued when the rage ends.)
The combination is an interesting use of teamwork. It is probably not overpowered: the Paladin is not doing much other than healing the Barbarian and will eventually run out of uses of Lay On Hands.
The Barbarian and Paladin could almost certainly do more damage if both attacked, rather than having the Paladin help the Barbarian to make better attacks.
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yup, if the paladin feels like burning through his lay on hands uses.
The paladin would otherwise be able to do some channel positive energy with those lay on hand uses, so sacrificing both a use of lay on hands, and a standard action, the barbarian can get bonuses to one strength check, one combat maneuver, or to one combat maneuver defense.
Of course, this means that the paladin doesn't get to take *his* actions beyond buffing the barbarian. No spells, no healing others, and no smiting evil :*(
Edit: ninjaed by 20 seconds :p
It certainly seems legal. There is a general consensus that at 17th level, a Barbarian (at least by RAW) can end his rage and restart it each round, thus recharging the 1/rage powers. (At that level, he is no longer fatigued when the rage ends.)
I gotta disagree with the "general consensus... thus recharging the 1/rage powers" part of that. I'm not saying a 17th level barb can't pull out some tricks, but that's rather too broad a statement IMHO.
Separately, in the example there is a very questionable selection of actions. You have a raging barbarian, on a single (delayed) round/turn/action, choosing to drop rage, and then raging again. I would disallow that right out. Either you are choosing to rage for the round, or you are not; you're spending the rage point, or you are not. You don't get to drop it *and* start it in the same round.
If the Barb does single round rages, with a round of fatigue between (removed by the Paladin's Mercy) - that works as written at least. Certainly DM discretion applies past that point.
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It certainly seems legal. There is a general consensus that at 17th level, a Barbarian (at least by RAW) can end his rage and restart it each round, thus recharging the 1/rage powers. (At that level, he is no longer fatigued when the rage ends.)I gotta disagree with the "general consensus... thus recharging the 1/rage powers" part of that. I'm not saying a 17th level barb can't pull out some tricks, but that's rather too broad a statement IMHO.
Separately, in the example there is a very questionable selection of actions. You have a raging barbarian, on a single (delayed) round/turn/action, choosing to drop rage, and then raging again. I would disallow that right out. Either you are choosing to rage for the round, or you are not; you're spending the rage point, or you are not. You don't get to drop it *and* start it in the same round.
If the Barb does single round rages, with a round of fatigue between (removed by the Paladin's Mercy) - that works as written at least. Certainly DM discretion applies past that point.
Well it is a "free action" for a Barbarian to either drop or enter rage, and you can take more then one free action per turn (limited by the GM).
I can see what the OP said happening over 2 rounds:
Round 1
init 1) barbarian enters rage, fires off strength surge, and knockback against the bartender, then drops out of rage (and is fatigued) (this requires 2 free actions)
init 2) Waiter hit barbarian
init 3) Paladin does lay-on hands to the barbarian (removing fatigue)
Round 2
init 1) barbarian enters rage, fires off strength surge, and knockback against the waiter
init 2) ...
But there are much better things that these two could be doing for this combat.
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Although by my logic then, a barbarian with tireless rage could start and stop his rage every single round, and thus functionally avoid the penalty to AC while everyone else attacks him.
Of course, the barbarian would also have to give up the hit points, the strength bonus (for the his own AoOs he may get, or for his own CMD), and the will save bonus...so it probably wouldn't happen too much.
But he could do it, if he really, really, really didn't want a -2 to AC.
Yep, and in any situation where he would really, really not want the -2 to AC, he probably would really want the extra STR, CON, Hitpoints, and will save more then the AC. (At least I can not think of any situation where the AC would be more important).
If the paladin wants to give up his standard action every turn so the barbarian can make better use of his rage powers I would certainly allow it. Heck its guaranteed less distructive to my poor monster's health then the paladin also, you know, attacking them. Instead of the barbarian spending resources and taking a penalty, the paladin is spending his resources. Seens very reasonable to me.
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I'm pretty sure I could think of a scenario Happler...
He's aganst an invisible (can't get an AoO) gelatinous cube (not worried about fancy combat maneuvers), with almost full hitpoints remaining (doesn't need rage hps to live), with only a few rage rounds/day left (going to lose rage hp soon anyway), and he's sure that his enemies won't use magic (no need for the will save).
I would still rather have the Paladin help beat the cube down than LoHing the Barb. And if it is a cohort, then the cube is no longer a threat to the, at least, level 7 barbarian. And at level 17 you will no longer need the Paladin for this either. You might be better off with a cleric cohort.
I would still rather have the +str (damage and breaking out of the engulf) +con (hitpoints and fort save for the paralysis) then the AC.
I would say that because of the strict code of conduct that comes with being a paladin he/she would have to stop the barbarian from attacking anyone in a bar and try to resolve the issue.
You can take free actions on your turn. Not on the Paladin's turn.
The Paladin has to ready for when the Barbarian drops rage to do his LoH.
Another way, w/o a Paladin, is to get something to make the Barbarian immune to the effects of fatigue.
/cevah
The idea was that the barbarian drops rage as a readied action with the condition "the paladin lays hands on me". You can ready a free action.
You can ready a free action but it still costs you a standard to ready, right?
Yup.
Totally legit. Really, I wouldnt penalize some teamwork like this, specially when this is definitely not optimal. If the paladin attacked, they would be doing way more damage (although this is probably against his code).
Absolutely nothing wrong with what you're proposing.
More importantly though, what's corrupt about a barkeep charging whatever he wants for his ale? Nobody is exactly forcing the Barbarian to buy it...
Yeah, rules wise there is nothing wrong with the described situation. However, why the barbarian flew into a fit of rage and attacked the barkeep over high priced ale and why the paladin didn't try to convince his friend to stop and then heal the barkeep and pay for any damages and "trouble" is what bothers me.
The idea was that the barbarian drops rage as a readied action with the condition "the paladin lays hands on me". You can ready a free action.
By readying the free action, he looses the attack that round. Thus he is not rage cycling every round.
If the Paladin does the ready, then the Barbarian can do this every round.
/cevah
No argument here as to which is more effective. The original proposal seems tactically foolish to me, but maybe there's a reason.
As Cevah said, if the Paladin readies an action to use Lay on Hands then this could go on for a little while until LoH is all used up and a BBEG suddenly walks into the bar, grinning with the knowledge that his corrupt bartender and violent waiter have robbed the PCs of valuable resources before the upcoming fight.
A human Barbarian with the Heart of the Fields trait can ignore fatigue once per day, which could be a more practical way to fit a once per rage power into an encounter twice.
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IF you want a barbarian immune to fatigue in a home game, do what I've been doing since 3.x, make it a Warforged. There is even a pathfinder conversion available for it HERE.