How much Rage?

[DrakeRoberts]

Just wondering, since I've never played a barbarian before, how much rage to people tend to use (in rounds) during scenarios? I've never really paid attention to average combat lengths / number of combats in scenario particularly.

[Alexander_Damocles]

Most combats at lower levels tend to last about 3-4 rounds. There are usually 3-4 combats per scenario. All told, you end up with about 16 possible rounds to rage. And most barbarian's I've seen tend to have a 6th sense about when to rage.

[Fromper]

At low levels, fights tend to last more rounds, because everyone sucks, so you all just miss a lot with your attacks. At that level, you don't have much rage, so save it for the really tough fights. But the Extra Rage feat ends up being wasted later in life, so don't bother with it.

At higher levels, my barbarian generally uses 10-15 rounds of rage in PFS scenarios, raging every round of combat. Most fights last only 2-4 rounds, and there's usually only 3-4 fights per scenario.

[Michael Foster 989]

longest fight I have had was 23 rounds at level 10, shortest was 1 action (as in one person got to attack once and it was over).

the average is 2-5 rounds, most monsters just cant take the damage output of the average PC for very long, that being said most PCs cant take the average output of the monsters for long either

[TwilightKnight]

Fromper wrote:

...the Extra Rage feat ends up being wasted later in life, so don't bother with it.

Kind of a subjective value statement...

While extra rage does become less impactful at higher levels, it can be extremely effective in low-tier where you could easily use up all rage rounds in the first encounter. Also, there are still BBEG encounters through high-tier play that can take many rounds to complete and can exhaust your rage rounds if you're not careful. Extra rage is also valuable to characters who only dip into barbarian.

[Bbauzh ap Aghauzh]

My 12th level guy is only 2 levels of Barbarian (8 rounds of rage), and during a couple 10-11 scenarios at 12th level, I think he only used up all 8 rounds of rage once.

[Fromper]

Yeah, Extra Rage is great if you're just dipping into barbarian. It's the same reason my rogue with one level of Dawnflower Dervish bard has Extra Performance - he'll never get more rounds from more levels of bard.

But for a straight barbarian, you should be good enough in a fight at low levels not to need to rage, except in the toughest fights. And by the time you reach higher levels where raging constantly is necessary, you'll have enough rounds to last most days without the feat.

[Feral]

It kind of depends on how big the groups you're playing with regularly are and how optimized everyone is.

I've seen some mods have as few as four rounds of combat in them and other as many as 30+.

I have a few barbarians in PFS and I usually aim for 12-18 rounds.

[WalterGM]

My newest character (courtesy of a sexy Tiefling boon I have) is starting off at level 1 with 9 rounds of rage. 4 base, 2 con, and 3 from Berserker of the Society. She'll only ever get 4 levels in barbarian (I have other plans for her progression... >.>), but I think that 15 rounds should be enough for the BBEG fight and maybe another in the higher tier scenarios.

If you have some coin, you should pick up a copy of the Faction Guide -- it has some of the best traits for the base classes.

[Ron Lundeen]

Bob Jonquet wrote:

Fromper wrote:

...the Extra Rage feat ends up being wasted later in life, so don't bother with it.

Kind of a subjective value statement...

I think the "Berserker of the Society" trait is a much better deal, as barbarians tend to be feat-starved.