Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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I am running a Pathfinder Society Scenario today in which I think a Barbarian was seriously misbuilt. I am asking this question in the hopes that he is not, but suspect I'm doomed.
The barbarian rage power Come and Get Me:
While raging, as a free action the barbarian may leave herself open to attack while preparing devastating counterattacks. Enemies gain a +4 bonus on attack and damage rolls against the barbarian until the beginning of her next turn, but every attack against the barbarian provokes an attack of opportunity from her, which is resolved prior to resolving each enemy attack. A barbarian must be at least 12th level to select this rage power.
I am assuming this means that, if the barbarian does not have Combat Reflexes, he can only make a single AoO per round. He is NOT given permission to break that rule and attack back every time he is attacked. Thus, this 15th level NPC would be a fool to use that rage power against a group of 12th level PCs with two fighters. Yes?
Yes, that is why you take combat reflexes as a Barbarian if you are heading down that path. You also take the quick reflexes rage power which adds a AoO to your total (I'd look to see if he had that one as well). then you are a nasty surprise. the above is still a nasty surprise as unless they meta game this they have no idea how many AoO he would have and if the 1st one took out the party's heavy hitter then no one else may be willing to close giving him a charge chance.
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I disagree, it's perfect for protecting your squishier comrades. Yes, you're going to get your ass beat with it up, but that's why the rest of the group is there, killing the things beating on you and healing you up.
It's really one of the few abilities that gives a martial character the ability to make things focus on him, and for a class that can get tons of DR and HP, with not terrible AC, it's awesome.
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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He's a solo with low AC, no combat reflexes, and no quick reflexes. He's terrible. Makes me sad that even designed him and I do not not know what they were thinking. I will try for the one time surprise and see whether anybody backs off but I suspect that will not work. Ah well. I will have to make do.
I disagree, it's perfect for protecting your squishier comrades....
It's really one of the few abilities that gives a martial character the ability to make things focus on him...
Except nothing about it makes things focus on you. It only triggers when they are attacking you already.
For 'protecting squishier comrades' I think the Rage Power Unexpected Strike is much better,since it allow an AoO on threat entry/exit even on 5' steps, so if you are adjacent to your squishy ally (or in the way of an enemy approaching your ally),
you can take that AoO (which can be Disarm/Trip/Knockback/etc) and prevent them from getting on your ally.
(and the Barb Level Pre-Req is only 8 instead of CaGM's 12)
The point about meta-gaming is rather apt: CaGM works best with Combat Reflexes (or at least Quick Reflexes), so if I see a character use CaGM, I am going to think there is a pretty good chance that they DO have Combat Reflexes / Quick Reflexes. The same goes for Reach Weapon builds, many players/characters will assume you have Combat Reflexes/etc just because it is so synergistic with Reach Weapons. This assumption may change their tactics to avoid provoking AoO's, even if you DON'T have those Feats/RP's and thus can't take any more AoO's. (I would say that CaGM is more strongly correlated with Combat Reflexes/Quick Reflexes than Reach Weapons since you are investing high level Feats/Rage Powers into CaGM while ANYBODY can use Reach Weapons.)
So, it IS kind of shocking that there is an NPC built with CaGM but who doesn't have more than 1 AoO/round, but you can try to take advantage of that questionable decision by bluffing the PCs. I would just Role Play the NPC with alot of bravado, like him verbally 'inviting' more attacks against him, with promising to give back more pain just like his last Come And Get Me AoO. Maybe even remind the players they can 'cancel' a Full Attack and get 'refunded' a Move Action ;-)
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solo (encounter)
That's your problem, far more than anything else.
Give him an Oracle or Cleric who is keeping him alive and buffing him, and maybe another mook or two, and I can assure you he'll be a nasty fight.
I disagree, it's perfect for protecting your squishier comrades....
It's really one of the few abilities that gives a martial character the ability to make things focus on him...Except nothing about it makes things focus on you. It only triggers when they are attacking you already.
For 'protecting squishier comrades' I think the Rage Power Unexpected Strike is much better,
since it allow an AoO on threat entry/exit even on 5' steps, so if you are adjacent to your squishy ally (or in the way of an enemy approaching your ally), you can take that AoO (which can be Disarm/Trip/Knockback/etc) and prevent them from getting on your ally.The point about meta-gaming is rather apt: CaGM works best with Combat Reflexes (or at least Quick Reflexes), so if I see a character use CaGM, I am going to think there is a pretty good chance that they DO have Combat Reflexes / Quick Reflexes. The same goes for Reach Weapon builds, many players/characters will assume you have Combat Reflexes/etc just because it is so synergistic with Reach Weapons. This assumption may change their tactics to avoid provoking AoO's, even if you DON'T have those Feats/RP's and thus can't take any more AoO's. (I would say that CaGM is more strongly correlated with Combat Reflexes/Quick Reflexes than Reach Weapons since you are investing high level Feats/Rage Powers into CaGM while ANYBODY can use Reach Weapons.)
The way I see it, CaGM is sort of a thing where you leave yourself WIDE OPEN for things to pound you in the face. And that kind of opening is likely to make crafty enemies try to exploit it, because they likely don't realize you're going to make them hurt for it.
Really, positioning and help from your party members will do more towards keeping things hitting you, but it doesn't hurt!
While I agree that Come and Get me is a great rage power when combined with combat reflexes I love it for the fact that your AoO is interrupting and is taken before you get hit. Thus you may actually prevent damage by killing the enemy before they hit you. In addition, my Barb combines this with Dazing assault. Now when you take a swing, I get to attack you first and if I hit you need to make a Fort save or be dazed. If they make the save we try it again on their second attack. If they fail the save they are dazed and their turn ends. Thus, you can potentially prevent an enemy from having a turn at all.
solo (encounter)That's your problem, far more than anything else.
Give him an Oracle or Cleric who is keeping him alive and buffing him, and maybe another mook or two, and I can assure you he'll be a nasty fight.
Unfortunetly the OP stated it was a PFS scenerio, at that point the judge is not allowed to change the encounter at all.
So he is stuck with the encounter as written.
With only the one AoO per round, the barbarian doesn't have to take the first one that is provoked. He can wait until the opponent he wants tries to attack him, at which point he uses his AoO for potentially devastating results. (For example, don't take the AoO when the fighter moves in to help his rogue friend, instead wait until the rogue is attacks and smack her instead.)
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Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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solo (encounter)That's your problem, far more than anything else.
Give him an Oracle or Cleric who is keeping him alive and buffing him, and maybe another mook or two, and I can assure you he'll be a nasty fight.
Unfortunetly the OP stated it was a PFS scenerio, at that point the judge is not allowed to change the encounter at all.
So he is stuck with the encounter as written.
Even worse, there is a part of the stat block called "tactics" that has to be followed. I will freely admit, however, that this is the first time I have not followed the tactics to the letter. Basically, due to the wasted rage powers, this guy was not even close to as threatening as he could've been.
It was still fun. I just wish that it could've been a little bit more challenging. Had I been able to rebuild him or change things it would've been extremely fun. Then again, we in PFS have this debate all the time: my rebuild isn't going to be the same as another guy's rebuild and that other guy might do things badly wrong, resulting in terrible mistakes that kill people. You get the good with the bad in organized play.