If the Barbarian died once, he'd be down a level or 2 just from revives alone. This makes him much easier to be killed, so really, him dying once, and then being revived once or twice only serves to make him weaker and weaker.
This isn't something that "a little houseruling" can really fix. The Barbarian is way down on his game, and quite frankly, him not playing the TVTrope stupid-awkward Barbarian is costing him; lacking the necessary stats is getting him killed. Not having good enough Constitution or Strength means he's having less HP and to-hit/damage to kill the enemies before he gets killed, which then translates to him dying easier, more often, and perhaps before he can even do anything.
Quite frankly, the ending rage killing him when he's unconscious is fixed by a single feat (that he should've took to begin with), RAGING VITALITY, which boosts his HP gain further, and lets him maintain his Rage even while unconscious, meaning when he gets dropped, he isn't instantly dead. Seriously, any Barbarian worth his salt that doesn't want to get insta-murked because of Rage mechanics would pick this up. Boom. Problem solved. He should have over 24 rounds of Rage, and the average Combat lasts 3-5 rounds, tops; that's plenty of time for the rest of the party to clean up, heal him back up to snuff, and push forward.
There's also the matter of why your divine spellcaster isn't smart or wise enough to use spells like Breath of Life to save the stupid Barbarian when he knows (or should be well aware, especially after he died the first time,) that he's going to drop dead. I don't care if it's "bad action economy" on the spellcaster's part, it's worse action economy to carry around a Barbarian whose 4 levels under you and to keep spending 5,000+ gold to haul around what is nothing more than a speed bump that keeps constantly being tamped down to nothing more than ground level.
I'd let him either rebuild/optimize his character, or create another one that won't die so easily (Paladins with Lay On Hands are ridiculously OP in that regard). Simply applying a bandaid to the real issue (he's not optimized worth a damn) isn't going to keep someone who's well underleveled compared to the rest of the party from being a drag and/or dying all the time.
|
I say go for it, just rule that the additional hp gained during a rage are Temp HP, therefore current hp does not reduce when rage ends or the character is knocked unconscious. It's an easy enough fix, and should add to everyone's enjoyment.
It's your game, and your table, and as long as the players are happy, it doesn't hurt anybody.
There is a rage power he can pick to *not* die when he goes unconscious.Do you mean deathless frenzy?'
I was thinking of raging vitality.
Raging Vitality is a feat. But boosting CON ain't too shabby.
There is a spell that's explicitly designed for this. Phantom Blood gives you temporary HP if the CON loss would kill you or make you unconscious. But, this character is just a barbarian. If you have someone who could cast it, they could be able to create a magic item for it. At caster level 10, it would cost 20,000 gp to make an at-will item. If multiple people pitched in, the cost per person could be much lower. If they're tight on money, they can even limit it to a certain amount of charges per day. They can choose what they really want, and they end up with a nice, affordable way to make sure your barbarian doesn't die.