Say I throw a Rage spell on an ally, and that ally falls unconscious, does that ally continue raging (and thus, keep their CON boost? This happened last week, and I'd like some clarification. I see two lines of thinking:
1. It works like a Barbarian Rage and as soon as you drop unconscious, you drop rage, and lose HP, possibly killing you.
2. The spell's caster maintains the rage, so as long as the spell is in effect, the recipient will get the benefit from it, even while unconscious.
Option 2 goes against the logic of the normal rage rules (only raging while conscious), and the spell says it "otherwise identical with a barbarian's rage." But on the other hand, the spell also says "each affected creature," which implies the affected creatures don't get a choice in it: you rage until you shut it off. But that would also mean you can rage while sleeping and such. Is that just the side-effect of the spell, or am I just wishful thinking?
Reason I'm asking is, last week I threw this on a party member and he knocked himself unconscious by damaging himself (effect from a fumble card), which meant he'd lose his rage HP, putting him over his CON threshold. This question came up and the GM ruled in our favour, as it was just bad luck anyway, but now I'm curious what the "proper" ruling is.
Rage probably ends when the target falls unconscious.
Each affected creature gains a +2 morale bonus to Strength and Constitution, a +1 morale bonus on Will saves, and a –2 penalty to AC. The effect is otherwise identical with a barbarian's rage except that the subjects aren't fatigued at the end of the rage.
The bolded text smuggles in all of the other rules for barbarian rage, including ending on unconsciousness. The only exceptions are those mentioned in the spell description.
Each affected creature gains a +2 morale bonus to Strength and Constitution, a +1 morale bonus on Will saves, and a –2 penalty to AC. The effect is otherwise identical with a barbarian's rage except that the subjects aren't fatigued at the end of the rage.The bolded text smuggles in all of the other rules for barbarian rage, including ending on unconsciousness. The only exceptions are those mentioned in the spell description.
Counterpoint: the duration of the spell is a part of the description.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Each affected creature gains a +2 morale bonus to Strength and Constitution, a +1 morale bonus on Will saves, and a –2 penalty to AC. The effect is otherwise identical with a barbarian's rage except that the subjects aren't fatigued at the end of the rage.The bolded text smuggles in all of the other rules for barbarian rage, including ending on unconsciousness. The only exceptions are those mentioned in the spell description.Counterpoint: the duration of the spell is a part of the description.
Sure, but even spell duration is overruled by specific text stating that the effect ends prematurely under certain conditions (e.g., invisibility). Rage imports just such a clause from the barbarian class feature.
While in rage, a barbarian gains a +4 morale bonus to her Strength and Constitution, as well as a +2 morale bonus on Will saves. In addition, she takes a –2 penalty to Armor Class. The increase to Constitution grants the barbarian 2 hit points per Hit Dice, but these disappear when the rage ends and are not lost first like temporary hit points. While in rage, a barbarian cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills (except Acrobatics, Fly, Intimidate, and Ride) or any ability that requires patience or concentration.
While in a rage, a barbarian gains a +2 bonus on melee attack rolls, melee damage rolls, thrown weapon damage rolls, and Will saving throws. In addition, she takes a –2 penalty to Armor Class. She also gains 2 temporary hit points per Hit Die. These temporary hit points are lost first when a character takes damage, disappear when the rage ends, and are not replenished if the barbarian enters a rage again within 1 minute of her previous rage. While in a rage, a barbarian cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skill (except Acrobatics, Fly, Intimidate, and Ride) or any ability that requires patience or concentration (such as spellcasting).
Which barbarian rage does the spell duplicate? Chained or unchained? This matters.
/cevah
Chained. It's a spell from the Core Rulebook, so the Unchained version didn't exist yet.
Caveat: In a game that exclusively uses the unchained version of barbarian (as a full-on replacement), it would be more than reasonable to have rage function as the unchained barbarian's version.