For some context, my friends and I have started playing Reign of Winter, I'm playing a human, green draconic bloodline bloodrager and we are already second level nearing third. We've been playing for a few sessions now and I can't seem to get the hang of playing bloodrager. Every combat I seem to get knocked out or almost knocked out. Being the melee class my typical strategy is to run up, rage, hit.
I plan on getting toughness as my 6th level bloodline feat, and we got a hold of a belt of con +2, my feats are currently raging vitality and steadfast personality, AC 19, 27 hp, any suggestions on what I can do now or do I simply have to hold out until later levels.
Being the melee class my typical strategy is to run up, rage, hit.
Sorry, but this is the main problem. Consider holding back until you either have support or some of the enemies have been debuffed, injured or separated from the others, or until there is some sort of terrain or spell effect to hold one flank. Running up and hitting the enemy with no other considerations will get you surrounded and killed. Getting toughness at 6th level will not change this.
If you don't already have a reach weapon or a ranged weapon you can use while holding off - even if it's just a couple of javelins - you might like to get some such.
Power Attack is nice.
Having a basic ranged option, as avr points out, is never a waste.
Try to not put yourself in a position where your enemies can flank you too easily. You've got a decent AC, I'm kinda surprised you struggle that much - though bad rolls happen but there's not much you can do about that.
Beyond that, a lot depends on what the rest of the party is and does, and what your stats look like.
You're level 2, there's time to adjust.
I plan on taking power attack next level, party consists of a cleric, alchemist, and druid other than myself. Thank you for the input.
Come to think of it I think it would help if the alchemist would stop bombing us as well as the enemy, but she's getting precise bombs later so that should help.
Friendly fire isn't.
Being the melee class my typical strategy is to run up, rage, hit.Sorry, but this is the main problem.
I had the same problem with my Bloodrager in Iron Gods. Rage makes you easier to hit but gives you more hitpoints. At later levels this is great, but at early levels the bonus HP aren't enough to make a meaningful difference so you end up dying faster.
At level 2 with Raging Vitality you're getting +6HP from Rage. There's a good chance that doesn't even save you 1 hit worth of damage. I found the HP bonus became somewhat meaningful around level 6.
The way I played it at lower levels was to fight without Rage until I'm 1 or 2 hits from death anyway, then Rage to gain maybe 1 extra hot sorth of health and hopefully bring the enemy down faster. This also helped to conserve my limited Rage rounds at those early levels as well
My party consisted of a Gunslinger and a Bard and a Bloodrager (myself), so my main tactic was to position myself between the enemies and my allies (hopefully in a choke-point of some sort) and fight defensively. Even with only medium armour and a shield I was able to get my AC high enough to be very hard to hit, and the bufffed Gunslinger was dealing damage reliably enough to take down the enemies. Even though I took most of the punishment I was sometimes the last person standing and would then Rage to finish the enemies off.
Again, around level 6 I found I had enough HP to rage more often, and by this point I had more Rage rounds to throw around as well.