Barbarian changes discussion - What does it mean?

[Peppermint]

Using the numbers Cortex provided:

Weapon Master vs. Barbarian During Rage

For simplicity's sake, we'll do our assessment at the 10 AC mark, which actually favors the barbarian a little better.

Weapon Master avg. Damage Per Round: ~206
Barbarian avg. Damage Per Round: ~221

Barbarian deals ~7% more damage than the WM.

Weapon Master vs. Barbarian Off Rage

Weapon Master avg. Damage Per Round: ~206
Barbarian avg. Damage Per Round: ~172

Barbarian deals ~20% damage less than the Weapon Master.

Weapon Master vs. Thundering Rage Barbarian

Weapon Master avg. Damage Per Round: ~206
Barbarian avg. Damage Per Round: ~279

Barbarian deals ~16% more damage than the Weapon Master.

(Note: this calculation assumes the added APR is at -5, so is a little off. I'd estimate the true increase to be closer to 20%).

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The barbarian wins the DPS war during rage (7% increase), but is much weaker off of rage (20% decrease); this is almost a 3x shift in our margin.

During thundering rage, the barbarian wins the DPS war handily with an increase in the range of 16-20%.

This may look impressive; however, it's worth nothing that this version of the barbarian either foregoes expertise (making him significantly squishier than the WM -- a huge tradeoff) or barbarian constitution bonuses/additional rages (slimming the margin back down). It's much less of a direct upgrade, and more of an alternate build path.

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In short, I don't think anyone has to panic. TWF kensai barbarians are likely to dominate the meta only if their opponents have absolutely no idea how to use their own kits to their fullest.

[Commie]

And why you compare everything to WM? You got also other classes, like rangers out there.

I feel that fighter, WM, and Barb are both extraordinarily similar in gameplay function, moreso then almost any other two classes.

[nobs3]

Just two small remarks:

- before the change there was a short periot when the rage duration was shown without the cooldown time and not including the cool down. That was more transparent

- the permanent damage modifier is bludgeoning, the additional rage weapon damage is piercing and the rage bonus damage is slashing = three diffrent kinds = very vulnerable to damage reduction


And a small suggestion:

- Mighty Rage: instead of adding 1 turn could it reduce the duration of recovering to 6 rounds?

Reason: When traveling in parties most fights wont last long enough and roleplaying rage always would end in you still beeing eager for the next fight or just rushing on. When you find the next battle you are exhaused. Or you ignore that your rage still lasts on and after all looted and healed the rage ends just when you reached the next enemies.
Reducing the rest time would give you more flexibility.
Why 6 rounds? Estimation con modifier of 10 = rage duration about 1,5 turns. Mighty Rage would push it up to 2,5 turns. 1,5/1 = 2,5/0,6 = so 0,6 turns would just be the same effect regarding the rage / rest ratio

[Cortex]

- the permanent damage modifier is bludgeoning, the additional rage weapon damage is piercing and the rage bonus damage is slashing = three diffrent kinds = very vulnerable to damage reduction

This is false. No matter the damage type, in the end the only damage dealt is from the weapon type. So if you use a great axe with +10 bludgeoning +10 piercing, you still do +20 slashing.

[nobs3]

This is false. No matter the damage type, in the end the only damage dealt is from the weapon type. So if you use a great axe with +10 bludgeoning +10 piercing, you still do +20 slashing.

Thank you! Decades of playing NWN and I still dont know how it works