Encounters/day based on Raging

[Nick]

This is a variant rule that is mostly to help dungeon/game masters coordinate about how many encounters on average there should be per day.

The barbarian's Rage class feature has a set of uses/day that doesn't work like most systems of number/time interval. While the barbarian of a higher level can rage, say, 3 times per day, he can only rage once per encounter as per RAW. I found that very interesting, and came up with two questions:

1.) Would it be okay for there to be too many encounters for a barbarian to be able to rage in per day? A barbarian that can't rage or is being "strategic" with rage uses is just stupid- if you're a barbarian, you probably don't want to be that strategic in anything.

2.) What if there were fewer encounters per day than there were uses of rage? Would the barbarian then feel let down upon gaining a level when all he got was another use of rage that he doesn't need?

So then I came up with a theory in which you should try to shoot for X number of encounters per day, where X is the number of rages a barbarian whose barbarian level equals the party level. With this in mind, it becomes more feasible for DMs to figure out how much is too much or not much for the party to handle (whether they use that knowledge to not overburden the party or to tire them out on purpose).


Sidenote: Extra Rage feats

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The Extra Rage feats from PHB II and Eberron Campaign Setting show a big hole in this planning strategy. This gives the DM a few options:

• 1.) Add 2T to the aforementioned X every three levels, since the feat grants two extra uses of Rage per day. T=the number of times a character could possibly have taken the Extra Rage feat.
• 2.) As number 1, but only if a barbarian takes the feat in the first place.
• 3.) Ban the feat from the game.
• 4.) Instead of more encounters, provide options for a barbarian to rage in order to assist in tasks while not in combat, such as an interrogation, or to break down a door. This is my favorite option since my campaigns are rarely combat-only.

So that's basically the gist of the idea. What's your guys's take on this? I'm posting this specifically because I'm not sure if I should go and make decisions based on this or not.

[Jackinthegreen]

Encounters per day based on how many times a barbarian can rage seems, well, stupid.  The number of times a barbarian can rage is itself an issue since the DMG says about 4 encounters per day is average, so the 1st level barbarian is stuck only getting to rage once.  Pathfinder kinda helps in that regard since it's rounds per day and not single uses, but it's not always the best system.

And yes, barbarians should be strategic about when to use rage because its use is so limited and its power could be quite strong.  Alas, one of the things WotC didn't quite get is players will often feel that instead of the intended "This class is good without using rage and then gets AWESOME with it" people are more like "I lag behind unless I'm using rage in which case I'm only performing adequately."

Instead of limiting encounters to how often the barbarian can rage, allow the barbarian to rage in some way for each of the encounters in the first place.

[Nick]

All right, thank you for your input.

[SorO_Lost]

Jack kind of nailed it. A Barbarian is supposed to be a d12 Full-BABer with nothing useful 99.9% of the time. wotC in their infinite ignorance thought Rage made them BA and it should be limited. Then along came people that rolled higher than a 6 is Wisdom. If a Barbarian isn't Raging then what does this Class offer? Nothing, it offers nothing.

Is it per par to keep the Barbarian a loser? Yep.
Is it more fun for players not to play second guess the DM to use a menial 1/day ability? You goddamn right it is.

[CaptRory]

How about:

A Barbarian may rage at the start of each encounter and it lasts for one minute.

A barbarian may spend daily uses of rage to keep raging or to rage outside of combat (to smash things, resist mental effects, whatever).

I think we could adapt this simple format to many class abilities that are hindered unnecessarily.