I've adjusted my original suggestion to hit at what you're looking for and hopefully if anything it gives some ideas. I'm drawing from 5e barbarians at present, where rage allows them to negate a % of damage instead of boosting attack power.Mith wrote:I won't deny that barbarians could use some love.
That said, barbarians vs fighters is strength and toughness vs skill. So AB and AC (hitting and not being hit) are fighter competencies, while barbarians focus on doing a lot of damage when they hit and being able to take hits. I'm not going to give barbarians AB boosts, therefore.
Instead of +4 Str/+4 Con on Rage, switch it to 15% physical immunity +2 DMG +2/level temp HP. That way we don't get the nasty Rage Death associated with Con loss. Keep the -2 AC.
At Greater Rage, (level 15) it becomes 30% physical immunity +3 DMG +3/level temp HP. Getting the Mighty Rage (requires a feat) becomes useful then as it makes rage become 50% physical immunity +4 DMG +4/level temp HP.
This would compliment the Barbarian's natural DR because immunities apply before damage resistance. A barbarian w/ Might Rage, there for could possibly obtain 60% physical resistance (from armor) & 9 DR.
If an attack scores 30 damage on him, it would only yield 3 due to his resistance & DR. Rage only lasts a finite amount of time, so this would be perfect for tanking a boss, if the Barbarian continued to use rage throughout the fight. This would still open up the barbarian to magical assaults, as they have no defense against elemental damage.
To achieve the maximum potential from this, a barbarian would have to take a Mighty Rage which requires: level 21 character with at least 15 levels in Barbarian w/ 21+ STR & 21+ CON. So to optimize requires the character to specialize majorly in Barbarian.
