Discussion:Can an Undead Barbarian Rage?

Can an Undead Barbarian Rage?

Aarnott 07:10, 9 May 2007 (MDT)

Can an Undead barbarian still rage? It states rage lasts a number of rounds equal to 3+con, but if you have no constitution, can you rage? or will it be 3+cha, as it states in the undead enties for poisons (sence undead have no con, all con based save are cha instead) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Alabastor (talk • contribs) 06:41, 1 May 2007 (MDT). Please sign your posts.

Dmilewski 10:30, 1 May 2007 (MDT)

He would rage for three rounds.

Skwyd 16:25, 4 May 2007 (MDT)

I agree. The rage would be 3 rounds. I believe that undead are also immune to fatigue, so when the rage ended, he would not be fatigued either. Really, the only thing a raging undead would get is the bonus to strength and the penalty to AC. The constitution bonus would not change the hit point total. Oh yeah, the Will save bonus would be there as well...I almost forgot. Of course, many things that would require a will save are things to which undead are immune anyway.

84.65.210.126 02:59, 30 May 2007 (MDT)

Thats all very well rules-wise, but I cannot see undead going bezerk.

MorkaisChosen 08:14, 30 May 2007 (MDT)

Depends on the Undead, though- if they still have their previous personality it can make perfect sense (multiclass barbarian/ wizard liches, anyone?).

Skwyd 08:28, 13 June 2007 (MDT)

The ability to rage, from a "realistic" or "sensible" point of view would depend entirely upon the type of undead. And it does follow from the general rules for creating undead. For example, when creating a skeleton or zombie, you take a base creature and drop all of the classes and class abilities etc, etc and make the changes. So a skeleton or zombie couldn't rage at all and that makes a lot of "sense" when you consider the concept of a mindless undead. A vampire, however, has it's own mind and motivations and I could readily see one raging (that could be scary...). I think if you look at the various undead and see whether or not they can advance by class levels, that would give you the answer. A mindless undead that cannot take class levels could not get barbarian levels and therefore not rage. An intelligent undead, however, could take levels in barbarian and therefore gain the rage class ability.

Wedge 09:08, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

I realize that this topic has been dead since '07, but I thought I'd put my two cents in here for the benefit of anyone reading it after now.

I believe according to the official FAQ on the WotC site, since an undead uses its CHA modifier wherever a CON modifier would apply, an undead Barbarian's rage lasts for 3 + his CHA modifier. The CON bonus for raging, though, doesn't apply. I suppose it would also logically be limited by whether or not the specific undead actually keeps the Barbarian's class and abilities, but anyway, that's what the official ruling from Wizards of the Coast seems to be.

The only reason I happened to know this is because I chanced upon the very same question while perusing a rules FAQ just the other day. For reference, the I found this info is here, under v3.5 Main D&D FAQ, just so you know I'm not making it up.

Back to Main Page → Meta Pages → Discussions

Jin of ice. june 1st 2014

from 3.5 faq

Can an undead creature enter a rage? If so what benefit (if any) does it gain from the Constitution bonus?

An undead creature can indeed enter a rage. Since undead 

creatures don’t have a Con score, the bonus to Constitution provides no benefit (and thus the undead doesn’t gain any extra hit points when raging).

You didn’t ask about duration,but it’s worth noting that 

since the modifier for a nonability is +0 (MM312), an undead creature’s rage would last 3 rounds.