Zealot Barbarians at higher levels become immune to death to a certain extent. You can knock them down to 0 HP and they can still keep fighting. But at that point you’re at a fairly high level and level 1 spells like sleep should be completely behind you. But the zealot barbarian, despite being partially immune to death at that point, has such a low amount of HP that they’re vulnerable to the sleep spell. While killing a zealot barbarian becomes difficult in that state, you could put them to sleep with a simple level 1 spell. Their rage ends and then they’re dead.
I’d say the Rage beyond Death feature of the zealot is pretty major to how they’re played. A level 14 barb may have 150 hitpoints or more, plus their resistances, but people play the zealot in high level games for this feature.
The idea of getting to fight to 0 hitpoints, then keep fighting until you die and then still not relenting until the fight ends is rad. Hell I’d say that their level 3 and level 6 features, while cool, were designed after their level 14 feature and designed to let you get as much out of that final feature as possible.
It’s a shame that knowing average monster hitpoints is generally metagaming and there is no ranger option or similar to show you this.
It would be cool to follow a fireball. If you know the enemy you’re fighting has about 32 hitpoints for example, such as the thug, and a band of them got hit by a fireball for 30 damage, sleep is a perfect spell. But getting this combo off in game always feels a little metagamey in a way that just makes it ineffective.
You and apparently everyone else.
Zealot Barbarians at higher levels become immune to death to a certain extent. You can knock them down to 0 HP and they can still keep fighting. But at that point you’re at a fairly high level and level 1 spells like sleep should be completely behind you. But the zealot barbarian, despite being partially immune to death at that point, has such a low amount of HP that they’re vulnerable to the sleep spell. While killing a zealot barbarian becomes difficult in that state, you could put them to sleep with a simple level 1 spell. Their rage ends and then they’re dead.
Slight correction: A zealot barbarian, who would have otherwise been dead, has such a low amount of HP that they’re vunerable to the sleep spell.
Zealot barbs have the same mountain of HP as every other barb, so they need winding down before Sleep will touch them.
I’d say the Rage beyond Death feature of the zealot is pretty major to how they’re played. A level 14 barb may have 150 hitpoints or more, plus their resistances, but people play the zealot in high level games for this feature.
The idea of getting to fight to 0 hitpoints, then keep fighting until you die and then still not relenting until the fight ends is rad. Hell I’d say that their level 3 and level 6 features, while cool, were designed after their level 14 feature and designed to let you get as much out of that final feature as possible.
Ah. I always forget sleep works on current HP not total. Don’t think I’ve ever used it once blood was drawn.
It’s a shame that knowing average monster hitpoints is generally metagaming and there is no ranger option or similar to show you this.
It would be cool to follow a fireball. If you know the enemy you’re fighting has about 32 hitpoints for example, such as the thug, and a band of them got hit by a fireball for 30 damage, sleep is a perfect spell. But getting this combo off in game always feels a little metagamey in a way that just makes it ineffective.