Quote Originally Posted by Noctus View Post
Read what i wrote : " Under the exclusion of Crit-Rage....."
I dont compare has-been past-stuff with the current enviroment. This would be harebrained and of no use to anybody. This precondition was made to show what the difference in Barbarian and Fighter combat style is. And that they are much closer than many people think they are.
Its an easy to fall in the fallacy to look at +10STR rage and think"Golly-molly, they are king of DPS for sure. Who could possibly keep up with this?" The fact that fighers get a flat +6 damage to attacks and also a permanent +3 STR through enhancements, which i forgot to incluse in the above comparisation btw, is overlooked by most.
---> A Barbarian will only pull ahead of a Fighter in DPS if he is in a Crit rage. A normal +10STR-rage is not enough. So if you want to build a character who is good in DPS and has a reasonable AC, barbarian is not the way to go. Fighter is a viable alternative, even if all the world is currently in a Ranger hype.

To the numbers: A Fighter gets +6 damage per attack through Weapon Specialisation. 2 from Weapon Spec, 2 from Improved Weapon Spec and 2 from weapon spec enhancements.
let me give you some numbers, my barb is at 32 str (18+4+3+1+6), my fighter is at 35 str (18+4+3+1+3+6), so their mods are +11 and +12 respectively. lets do damage calculations

the barb can rage for 10 more str, 32 becomes 42 (+16). barbs have PA enhancements (+3). not counting songs and other buffs, a 1 handed weapon barb will be at 16+8(PA)+5(weapon) = +29 damage. the fighter will have specialisation feats which put him at 12+5(PA)+4(specialisations)+5(weapon) = +26 damage. this number is not significant as pre mod6, DPS is defined with 2HF

a 2HF barb will do 24+16+5 = +45 damage, a 2HF fighter will do 18+10+4+5 = +37 damage. comparing both styles, regardless of the presence of crit rage 2, the barb IS more DPS than the fighter. the addition of crit rage in mod 6 further enhances the role of the barb as the DPS toon, so much so that fighters and paladins are made redundant. not sure about you but the barbarians i run with are not as gimped as the ones you run with

last but not least, fighter weapon specialisation enhancements came in MOD EIGHT. you ARE comparing a post mod 6 barb to a mod 8 fighter. get your facts right