The situation came up last time we played, where the Barbarian has just began ragin and was then paralyzed. He asked if he could end his rage so as not to waste his rounds (and also eat up his fatigue rounds while paralyzed).
My question is two-fold:
-
Can the Barbarian end rage “at will”, or is it a swift action as the description of rage dictates?
-
Can the Barbarian use Rage, which adds +2 to Will saves, to force another Will Save against the paralysis? (This is what I thought the Barbarian’s goal was, but it didn’t come to that.)
Best Answer
Quickly flip the rulebook to look for appropriate entries
1) Can the Barbarian end rage “at will”, or is it a swift action as the description of rage dictates?
First, let's take a look at the Barbarian's rage power:
And now, the Paralyzed condition:
The tricky part here, "a purely mental" action isn't a defined system term. You can not use the argument "Entering/exiting rage is a free action, so it's neither a move or a standard action" since you can quick draw as a free action (and drawing is a move). So using only those two quotes, there is no explicit RAW.
But when you're focusing to give the better of yourself, it is a mental action. You have to think RAI on this one. The wording seems to be indicating that yes, a barbarian can end his/her rage while paralyzed.1
(And it's a free action, not a swift, as written in the question)
2) Can the Barbarian use Rage, which adds +2 to Will saves, to force another Will Save against the paralysis?
Raging however, does not grant an additionnal Will save, so unless you have another effect triggered by the Rage that explicitely allows you to retry a failed Will save, then you can't shake off the paralysis by raging.
1: Think of it as calming down. Admittedly, being paralyzed wouldn't make me (personnaly) feel calm, but it does nothing to prevent me from calming down either