>>While I do feel for the no retreating while berserking, you DO have other options should you care to use them.
I can berserk, dance, and roar. No retreat with berserks= detrimental to group combat. All dances are self-boost only. I can kill things faster, but that's not a direct benefit. On paper, roars look useful for group orientation, but in practice they're really not. Take a min-cast min-prep Courage casted with no group and divide it by ten, and that's usually how long Battle Cries last. The only way I could save my buddy's life with offensive roars is to immobilize/stun/kill all opponents at melee with him/her. If we're talking about more than two or so baddies (which is usually the case when hunting in groups), it probably isn't happening. Bards can boost magic power or defenses, Paladins can do any number of things, Warrior Mages and Rangers and Clerics have defensive spells castable on others. When needed, ranks let me kill quickly. And I can drag, just like everyone else. Being a Barbarian, however, limits my usefulness in groups. If I berserk I /can't/ drag, and if my wife wants to remain grouped while she casts SoP she's going to have to burn a lot more mana to overcome my resistance. Being a Barb is great, but magic and group-friendly I definitely am not.
>>Also, try not to constantly assume anyone with you is some kind of combat cripple, more often then not my wife saves my life in combat, not the other way round.
?? Saying the ability to make enemies unconscious and nonhostile is useful means I'm assuming everyone with me is a combat cripple?
Your wife, I am sure you will grant, is probably unique. Saying I need to hunt with Empaths considerably higher than me is not a startling revelation, nor is it an insulting assumption that they're all crippled. As a Barbarian, I would not be offended by the statement 'You can usually only teach scholarship to very young Empaths,' because it's true. I take all day to learn an instrument rank. And it's not an assumption, it's simple experience. For every Empath that can safely save a stunned Paladin in red leucros there are three who well... can't. An Empath does not NEED to be battle-capable in any degree to provide a valuable service to the province. Weapons and armor are not required save in miniscle amounts. Most players, of every guild, do not stray far off the beaten path of circle requirements. The point is that battle-capable Empaths are that much more deserving of respect. Don't be silly and, intentionally or not, twist it to make it look like I'm saying they're combat cripples.
When all spells fail, rely on five feet of steel and a strong arm.
