How to achieve infinite rage?

Question

Is it possible to have infinite rage at level 1 or at least somewhat low level?

The Barbarian's Berserker Strength ACF allow that but you are going to start the game with 12HP + CON modifier. Even with a 6 in Constitution, you would end up with 9 HP. The threshold is 5x your barbarian level. You could take the Frail flaw but it doesn't help that much here. Is there any feat or feature able to reduce hitpoints even more?

This thread is very complete about rage in general, but doesn't specify how someone could achieve unlimited rage. It is more about rage cycling: Rage benefits for someone who doesn’t attack

The Gutworm is a good candidate too. But I do not think there is a legal/raw way to acquire one. (It has no price or anything)

Being a werebadger could work. They enter rage each time they take damage. But having this template come with HD and LA which is far from being playable at low level.

Answer 1

To expand on Forrestfire’s fine answer, berserker strength can be made actually infinite, without having to worry about how much damage you have or haven’t taken. You do that by simply not having enough maximum hp to exceed the threshold. A low Con score, the Frail flaw, the Quick trait can very easily reduce your hp by quite a bit. See our Q&A on “optimizing” for lowest possible hp. Even with the barbarian’s d12 HD, −4 hp/level reduces your expected hp to 2½ × level + 5½, which falls below berserker strength’s 5 × level threshold at 3rd level.

For levels below even 3rd, we can look at rage cleric (Dragon vol. 333), rage monk (Dragon vol. 310), and/or druidic avenger. These all get “rage as barbarian” (though druidic avenger gets it at a modified progression), which means they might be eligible for berserker strength. This is a stretch and a half, really—berserker strength is presented under the “barbarian” heading and makes repeated reference to one’s “barbarian level.” But it is an “alternative class feature,” rather than a variant of the barbarian class itself, and its “level” and “replaces” parameters refer only to getting rage at 1st. If you get that, it might be legit—and each of these classes do. Any of them would be a d8 instead of a d12, so with the −4 hp/level, they expect to be only ½×level + 3½—in other words, at 1st level, 4 hp, low enough to trigger permanent berserker strength.

Even if none of these classes are allowed to have berserker strength, Chaos Rage (Dragon vol. 326) to allow up to 4 non-barbarian levels to stack with barbarian for the purposes of rage, which should work with berserker strength, allowing you to have (at least 4) HDs smaller than d12. If you take a d4-HD class at 2nd, the most hp you could possibly have is 8 hp, less than the 10-hp berserker strength threshold at that level. (And, actually, anything that’s not d12 should work here, on an average roll, though only d4 guarantees you’ll be under even if you roll the maximum hp for that HD.)

Between these, it’s not too hard to ensure that your maximum hp is less than berserker strength’s threshold, making it impossible to leave that state without a Constitution bonus followed by healing (even though the Constitution bonus will bring your hp above the threshold, berserker strength specifies that it ends when you are “healed” above that threshold, so simply being there doesn’t do it, subsequent healing is necessary), or being rendered unconscious or helpless. (I believe temporary hit points don’t affect berserker strength, but the rules aren’t super-clear and you’ll want to check that with your DM.)

The question you should then have is, how do you survive with super-low hp and Constitution? And the answer to that is Ettercap Berserker, a feat from Unapproachable East. Ettercap Berserker gives you +6 Constitution while in a rage, so that’s +3 hp/level for you—and as mentioned above, it doesn’t end berserker strength by itself. Berserker strength only ends if you are “healed” above the threshold. So you can have roughly 8 hp/level—and an OK Constitution bonus for things like Fortitude saves—while maintaining constant berserker strength. If anything does heal you while your hp is that high, berserker strength ends, but that also removes the Constitution bonus from Ettercap Berserker—putting you below the threshold again and restarting berserker strength. This is the basis of my rage cycling build that is discussed in the second half of this answer.

Answer 2

Just take damage.

The berserker strength ACF doesn't care about your maximum hit points, only your current hit points. If you go down to 5 × barbarian level in hit points, then berserker strength turns on and stays on until you have more than that many hit points.

If you're worried about something healing you above that amount, then take more damage to counteract it. Something like the Lady's Gambit feat (Dr317 p. 82) to do self-damage would work fine for incidental amounts of healing aimed your way, or if you're somehow unable to avoid getting healed significant amounts each round (I dunno, maybe you've got high fast healing), a torture bracelet (Bastion of Broken Souls p. 46) will deal 2d4 damage to you per round indefinitely, and costs 300gp.

Answer 3

Anthropomorphic Badger (+3 LA) or Anthropomorphic Wolverine (2HD +2 LA) are both from Savage Species and both get Rage as the animals they're based on. If they're ever damaged in combat, they remain Raging until that opponent dies, which could be indefinitely if that opponent escapes (and this could even have occurred in the backstory). If the LA Buyoff rules are in play, Anthro Badger is eventually completely free, while Wolverine keeps those two Monstrous Humanoid HD but loses its LA much faster (and Monstrous Humanoid HD are non-terrible, anyway; certainly much better than the Animal HD that Lycanthropy gives you).

Due to the higher starting ECL (4 for both), this comes online later than the Berserker Strength ACF, but makes for a character with a lot more HP who also has a lot more flexibility for multiclassing and prestige classes (the Berserker Strength HP threshold only increases with Barbarian levels).

Answer 4

Just be a cleric.

Because with a permissive enough DM, a cleric can do absolutely anything.

The Wrath domain from Spell Compendium grants access to Rage as a 3rd level spell. Persistent Spell (Complete Arcane) with Divine Metamagic (Complete Divine) can make spells last all day, though because it requires a spell to have a fixed range, you will have to apply Earthbound Spell (PHBII) to it first, as that will limit Rage's range to an adjacent square. The earliest you can get 3rd level spells as a cleric is 5th level, and you can fit the 4 required feats in there with some savvy domain selection. Not level 1, but still pretty early.

If you want to get it earlier, you could theoretically use the Precocious Apprentice feat (Complete Arcane) as a 1st level bard to pick it up off the bard list as a 2nd level spell. Then, you can use the Southern Magician feat (Races of Faerun) to treat it like a divine spell. If you take flaws and domain-granted feats to pick up Extra Turning, Earthbound Spell, Extend Spell, and Skill Focus (Diplomacy), you can take your second level in cleric to get Turn Undead and your third level in Marshal. The Marshal level grants you Skill Focus (Diplomacy) as a bonus feat, but lets you change it to any other feat if you already have it. This, combined with your regular level 3 bonus feat, lets you take Southern Magician and Divine Metamagic to complete the combo.

Do note that Earthbound Spell may not technically make Rage eligible for Persistent Spell. This is because while it does change the effective range of the spell, it could be argued that it doesn't change the range component on the actual spell description.