Shattered Kingdoms

Obviously.

Liar.

I think the helpfile should reflect the fact that counterstrike only works when you are not already in combat. I was hoping that each time a NPC/pc joined combat, counterstrike would go off. But so far, it is only for the first shot against a barb who is not yet in combat. To me that really takes a chunck of the mystique away from the barb.

Through alertness, a barbarian learns to be in-tune with his surroundings
at all times, such that he can sense when someone is passing near his
presence, even if they never make a sound. Although dulled somewhat, a
skilled barbarian can even sense people approach while he is sleeping.

This skill is the first step along a barbarian's path of supernatural
awareness that eventually leads to the ability to counterstrike.

thats from the Alertness helpfile.

It's SUPERNATURAL.

Duh.

So he's, like, throwing you across the room WIF THE POWAR OF HIS MAND!!!

*WHOOSH*

Damn, I'm so making a barb.

Well, I still think counterstrike is so easy to avoid it's basically only good against NPCs. I hate to knock it but the skill is just something that could be good if there weren't a zillion ways to nullify it.