Barbarian adjustments

[elwynbdas]

One of my players wanted to have a Barbarian, and I basically told him, just take a great weapon fighter, run around half naked with Maul, and call him Barbarian. But I also gave him Rage, which I took from the D20 system website. He is balancing himself out because he refuses to wear heavier armor than hide without me making a rule out of it or something.

Does anybody have a good list of adjustments/extra powers I can use before PHB II comes out? I want to reward him for being in character, and see how I can possibly finetune him.

 

[Wepwawet]

Check this from WotC.

Gives soem guidelines on converting characters from 3.5

 

[legiondevil]

This is the one I offered the Dwarven Fighter in the game I am runnning.

Fighter 1 Encounter Power
Barbarian Rage
Encounter, Stance
This stance can be ended as a minor action on your turn. While in this stance you deal 2 additional points of damage per character level when using any at-will or basic melee attack, but you lose your armor class bonus due to level as well as any armor class bonus due to deterity or intelligence.

 

[Keenath]

While in this stance you deal 2 additional points of damage per character level when using any at-will or basic melee attack, but you lose your armor class bonus due to level as well as any armor class bonus due to deterity or intelligence.

Nnnnno. +4 melee damage/-2 AC would be more appropriate. Dropping your AC to 10+armor is a really bad move regardless of how much damage bonus you can get from it.

And anyway, using this method, an agile (or smart) fighter, who has high ability bonus and low armor AC, is at a huge disadvantage compared to a heavy-armor guy who can't add dex/int to AC anyway. That's the reverse of what you'd expect from an ability that's designed to produce a Barbarian style character. A flat bonus/penalty would at least apply equally to everyone.

 

[legiondevil]

And anyway, using this method, a smart or agile fighter (who has high ability bonus and low armor AC) is at a huge disadvantage compared to a heavy-armor guy (who can't add dex/int to AC anyway), which is the reverse of what you'd expect with a Barbarian character. A flat bonus/penalty would at least apply equally to everyone.

Very true, perhaps remove the heavy armor access if the player was intending on taking the power would help some.

 

[77IM]

Here's the barbarian class template that I use (none of my PCs expressed any interest in it yet):

Barbarian
You are a wild warrior bursting with primal rage.
Base Class: Fighter
Abilities: When wearing light armor or no armor, you may add your Constitution modifier to AC in place of your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier (use whichever is highest).
Class Skills: You are automatically trained in Intimidate. Replace Streetwise with Nature on your class skill list.
Proficiencies: You lose all of your heavy armor proficiencies (but not heavy shield proficiency).
Class Features: Replace your Fighter Weapon Talent feature with the Rage feature:

• Rage: Once per encounter, as a minor action, you can fly into a barely-controlled frenzy of mayhem. The rage lasts until the end of the encounter, or until you fall unconscious. While in the rage, you get a +2 bonus to melee weapon damage and a +2 bonus on Athletics, Intimidate and Endurance checks, but you suffer a -5 penalty to all other skill checks, a -2 penalty to AC, and you can't use any powers with a power source other than Martial. At 11th level, the damage bonus increases to +3, and at 21st level, it increases to +4, although the other bonuses and penalties of raging remain fixed.

-- 77IM

 

[Lord Sessadore]

This is the one I offered the Dwarven Fighter in the game I am runnning.

Fighter 1 Encounter Power
Barbarian Rage
Encounter, Stance
This stance can be ended as a minor action on your turn. While in this stance you deal 2 additional points of damage per character level when using any at-will or basic melee attack, but you lose your armor class bonus due to level as well as any armor class bonus due to deterity or intelligence.

This power may be fine at low levels, but once you get to paragon or epic tiers, it becomes both the best and worst power available.

Most extreme case: level 30. Use this power at level 30 and you're dealing 60 extra damage with every attack. That is probably close to if not more damage than most of your encounter attacks will do, so it is obviously overpowered. On the other side of the coin, you lose at least 15 from your AC, putting it into the region of auto-hit for any remotely level appropriate monsters. I don't really see how this power could be more obviously broken. No offense meant, it just has some nasty flaws. I really think +4 melee damage/-2 AC is a lot better, and more in line with the rest of the game.

@77IM: That looks pretty cool, actually. If I wanted to play a barbarian, I'd definitely swipe that

 

[fba827]

Look at one of the goblins in the MM. It has a rage like-ability that kicks in once the goblin is bloodied. I'd say something similar to that could replace some of the fighter class features. But, yeah, start witht he great weapon fighter for power set and swap out some of the class features for something more thematicaly appropriate.