Barbarian Playtest Experiences

[pukunui]

But Conan has worn plate armor too.

Yes but did he wear plate when he was acting as a barbarian? I've just started reading The Complete Chronicles of Conan and I get the impression that he only wore heavy armor in his role as king of a 'medieval' realm. Most of the time he doesn't seem to wear any armor at all. In fact, the color illustration at the beginning of the book shows him bare-chested with loose pants and boots.

Furthermore, most of the barbarians depicted in the playtest document are either lightly armored or unarmored as well (eg. the leaping woman - a modified version of which I am using for my PC, incidentally). The only two with any kind of heavy armor - the dragonborn and the human killing the gnoll - only have it piecemeal... which, of course, isn't even an option in 4e (not that it was an option in 3e either).

My point is that not only is the "classic" barbarian depicted as lightly/unarmored, but so too are the barbarians WotC is showing us in their very own playtest document ... yet this sort of look & feel is not a very plausible option with the mechanics as they are now. The barbarians shown in the playtest document are just asking to get killed. There's nothing in the mechanics that suggests you can play an unarmored Conan-style barbarian and expect to survive for very long.

 

[WalterKovacs]

Yes but not on a regular basis and not as a barbarian (he did it in his role as king of a "medieval" realm ... I'm just reading the Complete Chronicles of Conan for the first time now).

How about this: if you look at all the pictures of barbarians provided in the barbarian playtest document, most of them are very lightly armored if not unarmored ... like the leaping woman (a modified version of which I am using for my PC). The only one who appears to be wearing heavy armor is the dragonborn, and even his armor appears to be somewhat piecemeal (which, of course, is not an option in 4e - not that it was an option in 3e either).

So here they are showing us a whole lot of lightly armored/unarmored barbarians and yet, going by the mechanics, all of them are asking to be killed because they can't avoid taking hits very well.

(A) Asking to be hit = being a good defender

(B) Their main defensive/stay alive power is temp hit points and resistances

The barbarians AC early on in hide is going to be comparable to a leather armorless wizard or melee ranger. A barbarian, especially one that is "iconic" ... shouldn't have GOOD AC. Over time, their AC will be especially bad if they don't get into heavier armor, but certain masterwork armors are a bit different than just metal stuff. A barbarian skinning a dragon and using his scales to make some armor doesn't seem that far fetched.

Ultimately, while the main stats are STR, CON and CHA ... the last two are both build dependent. In most cases a character will either be STR, CON and DEX or STR, CHA and DEX ... since dex helps your reflex, initiative and light armor AC.

 

[DandD]

Conan doesn't wear armour if he's a pirate, raiding the black coast, and sailing on a ship, an aquilonian ranger, who slays picts and prowls in the woods without making noises, a defeated mercenary, who's looking for water, or a thief stealing jewels from ivory towers with alien elephants, where he needs to be able to climb. He wore armor when he jumped to the merchant ship fleeing from the local authorities, before massacring Belith's band of black pirates thanks to his armour. He also wore armor when he wanted to rape the daughter of an ice giant, which was his very early years as a cimmerian warrior.
In fact, you could say that he never was a barbarian defined by D&D. The Conan Archetypre wore plate armour, that's a fact that can never be changed.
Even as a king, people called him a barbarian (which was meant as an insult, not as a class feature ), and he raged and slayed and maimed everybody on the battlefield, be it The Scarlet Citadel, or the novel version of this story, The Hour Of The Dragon.

As regarding the 4th edition of the Barbarian, I would really like that they could at least were chain-mail. And that the name be changed to Berserker, dammit.

 

[pukunui]

And that the name be changed to Berserker, dammit.

I'll second that.

 

[Mad Hamish]

Also, I noticed the wording of pressing strike is that you shift 2 squares, not up to. Does that mean you HAVE to shift two squares before the attack? That could be an interesting limitation.

How often would it actually restrict you?

Shifts don't have to be in a straight line after all...

 

[Rechan]

A player ran a barbarian tonight. A warforged barbarian.

In one fight, he critted. 4. Rounds. In. A. Row. (I watched him roll them).

One crit was with Avalanche Strike. With an executioner's ax. A magical one.

He did 64 points of damage, and killed a Magma Claw on the first hit.

 

[RefinedBean]

A player ran a barbarian tonight. A warforged barbarian.

In one fight, he critted. 4. Rounds. In. A. Row. (I watched him roll them).

One crit was with Avalanche Strike. With an executioner's ax. A magical one.

He did 64 points of damage, and killed a Magma Claw on the first hit.

Ha! Yeah, barbarians tend to do that. Still, though, a rogue critting 4 roungds in a row would be just as nasty.

 

[DracoSuave]

How often would it actually restrict you?

Shifts don't have to be in a straight line after all...

Nor do shifts have to be for the full amount indicated. All movement permits not using the full movement be it a shift, a slide, or a teleport.

 

[Orcus Porkus]

Eladrin Barbarian playtest experience

Nor do shifts have to be for the full amount indicated. All movement permits not using the full movement be it a shift, a slide, or a teleport.

Just playtested my Eladrin Barbarian yesterday.
Using greatspear with reach, howling strike whenever possible, and pressing strike.
He killed a lot, rolled lots of crits, and got swift charge every encounter.
Because of his free attacks resulting from crits and kills, having more attack rolls and hitting, is more important than anything else. All optimization should go to increasing the number of rolls.
- use Warlord's commander's strike
- use bestial hide (free attack after a charge) if you don't like Veteran's armor
- let other characters delay initiative when you have a good chance to kill
- make sure to have Strength 18 or better, invest on AC and HP only if you don't use reach weapons
- optimize charging (boots of adept charging, charge into combat advantage
- great cleave better than avalanche strike because of the increased kill and crit opportunities, although avalanche strike is tactically better for a reach weapon
- beginning at level 5, you have 2 dailies (rage). Patiently wait for the boss fight. Use Veteran's armor, go into rage with 3(W), follow up with wasting the 2nd daily on rage strike 4(W), spend an action point to get the daily back, waste it on Rage Strike 4(W) again. If you hit all three times, you deal 11(W)+3xSTR, possibly one extra (W) if you use Frost Wolf Rage and the monster is stupid enough to attack you. For each attack during the rage strike sequence, it gets 3+CON damage from Frost Wolf. Since Rage attacks deal half damage on a miss, you are looking at something like 6(W)+? guaranteed damage in the first three rounds, with possible free attacks from Rampage and Swift Charge. Throw in Commander's Strike etc., and that elite monster is dead before it knows what happened.


My feedback on the rules:

- Rage attacks should be allowed to be used during a charge. It kind of sucked to not be able to launch into battle with a raging charge. You need to use howling strike first, and then launch rage in the 2nd round
- If swift charge is not possible because there is not enough room to charge, or no enemies nearby, you should get either a free attack or a free move action + charge instead.
- If you kill AND crit at the same time (happens a lot), the free actions you get should stack, meaning you get the free basic melee attack from the crit, and also a swift charge from the kill.

 

[Drakhar]

- If you kill AND crit at the same time (happens a lot), the free actions you get should stack, meaning you get the free basic melee attack from the crit, and also a swift charge from the kill.

I'm pretty sure they do stack as they both have triggering effects happening at the same time you get to choose what order they trigger in. Personally I'm really enjoying my Genasi Barbarian that I'm working on focusing on crits and charges, as well as using a high crit weapon (fullblade in this case) I'm not focusing too much on con (which is still an 18 but still, we rolled our stats) Boots of Adept charging are extremely good to have when you're not raging as it helps you avoid OA's when you charge around the battlefield. We also have an ongoing joke/opening tactic of my barb having a readied action to charge the first enemy he can, oddly enough resulting in a crit kill right off the bat.