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Civilizing the Barbarian
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<blockquote data-quote="Spatzimaus" data-source="post: 2067694" data-attributes="member: 3051"><p>Welll, since I posted in the Monk thread, I might as well do here too. In our world, we replaced Barbarians with Berserkers. The class no longer is explicitly tied to a primitive culture, although it's still heavily biased towards them. The illiteracy is gone, but the only other change was to the "Rage" ability, which in my opinion is the most stereotypical part of the class; all that STR and CON, and its drawbacks, are aimed at the same thing, the brute-force unintelligent warrior.</p><p></p><p>So instead, we have Berserkers generate their own custom 'Trance' ability by picking bonuses and drawbacks from several tables, with better abilities unlocking at higher levels. Instead of STR and CON, you might take DEX and Reflex, or eventually choose DR, Fast Healing, Evasion, or a movement speed increase. Instead of Fatigue and a stat/save penalty, you might choose to take subdual damage when it wears off, or a shorter duration. Each trance includes one Major Drawback, like "can't use spells or abilities requiring concentration", "can't move", "can't attack", and so on; these drawbacks never go away, and pretty much define the type of Berserker you'll end up being.</p><p></p><p>Instead of one simple jump in power in the teens, we let them continuously add minor bonuses as they advance, with the option to trade several minor bonuses for a larger one, and the ability at higher levels to remove the minor drawbacks instead. So, one Berserker might slip into a defensive trance where he becomes practically invulnerable for a short time but can't move; another might suddenly move really fast and be impossible to hit but not be able to attack. As a matter of flavor, we require the player to pick some theme (an animal or something) that their particular ability combo and drawback mimics; the PHB Barbarian follows the Way of the Bear, the Dwarven Warrior follows the Way of the Turtle, and so on.</p><p></p><p>It's not a major change, but it's made the class pretty popular, especially among multiclassers. A low-level trance might be weaker for pure melee types than the old Rage, but it's far more flexible for everyone else; a Sorcerer might grab a level or two to get a trance that lets him heal himself, for instance. Since you'll only get one or two uses per day, it's not unbalancing, but it's nice having something extra available for the tough fights.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Spatzimaus, post: 2067694, member: 3051"] Welll, since I posted in the Monk thread, I might as well do here too. In our world, we replaced Barbarians with Berserkers. The class no longer is explicitly tied to a primitive culture, although it's still heavily biased towards them. The illiteracy is gone, but the only other change was to the "Rage" ability, which in my opinion is the most stereotypical part of the class; all that STR and CON, and its drawbacks, are aimed at the same thing, the brute-force unintelligent warrior. So instead, we have Berserkers generate their own custom 'Trance' ability by picking bonuses and drawbacks from several tables, with better abilities unlocking at higher levels. Instead of STR and CON, you might take DEX and Reflex, or eventually choose DR, Fast Healing, Evasion, or a movement speed increase. Instead of Fatigue and a stat/save penalty, you might choose to take subdual damage when it wears off, or a shorter duration. Each trance includes one Major Drawback, like "can't use spells or abilities requiring concentration", "can't move", "can't attack", and so on; these drawbacks never go away, and pretty much define the type of Berserker you'll end up being. Instead of one simple jump in power in the teens, we let them continuously add minor bonuses as they advance, with the option to trade several minor bonuses for a larger one, and the ability at higher levels to remove the minor drawbacks instead. So, one Berserker might slip into a defensive trance where he becomes practically invulnerable for a short time but can't move; another might suddenly move really fast and be impossible to hit but not be able to attack. As a matter of flavor, we require the player to pick some theme (an animal or something) that their particular ability combo and drawback mimics; the PHB Barbarian follows the Way of the Bear, the Dwarven Warrior follows the Way of the Turtle, and so on. It's not a major change, but it's made the class pretty popular, especially among multiclassers. A low-level trance might be weaker for pure melee types than the old Rage, but it's far more flexible for everyone else; a Sorcerer might grab a level or two to get a trance that lets him heal himself, for instance. Since you'll only get one or two uses per day, it's not unbalancing, but it's nice having something extra available for the tough fights. [/QUOTE]
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