Is the barbarian too powerful in your campaign?

[Lord Zardoz]

Barbarians are naturally focused

The reason that Barbarians seem to dominate is because the class is much more focused on its niche than the other classes are.

If someone decides to play a Barbarian, they are looking to play a character that deals out scary amounts of damage in melee. If you did a survey on how many poeple have played in a game that had a 20 Str Half Orc Barbarian weilding a 2 handed weapon, the yes votes would overwhelm the no votes.

Now, if you take a look at how many people play fighters, the character diversity would be very high.

- Plate wearing tanks weilding 2 handed weapons.
- Sword and Shield builds
- 2 weapon fighting builds
- Archery builds
- High dex figthers using weapon finesse
- Fighters aiming for frequent critical hits
- Fighters focused on Sunder or Disarm or Trip

Also, if you compare to 2nd Edition campaigns, the Cannonical 20 Str Barbarian can dominate combat to a degree unheard of in 2nd Edition. Such a Barbarian can kill most CR appropriate monsters in one hit. The low AC is not a big deal against Orcs and Goblins. And the HP and bonus HP from Rage will offset the AC against Gnolls or Bugbears. Most DMs, myself included, do not throw low level casters at the players.

As you observed, a well focused Fighter build is equally dominant at low levels. Given say, 14 Dex and 16 Str, and going with Chain mail and a heavy shield, a low level fighter can hit AC 19 with not too much difficulty, and still put out plenty of damage. And there is nothing preventing one from making a 20 Str Half Orc Fighter. He wont get the same damage output as a raging barbarian, but with the better AC, you simply cannot touch him.

In 3rd Ed, low level warrior types are much more effective than pretty much every other class against Orc calibre monsters. They can dish out plenty of punishment and stand up against most opponents.

But make no mistake, Barbarians simply are not as dominant as you think. Try throwing them up against Hobgoblins using bows and keeping at medium range. If they stay spread out and do the shoot + half move away thing, the barbarian will kill a few, but he will be taking alot of hits due to low AC. The players with better AC will rule in this sort of encounter, and the most effective player will be the one with a high Dex bonus answering to the ranged attacks in kind.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Nightfall]

Or rather under-balanced since if they didn't get something they'd be stuck in the cold....

 

[airwalkrr]

Here's my opinion on the barbarian. If you play the RAW, there is never a reason for a fighter, ranger, or other melee oriented class NOT to take just one level of barbarian and maybe the extra rage feat. However, that is the only problem I see with the barbarian. A 10th level barbarian is pretty much on par with a 10th level fighter or 10th level paladin or 10th level ranger. I think the barbarian is top-heavy and too much of required dip for melee characters, but as a single classed character, it is well balanced.

 

[Endur]

For example, does your barbarian typically do a bazillion points of damage and have massively more hp's than other characters pretty much 4-5x overshadowing all other characters in the game (with the possible exception of an overspecialized fighter)?

As others have said, there is nothing wrong with the barbarian class. Your problem is you have one min-maxed PC and the rest of the party is not min-maxed. The min-maxed PC is naturally going to overshadow the rest of the party, regardless of whether he is playing a wizard, a fighter, a sorceror, a barbarian, or some other class.

 

[Terwox]

The hobbit berserker in my True20 game is far and away the most deadly character in melee combat, but the other characters hold their own and shine in different ways. Everyone's kill count and spotlight time is somewhat similar.

In my last d20 game, the gnome barbarian did outdamage the rogue and the cleric and the ranger, but as it was Tomb of Horrors, they each had their time to shine (rogue and ranger with the traps, cleric with heals and stoneshaping.) Well, that and the barbarian died first from... well, no spoilers.

 

[Tonguez]

Most people take a level for the 40ft of movement, the hit die and attack bonus but then play something else for their other levels.

Yep Guilty Barbarian/Psychic Warrior here getting Speed 60 (Speed of Thought + Burst) was just too much fun not to take the dip!

Other than that I concur with everyone else Barb is fine

 

[Gold Roger]

Do you play mostly low level (1-5)?

Barbarians at low level deal tripple or more of most other PC's damage and with their HP can roll through most opponents. But at higher level the barbarian get's easily outdamaged by arcane casters, has a craptacular AC, is inflexible and all the hitpoints in the World won't help him against a dragons or giants full attack.

 

[DragonLancer]

I've never had a problem with Barbarians. They do dish out damage but if the fight isn't over quickly, they often drop to the back or die when the temporary HP run out (that seems to happen a lot). Its far from overpowered.

 

[R-man]

Having seen a lot of Barbarians die over the years in campaigns, I would say no they are not to powerful. The always low AC that gets worse when they rage means that enemys with Powerattack or Sneak attack can rip them apart in no time.

In city of the spider queen there are creatures that have 4 attack a round that have 5d6 sneak attack on each attack, combined with a very high tumble they can quickly move into position and destroy any PC foolish enough to face them. Their weakness attacks of +15/+15/+13/+13 are insufficient to hurt characters of approximately 14th level when you meet them unless the PC's AC is sufficiently degraded for some reason.

My party lost two PC's the first time they fought the creatures. A High level Barb/Rogue two weapon build and a Warforged Monk (I allowed in dispite not being native to Faerun). The low AC's of these two characters made them easy meat for the monsters. Since then the party has fought these same creatures 3-4 more times and not had any difficulty. Partially due to better tactics, partially due to the "new" PC's had much Higher AC's when they came in.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

It has been some time since I had a real barbarian player as DM (there was a half-orc ftr/brb recently, but he lasted a session before the player was uninvited again). I remember him dealing out damage like mad, but I didn't think he was overpowered, and I don't think they're overpowered now.

Back then, it was a dwarf barbarian (/frenzied berserker even, I think), and an enemy managed to beat him to death.

I got to play that one a lot, too (bad will saves are a bad thing against spellcasters or vampires or anything else with mental control abilities).