How do you make a Barbarian interesting? :)

[Imaculata]

I played a Barbarian who was afraid of heights, and dumb as a rock. He had his heart in the right place though, and really liked to arm wrestle (he ended up restoring time and space by arm wrestling himself from a parallel universe). But most of his personal quest was about reclaiming honor in the eyes of his tribe, and overcoming this fear of heights.

Its pretty funny to play a guy who is not afraid of any of the horrible monsters that inhabit the average D&D world, but he IS afraid of crossing a ravine.

 

[Caliban]

Just out of curiosity, what was this characters Int score?

This is an Adventure League character, so she was created with point buy (27 points) and has the minimum Int possible - an 8. She's usually the main damage dealer in the group (I try to play her with the same group of characters when I can). Currently she does 1d6+11 with her two main attacks when raging, and 1d4+11 on the bonus action attack from Polearm Master. Since becoming and adventurer she's learned a bit more about fighting and tactics, and has 3 levels of Fighter (Battlemaster Archtype). She'll probably go 4 levels of fighter and barbarian the rest of the way.

 

[ccs]

Meet Rose Burrfoot:



Female 1/2ling (lightfoot), LG
Barbarian Lv6 (Ancestral Guardian), Folk Hero.
(Str:14 Dex:16 Con:18 Int:13 Wis:9 Char:14 breastplate, shield, hand axe. Not pictured: 2nd hand axe, orcish spear & explorers pack.))
4th lv Feat: Healer

Rose Burrfoot is not at all your typical angry, destruction driven, carnage loving, giant weapon wielding, barbarian.
She's a friendly, civilized 1/2ling of about twenty who hails from a cozy little crossroad inn, who, due to her own foolish actions, spent the last winter enslaved by the Bad Moon orc tribe. (she HATES orcs)
Very recently she was rescued when a group of adventurers repelled one of the tribes spring raiding parties & backtracked them into the mountains to the lair.
The adventurers, with Rose in tow, returned to town & collected their reward. The next morning they gave her 100gp, wished her good luck getting home (wich is quite a ways away) & headed off on their primary quest. Solving the local orc problem had merely been a side trek as they passed through.

Rose is NOT an adventurer by choice, let alone a professional one.... Merely trying to get home to the Wildwood Inn in Karemiekos.

Rose is also not really a skilled fighter.
One of the things the orcs liked to do was throw her into a pit with assorted wild animals & a hand axe/spear/etc. They found her terrified flailings hilarious....
I have her always fight recklessly (Reckless Attack) to simulate this lack of training.
Rages.... Starting on round 2 or 3 I begin making Saves vs Fear. Eventually Rose fails & goes berserk, hacking at whatever's within reach - friend or foe. (this works sooo much better in PF where there's a really awful arch-type made to do exactly this - be a danger to everything within reach)

Ancestral Guardian path. Modified by the DM.
When Rose rages she's surrounded by several spectral orcs who protect her, not the rest of the party. She doesn't see them, only allies/enemies do.
So atm, the 1st creature trying to hit me does so at disadvantage, & I'm required to use my reaction to block 2d6 of the 1st damage I'm dealt. This is not under my control as a player. I'm OK with that.
These spectral orcs are also the "source" of Roses S/P/B damage resistance when raging.

 

[BookBarbarian]

I never get tired of Barbarians. Or Champions for that matter.

They are blank slates for me to focus on Personality and Background with. What did they do before adventuring, and why did they take up the sword to go do it?

How did an Elven Noble become Recklessly Attacking monster. What made this Mercenary Veteran start carrying a Bear Totem? Why does this Scholar's anger summon the spirits of her ancestors?

I have more of these ideas than I have games to play in.

 

[jgsugden]

How about reskinning the barbarian as an animal?

You might use the ability scores/abilities for a human variant totem barbarian, but you are a giant wolf, panther, etc... Perhaps one that was awakened?

 

[Tony Vargas]

I never got why any version of D&D had barbarian as a class and not a culture.

Because Fighters didn't cut it for representing Conan and EGG eventually wrote up a bizarre magic-hating barbarian class in The Dragon (along with a vicious review of the Conan movie) that made it into 1e Unearthed Arcana (the Barbarian, not the hatchet job on poor Arnie's inarticulate Conan).

It was in 1e, so it /must/ be in 5e.

In 2e it was just a kit, and in 3e it became a full class, with rage, then, with no real need for a traditional barbarian in 4e, they made it a Primal-magic-using striker, like a druid on PCP.

5e kept the 3e & 4e takes on the barbarian, though it could more easily & consistently have gone ahead and made it a Background and just given the fighter enough build flexibility to handle the concept in combination with that.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Make him erudite and educated, a man of learning. Maybe an alchemist or herbalist...one who tampered with the most dangerous of concoctions and toxins, so that when he loses his temper, he becomes a bestial force of destruction. One with its own name, even.

Call him...The Jackal and Mr. Hidden.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

How did an Elven Noble become Recklessly Attacking monster.

Brain damage, drugs, toxins in his food, VD...

What made this Mercenary Veteran start carrying a Bear Totem?

Raised by bears, rescued a bear who was later taken from him, “took a spirit walk” with a shaman...

Why does this Scholar's anger summon the spirits of her ancestors?

Too much talking in the library...

 

[Unwise]

I have used a few interesting barbarians in the past:

- A Hawaian/Fijian themed guy. He was pretty much Maui from the Moana, but years before the movie came out. He did not shapeshift, but had moving tattoos and a similar personality. His "rage" was taking on the totemic powers of his tattoos, Bear totem was flavoured as Turtle, the more offensive based ones were Shark.

- A Kensai whose rage was a zen battle trance. He had amazing stats, so was also wise, well-spoken and intelligent.

- A thane-born barbarian who just wanted to be Skald, but he had to go collect stories of his own in order to be initiated into being a Skald as it was a very high profile position. He was obsessed with stories, beer and valiant deaths. He did eventually multiclass into bard a bit, but mostly because he was OP in a group of very under-optimised characters. He rather memorably did not stabalise or heal up a party member who had done an epic deed and killed a giant single handedly, there was no way he was going to rob him of his heroic death. Fortunately the hero made a 20 on his death save and sprung back up, earning near worship from my character.

 

[BookBarbarian]

A Kensai whose rage was a zen battle trance. He had amazing stats, so was also wise, well-spoken and intelligent..

Even with the Kensei out for 5e I still prefer Barbarian mechanics for an unarmored, single sword wielding wanderer.