D&D 5E Are Barbarian’s “Meh”

[Todd Roybark]

I literally have no idea what you are talking about.

A poorly organized character sheet can bedevil any player, waiting while someone tries to recalculate something is a not too uncommon occurrence, at least in my 40 years of experience playing RPGs.

A poster made a sarcastic comment about the difficulty of calculating AC with shield and without. I brought up a person with a learning disability to make the point that what is easy for one person may be incredibly difficult for another.

Is that an unreasonable point?

Individual brains and individual circumstances can cause different people to work differently, thus subjective experiences matter. I’ve stated something similar to that multiple times in this very thread.

I think a 5e Fighter is easier to play than a 5e Barbarian. I think a 2nd level Sorc is easier to play than 2nd level barb.
One of my players finds a Single Stat CHA based Warlock/Paladin to be simpler to play than a Barbarian.
Others may not agree.

What I do not appreciate is sharing my personal experience, and having YOU Lowkey, dismiss my experience as being unbelievable, unimportant, unlikely, and apparently unwarranted to be brought up for discussion....or as you put it “ Use the Nuclear option”

In you zeal to “win” an argument you apparently have no qualms in labeling my experiences as radioactively toxic.....which is churlish and uncool.

 

[Anoth]

Shadow Demons can also counter Barbarians pretty well, dealing psychic damage with their attacks and if they have advantage, they deal even more damage.

Rewrite shadows to drain charisma and all of a sudden you have a badass critter that makes you a shadow of your former self.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I've love it if barbarians actually were dangerous to their allies.

Now that would be some effing old school flavour.

I’d be fine with a subclass or an optional and explicitly player-choice-only variant Rage feature that worked that way, but not as a default.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Rewrite shadows to drain charisma and all of a sudden you have a badass critter that makes you a shadow of your former self.

I might have to steal that idea

 

[Markh3rd]

I love my Ancestral guardian barbarian. He is a member of the Order of the Gauntlet and loves to brag about it and his exploits. I enjoy causing disadvantage on my opponents if they attack allies, using my reaction to prevent damage on my allies, and even causing the prevented damage to reflect back on the attacker. I use my augury and clairvoyance both as information gathering and roleplaying flavor.

I use my advantage on athletics to grapple, shove, and generally cause mayhem on the battlefield. Getting a crit is insane damage and lots of fun to roll all those d12's.

But that's me. I enjoy a balance of roleplaying and tactical play. I enjoy the story as it unfolds and seeing what happens. People sometimes think because a barbarian isn't a skill monkey they have to sit on the sidelines until combat starts. But this isn't true at all. There is nothing stopping you from getting in on the roleplay and telling your characters story.

 

[Ancalagon]

And those are really still just sticking to the Berserker.

Given the Ancestral Guardian, Storm Herald, Totem, and Zealot your barbarian could be a Hermit struck by lightning who now deals with occasional surges, a Sage caught in a Library Fire that took a little of that fire with them. A misfit girl whose ancestors are determined to help her out, A Guild artisan who feels a kinship to eagles, a Haunted One blessed/cursed with power by a god.

As a class the Barbarian is a grab bag of options with the most common part being "fights better in an altered state while not wearing heavy armor"

exactly!

I'll note that the "right" subclass for Lal Qualandar was a bit problematic, and he was also held back a bit by his poor stats (I rolled mediocre, and his charisma was too low IMO). So it can be a bit challenging to the the background/roleplaying right - but like any good character, also very rewarding when done right

 

[ccs]

CCS statements like how hard is it too add a shield bonus make you sound as if you are lacking in empathy.

Have you ever played with someone w/ a learning disability?

Yes, I have.
And while I'm all for inclusiveness etc, I do not believe that it's a problem with the game if particular players cannot handle wether or not to add +2 to some #.
Fortunately there's 3 things that can help.
1) a pencil & a piece of paper (the character sheet) can go a long way solve this. You just write down the #s
AC: __
Unarmored Defense: ___
Use shield: +____
This isn't any different than filling in anything else on the sheet (Prof. Bonus/no Prof. Bonus comes to mind)
2) That persons fellow players.
3) The DM.

Have you ever had to do mathematical operations while breastfeeding your newborn, keeping an eye out on your 5 year old, worried about your big presentation Monday, and chronically sleep deprived for the last 3 months due to said newborn?

Hmm. The breastfeeding may be the tipping point here.
But the rest of that stuff (or similar) + bottle feeding never seemed to impair my own ability to +/-2.

Fortunately there's 3 things that can help.
1) a pencil & a piece of paper (the character sheet) can go a long way solve this. You just write down the #s
AC: __
Unarmored Defense: ___
Use shield: +____
This isn't any different than filling in anything else on the sheet (Prof. Bonus/no Prof. Bonus comes to mind)
2) That persons fellow players.
3) The DM.

 

[ccs]

A poster made a sarcastic comment about the difficulty of calculating AC with shield and without. I brought up a person with a learning disability to make the point that what is easy for one person may be incredibly difficult for another.

Oh. It seems that you've experienced some confusion in regards to what I posted.
THIS is the sarcastic part. "Oh No! 3 stat M.A.D.!"

The rest? Everything before & after that line? I was serious on that.

 

[BookBarbarian]

I enjoy a balance of roleplaying and tactical play. I enjoy the story as it unfolds and seeing what happens. People sometimes think because a barbarian isn't a skill monkey they have to sit on the sidelines until combat starts. But this isn't true at all. There is nothing stopping you from getting in on the roleplay and telling your characters story.

I feel the same way.

I like to play a wild warrior. I have a lot of options to do that, but a Barbarian has just the right amount of "buttons" that I can hit in combat to have a good time without having so many that I feel overwhelmed.

Other players might want more, which the game provides. Even others might want less which the game also provides