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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hawk Diesel" data-source="post: 7870536" data-attributes="member: 59848">I played a Zealot Barbarian through level 10 and had a blast. The resistance and advantage on attacks is great, as are advantage on initiative checks and power critical. I've also played a paladin with anger issues until level 8, and finally felt right to take a level of barbarian for 9. It literally doubled that character's toughness with rage's resistance alone.In my experience, the trick is:1) Finding a fun personality and quirk to make interactions more fun outside of combat. For example, my full barbarian was superstitious and abhorred the use of magic, believing it was the path to the devil and a crutch. Considering I was in a party of mostly magic users, and it became a fun source of banter (I know the line and never let their use of magic become a point of contention or PvP, just bickering and jibber jabber).2) Find ways to use your barbarian gifts out of combat. Their danger sense makes them great scouts when traps may be present. And their ability to rage can allow great feats of strength outside of combat (such as tossing allies across a canyon that they couldn't jump, or busting down doors). In combat its also helpful when you have that advantage on strength checks. Not only can you grapple a foe and knock them prone so that everyone can get advantage on their attacks, but it also becomes helpful when you need to drag a bad guy away from a fallen ally.On the DM's side of it, it's important to find opportunities to let barbarians have moments to shine outside combat, remind players to play up their backgrounds, and create situations in combat that encourage tactics other than "I hit this thing until it falls" (as well as reward creativity when the players attempt more creative actions).Personally, I think many martial classes suffer from this issue to varying degrees, because magic provides for so much utility. So for players choosing such classes, its important to make sure they are ok with simplified combat tactics, or are able to have fun with the character in a way that is not directly attached to their mechanics.</blockquote>

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