Barbarian Class in this month's Dragon !

[GoodKingJayIII]

Well, color me disappointed.

On the one hand, it sucks. But on the other, it's difficult to pull off, and if the designers felt they weren't ready, I'm glad they decided to move away from it.

 

[Gort]

On the one hand, it sucks. But on the other, it's difficult to pull off, and if the designers felt they weren't ready, I'm glad they decided to move away from it.

To be honest, most of the classes have a fair bit of hybrid in them already. The fighter's a Defender/Striker, the Paladin a Defender/Leader, the Warlock a Striker/Controller... and so forth.

 

[That One Guy]

How about this: Normally the barbarian has a defender like ability, in which all enemies adjacent are considered marked. He gets another ability that is similar to the fighters combat challenge, but doesn't stop movement. When he goes into a rage, he gets added damage to all attacks, but loses the benefit of his marking "aura", and only a single target that is hit is considered marked, and only for that round.

Hey, that sounds cool. Even if they don't do that w/ the barb, I hope they do something similar later. It sounds sort of like an improved control fighter... and I like those a lot (but not as much as 2WFighters).

Personally, I'd like to see a striker who uses huge weapons to smash face, since we really don't have that now. The barbarian is pretty much the definition of that, and while I wouldn't have any problems with him being a defender, I think it'd be a shame to have huge weapons once again fall into a defender's hands.

Oh, and as far as raging is concerned, the Berserker Weapon enchant's power seems like a direction it could easily take.

........I agree fully.

I hate to say this, but I can't find any mention of the Barbarian on the Dragon ToC anymore. They'll probably change that later (I hope)... but it'd be lame if somehow that was a botch. It'd be like... a preview of a preview and make me sad.

 

[Wonka]

Looks as though the Barbarian might not be making it into this month's Dragon afterall. While the overall issue description still mentions the article as being in the issue, the TOC has been updated and no longer shows the Playtest article in it. Not ready for the public, conspiracy to wait to put it in the mag once you must start paying for them, or just a mistake of accidentally removing it form the TOC is up to YOU, the public to decide! Sorry, a bit of the flair for the dramatic there, just got done reading the new OOTS, blame Elan

EDIT: Appears I cannot read. I was ninjad by a few hours >.<

 

[ogre]

What if they do use both Striker and Defender, but not at the same time. Similar to all classes that have two choices in character concept, maybe the Barbarian, or the Druid and Bard for that matter, will have a role, umm based on role? So for instance, a Barbarian 'Rager' is a two-handed striker, or a Barbarian 'Warrior' is a spear and shield Defender.

This could be a really cool way to 'hybrid' without hybriding a particular character.

 

[ogre]

hehee Wonka, I just read it too! Your explanation is accepted :-0

 

[Solodan]

I'm hoping for a CON based striker or defender. It'd be cool if he is a defender and the mark made him rage! "Attack my buddy willl ya! Barb Smash!"

 

[Amphimir Míriel]

(Of course, the term 'barbarian' really oughtn't be a class anyway. Its more a cultural type. Barbarians - whatever they are - ought to be found in a variety of different classes: barbarian wizards, barbarian fighters, barbarian warlords, etc. But that ship sailed back in the AD&D days with the original Unearthed Arcana.)l

Syrsuro... Syrsuro!... Syrsuro!!

SYRSURO!!

Stop beating that poor horse! Its dead already!

 

[Syrsuro]

Syrsuro... Syrsuro!... Syrsuro!!

SYRSURO!!

Stop beating that poor horse! Its dead already!

Hey - it's a new edition. No time like the present to correct past mistakes.

Maybe they pulled it from the Dragon for a last minute edit to change its name to Berserker!

No?

Oh, well.

Carl

 

[frankthedm]

...What? No really, I'm curious.

I too only recently came to understand about the Ríastrad / Riastradh "Warp Spasm". Apparently the Irish mythological hero Cúchulainn has a good deal of divine power in him, maybe more than a half mortal ought to. In battles where gets really angry, his body warps and twists into an unstable killing machine.

“ The first warp-spasm seized Cúchulainn, and made him into a monstrous thing, hideous and shapeless, unheard of. His shanks and his joints, every knuckle and angle and organ from head to foot, shook like a tree in the flood or a reed in the stream. His body made a furious twist inside his skin, so that his feet and shins switched to the rear and his heels and calves switched to the front... On his head the temple-sinews stretched to the nape of his neck, each mighty, immense, measureless knob as big as the head of a month-old child... he sucked one eye so deep into his head that a wild crane couldn't probe it onto his cheek out of the depths of his skull; the other eye fell out along his cheek. His mouth weirdly distorted: his cheek peeled back from his jaws until the gullet appeared, his lungs and his liver flapped in his mouth and throat, his lower jaw struck the upper a lion-killing blow, and fiery flakes large as a ram's fleece reached his mouth from his throat... The hair of his head twisted like the tange of a red thornbush stuck in a gap; if a royal apple tree with all its kingly fruit were shaken above him, scarce an apple would reach the ground but each would be spiked on a bristle of his hair as it stood up on his scalp with rage. ”

—Thomas Kinsella (translator), The Táin, Oxford University Press, 1969, pp. 150-153