Barbarian Class in this month's Dragon !

[Syrsuro]

I too only recently came to understand about the Ríastrad / Riastradh "Warp Spasm".

I'm not a big fan of Kinsella's "Warp spasm" as a term, probably because 'warp' has become some closely associated with unrelated Sci Fi terms (and because I believe it was chosen for reasons other than the original term's actually meaning). It is elsewhere translated as 'distortion' or 'contortion'.

But hyperbolic descriptions aside (apples stuck on spiky hair, eye's falling out, bones changing position - sounds almost lovecraftian) riastrad and berserkergang - and perhaps even the Malay mengamuk - all describe fairly similar effect (battle frenzy) and are the conceptual ancestors of the Barbarian Rage abiilty in 3.x.

Now if only we could find out what it looks like as a 4E power.

Carl

 

[That One Guy]

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 >.<

No worries. I time/mind ninja.

 

[ObsidianCrane]

Never mind...it helps to read the prior posts..

 

[ilmoin]

My bet is that the Barbarian's main power will look almost exactly like this:

Barbarian's Rage (minor; at-will) ✦ Fear, Healing
Close blast 5; one creature; the target becomes the object
of the barbarian's rage. The character's melee attacks deal an extra 1[W]
damage to the target, and if they reduce the target to 0 hit
points, you may spend a healing surge. You can designate only one
target as the object of your rage at a time.

Why? It's a re-written version of the Champion's Scorn power that a couple of the Orog in Bodrin's watch have. I'm betting they took the template from the barbarian, because it exactly fits what a berserking striker version of the class would have: huge damage output which encourages you to use a two-handed weapon, a healing power linked to the number of foes you kill to keep you alive.