Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Barbarian Class (Labyrinth Lord, James Mishler Games 2014)
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="trancejeremy" data-source="post: 6339567" data-attributes="member: 924"><p>Thanks pretty much to Conan (along with Red Sonja), the barbarian is seen as a classic fantasy archetype. So it's not too surprising it's often the subject of a new character class, originally (as far as I know) in White Dwarf #4, then an official version by Gary Gygax in Dragon magazine and then later Unearthed Arcana.</p><p></p><p><a href="http://jamesmishlergames.blogspot.com/2014/07/now-available-barbarian-class-for.html" target="_blank">The Barbarian Class</a> from James Mishler Games, written by James Mishler & Jodi Moran-Mishler, is pretty much the AD&D 1e barbarian, restated for Labyrinth Lord, and with some tweaks. So essentially a fighter that has a d12 for hit points, can jump, track, and climb while outdoors. Also something I didn't remember well was that the barbarian could use first aid and had something of a danger sense. The original barbarian had some skills related to the area he was from. That is true here, but instead of only a few different types of homeland, there are seven, which is quite nice.</p><p></p><p>On top of those abilities, this barbarian gets a few more. He can go into a berserk rage, something found in the 3.x barbarian. He also gets one favored enemy, much like the ranger, only +1 to hit and damage for every 5 levels he has.</p><p></p><p>One thing missing is the 1e barbarian's phobia of magic. That was somewhat unworkable in practice, because usually you had a magic-user in the party, and what would that player do, just not show up? Roll another character? No, you just ignored that rule. So good riddance. It also gets rid of all the bonuses the barbarian got to compensate for his unwillingness to use magic.</p><p></p><p>And in an answer to the problem of why shouldn't barbarians wear armor (as they are commonly depicted as being unclothed), there is an unarmored (mostly, you can still wear a loincloth and chainmail bikini) armor class bonus, improving by one for every three levels, as well as adding the charisma bonus.</p><p></p><p>All these extra abilities (over a fighter) come at a price, though, more XP needed to level. The official AD&D barbarian required a ridiculous amount to level, 6000 to make 2nd level, compared to the fighter only needing 4000, so would generally lag behind a full level until at 9th, the fighter would gain twice as many levels as the barbarian, as it only needed 250,000 to level, and the barbarian required 500,000.</p><p></p><p>This barbarian class has an easier time leveling at first, needing only 3000 xp to reach second level, doubling for each successive level, finally at 9th level and beyond needing 192,000 xp. This compares favorably to the Labyrinth Lord fighter's 120,000 xp after 9th level. The fighter will gain levels faster, and so the barbarian and fighter will stay roughly equal in "power" despite a level discrepancy. </p><p></p><p>The PDF is art free, but easy to read, even with the two columns of text. </p><p></p><p>Much like the original AD&D barbarian, this one might be somewhat overpowered and overly complex — I mean, it takes 5 two column pages to describe all its abilities. But on the other hand, it seems fun to play and probably not too outlandish, it's something I'd allow in my games.</p><p></p><p><strong>B+</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="trancejeremy, post: 6339567, member: 924"] Thanks pretty much to Conan (along with Red Sonja), the barbarian is seen as a classic fantasy archetype. So it's not too surprising it's often the subject of a new character class, originally (as far as I know) in White Dwarf #4, then an official version by Gary Gygax in Dragon magazine and then later Unearthed Arcana. [URL="http://jamesmishlergames.blogspot.com/2014/07/now-available-barbarian-class-for.html"]The Barbarian Class[/URL] from James Mishler Games, written by James Mishler & Jodi Moran-Mishler, is pretty much the AD&D 1e barbarian, restated for Labyrinth Lord, and with some tweaks. So essentially a fighter that has a d12 for hit points, can jump, track, and climb while outdoors. Also something I didn't remember well was that the barbarian could use first aid and had something of a danger sense. The original barbarian had some skills related to the area he was from. That is true here, but instead of only a few different types of homeland, there are seven, which is quite nice. On top of those abilities, this barbarian gets a few more. He can go into a berserk rage, something found in the 3.x barbarian. He also gets one favored enemy, much like the ranger, only +1 to hit and damage for every 5 levels he has. One thing missing is the 1e barbarian's phobia of magic. That was somewhat unworkable in practice, because usually you had a magic-user in the party, and what would that player do, just not show up? Roll another character? No, you just ignored that rule. So good riddance. It also gets rid of all the bonuses the barbarian got to compensate for his unwillingness to use magic. And in an answer to the problem of why shouldn't barbarians wear armor (as they are commonly depicted as being unclothed), there is an unarmored (mostly, you can still wear a loincloth and chainmail bikini) armor class bonus, improving by one for every three levels, as well as adding the charisma bonus. All these extra abilities (over a fighter) come at a price, though, more XP needed to level. The official AD&D barbarian required a ridiculous amount to level, 6000 to make 2nd level, compared to the fighter only needing 4000, so would generally lag behind a full level until at 9th, the fighter would gain twice as many levels as the barbarian, as it only needed 250,000 to level, and the barbarian required 500,000. This barbarian class has an easier time leveling at first, needing only 3000 xp to reach second level, doubling for each successive level, finally at 9th level and beyond needing 192,000 xp. This compares favorably to the Labyrinth Lord fighter's 120,000 xp after 9th level. The fighter will gain levels faster, and so the barbarian and fighter will stay roughly equal in "power" despite a level discrepancy. The PDF is art free, but easy to read, even with the two columns of text. Much like the original AD&D barbarian, this one might be somewhat overpowered and overly complex — I mean, it takes 5 two column pages to describe all its abilities. But on the other hand, it seems fun to play and probably not too outlandish, it's something I'd allow in my games. [B]B+[/B] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Barbarian Class (Labyrinth Lord, James Mishler Games 2014)
Top