D&D 5E Barbarian preview!

[Kavon]

he looks just like a common lumberjack.

He cuts down trees, he skips and jumps,
He likes to press wild flowers.
He puts on women's clothing
And hangs around.... In bars?

 

[AstroCat]

Looks like a Ranger with an animal companion.

Could be, but to me it's kinda sad that the ranger with companion is more of a barbarian than the actual barbarian. How about these guys... another quick search. They all say barbarian to me a lot more than the PHB image.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

That is not Keith Parkinson, that is Clyde Caldwell.

This is Riverwind (and Goldmoon) by Keith Parkinson:

View attachment 63189

That's a rather lovely picture.

It's worth noting, for this thread, that as far as I know, Riverwind has never be stat'd up in an official source as a Barbarian (AFAIK!) - I brought him up as an example of a Ranger in another thread, and people with official stats for him had him as a Fighter, or Fighter/Ranger.

Further, he isn't in any way a berserker or rager (generally a fairly calm figure, unless Goldmoon is threatened), so the D&D Barbarian seems like a poor fit for him. In general he seems like one of those characters slightly ill-served by D&D's class structure, who fights as well in little/no armour as those in heavy armour (which is something Barbarians do in 5E, I note), doesn't have any magical powers, doesn't have an animal companion, doesn't rage and so on. In 5E I think a Fighter sub-class which borrowed the Barbarian unarmoured Fighting deal (and ditched heavy armour training), and perhaps gave two extra skills and some vaguely wilder-ness-y stuff (avoiding treading directly on Ranger toes) would be the way to go.

I have to say, I'd be pretty uncomfortable with a clearly Native American-based character like him (even if in the books it was more vague, in the art it always seems that way) being shown as a "Barbarian", given the connotations of the term and the D&D specifics. Vaguely Viking seems smart because it ties in with powers of the class (berserker rage), challenges the concept of exactly what a barbarian is (Vikings certainly got called Barbaros and the like by the Byzantines!), and avoids "othering" the Barbarian. I mean, that's precisely what the Greeks and others used the term to do, but D&D certainly shouldn't follow that lead - hell even Plato was saying that was a bloody stupid way to use the term in 262 BC!

 

[Klaus]

That's a rather lovely picture.

It's worth noting, for this thread, that as far as I know, Riverwind has never be stat'd up in an official source as a Barbarian (AFAIK!) - I brought him up as an example of a Ranger in another thread, and people with official stats for him had him as a Fighter, or Fighter/Ranger.

Riverwind and Goldmoon's culture was called "Plains Barbarians", but Riverwind was always a Ranger (Tanis, although he *looks* like a Ranger, was actually a half-elf Fighter).

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Riverwind and Goldmoon's culture was called "Plains Barbarians", but Riverwind was always a Ranger (Tanis, although he *looks* like a Ranger, was actually a half-elf Fighter).

I know what they're called, but I think you'd agree that they obviously aren't capital-b Barbarians in a D&D sense, and I rather wonder if their culture will be called that in a modern Dragonlance supplement. I somewhat suspect otherwise. In his own book he's called a "Plainsman", not a "Plains Barbarian", which would be an epithet stuck on him by the supposedly-civilized cultures of Anaslon.

 

[Hussar]

I know what they're called, but I think you'd agree that they obviously aren't capital-b Barbarians in a D&D sense, and I rather wonder if their culture will be called that in a modern Dragonlance supplement. I somewhat suspect otherwise. In his own book he's called a "Plainsman", not a "Plains Barbarian", which would be an epithet stuck on him by the supposedly-civilized cultures of Anaslon.

Again, though, it has to be noted that the association with raging and barbarians is a much, much later addition to the game. AD&D barbarians, a la the original Unearthed Arcana had none of the raging abilities and were more concerned with destroying magic than being engines of destruction.

Funny thing about Riverwind's images (thanks Klaus for finding that one) is that Riverwind in the game is as strong, if not stronger, than any of the Heroes of the Lance. IIRC, the only stronger character is Caramon (or possibly Sturm, I can never remember which one is actually stronger in stats) yet in the books, he's never described as being huge. Wirey I believe is the phrase that gets tossed around a lot.

 

[Klaus]

I know what they're called, but I think you'd agree that they obviously aren't capital-b Barbarians in a D&D sense, and I rather wonder if their culture will be called that in a modern Dragonlance supplement. I somewhat suspect otherwise. In his own book he's called a "Plainsman", not a "Plains Barbarian", which would be an epithet stuck on him by the supposedly-civilized cultures of Anaslon.

Dragonlance was funny with those terms. They had Mountain Barbarians (Vikings), Ice Barbarians (Inuit), Plains Barbarians (Native Americans), Desert Barbarians (Touaregs) and Sea Barbarians (pirates).

 

[Reynard]

Funny thing about Riverwind's images (thanks Klaus for finding that one) is that Riverwind in the game is as strong, if not stronger, than any of the Heroes of the Lance. IIRC, the only stronger character is Caramon (or possibly Sturm, I can never remember which one is actually stronger in stats) yet in the books, he's never described as being huge. Wirey I believe is the phrase that gets tossed around a lot.

If I recall, he was noted for his unusual height, where Caramon was the one with the huge physique.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Dragonlance was funny with those terms. They had Mountain Barbarians (Vikings), Ice Barbarians (Inuit), Plains Barbarians (Native Americans), Desert Barbarians (Touaregs) and Sea Barbarians (pirates).

Haha, good point! I'd forgotten "Sea Barbarians".

 

[The Black Ranger]

Apparently not here!

Most of my D&D group knows who he is. I've known who he was since I was about 11.

Considering that he's awesome, it's a disappointment. To be fair, he's more of a Barbarian/Rogue or Barbarian/Fighter/Rogue than a Barbarian alone, though.



Pretty sure Ffhard and the Grey Mouser could have double-teamed Conan very effectively (book or film, and I say that loving both).

Hmmm. That came out wrong. I'm just going to with it.

Nah!

The Grey Mouser would be too busy checking out Conan's women to be of any use.