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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BASHMAN" data-source="post: 6379450" data-attributes="member: 8277">I love Unarmored Defense.  I made a barbarian in the very early playtest who I "re-skinned" as a ninja.  Her resistance to damage was not because of true "rage" but of a River-Tam-esque battle trance mode, where she blocks attacks without even looking, etc. In all the playtests, a Dex-based barbarian was a viable option (except the secret playtest that we commoners weren't allowed to take part in).  There was even an archetype that focused on it (Hawk Totem, which was much better than Eagle Totem is now, generally speaking) that allowed you to get Advantage on Dex-based attacks while raging using Reckless attack (and if you were raging, Reckless attack didn't give enemies Advantage against you then either). I ended up with a character with a 19 Dex and 17 Con after all the Ability score boosts from leveling.  AC 17.  She also had Mobility feat which she used to ninja-flip her way around the battlefield. When the PHB barbarian was announced, I went through the stages of grief for the loss of the Dexbarian build.  Never again would she attack with Advantage from her trance/rage, for her Strength was a mere 14 and her dex was much higher.  On the bright side, she would not have to worry about giving enemies Advantage from attacks due to the change to that feature as well. The last stage, was Acceptance, and instead of doing some super-cheese rebuild multi-classing into Fighter and Rogue as well, I kept her straight Barbarian when the GM allowed re-builds. She switched from Hawk totem to Eagle, and while Hawk was generally better for her offense (and jumping ability was amazing) it also allowed her to drop one of her feats which basically did the same thing (Mobility gives similar benefits to Eagle Totem at a certain level).  She bumped Dex up to 20 and Con up to 18.  Now she has an AC of 19. The Eagle totem ability lets enemies take AoO on her when she ninja-flips past them; but it is with Disadvantage.  In a way, this is a bit better because she can run in, and rob a bunch of enemies of their AoO so that allies don't have to worry about it.  She also can Dash as a bonus action, so she moves even FASTER than she could before! On the rare occasions they hit, she takes half damage.  She is a mobile tank who helps other PCs be more mobile.  She is also a bit of a trouble-shooter herself; moving to different areas of the battle where she is needed rather than standing in one spot and constantly wailing on one target. She still gets to attack with Advantage pretty often; but now it is because of stealth (she took Wolf Totem at a higher level, letting her Stealth at full speed). Her mobile nature also allows her to move to take advantage of certain situations, like when an enemy is prone, she moves up to it and hits with Advantage. This means she still gets in a decent number of crits. So she is a more defense-focused Barbarian.  She doesn't use the offensive features of her class (unless there is a fist-fight). Her +1 Katana (GM granfathered in Katanas as Finesse Weapons; it was my one special consideration throughout for character design) does d10+6 damage 2-handed. If she chose to use STR to hit, she'd do d10+5 dmg (albeit with Advantage) but she'd have to give targets Advantage against her... and that just doesn't seem to be her style.  She prefers not being hit, and when she is, she takes half damage.  That is good enough of a feature for her.</blockquote>

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