Barbarians are a race...

[Nifft]

IMHO "Barbarian" is a background rather than a race or class. "Background" is an LA +0 template, for which I'm considering two.

First, though, I had to add something to all regular PCs, so I can then take it away for the Barbarian and Noble backgrounds.

Normal
You know stuff related to your occupation.
Choose two Occupation skills from profession, craft, perform, or knowledge (architecture, history, local). You are considered "trained" in both, and to have maximum ranks for your level.

Savage
You do not gain Occupation skills.
Instead, you gain a +1 bonus on Climb, Heal, Jump, Swim and Survival checks, and these skills are always considered class skills for all of your classes.
You have access to Wilderness feats, and you gain a bonus Wilderness feat at 1st level, such as Fast Movement.

Noble
You do not gain Occupation skills.
Instead, you gain a +1 bonus to all your saving throws.
You have access to Bloodline feats, such as Wealthy.

... then write 4-5 feats for each background. You could also have backgrounds like Nautical, Horse Nomad, Slave, Gladiator, Insane Hell Dimension Escapee, etc.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Greg K]

"Barbarian" is a classification of culture that is primitive when compared the more advanced civilization that gave it that label.

The barbarian class in 3rd edition would be better off called something like Savage Berserker. By European standards, the Native American tribes were barbarian, but I don't think they had a tradition of flying into a berserker rage.

Agreed. However, as an aside, I find the barbarian hunter variant from Unearthed Arcana works well for non-raging warriors from "barbarian" cultures- especially when utilizing favored terrain (UA) and cultural based weapon groups (UA)

 

[Greg K]

The other side, which I tend to be on, looks as any class as a package of abilities that I can apply to a character to gain the social norm I am looking to create.
(text cut)
and barbarians could be the 'civilized' man who experienced a horrific event, causing him to draw upon an inner anger in battle.

With regards to the barbarian, I'd say it depends on whether the DM allows skill swapping as per customizing the character section of the PHB. As the class is written its' skill set and PHB class text support a rural/ wilderness based character So, without a lenient (? )DM, it doesn't, imo, do a good job of supporting some civilized guy from a city that can tap into inner rage.

 

[Greg K]

IMHO "Barbarian" is a background rather than a race or class. "Background" is an LA +0 template, for which I'm considering two.

First, though, I had to add something to all regular PCs, so I can then take it away for the Barbarian and Noble backgrounds.

Normal
You know stuff related to your occupation.
Choose two Occupation skills from profession, craft, perform, or knowledge (architecture, history, local). You are considered "trained" in both, and to have maximum ranks for your level.

Savage
You do not gain Occupation skills.
Instead, you gain a +1 bonus on Climb, Heal, Jump, Swim and Survival checks, and these skills are always considered class skills for all of your classes.
You have access to Wilderness feats, and you gain a bonus Wilderness feat at 1st level, such as Fast Movement.

No craft? What about flintknapping and crafting spear, bows, stone knives, stone axes?
No Perform? what about ritual dances and musics?
No Knowledge (history)? What about knowing tribal or clan history?

 

[Greg K]

IMHO "Barbarian" is a background rather than a race or class. "Background" is an LA +0 template, for which I'm considering two.

First, though, I had to add something to all regular PCs, so I can then take it away for the Barbarian and Noble backgrounds.

Normal
You know stuff related to your occupation.
Choose two Occupation skills from profession, craft, perform, or knowledge (architecture, history, local). You are considered "trained" in both, and to have maximum ranks for your level.

Savage
You do not gain Occupation skills.
Instead, you gain a +1 bonus on Climb, Heal, Jump, Swim and Survival checks, and these skills are always considered class skills for all of your classes.
You have access to Wilderness feats, and you gain a bonus Wilderness feat at 1st level, such as Fast Movement.

No craft? What about flintknapping and crafting spear, bows, stone knives, stone axes?
No Perform? what about ritual/ceremonial dances and musics?
No Knowledge (history)? What about knowing tribal or clan history?

 

[Nifft]

No craft? What about flintknapping and crafting spear, bows, stone knives, stone axes?
No Perform? what about ritual/ceremonial dances and musics?
No Knowledge (history)? What about knowing tribal or clan history?

Huh? I'm not taking away from class skills. I'm just not giving free bonus skills.

Which class lacks Craft?
How are Bards excluded from taking the Savage background?

-- N

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Have you taken a look at Frostburn's Neanderthal?

 

[Tagnik]

In my campaign I made Barbarians Berzerkers and Half Orcs into the Barbarian race.

Barbarians are the size of half orcs but they look human. They live in the Frozen North so I gave them the Endurance Feat for free. And sure, why not, they have darkvision. So what.


on a side note, I made Half Elves a seperate Race too, but I gave them the Run feat for free. Don't have a name for them yet.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Here is a the physical description of Wulfgar from the Forgotten Realms Wiki

"The physical build of Wulfgar is astounding, giving him incredible strength. He has even been known to crush a man's head with his bare hands, though it was not an easy task for him.[2] Wulfgar is nearly seven feet (2.1m) tall, with a broad and muscly chest. He has blond hair and a neatly trimmed beard."

Which is, surprise, within possible human characteristics. I went to school with several 7' tall people.

The other Barbarians are always described with similar size and strength. The Barbarians of Forgotten Realms are clearly different from the other humans in the setting. At some point there was a fork in the evolution. Even if you wanted to classify Barbarians as a sub race of humans. How many Dwarven, Elven, or Gnome Barbarian's were part of Wulfgar's clan? Or any clan for that matter?

The culture you're referring to is made up primarily of humans. That's pretty much the reason none of them are gnomes, elves, or dwarves.

And they're not significantly different enough. It's been a while since I read the early Drizzt stuff, but they were pretty obviously human, and referred to as such IIRC.

Barbarian is simply miscast as a class when it is a society or culture of people.

Well, strictly speaking it's the Greek word for foreigner (i.e. the Greeks heard "bar bar bar bar" when someone wasn't speaking Greek). In current practice, it means someone who's not civilized. In D&D parlance, it's also a specific term for a class, or a person who has levels in that class.

Therefore, it's possible to have a Barbarian (savage) Barbarian (class). It's also possible to have a Barbarian Fighter, or a Civilized Barbarian.

And the use of "barbarian" as a class title when it has specific cultural references has been brought up many, many times.

I don't care how everquest classifies races and classes. This has nothing to do with everquest, if you have something to say that is relevent to Dungeons & Dragons then by all means share it.

Actually, it does have bearing on your comment. That's exactly what you were looking for, in fact; barbarians in that game are a separate human subrace.

Personally, if you're looking to have an actual subrace, I'd go and use the Neanderthal stats from Frostburn. If it makes you feel better, the characters can visit a plastic surgeon to make them look tall, improbably bronzed, and Conanesque.

Brad

 

[Thurbane]

Am I the only person who thinks Barbarian's are a race and not a class?

I tend to agree, although it's difficult to represent in 3.5e