D&D General Has D&D abandoned the "martial barbarian"?

[Greg K]

Conan can't realistically be created by D&D rules. It's been tried in pretty much every edition (not sure if someone tried in 4E, but I know the rest), and none of them ever quite fit.

Mearls stated in the past that the 4e Fighter (and not the Barbarian) was modeled off Conan.

 

[Blue Orange]

When it comesto the shapeshifting barbarian, I think the class could emcompass all levels of the spectrum of man to wolf

When you rage, you are a...

1. Path of the Ulfhednar- Man who fights like a wolf
2. Path of the Totem Warrior- Man with wolf powers
3. Path of the Beast - Man with wolf body parts
4. Path of the Lycantrope- Half Man Half Wolf
5. Path of the ???- Wolf with Man intelligence

Homid, Glabro, Crinos, Hispo, Lupus...oh wait, that's another game.

Heck, you could pick a couple of animals at once, and cause problems for survivors describing the scene...
"He's half man, and half bearpig."
"No dude, he's half man, half bear, and half pig."
"That doesn't even make any sense."
"He could be half bear, half manpig."
"There's no such thing, the chancellor's just desperate for attention."

 

[Tonguez]

That's my point. The barbarian went from a warrior of power, speed, and toghness to a rager. Then D&D made the rage more and more supernatural.

So today in 5e. the only remanants of the "warrior who is just very strong, fast, and tough that doesn't read weapon maunals during free time" is the barbarian berserker and the champion fighter. And neither fully capture the spirit of this traditional archetype fully either.

The original d&d Barbarian was specifically Anti-Magic, strong, fast, able to shrug off spells and slay wizards.
Id love for that Barbarian to be updated, let them be so much about physicality that their rage actively suppresses magic

 

[le Redoutable]

Conan is not Thoth Amon's apprentice. By any stretch of the imagination.

In Howard's work he deals with stuff having to do with the sorcerer priest only twice. The God in the Bowl, where he's hired to steal a bowl that has Thoth Amon's sigil imprinted on it, and The Phoenix Sword, where Thoth Amon works with Ascalante to try and overthrow Conan, King of Aquilonia. They never meet in either story.

Derleth and other writers wind up expanding his interactions with the sorcerer by making them nemeses.

As to Conan's ethnicity, he is a Cimmerian, roughly analogous to Irish or Scottish. His skin has a ruddy tone because he's in the sun all the time and has a tan. He's not a Pict or a Native American.

in the Comics, Toth Amon seems really interested to take Conan as an apprentice

now, perhaps the comics is a betrayal from the Robert E. Howard's books

 

[Steampunkette]

in the Comics, Toth Amon seems really interested to take Conan as an apprentice

now, perhaps the comics is a betrayal from the Robert E. Howard's books

on the opposite, aren't Native Americans a bit like Barbarians, happy with beasts and always on the run ?

He's interested in taking Conan as his apprentice, but Conan doesn't wish to succumb to corruption. Even as King of Aquilonia he retains this trait, which is why the people come to loathe him.

As to the last part of your post: No. Not remotely. And also that's a racist stereotype. Honestly, you should probably drop it before you get modsmacked.

If you're actually interested in learning about Native Americans don't ask a random white chick on a gaming forum about them. Use the internet to find Native American writing and works to learn through them.

 

[le Redoutable]

He's interested in taking Conan as his apprentice, but Conan doesn't wish to succumb to corruption. Even as King of Aquilonia he retains this trait, which is why the people come to loathe him.

As to the last part of your post: No. Not remotely. And also that's a racist stereotype. Honestly, you should probably drop it before you get modsmacked.

If you're actually interested in learning about Native Americans don't ask a random white chick on a gaming forum about them. Use the internet to find Native American writing and works to learn through them.

ouais ouais, I must be a fool; so I remove the topic and it's ok ?

 

[Ancalagon]

He's interested in taking Conan as his apprentice, but Conan doesn't wish to succumb to corruption. Even as King of Aquilonia he retains this trait, which is why the people come to loathe him.

As to the last part of your post: No. Not remotely. And also that's a racist stereotype. Honestly, you should probably drop it before you get modsmacked.

If you're actually interested in learning about Native Americans don't ask a random white chick on a gaming forum about them. Use the internet to find Native American writing and works to learn through them.

English is not his first language. I believe that the intent of his post is to expose the idea that the concept of barbarian is problematic. Think about it. What is a barbarian, the root of the word? It's a greek term for a foreigner (who didn't speak greek properly. they mocked the foreign languages as sounding like "bar bar bar").

buuuuuuut I could be entirely wrong about his intention. That was my read on his post, but he's challenging to converse with.

 

[Charlaquin]

Homid, Glabro, Crinos, Hispo, Lupus...oh wait, that's another game.

I prefer Hishu, Dalu, Gauru, Urshul, Urhan

 

[Northern Phoenix]

English is not his first language. I believe that the intent of his post is to expose the idea that the concept of barbarian is problematic. Think about it. What is a barbarian, the root of the word? It's a greek term for a foreigner (who didn't speak greek properly. they mocked the foreign languages as sounding like "bar bar bar").

buuuuuuut I could be entirely wrong about his intention. That was my read on his post, but he's challenging to converse with.

The English word "Barbarian" has Greek roots, but other languages, such as Chinese, have different words with the same meaning: Those outside of civilization, outside of cities, hierarchy and order as we see it.

However, in DnD 5e, this general type of person is represented by the "Outlander" background, while the "Barbarian" Character Class represents a fantasy archetype hero, drawing primarily from the history of fantasy itself up until whenever the book was written. The Barbarian of early DnD draws on Conan and his literarily palls, not just the old novels, but especially the adaptions and pastiches up until the 1970s. The modern Barbarian class draws on this too, but also heavily from video games which feature and have developed the concept after lifting it from old DnD. A circular development.

 

[Steampunkette]

English is not his first language. I believe that the intent of his post is to expose the idea that the concept of barbarian is problematic. Think about it. What is a barbarian, the root of the word? It's a greek term for a foreigner (who didn't speak greek properly. they mocked the foreign languages as sounding like "bar bar bar").

buuuuuuut I could be entirely wrong about his intention. That was my read on his post, but he's challenging to converse with.

Maybe that's his intention, but it's not how I read it. In which case I apologize.

That said... yeah. Barbarian was a Greek word for anyone who didn't speak their language. They had a running meme that the languages of Europe sounded like "Barbarbar Bar! BAR!" roughly equivalent to barking.

Part of why Berserker is the LevelUp class, which I generally support.