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Has D&D abandoned the "martial barbarian"?
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<blockquote data-quote="Blue Orange" data-source="post: 8367077" data-attributes="member: 7025997"><p>I always figured with the simplification of the combat system they had to give the barbarian something to give the class variety--'best at straight melee' is kind of the fighter's 'hat'.</p><p></p><p>As for miracles and witchcraft...I was reading a couple old anthropology books (comments from people more knowledgeable than me welcome), and it seems that a lot of cultures have these concepts, the difference being that religion/miracles is the socially acceptable variety, and witchcraft is the socially unacceptable variety, often involving harm to others. (Now, whether they're good or evil depends on what you think of society...you can easily imagine a setting where witches are the 'good guys/gals' resisting an oppressive society.) In a (historically accurate) medieval European setting of course the <em>only</em> appropriate supernatural force to invoke is God, or perhaps ask a saint to intercede on your behalf with Him. It's kind of like the old bit where <em>our</em> gods are gods and <em>their</em> gods are demons. </p><p></p><p>Basic Roleplaying's 'Magic Book' has essays written from the shamanic, clerical, and wizardry perspectives, where each of the three explains why <em>they</em> are the correct view and the other two are misguided, foolish, or immoral. (The shamanic perspective sounds a lot like indigenous Americans' views (or more likely the European-descended impression of them), the clerical like some mix of Wicca and Christianity, and the wizardly like a somewhat cocky scientific view.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Blue Orange, post: 8367077, member: 7025997"] I always figured with the simplification of the combat system they had to give the barbarian something to give the class variety--'best at straight melee' is kind of the fighter's 'hat'. As for miracles and witchcraft...I was reading a couple old anthropology books (comments from people more knowledgeable than me welcome), and it seems that a lot of cultures have these concepts, the difference being that religion/miracles is the socially acceptable variety, and witchcraft is the socially unacceptable variety, often involving harm to others. (Now, whether they're good or evil depends on what you think of society...you can easily imagine a setting where witches are the 'good guys/gals' resisting an oppressive society.) In a (historically accurate) medieval European setting of course the [I]only[/I] appropriate supernatural force to invoke is God, or perhaps ask a saint to intercede on your behalf with Him. It's kind of like the old bit where [I]our[/I] gods are gods and [I]their[/I] gods are demons. Basic Roleplaying's 'Magic Book' has essays written from the shamanic, clerical, and wizardry perspectives, where each of the three explains why [I]they[/I] are the correct view and the other two are misguided, foolish, or immoral. (The shamanic perspective sounds a lot like indigenous Americans' views (or more likely the European-descended impression of them), the clerical like some mix of Wicca and Christianity, and the wizardly like a somewhat cocky scientific view.) [/QUOTE]
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Community
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Has D&D abandoned the "martial barbarian"?
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