How are your barbarians faring?

[Zephrin the Lost]

Hey all,

I've been running 13th age for a while now and my group and I are all huge fans of the system. I will say the barbarian spends a lot of time staggered or worse. I thought it might be the player's reckless play style that was sending the barbarian down so often, but now that I'm taking a break from running I've decided to try a barbarian, and I can't seem to build one with decent ac. My first level draconic barbarian with a greatsword has an 18 st, 30 hp and ac 14. That seems more destined for a swift demise than iconic greatness.

Am I missing something? Should I embrace the huge damage/swift incapacitation that this class seems to offer? Does anyone have a long lived barbarian? Is there a thread on this already that I should be reading?

Thank you!

 

[Tun Kai Poh]

Our barbarians are definitely guided missiles, not tanks. Unlike rogues, which can disengage and evade more easily, or rangers, who actually have pretty decent AC, you have to be careful with barbarians. Make sure they can heal quickly in the middle of battle - Unstoppable or being a dwarf helps. Really, it is better to think of Conan the lithe thief than Arnie the Barbarian in this case. Attack opportunistically. Hit soft targets like a hunter-killer. Make sure the other players know you're not the tank - you don't have the AC for it.

 

[Bishop_]

The barbarian in my group feels like a glass-canon too.

For this, we house-ruled the class amount of hp gained by level: (9 + CON) x level rather than (7 + CON) x level.

Seems function. The barbarian is a canon yet, but less "glassier". And don't mess with the whole 13A system.

 

[Zephrin the Lost]

Thanks guys! I reworked the abilities a little and got an AC of 15. Taking the build for a spin tomorrow night- wish me luck!

 

[Wes_VTX]

Thanks guys! I reworked the abilities a little and got an AC of 15. Taking the build for a spin tomorrow night- wish me luck!

He's going to need it!!! (Yeah... I'm his GM)

 

[amerigoV]

The key to playing a barbarian in any system is to attack while the GMing is droning on about fluff, NPCs are talking, etc. Barbarians are individuals of action - kill it before it kills you if you will. When the GM opens their mouth to talk you should be rollin the dice.

You need to focus on the minimum needed to hit vs. the maximum amount of damage you can inflict. The goal is to kill it in the fewest attacks possible. If you are worried about AC, you are playing them wrong