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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
How do you make a Barbarian interesting? :)
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<blockquote data-quote="Arial Black" data-source="post: 7402044" data-attributes="member: 6799649"><p>Exactly! The game mechanics of the class are not a role-playing straitjacket forcing you to be a loincloth-wearing savage Conan clone!</p><p></p><p>Be a super-civilised, highly trained warrior with anger management issues.</p><p></p><p>Take the Acolyte background and fluff the barbarian mechanics as a secret fighting style involving faith and focus.</p><p></p><p>In the Deathstalker books by Robert R Green, the Deathstalker clan is a noble house in a star-spanning futuristic empire. Each noble house had its own shtick, and the Deathstalkers had surgically implanted organs and other modifications that could release adrenaline and other engineered enzymes that temporarily increased their physical capabilities in combat, resembling D&D's Rage mechanic. They even had a limit of how many times they could 'rage' in a day, because it takes time and rest for the body to replenish those enzymes.</p><p></p><p>Or, y'know, just fluff some werewolf heritage into your family history.</p><p></p><p>All you have to do is divorce the game mechanics of this (or any other) class from any pre-conceived fluff. One way to get your mind thinking along these lines is to choose a background that the stereotypical Conan clone would never choose. If you choose Outlander, you're doing it wrong. Instead, choose Acolyte, Noble, Urchin, Folk Hero, Charlatan....whatever, and think about how the Rage mechanic could be fluffed for that ability to arise from that background. Once you've done that, your characterisation is half done, and you'll have a cool and refreshingly unique 'barbarian', without a loincloth is sight! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Arial Black, post: 7402044, member: 6799649"] Exactly! The game mechanics of the class are not a role-playing straitjacket forcing you to be a loincloth-wearing savage Conan clone! Be a super-civilised, highly trained warrior with anger management issues. Take the Acolyte background and fluff the barbarian mechanics as a secret fighting style involving faith and focus. In the Deathstalker books by Robert R Green, the Deathstalker clan is a noble house in a star-spanning futuristic empire. Each noble house had its own shtick, and the Deathstalkers had surgically implanted organs and other modifications that could release adrenaline and other engineered enzymes that temporarily increased their physical capabilities in combat, resembling D&D's Rage mechanic. They even had a limit of how many times they could 'rage' in a day, because it takes time and rest for the body to replenish those enzymes. Or, y'know, just fluff some werewolf heritage into your family history. All you have to do is divorce the game mechanics of this (or any other) class from any pre-conceived fluff. One way to get your mind thinking along these lines is to choose a background that the stereotypical Conan clone would never choose. If you choose Outlander, you're doing it wrong. Instead, choose Acolyte, Noble, Urchin, Folk Hero, Charlatan....whatever, and think about how the Rage mechanic could be fluffed for that ability to arise from that background. Once you've done that, your characterisation is half done, and you'll have a cool and refreshingly unique 'barbarian', without a loincloth is sight! :D [/QUOTE]
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