D&D 5E [poll] Barbarian Satisfaction Survey

[Ancalagon]

A barbarian with the sage (researcher) background.

"You didn't put the books back where they belong! RRRRAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!"

A long storied hero archetype!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHbdoO7uCkk

 

[Croesus]

I voted "Mostly" because I really enjoy the Barbarian base class, but I see many Totem Warriors and almost no other kind of Barbarian. That tells me some balance tweaks might be necessary.

Yeah, the bear totem really is the best option, hands down. Half damage from everything (except the relatively rare psychic) pretty much means barbarians are always taking half damage. That's huge. I ran a game with two barbarian characters, one beserker, one bear totem. The former would actually get worried when faced with fire elementals and the like. The latter? He shrugged and waded in.

My fix would be to remove the bear totem, so barbarians are still very durable when facing normal foes, but should be concerned about the exotic.

The rule about Rage ending early is annoying.

Agreed. One of my fixes was to make a judgment call in certain situations. The bad guy ran into another room and locked the door behind him? The barbarian keeps his rage as he tries to batter down the door. The bad guy runs away and taunts the party. The barbarian keeps his rage as he pursues the guy. My solution is a bit too informal, however, so I'd like to see a simple rule that allows a barbarian to keep rage appropriately. Any suggestions?

 

[Blue]

Have played and played with barbarians, they might be the most common melee character I see at my FLGS. Only issue is no one plays Path of the Berserker because of how punishing exhaustion is.

So class as a whole is top notch, one subclasss is crippled.

 

[Istbor]

I picked "mostly", mostly because I've always preferred the idea of a barbarian going into a rage, not choosing to go into a rage. I liked 3E's PHB 2 rage variant where it was triggered at low HP, and 4E's Heroes of the Fey Wild variant that raged when bloodied. I know what the "x/day" rage "means", but deep down it always feels like "choosing" to rage, and then I get the image of a barbarian taking off their top-hat and monocle and saying "Good friends, I think it's time to get angry now".

The berserker could be altered too. I've seen a Totem (bear) played at level 5-7, and a battlerager played at 5-6. The battlerager's extra attack has been very useful (he doesn't have GWFing), and the totem barbarian's use of GWFing and Reckless Attack made him quite the force. Half damage while raging is one of my most favorite mechanics this edition; combined with Reckless Attack, it really feels like a barbarian.

Yeah. I have to agree with Yunru. The Gentleman Barbarian will come to pass! That will be my next Character for certain.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Speaking from a game design/DMing standpoint, I'm not a fan of the Barbarian. It's an almost entirely front-loaded class. Levels 6-19 of the Barbarian might as well not even exist--they are dominated by other classes. The most effective Barbarians are Barbarian/Rogues, Barbarian/Warlocks, and Barbarian/Bladesingers.

But. They work perfectly well as a "simple" class option, for players who don't want a lot of mechanical complexity. You can certainly have fun playing a barbarian.

It's just that in an edition where most classes are chock-full of features at every level, it offends my design sense to see a class with so many virtually-dead levels: if you thought the Champion's Improved Critical was a waste, just look at the Barbarian's Brutal Critical, which wastes three times as many levels to virtually no benefit! Or compare Relentless Rage with the Death Monk's Mastery of Death: the Barbarian's version is unreliable (can fail), has more preconditions (must be raging), doesn't protect against insta-kill, and is usable only 20% or so as often. Persistent Rage at 15th level removes an annoying feature of Rage, a limitation that e.g. Bladesingers never had in the first place, and that's all you get at 15th level. Between 1st and 20th levels, even the Rage bonus damage only increases by a meager +2! Even in an absolute best case scenario where a Barbarian is getting two attacks, a reaction attack, and a bonus action attack every round, that's still only +8 to damage if all of those attacks hit. You'll barely notice the difference; and you'd be better off as a Barbarian 5/Swashbuckler 15, with +8d6 (28) to damage instead of only +8, not to mention Evasion and Uncanny Dodge. (The Barbarian capstone gives another +2 to hit and +8 to damage, which isn't terrible, and sort of makes up for the lack of Swashbuckler sneak attack damage, but at every level below Barb 20 the Swashbuckler variant is still well ahead.)

The barbarian concept is fine, but they could have done so much better on the execution. For starters, double the Rage bonus damage scaling from +2 (1st level) to +4 (20th level) ==> +2 (1st) to +8 (20th). Make Relentless Rage worthwhile by capping the DC at [attack's rolled damage], so DC is [10 + 5 per use, or rolled damage, whichever is lower], so that a Barbarian can resist the slings and arrows of a goblin horde instead of falling to merely the third arrow (DC 20). I'm not sure what to do about Brutal Critical honestly, but maybe give it a rider: when you roll a critical hit, the enemy must save vs. Con or be stunned until the end of the round [or beginning of its next turn, if using PHB initiative], AND take the bonus damage. At 9th level, the DC is 8; at 13th level you get to add your proficiency bonus [DC 8 + prof]; at 17th level you get to add your Strength mod [DC 8 + Str + prof].

Do that and it would no longer feel like a waste to take a Barbarian past 5th-6th level.

 

[BookBarbarian]

I picked "mostly", mostly because I've always preferred the idea of a barbarian going into a rage, not choosing to go into a rage. I liked 3E's PHB 2 rage variant where it was triggered at low HP, and 4E's Heroes of the Fey Wild variant that raged when bloodied. I know what the "x/day" rage "means", but deep down it always feels like "choosing" to rage, and then I get the image of a barbarian taking off their top-hat and monocle and saying "Good friends, I think it's time to get angry now".

"That's my secret. I'm always angry." -Bruce Banner.

At some point it's just more satisfying when the Hulk/Barbarian/Berserker etc. gains control over its abilities. But I agree that level 1 is probably not that point.

 

[BookBarbarian]

I've liked barbarians form the moment they PHB released. The key for me has always been how well rage, and Reckless attack pair together. Like red meat and bloodwine.

The biggest complaint seems to be that the Totem option is the stronger. I'm not surprised for the simple reason that's its really 5 options with the potential of mixing and matching at DM discretion. Bear at 3 , Tiger at 6, with limited flight from eagle at 14 is one of my favorite combos.

That being said, I really liked the UA options. Ancestral Guardians is my new favorite Barbarian, and Zealot looked great too. A couple of the Storm options looked fun too.

 

[jgsugden]

Are we wailing at the wind here, or is there a plan to put this information in official hands that will make use of it?

 

[Sacrosanct]

Are we wailing at the wind here, or is there a plan to put this information in official hands that will make use of it?

What do you mean by "official"? Is anything discussed on a fan forum official? I pretty much gave the scope of this in my first post. If you're thinking someone at WoTC will use this for...whatever I guess, I don't know what they'd use if for...then my answer is "probably not".

 

[BookBarbarian]

Are we wailing at the wind here, or is there a plan to put this information in official hands that will make use of it?

I thought the entire point of Forums was wailing at the wind?