Which one is harder - the fighter or the barbarian ?

[Solana]

Which one is harder - the fighter or the barbarian ?

please let me introduce myself
i am steven from north wales i have personally played as 4 fighters sinch i started DND 3/4 years ago and my other group members have played DND for up to 15 years each. A few of them have played as barbarians, frenzied bezerkers and others. I have put the question to my group and the results we inconclusive now i wish to place this enigmatic question to the users of enworld. If you wish to create some characters for both sides to fight it out with your own DND groups then please submit the character as following

Any book allowed in forgotten realms setting

Level 14
Stats - 18, 17, 14, 14, 13, 11
any race allowed in the DMG or Savage Species

enjoy and debate to your hearts content

 

[LokiDR]

Harder - what? Harder to construct? Harder to kill? Harder to defeat? Harder to powergame?

Given the books involved, there can be no answer to these questions. Any character one person makes, someone else can defeat. There really isn't any point to it.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Literally spoken, barbarians are harder - they have d12 hp (and can increase their HP with rage, at least temporally) and even get damage reduction that cannot be overcome with physical attacks.

But "harder" meaning "being the better character class" or "dealing more damage per round": that can vary (note that the fighter's power greatly depends on the number of feats available to him: a fighter in a campaign where he can use lots of d20 sources has more potential than a fighter in a campaign where only the core rules are used. While this is true for every character, the fighter with his many bonus feats feels that the most).

 

[Naar]

Assuming you mean harder in the sense of harder to kill/tougher, it's probably the Barbarian. Although he's likely to have a lower AC than the Fighter, the right feats (like Roll With It) can make him pretty good at shrugging off physical damage. Just don't go anywhere near a Telepath...

 

[Magic Rub]

Given the books involved, there can be no answer to these questions. Any character one person makes, someone else can defeat. There really isn't any point to it.

True Dat

What LokiDR said

 

[satori01]

I hope Eric's grandma doesnt read between the lines

look at the title of this thread.

Now look and see that this thread was started by "magic rub"

hmmm......

 

[satori01]

I hope Eric's grandma doesnt read between the lines

look at the title of this thread.

Now look and see that this thread was started by "magic rub"

hmmm......

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Re: I hope Eric's grandma doesnt read between the lines

look at the title of this thread.

Now look and see that this thread was started by "magic rub"

hmmm......

Except that the thread was started by Solana.

I'm going to have to go with fighter here. There are a lot of feats out there that can make a character tougher to take down, (Dodge, Expertise,) and there are feats to allow a character to do more damage (Improved Crit, Monkey Grip, TWF,) and there are feats to allow PCs to do even more damage (Shield Charge,) and be even tougher, (Dwarf's/Giant's/Dragon's Toughness). With his abundance of feats, a fighter can be tougher than a barbarian if that's what he's designed to be.

 

[Darklone]

Agreed. The fighter overall tends to be tougher, dishs out a LITTLE bit less damage and survives longer.

But barbarians have more style. As well as skill points. Add some sneak attacking enemies, and the fighter will usually go down faster. Add some mages, and the fighter will be the one who usually has a feat left for Iron Will.

Lvl15 char... Personally, I'd go for a Minotaur barbarian. Gives you some puny DR (perhaps Roll with it), nice bang for the buck and nooo whimpy spell like abilities.

 

[Dark Jezter]

In the current version, I'd say that the fighter and barbarian are about the same at lower levels, while at higher levels the fighter is slightly stronger if he chose his feats carefully.

In 3.5e, however, it's looking as though barbarians who use two-handed weapons will be the kings of melee combat, due to the strengthening of the barbarian class and the increased damage that the Power Attack feat will grant to two-handed weapon users. Even the fighter's new weapon-specific feats (Greater Weapon Specialization, Greater Weapon Focus) will have a hard time keeping up with the new barbarian.