Would you let your player do this?

[Holy Bovine]

May I suggest you revisit this decision? This seems precisely the sort of thing that retraining was designed for, and the quickest and easiest way to satisfy everyone.

I would suggest this as well. It really is what retraining is all about (and if you are treating the alternate barbarian as a whole separate class there are even rules governing retraining levels as well).

A player in my group decided, at about 10th level, to have his pure fighter take some levels of cleric. 5 levels later (now a 12th Fighter/3rd Cleric) he felt that his spells were a waste as the full cleric 15 in the group could handle any healing the group needed and could turn undead too (something he had no chance at given the power of the undead they were facing). 6 weeks and 1500gp later he emerges from an intensive training regime at a nearby War College a full 15th level fighter. It is all about working with the player and hammering out a good story reason for this change and spending the time/money to get it done.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

May I suggest you revisit this decision? This seems precisely the sort of thing that retraining was designed for, and the quickest and easiest way to satisfy everyone.

Make it four in a row for this quote. This is precisely one of the reasons that the rules were put in. If you follow the retraining, you have RP reasons for the character change. Mechanically, both the player and the DM get what they want. By using retraining, you don't have to worry about the imbalancing prospects of dipping into barbarian. It really seems ideal to me.

Allow him to retrain from UA barbarian to regular barbarian. Done deal, everyone is happy.

 

[Darklone]

I'd allow him to get Extra Rage as feat and treat him as having Rage 0/day already. If that doesn't make him happy, I'd allow him to retrain.

 

[Warbringer]

What he said.

What he said, about what he said....

Find a roleplay reason. A quest... A possession... or something happens that drives the character into a psychotic rage after years of bottling up...

 

[William drake]

One of my players is playing an elven barbarian/cleric. At 1st level, he used the barbarian variant from UA, and chose the ranger's archery path rather than the ability to rage.

Now, 5 levels later, he has decided that he loves the thrill of melee far more than archery. He wanted to know if he could ever get the ability to rage.

I told him that I would not let him treat the UA variant as merely an alternative class feature that he could re-train (as per PH2), as it was really intended as a whole separate class (IMO).

But I was considering allowing him to take a level in "regular" barbarian. However, that would mean all the benefits of a "dip" class, as well as effectively doubling his level 1 barbarian bonuses.

Would you let your player do this? Or, alternatively, is there any other way he could get the ability to rage?

C

Well, right off the bat I wouldn't allow an elven barbarian...I think that is a human class, and with the already +'s for elves, I'd feel that the player is out for stat mods. NOW HE WANTS TO RAGE...elves arn't those sort of beings...humans bare the soul to anger; it was oden who cursed men to have the rage...tell the PLAYER NO

And if he really wants to play a barbarian that can rage, get ridd of the cheezy elf and play a HUMAN>

 

[Crothian]

What he said.

I'm with them. I would let the guy retrain.

 

[Sejs]

*shrug*

I'd just let him retrain his barbarian levels as Rage Barbarian instead of Archery Barbarian.

Same as if a fighter wanted to retrain his feats or a sorcerer wanted to retrain his known spells.

Focus on maximizing the fun. Bookkeeping should come second.

 

[Agamon]

While retraining your ability to "rage" makes little sense in game, metagame-wise, I'd go that route as well.

 

[Zaruthustran]

Would you let your player do this?
C

Sure, why not? The purpose of the game is to have fun. Retraining to a new class (heck, it's the same class with just different features) is well within the rules and allows the player to have more fun. I encourage you to let him do it, and what's more, offer the same opportunity to the other players.

But do let them know it's a special opportunity. You don't want your players re-speccing every level.

-z

 

[shilsen]

Well, right off the bat I wouldn't allow an elven barbarian...I think that is a human class, and with the already +'s for elves, I'd feel that the player is out for stat mods. NOW HE WANTS TO RAGE...elves arn't those sort of beings...humans bare the soul to anger; it was oden who cursed men to have the rage...tell the PLAYER NO

And if he really wants to play a barbarian that can rage, get ridd of the cheezy elf and play a HUMAN>

Riiiiight. Because the game is so much better if every elf is the same, every dwarf is the same, and so on. And if the guy really wanted to play for power and nothing else, he'd be doing a human or dwarven barbarian instead of an elf.

As for the OP's question, same answer here as from most of the posters. Let him do it.