Barbarian Brainstorming

[IndifferentPerson]

WHAT CAN WE GIVE CONAN?

By no means consider all of these together, they're individual ideas.

•Deathless Frenzy: Death ward bonuses, during rage and if focused, immunity to death(HP falls below 0 but doesn't dies till rage wears off).

•Damage Return: Mentioned by Mithreas, when the barbarian is hit, damage is returned.

•Terrifying Rage: Increase effective character level by +1 when using terrifying rage, so it's not useless against level 30 characters.

•Increased DR progression: Increase the rate of how DR progresses, or increase it during rage only.

•Battlefury: Maybe too difficult to get it done? The lower the HP, the higher your damage/AB are. Could be by % or maybe even by CL/HP, so the higher the HP a barbarian has, the higher is the potential for this.

•Fearless: Immunity to fear during rage, no raging barbarian should have the common sense to know fear!

•Unstoppable Force: Given at a higher level, immunity to paralyzation effects during rage.

•Fast Healing: Mentioned by Seven, during rage the barbarian gains fast healing that scales with levels.

•Berserking Assault: The longer a barbarian stays focused on a single target, the higher his AB/damage against that individual is.

•Brute Strength: If no shield is equipped(1h, 2h or dual wield), the barbarian gains a damage bonus.

[Ecstatic]

T-rage: What I would like to see is an outright rework of this ability to work as follows: Every hostile target within line of sight must make a will save vs fear against a DC of 10 + 1/2 Barbarian (class?) Levels + Highest of Str or Con modifier. Those failing their save become panicked for 1 round per 4 levels of barbarian, actually uses fear effect, so saving throws versus fear and immunity to fear apply correctly. No longer respects level of targets. This would remove the strange and very meta-thinking oriented "character levels matter more than character sheets" approach to the feat which leaves this feat more dangerous to a level 29 with 30 will than to a level 30 with 5 will. It would compensate for it by removing the ability to crank the DC up to the low 60s with feats or gear; DC should fall out in the high 30s. Honestly, I'd love to go through the game and find every feat/ability that arbitrarily doesn't work against higher level targets and remove that restriction, but that's for another thread.

Greater Rage and Mighty Rage: I would love to see these tweaked to apply raw +AB, +Damage, +HP bonuses. Possibly additional bonuses granted to physical damage immunity during rage time, such that while raging with the Mighty Rage feat, the barbarian got 15% extra physical damage immunity, and 30% PDI with mighty rage. Possibly worthwile as well to swap out the base barbarian /- DR for a percentage immunity, at 2% per point. This way, a barbarian with 5/- DR would instead have 10% physical immunity. Thus, between armor, level based immunity, and rage bonuses, the barbarian could manage 50% physical damage immunity while raging.

[Seven Sons of Sin]

I have a completely different outlook as to both the spirit and the mechanics of the "barbarian" class.

Barbarian obviously refers to Conan the Barbarian, who probably popularized the term in the 1920s, at least in regards to the fantasy landscape. But I think the barbarian should take a completely different approach, and look at something more 'historical' (because really, a barbarian is an insult to someone who you believe to be of a lesser or less civilized society). But it's all in the eye of the beholder.

Ugrab mentioned in the Fighter Thread of the old forums about a desire to demonstrate ethnic variation in roleplay - the difference between a samurai-fighter and a swashbuckler-fighter, for example. There are roleplaying differences, as they are mechanical differences. Mithreas' response was great, (and you said stuff along these lines also, Ecstatic), in that opening up to stronger, more general, mechanics allows for greater variation.

Something we absolutely need to see.

So, I don't like tying things off of rage, per se. But I do like the spirit of dragoneye's "hit fast, (potentially) die fast" of a barbarian. And I think that's where the mechanical differentation can occur between the barbarian and ranger and fighter. Fighters are undoubtedly about now being heavily armoured, lots of feats, and lots of survivability. Rangers are diverse, dual-wielding, stealthy, naturey.

Where does that leave a barbarian?

Speed and ferocity.

I think this kind of ties in with some other historical ideas I had floating around too. Some of the more popular wars wherein the Europeans called others "barbarians" were against the Moslems, the Zulus, the Mongols, and so forth. They all had speed and ferocity.

Does that mean more ragey power? Eh.

I'd love to see barbarians give more,

Movement Speed. "Unlock" more umph in 2-handed weapons. Greater benefits of Power Attack. Something like Blinding Speed. More elemental resistance - I'd love them to get Resist Elements (the epic feat) at level 10, 20, and 30. Give them Toughness at level 1. Monk movement speed progression.

Barbarians should be the "DPS-y" class that doesn't rely on stacked sneak attacks or WM-absurd crits. But they should be all about movement, and bursty-ness. I think that's where I can see them fit mechanically, and also in a rp manner.

edit: outside of the monk, I don't think Arelith in general has enough classes/mechanics that fulfill the niche of movement mechanics. Monks, yes, but monks couple that manueverability with a boatload of feats, and offensive/defensive ideas. Barbarians? Give them speed, and give them strength. Put them on par with the speed of the monks, and amplify their damage, but they will still retain the inherent weakness of low AC, and low will saves. I think that needs to be retained.

[Barradoor]

Mandatory moustaches and huge biceps.

[Tathkar Eisgrim]

If we were talking historical barbarians, I would love to see Archery bonuses from horseback proportional to ride skill investment and a summonable horse. But... probably not going to happen...

[Tathkar Eisgrim]

edit: outside of the monk, I don't think Arelith in general has enough classes/mechanics that fulfill the niche of movement mechanics.

Give Barbarians a 'Leap' ability like the Panthers of the Swamps?

[What_Evil_Lurks]

*RageLancePounce*

For Pathfinder players alone I guess.

[SwampFoot]

Keeping with Seven's theme. Remove armor speed penalty in medium armor when not holding a tower shield (heavily armored Barbarians and those carrying a tower suffer the current speed reduction).

Add a haste effect to one of the epic rages, Thundering, perhaps.

[Juke The Spuke]

I know this isn't a massive thing but would it be completely off character to give barbarians the ability to eat raw meat? I know this may sound strange to some and I may be attributing barbarians with savages here but it's just something I happened to think of.

[What_Evil_Lurks]

Um.

[Hamatreya]

Wat

[Thake]

I know this isn't a massive thing but would it be completely off character to give barbarians the ability to eat raw meat? I know this may sound strange to some and I may be attributing barbarians with savages here but it's just something I happened to think of.

I have a Barbarian who does this already. All the time.

[Juke The Spuke]

I know this isn't a massive thing but would it be completely off character to give barbarians the ability to eat raw meat? I know this may sound strange to some and I may be attributing barbarians with savages here but it's just something I happened to think of.

I have a Barbarian who does this already. All the time.

Mechanically or through roleplay? Anything's possible to RP but I meant more or less hunting animals and eating the meat without cooking to replenish some (however small an amount) of hunger.

--

As for Rage improvements you could have Rage heal you for X amount of HP per level upon use and allow the use of Rage even when you're already Raging. Stacking certain bonuses would also be neat but the downside is you go further down the crazy route and at the end of that is Confusion. This would cause a completely Berserk Barbarian to start attacking his friends as well as his foes.

So making the Rage a case of managing your power with control. The more power you have the less control you have of what you're doing.

[Tathkar Eisgrim]

Give Barbarians Favoured Enemy feat options:

- Favoured Enemy: Warlocks
- Favoured Enemy: Wizards
- Favoured Enemy: Clerics

[Juke The Spuke]

In fact, speaking of technical limitations, would it be possible to have another Status meter similar to Sobriety called Sanity (original I know) that would cause Confusion when it's below a certain percentage? Using Rage would bring down Sanity. Introduce a bunch of bonuses like healing, aoe nuke, etc. that you can use more often than simply waiting for the Rage to expire before using it again.

[dragoneyeIIVX]

Rage Meter (Like a status Meter): Build up rage in combat, unleash super-rages.

Slightly more specific: starts at 0%, builds up as combat happens, and drains every tick, just like other statuses. Rage is reset to 0% after rage. If a Barbarian rages at (say) 10%, they get X perk. If they rage at 40% they get X + Y perk. ETC. Rage feats give better bonuses/easier raging/higher minimum rage/whatever.

[Seven Sons of Sin]

I like that!

I like "frenzy" more, but now my postmodernism is coming out.

With everything said, my hope is that whatever suggestion or update is ever implemented forsakes the shallow "rawr rawr" culturally offensive concept of what a "barbarian" is, and instead focuses on this ethnic-wild unorthodox heavy-hitting mobile warrior.

Barbarians are a class I would be comfortable with giving them 5/- to all physical elements (cold, fire) every 10 levels, and then a choice of a non-physical at level 15 and 30 (acid, electrical, sonic, positive and negative)

Damage resistance synergizes well with the inherent DR.

Drunken bonuses also need to be completely scrapped.

[Alchuilas]

Many of those original suggestions sound fantastic; enhanced movement speed, deathless frenzy, and unstoppable force all sound ideal.

[dragoneyeIIVX]

Drunken bonuses also need to be completely scrapped.

Aww, they're just fun though! I really enjoy the silly things in Arelith.

[Seven Sons of Sin]

Well I guess if you keep them as is, they're completely optional and not at all necessary!