New Human cultural sub-type, Barbarian.
ZanathKariashi
Member Posts: 2,869
Same as a Common Human except ----
Base Classes available:
Fighter, Cleric, Druid, Ranger. Can dual-class.
Available kits:
Berserker, Wizard Slayer, Avenger, Totemic, Shapeshifter, Archer, Stalker, Beastmaster, Skald.
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Racial Benefits -
Once per day a Barbarian can increase their str score to 18/00, gains immunity to sleep/charm/fear, and +2 all saves for 1 round per point Constitution score by channeling the spirits of their ancestors into a powerful rage. Str scores higher then 18/00 are unaffected.
Gains a +2 bonus to all rolled HD.
Moves +2 points faster then normal
Cannot be backstabbed.
Gains +1% physical damage resistance per level (capped at 20%).
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Racial Penalties -
Cannot be evil (Barbarians in a party with reputation lower then 10 (or whose alignment has become evil) gain a passive -4 penalty to hit/ac/saves due to angering the spirits of their ancestors and their barbarian rage fails automatically)
Suffers a -4 penalty to their reaction adjustment score, due to culture shock.
Cannot use any metal armors. They are a hardy people that has long made due and adapted to armors made of natural materials and disdain such coddled conveniences.
Suffer a flat -1 hit/damage penalty when using any metal weapon (not counting ammunition for launchers). They prefer weapons made of natural materials such as bone, stone, or wood but are not adverse to using metal weapons or tools, but their inexperience with and dislike for such materials causes their combat performance to suffer.
Suffers a flat -2 hit/-2 save penalty when wearing at least 1 magical item. Barbarians as a whole are a deeply superstitious people and are uncomfortable when using magical items.
Receives a 50% penalty to their base chance to learn Arcane spells. Barbarians are illiterate and founded on oral traditions which combined with their innate distaste for arcane magic results in a large penalty for attempting to learn spells via scrolls.
Base Classes available:
Fighter, Cleric, Druid, Ranger. Can dual-class.
Available kits:
Berserker, Wizard Slayer, Avenger, Totemic, Shapeshifter, Archer, Stalker, Beastmaster, Skald.
-----------------------------------------
Racial Benefits -
Once per day a Barbarian can increase their str score to 18/00, gains immunity to sleep/charm/fear, and +2 all saves for 1 round per point Constitution score by channeling the spirits of their ancestors into a powerful rage. Str scores higher then 18/00 are unaffected.
Gains a +2 bonus to all rolled HD.
Moves +2 points faster then normal
Cannot be backstabbed.
Gains +1% physical damage resistance per level (capped at 20%).
-----------------------------------------
Racial Penalties -
Cannot be evil (Barbarians in a party with reputation lower then 10 (or whose alignment has become evil) gain a passive -4 penalty to hit/ac/saves due to angering the spirits of their ancestors and their barbarian rage fails automatically)
Suffers a -4 penalty to their reaction adjustment score, due to culture shock.
Cannot use any metal armors. They are a hardy people that has long made due and adapted to armors made of natural materials and disdain such coddled conveniences.
Suffer a flat -1 hit/damage penalty when using any metal weapon (not counting ammunition for launchers). They prefer weapons made of natural materials such as bone, stone, or wood but are not adverse to using metal weapons or tools, but their inexperience with and dislike for such materials causes their combat performance to suffer.
Suffers a flat -2 hit/-2 save penalty when wearing at least 1 magical item. Barbarians as a whole are a deeply superstitious people and are uncomfortable when using magical items.
Receives a 50% penalty to their base chance to learn Arcane spells. Barbarians are illiterate and founded on oral traditions which combined with their innate distaste for arcane magic results in a large penalty for attempting to learn spells via scrolls.
Post edited by ZanathKariashi on
0
Comments
Barbarians can be other classes and bring their benefits with them, but also have cultural baggage, due to their "savage", uncivilized lifestyle.
Other races or human cultures can play at being barbarians, but they aren't true barbarians.
I see no need for this to be added when Barbarians' already been implemented as a class/fighter kit.
I'll rage the rage and then rage some more!
A true barbarian though has their hardiness and abilities via their cultural background bred into them and can take a class on top...but also has the downsides of their cultural beliefs restricting their choices of what professions they can become and what stuff they can equip.
And in the event I do run multiple PCs (or multiplayer), it's handy to have all the stuff available for things to roleplay properly.
And for bonus points..it's PnP accurate for their cultural bonuses.
There was another penalty I left out, but due to Faerun's higher magic then the baseline setting, I feel making them have to save every time ANY spell is cast within their LOS or immediately suffer a morale break:Panic, an acceptable cut.
And just going from portrayals in the FR books, while FR barbarians distrust and want nothing to do with magic or civilization, they don't have wild-eyed fear of it, like the Complete Barbarian barbarians would.
Well, except that oddly barbarian isn't on the list of allowable classes...
Furthermore, a lot of there pro benefits are identical to those provided for the Barbarian class in 3.5 edition. It's a redundant overlapping of race and class.
By your in-game background and information fed to you as fact as you play.
Therefore, if you play ANY of that, you MUST ignore your background and the game's plot to do so, which makes any race, culture, class technically possible and since you can actually re-write your background while in character creation, you can rationalize any possible background.
You were raised in a barbarian culture, focusing on shamanist training, until one day your mother gets the sign to bring you to the ritual site. The harpers and Gorion attack the site and you are picked up and had your memory of the event magically altered (explaining a lot of the in-game contradictions) and charmed to believe Gorion an old friend of your mother's who has taken you in after the accident he rescued you from. (Charm spells can easily last for months and as long as the charmer does nothing to alter your perceptions of that charmed stated during that time period will remain as such even after it ends, with you merely thinking of them as someone you hit it off well and became fast friends with).
This isn't 3rd edition. It's 2nd edition. Barbarians were almost exclusive a racial sub-type and had an entire sub-set of kits exclusive to themselves (most of which are pretty much already in-game, as mentioned in the allowed class/kit section).
Fighter had a barbarian kit, but it did NOTHING. It just had high str and con minimums (15 each), and people either liked or hated you more strongly then normal.
The Complete book of barbarian's refers to that kit as the "civilized" barbarian, who abandoned his roots and most of his culture to be an adventurer and learn more refined styles of combat (Cultural barbarian kits cannot specialize in weapons even if they are fighters, where as the Barbarian fighter-kit could get normal (but not expanded) specialization and use any gear a fighter could due to abandoning the old-ways. (should be noted, NO fighter kit is supposed to get expanded specialization, it is a vanilla fighter exclusive).