How does the Barbarian compare to Berserker/standard Fighter?

Smoke_Jaguar

I've been bouncing back and forth between playing a Barbarian or a Berserker/normal Fighter (Fighter/Thief too I guess), and I was just wondering what peoples opinion of the Barbarian was. Honestly, it doesn't really look that amazing to me when compared to a Berserker. They both get rage, though it looks like the Barbs rage is a bit better because of no winding. The armor restriction doesn't really bother me too much but the proficiency limit seems like a lot to give up for a bit extra HP/movement and some physical resist in later levels.

What do you guys think?

TheGraveDigger

Here's a good thread about it
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/15781/barbarian-vs-berserker-which-is-better/p1

Pantalion

Lessee.... Barbarian has some odd and nifty tricks, like their rage can heal them (I did the sums at one point, and a level 20 barbarian with 15 Con could heal themselves something like 300 HP per day), and they're great for a mobile ranged combatant (they can give themselves 25 Strength for Throwing Axes/Daggers/Slings whilst getting decent movement speeds).

But Berserker wins, because it, like every other Fighter kit, can Grandmaster its weapons, which is actually against PnP rules according to some of the 2nd Ed. specialists we have on these boards, only pure fighters should be able to add more than 2 pips. Their rage damage bonus stacks with Strength (which means it can surpass the Barbarian, in theory), and the immunities it gives them are flat out insane.

Personally I enjoyed my Shadowkeepered Barbarian/Druid quite a bit though, there's just something thematically interesting about the Barbarian that the Berserker lacks.

Kaltzor

I stated in the older threads about this, that in my opinion when raging, the Barbarian wins because of the bonuses they get, the Strength and Constitution bonuses are pretty good.

But when not raging, the Berserker gets to have the bonuses of Full Plate which gives them a higher AC and Grandmastery which will give them an extra half attack per round and some damage and hit bonuses.