Barbarian (Dungeons & Dragons)
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| Base classes from Player's Handbook |
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Barbarian |
| Additional/Alternative base classes |
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Archivist |
| NPC Classes |
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Adept |
| Unearthed Arcana Generic Classes |
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Expert |
| Prestige classes |
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Arcane Archer |
The Barbarian is a core class in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game and is one of the base character classes presented in the Player's Handbook. The barbarian is seen as the archetypal warrior who uses brute strength and raw fury to excel in combat, instead of the honed skills of the Fighter. Of all the classes, the barbarian begins the game illiterate and is forced to expend extra skill points in order to read and write.
A barbarian's typical role within an adventuring party is a front-line combatant. Barbarians make both good primary meleers as well as heavy scouts, owing to their granted speed bonus and skill at tracking.
The most prominent ability scores of the barbarian are:
- Strength: As a front-line fighter, strength is important to deal damage as well as boost certain skills.
- Dexterity: Barbarians wear light armor, so having a high dexterity reduces the chances of them being hit by an enemy.
- Constitution: Barbarians channel the force of their inner rage into a tangible frenzy, and constitution can not only extend this but also having a high constitution boosts hit points.
- Wisdom: A high wisdom is important because a number of class skills require it.
Half-Orcs, Korobokuru (a race of primitive oriental Dwarves introduced in Oriental Adventures), and Diopsids (an obscure race of humanoid beetles that first appeared in Dragon magazine #267) all have Barbarian as a favored class.
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[edit] Mechanics and Abilities
The barbarian is not as tactical as the other primary melee combatant, the fighter. It lacks the sheer number of feats that the fighter has and doesn't actually ever gain a bonus feat in the twenty levels of the class. However, the barbarian has certain abilities that make it unique on the battlefield.
[edit] Rage
A barbarian can tap its inner fury and fly into a berserker-like rage. At first level, the barbarian can only perform this action once a day and as it gains levels, can rage up to six times a day. Certain feats available in other supplimental materials allow this time to be extended. While in this state, the barbarian's strength and constitution increase. However, this rage comes at a price. The barbarian cannot focus on any task requiring persistent attention or concentration, so the use of a number of the skills available to the barbarian is impossible. Furthermore, the barbarian becomes reckless and is more susceptible to taking damage.
Once the rage is expended, the barbarian becomes fatigued for the duration of the encounter in which the rage was called upon. This state gives constant penalties to strength and dexterity based checks, and the formerly fast barbarian cannot even run or charge an opponent.
As barbarians level up in experience, they receives bonuses to their rage ability, which allows them to circumvent a lot of the penalties due to raging.
[edit] Damage Mitigation and Other Abilities
Also unlike the fighter, the barbarian can soak up blow after blow. The class confers a number of abilities to the character, such as being able to dodge opponents from all sides with inhumanly fast reflexes and becoming instinctively aware of traps and other dangers.
A big portion of this comes from the barbarian's natural ability to reduce damage taken, even though the blows have landed. This damage reduction starts out small, comparatively, only a single point of damage is ignored, but oftentimes that single point is the dividing line between life and death.
Barbarians enjoy faster than average speed for their race, as well, being able to move quicker than most other standard races because of their light armor and natural speed.
The Iconic barbarian is Krusk, a male half-orc.
[edit] Ex Barbarians
Barbarians must maintain a non-lawful alignment, and a barbarian who becomes lawful loses the ability to rage. They will be unable to gain another level in the barbarian class until they returns to a more chaotic alignment, though their other class abilities remain.
[edit] Barbarians in Other Worlds
[edit] Eberron
In most Dungeons & Dragons games, the barbarian is represented as a savage, tribal warrior. However, in the Eberron campaign setting, barbarians are more like nomads -- while they may not be civilized, they are certainly not savages.
[edit] Forgotten Realms
Barbarians in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting are similar in presentation as the class presented in the core rulebook. Barbarians can be of any race in the Realms, though some are more uncommon than others. Barbarians are described as being confused by the cosmopolitan nature of certain regions of Faerûn.
