Ragearian Redux

[Judging__Eagle]

A tweak on the RoW Barbarian.

I didn't want to actually copy-pasta the RoW barb in the threads that I put up on wotc about the class; and there are some elements that I wanted to change about the class myself. So here's a copy of it.

Primarily scaling Fast Healing after level 5. Great blows and great life were toned down slightly. The rest were just renamed and given some more fluff.

Edit: I did some more changes; ramped up Rage Damage, modified the Leadership ability (player's option to take or not, and no restrictions on who you can lead; because honestly, the Barbarian can just as easily have a Ranger blood-brother or a baby Phoenix pet).

Barbarian

Face my wrath Stygian belly-crawlers!

Ah, the Barbarian, a staple of sword and sorcery stories. Typically from from the wilderness, a Barbarian is not necessarily a savage, nor are they necessarily from the wilds. Really, a Barbarian is a person that is deeply in touch with their emotions and does very little to hide them. Some Barbarians even come from the heart of civilized nations and their greatest cities.

When they see enemies, their first reaction is to attack and defeat them. When they see proven allies, their first reaction is to greet and welcome them. They enjoy the muscle-burn of an honest fight and gritting their teeth through the stinging itches of injury just as much as they enjoy a well prepared meal and the company of those that they love and care for.

Roleplaying a Barbarian is usually pretty easy and answering "I attack with my greataxe!" or "I ask them to have an ale with me" is usually just as correct as any other answer that a Barbarian character could give to any situation.

In general, playing a Barbarian is very easy. You get into melee range. Attack in melee. Things die.

Hit Die: d12
Class Skills: The Barbarian's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are

Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge: Nature (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).

Skills/Level: 4 + Intelligence Bonus
BAB: Good (1/1) Saves: Fort: Good; Reflex: Poor; Will: Poor


Level, Benefit
1 Rage, Hardy Specimen
2 Ravaging Rage +5, Furious Fleetnes +5'
3 Mule-Headededness
4 Ravaging Rage +10, Furious Fleetnes +10'
5 Panther's Promptness, Barbaric Blood
6 Ravaging Rage +15, Furious Fleetnes +15'
7 Shocking Strikes
8 Ravaging Rage +20, Furious Fleetnes +20'
9 Tough as an Ox
10 Ravaging Rage +25, Furious Fleetnes +25'
11 The Tiger emperor of the jungle, Wolf among the Sheep
12 Ravaging Rage +30, Furious Fleetnes +30'
13 Ancestor's Auspice,
14 Ravaging Rage +35, Furious Fleetnes +35'
15 Misery of Magicans
16 Ravaging Rage +40, Furious Fleetnes +40'
17 Implacable Iconoclast
18 Ravaging Rage +50, Furious Fleetnes +45'
19 Simmering Savagery
20 Ravaging Rage +55, Furious Fleetnes +50'

Rage: When a Barbarian enters combat, they enter with the full fury of their raging emotions and let little stand in their way.

A Barbarian may wish to enter a Rage upon attacking an enemy with a melee attack or if subjected to damage; this takes an Immediate Action.

When in a Rage, a Barbarian gains a +2 Morale Bonus to Attack and Damage rolls, as well as add any Ravaging Rage bonus damage to their melee damage rolls. A Barbarian's AC takes a -2 penalty, and they gain a +2 bonus to all Saving Throws.

Additionally, while Raging, a Barbarian gains Damage Reduction X/-, where "X" equal to 1/2 their Barbarian levels + 2, rounded down.

While Raging, a Barbarian may not cast spells, activate magic items (this includes any magical equipment and potions), use spell-like abilities, or drop their weapons or shield. This Rage lasts until they has neither struck an enemy for three consecutive rounds nor suffered damage from an enemy for three consecutive rounds. They may voluntarily end a Rage as a full-round action.

Hardy Specimen: Away from civilized lands life expectancy is very short. Most infants die before they see their fifth birthday, let alone survive to adulthood. They must be able to survive starvation, endure the drastic changes in elements that can happen in a single day and more importantly, survive physical trauma.

A Barbarian that lives past their fifth year is a hardy specimen, able to endure hardships that would kill lesser creatures. This durabilty and obvious exposure to a lifetime of hardships makes them into lean creatures, capable of enduring in harsh environments and their bodies tend to be covered in the scars from dozens if not hundreds of wounds long since past.

A Barbarian has the following abilities to reflect their incredible resilince:

-A Barbarian does not have to eat or drink as often (they are able to eat half as much food to survive, and any food that they eat feeds them double the amount of time)
-A Barbarian is able to eat things that most creatures wouldn't consider food. They can eat raw meat, and spoiled or tainted food without any problems if they make a Fortitude save of DC 10 + 1/Day that the food is past its expiration point. If they fail the check they are Nauseated. Injested Poisons still affect a Barbarian normally.
-A Barbarian is considered under the effects of a constant Endure Elements spell, and can can exist comfortably in conditions between -50 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit (-45.5*C to 60*C) without having to make Fortitude saves.
-A Barbarian gains Fast Healing 1, so long as they are not raging.

If a Barbarian chooses a softer path in life by multiclassing, they have turned their back on their savage heritage and must look forward to perfecting a different discipline of study and a new course for their life to take. A Barbarian who takes levels of a different class loses these abilities, unless they have a total of 4 levels of Barbarian.

Ravaging Rage: At 2nd level, and every even level afterwards, a Barbarian deals an additional amount of damage on all melee attacks that they gain from their Base Attack Bonus while they are raging. This bonus damage is added after all other damage has been calculated and cannot be multiplied (such as with Critical hits or charging with a lance), nor can it be used to increase damage dealt to a target beyond its listed value.

Off-hand weapon attacks, secondary natural attacks and spell-derived bonus attacks do not get this bonus to damage.

Furious Fleetnes: While Raging, a Barbarian doesn't care for anything that stands in their way, a Barbarian gains the listed bonus to their speed when they take a move action to move.

Mule-Headededness: When a Raging, a 3rd level Barbarian may use their Fortitude Save in place of their Will save. In addition, they count as being under the effects of Protection against Evil with regards to [Compulsion] effects.

Panther's Promptness: When Raging, a 5th level Barbarian may use their Fortitude Save in place of their Reflex Save.

Barbaric Blood: From 5th level onwards, a Barbarian has Fast Healing equal to their Barbarian levels, it is still turned off when they are Raging. Additionally, they have Energy Resistance to one type of damage equal to their class levels, the type of damage that is resisted can be changed with 15 minutes of uninterrupted concentration.

Shocking Strikes: A 7th level Raging Barbarian’s melee attacks are Shocking Strikes. Any enemy struck by the Barbarian’s melee or thrown weapon attacks must make a Fort Save or be Dazed and Flat-footed for one round (They can take no actions, and lose their Dexterity modifier to AC, but are not helpless and do not take any other penalties). No enemy can be targeted by this ability more than once a round, and the save DC for this ability is 10 + half the Barbarian’s HD + his Constitution modifier.

Tough as an Ox: While Raging, a 9th level Barbarian is immune to nonlethal damage, death effects, stunning, critical hits, negative levels, and ability damage (but not ability drain). Instead, each time that they are subject to such an effect they take a cumulative -1 Penalty to all rolls until the barbarian can spend 1 minute resting (i.e. 10 consecutive full-round actions). This Penalty does not get larger than the Barbarian has Character levels.

The Tiger, emperor of the jungle: An 11th level Barbarian becomes a hero and ruler of people. They gain the Leadership feat as a bonus feat, with their Base Attack Bonus used instead of their Charisma Score to determine their Leadership score, their followers and cohort may be any people of any class. If the Barbarian chooses to relinquish their title, or in campaigns that do not use Leadership feats, the Barbarian instead gains a +2 unnamed bonus to all saves. Additionally all NPCs that know of the Barbarian's name treat the character as befits their new social position, if and when they realize who the character really is.

Wolf among the sheep: An 11th level Barbarian is a fearful enemy to behold. As a free action, and after attacking and damaging an creature, a Barbarian is able to make an Intimidate check on all enemy creatures within line of sight of themself. If successful, the creatures affected are shaken for 1 minute, and further intimidate checks can make them more fearful (frightened or panicked). This effect only works on creatures with an Intelligence score, but also works on all creatures with an Intelligence score, including undead, constructs and other creatures normally immune to any sort of fear or terror.

Ancestor's Auspice: At 13th level Barbarian is watched by the spirits of their ancestors. A Barbarian may immediately reroll any failed save. He may do this no more than once per failed save.

Misery of Magicans: At 15th level Barbarian's rage takes on a palpable form that interferes with the working of magic. This effect both keeps magic from affecting them, and suppressing the magical abilities of other creatures. Allowing a Barbarian to fight fiends, dragons, powerful spellcasters and other magical creatures in melee combat without dying.

A Raging Barbarian’s may choose to radiate an effect similar to an Antimagic Field when they enters a Rage, with a caster level equal to their HD. Unlike a normal antimagic field, this effect does not suppress magic effects on them or the effects of magic items they are wearing or holding.

Implacable Iconoclast: At 17th level a Barbarian's strikes can render magical items inert, making them a bane of magical item wielders and a foe of the gods themselves with their ability to destroy even artifacts when in the blood-rimed heights of their fury.

A Raging Barbarian may take a full round action to make a normal melee attack that has an additional effect similar to a Mordenkainen’s Disjunction. Unlike a normal Mordenkainen’s Disjunction, this effect only targets a single item or creature struck.

Simmering Savagery: At 19th level a Barbarian is just as ready for combat when walking in an idyllic royal garden with their lover as when they are grappeling with an avatar of the Far Realm in mortal combat. A Barbarian may no longer needs to be in a Rage to use any Barbarian ability.


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Examples:

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The typical Barbarian is Rooog, an Orc Barbarian.
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The atypical human Barbarian is Thurskar, a human Barbarian.
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The atypical non-human Barbarian is Jagged, a wood elf Barbarian.
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[Judging__Eagle]

double post

[Manxome]

Tag error in Wolf Among the Sheep.

I notice that entering a rage no longer takes an immediate action. Is that intentional?

[Judging__Eagle]

No, it's not.

I probably trimmed it by mistake when copypasta'ing it.

Thanks for the notification.

[SunTzuWarmaster]

I do not like the increased damage for Rage Dice because it multiplies on a critical. Not sure how to deal with that, but it doesn't sit right.

[Judging__Eagle]

Does this work:

This bonus damage is added after all other damage has been calculated and cannot be multiplied (such as with Critical hits or charging with a lance), nor can it be used to increase damage dealt to a target beyond its listed value.

Someone on WoTC also caught that and prompted me to change it.

I've increased the damage from +1d6 to +5 per 2 levels mostly to make taking levels of Frenzied Berzerker useful only for it's Strength, not for it's damage.

Since, honestly, FB is a PrC that get's tossed into the "build ring" every time more than 10 players talk about Barbarian characters in any setting that I've seen. Be it my own gaming group (one of the least optimizing players suggested it), the nearest Living Greyhawk group that I went to a few times or the WoTC boards.

I want taking levels of Barbarian to be on-par with making the character a:
-Berzerker-Magus
-Frenzied Berzerker
-Shifting Berzerker (change into an animal hybrid)
-Beastmaster (think Zula from Conan the Adventurer, I never really watched the Beastmaster series, so I don't know what it was like) -Monster Rider
-Blood Drinker
-Fiend Flayer
-Axiomatic Assaulter

.... it's hard to think of Barbarian characters that don't involve "crazy" in some form or an other. =/

[SunTzuWarmaster]

Guess I missed that my first read-through. It looks fairly balanced, I like it.

[Bigode]

On no Strength for raging and archery: by making each class being tied to narrow concept, you're hardly doing yourself a favor. Some characters will manage to fail anyway, and you'd do better just helping players making them. Besides, how'd you worry about an archer with stupidly high speed, Hide and Move Silently?

Ravaging rage: so, if you made a druid, you'd give it 10 rounds of actions in 1?

Furious fleetness: for the last time, barbarians should get speed when ... charging.

Fast healing: why the fvck the multiclass ban if ... fast healing 1 for only you in a party isn't gonna change anything anyway? Just give it at 4.

Shocking strikes: I'm aware that there are some very minor distinctions between "stunned" and "dazed and flat-footed", but may I ask which one of them you cared about? Uncanny dodge, perhaps?

Tiger: first, any character in a Leadership-allowing campaign can fvcking get Leadership if it suits them; the idea that barbarians are more deserving of getting it at a specific level than lots of other classes or even all of them's crap. Second, Leadership and +2 to saves aren't even close to balanced. Third, are you telling me you exchange your Cha for your BAB to calculate Leadership? Fortunately that's not completely crazy because cohorts are capped.

Wolf: so, you just fvcking win, eh?

[Judging__Eagle]

Ah, some real vitriol.

On raging and bowing at high speeds.

If the Barbarian really feels that they need to do that, I don't see what the big deal is. They're trading out lots of damage quickly, for less chance of being hit.

Ravaging Rage: I know that it feels like too much, and it does. However, at level 11, 3 greataxe swings +75 damage isn't a massive deal versus CR 11 monsters. If you're lucky, you might kill one in a round.

You're not going to one-round kill everything with that sort of damage.

At higher CRs your damage will be curved down a bit compared to monster HP and DR.

The case could be made for having a base value, and then adding your Barbarian levels to damage....actually, that might be an idea that works.

Every level adds +2 damage (added after everything else of course).

If I made a Druid, I'd just use the PHB, they're pretty decent as-is.

Furious Fleetness:

It's inspired by the Frenzy ability of Diablo 2. You start fighting, and swing your weapons and run faster. Usually to get to the next set of guys, but also to run across the countryside.

I also took an element from the Zulu tribe of southern Africa. They were able to run, not march, to their next battlefield. Barbarians tend to be accepted as being incredibly physically fit, so I'm fine with the higher speed.

Fast Healing: >_> yeah, that could work. Oh... Here's an idea. Barbarian's get fast healing equal to their level +3. If they multiclass it's equal to 1/2 their former Barbarian levels.

Shocking Strikes: I had a reason, I forget what it was just now.

Tiger:
Deserving of Leadership or not... it's not forced, but I do see your point.

Leadership vs +2 to all saves.... hmmm.

What about something where you always count as getting +X to Rage DR, Rage Damage, Fast Healing, Saving throws and your Rage bonuses to hit and damage?

BaB vs Cha for calculatins Leadership score, yep, it's capped, so it's fine.

Wolf: Probably. Maybe change it so that things with a lower CR than you can be affected, or the difference in CR determines how much a target can be affected.

Making it once per round is probably better than per swing.

Reducing the duration might also work, 2 rounds.

[Bigode]

Ah, some real vitriol.

Aye. But anything interesting from here'll be ported to my berserker, so it's not like I'm being antagonistic (hard to believe, I know).

Ravaging Rage: I know that it feels like too much, and it does. However, at level 11, 3 greataxe swings +75 damage isn't a massive deal versus CR 11 monsters. If you're lucky, you might kill one in a round.

At higher CRs your damage will be curved down a bit compared to monster HP and DR.

Perhaps. But the part that always gets me is: what happens in fights against PC-classers, and how monsters with high hp usually aren't even worth thinking about.

Every level adds +2 damage (added after everything else of course).

To be fair, you'd be looking at more like 3/level to keep the old numbers - 2's basically going back to RoW. BTW, why did you abandon the dice (not that I'm asking for them)?

If I made a Druid, I'd just use the PHB, they're pretty decent as-is.

No, by your argument you should balance it against the planar shepherd. FALLACY!1!

(I hope no Denizen's dumb enough to take the above entirely seriously, but I do intend to put it that balancing against PrCs' a crap idea, and could get better arguments than the shepherd if need be.)

It's inspired by the Frenzy ability of Diablo 2. You start fighting, and swing your weapons and run faster. Usually to get to the next set of guys, but also to run across the countryside.

I also took an element from the Zulu tribe of southern Africa. They were able to run, not march, to their next battlefield. Barbarians tend to be accepted as being incredibly physically fit, so I'm fine with the higher speed.

Except that I didn't mean "they should get speed only when charging", I meant "they should get speed when charging at all", which right now they don't.

Fast Healing: >_> yeah, that could work. Oh... Here's an idea. Barbarian's get fast healing equal to their level +3. If they multiclass it's equal to 1/2 their former Barbarian levels.

First: you aren't talking about fast healing 4 at level 1, right? Second: what I'm actually telling you's to stop messing multiclassing. If having fast healing when multiclassed is fine if you have 4 levels, just give it at level 4 - it's not like having it before changes much of anything. And the number's fine.

What about something where you always count as getting +X to Rage DR, Rage Damage, Fast Healing, Saving throws and your Rage bonuses to hit and damage?

Unfortunately, I think I won't be of help with that - I don't think including anything that actually compares to Leadership's a good idea. But maybe "you count as a barbarian X levels higher for class ability progressions (not new abilities)" might be indeed somewhat enticing, though hardly actually balanced. BTW, a big part of my problem with Leadership's that I can just ... let people have more than 1 character if I want to (in fact, people have allowed or even wanted me to have 2 characters quite often, and I never saw reason to declare one of them a possession of the other, or reducing the level of one, with the assorted problems).

Wolf: Probably. Maybe change it so that things with a lower CR than you can be affected, or the difference in CR determines how much a target can be affected.

Making it once per round is probably better than per swing.

Reducing the duration might also work, 2 rounds.

What I intended's just limit to 1/round (and more than that just doesn't work as long as there are skill items in the game, among other things).

[Judging__Eagle]

Ah, want to crib some things yourself. Fair enough.

Rage Damage:
Against PC-classers.... eh.

You could possbily kill most monsters in one round at this level; but that's fine. I like to throw big groups of monsters at PCs anyway, and fighting a swarm of mediums is fun too.

Really, this just keeps the original level of power that starts with "kill a CR 1/2 Monter in 1 hit at level 1", is maintained even at higher levels.

I'm not sure if that's wanted or not. Is killing an Ettin in 1-2 rounds okay at level 6?

Damage at +3 per level also works. It also makes PrC'ing for damage not necessary.

I stopped liking the rolling of lots of dice after seeing the 3rd 6-7th level Barbarian in play.

My group has never had enough rogues that were played well enough to have them need to roll lots of dice over and over and over again.

Even the 7th lvl ninja/rogue/spelltheif/targeteer build that my friend used (and that I sometimes mention as an example of "you shouldn't suck then be retardedly powerful, because the game could very well end before you're awesome" or to generally brag) was not put into play becuase the game ended when he had reached level 7. I'm sure that him rolling 5d6+1d8 five times per round would have been.... annoying.

Honestly, I don't like too many dice being rolled all the time, they slow down game play. A lot.

I'm pretty fast at doing the addition of dice values, but honestly a flat bonus is much easier to calculate.

Class power level: I want to balance to the MM and the other core material first. Maybe I should be more specific.

Charging:

Furious Charge: Whenever a Barbarian sees an enemy, they may perform a charge action that lets them have up to four times (x4) their base speed. After this, a Barbarian may not perform a Furious Charge again until they have not been in a rage for at least 5 rounds.

Works?

Yes you can Furious Charge all combat long if you don't choose to rage. That's a permissable tactic where the Barbarian can act as an interruptor of enemy actions by holding their action and charging an enemy that is about to move or act in a way that they want to prevent.

No rage damage, DR or Combat Movement though. Which means you have to move in straight lines when Furious Charging.

Fast Healing: Yeah, i want to change it so that 1st lvl gets you Fast Healing 4 (level + 3); and it scales from there onwards.

You get
FH 8 at lvl 5
10 at lvl 7
etc.

I'm fine with messing with multiclassing actually. Mostly b/c I've been subject to that rule and I learned to accept it.

I've played a RoW Barbarian from level 3-6 and the fact that I needed to stay in till level 4 to keep FH 1 made me more likely to just stick with the class than to consider taking any other class levels strictly for power.



Leadership: Let's scrap it? You .... oh! I know, we get to use the old ability from the original Barbarian Class Kit for Fighters.

Creatures higher than Neutral go one step friendlier vs. the Barbarian.
Creatures lower than Neutral go one step more aggressive vs the Barbarian.

When getting Leadership, you can have any type of companion, even ones that are impossible (like faeries, like in Berzerk! a ... I can't think of any others just now, but I know that it happens).

Your companions get to cheat HD progression and can take class levels or just get bonus racial HD.

You count as having 1/4 more Barbarian levels with respect to Class Abilites that scale with level. Rounding up. (at level 11, that's +3, at 13 that's +4, at 17 that's +5; at 20 that's +6).


Fear effects: I just want it possible to panic enemies after 3 rounds of killing mooks. Is that ok?

[Bigode]

Ah, want to crib some things yourself. Fair enough.

I actually have done community service (and not in place of being jailed, BTW), but what did you expect? Gaming charity?:D

Rage damage: probably fine with the Tome standard of multiple weaker opponents, forget what I said. What should I understand by "targeteer", BTW?

Class power level: I want to balance to the MM and the other core material first. Maybe I should be more specific.

Well, the RoW barbarian and its 10d6 were presumably balanced around that. But admittedly, I've to take your losses relative to it more into account.

Charging: furious charge might well work, but what's the problem with furious fleetness simply not being restricted to only move actions?

Fast Healing: Yeah, i want to change it so that 1st lvl gets you Fast Healing 4 (level + 3); and it scales from there onwards.

For starters, when I said "start at 4", I meant "only comes at level 4", not "fast healing 4 at level 1"; I don't even know what that's for, except to make the only level 1 party ever be all-barbarian.

I'm fine with messing with multiclassing actually. Mostly b/c I've been subject to that rule and I learned to accept it.

The fact that this argument's extremely popular with school bullies should tell you something. People shouldn't have to learn to have their multiclasses messed.

I've played a RoW Barbarian from level 3-6 and the fact that I needed to stay in till level 4 to keep FH 1 made me more likely to just stick with the class than to consider taking any other class levels strictly for power.

If you got fast healing at level 4, I can only imagine a similar draw.

Creatures higher than Neutral go one step friendlier vs. the Barbarian.
Creatures lower than Neutral go one step more aggressive vs the Barbarian.

LOL, might be interesting.

When getting Leadership, you can have any type of companion, even ones that are impossible (like faeries, like in Berzerk! a ... I can't think of any others just now, but I know that it happens).

Well, I don't think there should be any impossible comapnions aside from the stuff that breaks the game, which you shouldn't allow anyway.

Your companions get to cheat HD progression and can take class levels or just get bonus racial HD.

Assuming sane monster classes, you wouldn't have to worry about it. Assuming official rules, it's easy for it to fail to work as advertised. I'd recommend just using RoW conversion method 2 and finding appropriate classes (the fiendish ones rarely fail to fit the bill, and I'm sure you can reflavor them as needed - not to say they meet the entire demand, of course).

You count as having 1/4 more Barbarian levels with respect to Class Abilites that scale with level. Rounding up. (at level 11, that's +3, at 13 that's +4, at 17 that's +5; at 20 that's +6).

As the alternative to the social ability? Not really, since that's around zero-sum.

Fear effects: I just want it possible to panic enemies after 3 rounds of killing mooks. Is that ok?

Doesn't the 1/round do that? Also, you might be interested in adding the ability to make normal Intimidate checks en masse, if you want people to run in 1 round.