4th & Dragon : Dungeons and Dragons...and stuff

Has anybody had a go at making nature-themed classes, specifically barbarian and druid types?  I have some ideas for a Beast-Shaman, but haven’t had a chance to write anything down yet.

The more I think about it, the more I think that I can’t do a campaign without barbarians.  Maybe I could do it if there was a great empire the PCs were in, but if D&D is supposed to be about isolated “points of light”, then SOMEBODY has got to be making a living in all that wilderness between the settled areas.

I was discussing this briefly with a friend.
The barbarian can take cues from fighter powers, remove the “mark” ability, add a clause about extra damage when the barbarian is bloodied, etc etc.

...Didn’t get too in depth.

There are some fitting abilities in the Boar, Cyclops, Shifter, Orc, and many other entries in the MM.

I thought maybe I could work out some sort of Fighter/Ranger multiclass as a stopgap.  Problem is, that 4E does not support multiclassing.  I suppose that if you built a character up to umpteenth level you could make a decent Fighter/Ranger that would look like a Barbarian, but a real Barbarian can not wait until 11th level to start being a Barbarian.

A real Barbarian that couldn’t start being a Barbarian at 1st level would be very unlikely to make it to 2nd or 3rd level.

Fortunately, it looks like I might be able to cobble together a decent class by choosing powers from the Fighter and Ranger lists and putting them into a new class with a few specific features related to self-reliance.

Paragon paths could include Beastfriend and Barbarian King/Queen, although for now I can leave these as IOUs.

Okay, I’ve completed my first draft of the bare bones of my Barbarian class.  I haven’t had a chance to invent all the exploits that a barbarian needs, nor did I get a chance to define any paragon paths.  Two ideas for paragon paths so far are Barbarian King/Queen, and Beastfriend.

The Barbarian class, as it currently exists, is:

Barbarian

“The orcs will never drive us out of these woods.”

CLASS TRAITS

Role: Striker.  Whether you scout and ambush, whether you stand your ground, or whether you charge into your enemies, you deal a lot of damage to anybody who has to face your might and wrath.

Power Source: Martial.  You are a self-reliant warrior.
Key Abilities: Strength, Constitution, Wisdom

Armor Proficiencies: Cloth, leather, hide.  (Light armor)
Weapon Proficiencies: Simple and military melee, simple and military ranged.
Bonus to Defense: +1 Fortitude, +1 Reflex

Hit Points at 1st Level: 18 + Constitution Score
Hit Points per Level Gained: 7
Healing Surges per Day: 9

Trained Skills: Nature.  From the class skills list below, choose three more trained skills at 1st level.
Class Skills: Acrobatics, Athletics, Endurance, Heal, Insight, Intimidate, Perception, Stealth.

Build Options: Strong barbarian, Wiley barbarian
Class Features: Nature Harmony, Uncanny Reaction, Battle Fury

Barbarians are self-reliant warriors who are masters of the forest, scourges of the plains, or terrors on the tundra.  They don’t specialize like Fighters do, nor are they as precise as the Rangers, but whether it comes to blow-by-blow encounters or hit-and-run tactics, Barbarians can compete with either.

As a barbarian, you don’t have as much ability to control the battlefield as a fighter does.  You also don’t care to specialize in a fighting “style;” you’d rather be able to handle whatever gets in your way without worrying whether you want to shoot it with a bow or stab it with two swords.  One swords is enough for you, especially if it is big enough.

Creating a Barbarian

Barbarians depend on all their resources, but especially on Strength to wield the heaviest weapons they can find, and Wisdom, to avoid making stupid mistakes when there is nobody around to help.

Strong Barbarian
You enjoy slaying foes in melee, with the heaviest weapons you can get your hands on.  You should have a high Strength score, but if you can’t figure that out, you NEED a higher Wisdom score.  Choose powers that will help you lay down the heavy damage that is your trademark.

Suggested Feat:  Powerful Charge (Human feat: Durable)
Suggested Skills:  Athletics, Endurance, Intimidate
Suggested At-Will Powers:  To Be Determined
Suggested Encounter Power:  To Be Determined
Suggested Daily Power:  To Be Determined

Wiley Barbarian
You are not only a feared warrior, you are master of your terrain.  Your enemies see you if you want them to see you.  Your ambushes and hit and run tactics can deny free use of your land to an army.

You should have a high Wisdom and high Dexterity.  Strength is not as important but should still be high enough to make you a credible melee opponent.

Suggested Feat:  Far Shot (Human feat: Skill Focus Stealth)
Suggested Skills:  Heal, Perception, Stealth
Suggested At-Will Powers:  To Be Determined
Suggested Encounter Power:  To Be Determined
Suggested Daily Power:  To Be Determined

Barbarian Class Features

Nature Harmony
You are at home in the wilderness.  Choose a terrain, for example Temperate Forests.  While in this type of terrain you gain the following benefits:

* +3 bonus to Stealth and Perception rolls

* You can reroll any Nature rolls that are necessary for your well being or the well being of an ally.  For example, you can reroll a failed check to forage for food, but you would not get to reroll a failed check to remember the name of that funny looking flower with five petals.

Uncanny Reaction
You can react to threats before others are aware of them.  Opponents can only gain combat advantage over you if they are of higher level than you are.

Battle Fury
When you get into a battle fury, you gain strength and endurance, but become reckless and less able to defend yourself.  You can choose whether or not to go into Battle Fury in an encounter, but then the state lasts until you take a short rest.  The effects of your battle fury depend on your level:

Level   Strength, Endurance Gain   AC Penalty   Skill Check Penalty    
1-5     +2                         -4           -5
6-10    +4                         -4           -4
11-15   +6                         -2           -3
16-20   +8                         -2           -2
21-25   +10                        -0           -1
26-30   +12                        -0           -0

Skill check penalties apply to any skill checks other than melee attacks and defensive rolls.

Barbarian Powers[/bb]
To be determined

Paragon Paths
To be determined.

Sounds fun.

I would have maybe made the options to be somewhat different. Maybe a Brutish barbarian (str and con) and Headstrong barbarian (str and wis). Those are more of the iconic types.
Or keeping your options but giving constitution some importance in both, since con is the staple ability score of barbarians.

Note that no class or item gives ability score bonuses. Get rid of those and give damage (+maybe to hit) and athletics/endurance bonus instead, it is much of the same thing. The bonus could be based on whichever path you choose, or maybe just on pure con bonus. I also could see the bonus extended to saving throws against ongoing effects, but making sure it is not too huge a bonus.

Furthermore I’d make the battle fury into an encounter power. Something that all barbarians have, much like lay on hands of the paladin class. Perhaps limit it to 1 + con bonus times per day or something similar.

Rothe - 15 June 2008 05:52 AM

Sounds fun.

I would have maybe made the options to be somewhat different. Maybe a Brutish barbarian (str and con) and Headstrong barbarian (str and wis). Those are more of the iconic types.
Or keeping your options but giving constitution some importance in both, since con is the staple ability score of barbarians.

As far as I can tell, the Build Options are really fluff text anyway.  Especially the Strong Barbarian:  Yes, you should probably have a high strength if you want to be a Strong Barbarian.

But when I started writing about the Wiley Barbarian, I saw how this could be helpful to a new player who wants to be a Wiley Barbarian because it points him immediately to suggested feats and powers.

I also want to support a Headman Barbarian type, but it probably is not necessary to specifically describe the build.  If you want to be a Headman Barbarian, you can choose feats and powers to support that concept.  (Once I define the powers, that is.)

My thought is that you do not have to be a big, dumb guy with a big, dumb axe.  Constutition is of course important for any Barbarian.  I could suggest high Wisdom and Con for the Wiley Barbarian.  The part about “if you can’t figure that out, you NEED a higher Wisdom score” for the Strong Barbarian is a bit of snark, because I couldn’t believe I had to say that a Strong Barbarian should have a high Strength score.  I guess I should write that a Strong Barbarian needs a good Constitution score.

Note that no class or item gives ability score bonuses. Get rid of those and give damage (+maybe to hit) and athletics/endurance bonus instead, it is much of the same thing. The bonus could be based on whichever path you choose, or maybe just on pure con bonus. I also could see the bonus extended to saving throws against ongoing effects, but making sure it is not too huge a bonus.

When Gary Gygax first defined the Barbarian class in First Edition, he responded to some criticism that the Barbarian IS different than the other classes, just as the Knight is different from the other chess pieces.  Since only a few of the necessary classes have been defined in Fourth Edition so far, I don’t see a problem with granting temporary ability score bonuses as a class power or feature.

I think it is cleaner for my purposes to just give an ability score bonus.

Furthermore I’d make the battle fury into an encounter power. Something that all barbarians have, much like lay on hands of the paladin class. Perhaps limit it to 1 + con bonus times per day or something similar.

I think Battle Fury is in effect an encounter power, since it lasts until you “take a short rest” which, if I understand the rules, means that you drop out of the encounter.

I could change the format to match how the Paladin Lay on Hands is described.  Although I think this way it is more clear, especially to a new player, because the rules and effects of the Battle Fury are right where it says that you get that.

I probably should limit Battle Fury the way Lay on Hands is limited.  A number of times a day equal to your Constitution Modifier sounds about right.

I meant with the path options that they could actually give different game mechanical benefits. Much like the wizard choice of implements or the Warlock choice of origins.

Brutish Barbarian could really focus on the physical side and perhaps get some kind of bonus class ability related to con or str.  At the same time wiley barbarian could have a bonus class ability based on dex or wis.

As for comment about rage and strength stat, I suppose the 4e ideal is that you should not have to recalculate things. That is why all kinds of buff effects give you a straight up bonus on something. I will not argue about it, this is a house ruled class anyways.

I thought of a cool ability that would be a possible class ability: improvised weapons and unarmed combat.
This could for example be one barbarian type (brutish vs. wiley - see above) that gives you a natural attack of 1d4 damage and +1 bonus to hit (to compensate for proficiency bonus of weapons). You could increase damage to 1d6 with an improvised weapon (chair, treebranch, whatever).

I like your idea for an improvised weapons class ability.  Now I have to come up with a good name for it.  I also have to figure out a good level.  Maybe 1st level At Will.  This can be my first power.

As for Strong Barbarian vs Wiley Barbarian, my philosophy is that a player could mix and match as desired, making a character for example who is 2/3 Strong Barbarian, 1/5 Wiley Barbarian, and with a dash of Headman.  Why, I don’t know, but I don’t want to limit characters to one path or the other.

Barbarians are really not organized enough to think of themselves as having a choice of three paths to take.  They just know that that guy is tough, this chick is clever, and we trust the guy over there to tell us what to do.

Okay, I think I am going to run up against the 4th Edition rules for lifting things.  I based my table on the 3E strength rules, which make more sense to me for exceptionally strong characters than 4E.  Anyone using my class can offer me feedback, replace the table with his own idea, or just existentially accept that a barbarian with a strength of 35 can pick up a 600 pound object and swing it around as a weapon.  Odds are, the guy is a high level barbarian using Battle Fury, so if he picks up a 600 pound statue and clobbers somebody with it, that’s just what Barbarians do.  Using this table, Barbarians only start breaking the rules on page 222 of the PHB at a strength of 40.

Without further ado, here is the first Barbarian class exploit:

Improvise Attack Barbarian Attack 1
You fight with whatever you can lift.
At-Will * Martial
No Action * Personal

Anything that you can lift can be a dangerous weapon.  The damage done by an improvised weapon depends on its weight, although you must have a minimum effective strength to use a weapon of a given weight.

An object weighing less than your strength score in pounds can be wielded with only one hand.  An object weighing more than your strength score but less than twice your strength score can be wielded one handed, but you only do half the indicated damage with it unless you use two hands.  An object weighing more than twice your strength score requires two hands to wield effectively.

[u][b]
Weight of Object   Min Str   Damage[/b]
Less than 5 pounds    1       1d6
5 - 10 pounds         5       1d8
11 - 20 pounds       10       1d10
21 - 40 pounds       15       1d12
41 - 80 pounds       20       2d6
81 - 160 pounds      25       2d8
161 - 320 pounds     30       2d10
321 - 640 pounds     35       2d12
641 - 1280 pounds    40       4d6[/u]
    Et cetera

To make it actually useful, I would give a proficiency bonus with it, just like with any weapon. It could be just +1 because it is improvised, but +2 would not be too bad either.

How about this:

Improvised weapon
At-will (melee, improvised weapon)
standard action
Strength+2 vs. AC
Hit: W + strength damage
If the weapon is used in 2 hands, also push the enemy one square.
[W= your table value for the weapon]
(at 21st level increase damage to 2W+str)

That would be a roughly balanced power against the powers that a fighter gets (see tide of iron), but with a barbarian flavor to it.

I’ll have to read up on how proficiency works in 4E.  I would intend that a barbarian should be good at this sort of thing.

It also occurs to me that a barbarian should be able to throw a heavy object, and not just swing it around.  What if a guy clobbers a few mooks with a barrel and then wants to throw it at the thugs just coming into the room?  So I added the following text to this power:

You can also throw a heavy object.  Use the above table.  For each square between you and your target, the damage for throwing the object is reduced to the next category (2D6 becomes 1d12, 1d12 becomes 1d10, etc) down to a minimum of 1d4.  You can throw an object a number of squares equal to your strength score minus the minimum strength needed to use that object as a weapon, so a barbarian with a Strength of 32 could throw a 100 pound object 7 squares.

One thing that makes a lot of difference is how the power works. Is it an attack with an improvised weapon, or is it just the ability to use anything as a weapon (not a power). The latter one would not be an at-will power, it would be a class ability. It would also allow the barbarian to use it for all his other powers (at-will, encounter or daily).

Proficiency in 4e works so that each weapon defines a proficiency bonus, which in essence is a bonus to hit if you are proficient with it. For “sophisticated” weapons it is +3 mostly (swords and such) and for cruder weapons it tends to be +2 (axes and hammers). The weapons usually compensate with damage or special ability if the bonus is only +2.

Edit: the thrown improvised weapon makes for another at-will power or an encounter power. Don’t load all the goodies into one power.
It would be a good choice for an encounter power. Toss something heavy (specify how big it needs to be, maybe allow a grabbed foe also) and toss it at up to two adjacent foes, they fall prone on hit. Could even be a strength vs. fort power to make it a tad bit better.

Some general ideas that could become good barbarian powers:

- Toss something heavy at a couple of foes and they fall prone on hit
- Make a big 360 degree sweep with a 2handed weapon and hit all foes adjacent to you, pushing them back 1 square (maybe con bonus squares for a twist)
- Grab a foe of your size or smaller and toss him.
- Some kind of basic strong attack with a weapon (knocking foe prone perhaps)
- Charge attack, combining a move and attack into one standard action and some special effects
- Warcry, utility power (lower enemy AC or somesuch)
- Leaping attack (requires athletics skill as prereq., combines a jump and attack - attack could be at a flying foe even if the jump is high enough)
- Bullrush attack (str. vs. fort, unarmed slam attack that could daze or stun the foe)

Damages are easy to assign comparing to fighter powers.

I think I might stand on this power as a basic “grab something, hit someone, possibly throw it” ability.  It would be a good suggested power for the Strong Barbarian.

I could make more focussed versions of this power for encounter exploits.

Basically, I look at who is going to do this.  Maybe a wiley barbarian isn’t focussed enough on feats of strength to pick up a book case and start hitting people with it, but if a Strong Barbarian starts picking up a bookcase, his player may ask “Well, why can’t I throw it?” So now he can.

An encounter exploit might allow her to throw a heavy object without lessening damage at a distance, or knocking multiple opponents prone, or stuff like that.