Speaking of Barbarians...

[thompur]

The Barbarian class always bothered me a bit, not for what it could do, but the fact...idea that the name, more than any other class, implied a way of life born into rather than chosen. I realize it's a metagame construct, but how do you explain in game and in character, a dip into Barbarian, if it's not your original class? With that in mind...
Are there any characters in literature, film, or TV that you could honestly say would, in D&D terms, have acquired a level or so in Barbarian later in life? I mean Conan started life as a Barbarian, and accumulated other classes along the way, as did Ffaferd.

[gallagher]

i always RP my dips, like, i spent more time in the wilderness, acted in a more angry fashion, behaved more violently, stuff like that

[mobdrazhar]

Drizzt... while he was alone in the Underdark. he went into a rage whist fighting.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Conan would really be a fighter/rogue; despite the fact that many barbarian tropes are based on him, he was much more of a sneaky, tactical warrior than a "Conan smash!" type.

Explaining a dip is simple: Any sort of short-duration enhanced combat skill works, whether it's getting angry, going into a battle trance, etc. You could say you have inner demons, spent time at a monastery, let your emotions control you, and so forth. The fast movement, trap sense, and other class features don't really scream "primitive warrior" so you don't even need to justify those with the wilderness upbringing--in fact, the fast movement makes the "A bunch of monks taught me Zen fighting" story even more plausible.

[Boci]

The Barbarian class always bothered me a bit, not for what it could do, but the fact...idea that the name, more than any other class, implied a way of life born into rather than chosen. I realize it's a metagame construct, but how do you explain in game and in character, a dip into Barbarian, if it's not your original class?

Meditation to link to your primal self? An incurable curse?

[reptilecobra13]

I always liked the idea of a dip in barbarian as a result of some traumatic event. Say your character has been assigned to guard a small town, but fails in the mission. Because of this, several NPCs who were very dear to your character were brutally slaughtered. How does your character react? By giving in to primal emotion and accessing "rage" for the first time. To this day, any time your character sees a bugbear, they have to fight the memory of that day.

[sciencepanda]

Really, much of this problem can be solved just by renaming the class "Berserker."

[cupkeyk]

Or realizing that barbarian as a term is one culture exoticizing and marginalizing another. Particularly Greeks against non-greeks. Why would anyone actually call oneself a barbarian?

[Ravens_cry]

Or realizing that barbarian as a term is one culture exoticizing and marginalizing another. Particularly Greeks against non-greeks. Why would anyone actually call oneself a barbarian?
All class names are pretty much meta-game concepts anyway. Most priests of gods are usually NPC experts and aristocrats, clerics in the game sense being rare and special, gifted by their god or goddess in extraordinary ways. A fighter may be a knight, man-at-arms, mercenary or other profession. A paladin is also gifted by their respective gods, though in a different way then clerics.

[Lev]

Ironbeard the Shield

Once a fierce fighter in the dwarf homelands he had a reputation for uncalled for acts of brutality in matters of honor and traditional sparring, so much so that in one of his matches he caused the death of another dwarf in combat which forced him to be exiled from his clan.

Being forced into the life of a renegade he realized his true path beyond rules and honor, and being free of that life was like breaking the flask containing his seething rage to unleash upon who he thought worthy of his ire.


There you go, Fgt/Bab, two shield TWF, condensed and contextualized backstory.


Really all the fluff you need to be a barbarian is to become nearly supernaturally angry, all the rest is pretty optional.

[Lord Vukodlak]

I had a lycanthrope fighter who took levels in Barbarian, he explained it as tapping into the spirit of the beast.

This lycanthrope also became constable of a town the party founded. How did a chaotic good barbarian become town constable?
No none wanted to argue with a 9ft man-tiger.

[Vitruviansquid]

You could say Jake Sully and Tom Cruise's character in The Last Samurai have become "barbarians" (in the "foreign" sense with the connotation of more technologically primitive) later in life.

Of course, neither have necessarily become more angry after becoming "barbaric," but you could just make the culture that your character went into fit more with the DnD "barbarian" stereotype.

[cupkeyk]

All class names are pretty much meta-game concepts anyway. Most priests of gods are usually NPC experts and aristocrats, clerics in the game sense being rare and special, gifted by their god or goddess in extraordinary ways. A fighter may be a knight, man-at-arms, mercenary or other profession. A paladin is also gifted by their respective gods, though in a different way then clerics.

Not just class names. Classes are numberical representations of what your character can be.

So my wizard went to greece and he gained a level in barb because some greek called him one? Hahahah.

[Ravens_cry]

Not just class names. Classes are numberical representations of what your character can be.

So my wizard went to greece and he gained a level in barb because some greek called him one? Hahahah.
Well you see, it made him that angry.:smallamused:
I am reminded of a certain Yamara strip (http://www.yamara.com/yamara/index.php?date=2006-06-08).

[AslanCross]

I've seriously considered making a Warforged Fighter/Warblade I've played accidentally unlock a hidden "berserker circuit" that he didn't know he had.

[Eldan]

All class names are pretty much meta-game concepts anyway. Most priests of gods are usually NPC experts and aristocrats, clerics in the game sense being rare and special, gifted by their god or goddess in extraordinary ways. A fighter may be a knight, man-at-arms, mercenary or other profession. A paladin is also gifted by their respective gods, though in a different way then clerics.

And you really don't want to call yourself Paladin, given it's original meaning.

[Greenish]

And you really don't want to call yourself Paladin, given it's original meaning.
ORIGIN late 16th cent.: from French paladin, from Italian paladino, from Latin palatinus ‘(officer) of the palace’ (see palatine 1 ).Yeah. Terrible.

[HunterOfJello]

Testosterone Injections + Steroids

[IdleMuse]

My old urban rogue character had a religious experience after dipping Totem Barbarian. Met a Spirit Guide-esque fox whie we while out in the desert.

[Dr.Epic]

Are there any characters in literature, film, or TV that you could honestly say would, in D&D terms, have acquired a level or so in Barbarian later in life? I mean Conan started life as a Barbarian, and accumulated other classes along the way, as did Ffaferd.

Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins: he started out in a rich home, years after his parents died he fled and became a vagabond and eventually learned to fight.

[OverdrivePrime]

Guts from Berserk is one of the most obvious cases of gaining barbarian levels later in life.

The dude started out as a fighter, and quickly went on to snag multiple levels in the Barbarian and Warblade classes.