Barbarians get Tumble?!


Skills & Feats


Something I thought should be addressed, though I don't see it as too big of a problem. But tumble has been worked in to the Acrobatics check, which Bards and Rogues get as a class skill. Fine and well but so do Barbarians and the idea of a massive Orc Barbarian with his greataxe nimbly slipping past someones AoO seems wrong to me.

thoughts?


A half elf fighter in my playtest took Acrobatics as his "Adaptable" skill. He eschewed heavy armor for playing a fast and acrobatic archer.

A half-orc barbarian who nimbly dodges AoO might not be your cup of tea.

But what about an elf barbarian who brings death on twin swords?

Or a halfling barbarian, dodging and tumbling through the legs of his much taller foes?

There's plenty of archetypes for a barbarian.


Or a half-orc barbarian leaping over his foes by main strength, turning a flip in midair, and crushing them with an axe as he comes down?


I would say it fits them fine.

The Exchange

If you're role-playing barbarians like Thundar or the Hulk, then you probablyhsoudln't takr Acrobatics as a skill. If you're role-playing barabrians like Conan or Fafhrd or Xena, then you definitely should be able to take Acrobatics as a class skill.


Cool,

Pesonally I don't see a problem or mind the idea of nimble Barbarians, the question was more one of game balance and the game I'm still used to is 3.5. It's not really player archetypes that worry me about this, it's the powergamer type who hefts around his 1d12 greataxe and tumbles past an enemy's AoO, smacks him for said 1d12 of damage and so on. It just feels a little unbalanced for me.

That said I'm really just trying to head off any problems I may notice at the pass, but if no one else agrees then I'm probably wrong.

Liberty's Edge

It fits. They're not about armor, but about going crazy in combat, with more mobility and moving than armored fighters. Acrobatics is fine as a class skill for them.

Shadow Lodge

Rennick wrote:


Something I thought should be addressed, though I don't see it as too big of a problem. But tumble has been worked in to the Acrobatics check, which Bards and Rogues get as a class skill. Fine and well but so do Barbarians and the idea of a massive Orc Barbarian with his greataxe nimbly slipping past someones AoO seems wrong to me.

thoughts?

Since barbarians can't use Dexterity based skills during rage the skill isn't very useful to the barb even if it is a class skill. Outside of rage I like it, it gives them a bit more of a skirmisher feel which ties in well with their fast movement.

Incidentally the new Combat Mobility feat pretty much steals the thunder of the best combat use of tumble so that makes this even less an issue.


I think it's silly for barbarians to get Acrobatics & not rangers. Preferably, it will be removed from the barbarian's list.

Those wishing to play a tumbling barbarian should either:
A) Take a level in rogue, or
B) Work something out with your DM.


Playing a barbarian my self. There is the city dweller class variant that I traded my ride skill for tumble. I LOVE IT!!!

They already get jump, and climb, so to exclude them from acrobatics because of tumble just doesn't work for me. I always thought of barbarians as the shock troopers of DnD going in, breaking their ranks, and getting into flanking positions.

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