I'm thinking about creating a new character for an upcoming Wrath of the Righteous campaign, and I'm leaning toward going with a barbarian, which is not a class as I've ever played. Here's my problem -- I think the reason I usually avoid them is they seem so ... the same. Where I can think of lots of different types of rogues (my favorite class) and arcane casters and divine casters and even standard fighters, I just have trouble wrapping my head around the barbarian class, I think.
I'm not really worried about the mechanics -- there are guides for that and I can adjust based on the character -- but about personality.
My *very* tentative backstory is he's the descendant of natives of Sarkoris who fled to Mendev. Probably human, though there's a chance I'll go half-orc. An early thought is that he's raised near Kenabres, and is thus very suspicious of the crusaders but he's willing to work with them if it will help him reclaim his homeland. I was possibly going to throw in him being fairly devout, though toward the old many Sarkorisian gods as opposed to the main pantheon. Still, even all that feels fairly generic to me.
So ... any thoughts on different personality types for barbarians? I was also considering someone who is actually ashamed of his rages, and tries not to go into them (though usually fails, since well, it's the class' main ability), but thought I'd try to crowd source a little and see if I can get something a little more fun/interesting to come up with.
Thanks in advance.
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I've always wanted barbarians to be able to be lawful, because I see rage as more of a berserk fury. Tribal barbarians can be very honor focused and the like. A wild rager who loses control and honor in battle could be very interesting. When out of rage he is almost paladinly, defending those who can't defend themselves, defending a woman's honor, it's just his mode of battle that is trouble, an almost righteous fury overcoming him at the sit of evil.
Side note: did you want concept or build?
Side-side note: Man I almost called you Jiggy.
Side note 1: Concept. I'm not super worried about build.
Side note 2: I sometimes get us confused too (especially in the Superstar forum, where we're both "Jacob"). I'll see something he posted and be like "I don't remember writing that..."
The key for me is that barbarians don't specifically need to be chaotic, just non-lawful. Ever been so frustrated with something you tuned out everything else? How about a neutral barbarian whose rage isn't a berserk fury, but a hyper-focus. He tunes out everything and puts 110% effort into one goal.
How about a former soldier who suffers from post-traumatic stress? Every so often, he loses where he is and is back in whatever hell he walked out of during service. Can't focus, but everything in his body goes into survival instinct.
Or one of my favorite tropes, the really nice guy. The nice guy who doesn't like to hurt anyone, jokes around all the time, but has a switch. Flip the switch, and he loses all morals, decency, and care. Works especially well if you've put the switch to be harm to another party member.
Barbarian is one of my favorite classes, and the one of the reasons is that the entire idea of the class is based around a fighter who isn't good out of skill, but sheer force. He can be the guy who runs through a hail of arrows and run through ten men to save a fallen comrade. Pretty much any concept of a martial character who uses instinct more than training can fit into a barbarian, with minor tweaking.
Example of difference? Wolverine and Colossus can both be modeled off the barbarian class.
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I too dislike the common concept of barbarians and every time I see them, it's same thing "Hulk smash!". So I took urban barbarian archetype and play him like a regular guy. He isn't bulky or mad or of low intelligence, in fact he actively tries to avoid bloodshed if possible since during his age he saw plenty of fine young men dying and wasting their lives on some wrong goal. He values life to put it short and this alone reason is enough for me to make him different from others.
Hmmm lets see if I can think of some possible Barbarian personalities:
1. Hulk Smash,just hammer your way through foes and have fun
2. noble tribesman irritated by Urban life.
3. Roguish mercenary, gets along well in the city, has lots of contacts.
4. Heracles, physical Paragon, who does epic feats of strength and is full
of ham.
5. Feral Beast, can barely talk and interacts more by grunting.
6. Sadomasochist Adrenalin Junkie, this character enjoys fighting, enjoys
being cut and gets even more excited(Rage), when he can cut his
enemies.
7. Deathseeker, this character has seen some great evil in his life, lost
all his hope and now dreams of dying in the battlefield, charging in
recklessly.
8. Berserker- His rage is like a curse to him, always in fear of losing it
and killing his friends, he rages only when necessary.
9. Tribal Berserker-Wearing animals furs, for him his rage is a gift. He
uses Totemic Rituals to call upon Spirits/Gods and thank them for his
power.
10.Bully- This barbarian is big and bad. His stick is intimidating smaller guys to get an advantage. He always tries to get the advantage and isn't into fightrin strong oponennts.
There isn't reason he can't be clever or smart. Take a look at some of the things very primitive people have pulled off through history.
Thanks, all. You've definitely given me some fun stuff to think about. Not sure why I have such a mental block when it comes to barbarians, which I don't think I have with any other class, but this definitely helped.
I'm currently playing an elven barbarian in a PbP. He's like the second son of a butler (we're very fake-British for some reason--probably because the first PC is an elf ninja named Nigel), so he tries to be the proper gentleman, but has lots of malapropisms (which may be a malapropism itself--am I even spelling it correctly??). His rage is just how he fights. Uses an elven curveblade, working on the rage power version of Spring Attack, since I'm taking the alternate favored class feature of +1 foot of speed per level (+5 feet per 5 levels). So 60 foot speed at 20th, and I plan on "Spring Attacking" and Greater Vital Striking by that time. Maybe not optimal, but fun.
The key for me is that barbarians don't specifically need to be chaotic, just non-lawful. Ever been so frustrated with something you tuned out everything else? How about a neutral barbarian whose rage isn't a berserk fury, but a hyper-focus. He tunes out everything and puts 110% effort into one goal.
Reading this, I had visions in my mind of various martial arts and western movies, with the scene of a duel with all the dramatic close up of their faces, and hands, preparing to bet everything to destroy eachother, and then being set off by a single leaf or water drop falling.
It particularly reminds me of martial arts comics where they drag out an internal monologue spanning a second or two over 5+ pages, typically involving the intense decision to stake their very body on a single strike.
Otherwise: if you go with "mister nice guy ashamed of his rage" then you might want to have 10+ CHA and max out diplomacy. Roll for it every time you can, and try really hard to stop the fight. Of course, you do not take failed negotiations very well, now do you?
If you're still looking, here's another couple ideas
Your typical barbarian is built around the idea of an anger based rage, but what if you used a different emotion? Say build a character who's easily frightened and play off the fight or flight response to fear. Sometimes his first instinct to a scary situation is to freeze up or run away instead of acting, while other times he goes into a bloodthirsty rage and attacks until everyone around him is dead. Have a particular response to any particularly scary enemy he encounters and act normal otherwise, or to different stimulai (example: rats run when threatened in the open but fight meanly when cornered). Works well if you pick any movement based rage powers too, if you have to leap over a firey chasm then your flight or fight response kicks in and your fear of falling in makes you jump better then normal (raging leaper power). Throughout the campaign he could work on mastering his fear instead of letting it master him and choosing to fight or run away on his own terms.
Another emotion to use could be sadness. Similar to I3igAl's Deathseeker concept, what if you had a character who had suffered a loss so bad that he had to constantly keep his mind off of it or be consumed by an uncontrollable desire to destroy everything? Normally they manage to keep themselves emotionally numb, drinking heavily to to keep from remembering. But then they see something that reminds them of their loss. A crusader's lance makes him think of the spear he used to teach his murderd son how to use. A marlith demon's eyes reminds him of that of his beloved wife. Heck, it doesn't even have to be a super direct connection: a Nightmare's firey tail reminds him of his dead daughter's hair, and that mustard stain on the nobleman's sleeve looks like his cottage that got burned to the ground if you squint at it right. His loss is so pervasive he can link anything to it if he stops drinking long enough. Whenever he makes these connections he is filled with a profound sense of sadness as he remembers watching them die, and he experiences that pain all over again. He doesn't want to feel that again: so he does the only thing that he can: pours every fiber of his soul into making what caused the memory go away so he can go back to making himself forget about what happened.
Last idea: I'm not sure if hunger is technically an emotion, but we're gonna say it is for the purposes of this discussion. Your character is a fat slob of a barbarian. He can't see his feet, but somehow he still manages to run around fighting well enough. All he can think of is his next meal, and he's got fairly adventurous taste. Eating HIS tribe would be morally wrong, but other people are fair game! And he is rather curious how demons would taste. Maybe they'd be spicy, or perhaps have the sickly sweet taste of two day old flesh. He has to know! Whenever he sees a tasty looking enemy he gets tunnel vision. There's only him and his food, and he's going after the food with all he's got until it is safely in his belly. Probably would work best with an evil character, and you definitely need ranks in Craft: Gourmet Food so he can make all sorts of decadent dishes with the flesh of his enemies!
Hope these ideas help
