Barbarian

Description

Barbarians are the embodiment of unbridled, unquenchable, and unthinking rage. More than a mere emotion, their anger is the ferocity of a cornered predator, the unrelenting assault of a storm, or even defined as the turmoil of the sea.   As a barbarian, you’ll focus on primarily two-handed weapons and soaking up damage as if it is your friend as opposed to sporting the finest armors.

Indrid's Information

Stat Priority

Primary: Vitality
Secondary: Strength
Tertiary: Grit   Perks:

• Epic Toughness
• Aura Mastery
• Two-Handed Specialization
• Leap Attack

 

Roleplay Redux Information

Stats:

• +2 Strength
• +1 Constitution

A Closer Look at Barbarians

A tall human tribesman strides through a blizzard, draped in fur and hefting his axe. He laughs as he charges toward the frost giant who dared poach his people’s elk herd.

A half-orc snarls at the latest challenger to her authority over their savage tribe, ready to break his neck with her bare hands as she did to the last six rivals.

Frothing at the mouth, a dwarf slams his helmet into the face of his drow foe, then turns to drive his armored elbow into the gut of another.   These barbarians, different as they might be, are defined by their rage: unbridled, unquenchable, and unthinking fury. More than a mere emotion, their anger is the ferocity of a cornered predator, the unrelenting assault of a storm, the churning turmoil of the sea.   For some, their rage springs from a communion with fierce animal spirits. Others draw from a roiling reservoir of anger at a world full of pain. For every barbarian, rage is a power that fuels not just a battle frenzy but also uncanny reflexes, resilience, and feats of strength.  

Primal Instinct

People of towns and cities take pride in how their civilized ways set them apart from animals, as if denying one’s own nature was a mark of superiority. To a barbarian, though, civilization is no virtue, but a sign of weakness. The strong embrace their animal nature—keen instincts, primal physicality, and ferocious rage. Barbarians are uncomfortable when hedged in by walls and crowds. They thrive in the wilds of their homelands: the tundra, jungle, or grasslands where their tribes live and hunt.   Barbarians come alive in the chaos of combat. They can enter a berserk state where rage takes over, giving them superhuman strength and resilience. A barbarian can draw on this reservoir of fury only a few times without resting, but those few rages are usually sufficient to defeat whatever threats arise.  

A Life of Danger

Not every member of the tribes deemed “barbarians” by scions of civilized society has the barbarian class. A true barbarian among these people is as uncommon as a skilled fighter in a town, and he or she plays a similar role as a protector of the people and a leader in times of war. Life in the wild places of the world is fraught with peril: rival tribes, deadly weather, and terrifying monsters. Barbarians charge headlong into that danger so that their people don’t have to.   Their courage in the face of danger makes barbarians perfectly suited for adventuring. Wandering is often a way of life for their native tribes, and the rootless life of the adventurer is little hardship for a barbarian. Some barbarians miss the close-knit family structures of the tribe, but eventually find them replaced by the bonds formed among the members of their adventuring parties.  

Culture

Barbarians were common all across Thuria, and most especially regions such as the Pictish Wildlands, Nordheim, Cimmeria, Hyperborea, and the vast stretches of the Hyrkanian steppe. However, contrary to common belief, not all warriors who lived outside civilization's borders were barbarians. Only those who embraced the wild and primal ways of the rage could rightly call themselves a barbarian, imbuing them with a wild spirit not found among most warriors. Where civilized people emphasized what separated from them wild animals, barbarians took pride in their bestial nature and looked upon the tamer sensibilities of civilization with disdain. Barbarians' feral nature meant that they lacked the discipline to be lawful, though all other alignments were found among barbarians.   Barbarians had a reputation, perhaps not completely deserved, as reckless ruffians and savage nuisances who needless disrupted society by acts of mayhem. However, barbarians, while undoubtedly feral and unpredictable by the nature of their rages, were not necessarily uncultured brutes. Time and time again, barbarians proved their cunning and resourcefulness as well as their sheer physical power and endurance. Sometimes, in spite of their aversion to an organized order, barbarians even demonstrated honor. However, barbarians were united - no matter their origins - by a marked lack of discipline or patience for the laws and traditions that others adhered to. Likewise, while a generalization, it is true to some degree that nearly all barbarians came from outside the confines of settled civilization, being far more common among nomadic tribes or frontier settlers than they were among urban city dwellers. It is from these remote origins that barbarians often derived their reverence for nature, which brought them closer to druids, rangers, and others who venerated the wilderness.   Many barbarians were human, since humans were among the most widespread of the races, as well as in many cases, the most uncivilized. However, orc and goblinoid barbarians were more common still and were sometimes the most commonly encountered warriors of their race. Barbarians from other races were relatively rare, though among elves there were the wild elves, among halflings the ghostwise, and among dwarves the wild dwarves, each of which possessed barbarian traditions. Half-elves from the Yuirwood were also sometimes drawn to the way of the barbarian, as were plane-touched raised among tribal cultures. Dragonborn, goliath, and half-elven barbarians were also somewhat common, with dragonborn and half-elves preferring the way of thane-born barbarians, while goliaths were more often rage-blood barbarians.   Barbarians held varying attitudes towards magic. On the one hand, barbarians distrusted most things they did not understand and this extended towards what they called "book magic" or magic learned in a school or university, such as that used by sword-mages or wizards. On the other hand, barbarians were themselves wielders of primal magic, as were the druids many barbarians called friends or allies. Likewise, barbarians often showed a large degree of respect for sorcerers, whose approach to magic was similar to their own unbridled style of combat. In no small way, it was likely that the barbarian prejudice against scholarly magic was due in some part to the fact that many barbarians were illiterate.   Barbarians' bravery and wanderlust made them uncommonly suited for the adventuring lifestyle. Often coming from nomadic tribes, most barbarians had few qualms with the traveling life typical to adventuring parties. Of the difficulties suffered by barbarians in adapting to a life of adventure, the greatest was most commonly the loss of family structure that comes from leaving the tribe. With time, however, many barbarians found the bonds with their new companions a worthy substitute.  

Abilities

As handy with a weapon as a fighter, barbarians became tougher and more agile as they grew more powerful. The most experienced barbarians were almost incomparably powerful, with a strength and constitution well beyond that of most mortals. Though barbarians often used one-handed weapons, many preferred to use two-handed weapons in order to deal more damage to their foes. Barbarians were also well-versed in the use of light armor, and many lacked training in heavier forms of protection such as chain shirts or shields, while very few were trained in and most lacked training in heavy armor, such as plate mail.   Because most of them were untrained in the use of heavy armor, barbarians trained themselves to take incredible amounts of punishment that could easily fell less sturdy warriors. Additionally, most barbarians were capable of moving much more quickly while wearing half plate or lighter armor, by a factor of between thirty and forty percent. Another boon to barbarians' feral and exposed style of attack was their aptitude for quickly following up one attack with another immediately thereafter, overwhelming their enemies until they were able to deal fatal blow. This, along with their instinctive sense for danger, which made them nigh impossible to flank effectively or put off guard, made barbarians far more formidable than their lightly armored appearance would suppose.   Many barbarians drew upon the primal energies of the natural world and its guardian spirits, often in the form of ancestral totems, for empowerment, gaining powerful abilities called evocations. The feral might gained by barbarians could manifest in many other ways and some used it to empower themselves to the point of nigh invulnerability, finding it easier to take blows and plow onward rather than dodge them. Others gained the ability to literally shape their fate, affecting the quality of luck dealt them through force of will.   The most distinctive aspect of barbarians was their ability to "rage," wherein they let loose powerful emotional bursts fueled by their primal power or inner fury. When they raged, barbarians gained a number of powerful benefits, including an increase in physical prowess, and greater insensitivity to many forms of physical damage. This rage usually lasted about a minute, but with experience and training, most barbarians could extend it indefinitely.   Barbarians also were known to take on other, less common abilities. While raging, barbarians were typically unable to cast evocations, spells, or other similar abilities. Some barbarians were more skilled with lesser evocations whilst raging. Barbarians could also use a fraction of their raging power to deal a devastating attack known as a rage strike.  

Primal Paths available in Roleplay Redux

 

Path of the Berserker

For some barbarians, rage is a means to an end – that end being violence. The Path of the Berserker is a path of untrammeled fury, slick with blood. As you enter the berserker's rage, you thrill in the chaos of battle, heedless of your own health or well-being.  

Path of the Totem Warrior

The Path of the Totem Warrior is a spiritual journey, as the barbarian accepts a spirit animal as guide, protector, and inspiration. In battle, your totem spirit fills you with supernatural might, adding magical fuel to your barbarian rage.   Most barbarian tribes consider a totem animal to be kin to a particular clan. In such cases, it is unusual for an individual to have more than one totem animal spirit, though exceptions exist.

Path of the Ancestral Guardian

Some barbarians hail from cultures that revere their ancestors. These tribes teach that the warriors of the past linger in the world as mighty spirits, who can guide and protect the living. When a barbarian who follows this path rages, the barbarian contacts the spirit world and calls on these guardian spirits for aid.
  Barbarians who draw on their ancestral guardians can better fight to protect their tribes and their allies. In order to cement ties to their ancestral guardians, barbarians who follow this path cover themselves in elaborate tattoos that celebrate their ancestors’ deeds. These tattoos tell sagas of victories against terrible monsters and other fearsome rivals.

Path of the Storm Herald

Typical barbarians harbor a fury that dwells within. Their rage grants them superior strength, durability, and speed. Barbarians who follow the Path of the Storm Herald learn instead to transform their rage into a mantle of primal magic that swirls around them. When in a fury, a barbarian of this path taps into nature to create powerful, magical effects.   Storm heralds are typically elite champions who train alongside druids, rangers, and others sworn to protect the natural realm. Other storm heralds hone their craft in elite lodges founded in regions wracked by storms, in the frozen reaches at the world’s end, or deep in the hottest deserts.
 

Path of the Juggernaut

Juggernaut barbarians are siege engines in their own right, able to stand their ground and move their foes into positions of weakness. While raging, they make any battlefield their domain, shoving foes over mountainsides and destroying even the strongest structures with their attacks.