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Barbarian

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Barbarians are brave, even reckless, and their warrior skills make them well suited to adventure. Instead of training and discipline, barbarians have a powerful rage that makes them stronger, tougher, and better able to withstand attacks. They only have the energy for a few such displays per day, but it is usually sufficient. Constant exposure to danger has also given barbarians a sort of "sixth sense", the preternatural ability to sense danger and dodge attacks, and their running stamina is legendary.

With their toughness and fighting ability they are the shock troops of the D&D world. People picture the typical Barbarian as the huge Viking type from somewhere to the 'North'. Keep in mind that this does not have to be the only example of a Barbarian. They have this stunning ability to Rage in combat which makes them stronger and tougher, becoming a tornado of destruction- what other examples of characters would have this frightening ability? A barroom brawler? A crazy street lunatic? A daring rich duelist bent on revenge? Consider different possibilities for the Barbarian. While they are detailed in the Players Handbook as the typical example of wandering Norsemen-type, you do not have to be that when creating your character.

Making the Best Barbarian

You will notice that Barbarians have the most hit points in the game (a 12 sided dice compared to all other fighter types with a 10 sided dice or even 8 sided) that makes them the class that will most likely be thrown in front of whatever is coming to soak up damage to protect the weaker members of the group. The Barbarian tends to concentrate on being fast and furious as opposed to bulky and heavily armored. This lack of armor may be made up for in hit points (especially if you raise your Con for hit point bonuses) but consider raising your Dexterity to make up for light or medium armor. This, again, depends on what sort of character you are building. If we are making a street brawler we might decide to raise Constitution to give him the ability to shake off massive amounts of damage with a grunt. On the other hand, the rich duelist might want the high Dexterity to compliment the image of the lightning fast reflexes saves him from damage (and prevents the commoner from ruining his expensive clothes!).

Strength is a very important ability for the Barbarian as it relates to combat, but again it depends on what sort of character you want to play.

Here is the breakdown of what the Barbarian class benefits:

• Alignment Restrictions: Any non-lawful
• Hit Die: d12
• Proficiencies: All simple and martial weapons, light armor, medium armor, and shields
• Skill Points (x4 at 1st level): 4 + Int Modifier
• Ex-Barbarians: Barbarians are unable to progress in levels if their alignment ever becomes lawful.

Skills

Skills are another way of defining and individualizing and distinguishing your character from other Barbarians. Barbarians have the following skills that are within their class- that means when you want to raise a rank in one of these skills you only spend 1 skill point. If you wish to take a skill that is not on this list you must 2 skills points. Some skills such as Use Magic Device are not available at all to Barbarian and skill points cannot be spent on it. The Barbarian is meant to fight and so points spent on Parry and Discipline would be a wise idea.

Class Skills (skill descriptions):

• Discipline*
• Heal
• Listen
• Lore*
• Parry*
• Taunt

*Notes:

Discipline is a Neverwinter Nights skill. It is not a part of the Dungeons & Dragons® game experience but is a necessary part of the Aurora Engine technology.

Lore can be considered a subset of the Dungeons & Dragons® Knowledge skill.

Parry is a Neverwinter Nights skill. It is not a part of the Dungeons & Dragons® game experience but is a necessary part of the Aurora Engine technology.

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