Basic Fantasy RPG Forums

Post your comments here for Luigi Castellani's Barbarians supplement.

https://www.basicfantasy.org/downloads.html#barbarians

First thing, necro thread, I know, I know...

But in any case, does anybody tried the class as is in his/her game ? I'm on the fence about allowing it in my incoming campaign, and would like to get some feedback before, mainly on the diehard ability.

I am playing this class in The Usher's game on rpol.

The 'rage' aspect works well, but I have rarely got down to 0 hp, so the diehard thing hasn't come up.

Really depends on if you are using the save vs death rule, or the negative hp rule. If you are using the negative hp rule, I would say the diehard ability may be a bit overpowered.

You could have it come in at 3rd level?

Not a bad idea giving diehard at 3rd level (or 4th ? Same time as a Fighter second specialization slot), 10 HP is way much crucial at that point that a first level. Even with max HP and 16 CON, it is still doubling character effective hit points.

Longman, are you playing with Fighter Specialization in that game and if so, does the GM gave the barbarian access to it ?

I tend to use level/2 as the max negative hp the character can reach while still been able to fight.

mTeasdale wrote:Not a bad idea giving diehard at 3rd level (or 4th ? Same time as a Fighter second specialization slot), 10 HP is way much crucial at that point that a first level. Even with max HP and 16 CON, it is still doubling character effective hit points.

Longman, are you playing with Fighter Specialization in that game and if so, does the GM gave the barbarian access to it ?

Yes, I believe I am specialized in the battle axe in that particular game - although mine got stolen and I actually carry a magic trident!

If I had a barbarian in one of my own games, I would not allow them to get specialization ranks as well as their other abilities - but the Usher is his own GM, and his game works well.

Dimirag wrote:I tend to use level/2 as the max negative hp the character can reach while still been able to fight.

Never thought of using level/2 as max negative hp. For a while I tried out the negative 10 but that gave characters to much hp so I just went with the con modifier as the negative with the minimum of -1. This gave most characters -1 to -3. Nothing to overpowered but with the bleedout rules (-1 per round), it puts pressure on the characters to make a choice. Save their comrade or beat the bad guy.

No one has taken the barbarian yet in my game but it is there for a choice so just waiting to see how it would play out.

Hello,
I've had a barbarian player in a couple of one shots, so no actual long-time testing.
Diehard didn't really come in play (I used the Negative HP option, as Death Saves may make lucky characters potentially unkillable).
My take is that the negative HP options is a lot of help to lower level characters, while Death Saves would be more beneficial to higher level characters and rarely useful to low level ones.

I wouldn't give Barbarians weapon specialization: rage and diehard should compensate for that.
EDIT: I only allow true fighters to specialize, no paladins, rangers, assassins, what-have-you. I think it should be their thing only. Allowing other classes to specialize usually makes fighters a lot less attractive.

Also I wouldn't move Diehard higher than 3rd level. If you are still afraid it might be too much, try the version that you think is going to be least beneficial instead.
Also remember that Barbarians require a little more XP than Fighters and have Ability score requirements.

As usual YMMV.

All the best
Luigi

PS: Another option would be to change the Diehard ability to a flat +2 bonus to Saves versus Death and Poison.
And/or allow barbarians to Save versus Energy Drain even if no Save would be allowed.
I think it's less interesting but you may like it better.

The Diehard ability is a way of improving his "staying power", here are some options

-Using a d10 for hit points.
--Nothing new, similar to the classic barbarian, its algo good if you use the HD for some other thing.
-Ability to "regenerate" up to half damage suffered in faster time after battle.
-Ability to regenerate damage while in combat, but once the combat ends so do this benefit.
-He starts with more hit points from the start and/or add extra hit points at different levels.
--This depends on how much hp you want him to have, you can keep him at advantage at every level or make it lose it at higher levels.
-Give him a couple of d6s at some levels, he can use them per day in combat to "reinvigorate".
--Plus you can use these d6 for some other barbarian feats of physical nature.