Barbarian, Tirr (3.5e Class)

This page details the Tome Barbarian, as modified to fit the Tirr setting. You may be looking for the original Barbarian found in the SRD, or the original Frank and K creation, Tome Barbarian.

Barbarian

"My name is Gruum'sh, of the One-Eye Tribe. Your women, lands, and riches are mine."

Playing a Barbarian is actually very easy. In general, you hit things, get mad, hit them again, and they fall down. A Barbarian's action in almost any circumstance can plausibly be "I hit it with my great axe!" As such, a Barbarian character can be a good method to introduce a new player to the game or kill some orcs when you've had a few glasses of brew.

In Tirr, Barbarians represent the majority of the uncivilized races, those who have shunned the cities of humans and elves... which makes it little wonder that a large number of the beast-like Kin tend to live in barbaric tribes that live wild and among simpler dwellings, along with druids and shamans.

Making a Barbarian

As a Barbarian, you charge into a crowd of enemies and turn on Drowning Pool's Let the Bodies Hit the Floor. You will take many, many hits in doing so, but once the fight ends and you stop raging, your Fast Healing will allow you to go back to full HP relatively soon. Which is good, because nothing makes the party healer irritable like him having to burn all the charges in his wand AND his spells that day for your benefit. Therefore, the only time you may need healing is in the thick of battle, to keep you from actually dying (which is a distinct possibility for you). Nonetheless, if you aren't taking damage in an encounter, you aren't playing your Barbarian correctly.

Races: Kerani, Orcs and Coug'r are common barbarians, as they often live in tribes outside of the cities of men and elves. Anybody can become a barbarian, however, and in areas with little in the way of civilization, a lot of people do.

Alignment: Any non-lawful

Starting Gold: 4d6 x 10 gp, (140 gp).

Starting Age: As Barbarian.

Table: The Barbarian

Hit Die: d12

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Saving Throws			Special
		Fort	Ref	Will
1st	+1	+2	+0	+0	Rage, Fast Healing 1
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+0	Rage Dice +1d6, Combat Movement +5’
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+1	Battle Hardened
4th	+4	+4	+1	+1	Rage Dice +2d6, Combat Movement +10’
5th	+5	+4	+1	+1	Sidestep Hazards, Fast Healing 5
6th	+6/+1	+5	+2	+2	Rage Dice +3d6, Combat Movement +15’
7th	+7/+2	+5	+2	+2	Great Blows
8th	+8/+3	+6	+2	+2	Rage Dice +4d6, Combat Movement +20’
9th	+9/+4	+6	+3	+3	Great Life
10th	+10/+5	+7	+3	+3	Rage Dice +5d6, Combat Movement +25’, Fast Healing 10
11th	+11/+6/+1	+7	+3	+3	Call the Horde
12th	+12/+7/+2	+8	+4	+4	Rage Dice +6d6, Combat Movement +30’
13th	+13/+8/+3	+8	+4	+4	Watched by Totems
14th	+14/+9/+4	+9	+4	+4	Rage Dice +7d6, Combat Movement +35’
15th	+15/+10/+5	+9	+5	+5	Primal Assault, Fast Healing 15
16th	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+5	+5	Rage Dice +8d6, Combat Movement +40’
17th	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+5	Savagery
18th	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+6	Rage Dice +9d6, Combat Movement +45’
19th	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+6	One With The Beast
20th	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+6	Rage Dice +10d6, Combat Movement +50’ ,Fast Healing 20

Class Skills (4 + Int modifier per level, ×4 at 1st level)
The Barbarian’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Nature) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Barbarian.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Barbarians are proficient with simple weapons, martial weapons, light armor, medium armor and with shields.

Rage (Ex): When doing melee damage to a foe or being struck by a foe, a Barbarian may choose to enter a Rage as an immediate action. While Raging, a Barbarian gains a +2 morale bonus to hit and damage in melee combat and may apply any Rage Dice he has to his melee damage rolls. He also gains a +2 to saves, a -2 to AC, and he gains DR X/- with “X” being equal to half his Barbarian level +2 (rounded down). For example, a 1st level Barbarian has DR 2/- while Raging and a 10th level Barbarian has DR 7/- while Raging.

While Raging, a Barbarian may not cast spells, activate magic items, use spell-like abilities, or drop his weapons or shield. He also is not able to search through containers that require a Search check, and receives a −4 penalty to Spot and Listen while raging. Rage lasts until he has neither struck an enemy for three consecutive rounds nor suffered damage from an enemy for three consecutive rounds. He may voluntarily end a Rage as a full-round action.

Fast Healing (Ex): Barbarians shrug off wounds that would cripple a lesser man, and have learned to draw upon deep reserves of energy and stamina. At 1st level, they gain Fast Healing 1. At 5th level this becomes Fast Healing 5, Fast Healing 10 at 10th level, Fast Healing 15 at 15th level, and Fast Healing 20 at 20th level. This healing only applies while he is raging, and can only heal damage sustained while raging.

If a Barbarian ever multi-classes, he permanently loses this ability. A multiclass character does not gain this ability. A character with 4 or more levels of Barbarian gains this ability even if multiclassed.

Rage Dice (Ex): While Raging, a Barbarian may add these dice of damage to each of his melee attacks. These dice are not multiplied by damage multipliers, and are not applied to any bonus attacks beyond those granted by Base Attack Bonus. These dice are not sneak attack dice, and do not count as sneak attack dice for the prerequisites of prestige classes or feats.

Combat Movement (Ex): While Raging, a Barbarian moves faster in combat, and may add his Combat Movement to his speed when he takes a move action to move.

Battle Hardened (Ex): At 3rd level, a Raging Barbarian’s mind has been closed off from distractions by the depths of his bloodlust and battle fury. While Raging, he may use his Fortitude Save in place of his Will Save. If he is under the effects of a compulsion or fear effect, he may act normally while Raging as if he was inside a protection from evil effect.

Great Blows (Ex): At 7th level, a Raging Barbarian’s melee attacks are Great Blows. Once per round, an enemy struck by the Barbarian’s melee or thrown weapon attacks must make a Fort Save or be stunned for 1d4 rounds. The Save DC for this ability is 10 + half the Barbarian’s HD + his Constitution modifier.

Great Life (Ex): While Raging, a 9th level Barbarian is immune to nonlethal damage, death effects, stunning, negative levels, and ability damage (but not ability drain). If using rules from the Tirr Campaign Setting, a raging barbarian is not subject to damage shock.

Call the Horde (Ex): An 11th level Barbarian becomes a hero of his people. He gains the Leadership feat as a bonus feat, but his followers must be Barbarians. In campaigns that do not use Leadership feats, he instead gains a +2 unnamed bonus to all saves.

Watched by Totems (Ex): At 13th level, a Barbarian may immediately re-roll any failed save with a −2 modifier. He may do this no more than once per failed save.

Primal Assault (Ex): At 15th level, a Raging Barbarian’s may choose to radiate an effect similar to the bursting variant of Dispel Magic when he enters a Rage, with a caster level equal to his HD. He must designate that he is invoking this action at the beginning of his rage. Unlike a normal Dispel Magic burst, this effect does not suppress magic effects on him or the effects of magic items he is wearing or holding. This effect also cannot be used to counterspell, no matter the circumstances.

Savagery (Ex): At 17th level, a Barbarian is capable of performing a Coup de Grace as a standard action, instead of a full-round action, although he may only perform one coup de grace per round.

One With The Beast (Ex): At 19th level, the Barbarian gains an additional two rage dice in damage whenever he is raging against a non-humanoid target.

Campaign Information

Playing a Barbarian

Religion: Barbarians typically worship the Aesir in most parts on the world. They reject most deities of the Pantheon with disdain, describing them as the gods of the cityfolk, weakened by the bureacracy they enslave themselves to. The one notable exception is Serberus, along with a minor exception in Gahss; The former deity embodies most desirable traits for evil or neutral barbarians who pillage and raid other communities for their gain. Gahss embodies the ideal of Barbarians who live for a good challenge or battle.

Other Classes: Barbarians are typically treated as hirelings or thugs, but are respected as men and women of the wilds. Most Rangers find Barbarians to be a respectable, similar group to themselves, although they differ in personality or combat style. Knights and Samurai tend to have the greatest differences with Barbarians, as they represent entirely different ideologies in their fighting styles and approaches to situations.

Combat: The Barbarian is the front-line, no-retreating combatant. They are not a tank, by any means, but exist solely to do as much damage to anything they can reach as possible. Their tactics are crude, and more often than not, so are they, but crude can be effective, many a fallen foe has found out.

Advancement: Barbarians of Tirr typically rarely multi-class. A close-knit, tribal community tends to have this effect on an individual, rarely culminating with the occasional multi-classed Barbarian who takes up the role of a Ranger or Druid. Of course, Barbarians who travel the world and are more open to other ideas are the exception, but are not standard.

Barbarians in the World

“	I don't care for your 'rights', Solean, or your 'deeds', or your fancy 'laws'. I only value what I want, and when I want something, I take it.	”
—Gruum'sh, Orc Barbarian Chief

These are the men and women of the tribal communities scattered all over Tirr, outside of the great cities and cloisters of civilization. These people set up small villages, at best, living off of the land and their raids, in order to better their way of life.

Daily Life: The Barbarian typically lives among his people, aspiring to glory in battle and for the simple pleasures of food, women, and trophies. Barbarianism espouses very masculine themes of domination and achievements, boasting and rambunctiousness; While this appears to indicate that female barbarians are second-class (sometimes this is the case), in most barbaric societies, the result is all that matters, essentially making the lifestyle a form of meritocracy in the fashion which most would call a 'power fantasy' in civilized communities.

Notables: Specifically, the Kerani and the Coug'r are the most notable Barbarian Tribes, both located on the continent of Loupe, where the absence of the Kaladon in the last few centuries has allowed barbarians to thrive in disputed territories and wildlands.

NPC Reactions: Civilizations tends to view Barbarians as a whole as simple thugs who live in the mud and take to theft and pillaging as if it were their god-given right. Often times, because of the differences in culture, this is true. Specifically, the Kerani, as well as their daughter race, the Kaori, are often subjected to more vicious relations with civilization, due to a history of violence, war, and slavery between themselves and other races. Still, most shrewd characters understand the value of the Barbarian. They're simple folk, but simple folk is not necessarily a bad thing, at all, really.

Barbarian Lore

Characters with ranks in Knowledge (Local) can research Barbarians in regards to the region to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

Knowledge (Local)

DC	Result
5	Barbarians are the uncivilized tribes who raid caravans and shun society.
10	Barbarians actually do have a type of premature civilization to themselves, often with leadership going to war-chiefs or spiritual leaders.
15	Some Barbarian tribes are nomadic, allowing them to cover large amounts of ground, and making them a good source of information on the local topology.
20	It can be said that the tribe of the Coug'r, a barbarian race that lives in the mountains of Loupe, holds an interesting secret; They are one of the few races in which psychic power is born into.

External Links

Races of War (source)

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