Courtyard - Barbarian Orientation

"Warriors! Shut your mouths and get in line!" A tan-skinned burly man stood before a group of the school's students. He leaned against his weapon, a massive hammer that required two hands to wield it. The students noticed the stains of blood on their teacher's weapon. "My name is Marcus, and I will be instructing all of you. Hah!" He suddenly barked out a laugh, causing some of his students to jump by the loudness of it. "Instructing! As if you fools would learn anything! I know you think you're 'Barbarians'. You simply have no idea what it means to be a Barbarian."

He lifted his hammer into the air, holding it with one hand, as he pointed it about at the students. "You see, most see us as incomprehensible ragers with no intelligence." The teacher Marcus continued. "We swing our sword, get struck in battle, and ignore it by the power of our fury. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, while we do use our fury to drive us into the thick of battle, we do not do it carelessly. We, unlike others, have been able to channel our emotions to give us strength. It is not simply anger. All emotions give us the power to do battle. I bet most of you didn't realize that. Anger is a powerful emotion, yes. But so is fear. Happiness..." He glanced at the academy's structure for a moment, seeming to stare longingly after something. "Even sadness."

At that moment, he seemed to shake off any indication that something was wrong, gripped his hammer with both hands, and swung it in the direction of his students. They all backed away. "Now then. Who wants their first lesson?" He said, gripping his weapon tight as he stared menacingly at his students.

That intro went on a bit longer than I expected it to, my apologies. Welcome to my first mechanical post. I decided that because this is my first mechanical post, why not use the first class I ever played in Pathfinder as a start? Now, before we go on, I'd like to explain something. The orientation posts are just going to cover the basics of a class. That means that we won't be going over every single rage power. We'll save those advanced class posts for another day.

Barbarians have simple and martial martial weapon proficiency, medium armor and shield proficiency, a d12 hit die and a full Base Attack Bonus Progression*. They receive 4 + int skill points, and their class skills include Acrobatics, Climb, Craft, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Knowledge(Nature), Perception, Ride, Survival, and Swim. Their Fort Saves are strong, while the Reflex and Will Saves are weak.

"You'll have to strike faster than that if you want to hit me, Talix!" Marcus shouted at his student, as he moved to the left, dodging the downward strike of the bastard sword. The first to volunteer was a man only a few years younger than himself. Well, he's certainly been around, Marcus thought to himself. He noticed dozens of scars all over the man's body.  Marcus decided to strike back, bringing his hammer in a horizontal swing towards his student. He attacked slowly, giving his student ample time to dodge the blow. He did, ducking under the hammer.

"Wrong!" Shouted Marcus, as he brought a knee forward to smash into the chin of Talix. The student fell back onto the grass. "Do not place yourself in a vulnerable position if you can avoid it! We are experts of the battlefield! As such, we use our minds just as much as we use our bodies! Think, before you act! Now get up, and try to hit me again."
 

Barbarians are, without a doubt, a martial class. So much to the point that they weren't even mentioned in Ultimate Magic, one of Paizo's Advanced Sourcebooks. They were designed to be frontline fighters, but they do not have to be. One could make a raging bowman of sorts (perhaps an admissions office post for later?). Their d12 hit die reinforces their role as a frontliner. And, of course, the trademark ability Rage makes this even more blatant.

For a limited number of rounds each day, barbarians can activate their rage ability as a free action to gain a +4 morale bonus on their strength and constitution scores. This ability immediately grants the Barbarian the hit points(HP) that the bonus to constitution would normally give him, but it should be noted that when the Barbarian stops using his rage, that HP is then immediately lost**. Rage also grants a +2 morale bonus on will saves, as well as a -2 penalty to Armor Class(AC). Finally, Rage can be ended as a free action, and when the rage ends, the Barbarian is subject to fatigue for 2x the amount of rounds the Barbarian raged. So, if you were raging for 3 rounds, you would be fatigued for 6 rounds afterwards. It should also be noted that you cannot begin Raging if you are Fatigued, and if you fall unconscious, the Rage immediately ends. Rage is a very powerful ability, but be wary as the rounds you are allowed to rage per day can quickly run out, especially during the earlier levels.

At 2nd level and every two levels after that, Barbarians gain new abilities chosen from a list called Rage Powers. As it sounds, Rage Powers must be used during the Barbarian's Rage. Some are passive, which means that they immediately take effect once the Barbarian enters Rage. A lot of the Rage Powers have level prerequisites as well. The important thing to remember is that these abilities can only be used while a Barbarian is raging. Some abilities are only allowed to be used once per rage. There's actually some pretty cool tricks that you can do with those abilities, but we'll save that for the Advanced Classes.

Also gained at 2nd level is the Uncanny Dodge ability, which prevents the Barbarian from being caught flat-footed. This is important to remember because it is, in essence, telling you to never use your Flat-Footed AC. The only time you would need it is if you were immobilized, whether by a Hold Person spell, being tied up and so forth. It also prevents the rogues from getting their sneak attack on you, whether by stealthing or acting first in initiative. At 3rd level you gain Trap Sense, which gives you a +1 bonus to reflex saves and a +1 dodge bonus to AC every 3 levels whenever you are subject to a trap.

At 5th level, you gain Improved Uncanny Dodge, which states that you can no longer be flanked. Goodbye Sneak Attack, unless of course you're attacked by a Rogue or Ninja who have 4 more Rogue/Ninja Class levels than you have Barbarian levels. It should be noted that you still cannot be caught flat-footed, regardless what level the rogue is. At 7th level, and every 3 levels after that up to 19th, the Barbarian gains Damage Reduction(DR)1/-***. It's a solid addition to the Barbarian's arsenal, as it makes him a bit more survivable at those later levels.

At 11th level, the Barbarian's Rage grows stronger into Greater Rage. The Barbarian's Strength and Constitution Morale bonuses while raging become +6, and the Will Save grows to +3. Indomitable Will gives the Barbarian a +4 bonus on Will Saves against enchantment spells, and stacks with all bonuses, including the morale bonus on will saves while raging****. Barbarians gain Tireless Rage at level 17, which allows them to no longer be fatigued at the end of a Rage. Finally, at level 20, the Barbarian gains Mighty Rage, a second upgrade, and the Barbarian's Capstone ability. Mighty Rage increases the bonuses of rage to +8 to Strength and Constitution, and +4 to their will saves.

"Well done class. You survived today." Marcus said to his students, most of which were sprawled out in various positions on the grass, exhausted. "That was a nice introduction class. Only took about five hours. You should be thrilled. You're moving faster than I expected. It's only going to get longer and more difficult from here on out." The bells for supper in the mess hall interrupted him. "Well, I suppose your evening meal is ready. You better get to it. I want you all here bright and early, at dawn, for the next lesson. Dismissed." As the students struggled to their feet, and began to limp away towards the academy, Jeven patted him on the shoulder.

"How do they look, old friend?" The headmaster asked him. Marcus chuckled before answering.

"Promising. It's clear most of them haven't seen true combat. At least, nothing that wasn't menial. Raids, battles with soldiers, that sort of thing. I've got a lot work to do, but I think they'll have what it takes." Jeven smiled and nodded.

"...Did you really pour rabbit's blood all over your hammer before class?" Jeven asked, as the two headed towards the mess hall for evening supper. Marcus laughed a reply.

"Of course...But they don't need to know that."

* -  While you've been browsing the forums, you may have come across the term "Full BAB." "3/4s BAB." These terms refer to the class' base attack progression. Full Base Attack Bonus progression means that every level, the class will gain +1 to their Base Attack Bonus(BAB), to a max of +20 at level 20. 3/4 progression is +15 at level 20, and 1/2 progression is +10 at 20.

** - For example, let's say that a 3rd level Barbarian has 35 max HP normally, but with his rage ability, that amount bumps up to 41. He takes a hit during the battle, bringing his total HP down to 32. Now that the battle is over, he stops raging. His HP then becomes 26, because he lost that 6 HP that he gained as a result of his rage. This can actually become very dangerous at later levels, because remember that a Barbarian that falls unconscious stops raging, loses the bonus to constitution, and thus immediately loses the HP at the gained from rage. The HP lost from Rage could immediately kill him. There are feats that can help alleviate this problem, but it's just something that players should definitely be aware of.

*** - Damage Reduction reduces damage the creature receives by it's numeric amount. Damage caused by spells are not subject to damage reduction. Also, Damage Reduction can be overcome by whatever is stated in the Damage Reduction. For instance, DR 5/Blunt means that the creature has Damage Reduction 5, but it does not apply to damage dealt with Blunt weapons. Sometimes Damage Reduction is displayed as DR 5/-. What that means is that there are no weapons that ignore that type of DR, and that the damage must be dealt by dealing more than what the DR is worth, as is the case with Barbarian.

**** - There are various types of bonuses. Morale, Deflection, Enhancement just to name a few. Bonuses do not stack with each other. What that means is if you receive a +4 morale bonus to strength from rage, and you were to get a +2 morale bonus to strength from another source, the two would not stack. You would be left with the +4 bonus to strength from your rage ability. However, if it was a +4 morale bonus from rage, and then +4 enhancement bonus from the spell Bull's Strength, the two would stack. There are also typeless bonuses which do stack, such as the one granted from the Barbarian ability Indomitable Will. Dodge bonuses are an exception to the rule, as they do stack with each other.

Thanks for reading guys. If you have any requests for what the next blog post should entail, feel free to leave a comment. Otherwise, I think I'll make a list and roll randomly to see what happens. Cheers.

Headmaster's Office - A Tour of the Academy

Welcome back students. I hope your break was sufficient. We've a lot of ground to cover today, so let's get started. This giant room here in front of us is the Mess Hall. This is where you'll be having your meals. It's also the Auditorium.

This blog is going to be separated by the types of posts I'm going to write. For instance, as you can see, the title of the blog starts with Headmaster's Office. The Office posts are going to be largely personal posts from myself, about my gaming life or just stuff that's going on in my life in general (I know, boring, right?). The Mess Hall blog posts are going to be open forum questions. I'll give a topic of some sort, and give my opinion on the matter. For Mess Hall posts more than anything, I'd like your input. Feel free to comment on any other blog post I give, but the Mess Hall is for debate.

Next up, we have the courtyard. Rogues, Fighters, Cavaliers...This is where you'll be spending most of your time training. As you can see, we have the training dummies over there...

Courtyard blog posts are going to focus on a topic dealing with the martial classes. We'll go over the topic at hand, come up with some ideas around it, and find a way to implement it into your current game. For example, let's say the topic was rogue talents. I might look at all of them, or just a few of them. I may give some examples as to what situations certain rogue talents you thought you'd never use might be absolutely amazing. Maybe I'll go over something extremely obvious, something that new players get to use and abuse to their hearts content. Martial Classes also include the Monk and the Ranger.

Over here on your left we have the Hall of Summoning. Summoning may be a bit misleading, however...This is for you wizards and sorcerers out there...I also hear we have a couple of witches and magi amongst us? Delightful! The last time I ran into a witch, hah! Let me tell you...

The Hall of Summoning is the Arcane equivalent of the Courtyard. This is also where the bards will go to practice their music, their orations, or what have you. The laboratories for the Alchemists are located in this room.

And here we are in the chapel. As you can see, there are no pews or chairs for you to sit in. If you were paying attention, neither did the Hall of Summoning, or the Courtyard. That's right. Those of you who get your power from the deities, this is where you'll be learning. You'll note there's some room for you Paladins and Clerics who can't get along to bash each other's skulls in...

Oracles, Clerics, Paladins, Inquisitors and Druids all find their training grounds here, like the Fighters in the Courtyard and the Sorcerers in the Hall of Summoning. 

Remember this room? It's the one where you all met me for the first time. The Admissions Office. Hopefully, I'll never see any of you in it again, for this is where you'll be receiving your walking papers if you don't live up to my expectations...

The Admissions Office is kind of an interesting one. This is where we'll be going over character concepts, whether they be very common, such as the Human Sword and Board Fighter, or completely unheard of, like the frontline fighting Halfling Wizard. I'll build a character, either of my own volition or from some requests by the readers, maybe even give the character some sort of backstory, and then we can work together to tweak the character a bit, so you can feel free to use them in your own games. This is going to be a fun and interesting challenge for all of us, I think. Especially the Halfling Wizard.

I'm also going to take the time to point this out now. I will never try to insinuate that you should prioritize one option over another, or that any particular options are useless, and should never appear on a character sheet. If optimization is your cup of tea, so be it. Ignore the posts that create characters with possible significant defects. In my opinion, those characters are some of the most fun to play. It's obvious that the Halfling Wizard has overcome great challenges to survive this long. What's his story? Is he the living embodiment of why it's better to be lucky than smart? Or perhaps he's exactly the opposite. That is what I find fun about these characters.

And here we have the War Room. This is where my strategists and tacticians will thrive. You see that large table before us? There's a map. This is where scenarios will be presented before you, and you will be required to defeat the challenges with, ahem...minimal casualties. My leaders will be spending quite a bit of time in this room...

Another interesting one, the War Room is, as our Headmaster was explaining, the scenarios. Sort of. I might drop some problem for you to solve, like an encounter with very limited resources, or a puzzle, or something of the sort. But I believe that mainly the War Room will be a place for battlefield theory, perhaps some rules clarifications on the dizzying procedures of combat, that sort of thing. Maybe I will drop a CR X encounter every so often that you guys could incorporate into your own game. Again, comments steer the direction this blogship is going.

As you can see...Construction is still going on...We haven't quite...BLAST IT, COULD YOU STOP HAMMERING UNTIL I FINISH TALKING!?...Thank you. We haven't quite finished the school just yet. More classrooms and buildings will be added later, as our school grows and thrives. For now, I think we have what we need to kill and dism- I mean teach you all what you need to know. FEEL FREE TO CONTINUE HAMMERING NOW! Moving on...

 As our headmaster has informed us, this blog is still growing and expanding. Though you've taken a quick tour of the place, there are still many different places we can go. Perhaps the basement to discuss house rules? An Arcane Laboratory to discover new spells? Beyond the scope of what I'm doing at the moment, but definitely not out of the realm of possibility. If you guys have any ideas as to what I should add, just let me know.

And this, students, is the dormitories, and our last stop on the tour. This is where you'll be sleeping. Unpack your belongings, get settled in, and report to your instructors within the hour. Dismissed.

 The Dorms posts are going to be guest blogs from our readers, in case any of you want to chime in and drop us some interesting information, feel free. Just send me an email at soldiersolidus@gmail.com and we can have a little chat about it. Thanks for reading you guys. See you next time for the class feature on Barbarians.

Headmaster's Office - Indoctrination (or the pilot)

Welcome, would-be adventurers. My name is Jeven. I'm the headmaster of this school. I've had, what some consider, a successful adventuring career. I've battled trolls, stolen from dukes and lords, toppled tyrannical governments, slain dragons, and even met a goddess or three. Instead of meeting an untimely demise, instead of living lavishly on my own island, I decided that I would open this school to help budding heroes such as yourselves grow, and be ready for the dangers that lie out in this world. 

The trials and tribulations you face here will not be easy. The instructors I have gathered here to help me teach have been through hell and back. Some, more literally than others. Listen to them, learn from them. Perhaps you may live to see the day where your dreams come true. All of you have come for your own reasons, whether that be money, power, respect. Some may wish for vengeance, some may even seek to rule their own kingdom one day. It does not matter. When you leave here - excuse me. If you leave here, graduated, and not a wash-out, then you will have within your hands the ability to shape your own destiny. 

So pick up your blades and bows, open your spellbooks, pray to whatever deity you wish. The time for learning has begun. 

The pilot. The first blog post. It is a bit intimidating, I have to admit. But instead of whining about that, let's get started with an introduction, shall we? My name is Tom. I've been a nerd my entire life. Video games, anime, fantasy novels, science fiction novels, you name it. Tabletop RPGs, however, have been a relatively recent inclusion in my life. About five years ago, my group decided we'd give Dungeons and Dragons, 4th edition a try. And we, the nerds, loved it.

You see, for us it was an easy transition from (insert Theme Park MMO here) to DND. When we were younger, say Junior High School kids, we tried it, but couldn't wrap our minds around it. "What do you mean, I can only cast two spells a day? Cross-class skills? Feats?" It was overwhelming for a couple of kids without a teacher, before everyone had internet in their homes. So the box was left on a shelf for a long time, collecting dust.

4th Edition was our gateway RPG. It was the medium we used to tell the fantastic stories that we wanted to tell. It wasn't long, however, when we started to run into problems with the game. Combat would drag on. My group swelled to something like eleven players. With my mind still stuck in MMO mode, I could not fathom being stuck at level 1 for 10+ encounters. We slowly started drifting back to MMOs, including some new free-to-play game called League of Legends.

Then, one evening, I was walking around Barnes and Noble. I was dreading a two hour drive I'd have to make the following day. I was glancing through the RPG section, looking at the various 4E books, when something caught my eye. You see, I've heard the name before. A supposedly improved version of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, the game we gave up on. Its name was Pathfinder.

The massive tome, with its beautiful cover, looked to me like a treasure trove full of knowledge and endless possibilities. The high-quality artwork continued throughout the entire book. The character iconics filled with me excitement about playing their portrayed classes. The book seemed to be edited perfectly, with everything clearly displayed. I sensed I would have little difficult thumbing through the book to find a ruling. I made the decision to purchase the book. It has, single-handedly, shaped my gaming life to what it is today.

My gaming group became just as hooked on the game as I was. As a result, it has become our preferred system. Occasionally, we dabble in other systems. Shadowrun, Traveller, and DND Next to name a few. But Pathfinder...that's where my pride and joy rests. Hundreds, if not thousands of hours of my time had been dedicated to prep, research and play. And I enjoy every second of it.

I decided to start the blog for a few reasons. First and foremost, I've had a tough time finding a blog that was exclusively for Pathfinder and its players. Most blogs that are updated relatively regularly are general for RPGs, such as Gnome Stew. The other reason, and probably the more important one, is that I felt that I needed a creative outlet for myself that was away from the Game Master's chair. It's an opportunity for myself to kind of work my way through various problems that I will set forth in the Pathfinder RPG, such as figuring out exactly what a Barbarian is, and what it does(which is going to be our first class feature). While all of this is going on of course, the most important thing I can do is give you guys something entertaining to read.

I'm going to try to put forth an effort to churn these things out as often as I can, hopefully to the tune of at least two or three a week. I want to build a community of readers who can help me as well as each other. If I say something dumb, wrong, or just plain weird, feel free to let me know. I'm new at this, and any criticism would be much appreciated. My goal is to help budding and veteran players alike, and the most effective way I can accomplish that is with input from you guys.

Chances are you've found this blog because you're already a Pathfinder player, but if by some miracle you're not, here's a few links that will help get you started.

Paizo - This is the website of the guys responsible for bringing this epic RPG out into the world. They have an easy-to-navigate store which will make it easy for you to pick up their wonderful products.

The Rules - One of the coolest things about the Pathfinder RPG is that all the rules for the game are completely available for free online! Alternatively, you can go to this site for another resource document. If you're looking for just the core rules, it doesn't matter which site you go to. Whichever you prefer.

That's it for now. Feel free to leave a comment and let me know how I'm doing, and what you'd like to see. Thanks guys.