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.