Barbarians, how do you play them?

The Barbarism needs only to come into play when you're raging. What sets you apart from the fighter is in a sense just straightforwardness. A Barbarian can be an intelligent, practical guy who sees no need for a more complicated approach to combat. He indulges his rage in battle because it suits him, because it's his way of reveling in it all, and because it just fuckin works. Last time I played a Barbarian he was the most cunning, scheming, and pragmatic character in the party. But he was never really considered any less of a Barbarian for it.

Pic related

Conan plz

Not only Conan, there's other characters like that in fantasy too. Barbarian does not equal retarded.
One I can recall right now is Logen Ninefingers from The First Law book series.

Have a personality outside of murder? Maybe display your weird foreign cultural values in some way? I dunno.

>barbarian is a class

My friend had the best barbarian I had ever seen:

Bartholomew Tiberius Reginald Einsfield III. He was a dandy nobleman who wanted to live the "vulgar life of adventure." He eschewed armor for his fine clothing because leather and plate were "so passe" but any time his clothes or hair were disturbed he would launch into a child-like, but murderous rage. I love it.

Like Conan or the DW class: someone who has great desires, great will to risk it all to get them.

I love characters like that

My next character was going to be halfling barbarian ex blacksmith?
would be chaotic good, basically friendly and melancholy but hates cruelty and torture?
(5th ed D&D btw)

WWHHOOORRLL STAARR!

One of my favorite characters of all time. He convinced me to play a barbarian.

I played mine as an odd mix between a viking and a russian guy. He had a boat, but we were in the desert so he just slept under it. Otherwise, he was quite good at intimidating and hitting shit.

I play a Berserker Barbarian with the Soldier background in a 5e DnD campaign. His backstory is that he was dishonorably discharged captain that served in the army. After he saw his brother die on the battlefield, he lost his cool, went berserk, and took actions that resulted in the unnecessary deaths of many of his soldiers.

Sometimes he still loses his cool.

I do agree that "barbarian" has some cultural connotations I'd rather not have. I suppose Berserker does as well, but not as much. I feel it represents the class itself better as well.

The most complicated character I ever played was a cleric barbarian. His strength went up and down like a freaking yo-yo.

In three rounds he could be unstoppable murder machine, but three rounds is a long time.

Bulls strength, enlarge, magic weapon, cleric of strength gets one/day feat of strength, and of course rage. Motherfucker needed a matrix of spells and effects to current tohit and dmg.

Play 4e, summon spirits, become reaper of souls

>Like calling someone of X race "one of the good ones".
In a world that LITERALLY has good races and bad races?

play them as a fighter with more skill points that isn't interested in book learning or armor

play them as a ranger that isn't that interested in nature

at heart they're commoners that get retard strength in the middle of battle

youtube.com/watch?v=MKMG-FdCGtM

there is only one way, seek answers to the riddle of steel

Ya'z winnning this thread for now

>Logen Ninefingers from The First Law book series
Came to say exactly this as a great barbarian/berserker.

>The heads I keep are of cowards, their souls forever trapped inside
Kind of reminds me of Karsa Orlong from the Malazan books, but he has the souls of people he kills chained to him.

Well this is how I barbarian

White guilt is a hell of a drug.

Noble Savage is what I do.

I did my best to play my mental image of "Native American Optimus Prime". Screaming highpitched warcries didn't help in building that image but hey, that's how I rolled

the same way as your roleplay any class.
Wizard can be summed up as "stay out of combat, rip people apart with arcane powers"
Cleric can be summed up as "preach and bring down your god's vengence."
Paladin can be summed up as "holier than though, evil smiting machine"
Rogue is "sneaky git, awesome at killing people who cant defend themselves"

If you choose to limit how you see a character based on one or two class features you are just making a rod for your own back.

"i'll scweam and i'll scweam and I'll wip your suking awms off"

Barbarian variant. 1

Barbaria variant. 2

in the end will be only old barbarian or dead barbarian

Wildman who has come to the conclusion that bravado during combat gets you nothing and raw power is what allows you to win those situations.

These are multiclasses you doughnuts.

still can be played as character archetype though.

I play my current one mostly as distainful of civilization. Look at those fuckin' pussies - needing walls for safety, roads to find their way, farms to grow their food. Civilized people are soft, cowardly weaklings who couldn't cut it in the real world and are to be treated as such. Tolerated only for their usefulness at the current moment.

I always play them as a magical native american. You know, roam with my brothers the elk and the bison. Run with wolves.

Also, go gleefully berserk and fuck shit up.

>I do agree that "barbarian" has some cultural connotations I'd rather not have
You need football in your life.

I find it hilarious this image is an accurate description of Logen.

>pic related

Chrona is more Frenzied Berserker than Barbarian.

What's the difference, oh dubs of truth?

Currently playing

>Hem Slay the mighty half giant half Minotaur Wielder of Boe a weapon with an elf nobles soul trapped inside
>Horrible backstory full of edge and brutality
I got done reading berserk manga when I wrote it
>Stupid as fuck like a child really as he had almost zero interactions other than fight for life
>his lack of intelligence allows him to stay upbeat and happy even when shit is at its darkest
Really only has three emotions happy goofball, rage filled blood lust and the self loathing that comes after the rage

Things I have done

>Threw a tree at a trap that was set to be an avalanche setting it off lucky nobody was killed
>Stripped naked got on all fours and pretended to be a normal cow
>Befriended an assassin during an interrogation because he felt sorry for him
>Is painfully unaware that the captain of the guard is attracted to him

I put a lot of work into this guy and it's currently his 2ND incarnation he started out as a joke in pathfinder as a typical barbarian with dumb name and a dumb joke of "I pull out my Boe" but he evolved into a lovable kind hearted dimwit who hates his anger

Do you also use pseudo proverbs that sound profound but really aren't?
> Muh ancestral wisdom

I like this. Stealing it next time DM kills my character

playing Grei "Rockeye", a barbarian sailor

half-orc who was human raised until a shipwreck on an island left him to be taken in and raised by orcs to learn to harness that rage

he's still a decent guy, if a bit physical with his affection (lots of friendly punches in the arm). loves to tell stories, even if he lies about half of them through ignorance or the sake of a good tall tale. very social, even if he's a little blunt, crude, and prone to telling fantasy-racist jokes

just in a fight, he can just snap and scream things about letting people choke on their own hearts. then has moments of "Hey, what did I do the last few minutes? ....oh. Cool."

Someone who does not speek greek.

I mean irl.

What? No, it's a shit class because it's overly specific and "person who gets upset" is not something that needs a class. Do you really think I'm angry because saying barbarian insults the more primitive races?

>Triggered

SJW are barbarians

My pet peeve is "half-orcs" so grotesque I have a hard time imagining what the artist's rendition of a fullblood would be.

Nothing to do with this thread, just your picture.

Combat and anger are correlated enough for it to be a common theme and different enough in fantasy media for them not to be interchangable, you're just being a grouch

>You're a fucking white dragon.

They don't wear armor because they reject mail privilege.

END WIGHT MAIL PRIVILEGE, MAKE THEM PROFICIENT IN LIGHT ARMOR ONLY

A frenzied berserker will fly into an uncontrollable rampage and attack everything in sight until they run out of turns, hitpoints (until they get deathless frenzy anyway), or succeed on a will save to end it prematurely. Chrona, though submissive as fuck, clearly goes into a single-minded relentless killing state when he fights, completely oblivious to pain and injury but not comfort. Even without "encouragement" from Medusa he is capable of entering that state of mind.

A barbarian remains in full control while in a rage, able to channel his power in the direction that needs it the most, and can calm himself down on a whim.

>milf yield
Yes captcha, Chrona yields to the sexy Medusa.

Armored Hulk

Currently playing a Half-orc Barbarian the surviving member of a tribe he has no knowledge. He was raised by a druid who wanted him to be safe and blessed him with his bear totem powers whilst trying I quell his rage. He is a bit of a simple guy but genuinely kind outside of battle and asks a lot of questions since he is still pretty young.

There are more than one interpretation of barbs/berserkers

I play them as my selfinsert because i have stupud strenght (accidentally ripped out a door on a job interview, bent a few machines out of shape etc.) and will furiously kick an opponent when he's down in a fight (i have to deal with rapefugees on my job and the only way to calm these fuckers down when they chimp out is to be a worse human being than them).

Somebody who is trying to manage their anger and become a productive member of society

That's how every class plays.

I've never played a barbarian, I always end up making a fighter, paladin, or ranger instead. I can't deal with not wearing armor from a roleplay standpoint.

At least you know that you are a worse human being than them.

The three B's of Barbarism; brew, blood, and bitches. Don't try to waste my time with any other topic.

I like going for the Iroquois sort of barbarian usually that club they were using looks so brutal it's literally called a "head breaker"

I play one as a convert to Not!Christianity
He believes his anger is God's divine rage to smite the unbelievers.
basically an insane paladin.

And yet the D&D Barbarian is a single character concept with little room for creativity, because it ties in "angry fighting" with wilderness, savagery, and all that shit. There's very little room to make an upset character who is outside of the niche known as barbarian.

Stammering, half mad wracked by intermittent fits of guilt and anger, he is essentially a normal man who has become a conduit for an animalistic savagery, which might have emerged from his own desperation, or from somewhere else entirely.

When the battle madness comes are you still yourself?

You sometimes forget who your friends are in the heat of battle, and there have been times when you have woken up after a battle wounded but alive and buried under a pile of corpses, but have remembered nothing of the event.