With halfling barbarians being such a common archetype in Eberron, it would be great to get an update to the Barbarian class (or, at least a new Primal Path) that lets rage work with dex-based attacks.

The lance is very helpful at making a Halfling (or other small-sized race) into a viable Barbarian. Story-wise, I don't like the idea of creating a Dex-based option for the Barbarian. Even for Halflings, the Rage is all about raw power. (I assume there would also be balance problems, as a Dex-based Barbarian would allow all sorts of multiclass abuse with Monks and Rogues). I wouldn't mind seeing a general rule added that states "Small-sized creatures do not suffer disadvantage when using weapons with the Heavy property if they are using the Barbarian's Rage feature."

Shrug, Rage can be about raw power (hitting things hard), or one could say it's about frenzy (hitting things fast, as the Berserker does), or one could say it's about ignoring pain and attacking recklessly. All of those things fit the concept of rage, and all of them are to some extent acknowledged by the class and its mechanics... but limiting the Rage bonus damage to strength attacks unnecessarily makes some of these concepts less mechanically viable than others. I don't agree that the possibility that someone might multiclass barbarian with rogue or monk is a good argument against opening Rage up to all melee attacks, because Barbarian and Monk are already very strong pure classes that discourage multiclassing, and sneak attack has enough limitations on the sorts of weapons used that I don't think it's that big of a concern.

In general, I just feel like the design philosophy behind classes should be to write them in a way that encompasses as many character concepts as possible, rather than writing them into a corner of "all barbarians are x", and the halflings of Talenta are a great example of a canon barbarian spin that the 5e class has sort of left out in the cold.

Does anyone know when Eberron will move out of UA and become AL legal? I have a concept for a Shifter barbarian I'd like to try out.

The more I read about Eberron, the more I dislike it as a setting and this is just another example of why.  Halflings being in control of vast business and criminal empires doesn't seem right to me.  To me, the Halfling is little more than a bumbling fool who plays at being a hero - when in truth, they are far less capable than the other (and larger) races and why the Eberron setting casts Halflings in such a heroic and capable light, is beyond me.  The only thing that I like about Eberron is the druidic nature of the Orcs.  Even in that though, the Eberron setting does not feel like true D&D to me; rather, it feels much more like its own game entirely.

So you don't like halflings.  Ok, literally no campaign setting has them cast as incompetent fools.  "True D&D" isnt a thing.  There have been dozens of campaign settings over the years, probably thousands if you count homebrew settings.  They are all equally legitimate, because they've all hosted stories and allowed people to have fun telling those stories.

You don't like Eberron? ok, don't play in it.  There's plenty of other places to take your stories.

I am not saying that Eberron is a not a legitimate world setting, I am just saying that it seems to me like its own game.  This is not D&D in a pocket universe, its a totally different game that happens have things in common with Dungeons and Dragons.  Though obviously I am aware that Wizards have a different view on the matter and it is really only theirs that count.

In terms of Halflings:

Its not that I don't like Halflings C00perton.  Its just that in my campaigns, the Halfling is always the first to die, or they become a burden to the party who are trying to run away from something and now have this Halfling bumbling along behind them, holding them back and preventing them from escaping.  Or their pitiful reach and small stature makes them bothersome in combat.

Agreed, that is all partly roleplay, but I am not talking about bad role players, I am talking about good role players who have a bad time playing a Halfling.

Dwarves have a similar problem, but at least Dwarves have the advantage of a high AC thanks to Dwarven Plate armour and a natural resistance due to their racial bonus of +2 CON, which gives them a higher max HP.  So Dwarves are able to offset their small stature by being heavily armoured and having a natural resistance to damage thanks to their higher HP.

Also, another small race - Gnomes; should just not be a playable race at all in my opinion.  They are far too small and far too weak to be of any real benefit as a PC in an actual adventuring party.  Gnomes in my campaigns are all makers and tinkerers.  Want something special - you need to go to the Gnomes as they are they ones who have the knowledge and skills to make it, but they aren't PCs.

Why do you hate short people? 

I don't hate them, I just don't think that in a world full, of what to then are giants, that they would honestly be so widespread.  I see them.more.as keeping to themselves and instead of going on advenutesa, adventurers come to them.

Like if you want awesome armour or weapons, you go to the dwarves

If you want awesome food and drink, warm welcomes and good stories, you go to the Halflings

If you want some special magical or clockwork item, you go to the Gnomes.

I don't dislike them, I just don't see them as playable races unless you are playing in a world only filled with the samller races.

1) dnd is not a world, its a system that encompasses many worlds.  Hell, we could use any dnd edition to tell a story in any setting.  Even scifi (its been done more than once).

Youre confusing a campaign setting with a game system.

2) what are you even talking about short reach? Ive been playing since advanced and halflings/dwaves/gnomes have always had the same reach as all medium races (5' btw). It honestly sounds like youre applying punitive houserules and using the results to justify your weird dislike of short fantasy races

1:  Every game exists in a world, every world is different.  Eberron is a world setting, you can play a game in a world that uses the Eberron world setting and that game will be totally different to any other game that uses the same setting.

A one shot, a module, a long campaign, these are all games that are played in a world, which uses d&d material as it's world setting (in this case Eberron)

So when I say "playing in a world" I mean, you are playing in a game that uses some, but not all d&d material as the world setting.  In this case, the material would exclude any race lager than Halfling.

That whole rambling above was my attempt to explain my sorry use of English.

2: You are right, the officially material technically doesn't give them any shorter reach than humans or other medium races.  

Imagine the visual though, if a Halfling has arms as long as a standard human, they will be trailing on the ground.  

Thus, it makes sense to have house rules that say a character that is 4 foot, doesn't have arms the same length as a character that is 6 foot because arnt limbs preportionate to body size - and of so, those shorter arms give that smaller character a shorter reach.

No, this is not anything that is official.

But let's take something official.  A Halfling can only move at 25 foot.  How can we expect a Halfling with a speed of 25 foot to be able to face off against a character that can move 30 foot let alone one that can move double the Halflings speed if not more.

Of course the answer is that officially they do but really, how realistic is it.  That Halfling should technically be exhausted with all the extra effort it is having to put in just to keep up.

The answer to all this though is I am talking about realisim and that is not what d&d is about.  d&d is about having fun, while telling a story about a group of heroes (or antiheroes) who go on an adventure together.

So you know what, I don't actually know where my dislike is coming from and maybe that is something I should work on.

Being less judgemental about a characters size, can only lead to more interesting play and perhaps I'll grow not only as a character but as a person.

Maybe I should play a Halfling once in a while, just to remind myself that size has nothing to do with having a heroic spirit.

Ill admit to having soft spots for both Halflings, and Eberron, so it's possible I've taken your comments more personally than I should have.  But hey, nobody cursed anyone out.. so I think this qualifies as a successful internet discussion :)

As far as the movement speed of shorter races: I mean, sure, it would be a nearly insurmountable weakness in a foot race, but combat has very little to do with how quickly you can move large distances, especially in RPGs.  
Even if the game rules did lessen the reach of short races (thank the gods it doesn't), there are actually built in flavor explanations about how they overcome their limitations.

Dwarves craft the very best armor and love to wear it while carrying a big ol' shield.  A trained warrior in full plate is a nearly unstoppable force on the battlefield.  The best way (historically) to stop such a warrior was to grapple them, drag them to the ground and drive a long dagger through a weakpoint in their armor.  A person who is built like a dwarf (short but just as strong as human, and heavy) would have a huge advantage against a human shaped person in a grapple.

Gnomes know magic, almost universally.  A wizard cares very little about your height advantage.

Halflings have a less direct approach than either dwarves or gnomes.  First, they are talented diplomats.  Second they are great at stealth and blending into urban environments.  Third (well, 2.5) ranged sneak attacks are a thing.   In a direct war, halflings would be a great disadvantage, but notice how the halflings of eberron have gained power.  1) information networks through taverns owned and maintained by Dragonmarked heirs who have magic (a rare thing in eberrron), criminal empires (its that stealth thing again), and the halfling barbarians? they're known for riding freakin dinosaurs.  they're basically tiny mongolians riding velociraptors and pterodactyls.  Given the choice between fighting a human, and a tiny barbarian archer riding a dinosaur... I'd pick the human every time.  lol

So true about magic.  I was just saying to someone the other day who wanted to play a pixie but was concerned their size would make them unplayable - that they should use point buy, put the most points possible into whatever will be their stat for casting and choose a class like sorcerer, wizard or at a push warlock.

My reasons for this was just as you said.  Size has nothing to do with magic.  A pixie sorcerer could be just as devistating as any medium or large (or any other size) sorcerer.

Plus pixies (which I know are not a playable race officially) can zoom about in the air damn fast, combine that with magic and you have a tiny creature that could easily tare apart a party of bad guys.

Back to Eberron though, I think the reason I don't like the setting is that I prefer high magic/high fantasy settings.  

That's why almost all the games I run take place in a world that uses realms as it's setting and I prefer to play in those kinds of games too.

A homebrew I am working on currently is the total oposate of Eberron - it is magic heavy.  Magic is so common that everybody knows at least cantrips from being a small child and most adults can cast 1st level spells - with some talented people having the innate ability to cast 2nd level spells without really being taught.

So for the purpose of my homebrew, 3rd level spells are really the point where you would start getting out of the realm of innate ability and into actually needing to study magic.

I literally started working on it because I just wanted to see what the total oposate of Eberron would be.  I'll publish it once I get it into some playable form.  Though sadly, I don't think I can publish world settings on DDB so I will have to find somewhere else to do that 

I wouldn't call a world where magic is commonplace "the opposite of eberron" magic is extremely common in Eberron.  All but the smallest of towns use magic lighting at night.  the entire economy of Khorvaire is held up by the magical feats and inventions of the Dragonmarked houses.  There's literally a whole continent ruled by psions.  Another continent was the seat of an empire ruled by Giants, until dragons used magic to nuke it back into the stone age.  All of the core races have some intrinsically magical properties.   "Wand slinger" was a job in the army during the war, and a fairly common one at that.  There's a giant bonfire made of positive energy that a country built their capital around.  I could go on.

What Eberron doesn't have is lots of high level magic.  You're going to need to take an airship, or a lightning rail, because you won't be able to find anyone to cast teleport.  It's certainly not a "high magic" world, Baker calls it "wide magic."  I think of it as Magi-punk.  Its a bit steam punky, but with magic instead of steam.  Magic is everywhere in Eberron, its omnipresent, its just not omnipotent.  It's, honestly, a good fit for 5e, where the power level is generally lower than it was in 3.x where Eberron was invented.

The opposite of Eberron would be a world where magic was rare, but very powerful.

Actually, Lord of the Rings is a fair example of this.  There's only a handful of spellcasters, and theyre all super strong, same with magic items. 

 are we going to get new weapons like the talenta sharrash 

Quote from Chicken_Champ >>

With halfling barbarians being such a common archetype in Eberron, it would be great to get an update to the Barbarian class (or, at least a new Primal Path) that lets rage work with dex-based attacks.

 Rangers would be a good version of a halfling "barbarian"

OK, I know this response is WAAAAY late, but I've been putting some thought to playing a halfling barbarian recently and I was thinking the same thing!!  I decided to start doing some research to see if there had been any alternate barbarian builds that allowed for DEX based rage and I found this.  The way I see it, halflings aren't truly suited for close combat but I completely love the idea of a halfling riding a clawfoot and taking multi-shots with a short bow.  I'd love to find out if anybody found a way to make this work in their campaigns.