I have a human beast totem barbarian named Darren, who is almost always angry. He just hides it well (or so he thinks). His normal level of angry is similar to being stuck in traffic. Fuming inside the car, but not road rage level. He becomes truly enraged whenever someone thinks they can best him in combat. His fighting abilities are second to none in his home village and whenever someone challenges that he taps into his rage even further. He does this by taking a swig from a flask, and putting some herb in his lip (chewing tobacco) which helps focus his mind and body to channel that rage.
My potential barbarian, a bugbear named Redrorr (not sure about subclass yet), is a pretty easy-going dude in normal situations, having faced all manner of beasts and brawlers in his pit-fighting career. In combat, though, his default state is seriousness, trying to take a full measure of the enemy before making his move. The kicker for his rage is one of two things so far. The first is when he takes a big hit (varying by level and hit point maximum), reminding him of his one goal: becoming strong enough to take down his biggest rival/best friend, Durra the Elder. At this point, he goes wide-eyed and halfway smiles, halfway snarls, showing just how much he was looking to cut loose. The second, much more cliche triggering event is when anyone mocks or generally disrespects his s/o (a half-elf named Elouan Lori), at which point he just becomes apoplectic and monstrous.
Koldur the Deathless, my Reborn Zealot, does not like being mistaken for an Undead Creature of the Night. He's not undead, he's just, uh... metabolically challenged. Anyways, he doesn't immediately fly into a rage, he'll usually insult their mother first. Would a ghast bother insulting someone's mother? Of course not! You'd think that would clear up the confusion, but NOOOOO!!! They're still annoyed with him for some reason. So they have to fight and he ends up raging because they hit him first. Idiots.
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Behind every successful Warlock, there's an angry mob.
Etona Basher, human ancestral guardian barb. Never rages unless she sees one of her comrades get hurt. It reminds her the pain of losing family and something just clicks. She really doesnt get mad in rage.. more sad and desperate to save the people close to her.
Shaumaar, human Barbarian, will fly into a rage if it is hinted that the Goristro demon, Iisa is in the area or one of his followers. As a Paladin of the Oath of Vengeance he will also fight in a rage against those that intentionally go after weaker people
Frostfire-on-the-moss was born of an Assimar mother of the servants of the House of Rah, a prestigious position. Sadly. . her father was a foreigner, so her mother ran, and hid in the high mountains of the far north.
Her mother who had been a hunter guard.. continued hunting demons. So making friends in the snow peak ridges, some more powerful than the local human commoners. The Giant lynx snowcats.. watched her daughter as she hunted.
One day Frostfire-on-the-Moss's mother never returned.
In the Giant-lynx language, dance and battle were the same things. She grew up singing and dancing the stories of the Giant lynxes, a Hunt-nanny of the pride. A bards powers, . . but when the time came for true battle. Her Songs changed to "dream-speak" [celestial] and her battle-dance drove even her oldest song powers away with the glorious "battle ecstasy". Her love of the beauties of the dance touched even her love of her opponents.. She was forced to gain the powers of ceremony. To send her dance partners on their trips to the Summerlands.
For my goliath barbarian Wahi, it's shame. He feels like he has a lot to prove due to previous injury doing a number on his combat ability. He pushes himself too hard to prove that he's still a capable fighter and regain favour with his tribe, and every time something goes wrong, he feels as though the party or NPC is going to mock him for it. Its the internalized 'look how pathetic you are. theyre laughing at you, judging you' is what makes him lose it.
Since his behaviour in Rage is so different from his actual personality, the switch from giant excitable puppy man to being blinded by anger and smashing/killing anything that gets in the way screaming 'I AM NOT WEAK' sometimes scares people tbh. When he calms down he sees his friends looking dumbfounded and immediately feels guilty for scaring them. He doesn't enjoy raging, it's more of a defensive coping mechanism than anything.
You can't hear insults when all you hear is your blood pumping in your ears. You can't see tears when your face is coated in monster guts. :)
I'm a huge fan of flavoring the Barbarian rage as something else than actual rage so this is probably the wrong topic for me, but I've got three Barbarians in my backlog that I hopefully get to play one day.
The first is a Goblin that got experimented on by a mad Wizard. He's an Ancestral Guardian and when he "rages" he gets possessed by the souls of his fellow Goblins that got sacrificed in the experiments that empowered him.
The second is a Dragonborn that simply gets extremely excited during a fight. His raging is a pure adrenaline rush. He's having the time of his life. I'm using the 3rd party Herculean Path from Odyssey for that one.
The third is a Warforged Path of the Beast that got created by a Gnome mercenary group amongst others of his kind. His raging is him malfunctioning and entering kill mode.
I also have a Moon Druid that's basically a Barbarian flavor-wise and his raging is him wild shaping but that one definitely doesn't fit here. :P
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I've never encountered a forum where I got this many "talking to a wall" impressions as this one...
I agree with you on the rage being not actual rage thing, I see it as more of a kill mode lever than actual anger. When I was trying to introduce my players to different ways to play a class I mentioned the adrenaline rush alternative to rage, where the character in question was a wild magic barbarian who just got so god damn giddy and excited while in a fight that weird magical things just happened while they were enjoying themselves.
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It's ok Ranger, you'll always be cool to me.. Unless druid gets another use for its wild shape charges.
I agree with you on the rage being not actual rage thing, I see it as more of a kill mode lever than actual anger. When I was trying to introduce my players to different ways to play a class I mentioned the adrenaline rush alternative to rage, where the character in question was a wild magic barbarian who just got so god damn giddy and excited while in a fight that weird magical things just happened while they were enjoying themselves.
Oh don't get me wrong, I like the rage being actual rage as well. It's the default and has its place. I'm a great fan of it actually. It just so happens that I ALSO like it getting flavored as something else. ^^
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I've never encountered a forum where I got this many "talking to a wall" impressions as this one...
I'm currently playing a Fighter/Barbarian multiclass minotaur; so the rage is absolutely rage in her case. Where it gets fun is that she's a Gunfighter (homebrew Gunslinger) so she's a very MAD build to be decent both at range and up close, and in most fights she'll start out picking off or weakening targets at range, until something snaps and she charges in full Rage, full Reckless Attack. Often this is a result of taking damage herself, or seeing a friend in danger.
I also have a "short temper" roll that I use for the character; in any situation that's tense, or when she's insulted, I just roll a Wisdom check; 11-20 she remains in control, 6-10 she gets angry, 2-5 she gets violent, and 1 she gets murderous. A few times now this has switched her focus to charging in from the start, usually at a particularly smug or insulting enemy leader who is just asking for it. It's also good for when I'm not quite sure how I want her to act in a situation, so I can just do a quick roll to determine whether it's hyper-violence or gritting her teeth.
Personality-wise she wants people to like her, and tries to be friendly, but I decided early on that she's more like a monstrous minotaur, and that controlling her temper would be one of the struggles, and once Raging she struggles to stop herself. At this point I choose not to metagame; I'll keep fighting even if it's a terrible idea, it's full red-mist mode.
I'm currently playing a Fighter/Barbarian multiclass minotaur; so the rage is absolutely rage in her case. Where it gets fun is that she's a Gunfighter (homebrew Gunslinger) so she's a very MAD build to be decent both at range and up close, and in most fights she'll start out picking off or weakening targets at range, until something snaps and she charges in full Rage, full Reckless Attack. Often this is a result of taking damage herself, or seeing a friend in danger.
I also have a "short temper" roll that I use for the character; in any situation that's tense, or when she's insulted, I just roll a Wisdom check; 11-20 she remains in control, 6-10 she gets angry, 2-5 she gets violent, and 1 she gets murderous. A few times now this is switched her focus to charging in from the start, usually at a particularly smug or insulting enemy leader who is just asking for it.
Personality-wise she wants people to like her, and tries to be friendly, but I decided early on that she's more like a monstrous minotaur, and that controlling her temper would be one of the struggles, and once Raging she struggles to stop herself. At this point I choose not to metagame; I'll keep fighting even if it's a terrible idea, it's full red-mist mode.
Been a lot of fun so far!
Love it! In another ttrpg I've been playing for about 10 years now there's a benefits and flaws system for character creation and one of our characters has a flaw that's basically exactly this. Definitely backfired a few times but also created very memorable situations (similar to the flaw which my character suffers greatly from: curiosity).
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I've never encountered a forum where I got this many "talking to a wall" impressions as this one...
My Barbarian, Zorax, gets a blind rage at bullies (those that sucker punch or intentionally harass people they think they can handle) and kobolds on site.
My Half-Orc Outlander Barbarian Tas has a soft spot for baby animals - ANY baby animals. He just wants to pet them all. Want to send him into a rage? Harm, or threaten to harm, a baby animal. The last thing you will see in this life is the edge of his battleaxe as it cleaves your skull your skull in twain!
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"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
I also have a "short temper" roll that I use for the character; in any situation that's tense, or when she's insulted, I just roll a Wisdom check; 11-20 she remains in control, 6-10 she gets angry, 2-5 she gets violent, and 1 she gets murderous. A few times now this is switched her focus to charging in from the start, usually at a particularly smug or insulting enemy leader who is just asking for it.
I love this and might need to steal it! I have an angry Hafling Sorcerer who has a temper and is liable to fly off the handle at any insult or slight, whether real or perceived.
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"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
My Half-Orc Outlander Barbarian Tas has a soft spot for baby animals - ANY baby animals. He just wants to pet them all. Want to send him into a rage? Harm, or threaten to harm, a baby animal. The last thing you will see in this life is the edge of his battleaxe as it cleaves your skull your skull in twain!
Same, but not just babies–any animal. My totem barb carried a mama dog and her babies on his back through an entire dungeon to save them (he carried them so long that I almost forgot they were there). Also, he hates bullies.
I'm a huge fan of flavoring the Barbarian rage as something else than actual rage so this is probably the wrong topic for me, but I've got three Barbarians in my backlog that I hopefully get to play one day.
The first is a Goblin that got experimented on by a mad Wizard. He's an Ancestral Guardian and when he "rages" he gets possessed by the souls of his fellow Goblins that got sacrificed in the experiments that empowered him.
The second is a Dragonborn that simply gets extremely excited during a fight. His raging is a pure adrenaline rush. He's having the time of his life. I'm using the 3rd party Herculean Path from Odyssey for that one.
The third is a Warforged Path of the Beast that got created by a Gnome mercenary group amongst others of his kind. His raging is him malfunctioning and entering kill mode.
I also have a Moon Druid that's basically a Barbarian flavor-wise and his raging is him wild shaping but that one definitely doesn't fit here. :P
I'm with you. My current zealot barb/swashbuckler rogue is a vedelkan freedom fighter in a Spelljammer campaign -- when he rages, he dons a Noh-like mask with an expression contorted by fury and hatred. He just gets hyperfocused and a bit snarky though, and trash talks his opponents regarding all the tactical mistakes they're making
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Active characters:
Askatu, hyperfocused vedalken freedom fighter in Wildspace (Zealot barb/Swashbuckler rogue/Battle Master fighter) Green Hill Sunrise, jaded tabaxi mercenary trapped in the Dark Domains (Battle Master fighter) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
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I have a human beast totem barbarian named Darren, who is almost always angry. He just hides it well (or so he thinks). His normal level of angry is similar to being stuck in traffic. Fuming inside the car, but not road rage level. He becomes truly enraged whenever someone thinks they can best him in combat. His fighting abilities are second to none in his home village and whenever someone challenges that he taps into his rage even further. He does this by taking a swig from a flask, and putting some herb in his lip (chewing tobacco) which helps focus his mind and body to channel that rage.
My potential barbarian, a bugbear named Redrorr (not sure about subclass yet), is a pretty easy-going dude in normal situations, having faced all manner of beasts and brawlers in his pit-fighting career. In combat, though, his default state is seriousness, trying to take a full measure of the enemy before making his move. The kicker for his rage is one of two things so far. The first is when he takes a big hit (varying by level and hit point maximum), reminding him of his one goal: becoming strong enough to take down his biggest rival/best friend, Durra the Elder. At this point, he goes wide-eyed and halfway smiles, halfway snarls, showing just how much he was looking to cut loose. The second, much more cliche triggering event is when anyone mocks or generally disrespects his s/o (a half-elf named Elouan Lori), at which point he just becomes apoplectic and monstrous.
A basic idea, but it's all I have so far.
Could it be? I'm...a mOroN?!?
Yes. 100% ignoramus, no additives.
Koldur the Deathless, my Reborn Zealot, does not like being mistaken for an Undead Creature of the Night. He's not undead, he's just, uh... metabolically challenged. Anyways, he doesn't immediately fly into a rage, he'll usually insult their mother first. Would a ghast bother insulting someone's mother? Of course not! You'd think that would clear up the confusion, but NOOOOO!!! They're still annoyed with him for some reason. So they have to fight and he ends up raging because they hit him first. Idiots.
Behind every successful Warlock, there's an angry mob.
Etona Basher, human ancestral guardian barb. Never rages unless she sees one of her comrades get hurt. It reminds her the pain of losing family and something just clicks. She really doesnt get mad in rage.. more sad and desperate to save the people close to her.
She is fun :)
Shaumaar, human Barbarian, will fly into a rage if it is hinted that the Goristro demon, Iisa is in the area or one of his followers. As a Paladin of the Oath of Vengeance he will also fight in a rage against those that intentionally go after weaker people
Frostfire-on-the-moss was born of an Assimar mother of the servants of the House of Rah, a prestigious position.
Sadly. . her father was a foreigner, so her mother ran, and hid in the high mountains of the far north.
Her mother who had been a hunter guard.. continued hunting demons.
So making friends in the snow peak ridges, some more powerful than the local human commoners.
The Giant lynx snowcats.. watched her daughter as she hunted.
One day Frostfire-on-the-Moss's mother never returned.
In the Giant-lynx language, dance and battle were the same things.
She grew up singing and dancing the stories of the Giant lynxes, a Hunt-nanny of the pride.
A bards powers, . . but when the time came for true battle.
Her Songs changed to "dream-speak" [celestial] and her battle-dance drove even her oldest song powers away with the glorious "battle ecstasy".
Her love of the beauties of the dance touched even her love of her opponents..
She was forced to gain the powers of ceremony.
To send her dance partners on their trips to the Summerlands.
Itinerant Deputy Shire-reave Tomas Burrfoot - world walker, Raft-captain, speaker to his dead
Toddy Shelfungus- Rider of the Order of Ill Luck, Speaker to Friends of Friends, and Horribly big nosed
Jarl Archi of Jenisis Glade Fee- Noble Knight of the Dragonborn Goldcrest Clan, Sorcerer of the Noble Investigator;y; Knightly order of the Wolfhound
For my goliath barbarian Wahi, it's shame. He feels like he has a lot to prove due to previous injury doing a number on his combat ability. He pushes himself too hard to prove that he's still a capable fighter and regain favour with his tribe, and every time something goes wrong, he feels as though the party or NPC is going to mock him for it. Its the internalized 'look how pathetic you are. theyre laughing at you, judging you' is what makes him lose it.
Since his behaviour in Rage is so different from his actual personality, the switch from giant excitable puppy man to being blinded by anger and smashing/killing anything that gets in the way screaming 'I AM NOT WEAK' sometimes scares people tbh. When he calms down he sees his friends looking dumbfounded and immediately feels guilty for scaring them. He doesn't enjoy raging, it's more of a defensive coping mechanism than anything.
You can't hear insults when all you hear is your blood pumping in your ears.
You can't see tears when your face is coated in monster guts. :)
I'm a huge fan of flavoring the Barbarian rage as something else than actual rage so this is probably the wrong topic for me, but I've got three Barbarians in my backlog that I hopefully get to play one day.
The first is a Goblin that got experimented on by a mad Wizard. He's an Ancestral Guardian and when he "rages" he gets possessed by the souls of his fellow Goblins that got sacrificed in the experiments that empowered him.
The second is a Dragonborn that simply gets extremely excited during a fight. His raging is a pure adrenaline rush. He's having the time of his life. I'm using the 3rd party Herculean Path from Odyssey for that one.
The third is a Warforged Path of the Beast that got created by a Gnome mercenary group amongst others of his kind. His raging is him malfunctioning and entering kill mode.
I also have a Moon Druid that's basically a Barbarian flavor-wise and his raging is him wild shaping but that one definitely doesn't fit here. :P
I've never encountered a forum where I got this many "talking to a wall" impressions as this one...
I agree with you on the rage being not actual rage thing, I see it as more of a kill mode lever than actual anger. When I was trying to introduce my players to different ways to play a class I mentioned the adrenaline rush alternative to rage, where the character in question was a wild magic barbarian who just got so god damn giddy and excited while in a fight that weird magical things just happened while they were enjoying themselves.
It's ok Ranger, you'll always be cool to me.. Unless druid gets another use for its wild shape charges.
Oh don't get me wrong, I like the rage being actual rage as well. It's the default and has its place. I'm a great fan of it actually. It just so happens that I ALSO like it getting flavored as something else. ^^
I've never encountered a forum where I got this many "talking to a wall" impressions as this one...
I'm currently playing a Fighter/Barbarian multiclass minotaur; so the rage is absolutely rage in her case. Where it gets fun is that she's a Gunfighter (homebrew Gunslinger) so she's a very MAD build to be decent both at range and up close, and in most fights she'll start out picking off or weakening targets at range, until something snaps and she charges in full Rage, full Reckless Attack. Often this is a result of taking damage herself, or seeing a friend in danger.
I also have a "short temper" roll that I use for the character; in any situation that's tense, or when she's insulted, I just roll a Wisdom check; 11-20 she remains in control, 6-10 she gets angry, 2-5 she gets violent, and 1 she gets murderous. A few times now this has switched her focus to charging in from the start, usually at a particularly smug or insulting enemy leader who is just asking for it. It's also good for when I'm not quite sure how I want her to act in a situation, so I can just do a quick roll to determine whether it's hyper-violence or gritting her teeth.
Personality-wise she wants people to like her, and tries to be friendly, but I decided early on that she's more like a monstrous minotaur, and that controlling her temper would be one of the struggles, and once Raging she struggles to stop herself. At this point I choose not to metagame; I'll keep fighting even if it's a terrible idea, it's full red-mist mode.
Been a lot of fun so far!
Characters: Bullette, Chortle, Dracarys Noir, Edward Merryspell, Habard Ashery, Legion, Peregrine
My Homebrew: Feats | Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Races
Guides: Creating Sub-Races Using Trait Options
WIP (feedback needed): Blood Mage, Chromatic Sorcerers, Summoner, Trickster Domain, Unlucky, Way of the Daoist (Drunken Master), Weapon Smith
Please don't reply to my posts unless you've read what they actually say.
Love it! In another ttrpg I've been playing for about 10 years now there's a benefits and flaws system for character creation and one of our characters has a flaw that's basically exactly this. Definitely backfired a few times but also created very memorable situations (similar to the flaw which my character suffers greatly from: curiosity).
I've never encountered a forum where I got this many "talking to a wall" impressions as this one...
My Barbarian, Zorax, gets a blind rage at bullies (those that sucker punch or intentionally harass people they think they can handle) and kobolds on site.
My Half-Orc Outlander Barbarian Tas has a soft spot for baby animals - ANY baby animals. He just wants to pet them all. Want to send him into a rage? Harm, or threaten to harm, a baby animal. The last thing you will see in this life is the edge of his battleaxe as it cleaves your skull your skull in twain!
"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
I love this and might need to steal it! I have an angry Hafling Sorcerer who has a temper and is liable to fly off the handle at any insult or slight, whether real or perceived.
"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
Same, but not just babies–any animal. My totem barb carried a mama dog and her babies on his back through an entire dungeon to save them (he carried them so long that I almost forgot they were there). Also, he hates bullies.
my kenku raven is offended by anybody believing to be intelligent
he believes he is smarter than everyone else and that's why he will be king of the world.
he already took a country down because of a school for gifted children. soon he will ban education so he may be smarter than everyone else
he has an intelligence of 20 and wisdom of 15
yet he doesnt think things through
he often gets in fights with fighter and wizard and who are the planners and he thinks hes better at plans
I'm with you. My current zealot barb/swashbuckler rogue is a vedelkan freedom fighter in a Spelljammer campaign -- when he rages, he dons a Noh-like mask with an expression contorted by fury and hatred. He just gets hyperfocused and a bit snarky though, and trash talks his opponents regarding all the tactical mistakes they're making
Active characters:
Askatu, hyperfocused vedalken freedom fighter in Wildspace (Zealot barb/Swashbuckler rogue/Battle Master fighter)
Green Hill Sunrise, jaded tabaxi mercenary trapped in the Dark Domains (Battle Master fighter)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)