A few months ago I read pretty deep into a thread started by a DM having trouble challenging an "unkillable" bear totem barbarian in his campaign. I would link to that thread, but now I can't find it.
Anywhoo... I didn't have any advice at the time, but fast forward to now and I find myself with a 6th level Bear Totem Barbarian in my campaign and now, I wanted to share all the ways that I've been able to mess with him.
I should say before getting into it though, that I don't view the DM's role as adversarial. I want my players to feel like the heroes in the story. But I also want them to feel some sense of risk or potential failure, otherwise there's no tension and the game gets bland quick. So while I titled this post "messing with a bear totem" in reality I'm not just messing with him, I try to put challenging puzzles and interactions in all of my players paths. These are just parts of bigger puzzles I've put in the way of my bear totem, presented without much context, but some ideas for that poor DM who was struggling to challenge his bear totem barbarian and its party.
Here's an incomplete list of what the poor bear totem barbarian in my party has had to suffer,
Being subject to a confuse spell by a pixie, then being polymorphed into a frog by said pixie.
Being swallowed by a Froghemoth (he was able to hack his way out in a memorable and highly disgusting encounter)
Having his beloved, magic great sword stolen by a quickling
Being charmed by an amorous Incubus who then had him attack his friends
Having unsettling nocturnal visitations by a Night Hag who has reduced his HP Maximum by 10, until he manages to find a Greater Restoration Spell somewhere (ha ha! another adventure hook!)
And, of course, suffering the evil eye psychic damage from a fomorian who also disfigured him for a bit
Here's the thing though, I never set out to make the barbarian's life particularly miserable, these are just some challenges he ran into along the way that all turned out to be more interesting than simply, "I found a way to do so much damage to the barbarian that his life was threatened." I guess the moral to the story is that there is more to D&D than just damage dice.
I guess the moral to the story is that there is more to D&D than just damage dice.
This is really the best sentence from your post. Bear totem barbarians are, in a way, the player who has literally dumped everything about their character into one pillar of the game: combat. I don't necessarily see this as a bug, but a feature. Sure, they're hard to kill/hurt by conventional means. That said, they're also the most ill-equipped character at the table at doing literally anything else other than absorb damage like a . . . a very spongy thing. And when combat does roll around, let them! It's probably their one moment to shine!
That said, there are two very important things to remember: the other two pillars of play. Barbarians aren't going to be much good at social interactions, puzzle-solving, or dungeon-delving. And no one complains (or, at least, they shouldn't) that their player's rogue is "too good" at noticing or disarming traps, or that another player's bard is "too good" at charming their way past a grumpy guard or two . . . because that's why they're there!
So sure, find clever ways to rough up the roughneck every once in a while, but at the same time, let them have their moment in the sun every so often, too!
Yeah, he gets to womp things in combat on a regular basis for sure. I also build in elements around character's lesser known abilities when I can. This bear totem is also a Rock Gnome and he got to use his tinkers tools in an encounter where he helped a pair of goblins repair their fungus beer brewery, he's gotten to use his danger sense on traps and was actually a key puzzle solver in one encounter when he was the only character who could leap across the chasm to the place where the puzzle had to be solved.
Sorry if I left the impression that I just piss all over the Bear Totem's main area of competency. I was really trying to tread back to a thread where a DM had posted about being frustrated that he couldn't challenge the Bear Totem in straight up combat encounters and I was trying to provide some ideas for people experiencing the same feeling... which I'm not experiencing myself.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
A few months ago I read pretty deep into a thread started by a DM having trouble challenging an "unkillable" bear totem barbarian in his campaign. I would link to that thread, but now I can't find it.
Anywhoo... I didn't have any advice at the time, but fast forward to now and I find myself with a 6th level Bear Totem Barbarian in my campaign and now, I wanted to share all the ways that I've been able to mess with him.
I should say before getting into it though, that I don't view the DM's role as adversarial. I want my players to feel like the heroes in the story. But I also want them to feel some sense of risk or potential failure, otherwise there's no tension and the game gets bland quick. So while I titled this post "messing with a bear totem" in reality I'm not just messing with him, I try to put challenging puzzles and interactions in all of my players paths. These are just parts of bigger puzzles I've put in the way of my bear totem, presented without much context, but some ideas for that poor DM who was struggling to challenge his bear totem barbarian and its party.
Here's an incomplete list of what the poor bear totem barbarian in my party has had to suffer,
Here's the thing though, I never set out to make the barbarian's life particularly miserable, these are just some challenges he ran into along the way that all turned out to be more interesting than simply, "I found a way to do so much damage to the barbarian that his life was threatened." I guess the moral to the story is that there is more to D&D than just damage dice.
(Do psychic damage to them!)
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
This is really the best sentence from your post. Bear totem barbarians are, in a way, the player who has literally dumped everything about their character into one pillar of the game: combat. I don't necessarily see this as a bug, but a feature. Sure, they're hard to kill/hurt by conventional means. That said, they're also the most ill-equipped character at the table at doing literally anything else other than absorb damage like a . . . a very spongy thing. And when combat does roll around, let them! It's probably their one moment to shine!
That said, there are two very important things to remember: the other two pillars of play. Barbarians aren't going to be much good at social interactions, puzzle-solving, or dungeon-delving. And no one complains (or, at least, they shouldn't) that their player's rogue is "too good" at noticing or disarming traps, or that another player's bard is "too good" at charming their way past a grumpy guard or two . . . because that's why they're there!
So sure, find clever ways to rough up the roughneck every once in a while, but at the same time, let them have their moment in the sun every so often, too!
"I saw her first. Go find your own genetic time-capsule or, so help me, I'll cut you."
Yeah, he gets to womp things in combat on a regular basis for sure. I also build in elements around character's lesser known abilities when I can. This bear totem is also a Rock Gnome and he got to use his tinkers tools in an encounter where he helped a pair of goblins repair their fungus beer brewery, he's gotten to use his danger sense on traps and was actually a key puzzle solver in one encounter when he was the only character who could leap across the chasm to the place where the puzzle had to be solved.
Sorry if I left the impression that I just piss all over the Bear Totem's main area of competency. I was really trying to tread back to a thread where a DM had posted about being frustrated that he couldn't challenge the Bear Totem in straight up combat encounters and I was trying to provide some ideas for people experiencing the same feeling... which I'm not experiencing myself.