Some of you might have seen that I was working on a Barbarian character yesterday. Well; having considered the character more, and taking into account his pre-adventuring life, I have decided that Barbarian isn't the right class for him. Instead of Barbarian, it seems that Fighter (with the Gladiator background) is a better fit, and so I have made those alterations.
Here he is. The new and improved Ivan Gagarin. I have included some of the most important elements from the character sheet below, and I would really love to hear what you all think.
In your opinion, is this character a good fighter, and based upon his backstory and everything, do you think Fighter is a better fit for him than Barbarian? Lastly, if you have any other thoughts or constructive criticisms, then please feel free to leave them in the comments as well, and now, without further ado, here we go, here is a summary of the important points from his character sheet.
Remember, the fill character sheet can be seen on the DDB link above.
ABILITY SCORES:
ABILITY
SCORE
MODIFIER
STR
16
+3
DEX
12
+1
CON
15
+2
INT
9
-1
WIS
12
+1
CHA
14
+2
BACKGROUND - GLADIATOR
You can always find a place to perform in any place that features combat for entertainment — perhaps a gladiatorial arena or secret pit fighting club. At such a place, you receive free lodging and food of a modest or comfortable standard (depending on the quality of the establishment), as long as you perform each night. In addition, your performance makes you something of a local figure. When strangers recognize you in a town where you have performed, they typically take a liking to you.
CHARACTERISTICS
Alignment
Lawful Neutral
Personality Traits
Ivan Gagarin, even when alone or the only person waiting to be served, will form an orderly queue of one and politely wait his turn. He also finds any race smaller than himself irresistibly cute, and can't help but talk to them as though they were a small pet or baby. Yes, even Goblins!
Ideals
The fighting arts are a reflection of the soul, they come from within and reveal to us the truth of the world.
Bonds
Having been freed from bondage by a kind-hearted and powerful lover, Ivan has now sworn to fight for all those whose lives have been stolen, because; "a person is a person, no matter how small".
Flaws
Ivan has a hard time trusting people, fearing that everyone is always trying to use him in some way.
BASIC BACKSTORY
As a young child, he was forcibly taken from his snow-clad village as a token of war, but the pale nameless boy had no love of the frozen lands and it’s icy beauty. He had no memory, no identity and thus, no ability to grieve for the people he was forced to leave behind.
Used as slave labour and trotted out as a source of various amusements for the important guests of the family whose father had taken him from his ancestral home, Ivan (a name given to him jest by his master) grew up knowing only torment, hunger and pain, and entirely unaware of the destiny that was about to unfold before him.
It was by chance that he would find himself servicing the kind-hearted daughter of Sun Empress, but that meeting had for the first time, ignited passion deep within his heart.
A passion that would lead him to the realisation, that for his forgotten past, his bleak present and even bleaker future, there could only be retribution!
Expansion of Backstory - Ivans relationship with the Princess:
He had a love affair with the Princess, who also helped him get a better life by pretty much *buying* him from the family whom he had belonged to and then freeing him from bondage.
Initially, the deal was that he was supposed to remain her lover, but once he had a taste of freedom, he needed more and more and then he found a way to help others like himself, others whose lives have been stolen. He was eventually found out, arrested, charged with treason and put on trial. The princess still loved him though, and in her heart agreed with what he had done. If he was guilty, then so was she, because she had used her position and power to do the same thing when she freed him, and for a much more selfish reason than he had helped the others; and so she helped him, one last time.
Using her position as a Royal Princess and heir apparent to the imperial throne, she helped him escape before his trial over; however, the trial continued and he was found guilty in his absence, so as long as the Sun Empress rules, he can't go back or see his former lover again.
After the Princess had helped him to escape, from what would have been a dreadful fate, Ivan became a wanderer, who supported himself by taking jobs here and there while developing his skills and discovering his inherent ancestral abilities, and eventually, he joins up with a band of monster slayers who have been hired to take care of some undead.
What he doesn't realise, however, is that he was always destined to meet these people and take this job and that fate is about to whisk him away from this mundane existence and carry him off on an adventure that will change him forever, and eventually; in the fullness of time, bringing him full circle, so that he returns to the world and the life the knew he knew, as not just a man - but a true hero!
------------
Looking forward to reading all your comments, thoughts, opinions and constructive criticisms.
XD
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Hehe, just replied to the other thread on the barb idea. I admit I like the barb more when cast as a person angry at circumstance a temper (aka rage) as a driver.
What I don't see is where gladiator fits. Was he used by the princess as a champion in the Ring for her amusement, or was this afterwards?
Hehe, just replied to the other thread on the barb idea. I admit I like the barb more when cast as a person angry at circumstance a temper (aka rage) as a driver.
What I don't see is where gladiator fits. Was he used by the princess as a champion in the Ring for her amusement, or was this afterwards?
I also liked the barbarian more. I had originally imagined him as being born a Barbarian, but taken from his home when he was really small.
If he had of stayed with his tribe, he would have learned from them and grew up to.bea powerful warrior.
As it is though, he grew up far from home, being used as slave labour and ammusement.
It was meeting the Princess and the relationship that he had with her that "awakened" the passion Inside of him and for a while, he her and a far better life than the one he had growing up, but then it was all taken away from him and his passion turned to rage, and that passion fueled rage "unlocked" the power of his barbarians soul - a power jump that got him up to being a level one character.
The only problem I had with this was, how how could he be a barbarian if he was not raised as one? He was taken from his home when he was so young that he doesn't even remember it, so how would he know how to be a barbarian, or even that he was?
Thinking about this, I thought "what if he doesn't know?". He knows he has this power inside of him and that he has all this potetional and do this stuff, but he doesn't know what it is or where it comes from. However, after the princess helped him escape and he became a wanderer he began started learning how to survive on his own, which included fighting skills - into which he learned to channel his passion and his rage.
But I thought, that doesn't make him a barbarian, it just makes him a fighter.
I had also thought that during his life as a slave, part of the ammusement he was used for, were like private gladiator style fights, so he already had some.fighting skills from having that.
This all seemed to point towards him being a Fighter with the Gladiator background.
Though I must admit, I still like the barbarian version more because I had wanted to.play him as a generally nice person has is hurting inside because, and so he rages that the world for taking away the person and the life he loved.
I just can't see how he could be a barbarian with the backstory I have for him, growing up a slave and stuff like that.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
If you are thinking of it literally, like a barbarian is always like Conan, then yes there is a problem. But you don't need to.
I would recommend you think of a Barbarian as simply the ruleset you are using. He isn't a class; he's a character. That character is a warrior with anger issues. Any power like a totem power, reskin it to something you like. He's not an uncultured swine. He's a cultured angry person. He doesn't fight like a battlemaster; he uses brute strength because anger comes easily.
It's the same logic my son used for his Lizardfolk barbarian in a way; that character didn't get mad at all. He did have bursts of strength, like an controlled adrenalin rush. But he was a barbarian mechanically.
One of my barbarians - Vayeh - is a Shadar-Kai and I've themed her people on having virtually no emotion at all thanks to the Shadowfell. Vayeh is the odd one out because she can feel some emotion. It's this that makes her a barbarian because she can get angry and happy. Other Shadar-Kai can tell the difference - but most people from anywhere other than the Shadowfell can't. She's raging mechanically and in her head she's angry - but literally nobody else can tell the difference.
Being a barbarian doesn't really need to be about screaming bloody murder - it can be whatever you want. As Nthal said it could simply be a burst of strength. In that way you could even see it as a brief burst of optimism - diving deep for inner strength to get through a tough situation. That could even give them the outward appearance of a calm and serene Monk but they would still be raging mechanically.
So if you would prefer to keep your character a barbarian - do so. It wouldn't take much to theme the raging mechanic to your favour.
I think if you're going with the idea of "how can they be a barbarian if no one trained them in it", then I think all that really means is you have to tailor which type of barbarian he becomes. So maybe if he had stayed with his people he would have trained to follow the Path of the Totem or Path of the Zealot, but instead he taps into his rage for more primal, less organized sources of Rage.
Thank you for all your comments, I value them greatly as they will help me to make my character better. On a side know though, please accept my apologies for all the bad spelling and grammar in my last comment. I was on my phone and for some reason, DDB messes up the grammar and spelling when you try to post or comment to, or in the forums while using a mobile device.
I think if you're going with the idea of "how can they be a barbarian if no one trained them in it", then I guess all that means is you have to tailor which type of barbarian he becomes. So maybe if he had stayed with his people, he would have trained to follow the Path of the Totem or Path of the Zealot, but instead, he taps into his rage for more primal, less organised sources of Rage.
What if I started as a Fighter with the Gladiator background, for a more story focussed Tier 1, and then began to multiclass into Barbarian as I approached Tier 2.
So Tier 1 play (the local hero) could be him as he is starting, using the skills and abilities he has from his background and backstory. Then as he moves towards Tier 2 play, he would begin to learn more about himself and his people and where he originally comes from, as well as gaining greater control over the power afforded him by his Barbarians soul.
This would lead up to him multiclassing as Barbarian, starting at level 4, resulting in a multiclass of Fighter 3 - Barbarian 17, by level 20.
Although he would be a less powerful Barbarian at higher levels because of those first three levels being in Fighter, playing those lower levels as him learning about himself and stuff, would be fun I think. Also, some of the downsides of this multiclass could be negated if I managed to persuade my DM to give me a few magic items as I got to higher levels.
But even so, I would rather have a character that is to play at lower levels, then a badass at higher ones, because you never know if you are ever going to read those super high levels in the first place.
Just curious what you think. Does this sound reasonable?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Oh sure, that sounds great! Reaching level 3 in Fighter lets you take at least one level in a fighter archetype of your choice... Champion would pair well with Barbarian, since it increases your Crit chance
If you were going to go 5 Fighter you might as well go for 6 for the extra ASI they get.
Not wrong. But the core issue is telling the story the way he wants. The mechanic problems almost take away from that discussion. I was gritting my teeth when said it, but I did less for SocialFoxes but more for others following the thread.
I personally would just go 5 levels of Barb and then RP it as a inborn talent I didn't understand. If I wanted to do 3 fighter, I would say it was from learning from others to and then go Barb all the way out as I discovered my people, traditions etc.
Because to me class and levels are game design and rules for play. This cool character would never say to the princess "I'm a 3rd level barbarian, you can't banish me" he's a warrior with a different style and that is likely enough.
So what ever you choose SocialFoxes. Its going to work no matter what...and then you will pose another interesting question :)
Hi everyone,
Some of you might have seen that I was working on a Barbarian character yesterday. Well; having considered the character more, and taking into account his pre-adventuring life, I have decided that Barbarian isn't the right class for him. Instead of Barbarian, it seems that Fighter (with the Gladiator background) is a better fit, and so I have made those alterations.
Here he is. The new and improved Ivan Gagarin. I have included some of the most important elements from the character sheet below, and I would really love to hear what you all think.
In your opinion, is this character a good fighter, and based upon his backstory and everything, do you think Fighter is a better fit for him than Barbarian? Lastly, if you have any other thoughts or constructive criticisms, then please feel free to leave them in the comments as well, and now, without further ado, here we go, here is a summary of the important points from his character sheet.
Remember, the fill character sheet can be seen on the DDB link above.
ABILITY SCORES:
BACKGROUND - GLADIATOR
You can always find a place to perform in any place that features combat for entertainment — perhaps a gladiatorial arena or secret pit fighting club. At such a place, you receive free lodging and food of a modest or comfortable standard (depending on the quality of the establishment), as long as you perform each night. In addition, your performance makes you something of a local figure. When strangers recognize you in a town where you have performed, they typically take a liking to you.
CHARACTERISTICS
Alignment
Lawful Neutral
Personality Traits
Ivan Gagarin, even when alone or the only person waiting to be served, will form an orderly queue of one and politely wait his turn. He also finds any race smaller than himself irresistibly cute, and can't help but talk to them as though they were a small pet or baby. Yes, even Goblins!
Ideals
The fighting arts are a reflection of the soul, they come from within and reveal to us the truth of the world.
Bonds
Having been freed from bondage by a kind-hearted and powerful lover, Ivan has now sworn to fight for all those whose lives have been stolen, because; "a person is a person, no matter how small".
Flaws
Ivan has a hard time trusting people, fearing that everyone is always trying to use him in some way.
BASIC BACKSTORY
As a young child, he was forcibly taken from his snow-clad village as a token of war, but the pale nameless boy had no love of the frozen lands and it’s icy beauty. He had no memory, no identity and thus, no ability to grieve for the people he was forced to leave behind.
Used as slave labour and trotted out as a source of various amusements for the important guests of the family whose father had taken him from his ancestral home, Ivan (a name given to him jest by his master) grew up knowing only torment, hunger and pain, and entirely unaware of the destiny that was about to unfold before him.
It was by chance that he would find himself servicing the kind-hearted daughter of Sun Empress, but that meeting had for the first time, ignited passion deep within his heart.
A passion that would lead him to the realisation, that for his forgotten past, his bleak present and even bleaker future, there could only be retribution!
Expansion of Backstory - Ivans relationship with the Princess:
He had a love affair with the Princess, who also helped him get a better life by pretty much *buying* him from the family whom he had belonged to and then freeing him from bondage.
Initially, the deal was that he was supposed to remain her lover, but once he had a taste of freedom, he needed more and more and then he found a way to help others like himself, others whose lives have been stolen. He was eventually found out, arrested, charged with treason and put on trial. The princess still loved him though, and in her heart agreed with what he had done. If he was guilty, then so was she, because she had used her position and power to do the same thing when she freed him, and for a much more selfish reason than he had helped the others; and so she helped him, one last time.
Using her position as a Royal Princess and heir apparent to the imperial throne, she helped him escape before his trial over; however, the trial continued and he was found guilty in his absence, so as long as the Sun Empress rules, he can't go back or see his former lover again.
After the Princess had helped him to escape, from what would have been a dreadful fate, Ivan became a wanderer, who supported himself by taking jobs here and there while developing his skills and discovering his inherent ancestral abilities, and eventually, he joins up with a band of monster slayers who have been hired to take care of some undead.
What he doesn't realise, however, is that he was always destined to meet these people and take this job and that fate is about to whisk him away from this mundane existence and carry him off on an adventure that will change him forever, and eventually; in the fullness of time, bringing him full circle, so that he returns to the world and the life the knew he knew, as not just a man - but a true hero!
------------
Looking forward to reading all your comments, thoughts, opinions and constructive criticisms.
XD
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Hehe, just replied to the other thread on the barb idea. I admit I like the barb more when cast as a person angry at circumstance a temper (aka rage) as a driver.
What I don't see is where gladiator fits. Was he used by the princess as a champion in the Ring for her amusement, or was this afterwards?
I also liked the barbarian more. I had originally imagined him as being born a Barbarian, but taken from his home when he was really small.
If he had of stayed with his tribe, he would have learned from them and grew up to.bea powerful warrior.
As it is though, he grew up far from home, being used as slave labour and ammusement.
It was meeting the Princess and the relationship that he had with her that "awakened" the passion Inside of him and for a while, he her and a far better life than the one he had growing up, but then it was all taken away from him and his passion turned to rage, and that passion fueled rage "unlocked" the power of his barbarians soul - a power jump that got him up to being a level one character.
The only problem I had with this was, how how could he be a barbarian if he was not raised as one? He was taken from his home when he was so young that he doesn't even remember it, so how would he know how to be a barbarian, or even that he was?
Thinking about this, I thought "what if he doesn't know?". He knows he has this power inside of him and that he has all this potetional and do this stuff, but he doesn't know what it is or where it comes from. However, after the princess helped him escape and he became a wanderer he began started learning how to survive on his own, which included fighting skills - into which he learned to channel his passion and his rage.
But I thought, that doesn't make him a barbarian, it just makes him a fighter.
I had also thought that during his life as a slave, part of the ammusement he was used for, were like private gladiator style fights, so he already had some.fighting skills from having that.
This all seemed to point towards him being a Fighter with the Gladiator background.
Though I must admit, I still like the barbarian version more because I had wanted to.play him as a generally nice person has is hurting inside because, and so he rages that the world for taking away the person and the life he loved.
I just can't see how he could be a barbarian with the backstory I have for him, growing up a slave and stuff like that.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
What does it mean to be a barbarian?
If you are thinking of it literally, like a barbarian is always like Conan, then yes there is a problem. But you don't need to.
I would recommend you think of a Barbarian as simply the ruleset you are using. He isn't a class; he's a character. That character is a warrior with anger issues. Any power like a totem power, reskin it to something you like. He's not an uncultured swine. He's a cultured angry person. He doesn't fight like a battlemaster; he uses brute strength because anger comes easily.
It's the same logic my son used for his Lizardfolk barbarian in a way; that character didn't get mad at all. He did have bursts of strength, like an controlled adrenalin rush. But he was a barbarian mechanically.
One of my barbarians - Vayeh - is a Shadar-Kai and I've themed her people on having virtually no emotion at all thanks to the Shadowfell. Vayeh is the odd one out because she can feel some emotion. It's this that makes her a barbarian because she can get angry and happy. Other Shadar-Kai can tell the difference - but most people from anywhere other than the Shadowfell can't.
She's raging mechanically and in her head she's angry - but literally nobody else can tell the difference.
Being a barbarian doesn't really need to be about screaming bloody murder - it can be whatever you want. As Nthal said it could simply be a burst of strength. In that way you could even see it as a brief burst of optimism - diving deep for inner strength to get through a tough situation. That could even give them the outward appearance of a calm and serene Monk but they would still be raging mechanically.
So if you would prefer to keep your character a barbarian - do so. It wouldn't take much to theme the raging mechanic to your favour.
Mega Yahtzee Thread:
Highest 41: brocker2001 (#11,285).
Yahtzee of 2's: Emmber (#36,161).
Lowest 9: JoeltheWalrus (#312), Emmber (#12,505) and Dertinus (#20,953).
I think if you're going with the idea of "how can they be a barbarian if no one trained them in it", then I think all that really means is you have to tailor which type of barbarian he becomes. So maybe if he had stayed with his people he would have trained to follow the Path of the Totem or Path of the Zealot, but instead he taps into his rage for more primal, less organized sources of Rage.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
Hi everyone,
Thank you for all your comments, I value them greatly as they will help me to make my character better. On a side know though, please accept my apologies for all the bad spelling and grammar in my last comment. I was on my phone and for some reason, DDB messes up the grammar and spelling when you try to post or comment to, or in the forums while using a mobile device.
Regards
SocialFoxes
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
What if I started as a Fighter with the Gladiator background, for a more story focussed Tier 1, and then began to multiclass into Barbarian as I approached Tier 2.
So Tier 1 play (the local hero) could be him as he is starting, using the skills and abilities he has from his background and backstory. Then as he moves towards Tier 2 play, he would begin to learn more about himself and his people and where he originally comes from, as well as gaining greater control over the power afforded him by his Barbarians soul.
This would lead up to him multiclassing as Barbarian, starting at level 4, resulting in a multiclass of Fighter 3 - Barbarian 17, by level 20.
Although he would be a less powerful Barbarian at higher levels because of those first three levels being in Fighter, playing those lower levels as him learning about himself and stuff, would be fun I think. Also, some of the downsides of this multiclass could be negated if I managed to persuade my DM to give me a few magic items as I got to higher levels.
But even so, I would rather have a character that is to play at lower levels, then a badass at higher ones, because you never know if you are ever going to read those super high levels in the first place.
Just curious what you think. Does this sound reasonable?
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Oh sure, that sounds great! Reaching level 3 in Fighter lets you take at least one level in a fighter archetype of your choice... Champion would pair well with Barbarian, since it increases your Crit chance
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
Concept wise no issue.
The mechanical downside is you delay getting a second attack until level 8. That is somewhat a pain.
Mechanically you would better doing 5 levels of barb, 3 levels of fighter, then finishing out as Barb. But that requires rethinking the story. :(
You could do 5 fighter and then go full barb, but i would have to see what you would lose from levels 15,16,17.
If you were going to go 5 Fighter you might as well go for 6 for the extra ASI they get.
Mega Yahtzee Thread:
Highest 41: brocker2001 (#11,285).
Yahtzee of 2's: Emmber (#36,161).
Lowest 9: JoeltheWalrus (#312), Emmber (#12,505) and Dertinus (#20,953).
Not wrong. But the core issue is telling the story the way he wants. The mechanic problems almost take away from that discussion. I was gritting my teeth when said it, but I did less for SocialFoxes but more for others following the thread.
I personally would just go 5 levels of Barb and then RP it as a inborn talent I didn't understand. If I wanted to do 3 fighter, I would say it was from learning from others to and then go Barb all the way out as I discovered my people, traditions etc.
Because to me class and levels are game design and rules for play. This cool character would never say to the princess "I'm a 3rd level barbarian, you can't banish me" he's a warrior with a different style and that is likely enough.
So what ever you choose SocialFoxes. Its going to work no matter what...and then you will pose another interesting question :)
GLHF