Hi,

I am writing the character traits, fears and bonds etc, for my Goliath Barbarian, and I thought that one of his biggest fears could be the fear of being underground or trapped in a confined space.  That he could also be afraid of large bodies of water like lakes, and really doesn't like swimming.

Essentially, his fear is that he will die trapped underground, or drown underwater.  So following his party into an underground dungeon, or diving down to get under a water barrier, is a big thing for him, and shows how much trust he has that his friends will be there for him, as well as how strong his desire is to protect them from any danger.

To protect his friends, he will face even his greatest fears and put himself in harm's way again and again.

Do these fears chime with the known lore about Goliaths though?

What do you think?

Foxes

Claustrophobic Goliath Barbarians sound ok for me. If they are used to live under open skies and roam the open mountain ranges or steppes, sure, go for it.

The advice on playing an Aarakocra when the thread is clearly about a Goliath was kind of unexpected but as Voras said, it makes perfect sense for a Goliath to not want to go into cramped spaces. Pretty much any phobia can work for any character, that's the beauty of phobias. They're by definition irrational which means that any person can have them.

What you as a player probably want to think about is how severly you want to roleplay your fears. If it will prevent you from participating in certain stuff it will probably not be fun for very long. But maybe your character will develop some kind of ritual or quirk to help him deal with it? Like always wearing a miner's helmet (not actual armour, just a miner's helmet) when underground?

If you want some tips on playing a character who is afraid of water I'd suggest checking out Critical Role's Nott the Brave.

I think we should focus less on discussing what flaws, phobias and fears general races can/should/might have, and focus more on answering the original posters request for feedback on their character concept.

Essentially, his fear is that he will die trapped underground, or drown underwater. 

My question would be -- why does he have that fear?

I don't think "because he lives in open spaces" is a sufficient answer to this. Claustrophobia and related fears like this usually come from conditioning -- that means, having been exposed to something in this same genre of environmental stimulus in the past, and had a negative association with it. For example, my mom had a near-drowning experience as a teenager, and was always afraid to go into water such as swimming pools etc, above her chest or so. It triggered those stress emotions from back when she was younger.

It seems to me one thing for him to be made uncomfortable underground in confinement because he has never experienced it -- new experiences are often hard to deal with. But I am not sure I buy that someone who has never experienced something would have as a fear that he will die to that thing he has never encountered. There should be something in his background that the presence of caverns above your head will trigger as a memory.

So for example -- maybe while living in the open in the mountains, he was trapped under an avalanche, stuck in a small air pocket under a bunch of heavy snow. He had to survive by licking melted snow for a couple of days and could hardly move. Then the other goliaths dug him out, and now he has this intense fear of being trapped. Since snow = water, this would work for both being trapped underground, and for drowning (his mind would probably conflate the two).