The problem with barbarians in the Forgotten Realms is that they lack flavor. The Realms is a hodge podge of different classes, cultures, abilities, and game mechanics that all got lumped into one mass. In an effort to give the Realms a bit of flavor from everything, it gets turned into a vanilla mass where nothing seems unique.

DMs kept saying they disliked barbarian/fighter because they didn't feel the barbarian flavor came through. So barbarians clearly need some definition in this setting so it does come through.

Now, barbarians *could* be normal human meat puppets with a serious overdose of testosterone who can once in awhile enter a "Rage" and smash things with reckless abandon. This is roughly speaking, what the Realms made them and I'm afraid its poisoned a lot of creative minds into thinking barbarians are primitive, savages, who smash things.

You couldn't be further from the truth: Barbarians are based on legends and history, they were the Norse Berserkers.

The Norse, same guys who gave us the legend of Grendel, who found America and colonized it a few hundred years before Columbus, a group of people with a complex religious and magical heritage that is still followed today in Iceland and a growing number of regions in America and Germany. Rome's best generals, Adolf Hitler, and Theodore Roosevelt all were impressed and amazed by these "barbarians".

So I tend to think in a magical setting, even a low magical setting like EfU, that the problem is people can't seperate normal human meat puppets with a serious overdose of testosterone who can once in awhile enter a "Rage" from a group of people with a complex religious and magical heritage .

The solution is to look at how the viking berserkers viewed "rage". Yes, they did view it as a magical gift from the gods. Rage came from Odin and Thor, or from the mystical energy called Wyrd--wyrd was the empty space between magical runes or the silence between syllables of sacred chants and battle cries, it was the calm moment between a battles or at twilight. Berserkers called upon this sacred energy to fight their foes, but also their shamans used it as a magical power to fuel spells, ward off illness, and summon spiritual aid.

So in a world where magic is real, barbarians can vastly improve on this through the use of totems. Totems in this sense are avatars of a barbarian's rage, where it comes from and how it channels this sacred or profane power through them. Its vastly preferable to thinking of barbarians as channeling nothing more than primitive hormonal testosterone, which is why you get bland, dull, lifeless, mindless barbarians so often.

Other settings do this very well. In Eberron barbarians channel their rage through totems, Dragons, Chimera, Pheonix etc. Magical creatures, and with the right feats a barbarian's rage can express itself in magical ways. The Heroes of High Favor series discusses how barbarians draw on rage, for dwarfs its the primal hatred of their collective race for its many foes, for half-orcs its the primal Wyrd the source of passion, anger, and creation-the very well spring from which the orc dieties emerged.

This can make sense in EfU if there are Rage totems, avatars or spiritual manifestations of rage that barbarian tribes learn to draw upon. This already exists to an extent with Uthgardt, but other dieties with specifically barbarian followers can easily fit into this; Urdlen can have a mole totem, Garagos a Wyrd or War totem, even the elemental gods may have elemental totems.

The totems can give minor abilities to a barbarian while he rages, perhaps that even improve as he gains levels:

A bear totem may grant minor DR. A fire totem may cause flames to burn along the barbarian's weapons.

To encourage pure class barbarians, by level 7 these abilities could become fully fledged, perhaps the Mole totem grants Blindsight during a rage and the Dragon or Fire totem causes the barbarian's inner rage to explode in a burst of fiery energy.

Yes, these effects may look more magical: but that's exactly how the ability to rage was originally viewed, legends of berserkers capable of transforming into giant bears that no weapon could harm as they tore apart their foes were common in *this* world, so it'd make perfect sense that in a world where magic is real--rage is a real source of magic.

Its not as good as a wizard, but its there. A seventh level wizard can shoot out four or five fireballs at any foe he wants doing 7d6 damage, while a seventh level barbarian may only cause 3d4 (half his level rounded down) fire damage to *everyone* around him when he Rages. Its got flavor, it would likely encourage more pure class barbarians, and it grants a terrific hook for people roleplaying barbarians.

Various totems could include:

Horse-speed related powers. Wolf/Tiger/Deep Hound-tracking, perception, frightening howl powers. Bear/Rock Lizard-resistance/toughness powers. Dragon/Wyrd-more mystical fiery rage powers Fire, Earth, Wind, Water-elemental powers War, Badger, Wolverine-improvements on traditional rage powers

Its something worth considering. It'll make barbarian more than a class you take just to smash things better while furthering the stereotype of the mindless stupid rager, it adds a magical and mystical dimension to the roleplaying and won't make barbarians better mechanically than fighters who still get far more feats, and abilities with the trade off only a few less points of damage a round (until level 4 where they start doing more than barbs) and slightly less HP and speed.

I love it. Full support.

I forsee a huge wave of <3 for Clan Cave Worm. Get this in! :)

Since the discussion of Barb/Fighters was up for public debate, we've been working on several things that are similar to this suggestion as a means of encouraging players to stick with a pure barbarian build. The trick is getting all the DM's to agree on the balance adjustments and types of Barbarian upgrades. That said, expect to see some great new incentives to those of you who play pure barbarians in the near future.

yep, looks awesome.

This is already long underway.

YES YES YES. LOVING IT.

Does this suggestion entail barbarian's being forced to pick a totem? I feel that if this is the truth, all that's being done is jumping from cliche to cliche with the latter causing an increase in the class' power.

I feel that something along these lines should be more of a case-by-case situation; if your character is an awesome warrior that fits the criteria of having a totem to bestow power upon him, he should get a piece of loot that does this.

Don't get me wrong, I do love this suggestion, but I also like barbarians as they are currently.

PS: If I was preemtively ranting and infact these totems will just be loot, that is absolutely brilliant and I can't wait.

Pascal's Flawed Wager Does this suggestion entail barbarian's being forced to pick a totem? I feel that if this is the truth, all that's being done is jumping from cliche to cliche with the latter causing an increase in the class' power.

I feel that something along these lines should be more of a case-by-case situation; if your character is an awesome warrior that fits the criteria of having a totem to bestow power upon him, he should get a piece of loot that does this.

Don't get me wrong, I do love this suggestion, but I also like barbarians as they are currently.

PS: If I was preemtively ranting and infact these totems will just be loot, that is absolutely brilliant and I can't wait.

I'd figure it can be done either way, maybe a standard vanilla "barbarian" can remain.

A few DMs have chimed in to point out that they're already discussing this--and that's great! I brought this up because I was talking to some DMs about how this could be done, and think that players could weigh in with their opinions here.

I also know that the DMs are concerned about balance like Pascal brought up, or making barbarian's rage seem too "magic". So this could be a good place for the community to discuss and put forth some opinions as the DMs contemplate some serious changes to the setting.

As I said, the ideas I heard from some DMs on EfU sound incredibly close to the ideas some DMs on a server I worked on for years generated when we looked over barbarians and said "They can be done better."

I'd like this a lot, but I think it'd be better as somewhat common DM loot or as a reward for a Barbarian only Quest.

Maybe have different Barbs giving different ones scatted around Sanctuary and the surrounding area, make it possible for all lvls so someone doesn't forget it amidst trying to get to lvl 5 and lose some awesome spice.

I just like eating mistletoe.

You could for example make a standard quest that requires a pure barbarian in the party to START and FINISH it. (probably something from clan cave-worm)

This in itself would encourage pure barbarians, there could also be special parts in the quest itself that lend itself to a barbarians natural skills. (jumping across a ravine to pull a lever lowering a drawbridge etc)

Which could make some parts of the quest easier or faster.

You could enforce pure barbarianism for these "sub-quest" factors or require a certain minimum level in barbarian.

Of course this may just result in a server populated by a LOT of barbarians (instead of whatever other class gets flavour of the month) though this isnt necessarily a bad thing, all classes need their "turn" at this. It comes and goes like the tide of the dark lake :D

There are quite a few well documented barbarian cultures in the Realms. Maybe someone could type (or cut and paste) something akin to the deity information threads about the Uthgardt, Nars, Rashemi, etc?

The icewind dale barbarians are relitivaly less barbaric then the other barbarians due to them being forced to live with the people of Ten-Towns for a few winters, damn you Akar Kessell.

Also, Baldurs Gate Two, Totemic druid. Summon your random totem animal once per day.

If the totems are for use for pure barbariens (which is scripted thus possible) I support it full (I don't even have barbarians but I really think it will support them, in many ways, and add flavor and fun to the game. I know I would enjoy players RPing with their barbarians totem which was given to them)

And by the way, the totem idea is so known that even Walt Disney used it in the movie "Brother Bear"... :)

So I full support it. (I actually hoped for some transformation, like a druid, only its based on the totem, level and pure barbarian, using the rage charge. As if, when used/toggled, once the player clicks the Rage, it changes according to the totem, and same amount of time/adjustable by DMs)

Is there a single barbarian culture in the realms that is almost like the norse with a few minor differences? I'd love to play something like a viking raider.

There are lots of barbarian groups.

Yes, I'm quite aware that there are a lot of barbarian groups, I'm asking for a specific one that is akin to the viking culture. Is there a barbarian culture that raids from longboats and settles on new lands such as Maztica?

You could make a non-canon one.

It's a fictionus thing, make up your own.

Though WoTC tend to lack in original vision, I don't think they've gone so far as to mimic that historical parallel.

I dunno. The Illuskan human ethnicity sounds very norse to me.

Clicky!

Excellent chezcaliente, thank you very much. As far as making up non-canon races/cultures, Harlstar, I'm not sure whether or not that is allowed, my guess is that it would require an application.

Not really, all the preludges, 99.9% non-canon founded, no application.

Most of my characters occupations before ending up in the underdark, non-canon.

Non-canonness exits man, use it!

erm... Almost every Prelude takes place in a real place, and doesn't have to have an entire civilisation made for it, as you're asking them to do.

I don't think there's anything wrong with creating a lesser known barbarian tribe. Cave Worm Clan, anyone?

A lesser known tribe is all well and good, and DMs don't mind. You can say you're from a small town that isn't canon, or make up a noble house in a city. All good. But creating an entire new culture/country/civilisation? Not so cool. It's entirely possible that no-one will have heard of the small monastry of Fenmaris in the dales, but a whole civilisation is kinda harder to miss.

spawnofweevil A lesser known tribe is all well and good, and DMs don't mind. You can say you're from a small town that isn't canon, or make up a noble house in a city. All good. But creating an entire new culture/country/civilisation? Not so cool. It's entirely possible that no-one will have heard of the small monastry of Fenmaris in the dales, but a whole civilisation is kinda harder to miss.

Large portions of the Realms are entirely unexplored, entire civilizations live on small islands on the oceans that no one has heard about before. You *could* pull it off, if you're careful, subtle, and clever.

Concerned, there are the Northlanders from the islands of Ruathym, north of the Celtic inspired Moonshae Isles. They have a very definite Viking feel to them.