Barbarian/ranger [Archive] - Wizards Community

Barbarian/ranger [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Baalzamon
06-23-03, 12:37 AM Our group decided to start a new campaign since the old one was getting a little stale and we have a couple new players.

We are all starting as level 1, because we all want to get a really well developed characters rather than just really good character stats, which was a problem last game. we are trying to get out of the rollplaying habits and back into the roleplaying.

Anyway, we are making our own campaign in the forgotten realms, and we are going to try running 5 characters, and 3 of us are going to switch off as DM's letting the other people run our characters while we DM. basically we will just do strings of mini plots that may or may not tie together. whoever feels inspired at the will take over the DMing for a few sessions, writing the campaign as we go.

We looked at a nice big forgotten realms map, and decided we are starting in the dalelands. any ideas are welcome, since I have to make the first part of the campaign by next week

So anyway, all the bases are covered so far: we will have a wizard, rogue, fighter and cleric. I am the fifth man.

I figured that the only thing we dont really have is outdoors skills, since we plan to travel all over the realms, through lots of wilderness.

So I was thinking of making some sort of barbarian/ranger for this. there are two ways I can go with this really.

I might decide to go with a dwarf. I have always wanted to play one, and my playstyle fits perfectly. He could be part of a broken clan that was conquered by orcs and is trying to regain his familys honor (somewhat overdone yes, but I like the classic archetypes). maybe he would eventually join up with another dwarven clan, start taking fighter levels. I was thinking of even having him become a lawfull ex-barbarian at some point. Personality would be more of a bullheaded, hot tempered style. this guy would be light on the stealth and heavy on the intimidate I think :behold:

I have also considered a half elf, or one of the more feral elven subraces like wild or wood elf. he would be more of the cunning hunter. running down his prey, fighting ferociously when hes in trouble. probably more of a stalker, who only rages as a sort of "cornered animal" syndrome. He wouldnt be openly angry like the dwarf, definitely more reclusive personality, and the type of guy that really really hurts when you push him too far.

If anyone knows the dalelands fairly well and has any suggestions as to race and home region for either of these options I'd appreciate it.

I could also use some help getting the campaign started up. for the first little while I think the classic goblin hunters in the way the party will go, but eventually we want to have a more complicated plot involving the dalelands as a whole, and then move beyond.
lancer626
06-26-03, 09:24 PM In Dragon #292, there is a character called the Silverhoof, that is a Ranger/Barbarian. It raises the two classes evenly, picking feats for mounted combat and archery skills. It never talks about races, but it calls this character the "tribe's elite cavalry". I'll list their advantages and disadvantages.

"Adv. Acces to ranger spells and class skills, Don't have to spend skill points to read and write languages, and better Fortitude saves.

Dis. No acces to barbarian's high level abilities, and Less hit points"
TheMightyMcClaw
06-26-03, 10:17 PM I currently play a human Barbarian/Ranger in a "Frozen Badlands full of demons" type campaign....

I split up his feats between some archery (point blank shot, rapid shot), some hand to hand combat (power attack, extra rage), and some miscellaneous (like improved inititiative). He mostly fights with a shortsword and a handaxe (extremely badass combo, by the way), and sometimes uses a composite longbow.
His general image is rather feral.... uncombed hair/beard, clad in leathers, furs, and buckskins, carrying his weapons openly.

Personality-wise, I play him as a mentally unstable loner type. His background primarily involves him and a lover coming up to the Northern Badlands (for lack of a better name) to hunt demons... then she was killed by them, leaving him full of angst and rage, and causing him to slip into a feral state (thus the barbarian levels). He despises most other adventurers for throwing away their lives, but is too apathetic to really do more than chastize them. This sort of outlook hasn't made him the greatest "team player" however. It does fit well with the half-elf stlye, though.

Mechanically, the ranger/barb is extremely effective. The ranger levels allow you to invest ranks into stealth skills and the like... otherwise, you should probably focus on high wilderness lore and physical skils (climb, jump, etc.). The bonus movement fits with the image of the ranger well, and the two-weapon fighting works well with the raging berserker image.... funny how that works out.

Anyways, those are just my reflections on the ranger/barbarian. Hopefully they can help you.
dirk hightower
07-03-03, 02:57 PM Originally you wanted help fleshing out the character..... but you sorta finished with a request for help with the campaign...?!?

Anyway, Dwarves are rich in background - just decide the type/name/ancestor/habits of his clan - and play them all the time.

One often overlooked joy in playing dwarves - his Book of Grudges!

One of the guys I played with once went out and bought a book with only blank pages and made notes in it of everyone and everything that ****** him off - and the appropriate vow of revenge! No slight was too small for notation, but the response was scaled to fit the "crime". So, if my character accidently sneezed on him - it went in the book (so he wouldn't forget) and invariable he would wake me when it wasn't my watch..... "It's not? oh, so sorry" and cross off the grudge as "repaid" or "vindicated" or some such nonesense...

It was actually fun for every one. He got to bluster, and the halflings got to pull pranks on him... and delighted in his threats of torture.

The other fun habit of Dwarves is their warcry - always naming their ancestor or weapon or both in EVERY charge and fight, prayer, blessing, trauma, celebration, etc..... they are forever attributing things, skills, (and even the weather) to their patron ancestor...

It gives you lots of things to do - even when you are not fighting.

even shopping "By Onarc's ass - these prices are high"

or my favorite, (his comment on a fellow party member's prize sword "I had better quality toys as a young lad! praise Onarc"
Trydan
07-22-03, 09:38 AM With Barbarian/Ranger, much depends on the style of your party Rogue. If he or she is the stealthy move-silently type, then the case for a Bbn/Rgr scout is less compelling. However, if the Rogue is weak in that area, then certainly go for it.

The same applies to the other characters in the group. Is your Cleric a healer? Or a wrath of the gods type? In which case, what about Barbarian/Druid, or Druid/Ranger.

And use race to set yourself apart. If all the others are human, consider a halfling Bbn/Rgr.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Baalzamon 06-23-03, 12:37 AM	Our group decided to start a new campaign since the old one was getting a little stale and we have a couple new players. We are all starting as level 1, because we all want to get a really well developed characters rather than just really good character stats, which was a problem last game. we are trying to get out of the rollplaying habits and back into the roleplaying. Anyway, we are making our own campaign in the forgotten realms, and we are going to try running 5 characters, and 3 of us are going to switch off as DM's letting the other people run our characters while we DM. basically we will just do strings of mini plots that may or may not tie together. whoever feels inspired at the will take over the DMing for a few sessions, writing the campaign as we go. We looked at a nice big forgotten realms map, and decided we are starting in the dalelands. any ideas are welcome, since I have to make the first part of the campaign by next week So anyway, all the bases are covered so far: we will have a wizard, rogue, fighter and cleric. I am the fifth man. I figured that the only thing we dont really have is outdoors skills, since we plan to travel all over the realms, through lots of wilderness. So I was thinking of making some sort of barbarian/ranger for this. there are two ways I can go with this really. I might decide to go with a dwarf. I have always wanted to play one, and my playstyle fits perfectly. He could be part of a broken clan that was conquered by orcs and is trying to regain his familys honor (somewhat overdone yes, but I like the classic archetypes). maybe he would eventually join up with another dwarven clan, start taking fighter levels. I was thinking of even having him become a lawfull ex-barbarian at some point. Personality would be more of a bullheaded, hot tempered style. this guy would be light on the stealth and heavy on the intimidate I think :behold: I have also considered a half elf, or one of the more feral elven subraces like wild or wood elf. he would be more of the cunning hunter. running down his prey, fighting ferociously when hes in trouble. probably more of a stalker, who only rages as a sort of "cornered animal" syndrome. He wouldnt be openly angry like the dwarf, definitely more reclusive personality, and the type of guy that really really hurts when you push him too far. If anyone knows the dalelands fairly well and has any suggestions as to race and home region for either of these options I'd appreciate it. I could also use some help getting the campaign started up. for the first little while I think the classic goblin hunters in the way the party will go, but eventually we want to have a more complicated plot involving the dalelands as a whole, and then move beyond.
lancer626 06-26-03, 09:24 PM	In Dragon #292, there is a character called the Silverhoof, that is a Ranger/Barbarian. It raises the two classes evenly, picking feats for mounted combat and archery skills. It never talks about races, but it calls this character the "tribe's elite cavalry". I'll list their advantages and disadvantages. "Adv. Acces to ranger spells and class skills, Don't have to spend skill points to read and write languages, and better Fortitude saves. Dis. No acces to barbarian's high level abilities, and Less hit points"
TheMightyMcClaw 06-26-03, 10:17 PM	I currently play a human Barbarian/Ranger in a "Frozen Badlands full of demons" type campaign.... I split up his feats between some archery (point blank shot, rapid shot), some hand to hand combat (power attack, extra rage), and some miscellaneous (like improved inititiative). He mostly fights with a shortsword and a handaxe (extremely badass combo, by the way), and sometimes uses a composite longbow. His general image is rather feral.... uncombed hair/beard, clad in leathers, furs, and buckskins, carrying his weapons openly. Personality-wise, I play him as a mentally unstable loner type. His background primarily involves him and a lover coming up to the Northern Badlands (for lack of a better name) to hunt demons... then she was killed by them, leaving him full of angst and rage, and causing him to slip into a feral state (thus the barbarian levels). He despises most other adventurers for throwing away their lives, but is too apathetic to really do more than chastize them. This sort of outlook hasn't made him the greatest "team player" however. It does fit well with the half-elf stlye, though. Mechanically, the ranger/barb is extremely effective. The ranger levels allow you to invest ranks into stealth skills and the like... otherwise, you should probably focus on high wilderness lore and physical skils (climb, jump, etc.). The bonus movement fits with the image of the ranger well, and the two-weapon fighting works well with the raging berserker image.... funny how that works out. Anyways, those are just my reflections on the ranger/barbarian. Hopefully they can help you.
dirk hightower 07-03-03, 02:57 PM	Originally you wanted help fleshing out the character..... but you sorta finished with a request for help with the campaign...?!? Anyway, Dwarves are rich in background - just decide the type/name/ancestor/habits of his clan - and play them all the time. One often overlooked joy in playing dwarves - his Book of Grudges! One of the guys I played with once went out and bought a book with only blank pages and made notes in it of everyone and everything that ****** him off - and the appropriate vow of revenge! No slight was too small for notation, but the response was scaled to fit the "crime". So, if my character accidently sneezed on him - it went in the book (so he wouldn't forget) and invariable he would wake me when it wasn't my watch..... "It's not? oh, so sorry" and cross off the grudge as "repaid" or "vindicated" or some such nonesense... It was actually fun for every one. He got to bluster, and the halflings got to pull pranks on him... and delighted in his threats of torture. The other fun habit of Dwarves is their warcry - always naming their ancestor or weapon or both in EVERY charge and fight, prayer, blessing, trauma, celebration, etc..... they are forever attributing things, skills, (and even the weather) to their patron ancestor... It gives you lots of things to do - even when you are not fighting. even shopping "By Onarc's ass - these prices are high" or my favorite, (his comment on a fellow party member's prize sword "I had better quality toys as a young lad! praise Onarc"
Trydan 07-22-03, 09:38 AM	With Barbarian/Ranger, much depends on the style of your party Rogue. If he or she is the stealthy move-silently type, then the case for a Bbn/Rgr scout is less compelling. However, if the Rogue is weak in that area, then certainly go for it. The same applies to the other characters in the group. Is your Cleric a healer? Or a wrath of the gods type? In which case, what about Barbarian/Druid, or Druid/Ranger. And use race to set yourself apart. If all the others are human, consider a halfling Bbn/Rgr.