Editing Barbarian (section)

===1st Edition===
[[File:Barbarian UA 1e.jpg|right|200px]]
The very first Barbarian appeared in [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition, in the [[Unearthed Arcana]] splatbook. Here, it was a variant [[Fighter]] who had a background in a primitive culture; as a result, they have certain abilities (some shared with the [[Ranger]], such as wilderness survival, others unique), but also very strict penalties against using magical items or associating with [[wizard]]s. This mark 1 barbarian has a D12 hit dice and better saves than the [[fighter]]; it can also Climb Walls as per a thief of the same level, as an increased ability to surprise foes (3 in 6, or 4 in 6 in familiar territory) or resist being surprised (90% resistance, 95% in familiar territory), has a 5% per level chance of nullifying a Backstab, has increased jumping abilities, has a 5% chance per level of Detecting Illusion (maxes at 75%), a 25% (+5% per level) chance of Detecting Magic (maxes at 90%), and access to the [[Ranger]] abilities of Survival, First Aid, Outdoor Craft, and Tracking. Plus potentially access to regional skills such as animal handling, horsemanship, running, handling small boats and imitating animal calls. Also, depending on their level, they can strike creatures normally vulnerable only to enchanted weapons of a specific potency; starting at "can hit +1" from level 4 and increasing by +1 every two levels thereafter, a level 6 barbarian for example can hurt creatures normally resistant to anything less than a +2 weapon, whilst level 12 barbarians can hurt anything that normally needs a +5 weapon. Eventually, rather than a fighter's keep and followers, you started attracting a horde.

The downside? They cannot use ANY magical items at 1st level, and in fact are actually compelled to destroy them if possible. As they reach certain levels, they gain access to magical items (starting with potions at level 2 and culminating at "most magic items available to fighters" at level 10), and no longer need to destroy those items, but, ''shockingly'', most parties didn't seem to want to keep them around in the time it took to reach those thresholds.  Gee, I wonder why someone literally ''compelled'' to smash loot in an edition built around looting might be unpopular? At least they got bonus XP for it.

The next version of the Barbarian was as one of the [[kits]] seen in the [[Complete Book Series|Complete Fighter's Handbook]]. This is a kit restricted to [[fighter]]s with [[Strength]] 15+, and all it does is add a +3 bonus (or -3 penalty) to reaction rolls. It was, frankly, rather stupid and nobody ever bothered with it.

It also introduced a ''separate'' fighter kit in the form of the berserker, which was ''explicitly identical'' to the barbarian aside form the added rage feature. Which took '''''TEN. FUCKING. ROUNDS''''' of you psyching yourself up to activate (though admittedly this would be more realistic than the 5e barbarian's ability to just instantly become angrier than Alex Jones at the drop of a hat). But don't worry, if there ''just so happens'' to be a cleric in your party who took the barbarian/berserker kit from ''their'' handbook, it only takes you five rounds. If you want to do it in one round then this cleric also needs to have ''just so happened'' to take the "incite berserker rage" ability granted by that same handbook (which normally is explicitly mechanically different from your rage, as they can use it on any fighter).

As if to make up for this, rage had a FLUTTERING FUCKLOAD of effects:

'''Pros'''
* You were ''outright immune'' to a number of spells, and got a +4 to saves against a number of others.
* ''Fear'' effects simply popped you out of your rage instead of having their normal effect, and ''Charm'' effects affected you they way a 5e charm would.
* The ''Finger of death'' spell, if cast at you, didn't actually take effect until after you came out of your rage.
* You were immune to KOs from someone punching you in the face, and the actual damage was halved.
* You got a +1 to attack, +3 to damage, and +5 hp (unfortunately however it had not yet occurred to anyone to make buffs like this scale with level).
* If you hit 0hp, you don't actually drop until your rage ends.

'''Cons'''
* You got a -3 penalty when attempting to socially interact with an NPC who wasn't also from  a berserker tribe.
* You were actually required to stop keeping track of your HP while raging, that responsibility being temporarily transferred to the DM, who optionally also rolls all your saves for you.
* You weren't allowed to use ranged weapons (which is odd since you weren't even allowed to take this kit if you had any ranged weapon proficiencies at the time, though weirder still you ''were'' allowed to accrue some afterwards).
* Once you attacked a target, you weren't allowed to switch to a different one until the first one dropped, and even then you were only allowed to pick the nxt closest one.
* Barring a fear effect as described above, you came out of your rage if and only if every last enemy was down (though strangely the rules explicitly said that they only had to be literally laying down on the ground, not necessarily dead).
* You couldn't take cover against missile fire.
* If an ally did something that might be misinterpreted as an attack (such as shoving you out of the way of an incoming attack), you had to pass an intelligence check for them to not aggro you.
* ''Bless'' and healing spells cast on you wouldn't take effect until your rage ended.
* Amusingly, ''taunt'' was automatically successful, and caused you to immediately abandon your current target in favor of the taunter.
* Upon coming out of your rage, you collapsed in exhaustion for a number of rounds equal to the duration you spent raging. You also lost that bonus 5hp, which, yes, could drop you to 0.