Editing Barbarian (section)

===3rd & 3.5th Edition===
[[File:Barbarian PHB 3e.jpg|left|200px]]
But for the debut of [[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition]]. Like the [[Sorcerer (Dungeons & Dragons)|Sorcerer]], the Barbarian of D&D fame is a true child of 3e. Everything that is viewed as iconic about the barbarian? Was invented by 3e, for 3e. They get d12 hit points, uncanny dodge, illiteracy, damage reduction and can fly into a rage for some stat bonuses at the expense of AC and passes out when the fight is done. Until you get Tireless Rage, dip into Horizon Walker or a billion other solutions past core.  Notably, it was ''this'' incarnation of the barbarian that was back-adapted into 2e for ''[[Baldur's Gate]]''.

Barbarian was changed a bit in the transition from 3e to 3.5e. There Barbarian lost all their "empty" levels by gaining Trap Sense and Damage Reduction. While trap sense is normally considered super lame and Damage Reduction advances too slow to be meaningful, this does make Barbarians have zero empty levels. Alongside [[Ranger]] (who gained abilities ''other'' than super-racism), Barbarian is easily the class that benefited the most from the transition from a strict look at the class themselves, but the introduction of Natural Spell puts [[Druid]] far ahead of it.

While Rage ''does'' scale, it does so quite slowly, and while they have no dead levels, the class features they get aren't very good. This and them losing their illiteracy if they multiclass makes them quite viable as a [[Dip Class]] or entry to [[Prestige Class]]es. In core only, Horizon Walker grants immunity to fatigue with a one level dip. One prestige class designed for them was Frenzied Berserker, which unfortunately causes you to lose control of your character and potentially kill the party. Bear Warrior is a much better Barbarian focused prestige class, which lets you get so angry you turn into a bear.

Barbarian is considered a [[Tier System|tier 4]]. They are very good at smashing things in melee, and have some wilderness/physical skills that help a bit when that's not applicable, but are quite easy to shut down with some pretty basic challenges, like a monster that isn't just a grounded wall of meat (like one that can fly or turn invisible), can't do much beyond direct HP damage (or tripping if specialized in it) and their skills are only an accessory.

{{D&D3-Classes}}