The primal hero relies on his resilience and his connection to nature to survive. He is the berserker, the warden, the druid, the shaman: the voice in the wilderness and the sentinel at the edge of civilization.
The barbarian chooses two role-based class features, gaining the skilltraining and Rank 1 trances of those class features.
The barbarian chooses one totem class feature, gaining that style's aspects and Rank 1 maneuver.
The barbarian chooses two at-will trances that are available to him based on his class features.
At level 0, the barbarian may either perform one Rank 1 trance per encounter, or one rage trance or Rank 1 trance per day.
The Essential Barbarian
This chapter presents many different options for creating a Primal Hero, also known as a Barbarian. Many of these options can seem daunting, so the following builds have been distilled down into the essential necessities.
Each of these builds has been constructed using the Essential Array ability scores, choosing abilities and adding the +2 racial ability bonuses so that the final ability scores become 18/16/14/12/11 regardless of the character’s race. This ensures that the character begins play with their abilities optimized for that class’s rigors, and won’t find themselves particularly hampered compared to another player.
If you feel like delving into the nuts and bolts of character design, you can skip past the Essential builds and construct a Complete Barbarian, which takes significantly more work but will result in a vision that is uniquely your own. There are four possible Complete Barbarian starting points:
The Berserker focuses his primal connection into a fierce rage, fueling a terrifying and seemingly endless onslaught. By channeling the Primal spirits through his body and his combat prowess, the Berserker becomes a terror on the battlefield, slaying his foes and driving them before him.
The Warden focuses her primal connection into a wellspring of vitality, making her a nearly unstoppable protector of the natural world. By evoking the aspects of her totem, the Warden becomes easily the toughest of sentinels, despite her light armor and often primitive weapons.
The Shaman focuses her primal connection into an intuitive understanding of the ebb and flow of nature, becoming the unmatched master of the wilderness. She can call upon and even bond with the creatures of the wild, gaining a pack of fierce predators as lifelong hunting companions. Likewise,the Primal spirits of nature are never far from the Shaman's call, willing to manifest and do his bidding at a moment's notice.
The Druid focuses his primal connection into a direct communion with the spirits of nature, acting as a medium between the spirit world and the material. The Shaman can call on the power of the Spirit World directly, to heal his allies, bolster their abilities, and hinder his enemies' attempt to harm them.
You can easily choose to create a generalist Barbarian as a starting character, simply by picking Role-based Class Features from two different Roles. This will dilute your ability to fulfill each Role, but allows much more flexibility during character creation.
Totems
A Totem is a primal spirit or animal archetype that a Barbarian follows as a way of life. Each Totem grants various Aspects which allow the Barbarian to experience union with the Primal forces of nature.
You charge the target, dealing 1d6 + [ melee damage bonus ] slashing damage. The target is grabbed and knocked prone. Until the end of your next turn, your allies gain a bonus to attack and damage vs. the target equal to your Constitution modifier.
Until you end this stance, you and all allies within 10 paces of you gain a +5 feat bonus to all Stealth rolls vs. the target, may make Stealth rolls vs. the target whenever they have partial concealment, and do not suffer penalties to their Stealth rolls due to movement. Allies within 20 paces which are not hidden from the target gain a +2 feat bonus to speed whenever they are more than 5 paces away from the target.
Miss:
Until you end this stance, you and all allies within 10 paces of you gain a +2 feat bonus to speed whenever they are more than 5 paces away from the target.
Effect:
Until you end this stance, whenever the target ends its turn, you and each ally more than 5 paces away from the target may either shift two paces towards it or move your speed towards it as an immediate reaction.
Leveling Up
At each even level, you may choose a new at-will Trance from this class feature or any of your other class features, or training in a proficiency of your choice.
At each odd level, you may choose a new ranked Trance from this class feature or any of your other class features, or may choose a new class feature from your class.
Your basic unarmed attack deals 1d8 + [ melee damage bonus ] + [ magic damage bonus ] damage, counts as a melee weapon attack, and knocks your target prone on a hit. While you are invoking the Bear's Claws Aspect, you may expend one use of a Rank 1 trance to perform the following attack:
You gain a +2 stance bonus to your Fortitudedefense and a +5 stance bonus to Endurance checks. When you are bloodied, you regenerate 2 hit points at the beginning of each of your turns. Your Primal Healing powers which allow you or your allies to spend healing reserves grant a bonus to the target's heal value equal to your Constitution modifier.
Whenever you perform a move action, you may slide one adjacent ally 1 square at the beginning or end of your movement. Whenever an ally would provoke an opportunity attack from an adjacent enemy, you may cause that attack to target yourself instead.
You may spend one healing reserve, and gain 2d6 additional hit points and regain the use of your lowest expended per-encounter trance. Until the end of the encounter, you gain all benefits of Bear's endurance.
Once per round as a free action, you may mark an unmarked target that you may see as your Quarry. Until the end of the encounter or until you mark a new Quarry, you gain +5 to all Perception rolls vs. your Quarry, and halve all your Quarry's cover or concealment bonuses. If you can see your Quarry, you automatically know its current hit points and conditions.
Choose one: the target becomes dazed or immobilized until the end of your next turn.
The target becomes stunned until the end of your next turn instead if you achieve a critical hit.
You slide the target a number of paces equal to your Wisdom modifier, and the target grants advantage to you and your allies until the end of your next turn.
You or an ally hits an enemy with an attack during your turn.
Effect:
Each ally adjacent to you or the target may shift one square as a free reaction. Until the end of your next turn, each ally who can see or hear you gains a feat bonus to attack rolls against that enemy equal to your Wisdom modifier.
At each even level, you may choose a new at-will Trance from this class feature or any of your other class features, or training in a proficiency of your choice.
At each odd level, you may choose a new ranked Trance from this class feature or any of your other class features, or may choose a new class feature from your class.
At-Will Trances
(Level 0+)
<createbox>
preload = Template:Feat/new/template&autoedit=s~%25feat%25~At-Will Trance~g;s~%25class_feature%25~Hunter Totem~g;s~%25page_name%25~%7B%7Bsubst:PAGENAME%7D%7D~g;s~%25action%25~standard action~g;
align = center
editintro = Template:Feat/new/HowTo
buttonlabel = Add New
You immediately invoke one hunter totemAspect. You may perform that Aspect's per-encounter maneuver once before the end of your next turn as an at-will action.
<createbox>
preload = Template:Feat/new/template&autoedit=s~%25feat%25~Rank 1 Trance~g;s~%25class_feature%25~Hunter Totem~g;s~%25page_name%25~%7B%7Bsubst:PAGENAME%7D%7D~g;s~%25action%25~standard action~g;
align = center
editintro = Template:Feat/new/HowTo
buttonlabel = Add New
</createbox>
Rank 2 Trances
(Level 3+)
<createbox>
preload = Template:Feat/new/template&autoedit=s~%25feat%25~Rank 2 Trance~g;s~%25class_feature%25~Hunter Totem~g;s~%25page_name%25~%7B%7Bsubst:PAGENAME%7D%7D~g;s~%25action%25~standard action~g;
align = center
editintro = Template:Feat/new/HowTo
buttonlabel = Add New
</createbox>
Rank 3 Trances
(Level 7+)
<createbox>
preload = Template:Feat/new/template&autoedit=s~%25feat%25~Rank 3 Trance~g;s~%25class_feature%25~Hunter Totem~g;s~%25page_name%25~%7B%7Bsubst:PAGENAME%7D%7D~g;s~%25action%25~standard action~g;
align = center
editintro = Template:Feat/new/HowTo
buttonlabel = Add New
</createbox>
Shamans who follow the Hunter totem may summon an ancestor spirit.
Ancestor spirit
Leveling Up
At each level, you gain new features and bonuses to increase your primal prowess: