Friday, March 17, 2017

Atypical Characters: Not a Ranger

Playstyle certainly lends to giving a character its own unique features. This posts will discuss the idea of a barbarian class filling in the roll of an amateurish ranger. Ranger's are typically used to fill in both a scouting and ranged damage roll for the party. Barbarians are typically used for raw brawn in melee. This one is more versatile.
Barbarians can have more AC, which comes from a special class feature [Unarmored Defense]. It combines their passive AC (10), with their constitution and dexterity modifiers, only if they have no armor. (Player's Handbook, page 48). The above character has 16 AC for its base, plus two more for its shield. I used the Ability Point Cost table on page 13 in the Player's Handbook to ensure the character had superb dexterity and constitution for level 1.

The Outlander Background was chosen, with only a tad of the wording changed to better fit the character. This is to give a ground for whenever you make a backstory for the character. Generally, a barbarian who "believes" he is the last of his tribe and thus seeks to make their name in a great song of glory.

Playstyle wise, the character is stealthy, very stealthy. Stealth is useful for a party as it allows a character to inch forward and scout a position; however, there is anxiety in this. No matter how high one's stealth skill is, they will eventually fail to roll and be exposed behind enemy lines. Rogue and Rangers will often be endangered by this, due to their proficiencies in lower AC armors. This character doesn't have that problem.

The barbarian has a high stealth skill, yet when he inevitably fails his stealth check the character has a lot of AC and health. Worst case scenario the barbarian had their shield slung to their back, giving them their base 16 AC and will need to take an action to bring it out. The character also has a longsword which is versatile (can be used with one or two hands), so if he can't bust the shield out he will be doing more damage [1d10+strength modifier rather than 1d8+strength modifier]. Not to mention the Rage mechanic. (Player's Handbook, page 48).

Having really high dexterity doesn't just increase the stealth skill and AC, but also ranged damage. This is why I opted to pick a shortbow for the character. He actually has a higher hit chance with the bow, rather than the word. The highest damage the character can do with the bow is 9 [1d6+3 piercing damage], and the highest with the longsword when used with one hand is also 9 [1d8+1]. The fact the bow has and extra +2 to its hit chance means that the barbarian will be doing more damage over time with the bow because his ability to hit is greater.

This means the character can adequately fill out that ranged roll at early levels. A ranger or archery based fighter will eventually outpace this character. Especially if either the ranger or fighter picks their Archery archetypes [giving +2 bonus damage to ranged weapon attacks]. The same could be said about a defense specialized fighter or paladin against the barbarian that continues to not use armor, while those other classes have plate armor.

At level 3 the character will get the Primal Path option. (Player's Handbook, page 49). This will allow the character to become more potent or versatile, depending on what you choose. You can pick the Berserker path, then specialize in melee. This would be best if there are other ranged players in your group. That means this character's early ranged capabilities won't be needed much longer, as the weaker starting of rangers, archery fighters, and mages, are soon to dissipate.

Whether you want to keep specializing in ranged, melee, or other, the path of the Totem Warrior will be useful. Totem warrior focuses on melee as well, yet not in terms of direct damage. For instance, the Bear totem makes you resistant [half damage] from all damage types except for physic. The bear totem aspect described is just for level three, there are two other higher level aspects to it. Same for the wolf (which deals with enhancing your allies) and eagle (which involves quick movement).

If you wanted to keep the above character functioning in a ranged or stealthy manner, using the eagle totem would be best. At third level the eagle totem does this, "While you're raging and aren't wearing heavy armor. other creatures have disadvantage on opportunity attack rolls against you, and you can use the Dash action as a bonus action on your turn. The spirit of the eagle makes you into a predator who can weave through the fray with ease." (Player's Handbook, page 49). That will increase your ability to get into a position to engage in ranged combat. Considering the character's high base AC and health, the barbarian will able to act as a forward shock troop for the party in a fight.

Later on at level 6 with the eagle totem, "You gain the eyesight of an eagle. You can see up to 1 mile away with no difficulty. Able to discern even fine details as though looking at something no more than 100 feet away from you. Additionally, dim light doesn't impose disadvantage on your Wisdom (Perception) checks." (Player's Handbook, page 49). For a scout or ranged character this is very useful. The barbarian wouldn't even need to get nearly as close to the enemy to scout them as other characters would, unless the party was in a really confined space [such as a cave or castle interior].

Finally at 14th level, "While raging, you have a flying speed equal to your current walking speed. This benefit works only in short bursts; you fail if you end your turn in the air and nothing else is holding you aloft." (Player's Handbook, page 49). This one works much like the first, in that it enhances the character's ability to move into a ranged position quicker. Image a fight and you decide to use this skill to get to the top of a tree or structure, well out of melee range from the enemy. On the other hand you could use it to quickly get to the enemy leader and starting fighting them in melee.

In either regard, the character is meant to be an extra stealth character that can switch between ranged or melee seamlessly.

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