The Barbarian Class

Barbarian

Hit Dice: 1d6+2 (+3 hp per level after 9^th level.)

Armor: Light or Medium armor, shields.

Weapons: Any except crossbows.

Skills: Barbarians are skilled at feats of strength and endurance.  They are also skilled at survival, climbing, and swimming.

Restrictions

Superstitious: Barbarians mistrust overt displays of magic and sorcery.  When presented with displays of such magic they must succeed at a saving throw or be stunned for one round.  A barbarian character may overcome this restriction, but permanently loses 1d6 hit points.

Class Features

Dominate: Against creatures with one hit die or less, a barbarian makes one attack per level each round.

Powerful: Barbarians have advantage in feats of strength and endurance.

Rage: The barbarian can go berserk in combat, gaining a +2 bonus to hit and damage, but suffering a -2 penalty to his armor class.  This increases to +3/+3 at 5^th level and +4/+4 at 9^th level. For purposes of language and communication, the barbarian’s Intelligence score drops to 3. The barbarian’s rage lasts for a number of rounds equal to the barbarian’s level.  While in his rage, the barbarian focuses on his foes until they are dead.  He cannot use skills except for feats of strength, and no skills that take longer than a round. If his rage continues after his foes are gone, he will attack his nearest ally unless he makes a successful saving throw.

The barbarian’s rage can be reawakened or extended beyond its normal duration by making a successful saving throw each round.  Each successful save extends the rage by one round, incurs a cumulative -1 penalty on subsequent saves to continue, and lowers the barbarian’s Strength score by one point after the rage ends.  The Strength penalty disappears after 8 hours of rest.

Animal Reflexes: At 3^rd level, the barbarian gains advantage against surprise attacks and traps.

Cleave: When the barbarian drops an opponent to 0 or fewer hit points, he may make a second attack with the same weapon against a new foe that is within reach.

Tenacity:  At 7^th level the barbarian can continue to fight after losing all his hit points, so long as he is raging.  The barbarian ends when the rage does.

Youngblood: At 7^th level, a barbarian gains a 1^st-level barbarian henchman.  If the youngblood dies, another will replace him the next time the barbarian gains a level, depending on the circumstances surrounding the death of the previous youngblood(s).  Barbarians are not particularly put off by frequent deaths, but the death of a youngblood by sorcery or other foul means are viewed with distrust and may incur repercussions.

War band: At 9^th level the barbarian becomes a leader among his people, whether he likes it or not, and can summon a war band to accomplish a particular task or objective.  The exact number and makeup of the war band will depend on the goal to be accomplished.

Whirlwind: At 11^th level, while raging, the barbarian can make an attack at every creature he can reach without moving at his normal attack bonuses, but suffers a -4 penalty to armor class (instead of -2) while doing so.  The barbarian cannot chose to hit some creatures and not others. 

Steppe Nomad (Barbarian Variant)

Steppe nomads are members of migratory horse-riding cultures.  They are renowned for their skill in fighting from horseback.  Their traditional weapons are powerful short bows and curved sabres.

Skills: Steppe nomads have riding instead of swimming.

Saddleborn: Steppe nomads have advantage in riding instead of feats of strength.

Mounted Warrior: Steppe nomads lose the Rage class ability and gain the Mounted Warrior ability in its place.  The bonuses remain the same, but apply only when the steppe nomad is mounted.  There is no duration to this feature, and no penalty to Armor Class.

Cleave: This ability only functions when the character is mounted.

Whirlwind: This ability only functions when the character is mounted.  There is no penalty to Armor Class.

Zealot (Barbarian Variant)

Zealots are fanatical religious warriors.  They occupy the same place in cult hierarchies that paladins do in divine orders.

Skills: Zealots are skilled at religious lore and local lore instead of climbing and swimming.

Fervor: This ability is the same as rage.

Divine Aid: This ability replaces Animal Reflexes.  Once per day the zealot can cast cure light wounds upon himself.

(The terms advantage, knack, and skilled are defined on the Game Design page above.  The license for this entry is located in the Legal page above.)

On Classes: Martial classes

I'm a "iconic concept" sort of guy when it comes to class design.  Every class should express a core, iconic concept clearly and as simply as possible, and without infringing on other classes except by design.

At the moment, I've come up with four martial/warrior classes, with the potential for at least three more.  They all share the same save progression, to-hit chart, and hit points (yes, even the barbarian), but they do different things.

The fighter is the most generic.  She gets a weapon mastery bonus that slowly progresses as the character levels up; this bonus can be applied to one, two, or three weapon groups.  Concentrating on one weapon gives the highest bonus.  She also has strong defensive ability that can be used in place of an attack, and finally gains a second attack per round.  Fighters can also apply their Strength bonus to their to-hit chance, currently the only class that can do so.

Barbarians don't gain weapon mastery, but they do rage.  This gives a bonus equal or better than the fighter's, but has a limited duration and some potentially serious penalties as well.  Barbarians are also the best at slaughtering massed hordes of weaker creatures, with cleave and whirlwind of steel abilities.

Rangers are the implacable foe, and gain a bonus versus certain types of opponents.  The bonus and number of opponents increases at 5th and 9th level, both to reflect the ranger's increasing expertise and the likelihood of encountering certain creature types.  This bonus applies not only to attacks and damage, but saves and checks as well.  The creature types can easily be changed in different campaigns: evil or outlaw humans, monstrous humanoids, monstrous creatures, spellcasters, etc.

Paladins are the divine opponents of supernatural evil, and hew reasonably close to what's been done before.

Knights, soldiers, and swashbucklers aren't fully defined at the moment, but the concepts are visible.  If barbarians are the masters of brute combat, knights are the elite one-on-fighters of the battlefields, duking it out with the big bad boss monster.  Soldiers are tough, adaptable survivors - sturdy and reliable.  Swashbucklers emphasize dexterity and movement over force and stamina - the chief problem with this class is that it could be very similar to the fighter in execution.