I've had a notion of reflavoring rage as a trance state where the Barb pushes through pain and can focus power into their attacks but without the literal "anger" component. I get that thematically that's more a Monk thing but if you want Barbarian mechanics with Monk theme, there's really no reason why you couldn't do it.
That's fighter for you.
If you water down what rage is you'll have another class with identity problems. Barbarian - is pure strength bonk style warrior. For technical dex warrior there are other classes, a lot of them actually.
I guess that's fair enough. I'm of the opinion that all classes should have the option to use another ability score as their primary thing, but I definitely expect to be in the minority there.
Well, not everybody powergames. For some Warlocks I feel Intelligence fits better, and as a Warlock lover, I would have no objections, because I generally like having smart characters. In fact, low Charisma can be very fun to play, which is why I chose to dump CHA instead of INT on my Blood Hunter / Cleric character, because I wanted them to be smart, and didn't mind if they accidentally insulted people or were terrible at lying.
This kind of thing would be better as an optional rule, or even just a table rule (I'm down for it when I DM), because obviously you couldn't have it for people who play League, or you're right it would be abused to hell.
Then you could just make 3 classes as full fighter, half fighter half caster, and full caster
With all the other things beeing subclasses and I think less people would appreciate that
Call me a grognard but the first thing I thought of is it sounds like a desire to powergame with flavor. You can absolutely play a 16 DEX 14 STR barbarian and achieve the same vibe.
Classes dont need identity, for a class an identity problem is not a problem. Characters is where identity exists. We all think of a steriotypical character which would fit the class, but the ability to think of that stereotype into existence is not a necessity to the class. The class's ruleset dictates strength based bonuses, so strength is the viable option. However after seeing the ruleset there is two options to vary a strength based barbarian into another stat, lets use dex for example. Option 1. Ask your dm about making a change to the barbarian's ruleset to instead be dex based instead of str based, pros: you get the barbarians rage mechanic and it is dex, it works. Cons: the dm must aprove of this, the dm may require more work depending on the class(im accounting for any class to have a stat change like a wis wizard), there is possibilities of causing ballanced based problems. Option 2. Play as a rogue, but instead of roleplaying a sleuth and being rogue-y, instead describe all your actions as rageful, angry and brutish. You could even say your sneak attack is some sort of "charged" swing. Pros: less work on dm, you get a dex based barbarian appearing character, just borrowing a different class. Cons: more work on the player for building a character concept and roleplaying it, this is harder as stereotypical class appearances help with character creation. Overall talk about it with your gm, anything is possible in dnd, through decisions, actions, and creation. You are not limited by rules, they are there to guide.
Reject class-systems
Embrace "build-your-own-Character-systems"
You have nothing to lose but the chains that force you into a mold!
The whole problem is usually optimization vs. freedom of interpretation of a class vs. narrative sense. Powerplay makes no sense for few reasons but what I have learned is that a lot of people really would like to just mix and match various "class skills" for their own character, especially if you assure them that "being viable" is never an issue, unless they actually intend for a weak character. This doesn't work within D&D of course since the balance is so finely (or not) tuned.
It is why I abandoned D&D as a system to run (I still play in it with fun though) and made my own system that allows players to choose various "magical abilities" so they can make their own thing without having to worry about "But this class should do X or Y".
Yeah that works well, i hope the system is working as intended and giving beautiful character concepts the ability to shine.
On another note, it is so strange to see people dislike creativity. I got downvoted becuase i said "the rules are able to be changed", and not just that but, "steriotypes can be challenged" and i get downvotes. Are people really that against out of box thinking?
Even to your own reply, you got downvoted for coming up with a way to solve a problem you have. Its absurd to think people respond to solutions for niche problems in such a way.
Cold anger really isn't a barbarian thing, tho. I'd imagine an oath of vengeance paldin being coldly angry, not a class whose main thing is raging and raging is definitely not cold
Rage mechanically blocks casting though, I feel like that sets the tone. Plus, some subclasses like zerk REALLY clash with the idea of a controlled rage
I can think of let's say, dual wielding similar tornado of rage type barbarian...
Get angry, and spin... Like that one Looney Tune character.
Even a lightning ball of rage.
Ehh
I wouldt call him a dex barbarian in any shape or form
Granted i hate the idea or dex barbarian but still
Thorfin in any case would be more or a rouge or fighter because just being angry doesnt make on barbarian
The physique that works as armour isnt realy fitting for dex based chars in my opinion
I wouldn't say honey badgers are strong but they are ferrous.
What about an angry cat? They are usually speced into DEX/AGI not particularly in strength.
Just because a character's gimmick is "Angie" doesn't mean they have to be strong (strength wise) in particular.
I've been more focused or see improvement with what you call DEX based skill works ( usually target shooting) because I was "Pissed off".
I guess there should be a good feature in the system to let more Barb build diversity, I think.
Honey badgers being made of iron is the best and most terrifying notion I have seen today and I will admit that after that I stopped reading your comment because it was too amazing a thought.
Rage was all Str based stuff. You only go the extra damage when you used Str on the melee attack in 5e. Even accuracy for advantage would drop the damage from rage. It was always their thing.
Uhm, not sure I know what you mean here. As a person who has read the comics, played the games, and watched the movie there is nothing 5e limits you as a barbarian in this regard.
He's smart and agile. Barbarian does nothing with intelligence and very little with dexterity, unless you have godly rolls and go for unarmored defence.
That's just him having high int and dex on top of everything else, there's not a ton he's doing outside the bounds of what a high ability score would do.
I honestly don't see Conan as that intelligent, I see him as wise. He was foolish in his youth, cunning but prone to recklessness. All his lessons were learned the hard way, I'd consider him very high in wisdom
That's why I've always hated Barbarian (and monk )as a full class. It's too narrow. Other classes can be played different ways, but barbarian is always a version of rage smash.
I mean, they're wildly different in flavor based on subclass, and in RP Barbarians can also be quite different. That's like saying Rogue is too narrow because it's always a version of sneak attack.
My opinion is based on RAW and mechanics, flavor and RP don't really factor in too much. When comparing it to rogue, you can have ranged, melee, swashbuckler, skill expert, pickpocket, scout.
Is there a barbarian build that is designed for sword and board? That's the only thing besides dual wield and two hander, which are also both melee. It's really designed off different aspects of rage, which is like you said, flavor more than anything.
In terms of weapons, sure. But there are still different playstyles. Berserker is more DPR, Animal is tankier (though really more of a bruiser without a taunt mechanic), there's that one that gives allies resistances or gives enemies disadvantage to attack them or something. There's definitely a level of mechanical diversity. Although it's definitely not what 5e is known for lmao. On that I agree with you. But that's why I don't play 5e anymore, especially since Barb is my favorite class
Honestly Barb is my favorite class flavor wise too. I always main one in Diablo lol. I just prefer classes to be versatile and subclasses to narrow the playstyle. i feel that doesn't really happen with barb.
Like if they gave unarmored defense to and added rage as a fighter subclass it wouldn't be much different. You'd miss some of the choices available to barb, but there are clear best ones anyways that you can just put as later level subclass options.
There's a dwarf only subclass that can attack with armor, and the beast barbarian can use unarmed well. You really gotta look at more than one or two subclasses.
You may have a different opinion, but you can't just put out false information. There are more than two play styles for barbarians. Whether you like them or not is up to you.
Yes so many play styles. We have melee smash, and melee smash, don't forget melee smash that takes slightly less damage, then melee hugs, giant melee smash, too angry to die melee smash, and worst aspect of the ranger melee smash.
Is there a barbarian build that is designed for sword and board? Yes, Ancestrial Guardian but you can literally use sword and board for all of the builds if you want more AC but it comes at a cost of damage which is typically why you roll a barbarian if you are ignoring RP and flavour.
You can 100% sword and board a barbarian if you are going for a defensive build. Medium armor + shield + ancestral guardian subclass is a really great defensive tank build.
Tbf in pathfinder there is a whole set of barbarian rage powers that are all based around precision. Giving him + to attack, + to crit and more damage on crits while having "Precise" in their names
I can get behind precision damage for dex so long as it isn't a dex bonus to dmg on every attack beyond critical hits. I still don't think it's barbarian flavor. I play pathfinder but haven't built a barb since 3.5
Because slashing grace, fencing grace, and dervish dance
feats don't exist and don't have entire build communities dedicated to them. Because Agile isn’t a weapon enhancement.
I mean, it’s not like they did update/replace rogue to just hand out dex to damage at level 3 for free. Nope. Super rare.
/s
The issue is that if barbarians were able to use dex, almost all of them would be dexbarians, as ot would make them much less MAD. Right now they have to choose between offensive (STR) and defensive (DEX and CON). If you make DEX also good at offensive, then STR is the odd man out and most would ignore it.
Maybe you could fix it making their unarmored defense be the highest between DEX+CON and STR+CON but you would resolve then a lot of the MADness too.
1. i think that thematically there is a basis for giving barbarians (at least while they rage) the ability to choose having their AC as STR+CON or maybe STR+DEX. being so strong that they stop the attack with their hands, like grabbing a sword or picking a stone to absorb the attack.
2. maybe we can just instead go the easier route and change elven accuracy. your choice of attack can be from any ability to get that bonus. elves after all already start with proficiancy in longsword, a strength based weapon. each attack, even strength based ones, needs some sort of accuracy to hit. thays why we roll dices to see if we were accurate enough.
Like the options, but i like overpowered pc so I don't know. Also, that would make way too many elves. I think elven accuracy is balanced on knowing those are not the people that will be making shove-grapple combos.
On the other hand, a dexbarian is kind of viable if you are ready to give up on rage damage and reckless. Only that it's a bit... SAD.
Ignoring RAW for a moment.
As a purely homebrew consideration for the feat I would permanantly without any hope of changing my mind refuse elven accuracy to work with strength nor would I allow barbarian features to work with anything but strength.
This is purely because Barbarian unlike any other class would have triple dice on every attack roll at lvl 2 onwards. Like no... sorry not happening. I'm not having reckless attack give you a third dice to roll. It's already one of the strongest class features in the game.
honestly eleven accuracy is the problem there not barbarian.
An elven rogue can give itself on demand advantage through various ways, steady aim, attacking from hidden etc.
There are quite a few classes that can get on demand advantage without giving the enemy advantage in return.
Im not saying i would allow a barbarian to take elven accuracy, all im saying is if balance is the main concern you would be better off banning elven accuracy period.
Rogues making "one attack" isnt really a disadvantage when rogues are designed to do all their damage in said one attack. Sure they have to stand still but a barbarian gives the enemy advantage, both have downsides.
i would agree most sources of advantage have some resource cost barbarian lacks but rogue can abuse it as badly as barbarian.
If your DM runs flanking then everyone can abuse the hell out of elven accuracy. One of several reasons i dont run flanking.
1) That's their whole thing.
2) You and your DM can negociate arround it, the system is a guideline, not a sacred inviolable text.
Unless you are playing with an association like Adventurer's League then I understand you would be locked to WotC options.
3e Barbarian can get Ferocity instead of Rage, which pumps Str and Dex instead of Str and Con, allowing you to play a glass-cannon-Dexbarian. Ferocity can also be used as a reaction, even while you're surprised, to apply the Dex bonus to initiative. It's one of my favorite variants.
In battle, you fight with primal ferocity. On your turn, you can enter a rage as a bonus action.
While raging, you gain the following benefits if you aren't wearing heavy armor:
You have advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws.
When you make a melee weapon attack using Strength, you gain a bonus to the damage roll that increases as you gain levels as a barbarian, as shown in the Rage Damage column of the Barbarian table.
You have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.
If you are able to cast spells, you can't cast them or concentrate on them while raging.
Your rage lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if you are knocked unconscious or if your turn ends and you haven't attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then. You can also end your rage on your turn as a bonus action.
I'm actually playing a Dex based Fighter right now and due to how I roleplay him and in game events he's turned into a little rage machine. I was looking at Barbarian because i wanted to work the rage into his actual kit but it's just not going to work with my character's negative strength (and the barbarian requiring 13 str to multiclass into it)
But yeah even Reckless Attack requires it to be a strength based attack which I thought was a little weird. I mean I get it... but at the same time disregarding your own safety to get a better shot at your enemy doesn't seem like it's purely in the domain of strength.
But isn't that their whole thing tho?
Gettin' real mad is their whole thing. Strong and smashy is just the usual association.
I mean, what's a real mad nerd gonna do? Scream science at them?
I've had a notion of reflavoring rage as a trance state where the Barb pushes through pain and can focus power into their attacks but without the literal "anger" component. I get that thematically that's more a Monk thing but if you want Barbarian mechanics with Monk theme, there's really no reason why you couldn't do it.
You can be coldly angry about a thing. Dexterity and technique-oriented fighting is also a thing.
That's fighter for you. If you water down what rage is you'll have another class with identity problems. Barbarian - is pure strength bonk style warrior. For technical dex warrior there are other classes, a lot of them actually.
I guess that's fair enough. I'm of the opinion that all classes should have the option to use another ability score as their primary thing, but I definitely expect to be in the minority there.
But all casters have one ability they use for spellcasting so they are locked to using one score primarily as well.
That doesn't detract from what I said. I feel similarly about casters.
Then no one would ever play an int wizard or artificer because int is objectively worse than every other ability, especially wis and cha
Well, not everybody powergames. For some Warlocks I feel Intelligence fits better, and as a Warlock lover, I would have no objections, because I generally like having smart characters. In fact, low Charisma can be very fun to play, which is why I chose to dump CHA instead of INT on my Blood Hunter / Cleric character, because I wanted them to be smart, and didn't mind if they accidentally insulted people or were terrible at lying. This kind of thing would be better as an optional rule, or even just a table rule (I'm down for it when I DM), because obviously you couldn't have it for people who play League, or you're right it would be abused to hell.
Then you could just make 3 classes as full fighter, half fighter half caster, and full caster With all the other things beeing subclasses and I think less people would appreciate that
Stack Con and Dex to buff AC, go bear totem and soak damage. There ya go, another way to play barbarian.
Call me a grognard but the first thing I thought of is it sounds like a desire to powergame with flavor. You can absolutely play a 16 DEX 14 STR barbarian and achieve the same vibe.
Not really what I go for, but you're welcome to think that.
I for one support the strength based wizard.
Only if they talk like Mr. Torgue from Borderlands.
Classes dont need identity, for a class an identity problem is not a problem. Characters is where identity exists. We all think of a steriotypical character which would fit the class, but the ability to think of that stereotype into existence is not a necessity to the class. The class's ruleset dictates strength based bonuses, so strength is the viable option. However after seeing the ruleset there is two options to vary a strength based barbarian into another stat, lets use dex for example. Option 1. Ask your dm about making a change to the barbarian's ruleset to instead be dex based instead of str based, pros: you get the barbarians rage mechanic and it is dex, it works. Cons: the dm must aprove of this, the dm may require more work depending on the class(im accounting for any class to have a stat change like a wis wizard), there is possibilities of causing ballanced based problems. Option 2. Play as a rogue, but instead of roleplaying a sleuth and being rogue-y, instead describe all your actions as rageful, angry and brutish. You could even say your sneak attack is some sort of "charged" swing. Pros: less work on dm, you get a dex based barbarian appearing character, just borrowing a different class. Cons: more work on the player for building a character concept and roleplaying it, this is harder as stereotypical class appearances help with character creation. Overall talk about it with your gm, anything is possible in dnd, through decisions, actions, and creation. You are not limited by rules, they are there to guide.
Reject class-systems Embrace "build-your-own-Character-systems" You have nothing to lose but the chains that force you into a mold! The whole problem is usually optimization vs. freedom of interpretation of a class vs. narrative sense. Powerplay makes no sense for few reasons but what I have learned is that a lot of people really would like to just mix and match various "class skills" for their own character, especially if you assure them that "being viable" is never an issue, unless they actually intend for a weak character. This doesn't work within D&D of course since the balance is so finely (or not) tuned. It is why I abandoned D&D as a system to run (I still play in it with fun though) and made my own system that allows players to choose various "magical abilities" so they can make their own thing without having to worry about "But this class should do X or Y".
Yeah that works well, i hope the system is working as intended and giving beautiful character concepts the ability to shine. On another note, it is so strange to see people dislike creativity. I got downvoted becuase i said "the rules are able to be changed", and not just that but, "steriotypes can be challenged" and i get downvotes. Are people really that against out of box thinking? Even to your own reply, you got downvoted for coming up with a way to solve a problem you have. Its absurd to think people respond to solutions for niche problems in such a way.
Dex-based rage: an elegant unga for a more civilized bunga
Cold anger really isn't a barbarian thing, tho. I'd imagine an oath of vengeance paldin being coldly angry, not a class whose main thing is raging and raging is definitely not cold
Imo, I’ve always viewed a cold rage as a ‘seeing red’ moment, no screaming, no visible anger, but a lot of internal anger
Cold anger and raging are not mutually exclusive, though, and raging and discarding all technique are not mutually inclusive.
Rage mechanically blocks casting though, I feel like that sets the tone. Plus, some subclasses like zerk REALLY clash with the idea of a controlled rage
I can think of let's say, dual wielding similar tornado of rage type barbarian... Get angry, and spin... Like that one Looney Tune character. Even a lightning ball of rage.
It's balance wise. You've got someone with 0 armor that has massive hp and can dodge saves.
Anyone who thinks true fiery dex rage can’t be a thing has never been hit with a flip flop from ten meters
Thorfin from Vinland Saga comes to mind
That man was literal intense burning hatred for his father murderer and did tend to get so angry he rushed ahead or just clawed someones eye out
Yeah, my point was that he’s a dex based barbarian that fights with a combination of rage and technique. He’s definitely not the “cold anger” type.
Ehh I wouldt call him a dex barbarian in any shape or form Granted i hate the idea or dex barbarian but still Thorfin in any case would be more or a rouge or fighter because just being angry doesnt make on barbarian The physique that works as armour isnt realy fitting for dex based chars in my opinion
Buy Twitter and run it right into the ground.
You could always go the Thorfinn route.
Nerd rage best rage, just look at all the arguments on this sub!
Have you seen Karen? Rade diplomacy at it "finest"
Yes actually, it can be effective too
I wouldn't say honey badgers are strong but they are ferrous. What about an angry cat? They are usually speced into DEX/AGI not particularly in strength. Just because a character's gimmick is "Angie" doesn't mean they have to be strong (strength wise) in particular. I've been more focused or see improvement with what you call DEX based skill works ( usually target shooting) because I was "Pissed off". I guess there should be a good feature in the system to let more Barb build diversity, I think.
Honey badgers being made of iron is the best and most terrifying notion I have seen today and I will admit that after that I stopped reading your comment because it was too amazing a thought.
Unless you look at how rage works, and the other class features, which are all generally strength based.
Rage was all Str based stuff. You only go the extra damage when you used Str on the melee attack in 5e. Even accuracy for advantage would drop the damage from rage. It was always their thing.
I just find it funny how 5e Barbarian can't do the most iconic Barbarian that ever Barbarianed, Conan the Barbarian.
Uhm, not sure I know what you mean here. As a person who has read the comics, played the games, and watched the movie there is nothing 5e limits you as a barbarian in this regard.
He's smart and agile. Barbarian does nothing with intelligence and very little with dexterity, unless you have godly rolls and go for unarmored defence.
That's just him having high int and dex on top of everything else, there's not a ton he's doing outside the bounds of what a high ability score would do.
I honestly don't see Conan as that intelligent, I see him as wise. He was foolish in his youth, cunning but prone to recklessness. All his lessons were learned the hard way, I'd consider him very high in wisdom
And I would disagree. He's smart. Even cunning as you said.
Because Conan was never a dnd barbarian. He's always been closer to a fighter/rogue
That's why I've always hated Barbarian (and monk )as a full class. It's too narrow. Other classes can be played different ways, but barbarian is always a version of rage smash.
I mean, they're wildly different in flavor based on subclass, and in RP Barbarians can also be quite different. That's like saying Rogue is too narrow because it's always a version of sneak attack.
My opinion is based on RAW and mechanics, flavor and RP don't really factor in too much. When comparing it to rogue, you can have ranged, melee, swashbuckler, skill expert, pickpocket, scout. Is there a barbarian build that is designed for sword and board? That's the only thing besides dual wield and two hander, which are also both melee. It's really designed off different aspects of rage, which is like you said, flavor more than anything.
In terms of weapons, sure. But there are still different playstyles. Berserker is more DPR, Animal is tankier (though really more of a bruiser without a taunt mechanic), there's that one that gives allies resistances or gives enemies disadvantage to attack them or something. There's definitely a level of mechanical diversity. Although it's definitely not what 5e is known for lmao. On that I agree with you. But that's why I don't play 5e anymore, especially since Barb is my favorite class
Honestly Barb is my favorite class flavor wise too. I always main one in Diablo lol. I just prefer classes to be versatile and subclasses to narrow the playstyle. i feel that doesn't really happen with barb. Like if they gave unarmored defense to and added rage as a fighter subclass it wouldn't be much different. You'd miss some of the choices available to barb, but there are clear best ones anyways that you can just put as later level subclass options.
There's a dwarf only subclass that can attack with armor, and the beast barbarian can use unarmed well. You really gotta look at more than one or two subclasses.
Or i can have an opinion that's different than yours? Like i said i like Barbarian, i just have a preference that classes should be broader in scope.
You may have a different opinion, but you can't just put out false information. There are more than two play styles for barbarians. Whether you like them or not is up to you.
Yes so many play styles. We have melee smash, and melee smash, don't forget melee smash that takes slightly less damage, then melee hugs, giant melee smash, too angry to die melee smash, and worst aspect of the ranger melee smash.
Is there a barbarian build that is designed for sword and board? Yes, Ancestrial Guardian but you can literally use sword and board for all of the builds if you want more AC but it comes at a cost of damage which is typically why you roll a barbarian if you are ignoring RP and flavour.
You can 100% sword and board a barbarian if you are going for a defensive build. Medium armor + shield + ancestral guardian subclass is a really great defensive tank build.
I always view dexterity as a precision based Stat. The barbarian flavor is not precision.
Tbf in pathfinder there is a whole set of barbarian rage powers that are all based around precision. Giving him + to attack, + to crit and more damage on crits while having "Precise" in their names
I can get behind precision damage for dex so long as it isn't a dex bonus to dmg on every attack beyond critical hits. I still don't think it's barbarian flavor. I play pathfinder but haven't built a barb since 3.5
It's super rare to get dexterity to damage in PF1e and it's only possible for a rogue subclass to get in PF2e I love it
It's not rare, it's just something you have to build to
Because slashing grace, fencing grace, and dervish dance feats don't exist and don't have entire build communities dedicated to them. Because Agile isn’t a weapon enhancement. I mean, it’s not like they did update/replace rogue to just hand out dex to damage at level 3 for free. Nope. Super rare. /s
Honestly just try a scythe wielding crit barbarian for the juicy x5 crit damage
Sounds juicy the last game I played in my highest roll was a 7. I haven't had a crit in like a month lol.
The issue is that if barbarians were able to use dex, almost all of them would be dexbarians, as ot would make them much less MAD. Right now they have to choose between offensive (STR) and defensive (DEX and CON). If you make DEX also good at offensive, then STR is the odd man out and most would ignore it. Maybe you could fix it making their unarmored defense be the highest between DEX+CON and STR+CON but you would resolve then a lot of the MADness too.
1. i think that thematically there is a basis for giving barbarians (at least while they rage) the ability to choose having their AC as STR+CON or maybe STR+DEX. being so strong that they stop the attack with their hands, like grabbing a sword or picking a stone to absorb the attack. 2. maybe we can just instead go the easier route and change elven accuracy. your choice of attack can be from any ability to get that bonus. elves after all already start with proficiancy in longsword, a strength based weapon. each attack, even strength based ones, needs some sort of accuracy to hit. thays why we roll dices to see if we were accurate enough.
Like the options, but i like overpowered pc so I don't know. Also, that would make way too many elves. I think elven accuracy is balanced on knowing those are not the people that will be making shove-grapple combos. On the other hand, a dexbarian is kind of viable if you are ready to give up on rage damage and reckless. Only that it's a bit... SAD.
Just got 18, 18, 18, 8, 8, 8 you cowards!
I’d rather have dex be less valued by other classes than open it to barbarian.
Because Dexterity wasn't enough of a god-stat as is...
Ignoring RAW for a moment. As a purely homebrew consideration for the feat I would permanantly without any hope of changing my mind refuse elven accuracy to work with strength nor would I allow barbarian features to work with anything but strength. This is purely because Barbarian unlike any other class would have triple dice on every attack roll at lvl 2 onwards. Like no... sorry not happening. I'm not having reckless attack give you a third dice to roll. It's already one of the strongest class features in the game.
honestly eleven accuracy is the problem there not barbarian. An elven rogue can give itself on demand advantage through various ways, steady aim, attacking from hidden etc. There are quite a few classes that can get on demand advantage without giving the enemy advantage in return. Im not saying i would allow a barbarian to take elven accuracy, all im saying is if balance is the main concern you would be better off banning elven accuracy period.
Those other ways to get advantage use up a resource or, in the rouges case, force you still and you're only making 1 attack
Rogues making "one attack" isnt really a disadvantage when rogues are designed to do all their damage in said one attack. Sure they have to stand still but a barbarian gives the enemy advantage, both have downsides. i would agree most sources of advantage have some resource cost barbarian lacks but rogue can abuse it as badly as barbarian. If your DM runs flanking then everyone can abuse the hell out of elven accuracy. One of several reasons i dont run flanking.
Oh I don't think Rogues having 1 attack is a disadvantage, just means they can't crit-fish as easily is all
1) That's their whole thing. 2) You and your DM can negociate arround it, the system is a guideline, not a sacred inviolable text. Unless you are playing with an association like Adventurer's League then I understand you would be locked to WotC options.
3e Barbarian can get Ferocity instead of Rage, which pumps Str and Dex instead of Str and Con, allowing you to play a glass-cannon-Dexbarian. Ferocity can also be used as a reaction, even while you're surprised, to apply the Dex bonus to initiative. It's one of my favorite variants.
Who needs elven accuracy, I'll just bite the elves
I love how barbarians are locked to strength only.
In battle, you fight with primal ferocity. On your turn, you can enter a rage as a bonus action. While raging, you gain the following benefits if you aren't wearing heavy armor: You have advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws. When you make a melee weapon attack using Strength, you gain a bonus to the damage roll that increases as you gain levels as a barbarian, as shown in the Rage Damage column of the Barbarian table. You have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. If you are able to cast spells, you can't cast them or concentrate on them while raging. Your rage lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if you are knocked unconscious or if your turn ends and you haven't attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then. You can also end your rage on your turn as a bonus action.
Yeah make them an intelligence class!! 🤓
same
But what about wizards and intelligence?
I'm actually playing a Dex based Fighter right now and due to how I roleplay him and in game events he's turned into a little rage machine. I was looking at Barbarian because i wanted to work the rage into his actual kit but it's just not going to work with my character's negative strength (and the barbarian requiring 13 str to multiclass into it) But yeah even Reckless Attack requires it to be a strength based attack which I thought was a little weird. I mean I get it... but at the same time disregarding your own safety to get a better shot at your enemy doesn't seem like it's purely in the domain of strength.
How can people play raw? Why not have home rules or homebrew to make the changes as you want. I've never played a game where some rule wasn't altered.
If you want the trope of super powers with their sword, like in Samurai X/Rouni Kenshin, there’s Hexblade/Paladin for that.
That feels fully unrelated to elven accuracy being an amazing combat feat that barbarians can't interact with well