D&D Skarburn

I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons for about 5 years now. It began with a few of my mates who introduced me into it and we have continued as such starting off in the realms of 3.0 and 3.5.

From the beginning, I played the Barbarian named Skarburn. Skarburn was originally a gaming alias that I began a few moons beforehand and it has stuck ever since.

Skarburn the Barbarian has been on a perpetual search for information on his father. His only memory of him is the Halberd that he wields. He keeps strange company and usually helps others along as they come and go, but he eventually gets back around to his original plan.

Back when I started, Skarburn was a glorious power to behold that struck down any enemy that disagreed with him or stood in his way. The damage he dealt was great, and even better when he rolled a critical hit.

But that was not to last. As the party grew levels they became more and more bizarre, such as a flying, gun wielding maniac tiefling that had visions of power, and a world collapsing psion that had be tortured to the brink of death, and a fire wielding, battle plated, sword flourishing Warmage.

Then there was Skarburn. Big, strong, and a hard hitter. His problem? He had trouble hitting, whether from failing to roll above AC, or because the enemy was practically impossible to reach. I was having to find environmental ways to catch an enemy, such as climbing a nearby building and hoping that my jump score would be able to reach the blighter so I could get one hit (that would subsequently miss) against the target. It was that or use my alternative weapon, the Short Spear, which dealt half as much damage when thrown.

Anyone who has played D&D will wonder “Why is he dealing half as much damage? Wouldn't he be dealing less damage based on the weapon damage?”
Well a small vice that I made for Skarburn is that he is constantly using the feat Power Attack, where you deal additional damage by sacrificing your attack bonus. Now I wouldn't sacrifice much for this, usually only about -2 which equates to 4 damage for using a 2-handed weapon, and when I attained the Improved Power Attack feat the limit to the bonus was allowed to go past a -5 to attack.

I still remember seeing the Frenzied Berserker Prestige Class and thinking “Sweet mother of pearl, I'll be able to tear through anything and everything with this!”
An ability called Improved Power attack multiplied the bonus damage by 1.5, and later it was changed to an ability called Supreme Power Attack, that doubled the bonus, allowing me to deal 8 bonus damage at -2 to attack. So much gain at so little to lose.

A prerequisite for the prestige class was to have a feat called Cleave, where once per turn if you kill an enemy you may make another attack against someone within your melee range. The feat Improved Cleave allowed you to continue to make attacks so long as you killed an enemy. The Frenzied Berserker topped this off with an Ability called “Supreme Cleave”: If you kill an enemy, you may move 10ft (Effectively two squares) and make another attack. You may continue this as long as you kill enemies. So were Skarburn to kill enemies in single hits, provided he hits as well, he would make his way across the board before anyone else could have their turn.

However, that was not to be. We were all in the level 10-12 region, and nothing was working out very well for me, as mentioned. Although it was still terrifying to Aaron, our DM, to let me hit. Ever. I was dealing about 26+1d10+2d6 damage before rage, which increased it by another bucketload of damage.

Then D&D 4.0 was released. We looked it over and came to the summation that D&D 4.0 is the simple players game. The books were pretty much entirely based around the combat system, with chapters drawn towards character background and development.

But it was the combat system that excited us. It was simple and easy to figure out and had some pretty entertaining aspects. Aaron could scratch build characters with a decent reference because it followed a reasonable pattern.

The first players handbook was released and, a little to my dismay, it didn't have the Barbarian class. So Aaron scratch built the Barbarian in his image. What he didn't quite count on was the Feat Layout that I proceeded to apply.

Most feats have a flat bonus, such as +2 to a skill, or a situational ability. Quick Draw was improved from simply “Draw your weapon as a minor action” to include “+2 to your initiative roll”. Some old abilities became a feat themselves, with a simple prerequisite. Uncanny Dodge was an ability for the Barbarian that prevented him from being caught “Flat Footed”, unaware of an upcoming attack and such. This prevented a large variety of situations for Aaron to generate as I would never be caught unaware of something, or be sneak attacked. Which frustrated Aaron when he was on a Ninja binge, who would try and Sneak Attack but be unable to because Sneak Attack requires the target to be “Flat Footed”.

“Flat Footed” is no longer available in 4.0 and instead has been translated to a flat +2 Bonus to Attack and is called “Combat Advantage”. Uncanny Dodge has been adjusted to negate the +2 bonus to attack while still granting Combat Advantage for those asking for it, such as Sneak Attack.

Other feats have translated over and have either changed somewhat, or adjusted to be a beneficial ability throughout the characters career. Weapon Focus is an example of both of these. Originally it stood as a +1 bonus to attack rolls. Nothing special about it otherwise. D&D 4.0 changed it to damage and as a character progressed, the damage would increase. +1 at levels 1-10, +2 at levels 11-20, +3 at levels 21-30.

Power Attack also translated well. Previously it was +1 to damage (+2 for using a 2-handed weapon) for each -1 to your attack, to a maximum of -5 to your attack. Now it was a flat -2 to attack, but the bonus to damage is set at +2 at levels 1-10, +4 at levels 11-20 and etc. The bonus increases to +3/+6/etc if using a 2-handed weapon.

A good feat that I picked up, because it is simply hilarious, was Polearm Gamble: Once per initiative, when an enemy moves into your melee range you may make a basic melee attack against them. Doing so grants combat advantage to everyone for a turn.
I have never regretted using this ability. Point one, the bonus to attack against me is negated by uncanny dodge. Point two, I deal plenty of damage. Point Three, the more attacks I make, the more chance I might friggin hit something.

So I had prepared myself and I was dealing damage far above the Damage Curve that was been planned by the developers, and a little above Aarons expectations. The counter to that is the attack was just below the curve. While the others required a 10 or better to hit I was having trouble hitting at 12, mostly because of unlucky rolls. But when I hit, the 10-tonne sack of shit that was on the end of my weapon would make up for it.

The encounters themselves were much more in my favour as well. Many more enemies are becoming ground based, and therefore reachable, and the Attack to Armour Class Curve is much more favourable to me so now I can kill indiscriminately without looking like an idiot with a stick. The only problem remaining is my luck with D20's. Some nights, I just have trouble rolling above an 8. Other times, like the other week, I roll enough 20's to overpower an otherwise extremely difficult encounter.

Eventually after a few months of Home Brew D&D Characters, Wizards of the Coast (The developers of D&D) brought out a Beta test copy of the barbarian up to level 20 with the Frenzied Berserker Paragon path.
Rages were explained and it makes them a Daily Power, much like the 3.* version which was a set amount of times per day. Instead of the standard bonus to Strength and Constitution, it changes between what rages you use and gives you a bonus that stays until the end of the encounter.

Bloodhunt rage gives you a bonus to your damage equal to your Constitution modifier if you or your opponent are bloodied (Half health or below). Swift Panther Rage allows you to shift two spaces instead of one, and gives you a bonus +2 to your Speed.

But the best one I found was Stone Bear Rage: Gain resistance equal to your Constitution modifier +3. This lowered damage from all attacks by a total of 8 for me, which at the time halved almost all of my enemies attacks, and negated almost all damage from Minions.

Aaron would get so frustrated, he would fire a volley of about 20 arrows into Skarburn and then turn to me and say “that's sixteen hits, d6+3 damage and you suffer (Rolls d6's)... two damage”. I knew that it was ridiculous, but it was so good to simply not be able to die.

To top it off, one of the regular attacks was called “Recuperating Strike” which gave me Temporary HP, health outside my normal health. So I would suffer about 18 less damage from an attack to my actual health, which numbered in the hundreds.

That was the beta copy, however. So it wasn't surprising that that particular Rage was toned down to “resistance equal to your Constitution Modifier”.

Looking over my gear though, I realised that I had still planned to be nigh impossible to kill. Equipment has changed as well to have abilities that a player can activate too. Because Aaron gave us free will to adjust our equipment, giving us a credit limit and allowing us to choose from the gear available in the Players Handbook, I chose a few things that I would find to be most likely choices. Berserker weapon, Braces of Damage, and Troll Skin Armour.

Troll Skin Armour gives the wearer a Regeneration value equal to the wearers Constitution Modifier. The wearer doesn't regenerate health if it suffered a Fire or Acid based attack the turn beforehand. So after all is said and done, I regenerate 5 health at the beginning of my turn. If I'm fighting multiple enemies, the regeneration is hardly a worry. If I'm fighting one person, they either have to have a fire or acid based attack on themselves, or deal plenty of damage, to have a chance of killing me. Or be a Solo. In which case, I should be pretty screwed.

Should be. We'll find out in the future.

The class is designed to be rather difficult to defeat, too. The class has a power that prevents me from initially falling unconscious, called Deathless Frenzy. When I drop below 0 hp, I can remain conscious until I reach death (Half your heath in negative) or fail a death saving roll. When a character drops below 0 hp normally, they fall unconscious and the player makes a Death Saving Roll each turn. If they roll 10 or above, they remain unconscious but don't get worse. If they roll below 10, a player marks a strike. Once you reach 3 strikes, the character dies. A way to get past this is if friendly character or NPC reaches the character and stabilises them, preventing the dying character from reaching death and hence not needing to make Death Saving Rolls. Another way is to heal them, which brings them back to consciousness and regain the healing value as if they were on 0 hp. (E.g.: If they were on -5 hp and regained 5hp, they would bump up to 5hp).

If a player rolls a 20, the character instantly regains consciousness and jumps back up to a quarter of their health and expend a healing surge. So far, in Skarburns Career, I've done this two or three times. Every time, it has been a magnificent sight to behold.

Game on.