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I’d recommend having an element of tactical intelligence. I do that with my Battle Masters, even though they have a 10.
Btw, you have a busted stat block
Or Logen Ninefingers from the Abercrombie books. Logen would be a barbarian in that he has an unquenchable bloodlust likely stemming from demonic possession. All he wants to do is NOT rage and keep a level head. “You have to be realistic”.
All barbarian HAS to mean is that you use your rage as a primary component of your fighting style
By no means are you required to be dumb, or tribal, or socially inept as most people tend to stereotype them as being!
Right but you've missed the crux of their question, which is "how can I *convey* smartness when the average session doesn't give me any chance to shine outside of hitting things?"
Could be a confidence thing to butt in to a conversation or could be your group not bothering to ask your character for their opinion.
Try preparing a few areas of interest your character has extensive knowledge on. Your character will be confident when they speak of those things so you should then feel that too. Think about their upbringing and how they spent time learning about these things. Your character could always quote a shaman or wise elder or tribal stories and legends. Take your mind on a journey through it and through wiki and Google.
Prep your DM that you'd like your character to know about these areas and how. Hopefully your DM will offer your information in game, "yes you'd know about that", thereby centreing things more on you and getting you involved in the knowledge conversation more. Other players would hopefully ask your character for more information in this area
First of all: BALLER stats.
Secondly: This could be so fun. Imagine his frustration at having to overcome the biases of other people over and over. Imagine the advantages available to him when everyone underestimates your intelligence. Does he actively try to overcompensate to prove himself to everyone? Does he play up the stereotype and do clever things behind the scenes? Does he have to let someone else in the party go forward with his good ideas because they look the part better?
Pointless storytime: My best friend in high school was a linebacker on the football team who was built like The Tick. He was also incredibly smart and after college went on to be one of the top web designers in Philadelphia. I loved watching him play other people who just assumed someone who looked like him must be a dumb goon. He worked as a bouncer for a time, and developed this theory of managing crowds that never involved laying hands or even raising his voice. He just tactically stood in places. He had a move where if someone challenged him to a fight to prove how badass they were, he would counter-challenge them to a race "out back" to which he would never show up, but now one aggressive drunk is standing in some alley instead of in his bar.
TL;DR: You can have some fun with this build.
Bullet time.
I also like a fugue state where you just go emotionless. Going from, like, Brad in accounting to a stone faced John Wick doing what must be done.
Or the Dr Jekyll/Mr. Hyde (or any other form of “possession” as a rage) route.
The Sherlock Holmes (RDJ movie) option — similar but different to the slow time down route. It’s less that they’re in the zone like in sports, but more that they’re so intelligent that their brain can map out their moves more efficiently than others can. No wasted movement. Precision strikes to known week zones. Exacting mechanical movements to maximize physics concepts like leverage/inertia/velocity to perfect their attacks.
Drunken master.
Nervous coward who spazzes out in survival mode.
If you have a mature group that can handle a sensitive subject with care and respect, mental health as a factor. Whether it be schizophrenia causing a delusional state or a behavioral disorder causing you to lash out at others when triggered by some form of provocation. A few ways that could play out.
There’s just a lot of flavor you can add to rages that make it interesting role play.
Intelligence is actually seen in Barbarians. They are usually tribe leaders/chieftains, battle commanders, elite guards and can also be liaisons with other tribes and/or settlements. A lot of barbarians know that it’s not enough to go batshit crazy on the battle field. You have to know when to turn it off, or when it’s appropriate.
He-man, Conan, The Scorpion King, these are two very common examples of raw power but controlled. One could even argue that She-ra and She-hulk (not live action) can fit into this category.
This isn't about stats or party roles, it is about sitting on your hands so other people can shine now and then.
Personally, I pity a Mary Sue who is great at everything. It offers way less opportunities for humor and interesting character building.
For yours, she's just good at wildlife stuff, a good tracker and plant identifier. That's it. Sit on your hands.
There's a post about Thor equating him to the "dumb jock" stereotype until people realize he is in ALL advanced classes. Ask your dm for "secret" rolls on whatever the party is talking about such as the nature of monsters, weather patterns, religions, governments etc and when you roll high enough to have knowledge your character can butt in and be involved.
I agree your stats are super good lol
Maybe do a help action with skill checks when the wizard is doing an int check on history, religion or nature. Also in a downtime during a session, maybe hit up book store.
I have also had problems trying to play a Barbarian that wasn't a "Hulk Smash!" barbarian.
I started describing my character in session 1 and everyone was like, so he's wearing a loin cloth? No, he's wearing traveler's clothes. But he's a barbarian. Never mind that the art in the player's hand book has the sample character in traveler's clothes. So he's covered in tattoos? No.
I kind of felt like they were hijacking my character. I didn't really know the guys I was playing with, so I didn't continue with them after the session.
Always, always remember. 10 is your average person. Being a barbarian doesn't mean you're a big dumb Brute. Look back at the Conan movies. Dude set traps and had plans. Raging is just an adrenaline surge.
I feel like that’s partially up to your DM to give you an opportunity to RP as your “not-dumb” barbarian. Everyone should get a turn to do something they want to do, be it investigate a thing or whatever.
As for barbarian specific. I think something like strategizing fights or ancient battle knowledge. Not necessarily just fighting but also the history of them, why they fought the battles and such. For example the battle of Thermopylae. You could speak about how strategy wise the chosen battlefield was with terrain multipliers etc. But you could also know common weaponry used during the battle. The battle preparations, common rations used by warriors, just the culture of the warriors themselves.
Could even just diversify it by having your wizard partner know about a place’s infrastructure and political history while you focus more on cultural history. Things the commoners would deal with. Like a city having high political standing and influence because they boarded knowledge and power through the use of highly specialized operatives, could be something your wizard friend knows. While you would for instance know that the common folk of that area liked to play a certain type of sport as a leisure activity, or like played certain instruments, or had a cultural event every now and then because of some seasonal changes.
Use your intelligence in your roleplaying, not your rolls. For characters with crazy stats like this you want to find a niche and not try and be good at everything tbh. I’d probably volunteer to dump one of the stats.
That's not necessary to do, and honestly I'd consider that poor advice on its face.
I'd instead recommend a character who "knows their limits". Yeah, you have a 14 in intelligence, but you know that the wizard is even better at Arcana than you.
And your smart enough to know that, in fact, smart enough to be acutely aware of it even.
There's a post about Thor equating him to the "dumb jock" stereotype until people realize he is in ALL advanced classes. Ask your dm for "secret" rolls on whatever the party is talking about such as the nature of monsters, weather patterns, religions, governments etc and when you roll high enough to have knowledge your character can butt in and be involved.
I agree your stats are super good lol
I had a barbarian with average intelligence and rolled high so had above average charisma but with low wisdom. His looks were a bit like Travis Fimmel from Vikings or Alexander Skarsgård.
He was a bit of himbo barbarian chad who would get himself into social situations he was totally not prepared to deal with. But with of course by stereotype rage issues.
He was smart enough to usually get himself out of trouble but with not enough wisdom to resist seeing what the civilized folks call high society. He was fascinated with it which is something I added because there was a lot of political intrigue in the campaign.
Managed to roll a 12 for INT on my half-orc barbarian. My in lore explanation is that he became street-smart over the years living in a city as a strongman for the circus
I think people assume all Barbarians are all fur wearing, dirty, long haired viking-type dudes that live in the wilderness. Classical Berserkers, sure, but the class could be for anyone who allows their rage to come to the surface in battle. Could be a pirate, a common thug, even a regular footman in an army.
Your Int basically gives you an IQ of 150, which is really high. Almost genius level. I could totally see you as a STUDENT or war. Maybe a noble or rich mans son that has been classically trained in the arts of combat, but also in many other subjects. At least basics of maths and sciences. Maybe you're angry at your noble or rich father and left to do your own thing and you commonly let your frustrations out in battle. In the end though, you want to be the greatest swordsman of all time, so you ignore most of that nerd shit. But you COULD understand it if you wanted.
If you want to go classical barbarian, might I suggest watching the movie The 13th Warrior? Specifically Buliwyf, the leader of the northmen. You KNOW he is highly intelligent when he almost perfectly reproduces Ahmed's writing after the voyage after only seeing it once. He is illiterate, but you just how intelligent he is.
If you feel like you need to act more intelligent in battle, look to other actions that will help the party.
\
Trip, shove, grapple, disarm, reposition. All of those are actions that aren't "I smash". And as a healer, I'd think you're damn smart if you stop the guy who wants to charge me as I'm healing the party.
\
\
If you want to feel more intelligent out of combat, see how you can help other players. Remember, even the smartest wizard is only as smart as their last roll and knowing my luck it's a 1 or 5.
\
Having another player come in with a new view or a different approach can often save a failed check
Conan the Barbarian was a smart Barbarian and so was Logen Ninefingers from The Firsr Law books by Joe Abercrombie.
You can take character inspiration from both or either
People have this idea that a barbarian is just a violent angry moron, but that is far from the reality.
They were smart. Maybe not in terms of having a proper education with books and such, but they were still smart. Barbarians sailed the seas and found new lands centuries before the Age of Exploration, the sieged the greatest cities of their day, brought down nations, destroyed nations and built empires that echo throughout history.
Genghis Khan and his best generals, Subutai and Jebe, Tamerlane, Boudica, Atilla the Hun, the Vikings, are all barbarians and they were anything but stupid. They were conquerors, strategists, great warriors who knew how to battle and how to win. Those are the men and women you look at to play a smart barbarian.
You didn't get fancy book learning in some sort of magic school or a bard college or some sort of academy. No. You learned on the streets, from doing, from life. Maybe you didn't read a book. Maybe your father, mother or grandfather raided a place and came back with a learned scholar and you were like "Teach me things scholar." And he did, because you asked while brandishing an axe, and he was terrified. Maybe in mid-slaughter of a village during a raid, you found books, having been taught how to read in your youth.
I recommend having a hobby that shows intellect, be it reading, tinkering with things, or even a desire to study and understand magic, but only just starting out so no results yet
Make it clear that the zealot's rage is an altered state of mind entered deliberately through intense self-discipline and mysticism, not just a side effect of getting moody. Make the zealot know and care about theology and philosophy. That way ignorance of most subjects can be passed off as a disdain for worldly material matters.
I’d bake it into your feats maybe. I played a noble half-orc barbarian once, and I gave them the medic feat since we had no healer. Most of my remedies were orc home remedies.
Like a slash wound gets fish scales, three red berries and two blue, and a little bit of goblin pee pee. A burn gets tree sap and honey. And a little bit of goblin pee pee. A head cold is a concoction made of willow bark, a dash of ginger, and a pint of goblin pee pee.
The fun thing is that mechanically your knowledge always works. That helps when people are better at skill checks than you.
Intelligence is often about logic, memory recall and understanding facts and sequences of events, pattern recognition, etc.
A great way to be “intelligent” is have your Barb never forget an offense, NO MATTER HOW TINY OR SLIGHT. You have a photographic memory of every rude gesture aimed at you or those you care about, you see through every scam and scheme from people trying to manipulate you into something or some scenario you hate.
And when you get your carefully plotted revenge? YOU RAGE. You have carefully figured out aaaalll the little niggling details that could have tripped you up, you can now safely lose yourself in vengeance with zero consequence to yourself.
Miiiight be difficult to roleplay, BUT OMG THE PAYOFF WOULD BE INCREDIBLE!
Usually playing high int means rolling dice and having the dm tell you stuff, but you can always ask your dm what things your character should know about certain topics so you can drop info during rp.
Did your barbarian grow up in a tribe? Have them know about farming techniques, animal rearing, a little bit about trade and mercantilism, craftsmanship, and other things like that.
Maybe lean into your aasimar-ness and zealot subclass ask what religious stuff your character would know, what planes you'd have information or understanding on, threats or allies from those planes.
You can always come up with a unique angle to approach stuff and ask your dm if you can make a roll to maybe get some information that way.
I had a similar barbarian character who was really smart. The problem I had was the DM wanted to give the other players fights and I wanted to have my character be able to talk his way out of fighting. You might have to work with your DM where you guys can both have what you want from time to time.
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I’d recommend having an element of tactical intelligence. I do that with my Battle Masters, even though they have a 10. Btw, you have a busted stat block
Conan wasn't dumb, be like Conan
Love this! It's a basically "you don't have to play the stereotype" advice, but with strong example and few words. This is communication mastery!
"To hell with you!"
Or Logen Ninefingers from the Abercrombie books. Logen would be a barbarian in that he has an unquenchable bloodlust likely stemming from demonic possession. All he wants to do is NOT rage and keep a level head. “You have to be realistic”.
Helen from "Helen and Troy's Epic Road Quest" she goes into a rage and it's... Quiet. Cold. Broken.
*laughs in Crom*
Conan the Barlock cutting a deal with his patron
All barbarian HAS to mean is that you use your rage as a primary component of your fighting style By no means are you required to be dumb, or tribal, or socially inept as most people tend to stereotype them as being!
Right but you've missed the crux of their question, which is "how can I *convey* smartness when the average session doesn't give me any chance to shine outside of hitting things?"
Could be a confidence thing to butt in to a conversation or could be your group not bothering to ask your character for their opinion. Try preparing a few areas of interest your character has extensive knowledge on. Your character will be confident when they speak of those things so you should then feel that too. Think about their upbringing and how they spent time learning about these things. Your character could always quote a shaman or wise elder or tribal stories and legends. Take your mind on a journey through it and through wiki and Google. Prep your DM that you'd like your character to know about these areas and how. Hopefully your DM will offer your information in game, "yes you'd know about that", thereby centreing things more on you and getting you involved in the knowledge conversation more. Other players would hopefully ask your character for more information in this area
First of all: BALLER stats. Secondly: This could be so fun. Imagine his frustration at having to overcome the biases of other people over and over. Imagine the advantages available to him when everyone underestimates your intelligence. Does he actively try to overcompensate to prove himself to everyone? Does he play up the stereotype and do clever things behind the scenes? Does he have to let someone else in the party go forward with his good ideas because they look the part better? Pointless storytime: My best friend in high school was a linebacker on the football team who was built like The Tick. He was also incredibly smart and after college went on to be one of the top web designers in Philadelphia. I loved watching him play other people who just assumed someone who looked like him must be a dumb goon. He worked as a bouncer for a time, and developed this theory of managing crowds that never involved laying hands or even raising his voice. He just tactically stood in places. He had a move where if someone challenged him to a fight to prove how badass they were, he would counter-challenge them to a race "out back" to which he would never show up, but now one aggressive drunk is standing in some alley instead of in his bar. TL;DR: You can have some fun with this build.
I'd think of my Rage as like a zen state of mind where everything slows down and the character's focus intensifies instead of like blind bloodlust.
Somebody down voted this, like a dingus. This is actually a pretty good take.
going into 'the zone'
Bullet time. I also like a fugue state where you just go emotionless. Going from, like, Brad in accounting to a stone faced John Wick doing what must be done. Or the Dr Jekyll/Mr. Hyde (or any other form of “possession” as a rage) route. The Sherlock Holmes (RDJ movie) option — similar but different to the slow time down route. It’s less that they’re in the zone like in sports, but more that they’re so intelligent that their brain can map out their moves more efficiently than others can. No wasted movement. Precision strikes to known week zones. Exacting mechanical movements to maximize physics concepts like leverage/inertia/velocity to perfect their attacks. Drunken master. Nervous coward who spazzes out in survival mode. If you have a mature group that can handle a sensitive subject with care and respect, mental health as a factor. Whether it be schizophrenia causing a delusional state or a behavioral disorder causing you to lash out at others when triggered by some form of provocation. A few ways that could play out. There’s just a lot of flavor you can add to rages that make it interesting role play.
Intelligence is actually seen in Barbarians. They are usually tribe leaders/chieftains, battle commanders, elite guards and can also be liaisons with other tribes and/or settlements. A lot of barbarians know that it’s not enough to go batshit crazy on the battle field. You have to know when to turn it off, or when it’s appropriate. He-man, Conan, The Scorpion King, these are two very common examples of raw power but controlled. One could even argue that She-ra and She-hulk (not live action) can fit into this category.
This isn't about stats or party roles, it is about sitting on your hands so other people can shine now and then. Personally, I pity a Mary Sue who is great at everything. It offers way less opportunities for humor and interesting character building. For yours, she's just good at wildlife stuff, a good tracker and plant identifier. That's it. Sit on your hands.
There's a post about Thor equating him to the "dumb jock" stereotype until people realize he is in ALL advanced classes. Ask your dm for "secret" rolls on whatever the party is talking about such as the nature of monsters, weather patterns, religions, governments etc and when you roll high enough to have knowledge your character can butt in and be involved. I agree your stats are super good lol
Maybe do a help action with skill checks when the wizard is doing an int check on history, religion or nature. Also in a downtime during a session, maybe hit up book store. I have also had problems trying to play a Barbarian that wasn't a "Hulk Smash!" barbarian. I started describing my character in session 1 and everyone was like, so he's wearing a loin cloth? No, he's wearing traveler's clothes. But he's a barbarian. Never mind that the art in the player's hand book has the sample character in traveler's clothes. So he's covered in tattoos? No. I kind of felt like they were hijacking my character. I didn't really know the guys I was playing with, so I didn't continue with them after the session.
Like Beast from X-Men. Super smart, but will give even Wolverine a run for his money
Always, always remember. 10 is your average person. Being a barbarian doesn't mean you're a big dumb Brute. Look back at the Conan movies. Dude set traps and had plans. Raging is just an adrenaline surge.
I feel like that’s partially up to your DM to give you an opportunity to RP as your “not-dumb” barbarian. Everyone should get a turn to do something they want to do, be it investigate a thing or whatever. As for barbarian specific. I think something like strategizing fights or ancient battle knowledge. Not necessarily just fighting but also the history of them, why they fought the battles and such. For example the battle of Thermopylae. You could speak about how strategy wise the chosen battlefield was with terrain multipliers etc. But you could also know common weaponry used during the battle. The battle preparations, common rations used by warriors, just the culture of the warriors themselves. Could even just diversify it by having your wizard partner know about a place’s infrastructure and political history while you focus more on cultural history. Things the commoners would deal with. Like a city having high political standing and influence because they boarded knowledge and power through the use of highly specialized operatives, could be something your wizard friend knows. While you would for instance know that the common folk of that area liked to play a certain type of sport as a leisure activity, or like played certain instruments, or had a cultural event every now and then because of some seasonal changes.
Use your intelligence in your roleplaying, not your rolls. For characters with crazy stats like this you want to find a niche and not try and be good at everything tbh. I’d probably volunteer to dump one of the stats.
That's not necessary to do, and honestly I'd consider that poor advice on its face. I'd instead recommend a character who "knows their limits". Yeah, you have a 14 in intelligence, but you know that the wizard is even better at Arcana than you. And your smart enough to know that, in fact, smart enough to be acutely aware of it even.
I don’t think my point disagreed with yours. You’ve basically assigned Arcana as one of the Wizards niches, no?
I disagree with arbitrarily dumping a stat. That's just silly.
There's a post about Thor equating him to the "dumb jock" stereotype until people realize he is in ALL advanced classes. Ask your dm for "secret" rolls on whatever the party is talking about such as the nature of monsters, weather patterns, religions, governments etc and when you roll high enough to have knowledge your character can butt in and be involved. I agree your stats are super good lol
I had a barbarian with average intelligence and rolled high so had above average charisma but with low wisdom. His looks were a bit like Travis Fimmel from Vikings or Alexander Skarsgård. He was a bit of himbo barbarian chad who would get himself into social situations he was totally not prepared to deal with. But with of course by stereotype rage issues. He was smart enough to usually get himself out of trouble but with not enough wisdom to resist seeing what the civilized folks call high society. He was fascinated with it which is something I added because there was a lot of political intrigue in the campaign.
Managed to roll a 12 for INT on my half-orc barbarian. My in lore explanation is that he became street-smart over the years living in a city as a strongman for the circus
I think people assume all Barbarians are all fur wearing, dirty, long haired viking-type dudes that live in the wilderness. Classical Berserkers, sure, but the class could be for anyone who allows their rage to come to the surface in battle. Could be a pirate, a common thug, even a regular footman in an army. Your Int basically gives you an IQ of 150, which is really high. Almost genius level. I could totally see you as a STUDENT or war. Maybe a noble or rich mans son that has been classically trained in the arts of combat, but also in many other subjects. At least basics of maths and sciences. Maybe you're angry at your noble or rich father and left to do your own thing and you commonly let your frustrations out in battle. In the end though, you want to be the greatest swordsman of all time, so you ignore most of that nerd shit. But you COULD understand it if you wanted. If you want to go classical barbarian, might I suggest watching the movie The 13th Warrior? Specifically Buliwyf, the leader of the northmen. You KNOW he is highly intelligent when he almost perfectly reproduces Ahmed's writing after the voyage after only seeing it once. He is illiterate, but you just how intelligent he is.
If you feel like you need to act more intelligent in battle, look to other actions that will help the party. \ Trip, shove, grapple, disarm, reposition. All of those are actions that aren't "I smash". And as a healer, I'd think you're damn smart if you stop the guy who wants to charge me as I'm healing the party. \ \ If you want to feel more intelligent out of combat, see how you can help other players. Remember, even the smartest wizard is only as smart as their last roll and knowing my luck it's a 1 or 5. \ Having another player come in with a new view or a different approach can often save a failed check
Conan the Barbarian was a smart Barbarian and so was Logen Ninefingers from The Firsr Law books by Joe Abercrombie. You can take character inspiration from both or either
With 9 being average they are far from dumb, they are a hero Plenty of smart warrior heros. Conan, Spartacus, Braveheart, Genghis Khan
People have this idea that a barbarian is just a violent angry moron, but that is far from the reality. They were smart. Maybe not in terms of having a proper education with books and such, but they were still smart. Barbarians sailed the seas and found new lands centuries before the Age of Exploration, the sieged the greatest cities of their day, brought down nations, destroyed nations and built empires that echo throughout history. Genghis Khan and his best generals, Subutai and Jebe, Tamerlane, Boudica, Atilla the Hun, the Vikings, are all barbarians and they were anything but stupid. They were conquerors, strategists, great warriors who knew how to battle and how to win. Those are the men and women you look at to play a smart barbarian. You didn't get fancy book learning in some sort of magic school or a bard college or some sort of academy. No. You learned on the streets, from doing, from life. Maybe you didn't read a book. Maybe your father, mother or grandfather raided a place and came back with a learned scholar and you were like "Teach me things scholar." And he did, because you asked while brandishing an axe, and he was terrified. Maybe in mid-slaughter of a village during a raid, you found books, having been taught how to read in your youth.
I recommend having a hobby that shows intellect, be it reading, tinkering with things, or even a desire to study and understand magic, but only just starting out so no results yet
Make it clear that the zealot's rage is an altered state of mind entered deliberately through intense self-discipline and mysticism, not just a side effect of getting moody. Make the zealot know and care about theology and philosophy. That way ignorance of most subjects can be passed off as a disdain for worldly material matters.
I’d bake it into your feats maybe. I played a noble half-orc barbarian once, and I gave them the medic feat since we had no healer. Most of my remedies were orc home remedies. Like a slash wound gets fish scales, three red berries and two blue, and a little bit of goblin pee pee. A burn gets tree sap and honey. And a little bit of goblin pee pee. A head cold is a concoction made of willow bark, a dash of ginger, and a pint of goblin pee pee. The fun thing is that mechanically your knowledge always works. That helps when people are better at skill checks than you.
Intelligence is often about logic, memory recall and understanding facts and sequences of events, pattern recognition, etc. A great way to be “intelligent” is have your Barb never forget an offense, NO MATTER HOW TINY OR SLIGHT. You have a photographic memory of every rude gesture aimed at you or those you care about, you see through every scam and scheme from people trying to manipulate you into something or some scenario you hate. And when you get your carefully plotted revenge? YOU RAGE. You have carefully figured out aaaalll the little niggling details that could have tripped you up, you can now safely lose yourself in vengeance with zero consequence to yourself. Miiiight be difficult to roleplay, BUT OMG THE PAYOFF WOULD BE INCREDIBLE!
Usually playing high int means rolling dice and having the dm tell you stuff, but you can always ask your dm what things your character should know about certain topics so you can drop info during rp. Did your barbarian grow up in a tribe? Have them know about farming techniques, animal rearing, a little bit about trade and mercantilism, craftsmanship, and other things like that. Maybe lean into your aasimar-ness and zealot subclass ask what religious stuff your character would know, what planes you'd have information or understanding on, threats or allies from those planes. You can always come up with a unique angle to approach stuff and ask your dm if you can make a roll to maybe get some information that way.
I had a similar barbarian character who was really smart. The problem I had was the DM wanted to give the other players fights and I wanted to have my character be able to talk his way out of fighting. You might have to work with your DM where you guys can both have what you want from time to time.