My path as a roleplayer is different from most. Except for a one-shot in high school, my RPG experience was mostly with Savage Worlds before I found a regular D&D group. You can see in my previous blog post about Spell Slots that I raise a skeptical eyebrow at many of D&D's . . . less intuitive tropes. That said, I'm really enjoying the system and find there's a rich ecosystem to dive in to and 5E is easier to understand than any previous edition.
I've long held the belief that anything you can do in D&D, or any other roleplaying system, you can emulate it in Savage Worlds with a bit of creativity. So I decided to put it to the test. I already did a piece on the Warlock class, but I've decided to turn this into a series. I want to recreate all of the D&D 5E classes in Savage Worlds.
What are my goals here? I want to emulate the feel of every class as close as I can. I'm going to try to stick to rules as written in SWADE, but for some things I had to do a bit of homebrewing. Where possible, though, I'm going to offer alternative paths using rules as written. So, take your shirt off, grab a big ol' axe, and let's start with the simplest and angriest of the 5E classes: the Barbarian.
What are our goals for this build? We need to recreate the essence of what it means to be a barbarian. Our character must:
Be thicc and chonky
Be stronk
Be tough as possible without armor (and insane with it)
Hit like a truck
Have mystical abilities
RAAAAAAAAGE!
Many of the Barbarian archetypes, known as Primal Paths, have magical or quasi-magical abilities. We're going to homebrew an Arcane Background: Primal Magic. This will use the AB: Miracles list of Powers, with a few modifications. The casting skill will be "Rage," which will be linked to Vigor. You can link Rage to Spirit, if you want to be more conventional and less overpowered, but that's your call.
The Primal Magic caster will start with only five Power Points and these Powers: Smite, Boost/Lower Trait, and Protection, with the caveat that these three powers can only be cast on the caster himself and his weapons, in the case of Smite. You can later spend an Advance to lift the self-only restriction on any one of these Powers. Uniquely, AB: Primal Magic spells can be cast while Berserk.
If you don't want to use homebrew, you can swap out this Edge and any increase to the Rage stat for AB - Miracles and the Faith skill or, if you want a nonmagical strongman, just take whatever advances you want instead.
OK, so what are our stats going to look like at Character Creation? We're going to dump Intelligence and raise Strength, so we'll end up with:
Strength d8
Vigor d6
Intelligence d4
Spirit d6
Agility d6
Barbarians are not known for their non-combat skills, so we're going to focus on maxing out fighting and taking a handful of other skills.
Athletics d6
Common Knowledge d4
Notice d4
Persuasion d4
Stealth d4
Rage d4
Fighting d12
Survival d4
Intimidation d4
Starting Edges
Assuming you're going to take the full complement of Hindrances and are Human, you'll have points for three Edges.
First, take Berserk. This is the engine that powers our little ragemonster. When you take a Wound or a Shaken result from damage, you must make a Smarts roll or go Berserk. You can voluntarily fail if you want. When Berserk, your Strength goes up by one die type. All attacks must be Wild Attacks, giving you a +2 to Fighting and Damage rolls, but you become Vulnerable). You can't use any skills requiring "wit or concentration." If we're using my homebrew Primal Magic, you can still cast those Powers. Your Toughness goes up by +2 and you can ignore one Wound Penalty. Any 1s rolled on a Fighting check hit a random target within range, other than the intended target. So your allies should steer clear when you dive into melee.
Finally, after five rounds of being Berserk, you take a level of Fatigue. This is similar to the Path of the Berserker's Frenzy ability, but Fatigue in SW is less crippling than Exhaustion in D&D.
Then, take the Brawny Edge. This will increase your Size and Toughness by +1 and you can carry things, wield weapons, and wear armor as if your Strength was one die type higher.
So, what are your derived stats at character creation?
Parry - 8, 6 while Berserk
Toughness - 6, 8 while Berserk. If wearing Plate (which is doable with your d8 Strength and the Brawny Edge, if you can afford it), you have a toughness of 10, 12 while Berserk
You’re hard to hit for a starting character when not Berserk, thanks to your d12 Fighting, and when Berserk being hit doesn’t matter as much. If you think that Toughness is lackluster, don't worry, we'll be upping it soon.
For equipment, as stated above, you can wear Plate Armor without penalty for a sweet +4 bonus to Toughness. It's not traditional for a D&D Barbarian to wear armor, but Savage Worlds doesn't have an equivalent of Unarmored Defense. You can also reskin Leather Armor as "Tough Hides," as SWADE suggests, and still get a +2 to Toughness. But if you can hang in there until high ranks, you'll be able to laugh off hits that would cleave a lesser being in two.
You can easily wield a Great Axe for 1d8+1d10+2, AP 2 if Berserk. If you cast Smite on your Axe and Boost your Strength, both with a Raise, and are Berserk you’ll do an average of nineteen damage, which is insane for a Novice character, and doesn’t account for the fact that you’ll probably be hitting with a Raise much of the time, thanks to your Berserk state adding +2 and, if you Boost your Fighting, you could get an extra 4 average damage.
This build will have some weaknesses. Basically, outside combat you have very only token skills. You also don't have any ranged abilities, except for thrown weapons and any ranged Powers you choose to take down the line. All of this is in line with the D&D barbarian, so we're good there.
Advances
I'm going to outline how I suggest you spend your advances, taking this macho man up into Legendary status. I'll put in a bullet point for each advance and its experience value.
5 - Vigor d8 (Toughness of 7 without Armor, 9 while Berserk). Now you’re tough enough most starting enemies will need to roll up on Damage to hurt you.
10 - Brute Athletics linked to Strength instead of Agility. Range of any thrown item increased by +1/+2/+4. Now you at least have a decent attack option at range. If you have to use ranged combat a lot in your campaign, consider investing more Advances in Athletics.
15 - Rage d6
Seasoned - Vigor d10: Now your Toughness is 8, 10 while Berserk. You can shrug off the average damage from a point blank shotgun (3d6) half the time.
25 - Alertness: +2 to Notice Rolls
30 - Danger Sense: Get a Notice roll at +2 to sense ambushes or similar events.
35 - Mighty Blow: Once per turn, deal double damage with a melee attack when dealt a Joker. It will only happen one round in 26, on average, but man will you love it when that Joker comes up. If you want to use this more often, take an Edge like Quick or Level Headed.
Veteran - Vigor d12
45 - Brawler: Increase your unarmed damage, but we’re really here for that +1 Toughness
50 - Bruiser: Same as Brawler, only moreso
55 - Frenzy: Roll an extra Fighting Die with one Fighting attack per round. Basically, you can try to hit the same target twice or two different targets for one action
Heroic - Improved Frenzy: Frenzy, but you can do it twice per round.
65 - Strength d10
70 - Dodge: Enemies are at -2 to hit you with ranged attacks, but we’re really here for Improved Dodge.
75 - Improved Dodge: +2 to Evasion totals to avoid Area of Effect attacks. This, combined with Danger Sense and Alertness, emulates the D&D Barbarian’s Danger Sense.
Legendary - Giant Killer: Hit a dragon for an extra d6 damage, because anything bigger than you makes you extra mad.
90 - Hard to Kill: You’re too angry to die
100 - Nerves of Steel: You're too angry to feel Wounds.
110 - Sweep: Being outnumbered pisses you off, so hit all creatures within melee range of you. Who needs to aim when you’re ANGRY.
120 - Strength d12
130 - Tough as Nails, which leads to:
140 - Tougher than Nails - you can take five Wounds before being Incapacitated
From here, take Professional and Expert in Vigor, Strength, and Fighting to give yourself a d12+2 in all of these stats. Take Weapon Master and Master of Arms to give you even more damage and an even better Parry and Chance to Hit
I'm going to cut it off here, though, because this is getting ridiculous and most campaigns don't make it this far into Legendary. Feel free to shuffle the order of these Advances however you like. There's probably a more optimized order, but I'm more interested in flavor and options than I am in having a perfect min-maxed build as early as possible.
So, what can this build do? First, you hit things real good. While Berserk, you’re rolling a d12+6 to hit, plus your wild die. You have good odds even to hit someone with maxed out Parry and will probably be hitting anyone else with a Raise. If you use a Power to Boost Fighting, you’re rolling a potential d12+8.
You hit things real hard. While Berserk with a Great Axe, you do d12+d10+10 potential damage if you cast Smite and Boost Strength with raises. That’s a potential average damage of 21, AP 2 - for comparison a Dragon has only 20 (4) Toughness. You can shake a dragon rolling just average damage.
You take hits real good. You’re not hard to hit for a Legendary character - Parry 9 while Berserk, but you’re stupidly tough. Your toughness is 14 while Berserk, 18 if you take the coward’s way and wear full plate. But the real money is in how many wounds you can take. You can take five wounds before being incapacitated and you never suffer Wound Penalties. So you don’t even care if you happen to take wounds until you’re down to 4 wounds. Save those bennies and then start soaking wounds, which with a d12+2 Vigor is not difficult.
Conclusion
So, can you make a D&D Barbarian in Savage Worlds? Absolutely, and she will be a damage MONSTER. The one hang up is the more mystical parts of the Primal Paths, but that can be overcome with taking an Arcane Background or some mild homebrew.
Have you ever wanted to play the Gladiator Hulk from Thor: Ragnarok, smashing things with a big ol’ hammer? This is your build. You will be thicc, stronk, and able to smash with the big green master.
Next up, we'll be covering the master seducer and strummer himself: The Bard.
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