B/X Barbarian

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Took a crack at hacking together a class for my home games. This is for when players visit Thundermoor, my weird central-Asian steppes / Norse mashup. SUZERAINS OF THUNDERMOOR is the campaign name. Catchy, right?

The concept is for a Conan-style beefcake who trades defensive ability for offensive ability. I know Conan wore armor, but this is "gamey" enough to allow the Barb to fit a particular niche - a high risk / high reward fighter, the inverse of dwarves and halflings who trade the damage output of humans for better saves.

Design justifications (skipping obvious ones, like STR being prime req):

• Saves
• Didn't want to encroach on Dwarf/Halfling's good saves.
• Low AC and middling saves mean that muscledude barbarians are still scared of snakes. I like that!

• To-Hit is to keep the "high damage, slightly lower accuracy" feel and to keep from eclipsing fighters

• Hit Die
• Big HP for big guys
• Since I don't use variable HD in my home games, this really means a d6+2 for me, but since most people do, I kept it B/X compatible in the image meant for sharing.
• Restrictions:
• The reasons Barbs can wear leather is to keep the door open for wearing hides, furs, maybe dragon scales, all of which may be magical and may have special properties if the referee is so inclined to bestow such properties on armor (your barb can wear the Shadow Dragon Scales that allow him to turn to smoke, e.g.)
• XP:
• Keeps it from being just "fighter, but better" along with slower to-hit bonus
• Unarmored AC:
• Keeps barb viable at higher levels but still makes them riskier to play, balancing out their meatier bodies.

• Damage bonus:
• Instead of bothering with "rages" I just went with a static dmg bonus. Simpler. 

• Spell resistance:
• Barbarians and Wizards are natural enemies, like cats and dogs or Scotsmen and other Scotsmen. Trog roars with delight!
• Since my games use a -1 to +1 distro rather than -3 to +3, I just call this a flat +2.

Level titles:

1. Thrall
2. Warrior
3. Thegn
4. Hero
5. Berserker
6. Ealdorman
7. Emir
8. Superhero
9. Suzerain

- What’s a suzerain?

- A keeper. A keeper or overlord.

- Why not say keeper then?

- Because he is a special kind of keeper. A suzerain rules even where there are other rulers. His authority countermands local judgements.

Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian