D&D 4th Edition: The Barbarian: First Impressions

The original 4th Edition gave us a reimagining of some classic Dungeons and Dragons classes and in addition gave us the notion of more clearly defined party roles. I've been enjoying my time playing as a fighter in the defender role. However my character has taken a turn for the worst and now I'm in the position of creating a new character. I'm going to be going w/ an other defender (a Dragonborn Paladin), but something caught my interest while browing for ideas for my new character's build. I ran across a playtest for the upcoming Barbarian class. I was all excited, as the barbarian was one of the better tanks in 3rd. Despite their general low AC, their d12 hit dice and rage boost to CON could allow them to soak up a lot of damage while dishing out a lot of punishment.

The new barbarian is a little different. He's listed as a striker (a mobile but fragile high damage dealer), doesn't get nearly as many hit points as his 3rd edition counterpart, but gets a lot of attacks and abilities that grant temporary hit points. The only archtype available in the playtest is the offensively minded build, meaning that the more leadership inclined abilities and powers are not yet released.

Basically, the builds I'm looking at do quite a bit of damage. Unfortunately, "quite a bit of damage" doesn't go as far as it used to, and a shitty AC means that my guy will be running low on HP in a longer fight. My previous fighter had a good AC for his level, and a good amount of hit points, and still got in trouble a lot. The barbarian is supposed to be a striker, but he lacks a lot of the elusiveness that rangers and rogues seem to have. Rangers and rogues also have high DEXs, which directly contributes to a higher AC. He also lacks the ranged attacks that the warlock possess. Sure he can push someone back w/ one of his at will powers, but there's nothing stopping that same someone from walking right back up to him and clobbering the poor barbarian.

My first impressions of the class are that barbarian needs more HP overall. Right now the barbarian gets the same starting HP and HP per level as a fighter, who's generally got a higher AC. The barbarian also gets one less healing surge per day. The barbarian does get a bunch of temporary HPs from dropping people and from one of his At-Wills, but judging by how much damage we've seen dished out by non-minion monsters it's not enough to keep him in the fight for long.

I also don't care for the rage abilities to be tied to daily attack powers. That means it takes a standard action to rage, where as it was a free action before. That also means that you also get less rages over your career, with no way to get extra rages via feats. I think there should also be a lesser encounter type rage that grants a small stat boost and empowers your daily "greater" rages even more.

I'd give the barbarian 17 or 18 HP + CON score at first level, with 8 or 9 HP per level gained and 10+CON mod surges per day. His AC proficiencies are fitting with the flavor of the class, and the same goes for his lack of ranged weapon profieciencies. I'd also make his rage powers have a little more damage to them, with either a CON or CHA boost to damage. Despite being a striker, he's going to be on the front line getting the crap beat out of him. He needs more HP.

I look forward to playing him, but I don't expect him to last more than a session or two. I've not decided between a human or dwarf, and a gensai barbarian seems like it'd be pretty sweet.

Speaking of barbarians...