Customer Reviews

Complete Barbarian's Handbook 2nd Ed. Player's Handbook Rules Supplement

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The Complete Barbarian's Handbook is a fairly good AD&D Second Edition adaptation of the first edition's Barbarian class.

The class mechanics are somewhat uninspired, but are faithful in keeping most of the flavor of the original Barbarian class. One wishes that Rick Swan had gone ahead and chucked most of the original Barbarian in favor of a truly new interpretation.

The cultural and roleplaying elements are better, but are moderately repetitive. The idea that barbarians use primitive technology is put forth again and again in different contexts. Each is justifiable individually, but the combined effect makes you want to scream, "Enough! I get the point!"

The kits, however, are among the best ever written for any class. They have well-balanced benefits and penalties, and create a vivid image in the mind. I especially enjoyed the Medicine Man kit.

Anyway, it's an okay buy, although people with the old Unearthed Arcana can pass it up without missing much.

Although not quite what you'd expect if you are familiar with the UA barbarian, the 2nd edition barbarian still fills in a void that the fighter's "barbarian kit" just never could fill. Its quite an investment for what many would argue is just a specialized fighter kit, though, so if you're not terribly interested in barbarians (or unfamiliar with the UA barbarian), you might prefer to pass on this book.

For those of us who missed "real" barbarians, though, this is very welcome. A few things may seem silly, but always remember that the great thing about AD&D is "house rules" being a recognized force. Just because the book says something, the DM is always free to modify it to better suit his/her tastes. The ultimate establisher of rules is the DM and his/her playing group. The rest is just a baseline to work from.

The original Unearthed Arcana Barbarian was my absolute favorite class to play. Even the prototype, from Dragon issue 63 was great, even though THAT Barbarian couldn't use ANY magic EVER! However, this book powers down the Barbarian to the point that it starts to look lackluster. Some of the kits are great, and some of the new rules are too, but I longed to see game balance chucked aside for once just so an alley-cleaner of a character class could take the stage. Robert Howard's Conan will just NEVER see the light of day in official AD&D, alas.

A very well written book with a lot of good ideas. Unfortunately you'll be hard put to design a character based on your favorite literature or movie barbarian. There's a frustrating limitation on metal weapons, and the kits are original, but don't model some of the classic (or cliche) barbarian characters. A notable exception is the Barbarian Shaman, an original an interesting sub-class. A book with plenty of good ideas, best used a sourcebook for your own designs.