Barbarian

Barbarians are strong melee fighters who start the game with poison resistance. Because barbarians can fight their way through situations that would kill other players, and because they need not worry about poison, they are one of the easier roles for a new player. When a barbarian starts the game with a dog, the dog is always named Idefix, assuming naming options are unchanged. The barbarian's attack messages replace most instances of "hit" with "smite" (e.g. "You smite the goblin!"), but this is flavor text with no gameplay effect.

Barbarians can be either neutral or chaotic, and can be either humans or orcs. Their first sacrifice gift is Cleaver. According to the guidebook:

         Barbarians  are  warriors out of the hinterland, hardened to 
         battle.   They  begin  their  quests  with  naught  but  uncommon 
         strength, a trusty hauberk, and a great two-handed sword.

Starting inventory

Each barbarian starts with the following:

• Either of these cases (50% chance each):
  • a +0 two-handed sword and a +0 axe
  • a +0 battle-axe and a +0 short sword (orcish short sword for orcs)
• a +0 ring mail (orcish ring mail for orcs)
• a food ration (with the usual ¹⁄₆ chance of getting a stack of 2)
• if an orc, two more random food-class items (each of which also may be a stack of 2)
• an oil lamp (¹⁄₆ chance)

Intrinsics

Barbarians gain intrinsics at these experience levels:

• Level 1: poison resistance
• Level 7: speed
• Level 15: stealth

Skills

Barbarian skills
Max	Skills
Basic	Weapons: dagger, saber, flail, quarterstaff, bow Combat: two weapon combat, riding Spells: attack, escape
Skilled	Weapons: pick-axe, broadsword, long sword, scimitar, club, mace, morning star, spear, trident
Expert	Weapons: axe, short sword, two-handed sword, hammer
Master	Combat: bare hands

Barbarians start with Basic skill in Axe, Bare hands, and the skill for their sword (short or two-handed).

Strategy

Character creation

Being an orc is of little benefit to a Barbarian: their poison resistance is redundant, and safe cannibalism doesn't factor in much since orcish corpses are far more common than human ones in the early game - this does become a factor for early sacrifices, since it allows them to convert altars and raise Luck much easier than their human counterpart. However, late-game orcs are also held back by their inability to exceed 18/50 strength without gauntlets of power.

The human lack of infravision is less of an issue than with other roles, since Barbarians have relatively less access to ranged weapons, and almost no Barbarian will opt for spellcasting so early on (if at all). However, if you do wish to develop a ranged attack, orcish Barbarians may have the best option due to their +1 multishot bonus from using an orcish bow and orcish arrows.

Chaotic characters can decrease prayer timeout more quickly through sacrifice, have a more merciful mysterious force, and can commit murder without major penalties if necessary. Outside of the guaranteed sacrifice gift, neutral Barbarians arguably have access to somewhat better artifacts.

Early game

Weapons

Most Barbarians should seek out Cleaver, an artifact battle-axe and their first sacrifice gift, as soon as possible. Cleaver's ability to slice through multiple foes as of 3.6.1 will provide a well-needed early boon for dealing with early groups, such as giant ants and hill orc hordes. Until Cleaver is obtained, you should use the starting two-handed sword or battle-axe.

Armor

The starting ring mail should be replaced with any other metal armor, preferably an elven or dwarvish mithril-coat. The barbarian's combat capabilities make the Gnomish Mines a viable choice to visit early, as they are likely to come across dwarven armor to pet test.

General

While barbarians overall should have no trouble dishing out damage, players should be wary not to lean too much on their health and armor to carry them through every fight. The intrinsic poison resistance that barbarians start with widens the list of edible corpses that can be eaten in lieu of permafood. Orcish barbarians find the poison resistance redundant, but will appreciate the additional lack of penalties for cannibalism, and infravision for the Gnomish Mines. For chaotics, orcish barbarians will also have an easier time converting early altars than their human counterparts due to the earlier presence of same-race monsters. Human barbarians can still make use of werecreature corpses or human corpses dropped by zombies or mummies.

Mid game

Objectives

The barbarian quest is not especially difficult, though there are some significant wrinkles. While the monster generation is biased towards ogres, it may also contain a very large number of trolls, which can be the biggest hazard for an underleveled or under-prepared barbarian. If enough trolls are present, they can form an almost perpetual swarm around the player as they rise from the dead faster than they can be permanently disposed of. A tinning kit can be extremely helpful in this situation, as can a wielded footrice corpse; a corpse-eating pet is another option. As a last resort, you can lure one or two trolls at a time from Thoth Amon's lair to the previous level and dispatch them there. This gets the trolls off your back and eventually leaves you free to kill all the ogres and Thoth Amon.

There is also the notable lack of incentive presented by the quest artifact: The Heart of Ahriman, infamously regarded as one of the most useless quest artifacts. Its base item is a luckstone, but another luckstone is guaranteed at Mines' End; it provides stealth for a class that obtains the intrinsic at XL 15 (one level after the quest even becomes an option). Barbarians can #invoke it for levitation, but this particularly quirky method is only slightly preferable to the potion of levitation, and much less desirable than that provided by other means, such as a ring of levitation - however, it does let you levitate a non-flying steed while riding it.

Trolls and ogres are eligible for high level offensive items, such as the wand of lightning or the wand of death. Careful players will want to postpone the quest until after obtaining magic resistance or reflection.

Since the Bell of Opening is required for the Invocation, a player may be inclined to leave the quest until later on and retrieve the Bell once they are otherwise ready to perform it; on the other hand, the Bell is also a viable alternative if they are lacking a silver weapon, such as a silver spear or silver saber, for the shades in Orcus-town.

Late game

Weapons

Cleaver becomes a risky weapon to carry into the lowest floors and beyond, since if it becomes cursed, it will leave you with no hands free to get it uncursed. Prayer is a workable strategy in the upper dungeon, but this is no longer available in Gehennom, and the pace of the endgame is too hectic to rely on being able to pray. Genociding liches and keeping Cleaver blessed will greatly reduce the danger of it becoming cursed. A solution is to sacrifice for more gifts until you receive a good artifact weapon such as Frost Brand, Stormbringer or Vorpal Blade and twoweapon it with a silver spear or silver saber.

Spellcasting

Barbarians have the highest spellcasting penalty in the game. Without a robe, it is impossible for them to cast any spell other than their special spell, haste self, at lower than 66% fail (67% without helm of brilliance). Even haste self will cap at 30% fail (31% without helm of brilliance, 34% if Escape is left at Unskilled). Spellcasting is essentially out of the question until the Barbarian can manage to find a robe, but once they locate one they might be able to make use of some low level non-combat spells.

General

Neutral barbarians who are not averse to wishing for quest artifacts may find The Orb of Fate a worthwhile use of a wish. The Orb provides valuable enhancements to a combat-reliant character, confering half physical damage and half spell damage, as well as doing a number of other useful things. It is, in short, everything that the Heart of Ahriman isn't (including very heavy—a significant downside factor). Chaotic barbarians, on the other hand, would likely prefer The Master Key of Thievery due to its half physical damage and other effects, though it unfortunately does not offer the half spell damage that the Orb does.

Rank titles

The status line shows you to be one of the following ranks when you reach the specified experience level:

• XL 1–2: Plunderer/Plunderess
• XL 3–5: Pillager
• XL 6–9: Bandit
• XL 10–13: Brigand
• XL 14–17: Raider
• XL 18–21: Reaver
• XL 22–25: Slayer
• XL 26–29: Chieftain/Chieftainess
• XL 30: Conqueror/Conqueress

Variants

SLASH'EM

Barbarians can expect to be overcharged in SLASH'EM's shops, by a factor of 3. This, combined with barbarians' low charisma, makes many items (in particular the now 1000zm base-cost magic lamp) nigh-unaffordable, forcing barbarians to resort to other means, such as their second sacrifice gift (see below).

In addition to Cleaver, barbarians get Deathsword as their second sacrifice gift; it is a chaotic two-handed sword with +5 to hit and +14 to damage against humans. This can be useful for murdering shopkeepers and aligned priests, it can also be useful against werecreatures and for cleaning out barracks. Other significant targets are Thoth Amon, the Wizard of Yendor, and the high priest of Moloch as well as his attendant aligned priests. Since it is such a specialty weapon, you won't likely want to waste any skill points on two-handed sword.

Unfortunately, the fact is that barbarians' first two guaranteed sacrifice gifts both become outclassed by SLASH'EM's mid-game, and approach obsolescence by its endgame. A barbarian can either expect to have more of a challenge fighting monsters, to do a lot of sacrificing, to spend a wish or two, or to be crowned to get Stormbringer or Vorpal Blade, which are both respectable weapons in SLASH'EM—Vorpal Blade has had its chance of beheading doubled to 10%. It goes without saying that many spoiled chaotic barbarians will try for the infamous Bat from Hell, but the old favorites from vanilla remain good choices.

Spears are much more common in SLASH'EM, making them a more viable distance weapon if you don't mind the weight, which barbarians should be able to carry.

A droven barbarian is an easy race-role combination for SLASH'EM players. At the start of the game, a droven barbarian should immediately unwield the weapon (w-) and fight bare-handed. This gains access to the drow's very useful melee sleep attack, an immense help for the difficult melee environment at the start of SLASH'EM. The ability to repeatedly put your opponent to sleep should compensate for bare hands doing less damage than good weapons! To train your axe skill, wield your axe or battle-axe against monsters with sleep resistance. Eventually, you will be fighting primarily with Cleaver, alternating to bare-handed only when you need it. Drow cannot two-weapon, but fighting bare-handed should more than offset that.

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, in addition to human and orc, the vampire is available as a starting race for Barbarians.

The Heart of Ahriman gives its owner displacement and energy regeneration instead of stealth, making it more desirable acquisition for Barbarians and other chaotic roles.

dNethack

The Heart of Ahriman now grants MR, reflection, half-spell damage, drain resistance, fire resistance and poison resistance while carried, and #invokes for blessed remove curse. This makes uncursing your weapon a tad easier, so barbarians can possibly wield Cleaver late in the game.

SpliceHack

The starting weapon sets for Barbarians in SpliceHack are one of:

• +0 battle-axe and +0 short sword
• +0 falchion and +0 scimitar

The falchion is a two-handed scimitar. SpliceHack Barbarians can reach expert skill in scimitar.

SpliceHack Barbarians also have access to the blood rage skill, which boosts damage when the player has low health.

Encyclopedia entry

They dressed alike -- in buckskin boots, leathern breeks and deerskin shirts, with broad girdles that held axes and short swords; and they were all gaunt and scarred and hard-eyed; sinewy and taciturn.
They were wild men, of a sort, yet there was still a wide gulf between them and the Cimmerian. They were sons of civilization, reverted to a semi-barbarism. He was a barbarian of a thousand generations of barbarians. They had acquired stealth and craft, but he had been born to these things. He excelled them even in lithe economy of motion.
They were wolves, but he was a tiger.

[ Conan - The Warrior, by Robert E. Howard ]

References

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