Fighter/Barbarian armor question

[Arcan d'Ombre]

Hi everybody

One of my character is a fighter/barabarian.

He's now fighter(3)/Barabarian(2) and i plan to make him fighter(4)/barbarian(x).

My question is quite simple but i cannot find the answer in the manual (since it's the french one and it's incomplete) :

does a barbarian loose some abilities if he uses heavy armor ???? (like in Neverwinter i think)

thanks in advance for your answers...

[motub]

Yes and no-- yes, a normal Barbarian would, but no, yours won't.

Barbarians are naturally only proficient up to Medium Armor. So under normal circumstances, if you hadn't given the Barbarian a third feat in Armor, they would take a DEX penalty to AC (and possibly other penalties), based on the fact that they don't know how to wear the armor, move in the armor, etc. Basically, they're clumsy with it, however 3rd Edition defines "clumsiness".

However, a Fighter does have the Heavy Armor feat already, thus is trained in using it, so even if s/he duals to Barbarian, s/he can wear heavy armor without penalty.

Afaik, that's the only possible penalty you could encounter in that situation, unlike if you were an arcane spellcaster (the heavier the armor, the higher the chance of spell failure), monk (wouldn't get Wisdom bonus to AC), or scout-type character (wouldn't hide well, or for very long).

[Arcan d'Ombre]

Thanks motub.

(Seems 3ed rules are not the same in different games...)

[JrKASperov]

Barbarians loose barbarian speed when wearing heavy armor.

[motub]

Is that whether they're proficient in it or not?

[ZFR]

Yes, ive given my barbarian/bard the heavy armor proficiency and he still moves the normal speed when wearing heavy armor.... actually I like it better this way... now he stays with my party and doesnt hurry off too fast... and should i require his speed i simply give him medium armor for the duration