Barbs really don't need to be that complex. The whole jumping mechanic is bad and really doesn't make much sense. The only ability you really want to jump is, of course, stone. The other two are "meh". Lets get rid of the jumping mechanic and make barbs all about Clans. Being able to customize each barb to make a mixed clan bg or go with a single clan backed up by a new version of incite rage suggested above will be the way to make barbs attractive again.
To me, the jumping mechanic is neither bad nor complex, and it makes sense. If you could explain why you think otherwise, I could get a better understanding of what you'd like to see, because at the moment, all I know is you don't like it because 2 of them are "meh" from a balance perspective. I mean, sure, the non-Stone ones aren't great, but that's a balance issue, not the fact that the mechanic exists that makes them bad. Anyway, currently I am not really convinced the way to go is to is basically give discounted batch abilities to every single barbarian - which SEEMS to be what you are suggesting.
Keep it to a core group of them/make a few more of them. The rest of the barbarians can be tweaked to fit with in one of the 3 clans and work with the clan ability a bit more synergisticly or vice verse with the ability enhancing a stylistic design approach for the clan. I just hope that you keep the idea of interdependence between the 3 clans as no one wants to see the race broken again into sub themes like it was before. Each clan should have a clear purpose with in the overall theme and have clear needs from the others. At least that's how I would ideally like to see it done. Edit: Is there any hope for keeping the bounce even if another member of that clan is already out? I guess the potential to end up with say Stone Clan on multiple units could be an issue but it comes at the price of an equal number of dead/recalled units. Depending on how you rework the abilities it might be even less of an issue.
Im not looking for a discount. Cost the abilities correctly. There SHOULD be a discount because it takes three turns for the ability to fully activate. So costing the ability to rank 2 seems like a reasonable way to cost it out. The reason I don't like the jumping ability is mostly because the clan ability is on so few champs. The champs it is on are the ones you don't want to die. That being the case there is never an incentive to risk a champ in a way that loses you that champ but then grants the ability onto another barb you want it on. It is this issue that makes the ability swap much less than what I believe it was intended to be. Putting the clan ability on more champs would make the jumping ability more strategic and much more meaningful. I'm just trying to give ideas to make the theme more appealing again. Like I said, haven't seen a single person play barbs since I started playing again. I tried them but they were underwhelming. If you look at the number of people playing dwarf decks right now its startling. There is no incentive to play an all dwarf bg but a lot of people do. They do it cause its cool. They like the runes, they like the look, they like the theme. They are competitive too so that doesn't hurt. The question is how do you make barbs cool again. Letting people customize their clan with the suggestions I made are the way to do it IMO. Some kind of synergy for someone running full clan would also help. My two cents anyway.
That's because dwarfs do everything. there is litterally no design space in IS that a dward does not fill or a mechanic that can not be used/simulated to some degree that a dwarf can not use/take advantage of. Dwarfs just do to much. Paladins like wise will find themselves in the same situation, in the CTE theme they do everything.
