I've only played this game twice so far, and both times with only one other player. If I understand the Barbarian's ability correctly, it seems that buy using his ability on your first turn, you will begin the game with an advantage. For example, if the Barbarian goes first: play a tile, force your opponent onto the tile, increase your hand size to 5 and lower his to 3. If the Barbarian goes second: your opponent plays a tile, you force him to move onto it, and even if it was a good tile, you are still gaining advantage by stealing a tile from his hand. Am I understanding his ability correctly?

To be fair, my buddy and I didn't actually use the Barbarian to see how the game would play out. Instead we banned him in 2 player matches right away. I realize that this ability will be less effective with more players, but in 2 players it seems downright dirty.

Any thoughts or clarifications are greatly appreciated!

Now that I have played several games since the above post, I no longer question the power level of the barbarian. I still think that it is a jerk move to steal your opponent's tile on the first turn, but what can I say? Some barbarians are simply jerks. Besides, we found that the ability didn't impact the game as much as we initially expected. So we no longer ban the barbarian from 2-player games of Drakon. We just use 1d6 to determine who gets what character when using their optional abilities.

I think he is a bit more powerful early on. but as its a quick game being able to play a few times alternating characters balances it out.

Also beating a barbarian gives you gloating rights......