D&D (2024) What's your favorites new subclass?

[Epic Meepo]

Elements bending or Plant like Groot would be OK.

It's the concept/visual of adding 10 feet, and making my Barbarian no longer swinging a righteous axe, but becoming a vine monster.

Would it be more palatable if the subclass was all about turning into a plant creature as its main theme, and the extended reach was due to your arms becoming branch-like instead of your axe becoming branch-like?

I do agree that the "roots of the World Tree shooting out of your weapon" thing is a weird visual. I think I'd like the subclass more if it was the Path of the Treant (or whatever) instead of the Path of the World Tree. Instead of having all these subclass features invoking shoe-horned World Tree imagery, you'd just slowly turn into Groot/Swamp Thing/Daphne from Greek mythology/[insert other plant-person here].

 

[Scribe]

Would it be more palatable if the subclass was all about turning into a plant creature as its main theme, and the extended reach was due to your arms becoming branch-like instead of your axe becoming branch-like?

I do agree that the "roots of the World Tree shooting out of your weapon" thing is a weird visual. I think I'd like the subclass more if it was the Path of the Treant (or whatever) instead of the Path of the World Tree. Instead of having all these subclass features invoking shoe-horned World Tree imagery, you'd just slowly turn into Groot/Swamp Thing/Daphne from Greek mythology/[insert other plant-person here].

Yeah exactly. If the concept of the subclass was 'you are becoming one with the trees' thats one thing. The rest of it however is Planar/Teleport/Supporting.

3: Vitality - Life giving. Sure. You draw from the tree.
6: Branches - Teleporting others. Open up the pathways, sure.
10: Roots - Vine monster and you now reach 15 feet? I.....struggle. 15 feet?! Its a crazy length to visualize.
14: Travel - Mass Teleport. Just Step 6 but non-combat and party sized.

Level 10 is just the odd man out here, at least to me. This could just be a me thing of course, but if I'm playing a Martial class, my weapon and me swinging it, is really really key to that. The weird vine thing is just not doing it for me.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

un amore defensiva!

a defensive love...?

 

[Tonguez]

Its precisely the Groot image that I dont like especially when paired with Viking Barbarians.
The World Tree is too specific and the vine arms too wyrd for a martial class. Even the visuals of a Barbarian arcing lightning off its bulging muscles works better in my head at least.

A Treant form druid or ranger makes a better analogue to Swamp Thing for a become a tree class.

 

[Epic Meepo]

Yeah exactly. If the concept of the subclass was 'you are becoming one with the trees' thats one thing. The rest of it however is Planar/Teleport/Supporting.

3: Vitality - Life giving. Sure. You draw from the tree.
6: Branches - Teleporting others. Open up the pathways, sure.
10: Roots - Vine monster and you now reach 15 feet? I.....struggle. 15 feet?! Its a crazy length to visualize.
14: Travel - Mass Teleport. Just Step 6 but non-combat and party sized.

Level 10 is just the odd man out here, at least to me. This could just be a me thing of course, but if I'm playing a Martial class, my weapon and me swinging it, is really really key to that. The weird vine thing is just not doing it for me.

If I remember correctly, the Oath of the Ancients paladin also had some sort of weird vine attack thing, so maybe that was their inspiration. Either way, I agree with your analysis. Is World Tree barbarian supposed to be about tree-like combat styles? Or is it supposed to be about teleportation and support? Those feel like two different themes to me.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to there being a teleport and support barbarian subclass, if it's thematically solid. But having a weird vine attack thing in a teleport and support subclass just feels forced. Sure, all of those abilities are battlefield control, so they are mechanically related, but narratively? The justification feels weak to me.

 

[Epic Meepo]

Its precisely the Groot image that I dont like especially when paired with Viking Barbarians.
The World Tree is too specific and the vine arms to wyrd for a martial class.

Pun intended? And wouldn't it be the Viking Barbarians who are too wyrd?

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

A Treant form druid or ranger makes a better analogue to Swamp Thing for a become a tree class.

Greenwood Ranger!

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

Its precisely the Groot image that I dont like especially when paired with Viking Barbarians.
The World Tree is too specific and the vine arms too wyrd for a martial class. Even the visuals of a Barbarian arcing lightning off its bulging muscles works better in my head at least.

A Treant form druid or ranger makes a better analogue to Swamp Thing for a become a tree class.

I don't see all barbarians as viking barbarians. I don't correlate the D&D World Tree to Earth vikings.

I like that the World Tree can represent more than one thing. Trees and crossing planar boundaries in D&D. If gives more depth for design. It's better than "generic plant barbarian that only does plant stuff." I like that its roots stretch into non-combat functionality. I like that it gives a supernatural connection to the D&D cosmos.

I can, however, understand that if someone does not like the World Tree concept, or has a completely different concept for the World Tree in their own campaigns, it doesn't work all that well. And maybe the description of the L10 ability could use an editing pass? And perhaps make it work when channeling primal power? Does it need to function outside of a rage for balance reasons?

Level 10: Battering Roots
While your Rage is active, tendrils of the World Tree extend from the muscles of your forearms to grasp and wield your melee weapons with greater flexibility and control. While you wield any melee weapon while your Rage is active, your reach with that weapon increases by 10 feet, and when you hit with it, you can activate the Push or Topple property even if you’re using another Mastery property with that weapon.

 

[Scribe]

Level 10: Battering Roots
While your Rage is active, tendrils of the World Tree extend from the muscles of your forearms to grasp and wield your melee weapons with greater flexibility and control. While you wield any melee weapon while your Rage is active, your reach with that weapon increases by 10 feet, and when you hit with it, you can activate the Push or Topple property even if you’re using another Mastery property with that weapon.

I'd be happy enough with:

While your Rage is active, you channel the grasping branches of the World Tree. When you hit why a Melee attack, you can activate the Push or Topple property, even if you are using another Mastery property with that weapon.

Just subtract the range boost/vines thing, and forgive any templating mistakes on my part.

 

[Epic Meepo]

I don't correlate the D&D World Tree to Earth vikings.

That's certainly fair. But I don't think the subclass write-up was doing itself any favors by specifically calling out "the cosmic ash tree Yggdrasil" by name. If the designers wanted to avoid creating any confusion between the generic D&D World Tree and the viking-adjacent world tree Yggdrasil from real-world mythology, they probably should have avoided invoking the name Yggdrasil in the subclass write-up.