D&D (2024) We don't talk about Barbie

[Neonchameleon]

Just realised the barbarian doesn't have a dedicated thread.

Weapon mastery is a straight buff for the barbarian (and two weapons are enough). Barbarians with push, topple, or cleave are going to be fun. And only slightly nerfed with the GWM nerf. Primal knowledge in exchange for pushing back danger sense and losing the can't be surprised feels like a minor win to me, as does the rage change to let you spend a bonus action to sustain. And there's some shuffling of stuff around. The berserker is now high damage without crippling itself.

All in all some slight polishing. If it wasn't for the nerf to Great Weapon Master hitting hard I'd say it was a significant upgrade, but they cancel. However the problem with the barbarian is the same as the fighter but worse; they do not scale well at all. In the fighter's case because they are still doing the same thing at level 20 as level 1 just rolling more dice with more pluses. And in the barbarian's case they scale backwards; at low level the resist vs physical damage resists well over 90% of what the enemy will do but the higher level the more elemental damage so the less useful it is.

 

[Minigiant]

Barbarian only had 4 problems

1. Barbarian's ranged attack was bad with little tradeoff for it
2. Barbarian's out of combat features were near nonexistent
3. Barbarian's high level features were bad
4. Barbarian' core subclass didn't work right

Rage now fixes #1
Primal Knowledge fixes #2 & 3
Frenzy now works so #4 is fixed

The base framework was unchanged.

A model how to revise a class. 9/10
Would get perfect score if there was asecond way to spend Rage uses.

 

[TerraDave]

The barbarian was a good (the best?) non-caster. Now just better, especially Frenzy, and without messing with the feel of the class (unlike some others that have their own threads right now).

 

[fuindordm]

The chassis looks good. The subclasses can trigger damage bonuses and effects worthy of high-level play.

 

[Leatherhead]

You posted this as I was just typing up a a thread about the same subject, hah.

 

[Minigiant]

Barbarians using Primal Knowledge and Rage for Perception.

 

[cranberry]

I think Barbie is more popular than D&D.

 

[Scott Christian]

Barbarian only had 4 problems

1. Barbarian's ranged attack was bad with little tradeoff for it
2. Barbarian's out of combat features were near nonexistent
3. Barbarian's high level features were bad
4. Barbarian' core subclass didn't work right

Rage now fixes #1
Primal Knowledge fixes #2 & 3
Frenzy now works so #4 is fixed

The base framework was unchanged.

A model how to revise a class. 9/10
Would get perfect score if there was asecond way to spend Rage uses.

And if you gave the barbarian these things, then they would be great at everything. I have to ask if what people want is a superman D&D character or a class that has strengths and weaknesses?

 

[aco175]

And here I thought the thread was going to be about the new movie.

 

[Minigiant]

And if you gave the barbarian these things, then they would be great at everything. I have to ask if what people want is a superman D&D character or a class that has strengths and weaknesses?

They wouldn't be good at everything.

Barbarians would have a role in every pillar and every tier of play.

It's basically a shift from Old School Style Balance where you are amazing at everything in one scene and useless the next to New School Style Balance where you are useful in every scene but not access to every role