D&D (2024) Barbarian (Playtest 7)

[Charlaquin]

I mean....there could be. You could easily go with the flavor of that is a part of what makes force damage force damage, there is no resistance to it. And if the mechanics back that up (aka there is no way to get force resistance) than that's a fine flavor to have.

I quite like it myself, because I’ve never been able to grok what makes force damage different than bludgeoning damage, except that the latter is produced by a physical object and the former is not. This way, I can think of “Force damage” not as actual kinetic energy, but as “an unstoppable force.”

 

[Kinematics]

The Epic Critical Boon has been removed (at least for main play).

Retaliation is better since Reckless Attack works with it.

Two-weapon fighting is worse than UA5 since barbarian can no longer pick up a level 1 fighting style. It's back to the same as the PHB.

Flex has been removed as a weapon mastery option. The longsword/war pick/warhammer/spear/quarterstaff are now Sap/Sap/Push/Sap/Topple, respectively.

You can't use the Dual Wielding feat and have a d10 weapon in one hand using Flex anymore. Nor can you do something like battleaxe/shield and keep the d10 damage die.

Despite that, the damage potential for two-weapon or weapon/shield fighting is not that bad, though that's largely helped by the use of the new Frenzy (using my Berserker spreadsheet). You also have a fair number of weapon mastery options, including Sap on the versatile weapons that formerly had Flex, allowing you to partially compensate for Reckless Attack.

Primal Champion is restored to level 20, and returns to granting +4 Str and Con. However it has an odd interaction with standard ASIs now. Because of the change to ASI, where at level 19 your maximum increase on the stat is 22, technically you could raise your Str to 22 at level 19. Then at level 20 with Primal Champion you get another +4 — however, Primal Champion only raises your max to 24, which means you only get +2 Str (raised from 22 to 24). I'm not sure if this is intended.

Overall, there are still almost no uses for a barbarian's bonus action. The Eagle Wild Heart can Disengage+Dash, and the Zealot can use Zealous Presence, but that's all I can find offhand. This is probably good for the purpose of maintaining Rage, but it still feels like an empty spot for action options. On the other hand, it means dual-wielding and polearm mastery bonus attacks are not competing with anything else for that spot.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Flex has been removed as a weapon mastery option. The longsword/war pick/warhammer/spear/quarterstaff are now Sap/Sap/Push/Sap/Topple, respectively.

You can't use the Dual Wielding feat and have a d10 weapon in one hand using Flex anymore. Nor can you do something like battleaxe/shield and keep the d10 damage die.

It's amazing how giving people what they want will still make them unhappy. they clearly are responding to feedback, but for those who notice, I don't expect this will make them happy.

Despite that, the damage potential for two-weapon or weapon/shield fighting is not that bad, though that's largely helped by the use of the new Frenzy (using my Berserker spreadsheet). You also have a fair number of weapon mastery options, including Sap on the versatile weapons that formerly had Flex, allowing you to partially compensate for Reckless Attack.

Yes.
In my hypothesized Barb3/Rogue X, there's no damage loss on SA damage if you pursue Zealot or Berserker.

Primal Champion is restored to level 20, and returns to granting +4 Str and Con. However it has an odd interaction with standard ASIs now. Because of the change to ASI, where at level 19 your maximum increase on the stat is 22, technically you could raise your Str to 22 at level 19. Then at level 20 with Primal Champion you get another +4 — however, Primal Champion only raises your max to 24, which means you only get +2 Str (raised from 22 to 24). I'm not sure if this is intended.

Really good catch. Probably unintended.

Overall, there are still almost no uses for a barbarian's bonus action. The Eagle Wild Heart can Disengage+Dash, and the Zealot can use Zealous Presence, but that's all I can find offhand. This is probably good for the purpose of maintaining Rage, but it still feels like an empty spot for action options. On the other hand, it means dual-wielding and polearm mastery bonus attacks are not competing with anything else for that spot.

Which is I think their intention. Keeping the bonus action to extend rage is a good use always to have.
Feats (Charger, Shield master, PAM) can give flexibility.

 

[OB1]

The Traveling Along the Tree ability for WT Barbs is absolutely bonkers (in a fun way). Every Teleportation Circle in the multiverse now has to worry about a 15th level barbarian and her five best friends showing up in it at any moment. I love it.

Also, WT Barb is Kratos from the two most recent God of Wars, right?

 

[Neonchameleon]

The champion is an empty subclass. It has little reason to exist. You could separate it out from the Fighter class and name it something like Henchman or Muscle or something to make sure it does not contaminate the Fighter design, and I'm having difficulty thinking of a class name for it that carries the amount of contempt I hold for the concept itself. Meathead might work well.

The reason for the champion to exist is to be a pretty simple subclass - unlike battle master, brawler, or eldritch knight. Just because you (and for that matter I) don't want to play it doesn't mean there's no good use for it.

 

[Leatherhead]

I don't follow. Bears can pick 2 damage resistance types other than Force and Psychic every time they rage. Yes it's a nerf, but it's still a really powerful ability to walk into a dragon fight and be resistant to it's breath weapon, etc.

Bearbarians still get to choose what they think the two most relevant damage types they might face against their opponents for that fight. The enemy doesn't doesn't know what they'll choose. It's fine. It was obviously too powerful compared to all the other abilities at that level.

Consider the following.

Most new monsters don't have magic weapons, they instead use elemental damage on their attacks. Even the humanoids. Force and psychic damage are the two most common types of damage for monsters to use now, and outside of that, you might legitimately have no idea what kind of damage resistance to pick. You can be sure that an elemental coded creature like a Dragon can use their designated element, but beyond that it's a crapshoot. There is a "Ranger" NPC you are fighting, what elemental resistance do you pick? Poison to represent their low cunning? Fire because they might have some analog to Flame Arrow? Lightning for the same reason?

And I want to emphasize, because it might have been glossed over, these are Attacks (even the Mages use attack rolls). Which punish the Barbarian for using Reckless Attack (the Barbarian's primary damage boosting mechanic). So new monsters make Barbarians feel far more squishy than older designed monsters, especially in the later levels of the game, where Barbarians kind of fall off in comparison to their adventuring piers.

This new Bear nerf simply doesn't hit the design team goals. Having elemental resistance is more important now than it was at the beginning of 5e, making Bear more overbearing, not less. All the nerf does is change Bear from low system mastery pick to a high system mastery pick, and that's just not congruent for a class intended to be a the smashy-smashy Hulk analog.

 

[Leatherhead]

Also I want to rant about this feature right here:

Falcon. While your Rage is active, you have a Fly Speed equal to your Speed, provided you aren’t wearing any armor.

Why does WoTC have a vendetta against flying in armor? Armor does not make flight overpowered, longbows do, and Barbarians are an explicitly melee Class! I know Barbarians have Unarmored Defense, but that's only good if you roll for stats! Otherwise, by level 14 you likely have a suit of magic armor that does something cool and makes this feature not worth it.

As one of the relatively few people who actually did play an Eagle barbarian to that level range, the limited Flight-jumping was fun! This feature is a broken promise waiting to happen.

 

[Kinematics]

Re: Falcon

They could even have both old and new together. You have full fly speed if you're not wearing armor, or you have to land at the end of each of your turns if you're wearing armor. You can still have fun with it if you're wearing armor, but you get a little extra bonus if you go the Unarmored Defense route.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Why does WoTC have a vendetta against flying in armor?

It fits into the general pattern of hard-to-explain vendettas that WotC's 5E designers have. I.e.

• Unarmoured AC should always be laughably bad or require the sort of investment that basically needs rolled stats.
• Unarmed attacks and natural weapons are innately extremely powerful and should be carefully limited
• Having a decent AC when flying is wildly overpowered
• VSM components are vital things virtually every table enforces and that they can, should, must and will balance the game around
• Wizards are cool and should be OP (hence Fly has no restrictions on armour/weight)

None of these hold up to any kind of mechanical or even really logical scrutiny at all, but they seem to be pretty fundamental to what WotC's 5E design team thinks is going on

 

[Neonchameleon]

It fits into the general pattern of hard-to-explain vendettas that WotC's 5E designers have. I.e.

• Unarmoured AC should always be laughably bad or require the sort of investment that basically needs rolled stats.
• Unarmed attacks and natural weapons are innately extremely powerful and should be carefully limited
• Having a decent AC when flying is wildly overpowered
• VSM components are vital things virtually every table enforces and that they can, should, must and will balance the game around
• Wizards are cool and should be OP (hence Fly has no restrictions on armour/weight)

None of these hold up to any kind of mechanical or even really logical scrutiny at all, but they seem to be pretty fundamental to what WotC's 5E design team thinks is going on

To be fair AC is always laughably bad. Full plate and a shield is AC 20 and a first level PC has +5 to hit. So the heaviest and most expensive mundane armour makes it only three times harder for a first level PC to kill the wearer. At the extreme an adult red dragon attacks at +14 and has an AC of 19. Bounded Accuracy FTW.