D&D 5E Am I reading high level barbarian Indomintable Might correctly?

[Gwarok]

Ok, so I was noticing that at 18th a Barbarian can substitute their STR score for any STR based check roll, and at 20th they get +4Str and Con, which means they can have(almost certainly will have) at least a 20 STR and more likely a 24 STR on top of that. If the barbarian also has athletics, and what self respecting Barbarian wouldn't, even if you cap the roll at 20 instead of the actual STR score of 24, that would mean a DC33(auto roll of 20 +7 for STR +6 for Prof) is their new minimum roll. So they can always perform insane herculean feats of Strength right? At first this seems overpowered but then I remembered 20th Level is up there with the greatest heroes of legend(Sampson, Hercules, Beowulf), so not totally out of line if a DM is going there anyways.

 

[Chryssis]

I read it as you substitute your strength for the roll so rather than d20+6+7 you would have 24 flat. so in essense with a 24 str you have the rogue talent who`s name I forgot that lets you take any roll less than 10 and make it 10. ie I roll a 5 +prof6+mod7 = 18 - make it 24. I roll 12 + 6+ 7 = 25 keep 25.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

"Beginning at 18th level, if your total for a Strength check is less than your Strength score, you can use that score in place of the total."

Like Chryssis, I read "your total for a Strength check" to mean "d20 + all modifiers." So if you take your Strength score, you don't get to add modifiers on top of that all over again. I really don't see how you could justify any other reading.

 

[dave2008]

I agree with Hemlock and Chyssis, i think your interpretation is incorrect.

 

[Flamestrike]

Ditto the above. Its your total roll or 24, whichever is higher.

 

[shadowoflameth]

It is instead of the roll and modifiers. Been playing a barbarian 19 and an 18 Str. So with proficiency 6 it's as if you can't roll less than a 12 on strength checks. If you have a 24 then you effectively can't get less than if you'd rolled an 18. As the DCs tend to go in most games, that's pretty herculean. It means too that if the DC is 18 or less, my barbarian has a 100% chance.

 

[CapnZapp]

It is instead of the roll and modifiers. Been playing a barbarian 19 and an 18 Str. So with proficiency 6 it's as if you can't roll less than a 12 on strength checks. If you have a 24 then you effectively can't get less than if you'd rolled an 18.

Your examples are misleading as to how good this ability really is. The ability is much more like "take 10" than you'd think, only expressed in a fancy mechanic.

With 18 Strength, your bonus is +10 (proficiency +6, strength +4) and you effectively can't roll less than 8.

If you somehow get 24 Strength at this time, your bonus changes, robbing the ability of some of the thunder: to +13 (proficiency +6, strength +7) and you effectively can't roll less than +11.

You could probably change it to "you may take 10 on Strength checks" with absolutely zero impact on your campaign. It's not as if there is time to make very many such checks left anyway, you're already level 18.

Very high level abilities are vastly overrated. In almost every case, they should have been made much more impressive, if the aim was for them to have some actual impact on the narrative. In nine cases out of ten, you will gain much more utility out of a strong mid- or low-level ability in all possible ways to look at it. Put simply (and roughly), forget every ability you haven't acquired during levels 1-10 with high level spells as possibly the sole exception. This tells me every level 15-20 ability should be equal in power to a buff spell of the highest levels. And they are most assuredly not. In some cases you are given insultingly trivial stuff that ceased to be impressive as soon as you left the training levels.​

 

[S'mon]

As others have said, all it does is let you automatically pass STR checks up to your STR, which has a max of 24 at 20th level. I hadn't considered that for an Athletics check this looks a lot like "take 11", thanks guys.

 

[shadowoflameth]

It's true, I neglected to include the strength bonus, but if you effectively take 10 or 11 there's still not much chance of failure on any strength check you're likely to face. The level 18 ability to do this is only as valuable as strength checks are important in high level play which is not very. The 20th level ability of the Barbarian is the only class included way for a PC to take an ability beyond 20 except for Epic Boons. It's not so much that it's a huge capstone as it is something that nobody else in the party is going to have. I've read too a lot about the cleric Divine Intervention being underpowered as written, but to have 100% chance for a prayer to be answered even if it only happens once is something that only the cleric can bring your party.

 

[CapnZapp]

All we're saying is: the ability could just as well have used well understood concepts and mechanics instead of unique and separate ones, since there isn't much, if any, practical difference.

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