D&D (2024) Barbarian brainstorm

[mellored]

Yeah, valid points.

Still, some kind of risk mechanic with a flavorful downside.

When you rage, randomly select an enemy within you can see.
You get double your rage damage bonus damage against that target, a 5' speed bonus moving towards that target, and advantage on any check or save made to get closer to that target. When your target dies, randomly select another enemy you can see.

Adds the loss of control flavor, but you can still just hit an enemy next to you too.

Maybe just for the fury barb though.

 

[Gorck]

Leave the # of Rages per day as is. Those are now “Safe Rages.” Any Rages beyond that amount are “Frenzy Rages” ala the Berserker.

 

[DeviousQuail]

My biggest gripe with Barbarians is levels 9-13 aren't interesting to me. I didn't include 8 only because ASI levels are as exciting as you make them. Brutal Critical isn't bad but having three levels worth of features tied to the chance of a crit doesn't do it for me. The level 10 path features are generally flavorful, but you can get by without them. Relentless Rage gets bonus points for cool factor, but a mostly defensive feature at the same level where everyone else gets damage boosts is an odd choice.

Were I in charge I would spruce up these levels to keep things more interesting:
-Relentless Rage drops to level 9.
-Brutal Critical moves to 11 and becomes Brutality, which deals your rage damage to any target adjacent to your target on a hit with a melee attack.
-Brutailty inflicts it's damage to anyone you choose within 10 feet of the target at level 13 and is doubled at level 17.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Just build everything on Reckless Attack:

• Extra damage
• Advantage (to hit and against you)
• Resistance
• THP
• AoE damage
• Extended crit range

etc (some of them would be archetype-based, ofc)

Keep the other features mostly as-is.

Screw resource management!

 

[Benjamin Olson]

My own 5e clone game's take on the Barbarian is just a subclass of my Warrior class that gets rage so far. I'm not opposed to having a full class for it, but I struggle to think of enough subclasses to base off of it. 5e's solution of making a bunch of different types of magic barbarian doesn't appeal to me.

I also made two major changes to rage:
1. You recover one rage on a short rest. I'm content with rage being a resource, and being able to not do it again for a while but being able to literally run out of rage for the day is just a gamist absurdity, and my game uses short rests for most non-magic resources. I considered an "additional rages cause exhaustion" mechanic, but I don't like barbarians types getting exhausted because the first level disadvantage on ability checks just makes the character who already struggled to be relevant in the social and exploration pillars completely useless for them.
2. You can use your bonus action to sustain your rage at the cost of 1d4 necrotic damage (representing some minor exhaustion hitting you as the adrenaline lapses, or something). While I like the basic way 5e rage incentivizes staying in combat and forces you to attack or take damage, there are too many instances of losing rage because you are dashing towards an enemy or something. While I considered some sort of doing "x, y, and, z other things that are conducive to continuing to wail on your opponents maintains rage" rule, it all got very complicated and gameable very quick, whereas being willing to sustain a little damage to stay angry feels fair enough and is plenty simple, while still keeping someone from raging between combats.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Leave the # of Rages per day as is. Those are now “Safe Rages.” Any Rages beyond that amount are “Frenzy Rages” ala the Berserker.

I would prefer a Relentless Attacks mechanic, where it's a DC 5 saving throw at the end of each rage, increasing by 5 every time. Reset on long rest.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Just build everything on Reckless Attack:

• Extra damage
• Advantage (to hit and against you)
• Resistance
• THP
• AoE damage
• Extended crit range

etc (some of them would be archetype-based, ofc)

Keep the other features mostly as-is.

Yeah that's similar to what I was suggesting. Then just call it "Rage" because people will be upset if Barbarians don't have a Rage ability.

Screw resource management!

QFT

 

[mellored]

I would prefer a Relentless Attacks mechanic, where it's a DC 5 saving throw at the end of each rage, increasing by 5 every time. Reset on long rest.

What if you get a bonus to the save equal to your barbarian level?

 

[Clint_L]

Just build everything on Reckless Attack:

• Extra damage
• Advantage (to hit and against you)
• Resistance
• THP
• AoE damage
• Extended crit range

etc (some of them would be archetype-based, ofc)

Keep the other features mostly as-is.

Screw resource management!

A lot of barbarians are built for tanking and don't reckless attack much. Wouldn't they be locked out of a lot of abilities?

 

[Clint_L]

I tend to agree that barbarians are a fairly well-tuned class right now. You're never unhappy to have a barbarian in the party. They are a simple class, but the game needs simple classes as well as complex ones. Mostly I think they just need a bit of fine-tuning.