D&D 5E Barbarian Totem: The Bunny
- Thread starter El Gallo Negro
- Start date
I have actually played two characters with bunny as their totem, one barbarian/ranger in D&D and a shaman in Shadowrun. They were both from areas of the world with such terrible predators that learning how to run, hide and burrow like a bunny was the only real hope people had. It was fun playing a totem that was the prey, rather than the predator.
I would lean towards a few abilities like:
- Run speed and disadvantage on opportunity attacks against you.
- Jump spell x/day
- Burrow as a ritual, burrow in combat slows the game down and leads to rules issues. Keep it for making camp and exploring areas.
This way they have some cool stuff useful in combat, but is movement and positioning related. A bunny should not have straight up combat bonuses.
The big one for me would be this:
- Fight or Flight = Do not need to attack to maintain "rage" being threatened is enough. This makes them unique, as they can put up their 'rage' then run through an enemy camp or dungeon at super speed, giving disadvantage on opportunity attacks and jumping like mad, all the while having advantage on strength checks like athletics. This would give them a pretty cool niche that could be really useful. While the party is fighting, the barbarian runs past enemies, kicks in the door, grabs the princess and jumps out the window and runs past the startled guards.
I would lean towards a few abilities like:
- Run speed and disadvantage on opportunity attacks against you.
- Jump spell x/day
- Burrow as a ritual, burrow in combat slows the game down and leads to rules issues. Keep it for making camp and exploring areas.
This way they have some cool stuff useful in combat, but is movement and positioning related. A bunny should not have straight up combat bonuses.
The big one for me would be this:
- Fight or Flight = Do not need to attack to maintain "rage" being threatened is enough. This makes them unique, as they can put up their 'rage' then run through an enemy camp or dungeon at super speed, giving disadvantage on opportunity attacks and jumping like mad, all the while having advantage on strength checks like athletics. This would give them a pretty cool niche that could be really useful. While the party is fighting, the barbarian runs past enemies, kicks in the door, grabs the princess and jumps out the window and runs past the startled guards.
iserith
Magic Wordsmith
The ability to multiply quickly.
Saeviomagy
Adventurer
Eagle, elk and tiger totem all offer various movement enhancements at various levels. Take a mix of those and call them bunny.
I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
You might want to crib notes from Elk especially.
Those all scream "bunnies" to me - the first two are just fast and the last one is a hop/kick. You could go with a different capstone and maybe a different mid-tier ability, though, if you wanted some diversity/other things.
- When you're raging, +15 ft. speed
- Travel pace is doubled
- Pass through the space of another creature and knock them prone
Those all scream "bunnies" to me - the first two are just fast and the last one is a hop/kick. You could go with a different capstone and maybe a different mid-tier ability, though, if you wanted some diversity/other things.
Fralex
Explorer
Totem Spirit:
-Do the elk thing that adds 15 ft to your movement.
It's already legal, so you don't have to worry about balance, and in addition to giving you a more cunicular move rate, it will also help your jumping ability. See, jump distance is based on STR, and as a barbarian that'll already be pretty high. But your max jump distance is still limited by your max move rate. This'll allow you to complete a full long jump while raging and still have some movement left over.
Aspect of the Beast:
Several ideas-
-You gain the luck of a rabbit. Once per day, after seeing the result of an ability check you made but before knowing if it succeeded, you may choose to reroll that check and use either number.
-You gain the charm and guile of a rabbit. You add twice your proficiency bonus whenever making a Persuasion or Deception check, instead of any proficiency bonus you usually apply.
Both are simple ideas based around the mythology of rabbits that should make for an interesting utility. Alternatively:
-You gain the ears of a rabbit. You can hear moderate-level sound up to two miles away (yes, this is biologically accurate for rabbits), such as the approach of humanoids or the early signs of an oncoming storm. Additionally, You have tremorsense out to 30 feet.
Totemic Attunement:
-While raging, you have a burrowing and climbing speed equal to your current walking speed. You are capable of digging through terrain made of loose earth or softer, and you leave behind a tunnel big enough for a creature of your size to squeeze through.
Keep in mind that next level you'll gain Persistant Rage, meaning you can keep rage-digging as long as you want or until you fall unconscious. Alternatively:
-While raging, once per turn, if you score a critical hit or reduce a creature to 0 HP with a melee attack, you can move up to your speed.
This can be flavored as a sort of leaping around the battlefield, tearing apart one foe and immediately jumping to the next. Like the Monty Python bunny!
-Do the elk thing that adds 15 ft to your movement.
It's already legal, so you don't have to worry about balance, and in addition to giving you a more cunicular move rate, it will also help your jumping ability. See, jump distance is based on STR, and as a barbarian that'll already be pretty high. But your max jump distance is still limited by your max move rate. This'll allow you to complete a full long jump while raging and still have some movement left over.
Aspect of the Beast:
Several ideas-
-You gain the luck of a rabbit. Once per day, after seeing the result of an ability check you made but before knowing if it succeeded, you may choose to reroll that check and use either number.
-You gain the charm and guile of a rabbit. You add twice your proficiency bonus whenever making a Persuasion or Deception check, instead of any proficiency bonus you usually apply.
Both are simple ideas based around the mythology of rabbits that should make for an interesting utility. Alternatively:
-You gain the ears of a rabbit. You can hear moderate-level sound up to two miles away (yes, this is biologically accurate for rabbits), such as the approach of humanoids or the early signs of an oncoming storm. Additionally, You have tremorsense out to 30 feet.
Totemic Attunement:
-While raging, you have a burrowing and climbing speed equal to your current walking speed. You are capable of digging through terrain made of loose earth or softer, and you leave behind a tunnel big enough for a creature of your size to squeeze through.
Keep in mind that next level you'll gain Persistant Rage, meaning you can keep rage-digging as long as you want or until you fall unconscious. Alternatively:
-While raging, once per turn, if you score a critical hit or reduce a creature to 0 HP with a melee attack, you can move up to your speed.
This can be flavored as a sort of leaping around the battlefield, tearing apart one foe and immediately jumping to the next. Like the Monty Python bunny!
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Fralex
Explorer
That sounds like a very unpleasant ability for a female adventurer to end up with.
"You gain the reproductive prowess of a rabbit. You give birth to 8 (3d4) healthy infants after being pregnant for 30 (1d4 + 27) days."
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Azurewraith
Explorer
I think every ones pretty much covered the main things. I will just add maybe an ability similar to uncanny Dodge as prey animals tend to see more "frames per second" for lack of a better term, could be a Tad op with rage though.
Mercule
Adventurer
Likewise. After stepping back and purging my brain for a sec... Same thing.
Thinking back to the infestation of rabbits we had, last summer, and trying to use my sling-shot on them (I'm a farm boy trapped in the city; rabbits are vermin), I came up with:
- uncanny dodge: I have no idea how, but they always know when the attack is coming
- taunt: They stare at you, just out of reliable range; functionally equivalent to Mark in the DMG
- twitchy: Use a bonus action for Dash, Disengage, or Dodge actions (probably redundant with uncanny dodge)
- enraged cry: When you take damage, you can use your reaction to cry out with an inhuman sound that requires all opponents within 30' to save or be Stunned for one round. You cannot use this ability again until you take a short or long rest.
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