D&D 5E High Level Zealot Barbarians Immortal?

[Hawk Diesel]

Alright, let's say you are a barbarian with a ring of spell storing and you cast one of the spells you mentioned earlier before raging.

Leomund's Tiny Hut has an 8 hour duration without concentration. But it takes 1 min to cast, and ends the minute you leave the area. This "safe space" cannot help a Zealot Barbarian before fighting a boss.

Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion also has a casting time of 1 min. It's duration is longer at 24 hours without concentration. You could come and go, sure, unlike Leomund's Tiny Hut, but it's also a 7th level spell. If you know you are going into a boss fight and have access to spells of such a high level, you are wasting it by casting this spell.

Rope Trick is a one action spell and does have a 1 hour duration without concentration, so this one is a bit more reasonable to cast before a fight. However, unlike the other spells mentioned, it does not barr entry to creatures you designate as non-allies. As long as the rope is out, anyone including the boss can enter. So to make this work, you need to spend a minimum 1 round just to climb the rope and pull it up to prevent anyone else from entering, reducing any amount of time within the 10 round/1 minute window to get some healing. Not to mention if one enemy creature grabs the rope open before you pull it up, you are either pulling them up into the space if you're strong enough, or unable to pull it up and anyone in the area can climb up and enter until the maximum creature limit is reached.

Also, in all of these scenarios, while you give your Zealot barbarian time to prepare, you and are also giving the boss monster a chance to heal, escape, call in reinforcements, ect. If they aren't dead by then, they aren't gonna wait to keep getting punched in the face by a stronger opponent.

As for relentless rage, it specifically states:

Relentless Rage

Starting at 11th level, your rage can keep you fighting despite grievous wounds. If you drop to 0 hit points while you're raging and don't die outright, you can make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw. If you succeed, you drop to 1 hit point instead.

Each time you use this feature after the first, the DC increases by 5. When you finish a short or Long Rest, the DC resets to 10.

The bolded part of the quote emphasises my argument. Since a player cannot go into negative HP, the suggestion is clear that the attack must drop the player to 0 hit points in order to be activated. A Zealot Barbarian that is already at 0 hit points cannot be dropped to 0 hit points again. While there are many abilities that leave room for different interpretations, this one seems quite clear.

As for being level 14 characters, they should be hard to kill! They are high level and probably among the strongest paragons of their peoples. By that point most are leaders of kingdoms, generals of massive armies, or headmasters of magical colleges with great influence in the world. Such characters are less likely to be doing grunt adventuring work, and would likely only fight when times are dire and their underlings incapable of taking care of the matter facing them.

 

[Joseph Thompson1]

I think you guys are misreading it. "However, if you would die due to failing death saving throws, you don’t die until your rage ends, and you die then only if you still have 0 hit points. " This means that, even if you fail your saving throws, you're not dead till your rage ends. A single level dip into Fighter, while loosing out on the capstone, or any multiclass with non-spell healing abilities (Paladin, Tranquility or Open Hand Monk, ETC) would also allow you to just shrug off death. So yes, you would be, for all intents and purposes, unkillable. The only issue is that Persistant Rage does not mean the rage last forever; it means it can't end if you don't take or deal damage, but it will if you choose for it to end early or if it completes its full duration, of 1 minute. so in many cases, it still only gives you a few extra rounds. However, if you're playing at that level, going down isn't even a problem; do to the Warrior of the Gods feat, anything that can learn Revivify, even a Paladin at that level, could just pick you back up for the low price of 1 third level spell slot!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Death through hp loss seems to be pretty rare in 5e anyway. It's usually something like getting your brain sucked out that makes you dead.

However, this:

if you drop to 0 hit points while you're raging and don't die outright, you can make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw. If you succeed, you drop to 1 hit point instead.

raises a question.

What happens if your max hp have been reduced to 0 by a wraith?

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Death through hp loss seems to be pretty rare in 5e anyway. It's usually something like getting your brain sucked out that makes you dead.

However, this: raises a question.

What happens if your max hp have been reduced to 0 by a wraith?

Having Max HP reduced to 0 by a wraith is an instant death effect, so even the zealot won't survive that.

 

[BookBarbarian]

Having Max HP reduced to 0 by a wraith is an instant death effect, so even the zealot won't survive that.

Ability score damage works the same right?

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Ability score damage works the same right?

There's no generic "ability score damage" in 5e. Certain powers may reduce ability scores, but they all have their own specific rules.

 

[BookBarbarian]

There's no generic "ability score damage" in 5e. Certain powers may reduce ability scores, but they all have their own specific rules.

Thanks. I was thinking of a Shadow's Strength damage, but couldn't remember if other monsters had similar abilities.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Thanks. I was thinking of a Shadow's Strength damage, but couldn't remember if other monsters had similar abilities.

While it has never received errata, I genuinely believe the shadow's strength-damaging attack was left in as an error from prior iterations. It is the only example of "generic" ability damage in 5E, without sufficient supporting rules discussing how to adjudicate it.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The Shadow strength drain was modded a little for 5e to make it easier to recover from. But it is odd that most other attribute damage was removed. Maybe they just thought shadow strength drain was too iconic? I have come across a couple of diseases in 5e that still damage attributes as well though. And the Dwarf belt still gives +Con, despite most attribute buffs being removed.

Anyway, there are lots of ways to kill a raging zealot that they aren't immune to, so I don't see a real issue. It might be fun to put the players up against an NPC villain zealot and see how they cope.

 

[BookBarbarian]

While it has never received errata, I genuinely believe the shadow's strength-damaging attack was left in as an error from prior iterations. It is the only example of "generic" ability damage in 5E, without sufficient supporting rules discussing how to adjudicate it.

You might be right.

I remember fighting one with a level one Goliath Barbarian. It was about the scariest thing to face as a Barb (beside's Ilithids and Intellect devourers and the like.) Necrotic damage blew right past resistance, and strength damage turned my mighty Barb into invalid. It was nasty.