D&D 5E Horde of shifter barbarians, prepare for the deluge!

[BookBarbarian]

Does the Shifter THP fade after the Shift is over? From what I see it doesn't, So Shifting in the first combat and Raging in the second still has some synergy if there were THPs left over.

 

[TwoSix]

Meh. If your concern is that powergamers are going to flock to this option, I can tell you that I, as a powergamer, have little to no interest in this option.

Barbarian Rage is already incredibly strong defensively (especially as a Bear Totem), and lets you shrug off the increased number of hits you take from using Reckless Attack. Ablating a piece of that already reduced damage only once per short rest just isn't that interesting, especially on a race that isn't getting a Str increase. Especially since it only applies to attacks within 30', and as a Barbarian, I'm way more concerned about eating ranged damage, since I can't handle that as easily by running up and smashing it.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Does the Shifter THP fade after the Shift is over? From what I see it doesn't, So Shifting in the first combat and Raging in the second still has some synergy if there were THPs left over.

No, the THPs last until damaged away, the other features last for 1 minute (10 combat rounds).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Barbarian Rage is already incredibly strong defensively (especially as a Bear Totem),

I think the point of this would be to build a barbarian who focused on offence, not defence, and also one that wasn't so dependant on the quickly-used-up resource of Rage. I wouldn't pair it with bear totem.

 

[TwoSix]

I think the point of this would be to build a barbarian who focused on offence, not defence, and also one that wasn't so dependant on the quickly-used-up resource of Rage. I wouldn't pair it with bear totem.

If I'm going offense, I'm sacrificing both a 16 Str at level 1 and either PAM or GWM by going Shifter over V-Human. I might sacrifice one or the other for a defensive boost, but not both.

And to reiterate, I'm not arguing that it's bad, I actually think it's a pretty strong combo. It just isn't enough to shift the "meta" of best builds away from V-Human and cause the "deluge of shifter barbarians", per OP. Contrast this with Changelings getting +3 to Cha and being able to start with 18 Cha, which definitely puts Changelings on the top tier with V-Humans and Half-Elves for Cha-focused builds.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It pretty much make the point of why powergaming is bad: you end up with Vuman the ONLY valid option for a barbarian.

But if I where a powergamer I would never make a barbarian in the first place, which kind of counters it, maybe...

 

[TwoSix]

It pretty much make the point of why powergaming is bad: you end up with Vuman the ONLY valid option for a barbarian.

But if I where a powergamer I would never make a barbarian in the first place, which kind of counters it, maybe...

If you want to make a Shifter Barbarian, I don't see why you wouldn't. It's a good combo! Good powergaming understands that you don't always play the most damaging build possible. You absolutely can put in constraints based on concepts you want to do in the game, and then make the best choices within those constraints. But if your concept is "hard hitting melee character", shifter wouldn't be my choice to use with barbarian.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

But if your concept is "hard hitting melee character", shifter wouldn't be my choice to use with barbarian.

And Barbarian wouldn't be my choice either. Choosing either the shifter race or barbarian class are equally sub-optimal choices for maximising melee DPS.

 

[Zardnaar]

I find people are more likely to play non Optimally with rolled stats.

If you get a 16 plying an interesting race often takes precedence over starting with an 18.

Not all the time. Not to many players like starting with 14 or 15 primary.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It's not really an issue with my players, they tend to ignore optimisation all together.

There is another synergistic wrinkle in the Eberron book, although it's not completely new: bugbear + Assassinate.