Unearthed Arcana New Barbarian Primal Paths in November 7th Unearthed Arcana

The new paths are

• Path of the Ancestral Guardian
• Path of the Storm Herald
• Path of the Zealot

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

As compared to forcing all classes to be magical?

No, as compared to arbitrarily limiting which cool ideas are actually explored within a class's theme.

A subtle, but important, difference - it's not "forcing" any classes to be anything, even if that means they all (incidentally) end up with some magical options.

 

[Plaguescarred]

Some nice feature in there, including a few auto-damage one!

 

[ChapolimX]

This UA didn't catch me. Found the flavor bland and unremarkable. The mechanics are in the most part dispensable too. Lucky I only have to wait a week for the next one.

 

[Patrick McGill]

Yeah, not feeling the magical barbarian theme. I like having that option in the Totem subclass, but I would much prefer to see the barbarian expanding in non-magical ways now.

To me it just signals that anything cool must be magical.

That being said none of them look unbalanced and I'm sure players can do some fun stuff with them. I just don't find them at all interesting. I'd prefer if they took the old UA barbarian of yore and tried to bring some of the themes from that into 5th edition. The anti-magic and survival stuff.

 

[Croesus]

And really now I'll walk back my knee jerk reaction of concern to the concept of ongoing zone damage. It's a cool idea implemented with great flavor and inspires new ideas for characters. As it's a new 5e concept, it should still get extra scrutiny for how it interacts with existing rules, but I'm sure it will get worked out.

One concern I would have is NPCs with these abilities. Generally when the PCs drop someone, the target is dead. However, when PCs are dropped, they get to make death saves. Zone damage could quickly kill a downed PC, as each time the downed PC takes the auto damage, they instead receive a failed save.

 

[Tony Vargas]

No, as compared to arbitrarily limiting which cool ideas are actually explored within a class's theme.

A subtle, but important, difference - it's not "forcing" any classes to be anything,

I guess 'forcing classes' just didn't make much sense to me, in itself. Classes do not have things forced on them, they're just choices (sets of choices, really), in themselves, presented to players.
Clearly, there are a lot of sub-classes, and a lot of them are magical. Only a few classes have one of the non-magical options. That's 'forcing' a player (not a class) to choose from a restricted pool of classes if his concept doesn't call for magic.

even if that means they all (incidentally) end up with some magical options.

Also, 'incidentally' all those classes that do have non-magical sub-class options are focused pretty strongly on DPR.

It sure looks like something is being 'forced.' Even if it's not 'classes being forced to be magical...'

...even though all classes include at least one magical sub-class.

ongoing zone damage...As it's a new 5e concept, it should still get extra scrutiny for how it interacts with existing rules, but I'm sure it will get worked out.

Wall spells, Cloudkill, and Fire Shield, at least, do something vaguely of that nature, I'm sure there's plenty more.
And the ability is clearly magical - nature spirits conjuring up actual weather effects - so those precedents, though not exact, seem pretty valid.

 

[BookBarbarian]

New Barbarians!

Each option seems flavorful, Though Ancestors doesn't appeal to me personally.

Storm Herald looks pretty cool, Sea looks like my favorite option. Because if If I'm playing a Barbarian I don't want to bother having to divide numbers by 4. Combine with Tempest Clerics, Storm Sorcerers, Swashbucklers, and Anything with the Mariner fighting Style for a Steom/sea/Viking/Pirate party.

Zealot looks like it has a great synergy - fight until you die, and even after as long as your rage is going, then get rezzed for free. It's very Valhalla/Warrior's Rest. It plays well with the Acolyte background obviously, but also works as a Barbarian that is blessed by an unknown god. Or even cursed by one. It wouldn't even have to be Gods it could be some otherworldly being like the dark Powers in CoS.

Actually I like the cursed idea a lot. What if the reason it's so hard for you to die is because no god wants you in their afterlife? It could also work as a God of War/Kratos type character.

You could even combine UAs for A Revenant Zealot Barbarian, so you wouldn't even need a healer. Though that could easily be too much cheese. The stinkiest of undead cheese.

 

[TerraDave]

Not one, not two, but three new archesubclasses.

And they are doing this column every week now.

This has big implications.

 

[ChapolimX]

Not one, not two, but three new archesubclasses.

And they are doing this column every week now.

This has big implications.

Or, they might be only throwing to see what sticks.


To put more politely, experimenting with all kinds of ideas to only pick the ones who got the better feedback.

 

[Hathorym]

Nice, but why all the barbarians have magical abilities? I mean isn't too much magic already in the classes?
I would prefer to have some more options for non magical abilities especially for the so called martial classes like the barbarian.

I am of the firm belief that fluff and mechanics can be separated. I saw this and was curious if I could reflavor a path into a martial one, rather than a magical one. I used the Path of Ancient Spirits as my muse.

Path of the Stone Smasher
Like David in his battle with the giant, some barbarians are able to use stones to perform amazing martial feats. Stone Smashers keep a satchel of stones with them, prepared to use their fits of rage to impress upon their enemies that they're about to face an avalanche of pain.

Knock 'em Off-Balance
Beginning at 3rd level, you can use a stone in hand and your rage to distract your foes and protect your allies by continually smashing a rock in their face. While you're raging, you can use a bonus action to choose one creature you can see within 5 feet of you. Until the start of your next turn, or until your rage ends, the chosen creature has disadvantage on any attack that doesn't target you, and if the creature takes the disengage action within 5 feet of you, it's speed is halved until the end of its turn.

Brick Block
Beginning at 6th level, you gain the abilty to throw your stones at just the right time, giving protection to your allies while lowering your own defenses. if your are raging and ally within 30 feet of you takes bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage, you can use your reaction to transfer your resistance of those damage types to our ally. The resistance applies to the incoming damage. Until the start of your next turn, the ally keeps the resistance and you lack it, unless you also have it from a source other than rage.

Noggin' Smash
You greatly increase your chances to remember something in the depths of your puny brain by smashing rocks upside your head. Right before you make an Intelligence or Wisdom check, you can give yourself advantage on the check. You can use this feature three times, and you regain expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Rock Riposte
Your skill with stone throwing increases to allow you to be ready for any moment of supreme retaliation. When you or any ally you can see within 30 feet of you is damaged by a melee attack while you're raging, you can use your reaction to cause the attacker to take 2d8 force damage from a flying rock straight to their face.