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]

It sure looks like something is being 'forced.'

Perception varies.

And I'm not saying no one is out to get you, but seeing ill intent in what could be a coincidence is a sign of paranoia.

 

[I'm A Banana]

That's what backgrounds are for. Acolyte background and Barbarian class lets you pick Insight, Intimidation, Perception, and Religion. If you want a brute you can switch any for Athletics. I'm not seeing the problem.

It's not a problem in the sense that it would be the end of the world or some horrible abomination of game design or anything. It's just a question of using the best tools for the job.

I guess I think that if the only reason you want to use a barbarian to model this archetype is because barbarians have rage and so does this archetype, that's kind of a weak reason.

Ignore the rage mechanic for a second. Pretend the barbarian had no rage. Maybe they're rangers, whatever. If you wanted to make a character that was inspired with a holy lust for violence against the enemies of the faithful, would you still make it a barbarian?

I'd be inclined to go Cleric, or maybe Paladin. Give them a mechanic similar to rage (maybe Channel Divinity! Maybe a holy fury spell! An Oath of Zeal? A Zeal domain?), and you've got what you need.

It's not that using barbarian for this is wrong, it just doesn't fit very well. It's a square peg in the barbarian's round hole. Cram it in and shave the edges down and it'll fit well enough, but the two aren't clearly made for each other.

 

[flametitan]

The solution I've best gotten for the zealot while talking about it on reddit is to play up the aspect of being a pawn in its flavour. Perhaps they don't even know who the god giving them favour is, all they know is that they channel the energy needed to keeping fighting even when an ordinary human would drop dead.

 

[Aaron L]

I read the Zealot and immediately thought of Samson.

 

[Prakriti]

Another issue with the Zealot: it does damage to EVERY creature within 5 feet, including allies. That's bound to step on some toes, and it encourages groan-inducing solo play. "Everyone stand back while I deal with these monsters!"

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Another issue with the Zealot: it does damage to EVERY creature within 5 feet, including allies. That's bound to step on some toes, and it encourages groan-inducing solo play. "Everyone stand back while I deal with these monsters!"

It's usually quite easy to engage the same foe as your ally while remaining more than 5 feet away from your ally.

 

[AverageCitizen]

It's not a problem in the sense that it would be the end of the world or some horrible abomination of game design or anything. It's just a question of using the best tools for the job.

I guess I think that if the only reason you want to use a barbarian to model this archetype is because barbarians have rage and so does this archetype, that's kind of a weak reason.

Ignore the rage mechanic for a second. Pretend the barbarian had no rage. Maybe they're rangers, whatever. If you wanted to make a character that was inspired with a holy lust for violence against the enemies of the faithful, would you still make it a barbarian?

I'd be inclined to go Cleric, or maybe Paladin. Give them a mechanic similar to rage (maybe Channel Divinity! Maybe a holy fury spell! An Oath of Zeal? A Zeal domain?), and you've got what you need.

It's not that using barbarian for this is wrong, it just doesn't fit very well. It's a square peg in the barbarian's round hole. Cram it in and shave the edges down and it'll fit well enough, but the two aren't clearly made for each other.

I think the reason they want to use this archetype is that it works better for what they are going for. I think "Zealot" is a misnomer. Paladins are Zealots, filled with holy fury, like you describe. This is not supposed to be righteous fury. It is more like being possessed by Mars, Ares, or Tempus. Maybe Hextor. They rage because they are human avatars of battle, which, in many D&D cosmos, is a divine characteristic. I think it is a little bit of a twist on the normal Barbarian fluff but in the end it works perfectly.

 

[BookBarbarian]

I think the reason they want to use this archetype is that it works better for what they are going for. I think "Zealot" is a misnomer. Paladins are Zealots, filled with holy fury, like you describe. This is not supposed to be righteous fury. It is more like being possessed by Mars, Ares, or Tempus. Maybe Hextor. They rage because they are human avatars of battle, which, in many D&D cosmos, is a divine characteristic. I think it is a little bit of a twist on the normal Barbarian fluff but in the end it works perfectly.

It just makes me want to scream "Odin!" at the top of my lungs and swing an axe into somebodies face. So yeah. I'd play that guy.

 

[Leatherhead]

Lets see, now that I have some time to review this today:

Ancestral Guardian:
The flavor is a nice spin. This is the Defender-Barbarian. And the Action Economy Strain on the Barbarian Class is in full effect.

Ancestral Protectors:
Bonus action while in a Rage means it can't be used the first turn while Raging. Bonus Actions to keep it going means you aren't going to be doing anything other than locking down one enemy and won't play well with other defender-esque feat and ability selections on top of that. I don't really care for the way this is implemented.
Ancestral Shield
Reaction based Protection. Giving a use for a reaction is nice. Unfortunately this again conflicts with the traditional defender feats. However it is significantly longer lasting, and longer ranged, than other options making it viable if not better even if you have those choices.
Consult the spirits
I assume the limit/day restriction is tacked on to prevent giving permanent advantage on perception checks. I'm not sure if such a restriction is necessary.
Vengeful Ancestors
Finally a damage ability for the Ancestral Guardian. And it's a doozie. It's no weapon attack, but it has range, deals force damage, and will almost always go off if there are any enemy melee combatants. The reaction usage does create a problem with Ancestral Shield (the other main power of the Path) but presumably high level characters won't need that much protection and your ghost-mom will be free to smack some sense into your enemies. I would safely say this is the best level 14 barbarian ability we have seen so far.

Thoughts:
Why are Barbarians the poster child's for Action Economy Scarcity? That's just a weird mechanical theme for the class that is supposed to be all about brute force smashing. Also, this Path is heavily back-loaded. It's nice to have abilities to strive for, but you need a draw in point for level 3 too. And finally the Path seems engineered to not stack with traditional defender methods. This is kind of a bad thing considering defending eats your actions up like a tarrasque after waking up from a nap, meaning you can't do anything else other than defend anyway.

Storm Herald:
This Path is the opposite of the previous one, it's all about making the enemy get the heck away from your destructive path. With passive abilities! the Flavor is great and it also reminds me vaguely of the Worldbreaker Hulk.

Storm of Fury
Automatic damage in an AoE for no action? Are we sure the same people designed these two subclasses? I could imagine this ability eating up your reaction, and that would be fine by itself (because AoE Reaction!), or even as a bonus action because promised low AoE damage for a bonus action is great. But you can combo this with Polearm Master and/or Sentinel to give the enemy some painful non-options in melee combat. The sea ability works similarly, with the exception of at least allowing a save and only working on one target, and doing more damage. I honestly wonder if a strait up "You deal+x elemental damage with your melee attacks while in a rage" wouldn't have been better if they want to keep the idea of it working with everything.
Storm Soul
This is weak to compensate, no way around it. An additional resistance (compared to resisting nearly everything like a bear I would guess) and either water-breathing and ignoring select environmental effects. As an upside, no one can question why your barbarian is skimpily clad in the frozen tundra anymore.
Shield of the Storm
This is kind of useful, as it is an AoE Resistance buff on your party. It's also really weak considering it's only one type or resistance forever. More compensation for front-loading I presume.
Raging Storm
It's passive, it synergizes well with the rest of the Path, and it isn't powerful by itself. This is good, but not too good.

Thoughts:
This thing is the ideological opposite of the Ancestral Guardian by every metric. It's front-loaded as heck, allows for any other gimmick you can cram into it, and it's ripe for dip-abusing. Were they trying to make two extremes or what?


Path of the Zealot
Here is another subclass that takes part of the Cleric and shoves it into another class. Well, technically part of a Paladin, but the Paladin itself is a branch of the Cleric that fell off the tree and fell into a planting pot. Flavor is alright for what it is.

Divine Fury
This is the Necrotic/Holy flavor of Storm of Fury. Only with MORE damage, and the ability to hurt your allies, I am sure they will judge your devotion just and forgive you for such transgressions. Everything I said up there applies here too.
Warrior of the Gods
It's a fluff effect, but the fluff does destroy the "revolving door of death" and replaces it with a self-moving walkway. I can see some DM's not quite liking this at all.
Zealous Focus
This is interesting, in exchange for eating your ability to rage, you can automatically pass a saving throw. A very heavy price to pay, but it could be worth it. It is paying off for the font-loaded level 3 ability, in a non-direct way.
Zealous Presence
At first, I was thinking this was also paying divine fury off, but this is good enough by itself: It can set up a massive ambush once per day.
Rage Beyond Death
We are no longer paying off the level 3 ability. This is the most Rage-tastic Rage ability that has ever Raged. HP damage is no longer a concern for you, just getting hit enough times before you can work off those death saving throw failures, and even if you die by this level it's like a level 3 spell with no material components to pop you back up good as new. This should be the Barbarian ability that applies exhaustion, just saying.

Thoughts:
This is the best Path of the bunch, if any of them are OP, this is the one. It has front-loaded and back-loaded powers with a nice rider in the middle, it's also the most extreme in terms of what kind of damage it can pump out and how long it can survive. I would have to disapprove of this one as is.

 

[Parmandur]

It's not a problem in the sense that it would be the end of the world or some horrible abomination of game design or anything. It's just a question of using the best tools for the job.

I guess I think that if the only reason you want to use a barbarian to model this archetype is because barbarians have rage and so does this archetype, that's kind of a weak reason.

Ignore the rage mechanic for a second. Pretend the barbarian had no rage. Maybe they're rangers, whatever. If you wanted to make a character that was inspired with a holy lust for violence against the enemies of the faithful, would you still make it a barbarian?

I'd be inclined to go Cleric, or maybe Paladin. Give them a mechanic similar to rage (maybe Channel Divinity! Maybe a holy fury spell! An Oath of Zeal? A Zeal domain?), and you've got what you need.

It's not that using barbarian for this is wrong, it just doesn't fit very well. It's a square peg in the barbarian's round hole. Cram it in and shave the edges down and it'll fit well enough, but the two aren't clearly made for each other.

But...the Barbarian is just the Rage mechanic; that's like their entire thing, that and not wearing armor. There is actually shockingly little flavor, outdoorsy or bot: it's Rage and the ability to rock the AC without a shirt on.