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New Barbarian Primal Paths in November 7th Unearthed Arcana
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<blockquote data-quote="Leatherhead" data-source="post: 7703373" data-attributes="member: 53176"><p>Lets see, now that I have some time to review this today:</p><p></p><p><strong>Ancestral Guardian:</strong></p><p>The flavor is a nice spin. This is the Defender-Barbarian. And the Action Economy Strain on the Barbarian Class is in full effect.</p><p></p><p><em>Ancestral Protectors:</em></p><p>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.</p><p><em>Ancestral Shield</em></p><p>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.</p><p><em>Consult the spirits</em></p><p>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.</p><p><em>Vengeful Ancestors</em></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p><u>Thoughts: </u></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p><strong>Storm Herald:</strong></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p><em>Storm of Fury</em></p><p>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.</p><p><em>Storm Soul</em></p><p>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.</p><p><em>Shield of the Storm</em></p><p>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.</p><p><em>Raging Storm</em></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p><u>Thoughts:</u></p><p>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?</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>Path of the Zealot</strong></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p><em>Divine Fury</em></p><p>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.</p><p><em>Warrior of the Gods</em></p><p>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.</p><p><em>Zealous Focus</em></p><p>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.</p><p><em>Zealous Presence</em></p><p>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.</p><p><em>Rage Beyond Death</em></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p><u>Thoughts:</u></p><p>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.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Leatherhead, post: 7703373, member: 53176"] Lets see, now that I have some time to review this today: [B]Ancestral Guardian:[/B] The flavor is a nice spin. This is the Defender-Barbarian. And the Action Economy Strain on the Barbarian Class is in full effect. [I]Ancestral Protectors:[/I] 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. [I]Ancestral Shield[/I] 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. [I]Consult the spirits[/I] 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. [I]Vengeful Ancestors[/I] 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. [U]Thoughts: [/U] 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. [B]Storm Herald:[/B] 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. [I]Storm of Fury[/I] 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. [I]Storm Soul[/I] 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. [I]Shield of the Storm[/I] 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. [I]Raging Storm[/I] 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. [U]Thoughts:[/U] 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? [B]Path of the Zealot[/B] 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. [I]Divine Fury[/I] 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. [I]Warrior of the Gods[/I] 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. [I]Zealous Focus[/I] 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. [I]Zealous Presence[/I] 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. [I]Rage Beyond Death[/I] 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. [u]Thoughts:[/u] 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. [/QUOTE]
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