D&D 5E New Primal Path and Why it is OP

[Caliban]

A Zealot operating at zero hit points and three failed death saves can be instantly killed with a level one sleep spell with no save allowed, so no, it's not an especially overpowered feature. It's cool, thematic, and useful, but not overpowered.

They are immune to the "unconscious" status while raging, so Sleep doesn't work. Other stuff will though.

 

[Croesus]

Not exactly - they die at the end of their rage if they fail 3. Until then they are dead on their feet and still fighting. Unless they get any healing before their rage ends. Such as popping a potion after you kill the last of your opponents.

That could get awfully tricky any time the rage ends. The battle goes for more than 10 rounds? The barbarian's rage will end before the barbarian can again enter rage. The barbarian fails a save against various spells, such as hold person or confusion or hypnotic pattern, effectively losing his turn? Rage ends unless the barbarian takes damage during that time. Heck, a lowly carrion crawler could kill the barbarian if he misses a couple saves, assuming it just drags him away once paralyzed.

And as others have pointed out, a sleep spell, or one of the power word spells could easily take out the barbarian.

Path of the Zealot is powerful, but doesn't make the barbarian un-killable.

 

[Waterbizkit]

They are immune to the "unconscious" status while raging, so Sleep doesn't work. Other stuff will though.

Where does it say that? It says dropping to zero hit points does not make them fall unconscious, it says nothing about being immune to the unconscious condition. Unless I'm missing something somewhere?

 

[Croesus]

They are immune to the "unconscious" status while raging, so Sleep doesn't work. Other stuff will though.

I disagree. The exact text is "While you're raging, having zero hit points doesn't knock you unconscious." They would still be affected by a sleep spell, as it's not dependent on the target creature having zero hit points. Of course, if the barbarian is an elf...

 

[Caliban]

Where does it say that? It says dropping to zero hit points does not make them fall unconscious, it says nothing about being immune to the unconscious condition. Unless I'm missing something somewhere?

Sorry, don't have the book with me and I was going by the OP's post where they said the barb was immune to the "Unconscious" status.

 

[BookBarbarian]

A Zealot operating at zero hit points and three failed death saves can be instantly killed with a level one sleep spell with no save allowed, so no, it's not an especially overpowered feature. It's cool, thematic, and useful, but not overpowered.

Good enough reason for me to make a Half-Elf Zealot.

 

[William Hola]

Sorry, I was just giving a brief description of what the thing did. I fixed that part where I said they are immune to the status effect.

 

[pukunui]

[MENTION=6916057]William Hola[/MENTION]: There's also this thread: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?598259-High-Level-Zealot-Barbarians-Immortal

 

[Zmajdusa]

That ability combos nicely with the Circle of Mortality Ability Grave clerics get.

 

[mellored]

Who else has noticed that the new primal path (barbarian) Zealot is way too overpowered at level 14? If I am reading it correctly, the barbarian is unkillable if he has a good healer or just a few healing potions. For those people who don’t have the book yet, it says that while the barbarian in raging he cannot get the unconscious effect due to getting to 0 HP and if he gets healed even after “dying” due to death saving throws he can still stay alive. That means if he is level 15 per say and he has a nice regenerate spell casted on him, he won't die. Do yall have any thoughts on this?

That tactic works for anyone. A fighter goes down, get's healed, stands up, and attacks without missing a turn.

The barbarian just doesn't need to stand up, or lose it's rage. Nice, but hardly OP.