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

[MostlyHarmless42]

As several others have stated, there are a number of counters if you wish to kill a zealot. That said, not dying is sort of their *thing*. They don't get much else to be perfectly frank. And coming from the perspective of the DM it kind of makes me happy that there is sort of an unspoken agreement with the zeolot player of "You WILL die. Don't worry, you'll get better." There's a sort of poetic freedom and stress relief in having a player character you can destroy with reckless abandon, and just have him come back multiple times. Honestly I think the best class feature they have isn't even the ability at 14, but the one that let's them be brought back without a material component cost. If I were playing a zeolot (which I will be soon), I'd talk with the party cleric, or hire an NPC to follow me around who's sole purpose is to sing my praises and bring me back from the dead. The sort of character right out of something akin to Beowulf, or Heracles. Of course, I'd pay him well.

 

[Shadowdweller00]

I really don't like the zealot death-breaking mechanic; and I strongly suspect that if I threw a Zealot NPC at the PCs, one might die (depending on party composition) before they realize what's going on and find ways to deal with it . HOWEVER, if we're going to talk about game or threat-breaking, we should probably compare it to things like Wall of Force or Forcecage. Level 14 is getting to or past the realistic end-point of many campaigns in my personal experience so...ultimately not likely to be that game-changing all in all. (YMMV naturally).

 

[Ancalagon]

It does mean they are incredibly vulnerable to a lot of "insta-kill" effects while at 0 HP. Disintegrate, Power Word Kill, Finger of Death, etc.

Heck, sleep. Stops the rage, lowest HP so first target...