Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Million Dollar TTRPG Crowdfunders
Most Anticipated Tabletop RPGs Of The Year
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Reevaluating 5.5 Classes?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="FrogReaver" data-source="post: 9889281" data-attributes="member: 6795602"><p>Got ya. To me the subclass often is the driver for what your most impactful thing to do is. Which is to say all the Barbarian subclasses are going to feel quite different in actual play.</p><p></p><p>Sticking with your Barbarian example:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Berserker - will feel like a damage god, but not super tanky. Usually sturdy enough, but nothing special.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Zealot - playstyle can closely match Beserker, but he can also play alot more tanky while still dishing out very good damage due to his subclass features not requiring reckless attack to activate. The bonus action healing is really strong in this range when coupled with rage damage resistance as well. If taking sentinel he can keep an enemy on himself as good as if not better than World Tree.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Wildheart - For typical encounters you most likely want to really lean into his mobility. This allows for some nice hit and run tactics and quickly getting on top of priority targets. Also, if fighting high non bps damage enemies, he can instead use bear instead of eagle to really increase survivability. Not often as good as Zealot or Berserker by the numbers but it doesn't take very many turns of the extra movement enabling extra hits or preventing attacks to push him up higher than the numbers suggest in actual play.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">World Tree - Intended as the support Barbarian, however the 10ft distance requirement to grant an ally temp hp really hampers the usefulness. Potentially good in tight dungeons or if you often have multiple melee allies dogpiling a single enemy. But generally my experience suggests that melee allies tend to spread out to engage with enemies on different fronts and that it's tactically best for them to do so to ensure the damage they take gets spread out instead of concentrated (essentially anti-party focus fire tactics).</li> </ul><p>I would find it difficult to rate the Barbarian as a class when each of their subclasses have such different impact profiles. I could rate each subclass individually and then perhaps average out a class rating. Potential rankings (might be lowered a bit depending on how other classes subclasses look in comparison as I dig in and depending on how much i should rate out of combat abilities).</p><p></p><p>Berserker A</p><p>Zealot A+</p><p>Wildheart B- (potential for B)</p><p>Worldtree B (potential in the right campaign, ie lots of small dungeons, or party, ie many melee allies for S)</p><p></p><p><strong>EDIT:</strong></p><p>I did decide to lower Wildheart a bit, he doesn't get his quasi flight ability till 14th level, outside the band i'm looking at. His level 6 and 10 features are mostly ribbons at least for combat.</p><p></p><p>Also slightly increased world tree B- to B for base. He does get some self temp hp. The real icing is if he can get his temp hp to target allies while still optimally contributing in damage, at that point he morphs into one of the best possible barbarians.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FrogReaver, post: 9889281, member: 6795602"] Got ya. To me the subclass often is the driver for what your most impactful thing to do is. Which is to say all the Barbarian subclasses are going to feel quite different in actual play. Sticking with your Barbarian example: [LIST] [*]Berserker - will feel like a damage god, but not super tanky. Usually sturdy enough, but nothing special. [*]Zealot - playstyle can closely match Beserker, but he can also play alot more tanky while still dishing out very good damage due to his subclass features not requiring reckless attack to activate. The bonus action healing is really strong in this range when coupled with rage damage resistance as well. If taking sentinel he can keep an enemy on himself as good as if not better than World Tree. [*]Wildheart - For typical encounters you most likely want to really lean into his mobility. This allows for some nice hit and run tactics and quickly getting on top of priority targets. Also, if fighting high non bps damage enemies, he can instead use bear instead of eagle to really increase survivability. Not often as good as Zealot or Berserker by the numbers but it doesn't take very many turns of the extra movement enabling extra hits or preventing attacks to push him up higher than the numbers suggest in actual play. [*]World Tree - Intended as the support Barbarian, however the 10ft distance requirement to grant an ally temp hp really hampers the usefulness. Potentially good in tight dungeons or if you often have multiple melee allies dogpiling a single enemy. But generally my experience suggests that melee allies tend to spread out to engage with enemies on different fronts and that it's tactically best for them to do so to ensure the damage they take gets spread out instead of concentrated (essentially anti-party focus fire tactics). [/LIST] I would find it difficult to rate the Barbarian as a class when each of their subclasses have such different impact profiles. I could rate each subclass individually and then perhaps average out a class rating. Potential rankings (might be lowered a bit depending on how other classes subclasses look in comparison as I dig in and depending on how much i should rate out of combat abilities). Berserker A Zealot A+ Wildheart B- (potential for B) Worldtree B (potential in the right campaign, ie lots of small dungeons, or party, ie many melee allies for S) [B]EDIT:[/B] I did decide to lower Wildheart a bit, he doesn't get his quasi flight ability till 14th level, outside the band i'm looking at. His level 6 and 10 features are mostly ribbons at least for combat. Also slightly increased world tree B- to B for base. He does get some self temp hp. The real icing is if he can get his temp hp to target allies while still optimally contributing in damage, at that point he morphs into one of the best possible barbarians. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Reevaluating 5.5 Classes?
Top