D&D 5E Talenta Dino Rider (Barbarian Archetype)

[Hawk Diesel]

So I have to give credit to [MENTION=284]Caliban[/MENTION] for putting me on this path. I've always loved Eberron and the Halfling Barbarians that travel the Talenta Plains. This is an attempt to bring the archetype into 5e. I'll work on fluff text later, but right now I really wanna get the mechanics out and make sure they work.

Talenta Dino Rider

Bonded Dinosaur
As a member of the Talenta Dino Riders, you were given a dinosaur egg as a child. Caring for and nurturing this egg was a rite of passage into adulthood. When it hatched, you were considered a Pyode Kv'var-de which means "near-adult" or "soft hunter." As you grew, your dinosaur grew. It watched you, learned from you, and you from it. And now, it has finally reached maturity. By raising and caring for your dinosaur, and training it to be a great hunter, you have earned your place within the tribe as a Yeyin Sain'ja, or "Brave Hunter." You and your dinosaur are as one.

At 3rd level, you gain a dinosaur companion. The companion obeys your commands as best it can. It rolls for initiative like any other creature, but you determine its actions, decisions, attitudes, and so on. If you are incapacitated or absent, your companion acts on its own. Your companion begins with the following statistics:

Dinosaur
Medium or Large Beast

Speed 50 ft.
Hit Points 18 (3d8 + 3)

Armor Class 13

STR 12 (+1)
DEX 12 (+1)
CON 12 (+1)
INT 3 (-4)
WIS 12 (+1)
CHA 6 (-2)

Senses Darkvision 60'
Languages Cannot speak, but understands any languages of its master

ACTIONS

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d6+3 slashing damage.

In addition, your Dinosaur is proficient in all savings throws, and you may choose 2 proficiencies out of the following skills for your dinosaur to be proficient: Athletics, Acrobatics, Perception, Stealth, Survival.

Your dinosaur has abilities and game statistics determined in part by your level. Your dinosaur uses your proficiency bonus rather than its own. In addition to the areas where it normally uses its proficiency bonus, your dinosaur also adds its proficiency bonus to its AC (if it is wearing no armor/barding. Otherwise, use whichever AC is higher) and to its damage rolls (both already included in statistics above).

For each barbarian level you gain after 3rd, your dinosaur gains an additional hit die and increases its hit points accordingly. Whenever you gain the Ability Score Improvement class feature, your dinosaur’s abilities also improve. Your dinosaur can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or it can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, your dinosaur can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature unless its description specifies otherwise. Your dinosaur shares your alignment.

If your dinosaur dies, your bond causes its body to flash, leaving behind an egg in a pile of ash. The egg hatches into a hatchling dinosaur after a long rest. You bond is such that the hatchling magically grows much more quickly than normal, requiring only a week to reach maturity. Until your dinosaur reaches maturity, you must protect and nurture it, preventing it from being of use in combat.

Gahn'tha-cte Kujhade, or Ruthless Destroyer
At 6th level, Talenta Warriors learn to take on foes much larger than their size. If you are small, you are able to use Heavy weapons without penalty. In addition, you are considered one size category bigger for the purposes of grapple.

Nracha-dte Vor'mekta, or Relentless Stalker
Talenta Dino Riders are extremely capable at mounted combat. At 10th level, mounting and dismounting your dinosaur only costs 5' of movement. Also, as long as you are conscious, you cannot be knocked off your dinosaur.

N'yaka-de Paya, or True Master
You and your dinosaur truly act as a single being. Beginning at 14th level, whenever you enter rage, your dinosaur also gains the benefits of rage.

OPTIONAL RULES

In the interest of making this a bit interesting (ie customizing your dinosaur), whenever your dinosaur would normally gain a stat bump, you could instead take a Dinosaur Feat from the choices below:

Natural Armor
Your dinosaur gains armor plating, giving it a +2 to Armor Class.

Poison Spittle
Your dinosaur gains a spit attack that has a chance to temporarily blind an opponent. The dinosaur chooses a target within 30'. The target must make a Con Save (8 + Proficiency Bonus + Constitution Bonus) or be blinded. The target may make a new save at the end of each turn, ending the condition on a success. The dinosaur can use this ability once per long rest.

Multiattack
Prerequisite: Dinosaur must have a score of at least 16 in Strength or Dexterity
Your dinosaur can make two claw attacks when it takes the attack action.

Fly
Prerequisite: Dinosaur must have a score of at least 14 in Strength or Dexterity
Your dinosaur gains a fly speed equal to its walking speed. The dinosaur can carry you when flying as long as you are wearing armor no heavier than medium.

Quick Reflexes
Prerequisite: Dinosaur must have a score of at least 14 in Dexterity
Your dinosaur can react to danger. As a reaction whenever it takes damage, it can reduce the damage by half.

Powerful Jaws
Your dinosaur has instead mastered its jaws as a powerful weapon. As an action your dinosaur can make a bite attack that deals 1d8+strength piercing damage. If it hits with its bite attack, it can attempt a grapple as a bonus action.

Dinosaur Fortitude
Your dinosaur's maximum hit points increases +2 for each hit dice it possess. Anytime it gains new hit dice, it adds an additional +2 to its maximum hit points.

Superior Senses
Your dinosaurs senses sharpen as it grows as a hunter. Choose sight, hearing, or smell. Your dinosaur's proficiency bonus is doubled for Perception (Wisdom) checks involving that sense. May be taken multiple times, choosing a new sense each time.

Camouflage
Your dinosaur has mastered the ability to change the color of its skin to match its surroundings. Your proficiency bonus is doubled whenever making a Stealth (Dexterity) check.

 

[Caliban]

It feels like they should get the Mounted Combat feat as well, probably at 3rd level. I know the dinosaur gains Hit Dice as the barbarian levels, but they are still far more vulnerable with their 13 AC, at least until 14th level.

Other option is for them to get the True Master ability a lot earlier, and have something else as the 14th level ability.

 

[Hawk Diesel]

Thanks for the feedback [MENTION=284]Caliban[/MENTION]! I also looked at the mounted combat feat for ideas, but decided not to implement them for a few reasons.

1) The AC starts low, but will grow. The idea is that the dinosaur is supposed to be squishy at lower levels, because it is still growing and quite young. Even if the dinosaur does not increase its dexterity at all (which it can do whenever the barbarian gains the Ability Score Improvement), by level 20 it will have an 17 AC. That's pretty respectable given bounded accuracy.

2) As the dinosaur acts on its own turn with its own initiative and full suite of actions, I didn't want the dinosaur to outshine the other players in combat. It could get a few good licks in, but after a while (until he grows up) he'll be using the Dodge action and be more about positioning and using his reaction to get AoO's when bad guys try to move around the battlefield.

3) While these are Talenta Dino Riders, in Eberron (As I envision it) they get their name from outsiders who see them riding dinosaurs. But the dinosaurs are much, much more than mounts for the Talenta Barbarians. They are partners. They work together, protect each other, and would die for each other. Using the dinosaurs as a mount is an option, but it is a very tiny part of their relationship.

 

[Caliban]

By lvl 20 you'll be facing foes with an attack bonus of 12+ (probably much higher). PC's can get that at lvl 10 or 12.

At lvl 10 the Dino will have an AC 15 and be hit 85% of the time by something with a +12 attack bonus. And things with an attack bonus that high tend to hit HARD because they are things like giants and dragons or huge monsters. (example: Fire giant is CR 9, has +11 to hit, two attacks, and does 28 damage a hit).

I'm just saying, it's not much fun playing a mounted character if your mount gets killed all the time because it's a more viable target than you are.

 

[Hawk Diesel]

So one thing I did to address this is bring up the idea of armor/barding for the dinosaur. If the dinosaur has armor, it won't gain the proficiency bonus to AC, it will just use the higher bonus.

You're right that it's no fun to have your pet die, especially when this one effectively takes a week to respawn. But at the same time, it shouldn't on its own outclass any of the other players, since it effectively doubles the barbarian's action economy.

 

[Caliban]

Yeah, it's just something I think needs special attention to and probably do some actual playtesting to see how much of an issue it actually is.

Anecdotal story - DM decided to send a squad of mounted knights against our group of PC's. We were all lvl 10, they were all dual wielding lances and using the speed of the horses to hit and run.

That lasted precisely one round, after that we just used knockback attacks to blow the riders off their mounts and then kill their mounts before they could remount and get close enough to charge again. (A battlemaster and two warlocks with repelling blast on our side.)

The mounts were the weak point, once we took care of them, the knights were toast.

 

[Hawk Diesel]

I added optional dinosaur feats to add customization possibilities.

 

[Jimbo_84]

Yo guys, this topic sounds really TASTY. I am planning with my brother to make out a kinda dinosaur rider/master for his own character, an Ork.

I do wonder if you have been exploring and testing out this homebrew class of yours man! Have been working well? have you made adjustment to it?

Ideally would be fun to get this idea and flex it with a "dino trainer", if you think that would be a legit evolution of the character that would be able not only to bond with his own Dino, but eventually to get to know and train other dinos, with the limit that he will be able to control just one at time and need a kind of bounding to it. He could also develop a certain dino knowledge to spot week and strength points

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Yo guys, this topic sounds really TASTY. I am planning with my brother to make out a kinda dinosaur rider/master for his own character, an Ork.

I do wonder if you have been exploring and testing out this homebrew class of yours man! Have been working well? have you made adjustment to it?

Ideally would be fun to get this idea and flex it with a "dino trainer", if you think that would be a legit evolution of the character that would be able not only to bond with his own Dino, but eventually to get to know and train other dinos, with the limit that he will be able to control just one at time and need a kind of bounding to it. He could also develop a certain dino knowledge to spot week and strength points

Since the thread was created, Tasha's Cauldron of Everything came out, and has the option for Beastmaster pets and summons that automatically scale with the character. You have a few different types, so that might give you the flexibility you're after.

Alternatively, you could use the Sidekick rules also in Tashas to turn a dinosaur NPC into a party ally that will scale fairly well with them.

While the Talentas halflings are barbarians culturally, I would imagine many of their warriors are Rangers in terms of class.

 

[Hawk Diesel]

Yo guys, this topic sounds really TASTY. I am planning with my brother to make out a kinda dinosaur rider/master for his own character, an Ork.

I do wonder if you have been exploring and testing out this homebrew class of yours man! Have been working well? have you made adjustment to it?

Ideally would be fun to get this idea and flex it with a "dino trainer", if you think that would be a legit evolution of the character that would be able not only to bond with his own Dino, but eventually to get to know and train other dinos, with the limit that he will be able to control just one at time and need a kind of bounding to it. He could also develop a certain dino knowledge to spot week and strength points

So I actually have revised this class and will post the update below. If you're familiar with Matt Colville's Strongholds and Followers, I've adjusted the dinosaur companion to be a retainer. In fact, any subclass feature that includes a companion has been homebrewed in my games to be a type of retainer. I've also done the same with all the Summon X or Conjure X spells to be special kinds of retainers.

Here's my updated Dino Rider archetype:

Path of the Dino Rider​

As a member of the Dino Riders, you were given a dinosaur egg once you came of age. Caring for and nurturing this egg was a rite of passage into adulthood. When it hatched, you were considered a Pyode Kv'var-de which means "near-adult" or "soft hunter." As you grew, your dinosaur grew. It watched you, learned from you, and you from it. And now, it has finally reached maturity. By raising and caring for your dinosaur, and training it to be a great hunter, you have earned your place within the tribe as a Yeyin Sain'ja, or "Brave Hunter." You and your dinosaur fight and adventure are as one.

Originally embodied in the cultural traditions of nomadic halflings, these barbarians share a sacred bond with a dinosaur companion. Barbarians that follow this Primal Path raise these dinosaurs from birth and treat them as family. This path is quite rare, as the nomadic halflings purposely try to refrain from contact with the civilized races. Those barbarians that manage to follow the path find themselves not just with a pet, but often grow to consider the dinosaur companion as a brother and equal.

Path of the Dino Rider Features

Barbarian Level	Feature
3rd	Bonded Dinosaur
6th	Ruthless Destroyer
10th	Relentless Stalker
14th	True Master

Bonded Dinosaur
At 3rd level, you gain a dinosaur companion. The companion is a level 1 retainer per retainer rules. You can choose the cosmetic aspects of your dinosaur companion. In addition to the normal retainer statistics, your companion is either medium or large size, has a speed of 50 feet, and advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smell. You and your dinosaur companion share a special language that only you can understand. You can choose from the following retainer options: Reaver, Spirit Warden, Sword Master, Acolyte of the Way, or Beast Master.

Your dinosaur companion increases in level as you do. It is always a level equal to half your level (rounded down), to a maximum of level 7.

If your Dinosaur Companion dies, your bond causes its body to flash, leaving behind an egg in a pile of ash. The egg hatches into a hatchling dinosaur as you start a long rest. You bond is such that the hatchling magically grows much more quickly than normal, reaching maturity by the end of your long rest.

Gahn'tha-cte Kujhade, or Ruthless Destroyer
At 6th level, Dino Riders learn to take on foes much larger than their size. If you are small, you are able to use Heavy weapons without penalty.

In addition, your dinosaur companion’s attacks count as magical for the purposes of resistance.

Nracha-dte Vor'mekta, or Relentless Stalker
Dino Riders are extremely capable at mounted combat. At 10th level, mounting and dismounting your dinosaur companion only costs 5' of movement. Also, as long as you are riding your dinosaur companion, you can force an attack targeted at your dinosaur companion to target you instead.

N'yaka-de Paya, or True Master
You and your dinosaur truly act as a single being. Beginning at 14th level, whenever you enter rage, your dinosaur companion also gains the benefits of rage.