The Path of the Reaper for Barbarians

[Herosmith14]

Here we are. This one was inspired by the Huntsmen from Lloyd Alexander's "Prydain Chronicles," and I ran with it. I kind of like the idea of a build up barbarian, and the theming fits nicely into a radical cult in my own campaign setting. I realize Reaping Blow might need a little balancing, so I'm curious as to see as how you would rebalance it.

Anyway, I look forward to any other advice to have.

Barbarian: Path of the Reaper
Many barbarians harness the powers of nature or inner turmoil in the form of rage. While thriving on violence, or at least advancing their power during it, they do not gain anything aside from the deaths of their foes aside from worldly benefits. You, however, feed on death; using the life energy released when the soul is severed to increase your own power.
[h=1]Reaping Blow[/h]Starting when you adopt this path at 3rd level, you can absorb the energy released when you bring a creature to or past the brink of death. Whenever you reduce a creature within 5ft of you to 0 hit points while raging, you may use your reaction to absorb the energy of your victim and gain the following benefits for the duration of your rage:

• You gain temporary hit points equal to the number of hit dice of the creature.
  
• You gain a +1 to all melee weapon attack rolls, to a maximum of +3.
  
• For every two uses of this feature, you gain a +1 to saving throws, to a maximum of +3.
  
• Your speed increases by 5ft

The creature reduced to 0 hit points must have a hit point maximum of at least 5 for you to gain this benefit. This feature does not work if the victim creature is a construct or undead.
[h=1]Reaper’s Veil[/h]Starting at 6th level, you gain the stealth and protection of the Reaper himself. You gain resistance to necrotic damage, and creatures have disadvantage on wisdom (Perception) checks against your dexterity (Stealth) when they are below their hit point maximum.
[h=1]Greater Reaping[/h]Starting at 10th level, your consumption of life energy grants you even greater power. Whenever you use your Reaping Blow feature, you receive the following, additional benefits.

• You regain hit points equal to the number of hit dice of the victim creature.
  
• You gain a +1 to the damage of your melee weapon attacks, to a maximum of +3.

[h=1]Grim Accomplice[/h]When you reach 14th level, you honed your senses to imminence of death that you are able to absorb the life from those who fall from others’ hands. Whenever a creature within 30ft of you is reduced to 0 hit points, you may use your Reaping Blow feature as a reaction.

 

[77IM]

I love the theme of this. It's actually totally sweet.

Quick feedback:

- I'd limit Reaping Blow to 1/turn to avoid someone with GWM doing a "bag of rats" trick with, I dunno, donkeys or something. E.g., round 1 = rage; kill all donkeys; get +3 to everything. Even if you don't drag 3 donkeys with you into the dungeon, I still think there may be a problem if the character goes after minions and racks up bonuses really fast. But I'd have to see this subclass in the hands of a decent min-maxer to really know. OTOH, the warlock's Dark One's Blessing has no such limitation. It only works on "hostile" creatures though. So an innocent donkey wouldn't get you anything.

- Also, doing +1, +2, +3 math on attack rolls can trip some people up really badly. I might do something like: "Whenever you kill a creature that has 5 or more hit points (not a construct or undead) while raging, you get a Reaper Point. When you make an attack roll, you can spend a Reaper Point to get advantage on the roll. You lose all Reaper Points when your rage ends." However, that's not quite the same as the build-up effect you were looking for. Conversely, you could try switching the damage bonus and the attack bonus. For some reason adding small numbers to damage feels easier to me, and so that could kick in at 3rd level, and then the attack bonus happens at 10th level, at which point the player is (hopefully) familiar enough with playing their character to do the math quickly. OTOH, I think the +1 to +3 bonus scale feels roughly balanced.

- I wouldn't specify "within 5 feet of you" because it eliminates polearms, and I think if a barbarian wants to shoot or throw a weapon at someone to kill them, that should count.

- The "for every two uses of this feature, +1 to saving throws" is really tricky to track. I imagine a lot of "Wait, was that my fourth kill? I think I get another save bonus." Instead, I'd make it +1 per kill, but only to certain saves (like only Wisdom and Charisma saves, for example). Or, just ditch it; it's not really required for this character concept to work properly, and this ability is already plenty powerful with just the temp HP and the attack bonus.

- Does the speed increase have a maximum? "Hey guys, I just carved my way through 10 kobolds and now I move 90 ft. per round!" I think that it's probably fine to have no maximum, because it would take a long time to really get this up to abusive levels.

- This sounds like a super attractive 3-level dip for Champion fighters (since you can still get to Fighter 17, by which point you have 3 attacks, crit range 18-20, and two Action Surges) because the benefits of Reaping Blow aren't based on your barbarian level at all. So it might be better to cap the temp HP and the bonuses to something based on your barbarian level. For example, the bonus could start out with max +2, and increase to max +3 at 10th level, and max +4 at 14th level. Capping the temp HP is a little harder; I like the idea that killing a huge foe gets you more temp HP. For symmetry with Dark One's Blessing, you could cap it at your barbarian level + your Constitution modifier (minimum 1). Unfortunately, that would mean the character is hitting the cap a LOT (it's not uncommon for a creature to have twice as many HD as its CR), which may feel crummy. I don't really have a good recommendation.

 

[Herosmith14]

Thanks for the advice. I was debating the 5ft limit, and I think you have a point. The big intended benefit of GA is that YOU don't have to kill the thing (and a possible TPK walk since you could activate it on your friends, too) . I also think I'll probly just ditch saves.

Also, I don't know if you noticed, but Reaping Blow takes a reaction to use (intended as a double stop for Bag of Rats). This makes it so you get 1 RB a round.

 

[Jester David]

I like the idea. This is a cool concept for a barbarian. Great story and fun flavour, but not something that hadn’t been done before.

Okay, nitpicky time.

The first level feature feels like it shouldn’t use your reaction. You should just get the bonus. I might not make it tied to the enemy’s Hit Dice as that requieres taking to the DM and asking the creature’s HD. It might be easier to make it static number the player knows, so they can just add it. (Plus, this should feel useful even if fighting an army of monks.)
Maybe equal to half the character’s barbarian level. Or 1/2 level plus an ability modifier. Wisdom? Charisma?

Bonuses to saves and attacks feel fiddly, especially if they might change often. Something small but static (like adding half your proficiency bonus to your Rage damage) might work just as well.

The 6th and 10th level features of barbarians tend to be more utility based and less offensive. The 6th level feature here works. But the 10th level feature doesn’t work. Too offensive for that level. Maybe something about staving off death, such as stabilizing quickly. Maybe instead healing rather than gaining temp hp if below half your maximum hp.
It might be fine to add a neat reaping ribbon here. Like hostile creatures within 30 feet of you having disadvantage on death saving throws.