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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Barbarian Path of the Protector



ZenBear
2018-08-08, 11:18 PM
Upon witnessing the destruction of her village and the deaths of her beloved family and friends, a young girl takes up a rusty sword and charges the invading goblins, heedless of her own safety.

A grizzled brigand, decorated with scars from a hundred brawls, is shocked by his own actions as he shouts a command to the thugs across the tavern to stop harassing the helpless barmaid.

As the giant looms over the terrified villagers, a lone vagabond steps forward to meet it. As the giant slams its enormous club down on the man, it reels back in stunned agony.

The Path of the Protector is one of selfless courage. All barbarians are deeply in touch with their emotions, especially anger. For some, this connection extends to the emotions of others, becoming so powerful as to forge a mystical bond. They are almost compelled to rush to the aid of others, their bodies moving on their own. Some seek this path, devoting themselves to deep introspection and empathy. Others come across it not of their own volition, being swept along by instincts beyond their comprehension or control.

Martyr’s Will: Beginning at 3rd level, when you enter a rage you may use this ability to select a number of creatures up to your Wisdom modifier that you can see. Until your rage ends, those creatures are considered to be under the effect of the Warding Bond (https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Warding%20Bond#content) spell. As a bonus action you can change which creatures are affected.

Empathic Instincts: At 6th level, you have advantage on Wisdom (Insight) checks and gain a passive Insight score of 10 + proficiency + Wisdom.

Enduring Will: Beginning at 10th level, you can expend a use of your rage to remove a level of exhaustion once per short rest, or automatically stabilize from dying. This ability is automatically used after your third death save fail, saving you from death so long as you have remaining uses of you rage, but cannot be used if the saving throw was imposed by a critical hit.

Feel My Pain: Beginning at 14th level, instead of affecting allies with your Martyr's Will you can choose to one enemy you can see. The creature must make a Wisdom saving throw. If it fails it is treated as the caster of the Warding Bond spell with you as the target. If the creature drops below 0 hit points before the end of your rage, you can use a bonus action on a subsequent turn to choose a new target.

I'm open to changes and suggestions. This was very spur of the moment inspiration, so it's a first draft. In particular I think 6th level should be more interesting. How broken might Feel My Pain be, or Martyr's Will for that matter? I like Warding Bond conceptually, and I've been playing Darkest Dungeon lately where the Man-at-Arms and other classes have abilities that allow them to cover allies to take damage for them, so I'm inspired to try and make such a mechanic work in D&D. I'm curious how the RAW should be interpreted in regards to rage damage reduction being factored in before or after the Warding Bond damage transfer? The idea is that half of the damage dealt to the target is transferred to the caster, so if an attack does 10, the barbarian takes 5 from rage DR, then 2.5 would go to the target of Feel My Pain? Or would it be 10 damage dealt, 5 to the target, then the remaining 5 to the barbarian is cut in half from rage DR? My preference would be the latter, thereby mitigating as well as redirecting incoming damage. If an ally takes 10 damage, they take 5 instead and you take 2.5.