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View Full Version : Fixing my Barbarian Subclasses #1: Path of the Relentless



Bjarkmundur
2021-10-29, 05:24 AM
After seeing my mess of a Barbarian Path was featured in the homebrew compendium, I knew I had to fix it. It feels bat that in the few cases my content actually gets linked to, it's nowhere near usable.

After reading through the bloated mess that was my initial idea, I realized that it had at least THREE different themes to it. I decided on the sensible things, and simply split those themes into separate subclasses, Here's the first, The Path of The Relentless.

My friend had this crazy hyperfixation on using Hit Dice as an alternate resource for an ability. After making a million mistakes, I finally found something that, I think, fit the flavor pretty well. Note, I only have a level 3 and 6 feature. These are the most important features you look at when selecting a subclass, and I honestly have never seen a Barbarian played up to level 10, so I don't feel comfortable adding something unless I'm 120% sure it fits.

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Path of the Relentless
For many, battle prowess comes naturally, through talent or innate abilities. For others, it comes through sheer, unmitigated stubbornness. Those of the Path of the Relentless would rather risk complete prostration than the possibility of failure. A character following this path taps into their very vitality to ensure victory. You don't rage because you want to, you rage because you have to.


3rd Level - True Grit
When suffering a debilitating condition, you can choose to ignore its adverse effects through sheer grit.

As an Action, you can spend 1 Hit Die to regain a number of Hit Points equal to your Constitution modifier and remove one Condition currently affecting you. The Condition can be Charmed, Frightened, Grappled, Restrained, Poisoned or one level of Exhaustion.

3rd Level - Prepare for Pain
Whenever you enter a rage you can expend one Hit Die to gain Temporary hit points equal to 1d12 + your Constitution modifier.

6th Level - Improved Grit
Your maximum number of Hit Dice is increased by 2. In addition, when you start your turn under the effect of the Incapacitated, Paralyzed, Stunned, Unconscious or Petrified condition, you can spend half your total number of Hit Dice to ignore the effects of the condition until the end of your turn.


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Couple of notes:
- Improved Grit might be a bit undertuned, but it is so intentionally. I'd rather increase it's power during playtesting than have to nerf a player's character sheet. That's just bad practice.
- There's no real in-combat offensive or defensive buffs, just a defensive trade-off. I don't know whether this is just the fact of the subclass, or an issue. At worst, I can add a small line to "prepare for pain": "When you spend a Hit Die as a part of entering a rage you gain temporary hit points and you gain a "some offensive feature"
- I'm not sure if I need to add a couple of Hit Dice to the 3rd level feature. Only playtesting will tell, really. Alternatively, I can just switch Prepare for Pain up: Instead of costing a Hit Die, I could reduce the THP and instead state that the Barbarian regains 1 Hit Die whenever he enters a rage.
- It would be fun to somewhere add either a line that states "while you still have Hit Dice remaining" or "While you have no Hit Dice remaining", but that's a level 10 or 14 thing, definetly.
- Being able to remove a Poison with a Hit Die might look scary, but this does not work on any of the strongest Poisons out there, since it requires an action to remove the condition. This mean that all poisons that incapacitate the Barbarian remain effective.



Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to comment on at least 5 threads. It's good practice to make sure the comment/new thread ratio stays healthy in the forum as a whole <3

Bjarkmundur
2021-10-30, 05:20 AM
Alright, me and my Barnarian friend had a chat. He gave me the follow insight:




An active combat ability at 3rd level would make the subclass more fun to play in practice.
The "remove conditions" ability is situational enough that you need some generalist Ability til keep the subclass in line with the expectation Barbarian players have for a subclass.
You need a ribbon.


After this feedback I sent him multiple different versions. I showed him various different abilities and ever moved some of the features around to give me more design space. I'm sifting through his responses now and will update the first post soon, adding the older version to a spoiler box for reference you

If you want to help I would love some help with naming features. English is not my first language so phrases and idioms are foreign to me. I need things that describe "unstoppable" and the idea of "powering through" or something that describes a fear of failure, that aren't already used in the 5e vernacular.