Totem Barbarians (Now Slightly Less Awful!) [Peach?]

[Metastachydium]

Totem barbarians, for the most part, are kind of bad. I've always find ape's climb speed and boar's Improved Raging Diehard fun and I think wolf sees occasional use on tripper builds but there's a reason that folks don't talk about th(e rest of th)is bunch – or, at any rate, not in positive terms.

In what follows, I'll make an attempt to kinda-sorta salvage a few of these variant classes, namely (for now) the horse and the dragon. And lo behold:

HORSE TOTEM CLASS FEATURES
A barbarian dedicated to the horse totem does not gain proficiency with shields or the standard trap sense, and damage reduction barbarian class features, and instead gains the following abilities.

• At 3rd level, a horse-totem barbarian gains Run as a bonus feat.
• A 6th-level horse-totem barbarian's enhancement bonus to speed increases to +20 feet. At 12th level, this bonus becomes +30 feet. At 18th level, it further increases to +40 feet.
• At 7th level, a horse-totem barbarian gains Endurance as a bonus feat.
• A 9th-level horse-totem barbarian is considered a quadruped for the purpose of determining his carrying capacity and modifiers on checks to resist combat maneuvers such as tripping and bull rushing.

♣

DRAGON TOTEM CLASS FEATURES
A barbarian dedicated to the dragon totem does not gain the standard fast movement, trap sense, and damage reduction barbarian class features, and instead gains the following abilities.

• At 1st level and every three barbarian levels thereafter, a dragon-totem barbarian's natural armour bonus increases by one, for a maximum of +7 at level 19.
• A 6th-level dragon-totem barbarian gains blindsense; she can accurately pinpoint creatures within 5 feet of her. At 12th level, the range of this ability increases to 10 feet. At 18th level, it further increases to 15 feet.
• A 9th-level dragon-totem barbarian gains the Frightful Presence special ability of dragons with a radius of 60 feet. The save DC is Constitution-based.

[Bhu]

WHy is the frightful presence save con based?

[Metastachydium]

WHy is the frightful presence save con based?

I know, I know. The thing is, I couldn't really slot it in before level 9, and giving a barbarian a CHA-based ability that late as if that were a thing struck me as kind of insulting. Is that a stretch?

(Also, speaking of levels, I should probably put the quadruped thing of horse-totem at 9th level as well. 15th seems a bit late. Hm.)

[Bhu]

Fair enough. Although if you did make it Cha the barbarian could maybe combo with other fear related feats. Though come to think of it there's not a lot of those...

[Metastachydium]

Right? I think I'll leave it as is. Thanks for the input!

[Metastachydium]

And a revised version of the infamous bear totem, just in before the end of the year:

BEAR TOTEM CLASS FEATURES
A barbarian dedicated to the bear totem does not gain the standard fast movement, trap sense, and improved uncanny dodge barbarian class features, and instead gains the following abilities.

• At 1st level, a bear-totem barbarian gains Improved Grapple as a bonus feat, even if he doesn't meet the normal prerequisites.
• A 5th-level bear-totem barbarian learns to crush his enemies with a powerful bear hug. This is an attack similar to the Constrict special ability that deals 1d8 points of damage plus 1-1/2 times the character’s Strength modifier at 5th level. At 12th level, it further increases to 2d6 points and at 18th level it increases again to 3d6 points.
• At 7th level, a bear-totem barbarian gains Improved Toughness as a bonus feat.
• A 9th-level bear-totem barbarian is considered to be one size larger than he is, whenever he is subject to a size modifier or special size modifier for an opposed check (such as during grapple checks and bull rush attempts) as long as doing so is advantageous to him.

[Metastachydium]

And I return with another one! Today's totem is the serpent; I'm not quite sure about the wording of the main feature (or the capstone version of it, to be frank), but I think the concept (inspired by Snake's Swiftness, naturally) is more or less sound:

SERPENT TOTEM CLASS FEATURES
A barbarian dedicated to the serpent totem does not gain the standard fast movement, trap sense, and damage reduction barbarian class features, and instead gains the following abilities.

• At 1st level, a serpent-totem barbarian gains the ability to make a single melee attack as an immediate action once per encounter while raging. At level 10, she can use this ability twice per encounter. At level 20, she can use it four times and the first time she uses it during an encounter, she can make a full-attack instead of a single melee attack.
• A 3rd-level serpent-totem barbarian gains a +1 bonus on saves against poison, as well as the Poison Use special ability: she can apply poison to a manufactured weapon without the risk of poisoning herself. Every three levels thereafter, the saving throw bonus increases by 1 for a maximum of +6 at level 18. Lastly, at level 13 she learns to apply poison to natural weapons as well without risk to herself.
• At 6th level, a serpent-totem barbarian gains Lunging Strike as a bonus feat.