Totem of the Rat: An Extension of the Path of the Totem Warrior Barbarian

[Jackekal]

*UPDATED* Thank you for all the feedback! After some careful consideration, I am replacing the abilities that were originally posted with the ones directly below. My D&D group and I have enjoyed discussing it internally as well, and have all come to like the changes put forth through your guy's feedback. Thank you again!

Some notes: I pondered the 14th level ability the most, and decided that it needed to be strong but not without some work put in. A lot of creatures at higher levels (especially the collection of devils, demons, and undead I am heavily running in my group) have immunities to poison and the poisoned condition. And so, thats why I added the tag at the end about ignoring said immunities if the creatures space was entered, to both bypass that partially as well as encouraging some more interactive mechanics with having to think about who to move through and how you can affect as many people as possible. Just figured I'd mention all this in case anyone was curious as to how I made the decisions on that one!

Totem Spirit
At 3rd level, when you adopt this path, you choose a totem spirit and gain its feature. You must make or acquire a physical totem object that incorporates a part of the totem animal. At your option, you also gain minor physical attributes that are reminiscent of your totem spirit.
Rat. While raging, you are not affected by difficult terrain and can move through it normally. The spirit of the rat lets you easily navigate uneven sewer (and non-sewer) floors.

Aspect of the Beast
At 6th level, you gain a magical benefit based on the totem animal of your choice. You can choose the same animal you selected at 3rd level or a different one.
Rat. You are as slippery and invasive as the rodent you’ve come to take after. While raging you can move through a friendly creature’s space at normal speed, and a hostile creature’s space at half speed; but you cannot end your movement in an occupied space. Additionally, if you pass through a hostile creature’s space, they have disadvantage on opportunity attacks made against you until the end of your turn.

Totemic Attunement
At 14th level, you gain a magical benefit based on a totem animal of your choice. You can choose the same animal you selected previously or a different one.
Rat. Your horrible stench becomes agitated as your stress levels rise. If you are raging at the end of your turn, any hostile creature within 5 feet of you must make a Constitution saving throw (DC of 8 + your Constitution Modifier + your Proficiency Bonus). On a failed save, they take 1d8 poison damage and are poisoned until the end of their next turn. If you passed through their space during this turn, this effect ignores resistances and immunities. Your stench is too much to bear even for the mightiest creatures.

Hey guys! I'm new around here but I wanted to post this homebrew totem option for 5e Barbarian that I made when one of my players asked to be a "King of Rats". We've been enjoying it so far but I was curious how it would sit with other people. Feedback is very much appreciated on how to improve the subclass, and thank you for taking the time to post said feedback!

Totem Spirit
At 3rd level, when you adopt this path, you choose a totem spirit and gain its feature. You must make or acquire a physical totem object that incorporates a part of the totem animal. At your option, you also gain minor physical attributes that are reminiscent of your totem spirit.
Rat. While raging, you are able to move through any other creature’s space without a penalty to your movement speed, no matter the size of the opposing creature. You may also end your movement occupying another creature’s space. Attacks made against a creature in the same space as you have advantage. If your rage ends while you are occupying another creature’s space, you are shoved 5 feet away in a direction of your choice.

Aspect of the Beast
At 6th level, you gain a magical benefit based on the totem animal of your choice. You can choose the same animal you selected at 3rd level or a different one.
Rat. You gain the ability to command your own pack of rats. You can cast animal friendship an unlimited amount of times, but you can target only rats with it. This can be any kind of rat, including a Swarm of Rats and a Giant Rat.

Totemic Attunement
At 14th level, you gain a magical benefit based on a totem animal of your choice. You can choose the same animal you selected previously or a different one.
Rat. While raging, you are no longer affected by difficult terrain. Additionally while raging, you emit a green cloud of horrible stench that surrounds you throughout your rage. Any hostile creature that starts their turn within 5 feet of you must make a Constitution saving throw (DC of 8 + your Constitution Modifier + your Proficiency Bonus) or take 1d12 poison damage and be poisoned for 1 minute. If you are occupying that creature’s space, they have disadvantage on the saving throw.

[nickl_2000]

Okay, let me preface my response with this. If you and all the other players are having fun with this, then go for it. Okay, that being said, I think this needs some adjustments.

Level 3:
Giving advantage on all attacks when you are in the same space is effectively giving free advantage on all attacks and another ability as well. There is no time when I wouldn't want to be in their space since it gives more room for my allies to maneuver and end on the battlefield. I would limit it somewhat saying that either you only get advantage on one attack per round and you can't end your turn in the same space as the enemy. This will make it more difficult to swarm the enemy and will make the player think more about positioning of the PC.

Level 6:
This is good the way it is, level 6 abilities are more fluffy anyways and this fits in well with that tradition.

Level 14:
The difficult terrain piece in fine, the problem is the poison damage and poisoned condition. That is to much. The poisoned condition is actually a brutal, brutal condition and you can basically apply it at will against your opponent.

Your DC is also odd. Did you really mean for the DC to be Con Mod + Prof? So, at level 14 this will normally be a DC of 8 or 9? The typical DC calculation is 8 + ability mod + prof.


How I would adjust it
1) make the DC 8 + con mod + prof.
2) Make the damage 1d8 and still do damage even if that succeed on the save
3) Make the poisoned happen on failure with the same and the condition last until the beginning on the PCs next round. Also, make it so that someone who has succeeded on the save be immune to the poisoned condition from this effect for the next 24 hours. This puts it more on par with the monster type abilities, and while it's still powerful limits it somewhat.

[JeenLeen]

I agree that the first thing is too much. One additional thing is that it adds a complexity that is (usually) absent from D&D 5e, that of a creature occupying the same space as another. While it can happen, it's rare, and making it common might create some unexpected and/or annoying interactions.

3) Make the poisoned happen on failure with the same and the condition last until the beginning on the PCs next round. Also, make it so that someone who has succeeded on the save be immune to the poisoned condition for the next 24 hours. This puts it more on par with the monster type abilities, and while it's still powerful limits it somewhat.

As a nitpick, it should be "immune to the poisoned condition from this effect". Otherwise, it's blank poison immunity from anything.

[nickl_2000]

As a nitpick, it should be "immune to the poisoned condition from this effect". Otherwise, it's blank poison immunity from anything.

Valid nitpick. This is 100% correct.

[Jackekal]

3) Make the poisoned happen on failure with the same and the condition last until the beginning on the PCs next round. Also, make it so that someone who has succeeded on the save be immune to the poisoned condition from this effect for the next 24 hours. This puts it more on par with the monster type abilities, and while it's still powerful limits it somewhat.

Ok so, to make sure I'm understanding you correctly, you believe the creature should be immune to that specific poisoned condition if they succeed, but still have to make saves against the 1d8 damage each round afterwards? Thank you so much for the feedback by the way, great stuff I didn't even think about. And also yeah I mis-typed the DC, should be exactly as you said

[nickl_2000]

Ok so, to make sure I'm understanding you correctly, you believe the creature should be immune to that specific poisoned condition if they succeed, but still have to make saves against the 1d8 damage each round afterwards? Thank you so much for the feedback by the way, great stuff I didn't even think about. And also yeah I mis-typed the DC, should be exactly as you said

My personal opinion, yes. Here is how I would phrase it.

Aura of Stinkyness
When an enemy is within the aura of stinkyness at the end of their turn they take 1d8 poison damage. After that, they must make a Constitution save (DC of 8 + your Constitution Modifier + your Proficiency Bonus) or get the poisoned condition until the end of their next turn. If they pass the save, they are immune to the poisoned condition from the aura of stinkyness for the next 24 hours, but can continue to take damage from the aura.


Note: I changed it to do the damage on the end of their turn to be more in line with Flaming Sphere and to reduce it's power a little bit more.

[Amnoriath]

1. As others have said your 3rd level is way too powerful as the only limit to it is your speed. It is almost comically good as it technically works against tiny creatures as they have to enter your space to make a melee attack.
2. What it should say is while raging you may move through spaces of larger creatures without any reduction to speed. Additionally while in that space you have advantage on melee attack rolls against that creature.

[Man_Over_Game]

Make sure to follow the formula for Barbarian subclass leveling, which holds especially true for Totem barbarians:

Level 3: Cool combat ability

Level 6: Flavorful RP ability

Level 10: Combat utility or RP ability (already locked in for Totem)

Level 14: Crazy awesome ability that ties in to your level 3 feature.

In your case, the level 3 option you currently have is pretty...meh. I'd strongly recommend doing something like this:

Level 3: your current level 6 feature.

Level 6: Some sort of rat-oriented RP ability. Like being immune to diseases while raging and having resistance to poison damage. Darkvision to 30 feet or an additional 15 feet if you already have darkvision. Being able to detect poisons and diseases. Advantage on perception checks using scents. That kind of stuff. The key here is to have abilities that remind you of a Rat, but still are applicable to all other possible totem builds (so someone going Bear totem at 3 might want to pick this).

Level 14: Workable as-is, minus the part about moving into an enemy's space. You could change it into a Bonus Action bite attack that deals your Rage damage bonus as poison damage and grapples the target. Overall, this should be an ability that synergizes with the level 3 feature without NEEDING the level 3 feature. Consider looking at the existing level 14 totems and how they synergize with the level 3 totems without them actually requiring one another. Elk and Tiger, for instance, synergize very well with one another in either combo.

Elk 3 and Tiger 14 makes you have a very consistent charge attack.

Tiger 3 and Elk 14 is a jump striker that sends airborne enemies to their death by jumping at them and knocking them prone.

Make sure that your level 3 and 14 abilities are planned accordingly, in a way that your 14 works with all of the other level 3 totem abilities.