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Omicron said:
Is this Warhammer? I don't actually know like anything about WH Fantasy :p
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"I am a Dwarf! My honour is my life and without it I am nothing. I shall become a Slayer. I shall seek redemption in the eyes of my ancestors. I shall become as death to my enemies, until I face he that takes my life and my shame."

Lexicanum said:
Dwarfs are above all very proud individuals and do not cope easily with failure or personal loss. Should a Dwarf suffer some terrible personal tragedy, he will be inconsolable. The loss of his family, his hoard, or failure to uphold a promise can seriously unhinge the mind of any Dwarf. Young Dwarfs forsaken in love often never recover from the blow to their pride. Whatever the cause, Dwarfs who have suffered what they perceive to be a serious loss of honour will often forsake the fellowship of their family and friends for a life of self-imposed exile. These Dwarfs become Slayers.

Leaving their home stronghold as far behind as possible, they wander in the wilderness brooding on the misery of existence. Having broken with everything he holds dear, the Dwarf deliberately seeks death by hunting out and fighting large monsters. They are stern and laconic individuals, not much given to talking about themselves, and they tend to be horribly scarred as a result of their encounters with trolls, giants, dragons and other monsters.
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Yeah, this is pretty fitting.

Although in Clanless's case it's supposed to be less a common cultural quirk and more a personal aberration. You're not supposed to go around death-seeking and wearing an assumed name that's essentially an "I have committed a terrible crime" badge.
 
Omicron said:
Yeah, this is pretty fitting.

Although in Clanless's case it's supposed to be less a common cultural quirk and more a personal aberration. You're not supposed to go around death-seeking and wearing an assumed name that's essentially an "I have committed a terrible crime" badge.
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Well, this is Warhammer Fantasy.

So it's a massive death cult that can be formed into whole armies of naked berserker dwarfs with dyed spiky hair and massive axes.

"But why are we a dying race?" the mountain folk lament.
 
So, Barbarian thoughts, general ones rather than character-specific ones.

The Fighter and the Rogue both have a spellcasting archetype. The Barbarian doesn't, ostensibly because you can't cast spells while raging, and because it aims for a different flavor - the Totem Warrior can cast a very few spells as rituals, which grants some flavor and utility while keeping his magic strictly out of combat.

Still I'm wondering if you can't go for something more in-depth. Of course there have been many Shaman-like barbarian archetypes across D&D history, but they always fit awkwardly - the Ranger is already a "Druid-Fighter" hybrid, while the Druid can by itself hulk out into a quite literal bear, so there isn't much room for the Barbarian to play in that field.

The one interesting thing I thought was this Runescarred Path, an adaptation of a 3.5 Prestige Class, but it's... Imperfect. Don't give flat +1s to AC, man. And 5e normally avoids stuff like "takes ten minutes to prepare" in favor of coding things in short/long-rest. And is it a good idea to give the Barbarian Shield of Faith and False Life?

I feel like there is a solid idea there but the execution is imperfect. Any thoughts?
 
Omicron said:
1) She has a lot of unused actions. Her bonus action serves once, to activate her rage, her reaction serves for AoO as normal, and that's all. She just acts on her turn, hitting once (soon twice). This feels like a waste.
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Polearm mastery would solve both of these issues quite neatly; it gives you a consistant bonus attack and a regular AoO on approaching foes.

Omicron said:
2) She can't spike. I realize that this is kind of the Barbarian's deal, consistent damage output without the ability to nova, but there is some kind of pervasive frustration to being unable to react to circumstances that would mandate "throw everything at this guy right now."
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You might be able to ameliorate this problem later with single use or use-per-day magic items, but beyond that I'm not sure what to suggest.

Omicron said:
3) I rarely have to make choices, so it feels like I'm playing an automated script sometimes. I will note, however, that in the past few sessions this has proven a huge boon, as I can play Clanless on my phone while playing, say, any caster would be tremendously harder.
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Barbarians just don't have a lot of tactical range, to be honest. You're big and tough and hit things hard. Again, hopefully some magic items will open up your options, but that's rarely a sure thing.

Regarding roleplaying a former urban dwarf, you could potentially train in a broader range of skills to represent your non-barbarous history.

Omicron said:
The one interesting thing I thought was this Runescarred Path, an adaptation of a 3.5 Prestige Class, but it's... Imperfect. Don't give flat +1s to AC, man. And 5e normally avoids stuff like "takes ten minutes to prepare" in favor of coding things in short/long-rest. And is it a good idea to give the Barbarian Shield of Faith and False Life?
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False Life is fairly inconsequential, I'm more worried about fire shield, which would be absolute murder in a combat build.

Stoneskin is a bad idea for a different reason; it's redundant with the resistance bonus of rage.
 
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Polearm Mastery is so good, it's unfair to the other feats.
 
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Omicron said:
The Fighter and the Rogue both have a spellcasting archetype. The Barbarian doesn't, ostensibly because you can't cast spells while raging, and because it aims for a different flavor - the Totem Warrior can cast a very few spells as rituals, which grants some flavor and utility while keeping his magic strictly out of combat.
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This shouldn't really be a problem, if you can get the flavour right. Both Monks and Battlemasters functionally have access to short-rest spells like a Warlock – they just refer to their Spell Slots as "Ki Points" and "Superiority Dice" specifically, and the Spells are things like "Dodge as a bonus action". Hell, some Monk Ways straight-up offer you spells for Ki, anyway. It's just about making sure it's balanced and suits the flavour.

(runescarred path is fine for flavour, it's just lacking in mechanical execution)

In fact, looking at every non-core Fighter Archetype, I'm increasingly convinced that Superiority Dice should have been a core feature with two or three of the simpler Maneuvers – then key the different Fighter Archetypes on how they spend their Superiority dice, by offering new options suited to the build. Replace Battlemaster with Warlord, and give it extra Superiority Dice and the "order people around" Maneuvers like Rally and Commanding Strike.
 
Revlid said:
This shouldn't really be a problem, if you can get the flavour right. Both Monks and Battlemasters functionally have access to short-rest spells like a Warlock – they just refer to their Spell Slots as "Ki Points" and "Superiority Dice" specifically, and the Spells are things like "Dodge as a bonus action". Hell, some Monk Ways straight-up offer you spells for Ki, anyway. It's just about making sure it's balanced and suits the flavour.

(runescarred path is fine for flavour, it's just lacking in mechanical execution)

In fact, looking at every non-core Fighter Archetype, I'm increasingly convinced that Superiority Dice should have been a core feature with two or three of the simpler Maneuvers – then key the different Fighter Archetypes on how they spend their Superiority dice, by offering new options suited to the build. Replace Battlemaster with Warlord, and give it extra Superiority Dice and the "order people around" Maneuvers like Rally and Commanding Strike.
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I think there was a deliberate effort by the developers to make sure that it was possible to play the Fighter as a straightforward, hard-hitting class with few consumable resources which you could play by just saying "I hit him with my sword!" and seeing the dice roll.

If that's a real concern - if it's indeed an approach that resonates with player needs - then I can understand that approach. But yeah, I'd have preferred for maneuvers to have been a core fighter concept.
 
Omicron said:
I think there was a deliberate effort by the developers to make sure that it was possible to play the Fighter as a straightforward, hard-hitting class with few consumable resources which you could play by just saying "I hit him with my sword!" and seeing the dice roll.

If that's a real concern - if it's indeed an approach that resonates with player needs - then I can understand that approach. But yeah, I'd have preferred for maneuvers to have been a core fighter concept.
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Yes, this is explicitly the reason why they dropped Superiority Dice as the core Fighter mechanic after certain playtest builds did not focus-group well with the traditional view of 'fighter'.
 
Revlid said:
(runescarred path is fine for flavour, it's just lacking in mechanical execution)
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Hmmm.

I guess the first thing I would do if I were writing a Runescarred Path would be to steal the Eldritch Knight Spellcasting feature and table, with the change that instead of "Evocation and Abjuration" the spell list is "any spell that targets only you or an item you hold," which can be cast while raging.

Instead of an AC bonus, a later feature gives temporary HP every time you cast a spell, based on... I want to say "Wisdom mod" but it would essentially mean the feature doesn't do anything unless you're running a pretty dubious build.

One of the "flavor/utility" levels would have something tied to intimidation, probably.

Not sure what else.
 
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Crumplepunch said:
I had a go at making a Barbarian third-caster in the style of the Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster, thoughts?

The Homebrewery - NaturalCrit
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This just gave me a terrible, bad, awful(-y hilarious) idea.

Clanless likes Aldrich's singing and assumes anyone can be as good. Clanless pesters Aldrich into teaching her music. Aldrich grudgingly agrees to give her basic lessons to get her off his back. Clanless learns the art of the bard. Clanless gets retrofitted into a War Chanter.

Clanless still doesn't realize Aldrich is magic. Because she's learning from him, Clanless doesn't realizes that she is now magic. Clanless starts casting spells while staunchly thinking that this is just What Music Does. When you insult people too harshly their ears bleed. When you cry very loud the shockwave slams people into walls. That's just the way of the world.

I mean I'm not saying I actually want to do that but @Revlid come on tell me this isn't the best
 
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Another fun chapter of Chloe does silly 3.5 builds.

The Music Man (best done in gestalt, but if you somehow have nat 18's for both INT and CHA and can take flaws for extra feats, you can try this without.)

Marshal1/Bloodline3/Dread Necromancer1/Spellsinger1/Mythic Exemplar1/Heartfire Fanner 1/ Mythic exemplar+9/Spellsinger+3

The trick is based on the following:

Bloodlines count as additional class levels for any "level based ability"

Spellsinger has an "ability" that adds your "Spellsinger level" to your bard level for basically anything related to Bardic Music. (so you effectively add BL + SS levels to your effective bard level for everything)

Taking a level in Heartfire Fanner grants you "the bardic music ability as a 5th-level bard if [you do] not already have it from a previous class." (Your effective bard level is now 5 + BL + SS)

Mythic Exemplar's entry requirements can be met with 7 ranks in diplomacy and a single level of Marshal. Following Reikhardt grants you inspire courage 1/day at level 2, and inspire greatness 1/day at level 8, with the note that "If you already have this ability, your mythic exemplar levels stack with levels of the class that provided it for the purpose of determining its effects." (This means you add another 10 levels to your effective Bard level for these two musics only)

The Vest of Legends adds another +5 effective bard levels for your inspire courage, fascinate, inspire greatness, and inspire heroics abilities.

In summary:

Your base "Virtual Bard" level is 12, so you (just barely) get song of freedom.

For fascinate, it is 17, and you add your effective Spellsinger level (7) to the DC (and also to the DC of suggestion)

For inspire courage and inspire greatness, your effective bard level is 27, giving you a base IC bonus of +5 and allowing you the use IG on 7 allies at once.

Heartfire Fanner also gives you the ability to grant feat(s) via Inspired Fight (if you read as text trumps table, this ability gets absurd, but even if you go by table, Song of the Heart should still make that 2 feats). These granted feats can be picked either from the fighter bonus feat list or the feats you have.

You do not get inspire heroics. Like you care.

NOTE: this is with not allowing bloodlines to "double dip" for anything. If you do allow that, then craziness ensures, so lets just skip that.



Also, bardic Music aside, ME 10 lets you grant your CHA mod as a circumstance bonus to either the will or fort save of all allies within 60 ft. (PICK FORT) Minor Marshal auras allow you to add your CHA mod to one save as a competence bonus, so you can add your CHA to two of the save types for all friends within 60 ft. I suggest fort and ref since will is the easiest to get other boosts to.

You also do manage to access 5th level spells. If you are a Kobold, you can take sorcerer instead of DN, drop one bloodline level in favor of one more Spellsinger level and then do the greater draconic rite to get to 6th level spells.


(You can get the prerequsite Skill focus in perform from the Heyward's Hall magic location for 5000 gp)
 
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Omicron Homebrew: Path of the Jotunborn
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    • This is my first attempt at 5e homebrew, and criticism would be welcome. I probably made this on the OP side, to be honest.

    New Primal Path: Path of the Jotunborn

    "It was too big to be called a sword. Massive, thick, heavy, and far too rough. Indeed, it was a heap of raw iron."

    The giant-slayer's path is also the giant-kin's path, an ambiguity at the heart of all Jotunborn practice. Rare are those who walk this path with forethought and calculus. Many are northern people who lost family or village to giants, and swear to learn how to fight them toe to toe out of a thirst for revenge. A few are protégés of giants, who had no choice but to learn to fight with their own tools. Perhaps most simply feel in their blood the echoing blood of ancient titanic ancestors, and are driven to master weapons made for no mortal hand.

    The Jotunborn are those barbarians who seek to channel their frenzied strength into the use of weapons too large for a normal humanoid. Such arms must often be wrested from the dead hands of a giant for, or earned by their good will. For this reason, the Jotunborn are more than a strange clique obsessed with very large swords; they are a strange people, who have made themselves kin to giants whether these wanted it or not. They walk wild, untamed places, and seek out towering beasts that can only be defeated through such great weapons as they wield.

    Many die young, in their formative years, still learning the awkward swings of their graceless weapons. Those that endure grow strange to men, their skin taking pale blue hues or their beards growing wild and fiery red, their shoulders too broad, their bearing too lofty. Those perhaps may earn a place in the Ordning, and the respect of giants.

    Sidebar: Oversized Weapons

    Even the strongest human warrior, whose strength equals that of the giants, may not properly wield a giant's sword. Beyond weight, the weapon's shape, balance and grip are simply not made for a human hand, a human arm. By default, no one can wield a weapon made for massive creatures, except perhaps as an improvised weapon.

    Some classes or archetypes may grant proficiency in oversized weapons. This grants a character the ability to wield weapons designed for Large humanoids. In this case, use the traits of the normal heavy weapon that most closely resembles it; special benefits for using such weapons are granted by the archetype itself, rather than as innate features of the weapon. Although such weapons may be as long as a human polearm and more massive, awkwardness of use and leverage prevents medium-sized users from enjoying their full reach and damage.

    At the DM's discretion, oversized weapons may extend to cover one-handed weapons designed for Huge creatures, or even larger weapons, should they like the thought of players toting around a sword three times their size. This is an aesthetic choice, and does not affect the benefits and drawbacks of using such a weapon.


    Jotungrip
    Starting when you choose this path at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with oversized weapon. You suffer disadvantage on attack rolls using them, except when raging, where you instead inflict an additional 1d4 damage on successful hits. This additional damage is considered a damage die of the weapon, and is doubled on critical hits. Each level of Brutal Critical you possess adds a further 1d4 to the damage of your critical hits, on top of its normal benefits.


    Waste-Walker's Endurance
    Having begun her journey in emulating the strength of giants, the Jotunborn exposes herself to harsh elements and difficult terrain. Starting when you choose this path at 3rd level, you and your group no longer treat mountainous terrain as difficult for the purposes of travel. Furthermore, you gain resistance to one of the following: cold, fire or lightning damage, in emulation of frost, fire or storm giants respectively.


    Giant-Mauler's Onslaught
    Upon reaching 6th level, you have learned the ferocious tenacity necessary in fighting massive, resilient opponents; one cannot let go until they are dead. When you use the Attack action and perform a reckless attack, using an oversized weapon, aiming all your allowable attacks at the same creature, you may perform another attack as a bonus action against the same target.


    High Ordning
    Starting at 10th level, the giants' strength is apparent in your blood, and all who see you recognize you as one who has learned to fight monsters. When you awaken from a long rest, you are under the effects of a sanctuary spell which only affects creatures of size Huge or larger and of Intelligence 6 or higher - and which is only broken if you attack such a creature. The save DC for this spell is 8 + your Strength modifier + your proficiency bonus.

    Furthermore, you learn to speak Giant if you did not already know it. When interacting with Giants, you gain double your proficiency bonus on Wisdom (Insight), Charisma (Persuasion) and Charisma (Intimidation) checks, instead of whatever proficiency bonus you would normally apply.


    Titan's Fall
    When you reach 14th level, you learn to channel momentous strength in a single titan-slaying blow. When you are raging and have advantage on attack made with an oversized weapon against an enemy within 5 feet, you may choose not to roll, and instead treat the attack as if you had rolled a natural 20. You must have a short or long rest before you can use this effect again, and as soon as you come out of your rage you suffer one level of exhaustion.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Omicron said:
    This is my first attempt at 5e homebrew, and criticism would be welcome. I probably made this on the OP side, to be honest.

    New Primal Path: Path of the Jotunborn

    "It was too big to be called a sword. Massive, thick, heavy, and far too rough. Indeed, it was a heap of raw iron."

    The giant-slayer's path is also the giant-kin's path, an ambiguity at the heart of all Jotunborn practice. Rare are those who walk this path with forethought and calculus. Many are northern people who lost family or village to giants, and swear to learn how to fight them toe to toe out of a thirst for revenge. A few are protégés of giants, who had no choice but to learn to fight with their own tools. Perhaps most simply feel in their blood the echoing blood of ancient titanic ancestors, and are driven to master weapons made for no mortal hand.

    The Jotunborn are those barbarians who seek to channel their frenzied strength into the use of weapons too large for a normal humanoid. Such arms must often be wrested from the dead hands of a giant for, or earned by their good will. For this reason, the Jotunborn are more than a strange clique obsessed with very large swords; they are a strange people, who have made themselves kin to giants whether these wanted it or not. They walk wild, untamed places, and seek out towering beasts that can only be defeated through such great weapons as they wield.

    Many die young, in their formative years, still learning the awkward swings of their graceless weapons. Those that endure grow strange to men, their skin taking pale blue hues or their beards growing wild and fiery red, their shoulders too broad, their bearing too lofty. Those perhaps may earn a place in the Ordning, and the respect of giants.

    Sidebar: Oversized Weapons

    Even the strongest human warrior, whose strength equals that of the giants, may not properly wield a giant's sword. Beyond weight, the weapon's shape, balance and grip are simply not made for a human hand, a human arm. By default, no one can wield a weapon made for massive creatures, except perhaps as an improvised weapon.

    Some classes or archetypes may grant proficiency in oversized weapons. This grants a character the ability to wield weapons designed for Large humanoids. In this case, use the traits of the normal heavy weapon that most closely resembles it; special benefits for using such weapons are granted by the archetype itself, rather than as innate features of the weapon. Although such weapons may be as long as a human polearm and more massive, awkwardness of use and leverage prevents medium-sized users from enjoying their full reach and damage.

    At the DM's discretion, oversized weapons may extend to cover one-handed weapons designed for Huge creatures, or even larger weapons, should they like the thought of players toting around a sword three times their size. This is an aesthetic choice, and does not affect the benefits and drawbacks of using such a weapon.


    Jotungrip
    Starting when you choose this path at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with oversized weapon. You suffer disadvantage on attack rolls using them, except when raging, where you instead inflict an additional 1d4 damage on successful hits. This additional damage is considered a damage die of the weapon, and is doubled on critical hits. Each level of Brutal Critical you possess adds a further 1d4 to the damage of your critical hits, on top of its normal benefits.


    Waste-Walker's Endurance
    Having begun her journey in emulating the strength of giants, the Jotunborn exposes herself to harsh elements and difficult terrain. Starting when you choose this path at 3rd level, you and your group no longer treat mountainous terrain as difficult for the purposes of travel. Furthermore, you gain resistance to one of the following: cold, fire or lightning damage, in emulation of frost, fire or storm giants respectively.


    Giant-Mauler's Onslaught
    Upon reaching 6th level, you have learned the ferocious tenacity necessary in fighting massive, resilient opponents; one cannot let go until they are dead. When you use the Attack action and perform a reckless attack, using an oversized weapon, aiming all your allowable attacks at the same creature, you may perform another attack as a bonus action against the same target.


    High Ordning
    Starting at 10th level, the giants' strength is apparent in your blood, and all who see you recognize you as one who has learned to fight monsters. When you awaken from a long rest, you are under the effects of a sanctuary spell which only affects creatures of size Huge or larger and of Intelligence 6 or higher - and which is only broken if you attack such a creature. The save DC for this spell is 8 + your Strength modifier + your proficiency bonus.

    Furthermore, you learn to speak Giant if you did not already know it. When interacting with Giants, you gain double your proficiency bonus on Wisdom (Insight), Charisma (Persuasion) and Charisma (Intimidation) checks, instead of whatever proficiency bonus you would normally apply.


    Titan's Fall
    When you reach 14th level, you learn to channel momentous strength in a single titan-slaying blow. When you are raging and have advantage on attack made with an oversized weapon against an enemy within 5 feet, you may choose not to roll, and instead treat the attack as if you had rolled a natural 20. You must have a short or long rest before you can use this effect again, and as soon as you come out of your rage you suffer one level of exhaustion.
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    The level basic feature is okay, the resistance is kind of iffy considering that the other stuff is only gained while raging and I think 3 attacks at level 5 break the game balance as you deal 6d6+12+3d4+6 damage aka a average per turn damage of 46.5 Damage for the whole time that you are raging. As while the Berserker gets it earlier he gets less of a bonus, and gets exhaustation which requires a long rest to remove.
     
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    Scia said:
    The level basic feature is okay, the resistance is kind of iffy considering that the other stuff is only gained while raging and I think 3 attacks at level 5 break the game balance as you deal 6d6+12+3d4 damage aka a average per turn damage of 40.5 Damage for the whole time that you are raging.
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    I think you're overestimating the reliability of the third attack. It's intended to incentivize you to focus on attacking big bosses or uninjured enemies first, which is tactically limiting; when fighting weaker opponents they will often die on your first or second attack, especially if they are already wounded, in which case your action will go to waste.

    It's also a bonus action, which has a lot of competition.
     
    Omicron said:
    I think you're overestimating the reliability of the third attack. It's intended to incentivize you to focus on attacking big bosses or uninjured enemies first, which is tactically limiting; when fighting weaker opponents they will often die on your first or second attack, especially if they are already wounded, in which case your action will go to waste.

    It's also a bonus action, which has a lot of competition.
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    Exept for entering rage no class feature of the Barbarian uses a bonus action in that archetype so its just the regular stuff that is fairly limited and mainly a argument agaisnt DW and multiclassing.
    And even so, everything that dies to 1 attack still allows you to regulary hit a enemy , and based on your argument is still allowing a third effect against others with the bonus action.
     
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    Anyone have any official 3.5 rulings on Monk fist advancement past 20th level? the SRD claims it ends at level 20, but i'm pretty sure other sources have said otherwise...
     
    Anyone wanna make suggestions for a title for my "Adventuring in the everything-goes-wrong Golarion" game? I'm pretty much ready to start but I'm not sure what to title it!

    Even for those not participating I'd appreciate suggestions ^^
     
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