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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Path of the Doom-Seeker: Warhammer Slayer for Barbarians [PEACH]



Revlid
2016-09-25, 04:58 PM
Homebrewery Link: Updated October 16, 2016 (http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/SkAtM200)

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Path of the Doom-Seeker

"My honour is my life and without it I am nothing. 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."

The barbarian lays about themselves on the battlefield in a mad frenzy, dismissing mortal blows and shattering shields with a strike. Some embody the ferocity of primal totems, or endure a maddening curse passed through their bloodline, or drive themselves into a deliberate martial fury with warchants and venoms.

Others are simply… broken.

These warriors have lost something fundamental; a home, a family, a name. Unable to ever mend their wounds, they walk a path of self-destruction, strewn with bloody rivers of collateral damage. Their dreams are haunted by the wails of those they failed, and though they may seem normal, even jovial, when the rage comes upon them it does so as the foam atop a tidal wave of grief, crashing down on their enemies with the weeping, snarling force of a warrior bereaved.

Some who walk the path of the doom-seeker die heroes, renowned for bravery by a history that failed to recognize the true nature of their reckless daring. Others are less feted in their falling, but it matters little. They found what they were looking for, regardless.

Foe-Finder
When you join this Path at 3rd level, you develop a morbid homing instinct. While in combat, the DM must inform you which enemy creature you can see has the highest CR.

Death-Darer
Also at 3rd level, you can use a bonus action to goad an enemy within 30 feet. It must make a Wisdom saving throw (DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier) or become enraged with you.

This condition lasts for half a minute, or until you willingly move away from the target. The target can make a Wisdom saving throw at the end of each of its turns to end it early. The target suffers disadvantage on their saves against this feature if they are the highest CR enemy creature you can see.

You may use this feature as part of the same bonus action you use to begin your rage.

New Condition: Enraged
• An enraged creature has disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls when it is not attacking or trying to reach the source of its anger.
• The creature can't willingly move away from the source of its anger.

Woe-Striker
Starting at 6th level, you can drive your muscles past their limits as you hack away at hallucinations of all you've lost. While raging, you can use your bonus action to make a number of reckless attacks up to your Constitution modifier.

You cannot take an action or move on your next turn after you use this feature, nor can you use it again until you complete a short or long rest.

Fate-Knower
At 10th level you fully devote yourself to your fate. You can no longer be frightened, and ignore any effect that would cause you to flee from an enemy, such as the fear caused by dissonant whispers.

Star-Chaser
Beginning at 14th level, you are frustrated into further glory by unworthy foes. When you reduce an enraged creature to 0 hit points, you immediately gain temporary hit points equal to your barbarian level.

Alternatively, you may regain hit points equal to twice the target's CR. You cannot use this secondary function again until you have completed a short or long rest.

As a final benefit, you no longer age, and cannot be aged magically. Your death must come as glorious redemption.

Revlid
2016-09-30, 10:08 AM
Bumping with an update:

I've changed Woe-Striker from Frenzy-lite into Action Surge-lite – you get a bunch of extra attacks in one go, but you're left a sitting duck throughout your entire next turn. The upgrade at 5th level is inelegant, but lets it keep pace with a basic Action Surge.
Given the new overlap between Blood-Stoker and Woe-Striker, I've replaced the former with Star-Breaker, a new capstone with a more experimental mechanic. You get autocrits against someone who crits on you, but now they always crit on you, basically. The synergy with Wound-Stealer (steal the crit, declare a nemesis, go to town) should be obvious. I'm not sure if it's too situational, or the downside's too much - initially you could choose a nemesis for "free" the first time you entered a rage, but that felt too strong and exploitable.


Let me know what you think!

The Zoat
2016-10-01, 05:11 AM
By 'reckless attacks' do you mean with advantage, or is it just flavour words.

Scaileanna
2016-10-02, 12:30 AM
Path of the Doom-Seeker

[i]
Star-Breaker
Starting at 14th level, your impatient destiny draws rivals into a spiral of mutual ruination. Whenever a creature reduces you to 0 hit points or inflicts a critical hit on you, any hit you score against that creature until the end of your next turn is a critical hit. In addition, you no longer age, and cannot be aged magically.

so how does that work, if you hit zero you're unconscious and therefore can't fight back, unless the barbarian has a feature to ignore that temprarily (don't have the player handbook to look at) in which case nvm

Revlid
2016-10-05, 07:15 AM
By 'reckless attacks' do you mean with advantage, or is it just flavour words.

I'm referring to the Barbarian feature "Reckless Attack".


so how does that work, if you hit zero you're unconscious and therefore can't fight back, unless the barbarian has a feature to ignore that temprarily (don't have the player handbook to look at) in which case nvm

Barbarians do have such a feature, but comments made elsewhere have led me to change the final feature.


Thank you all for the feedback! Any thoughts on the new version?

Ze_Azrael
2016-10-05, 02:01 PM
I like it, its quite flavorful and doesn't seem broken.

For Star-Chaser, you might want to clarify what happens to the Concentration requirement, since technically you can't concentrate while raging. Though waving the concentration requirement altogether might be too powerful since it's an at-will. Perhaps making it require concentration out of rage, and last as long as your rage if you rage? that's kinda messy though... Adding an exception to the rule (to allow you to concentrate on this specific spell while raging) might be nicer.

Also for Wound-Stealer, do you resolve the attack again after you change it? Say if I have 16 AC, my ally has 12 AC, and the attack roll was a 15, does using my reaction cause the attack to miss me? or once an ally is hit, using the reaction just 'steals' the damage?

A potential synergy issue I see is that Woe-Striker might cause you to lose rage since you cannot move or attack for one turn, so if everyone around you dies, you rely on ranged attacks hitting you.

Revlid
2016-10-07, 07:11 AM
I like it, its quite flavorful and doesn't seem broken.

For Star-Chaser, you might want to clarify what happens to the Concentration requirement, since technically you can't concentrate while raging. Though waving the concentration requirement altogether might be too powerful since it's an at-will. Perhaps making it require concentration out of rage, and last as long as your rage if you rage? that's kinda messy though... Adding an exception to the rule (to allow you to concentrate on this specific spell while raging) might be nicer.

Also for Wound-Stealer, do you resolve the attack again after you change it? Say if I have 16 AC, my ally has 12 AC, and the attack roll was a 15, does using my reaction cause the attack to miss me? or once an ally is hit, using the reaction just 'steals' the damage?Good thoughts!

I've added a note clarifying that you can cast it even when you're raging, and used it to replace Wound-Stealer. Then I've replaced the original Star-Chaser with an upgraded version that lets you challenge multiple opponents once per short rest, and offers temporary hit points which are ignored by the people you've actually


A potential synergy issue I see is that Woe-Striker might cause you to lose rage since you cannot move or attack for one turn, so if everyone around you dies, you rely on ranged attacks hitting you.Honestly, I'm fine with this just because if you're stood still for a turn, with no way of fighting back, and advantage on all attacks against you, and you don't take damage... that's it's own reward.

Well, I'd be happy to note that the turn spent recovering doesn't end rage, if you think that's too much of a potential downside.

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The issue I now face is that Barbarians are massive tanks, but while this subclass has two whole features dedicated to pulling aggro, it doesn't actually have anything that keeps you alive. The temporary hit points in the final feature were a last-minute addition, and even they only help against creatures other than the one(s) you're actually fighting.

I feel like I ought to bake the 2d4 target upgrade directly into Star-Chaser, and dedicate the final feature to something that'll keep the Barbarian alive... but actually clinging to life is totally against the whole theme of the subclass. I could always wrangle it as something like "you haven't been punished enough", but that'll be trickier to write, mechanically... something to do with Death Saves doesn't really make you tankier, just more survivable.

Tricky. Any thoughts, or do you think it's fine as it stands?

StarvingGamer
2016-10-07, 11:06 PM
I don't have much to say, seems pretty well thought out and not busted. To tack on the rage ending, maybe make it an option to self-harm as a bonus on your no action no move turn? To maintain rage?

Ze_Azrael
2016-10-13, 03:32 PM
Honestly, I'm fine with this just because if you're stood still for a turn, with no way of fighting back, and advantage on all attacks against you, and you don't take damage... that's it's own reward.

Well, I'd be happy to note that the turn spent recovering doesn't end rage, if you think that's too much of a potential downside.


Hahaha fair enough. I think it's fine as it is then. StarvingGamer's suggestion would also be fine, giving you the option to self-harm a little in case no one decided to attack you.

About the survivability issue, I think waiting until 14 to get it is pretty late anyways. Totem and Battleragers get their big one at 3rd and 6th level respectively.

I think it would be fine moving the survivability boost to 6th. Though doing this would likely mean it shouldn't be THP (Temporary Hit Points) each turn since that's all that Battleragers get.... Perhaps give a fixed, scaling amount of THP on cast? Level + CON a la Dark One's Blessing? Or on a similar style to that, maybe when you kill a creature, restore HP / THP equal to its CR? Not sure what's appropriate to be honest, but I do think the defensive feature should come at this level.

A couple more questions:
Why is the DC for Star-Chaser a fixed 15? Wouldn't it be more consistent using the "8 + Proficiency + Ability" formula and tying it to CON or STR? This also allows it to properly scale with the game's power curve.

It's a bit unclear whether the use of compelled duel granted by World-Facer is a separate resource than the one granted by Star-Chaser. The way I understand it is that it is an improvement to Star-Chaser and not a separate ability; so I would word it like "whenever you cast compelled duel you may simultaneously target up to..."

While re-reading compelled duel I noticed that the spell ends whenever one of your allies attacks the target. This might pose a problem when you can potentially aggro the entire opposing side with World-Facer. Especially because the way it is worded (the spell ends) would mean that if you catch 10 people with it, as soon as an ally harms any one of them, all 10 are free.

Revlid
2016-10-16, 05:04 PM
Updated with a new and hopefully final version.

Final Hyena
2016-10-17, 05:28 AM
Death darer has a 30 foot range. You can set that up on a creature which is already engaged with a fighter (especially if he has sentinel) and freely fight another creature or attack from range.

Most other similar features (protective style and sentinel) require adjacency.

I would prefer either a 5 feet range or it require an action.

Revlid
2016-10-17, 11:41 AM
Death darer has a 30 foot range. You can set that up on a creature which is already engaged with a fighter (especially if he has sentinel) and freely fight another creature or attack from range.

Most other similar features (protective style and sentinel) require adjacency.Compelled Duel has a 30 feet range. Panache has a 60 feet range.

Would you be happier if it also ended if you attacked another creature, to avoid baiting one creature while fighting another?

StarvingGamer
2016-10-17, 07:39 PM
Am I crazy or is the link for a Ranger rebuild?

Revlid
2016-10-18, 10:21 AM
Am I crazy or is the link for a Ranger rebuild?

Good catch! Fixed.