Hill Giant Inspired Barbarian Path - Path of Gluttony

[Aodh]

Path of Gluttony

Grolantor, the giant god of hunting, combat and gluttony is a being of pure desire, as are his Hill Giant children. Some of those children, and those Barbarians that follow them, draw upon a primal bond with their ravenous god in an act that at once empowers and curses them. They are inflicted with an unending hunger and a constantly emaciated form, but are gifted with immense strength and constitution.

Grolantor’s Gift:
At 3rd level, your connection to Grolantor imbibes you with primal strength. While raging you gain an amount of temporary hit points equal to your Barbarian level. These disappear when rage ends. You may also bite as an action, using 1d20 + Con + Proficiency as a calculation and dealing 1d4 + Con damage piercing damage that counts as magical for the purposes of damage calculation, on crits the bite grants you extra temporary HP equalling half of the crit damage.

Hunter of the Steading:
At 3rd level, your keen hunger gives you advantage on all perception checks relying on smell, allowing you to hunt down food more easily.

Divine Glutton:
At 6th level, when you rage you are immune to poisoning and have resistance to all poison damage. You are also immune to all confusion effects. You also gain advantage on tracking checks to find beasts, though when found you are under compulsion to eat their flesh at any cost unless you make a dc15 wisdom check.

Ravening Furor:
At 10th level, you gain the ability to give yourself fully to your primal urges, your rage is automatically activated and you are enlarged as though through the effect of the Enlarge/Reduce spell without needing to maintain concentration, these effects last until your rage ends, and the duration of rage is halved to a maximum of 1 minute. You may also make your bite bonus action while raging, or howl at a creature as the bonus action, subjecting the creature to a DC 15 wisdom save to avoid being frightened. This has no effect on creatures larger than medium.
This feature is regained once a short rest.

God-Given Frenzy:
At level 14, you gain an extra +1 AC while raging.
When you make a bite attack now, it heals you for half of the damage inflicted, and grants you the ability to use the bite to enter a grapple using 8 +STR +Proficiency as the DC on a strength save, which can be repeated at the start of each of the target’s turns.

[Sizzlefoot]

Huh. This seems like a pretty solid class option. It kind of brings to mind the Berserkers of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, if you've heard of that. So overall, I like it.

[Aodh]

Huh. This seems like a pretty solid class option. It kind of brings to mind the Berserkers of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, if you've heard of that. So overall, I like it.

Thank you! I do my best.

[pygmybatrider]

Hey mate, had to come check this out after seeing your fire giant archetype.

You already know I'm all over the thematics like spots on a grandma, so let's take a look at the features.

@ 3rd, you gain an extra hp per level, effectively giving you a d14 (!) hit dice. If you look at other archetypes, they gain a benefit while raging here - so maybe you reword this as "while raging, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Barbarian level. You lose any remaining temporary hit points when your rage ends." You still get the beef boost, but it's not permanently on, and it fits with the other barbarian archetypes' 3rd level features.

You also get immunity to a few conditions - this passive rage benefit usually comes at barbarian 6.

I can see you also get a defensive boost at 6, so by then, you are immune to charmed, fear, confusion, Poisoned condition, and resistant to poison damage, on top of your extra HP. I would say pick only a few of these effects, and fold them into a single level 6 ability. Maybe give another ribbon feature at level 3 then - maybe advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell, so you can sniff out your next meal.

@ level 10 you get bigger, with all the benefits - inc adding an extra 1d4 to all attacks, and have to roll on a random table with 4 options, only one of which has a negative, and only then if there is nobody in melee range, which is easy enough to organise as a barbarian. I would probably say that being Enlarged is enough for this feature - maybe adding in that you can Bite as a bonus action? If you want to keep the random table, I would probably make some options that aren't reliant on attacking, and give a bigger risk to reward ratio than you've currently got. If you drop the 3 attacks options (3 greataxe attacks with brutal critical and extra damage dice...ouch) you can probably then make this recharge on a short rest.

@ level 14, you lose any sense of MADness that a barb might have had due to needing at least 14 Dex. At this stage you are probably looking at AC 18 without a shield. By 20 if you cap Con you will have AC 26 without a shield. Then you get the bite attack.

Being able to Dash as a bonus action while raging is a good ability on its own. I would probably leave that there, take out the attack as part of movement, and maybe swap out the new Unarmoured Defense calculation for something simpler like gaining additional THP when you activate rage, or maybe a simple +1 AC while raging.

Again, these are just thoughts that came into my head as I read - feel free to take or leave whatever you like. Thanks for sharing!

[Aodh]

Hey mate, had to come check this out after seeing your fire giant archetype.

You already know I'm all over the thematics like spots on a grandma, so let's take a look at the features.

Thank you so much! I've made some edits to each of the features, let me know what you think!


Path of Gluttony

Grolantor, the giant god of hunting, combat and gluttony is a being of pure desire, as are his Hill Giant children. Some of those children, and those Barbarians that follow them, draw upon a primal bond with their ravenous god in an act that at once empowers and curses them. They are inflicted with an unending hunger and a constantly emaciated form, but are gifted with immense strength and constitution.

Strong as the Hills:
At 3rd level, your connection to Grolantor imbibes you with primal strength. While raging you gain an amount of temporary hit points equal to your Barbarian level. These disappear when rage ends.

Hunter of the Steading:
At 3rd level, your keen hunger gives you advantage on all perception checks relying on smell, allowing you to hunt down food more easily.

Divine Glutton:
At 6th level, when you rage you are immune to poisoning and have resistance to all poison damage. You are also immune to all confusion effects. You also gain advantage on tracking checks to find beasts, though when found you are under compulsion to eat their flesh at any cost unless you make a dc15 wisdom check.

Ravening Furor:
At 10th level, you gain the ability to give yourself fully to your primal urges, your rage is automatically activated and you are enlarged as though through the effect of the Enlarge/Reduce spell without needing to maintain concentration, these effects last until your rage ends. You may also make a bite bonus action while raging, acting as a magical improvised attack with proficiency.
This feature is regained once a short rest.

God-Given Frenzy:
At level 14, you gain an extra +1 AC while raging.
As a bonus action, you can move up to your speed toward an enemy of your choice that you can see or hear. You must end this move closer to the enemy than you started. As part of this movement if you move within 5ft of a creature you may make a Bite attack against that creature. You may only attack once a turn using this feature. Your Bite counts as Magical for the purposes of overcoming resistance and damage immunities.

[Man_Over_Game]

It's worth noting that most barbarian subclasses intentionally have their cool stuff implemented as soon as you get the subclass. Storm Herald gets their aura. Berserker can Frenzy. Ancestral can bodyblock a boss like a boss, and Totem gets their biggest playstyle option right at the start.

With yours, it's "gain 3 HP" "You ignore confusion/fear".

When does the formula for the base Barbarian playstyle of "run up and punch things" get updated? Level 10, around the time most games end.

I'd really strongly recommend pushing that level 10 feature to be your level 3 feature, as it's going to be the defining thing for your playstyle. Otherwise, your benefits until level 10 are "wait until the badguy does something", and if you look at the other barbarian subclasses, this is not how barbarians fight.

It does have a number of things going for it, though. The bite is really cool. I'd think it'd be fine if you just got a bite attack as part of the level 3 stuff. It deals 1d4 + Con damage, and you can grapple a target as a bonus action after you hit them with your bite attack. Adds a lot of flavor. Throw in an effect that states that your bite grants you temporary hit points, and the grapple is automatically enhanced by the Enlarge effect, so it naturally synergizes with the enlargement if you wanted to keep that at level 10.

The formula that all of the barbarian subclasses go is something like this:

Level 3: Get the ability that defines your playstyle for the next 17 levels
Level 6: Get either a defensive or RP option
Level 10: Get some sort of utility or other ability that aids your allies
Level 14: Get something that further refines your playstyle for the next 6 levels.

And my recommendation is:

Level 3: Get bite/grapple (or something else that changes how you play)
Level 6: Get some resistances to conditions and other stuff
Level 10: Get that Enlarge effect, maybe adding a clause where you can taunt larger creatures or frighten small ones. Maybe cut down on the duration (like maybe it halves the duration of your rage, and include that the longest it can last is 1 minute to account for other barbarian rage abilities).
Level 14: Enhanced bite that heals or does something else that's cool.

[Vogie]

I would actually switch the features entirely. Ravening Furor at 3, and Maddening Hunger at 10.

Hunger would need a slight buff, while Furor is probably fine... like Berserker, it has it's own limiter, so while it is strong, it isn't overly so.

[Aodh]

It's worth noting that most barbarian subclasses intentionally have their cool stuff implemented as soon as you get the subclass. Storm Herald gets their aura. Berserker can Frenzy. Ancestral can bodyblock a boss like a boss, and Totem gets their biggest playstyle option right at the start.

I've made some edits, let me know what you think!

Also, if you have that same level by level formula you posted for Barbarian for other classes i'd be super appreciative if you could drop 'em here or something?

[Man_Over_Game]

I'll try and summarize from each Barbarian subclass:

Ancestral Protector:

Level 3:When you attack the boss, the boss is only allowed to attack you. Your team's strategy now shapes around keeping you alive during boss fights, or taking massive risks while you're keeping the boss distracted.
Level 6: Reduce damage to your allies as a reaction.
Level 10: Get an RP ability
Level 14: When you use your level 6 feature, deal damage.


Battlerager:

Level 3: Grapple people to hurt them. You should now be grappling all the time. You're going to be adjacent to enemies a LOT.
Level 6: When you use Reckless Attack, get health back.
Level 10: You can move more.
Level 14: Adjacent enemies hurt you when they attack you.


Storm Herald:

Level 3: You now have an aura that hurts allies and foes, so go stand next to some people you don't like.
Level 6: Get a defensive trait, as well as some out-of-combat utility.
Level 10: Allies aren't hurt by your aura! (As bad!)
Level 14: Your aura is now meaner than ever, but specifically against single targets (so...not really an aura?)


Totem Warrior:

Level 3:Get a powerful ability. These range from being super tanky (bear) to jumping everywhere (tiger) and anywhere in-between. Choose the option that most benefits your team (mobility vs. survivability)
Level 6: Get an out-of-combat specific ability, that is specific to helping your friends.
Level 10: Get another out-of-combat ability.
Level 14: Get another powerful ability. These synergize with the option you picked at level 3, and often use a bonus action.


Zealot:

Level 3: Improve your ability to be a barbarian. Deal damage and never die. Doesn't change much of the barbarian formula, but it does make you better at everything.
Level 6: Saving Throws can suck it.
Level 10: Nearby allies can get a massive (but temporary) buff!
Level 14: A good barbarian deals damage and doesn't die. This feature improves the latter so you can do more of the former. Basically just makes you Generic Barbarian Class 2.0.


You can see that the level 3 features all target how your playstyle is going to be for the remainder of the game. Ancestral Guardian quickly teaches your team to protect you to reap massive benefits, and that the Zealot Barbarian doesn't change anything that you don't already have and will continue to do that for the rest of the game. All of the level 3 features teach you what you're going to be doing for the next 17 levels, so you can decide if you want to invest further into it.

The level 6 features are all designed to provide some form of survivability, although it's not always for you (as is the case for the Ancestral Guardian). If you're already good at surviving (such as the Totem Barbarian), get something else that'll improve your team, like an RP ability.

The level 10 features similar aspects to the level 6, prioritizing either more survivability (if the class needs it), or more RP effects if the current survivability situation is good. The Battlerager gets Dash as a bonus action, but this does help synergize with his reduced mobility (from grappling people), but this doesn't increase the overall lethality of the class much while still adding some more options.

The level 14 feature ties back in to the overall goal of the level 3 feature. In the Totem, this means that you get something that works with your enhanced survivability or mobility. In terms of the Ancestral Guardian, you get more abilities to deter enemies from hurting your friends. With the Zealot, it improves the goal of making the barbarian more without really changing anything.

[Man_Over_Game]

So, summarized, the Barbarian Subclass formula is:


Level 3: Determine your playstyle for the next 17 levels with this one ability. Going forward, there should be no surprises with how you provide in combat, and anything new simply adds to this.
Level 6: Get an enhancement to your team's survivability. If that's already good from your level 3 feature, get a team RP ability.
Level 10: Pick between versatility, survivability or RP, and improve the worst of those three aspects at this level.
Level 14: Further improve the playstyle changes that were made by your level 3 feature, either by adding more stuff or by synergizing with that earlier feature.