Oh hey, we never did this!
So, for the most part I tend to avoid subclasses and the like that aren't official WotC publications. But given Critical Role's impact on D&D and the high quality of the two Exandria campaign setting sourcebooks (one being an official publication and the other published by Darrington Press, the publishing wing of CR) I thought it might be worth it to look into the subclasses found in Tal'dorei Campaign Setting Reborn.
Notably, Eberron also got a supplement written by Keith Baker that was not published by WotC. I don't actually have that one, but I'll consider looking at its content as well.
But given that we have a copy of this in the house, I'll start with the subclasses found in TDCSR.
There is no Artificer subclass found here, so we'll skip ahead to the Barbarian, where we find The Juggernaut.
The Juggernaut does not have particularly detailed lore behind it - we're getting more of a core Barbarian archetype of the unstoppable force and built around pushing and shoving others.
At 3rd level, you get Thunderous Blows. When you hit a creature with a melee attack while raging, you can push that creature up to 5 feet away from you in a direction you choose. If the creature is Huge or larger, it makes a Strength saving throw against a DC based on your Strength, staying put on a success.
Honestly, this is pretty powerful - anything Large or smaller will automatically be moved when you hit it. Indeed, if you're a dual-wielder, you can move them up to 15 feet in a single turn with no saves, making you very effective at getting foes away from your allies. Also, I think this subclass will be one of the best for ship or airship-based adventures, or anyone who fights atop big cliffs.
Also at 3rd you get Spirit of the Mountain, which prevents you from being knocked prone or moved along the ground against your will as long as you are raging.
This is probably more situational, but it does make you a kind of anchor on the battlefield.
At 6th level, you get Demolishing Might. Your melee weapon attacks deal an extra 1d8 of damage to constructs, and you deal double damage to objects and structures.
The latter half of this makes me wish that destructible environments were a bigger part of the game, but the first part could potentially be huge in a campaign with lots of constructs. As someone who loves to blend fantasy and sci-fi, my homebrew setting has tons of ancient robots and such, and this subclass would absolutely wreck them.
Also at 6th level, you get Resolute Stance. This is almost the opposite of Reckless Attack. At the start of your turn, you can choose to assume a defensive stance, giving you immunity to being grappled, and causing attacks against you and your own weapon attacks to have disadvantage. Interestingly, I believe that there's nothing preventing you from doing this along with Reckless Attack to simply make straight rolls, which would negate, for example, fighting in magical darkness against something that can see through it (like a Devil).
At 10th level, you get an upgrade to Thunderous Blows, which increases the distance you push them to 10 feet. Again, this is kind of insane, as there's no save against it for Large or smaller creatures - you'll just need to chase them down if you use it on the first attack.
Also at 10th, you get Hurricane Strike. As a reaction when you push a creature at least 5 feet, you can then leap into an unoccupied space next to the creature. If you do so, the creature must succeed on a Strength saving throw (same DC as your Thunderous Blows, though everyone gets to make it) or be knocked prone. The leap doesn't cost any movement or provoke opportunity attacks. On top of that, when you push a creature into a space within 5 feet of an ally, the ally can use its reaction to make a melee weapon attack against the creature.
Ok, so, remember how I mentioned that you need to chase the target down if you keep pushing them away? This makes it a bit easier. The rider at the end also allows you to pinball an enemy between yourself and another ally, which is quite good.
Finally, a 14th level, you get Unstoppable - while raging, your speed cannot be reduced, and you are immune to the frightened, paralyzed, prone, and stunned conditions. This also allows you to rage as a bonus action even while frightened, paralyzed, or stunned, ending those effects on you while you're raging.
So, honestly, this subclass seems like it could be a lot of fun - it's very movement-intensive, and I could imagine it being a bit harder to run in theater-of-the-mind combat. But it definitely seems like the sort of subclass that really emphasizes the strength and sheer momentum of a hulking Barbarian.
Bards:
Bards get the College of Tragedy, which I honestly think is one of the most inherently funny subclasses, despite its name. College of Tragedy is a subclass fueled by failure, emphasizing pathos and sorrow, and could be played up as an over-the-top downer (I feel like a Shadar-Kai Tragedy Bard would be perfect).
At 3rd level you get Poetry in Misery. If you or an ally within 30 feet of you rolls a 1 on the d20 for an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can use your reaction to regain one expended use of your Bardic Inspiration feature.
So... I think the players and DM need to have a bit of a conversation about how often you can roll ability checks out of combat. Generally, at my tables, you wait for the DM to call for a roll rather than preemptively rolling, say, Insight on an NPC (instead, you say "hey, do I think this guy is telling us the truth?" to which the DM will usually respond "make an insight check.") An exploitative player might just constantly roll perception checks to fish for nat 1s, and I'd recommend that if you have that sort of player, maybe don't let them play this. That said, don't like, have the players roll less frequently simply in order to prevent this feature from going off.
Also at 3rd level, you get Sorrowful Fate. Once per short or long rest, if you or an ally forces a creature to make a saving throw, you can expend a Bardic Inspiration die to make that saving throw a Charisma saving throw instead of whatever it was. If the target fails, you then roll that Bardic Inspiration die and the target takes psychic damage equal to the amount rolled. Also, if the target is reduced to 0 hit points during the next minute after failing the save, the creature is magically compelled to utter darkly poetic final words before they succumb.
So, the latter part is pure flavor, and part of what makes this subclass so silly and hilarious. But this can also be a very powerful effect - turning a Giant's strength save against a Giant Slayer longsword into a Charisma one? They're far more likely to fail it (depending on what kind of giant). The psychic damage is a nice little bonus, too.
At 6th level, we get Tale of Hubris. When a creature lands a critical hit against you or an ally within 60 feet of you that you can see, you can use a reaction and spend a Bardic Inspiration die to foretell that creature's downfall. For 1 minute, any weapon attack against the target scores a critical hit on a roll of 18-20.
This feels fun and flavorful, though I suspect it's somewhat rare for it to go off - could be hugely powerful during a boss fight, but against a random mook, probably not. It's also not necessarily super-likely to trigger.
Also a 6 you get Impending Misfortune. When you make an attack roll or saving throw, you can gain a +10 bonus to the roll, but your next attack roll or saving throw gets a -10 penalty. If not used, the penalty goes away when you finish a short or long rest.
You can't use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest, or you're reduced to 0 hit points.
This is pretty great, actually. I'd probably save this one for really important saving throws, but then you can burn off the penalty with a quick attack roll on your next turn - sacrificing an action to avoid, say, being Disintegrated feels like a fair trade.
At level 14, your Tale of Hubris now increases the critical hit range to 17-20, which finally outclasses a high-level Champion Fighter's crit range. Again, someone needs to take a crit to trigger it.
Also, finally, at 14, youg et Nimbus of Pathos. As an action, you can touch a willing creature and give them the following benefits for 1 minute (during which they are surrounded by mournful music). The target gets +4 to their AC, advantage on attack rolls and saving throws, deals an extra 1d10 radiant damage when they hit with a weapon or spell attack, and scores a crit against targets on a roll of 18-20.
When the minute is up, the target drops to 0 hit points and is dying. You can use this feature once per long rest.
So, honestly, given how powerful this is, I think the downside is almost negligible. A minute is enough to finish all but the most insanely long fights, and with the massive amount of damage this player is going to be able to put out, you should be able to keep someone alive enough to heal them. I'd say Warlocks and Fighters are probably prime candidates for this buff, as they can multiply that 1d10 over more attacks. Paladins, of course, also love to crit.
Overall, I think the College of Tragedy has a lot of fun to it, and could be a wonderful thing at the table into someone good at playing up the kind of melodramatic, or alternatively dry and ironic extremely Goth vibe of this subclass.
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