We got our new UA! In it, we have revisions of the classes found in Playtest 5. Again, there have been some reversions, like subclass feature levels (other than those at 1 and 2) and now the restoration of old class spell lists. I'm going to go down the list of classes in alphabetical order, but given that we've already gotten revisions of these classes, we're going to look at what has changed. Naturally, one of the big things is that we're getting the four subclasses for each of these five classes to be found in the PHB, including brand-new subclasses for the Barbarian and the Fighter.
The Barbarian got some nice quality of life improvements in playtest 5, and these are still in place, along with some other things.
Level 2: Danger Sense is back to this level, but it's been buffed to still be active even if you're blinded or deafened. I think those cases were rare, but it's nice.
Reckless Attack has also been buffed slightly - the advantage you gain from it now lasts until the start of your next turn. Essentially, on each turn, you decide whether you're being reckless or not for the full round. This will only really help if you have ways to make attacks with a reaction, such as opportunity attacks or the Berserker's Retaliation feature, but the logic here is that, as long as you're taking the downside (advantage against you) you might as well continue to get the benefits.
Level 3: Primal Knowledge is up to level 3, but works the same way, I think, as it did in the previous playtest, letting you, while raging, use Strength in place of other abilities for certain skills. (Again, I like this, but I also think a DM should feel free to use off-label abilities with certain skills).
Level 7: Instinctive Pounce, from Tasha's, has been added here. While maintaining one's Rage is easier now, this lets the melee-focused Barbarian get into the fight sooner, and that's good.
Level 9: Brutal Critical is closer to its original design, but is now weapon-agnostic: your bonus dice are now always d12s. This is definitely a buff to anyone who wasn't already using a Greataxe, but thanks to Weapon Mastery, you still might want to use that weapon. But if you're dual-wielding handaxes, this is now pretty great. I might have personally liked the previous playtest version, but this works fine.
Level 15: Persistent Rage now requires you to be fully unconscious, not just incapacitated, to end your rage early. So, that's nice. This also incorporates Rage Resurgence, which gives you a Rage at the start of combat if you're out. While there are other features for classes that work like this (requiring the tank to be empty to give you resources back) I think, given that most Barbarians only have to use one Rage per combat, this feels fair.
Level 18: Indomitable Might now applies to Strength saves as well as checks.
Level 20: Primal Champion, returned to level 20, once again increases Strength and Constitution by 4, instead of 2. (And the maximums as well). However, I think it's also worth pointing out that the Ability Score Improvement Feat also increases your maximum to 22 at level 19, which means that if you brought your Strength to 22 the previous level, you'll only get half a benefit (or perhaps three-quarters benefit) from this feature. I wonder if it would be so game-breaking to simply say "your maximum increases by 4" rather than "it increases to 24."
So, nothing earth-shaking here. But I think the QOL improvements in the last playtest were really great.
Moving on, let's look at subclasses.
Berserker:
We saw the much-improved Berserker last time, and this one only has a slight tweak: Intimidating Presence now requires a bonus action instead of an action, which is frankly great - it's hard to tell a Barbarian to stop attacking, even if the forced saving throw keeps the Rage going.
Wild Heart (Renamed Totem Warrior):
So, the Totem Warrior is now called the Wild Heart (as seen in BG3).
One of the changes is that the animal options at each level have different animals - the logic here is that some players thought that if they picked, say, Eagle at 3rd level, they'd be locked into only Eagle options. Here, it's clear that each feature level you get to make a choice. You can also swap them out on level-up if you prefer another.
Level 3:
There are actually fewer animal options here - Tiger and Elk are gone. (Were those Tasha's options?)
So, the first thing we need to talk about is the Bear Totem. This has been... nerfed, but I'm going to argue that the nerf is actually not that bad. You no longer automatically get resistance to everything other than Psychic when you Rage. Instead, when you Rage, you choose two damage types that are not Force or Psychic and gain resistance to those.
It is a nerf, but if you're facing, say, Fire Elementals, you have a pretty obvious resistance to choose. In fights where it's not obvious or where there are a lot of damage types, yeah, it's a nerf. But the Bear Totem was so powerful that I don't think I ever saw anyone pick other options.
The Eagle has gotten buffed, letting you both dash and disengage as a bonus action while raging, or as part of the bonus action to rage.
Wolf has the range of its advantage-granting increased to 10 feet.
So, I think this creates a bit more parity between the options. Bear's still good, but not as super-powered.
Level 6:
The three options here each give proficiency, or expertise if you already have proficiency, in certain skills. This is a little deceptive, as each totem has, within it, a choice of two skills. So really, this is a list of six skills to get proficiency or expertise in.
Elephant can give you Athletics or Insight, Owl can give you Investigation or Perception, and Spider can give you Stealth or Survival.
Purely on thematic grounds, I feel like these should give you both of your animal choice, because mechanically, again, this is really just a list of six skills.
Level 10:
Nature Speaker is the new name for Spirit Walker, and other than clarifying that Wisdom is the spellcasting ability, it's unchanged.
Level 14:
The Lion option (formerly Bear) now works even if a foe can't be frightened. The Falcon (formerly Eagle) option no longer forces you to land at the end of your movement, so you can simply just keep flying. Ram (formerly Wolf) lets you knock foes prone as part of an attack, rather than a bonus action, but now allows a Strength save to resist it.
So, most of these are just nice little fixes. I do think that the Ram option will feel weirdly redundant or possibly annoying if you're using a weapon with the Topple property - if you hit twice, that's potentially four saving throws. (Also, as worded, you can't choose not to use this).
As for the subclass, I'm sure that the discussion will mostly be around the nerf to the Bear totem feature. Again, I think it was warranted. Not everything can be a buff, and this was a little too overwhelming.
Path of the World Tree:
This is the brand-new Barbarian subclass, and one that I'm sure Norse myth nerds will be very excited about.
Level 3:
Vitality of the Tree:
This lets you regain hit points equal to your Barbarian level when you Rage. Then, at the start of each of your turns while Raging, you can choose another creature within 10 feet of you to gain Temp HP, which you determine by rolling a number of d6s equal to your Rage bonus. So, 2d6 to start, going up to 3d6 and then 4d6. The temp HP vanishes when your rage ends.
Ok, this could potentially be really good: because Rage now lasts for 10 minutes and can be maintained with a bonus action, consider the following: you're getting ready to charge into a group of enemies. You know a fight is coming, so you Rage say, 18 seconds before you charge in. And then you give Temp HP to your allies before charging in there. I don't think this is the intended use, but would be a cool tactic.
Level 6:
Branches of the Tree:
When Raging, if a creature you can see ends its turn within 20 feet of you, you can use a reaction to conjure spectral branches of the World Tree, and the creature makes a Strength save (DC based on your Strength) or be teleported to an unoccupied space within 5 feet of you, as long as that space has a solid surface or liquid that can support the creature. And, there's a grey box here that specifies that a creature can always choose to fail a save.
Naturally, the obvious use here is a kind of "get over here" pull on a fleeing or otherwise engaged enemy. But this can also be an amazing way to save a vulnerable ally - you can even put the ally behind you.
Level 10:
Battering Roots:
This one's kind of nuts. Tendrils of the World Tree extend from your melee weapons. While you weild any melee weapon (any) your reach with that weapon extend by 10 feet, and when you hit with it, you can activate the push or topple property even if you're using a different mastery with that weapon.
This makes me want to reconsider by Path of the Giant Bugbear Polearm build. (What is that, a 25-foot reach?) Also, while weapon mastery versatility is mainly a Fighter thing (and should be) I think this makes thematic sense. There's a lot of battlefield control in this subclass, which is cool.
Level 14:
Travel Along the Tree:
As an action, you can touch a Huge or larger tree or a teleportation circle to create a link through the World Tree to a teleportation circle somewhere else on the same world or on another plane of existence. You can specify the target destination in general terms, and show up at the nearest teleportation circle. You can bring up to 5 willing creatures with you when you do this. Once used, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest unless you expend 5 uses of your Rage.
So, I love this thematically. I think the one question is whether a capstone feature for the subclass that has no benefit in combat is right for a Barbarian. For sure, I think this subclass could be very good - it doesn't get any bonus damage, but Vitality of the Tree will provide a lot of damage absorption for your allies.
Generally, I really like this subclass and its themes, really tying into the mystical side of the Barbarian, and I also dig any kind of planar stuff. I think it's good.
Path of the Zealot:
I'd guessed this could have been included, as one of the popular subclasses from Xanathar's. But let's see how it looks in its revised version:
Level 3: Divine Fury now lets you choose which damage type it does, Radiant or Necrotic, when you Rage, rather than when you gain the feature. This is nice, given that it could be thematically appropriate to use Necrotic sometimes even though Radiant damage sometimes has beneficial effects that Necrotic tends not to.
Warrior of the Gods, which was kind of a ribbon feature before (especially odd to get material-component-free resurrection at a level where your Cleric probably can't even do that yet) but now, you gain an additional 1d12 healing when someone restores HP to you with a spell or magic item (and potions are magic items!). You only gain this benefit a number of times equal to you Con modifier per long rest, but that's still pretty good (now, is Spare the Dying in the new version restores 1 HP, that means you'll be getting 1d12+1. Not bad for a cantrip!)
Level 6:
Fanatical Focus is unchanged.
Level 10:
You can now use Zealous Presence additional times per long rest by spending Rages.
Level 14:
Rage Beyond Death has been redesigned. Now, if you successfully restore hit points with Relentless Rage (and remember that this now heals you for Rd6 (a number of d6s equal to your rage damage bonus) instead of putting you at 1 HP,) you become a Spectral Warrior for 1 minute, or until you regain any more HP or drop to 0 Hp. While transformed, you get a Fly speed and can hover, and you can move through creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain (taking a d10 of force damage if you end your turn inside a creature or object) and then, if you're hit with an attack roll, you can use a reaction to turn that hit into a miss.
Once used, you can't use this again until you finish a long rest.
Ok, so, this makes me a little sad: I liked the old version of Rage Beyond Death where you could just endure anything as long as you stayed Raging (I also liked the idea of making an Aasimar who would use their healing ability right as the Rage was about to end) but I also recognize that, well, it's kind of redundant with Relentless Rage. This is super cool, and probably more balanced. Still, I don't love that it actually kind of punishes you for healing up after being knocked down.
And that's the Barbarians! We'll look at the Fighter next, then make our way through the Mages (and then touch on changes to Weapon Masteries).
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