Barbarian Deep Dive

 So, again, for those of us who kept up with the Unearthed Arcana process, there aren't a ton of surprises here on these deep dives, but I think there are some points to touch on that bear consideration.

The Barbarian is, I think, a reasonably popular class. Every Critical Role campaign has had one, an honor I think might only be shared by the Cleric and (if you count multiclassing) Rogue - actually, there's another but I don't want to spoil it because the reveal was only available to the public as of last night. But at least to me, it has always had some issues that held it back compared to other tanky melee classes like the Paladin or Fighter (or Armorer Artificer).

However, the new version is going to address some of those issues in a way that I think will make me more interested in actually creating a Barbarian character (I actually have an aesthetic/backstory that could be very cool and very weird).

So let's knock out the big ones:

The first is a major change to Rage. Rage can now be extended by simply using your bonus action. This, frankly, is enormous. While Barbarians eventually get a feature that allows their Rage to continue even if they're not hitting things or getting hit by things, for most of a Barbarian's career (especially given that most campaigns don't go past level 10 or so - though I hope we'll see more high-level campaigns with the new rules) they can very easily lose their core class feature.

Furthermore, Rage (here I'm cribbing from the UA, but I think this remains true) now lasts 10 minutes, meaning that it can potentially last through multiple combats and might also remain relevant in the middle of exploration.

Rage is also going to be more useful outside of combat thanks to a redesigned Primal Knowledge. This will allow the Barbarian to elect to use Strength rather than the typical ability for several Barbarian skills, including Stealth, Intimidation, and others. In the UA, at least, this required the Barbarian to be raging, but we'll see how the final version works.

    I will note that in the 2014 rules at least, a DM can assign atypical ability scores to skills - I like the idea of a Charisma (Stealth) check to try not to be noticed by blending into a crowd rather than trying to go truly unseen (though I can also imagine simply using Deception or even Performance for that). I hope this doesn't imply that DMs won't be allowed to do that in the 2024 rules, but instead that Barbarians have a means to bypass DM approval to use what is likely their best stat on these checks.

I can't recall if it was confirmed here, but another huge change in the UA is that Barbarians will be able to get a Rage back on a short rest. There is a bit of a question here, of course: how often do we want Barbarians not to be Raging? So much of the class is built around Rage, but it's also a limited resource (unlike, say, Unarmored Defense, which is fully passive). It seems like the intent is that a Barbarian should be able to Rage in every combat over the course of a day,

Another welcome change is the replacement of Brutal Critical with Brutal Strikes. While Brutal Critical could be very fun when it actually went off (and in a pre-Weapon Mastery world was the only advantage that the Greataxe had over the Greatsword) the fact that it relied on an event that only had a 4% chance of happening meant that its impact was not nearly as felt as other mid-level boosts to melee characters like a Paladin's extra d8 of radiant damage or a Fighter's third attack.

Brutal Strikes allows you to use Reckless Attack to fuel extra damage and some bonus effects, but you forgo the advantage on your attack. In some ways, it's a little like Great Weapon Master. What I am still not 100% clear on is whether you forgo this on both of your attacks - by level 9, you'll have Extra Attack already, and this only works on your first attack. So, unless the language is cleaned up, as a DM I'd assume that you'll still get advantage on your second strike, but won't be able to gain the bonus damage and effects from Brutal Strike on it. Likewise, I'm waiting to get a clarification on whether you merely give up the advantage from Reckless Attack but might still get it from attacking a prone creature or attacking a foe with Faerie Fire on it, or if it is impossible to actually make your Brutal Strike with advantage.

I do worry that this might be a "feel bad" ability - paying the price for Reckless Attacks and then missing on your attack is going to suck. And giving up your advantage will make you more likely to miss. Still, I think this becomes an interesting tactical choice that will probably pay off more than Brutal Critical did.

Regarding subclasses:

The Totem Warrior has been renamed as the Wildheart, and has gotten some cool changes. First off, the animal spirit choices at each subclass level have been renamed to avoid confusion - there's only one "Bear" feature and it's at level 3. The problem was that some players assumed that they just picked one animal and had to take all of its features on each subclass level (not unlike the Storm Herald's different types of storm). That was never the case, but the choices presented had allowed for that confusion - now it won't be possible. More substantially, though, Wildhearts can actually swap out their animal spirit choices on a long rest. While I imagine the Bear's wide-ranging damage resistance will still be the default choice for most people, there might be times where you pick a different one.

The Berserker got a huge upgrade by fixing Frenzy. The feature no longer imposes Exhaustion - a brutally terrible hiccup in the otherwise mostly decent 2014 class design - and, as of the UA, rather than granting you a bonus action attack, will instead give you extra damage dice on the first hit you land on your turn (I believe it's d6s equal to your Rage bonus, which is pretty decent). Their Intimidating Presence feature is also now a bonus action, and can hit all creatures you choose within range. Furthermore, forcing a creature to make a saving throw will extend your Rage (though at this level you might have the feature that keeps it going anyway - can't recall).

The third subclass for the Barbarian in the PHB will be the Zealot. It looks like this is getting a bit of a redesign.

Finally, Barbarians are getting a brand-new subclass called Path of the World Tree, which honestly looks amazing, where you can manifest the branches and roots of the World Tree both to extend your reach and pull enemies (or allies) to you, but also to allow for some teleportation effects, getting you into the battle, potentially along with your friends. The World Tree Barbarian looks like it will be a very strong defender, and I think it even has longer reach than a Path of the Giant Barbarian, so I might have to play with that Bugbear Polearm Master build and use this subclass instead.

And that's our class preview for the week. I believe we start off on Monday with the Rogue, which should be enjoying its awesome new Cunning Strikes feature (if you don't know what it is, get ready - it's really cool).