In my previous post, I argued that while the new Spiritual Guardian Barbarian might not be a wholly necessary revision to the already-fine Ancestral Guardian, the Storm Herald is one that I'm actually really eager to see another take on. Conceptually, I love the Storm Herald, but the version we got in Xanathar's was pretty weak. It was also a subclass that seemed to present lots of cool options, but ultimately the subclass itself was three less versatile subclasses, as you needed to pick one kind of storm and stick to it.
I will also say that this is one of the subclasses that feels thematically most similar to my oldest World of Warcraft character, who is an Enhancement Shaman.
The new version, notably, lets you pick a new storm each time you rage, which is already a huge bonus. But are the effects powerful enough? Let's look at it.
Level 3:
Storm Aura:
When you rage, you choose Desert, Sea, or Tundra, and a stormy aura in a 10-foot emanation extends around you for the duration of the rage.
When it first appears, and again as a bonus action on each of your turns, you can activate the storm and get one the corresponding effect. If it calls for a saving throw, the DC is based on your Constitution.
First, before we get to the storms: why not make this Strength? It would give you a better DC in most cases, and given that things like Primal Knowledge suggest that Strength represents a Barbarian's primal connection to their power, it would fit. I will say that picking a storm type each time you rage is an enormous improvement over the old version of this feature.
I will also say that because activating the aura requires you bonus action, this is going to be a bit of a pain for those with the Dual Wielder or Polearm Master feat, and even potentially with the Great Weapon Master feat. I'd change this to just have it happen at the start of each subsequent turn, no action required.
Desert: Roll d4s equal to your Rage damage bonus. Each creature in the aura must succeed on a Dex save or take fire damage equal to the amount rolled. You can choose one creature you see within the aura to automatically succeed.
I'd rather that this just let you damage creatures of your choice, rather than getting a single carve-out.
Sea: Roll d6s equal to your Rage damage bonus. You can hurl a bolt of lightning at one creature within the aura. They make a dex save. On a failure, they take that much lightning damage, or half as much on a success.
It's not a huge amount more than the fire damage, but I think the save for half element here does make it a genuinely better option if you need to burn down a single target.
Tundra: Roll d4s equal to your Rage damage bonus. You can choose a creature within the aura. They make a Strength save, and on a failure, they subtract the number you rolled from the next damage roll they make.
I think I'd bump up the damage reduction: this is going to provide less damage prevention than the damage of either of the other options, and on top of it, they can save out of this, so you might get nothing out of it.
Level 6:
Storm Soul:
You gain a persistent benefit based on the environment chosen the last time you rage, which lasts indefinitely (obviously changing if you rage with a different storm).
Desert: You gain resistance to Fire damage, and as a magic action, you can touch a flammable object that isn't being worn or carried and cause it to start burning.
Fire resistance is good, though it very much depends on the situation. If you're on the elemental plane of fire, it's great for both combat and avoiding exhaustion, but you'll also probably not want to use that storm in such a location. The burning things aspect is fine, but if you have a Tinder Box you've basically already got this capability.
Sea: You gain resistance to lightning damage, and can breathe underwater. You also gain a swim speed equal to your speed.
While lightning damage isn't super common (though not unheard of,) this is going to be fantastic if you have any underwater combat, and is a great option to have (also, lightning damage can still hurt a lot of underwater creatures, so the rage effect isn't wasted).
Tundra: You gain resistance to cold damage, and as a magic action, you can touch a 5-foot cube of water and turn it into ice for one minute, as long as there aren't creatures in that area of water.
Cold damage isn't terribly uncommon, but it's not as common as fire (my level 9 Triton Wizard just took cold damage for the first time in a years-running campaign last week). The ice cube thing could actually be really fun as a way to create a temporary barrier or make a stepping-stone.
This will require you to keep an account of what storm you used last, which could be a slight hurdle. I wonder if this could just be something you pick on a short or long rest?
Level 10:
Shielding Storm:
Each creature of your choice within your storm aura gains the resistance granted by Storm Soul.
This makes sense, but given that the Desert Aura encourages you to avoid getting more than one teammate inside of it, it's a bit of mixed messaging. I really think that they just need to make the Desert aura be "creatures of your choice."
Level 14:
Raging Storm:
Your storm auras gain new effects:
I will say, I'm shocked that this doesn't expand the aura to a larger radius.
Desert: Once per turn, when a creature fails its save against your Storm Aura effect, you can cause them to start burning for 1 minute or until the rage ends. The burning creature takes 1d4 extra fire damage (on top of the normal 1d4 for the burning condition, so 2d4) at the start of each of its turns.
At level 14, this isn't a ton of damage, but I suppose it adds up. I don't think more instances of burning adds d4s here.
Sea: Whether a creature succeeds or fails against the lightning bolt effect, a bolt of lightning leaps from your initial target to another target within 30 feet of the first target. The new target makes a Dex save just like the first target.
This is pretty good as long as you do actually have a secondary target - you're sort of hitting two targets with a half-powered lightning bolt each turn as a bonus action.
Tundra: Once per turn, when a creature fails its save against the damage reduction effect, you can cause them to take 2d4 Cold damage and their speed is halved until the end of its next turn.
Again, kind of pitiful damage. The speed reduction is situational.
Overall Thoughts:
While this is an improvement over the Xanathar's version of the subclass, I think that the subclass as a whole suffers from a fear that the many options will make you overpowered. But I just feel like each effect we get is not really enough to make it worth it.
I know there's a danger of power creep, but it's just a shame because conceptually, this subclass feels like it should be awesome. If they're worried about power, I might take a look at how the damage of the subclass is routed - maybe our attacks are instead imbued with elemental power, and then we get more exciting effects like a fly speed while raging - or perhaps we get something like teleporting as fast as lightning with a sea storm, flying with a desert cyclone, and maybe blinding foes with a tundra storm?
Unlike the Ancestral/Spiritual Guardian (which again, was fine), this is a subclass I do want to see a revision for, because it's one that always seemed like it had a lot of potential that it failed to live up to. But I feel like they're just too gunshy to go back to the drawing board with it.
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