Barbarian is a class that I've often struggled to find a fun character hook for me to want to play one. I've only ever played one very briefly when the class was more or less assigned to me when we played basically a half-session of doing the first level of Dungeon of the Mad Mage, where I think we had one combat and even that I think I only got one turn in.
I've long wanted to play a werewolf Barbarian - Rage feels like a great way to represent a lycanthropic transformation. But the subclass that most suits that archetype is the Path of the Beast, which honestly has some design problems that make it a little underwhelming.
I've also, more recently, had the idea inspired by Scratch from Alan Wake II, of a kind of emergent shadow archetype that arises when a Barbarian rages - likely the character would be a pretty unassuming figure until they got covered in a silhouette of shadow (I've always visualized this like someone taking a Sharpie and blacking them out in every frame... except that you see this in person). While the Berserker, despite being ostensibly the "generic Barbarian" subclass, actually fits this surprisingly well, the one major downside is that you really still need to fight with a weapon.
There's no really great unarmed Barbarian. So I decided to make one.
Now, caveats: I do a fair amount of homebrewing of monsters, but I don't do as many with subclasses (let alone classes, though this is just a subclass,) and none of my homebrew subclasses have ever been playtested.
I'm very aware that as an amateur designer, there's a tendency to over-engineer things. I'm aware that the final version of this would have to be pared down a little. There might be one or two many bells-and-whistles to this thing. But I think the overall concept could be really cool.
I'll provide some commentary here like I would when commenting on a UA or recently published subclass, but to explain my reasonings and also concerns about the design. As usual, these will be marked by indenting before them.
Thus, let me present you with the first draft of...
Path of the Inner Shadow
Undergo a monstrous transformation, tearing foes apart with your bare hands.
All Barbarians channel their primal rage, but sometimes, the rage becomes too volatile to control. Rarely does a Barbarian choose to walk the Path of the Inner Shadow - the subconscious monster inside chooses it for them. As rage consumes you, your body shifts into a monstrous beast, becoming a whirling nightmare of blood and death.
Level 3: Monstrous Claws:
Empowered Fists: When you attack with an Unarmed Strike, you can now deal 1d6 damage plus your Strength modifier rather than the normal damage.
This is achievable with something like the Unarmed Fighting style, but this ought to be baked into the subclass to make it clear this is "the unarmed Barbarian."
Flurry of Claws: When you make an Unarmed Strike as part of the Attack action and are not wielding a weapon or shield in either hand, you can make one additional Unarmed Strike as a bonus action. You do not add your Strength modifier to the damage of this attack.
The intent here is to basically give your unarmed attacks the "light" property. This is one of the really odd things about the rules, that you can attack faster with some light weapons than you could with actually no weapons (and I think is comparable to the logic of giving Monks a free bonus action unarmed strike).
Practiced Rends: Choose Graze, Cleave, Push, or Topple. Your unarmed strikes benefit from the chosen mastery when you make an attack with them. When you finish a long rest, you can choose a different mastery for your unarmed strikes.
One of the pitfalls of an unarmed Barbarian is that now that weapons have Masteries, you're really leaving a major part of your power on the table by choosing not to wield a weapon. The selection here might need some revisions - to bring it closer in line with light weapons you'd be using while dual-wielding, we might need to swap out something like Graze or Cleave for Vex, though I kind of like getting these heavy-weapon-only masteries here.
Level 3: Shadow Manifestation:
When your Rage is active, you take on a monstrous form. This might be a hulking, vaguely humanoid silhouette, a beastly hybrid creature, or a fiendish embodiment of chaos. When you take damage, your Rage damage bonus is doubled until the end of your next turn (the damage bonus cannot exceed twice your normal rage bonus).
This is the real aesthetic headliner here - but I wanted to find a way to boost damage for the class in a different way than Berserkers or Zealots did. If we assume you're "dual-wielding your fists" you're probably making three attacks per round after level 5 (though only two on round 1 in order to go into a rage,) and assuming you do get hit (you are the Barbarian,) you'll thus be able to add 6, then 9, then 12 damage if you hit with all of them. By comparison, a Berserker will, once per turn, assuming they're always going Reckless, get 7, 10.5, and then 14 extra damage. So, this is slightly less and won't benefit from crits, but it might be ok because I think that the later benefits should make up for it. We could just change the values here to adjust it
Level 6: Nightmare Claws:
You can deal your choice of bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, psychic, or force damage when you deal damage with your unarmed strikes.
This is a standard thing you get with subclass weapons and the like to ensure that you don't get screwed over if a monster is immune to normal physical damage (which is rarer in 5.5, but if you're facing monsters from 5.0, for example, this will help a lot, and there are still some creatures with resistance to those damage types). I decided to put in the other damage types to let you flavor your attacks in a way that feels right to your monstrous form (and if you wanted to pick up something like the Slasher or Piercer feat).
Level 6: Raging Hurl:
When you take the attack action, if you are grappling a creature that is your size or smaller, you can replace one of your attacks to hurl the creature a number of feet equal to ten times your Strength modifier. If the creature hits another creature or object, both must make a Dexterity saving throw with a DC equal to 8 + your Strength modifier + your proficiency bonus. On a failure, the creature takes 1d6 damage for every ten feet they traveled, or half as much on a success. If the creature is hurled upward and does not hit anything, they instead take falling damage as normal.
Of all the features I have for this, this is maybe the most over-engineered one, and probably first on the chopping block if needed. I just really feel like it'd be a fun subclass feature to be able to throw monsters around. It's also there to subtly hint to you that, hey, you might want to really invest in grappling with this subclass. A possible alternative would be to give foes disadvantage on their saves against your grapple attempts if you're raging, which would kind of come back around to the way that Barbarians used to be great at shoving and grappling when it was an Athletics check, and thus they got advantage on it because of rage. We could make this work for both shoving and grappling, actually, which gives us some of the flavor of this but in a far simpler rule. Also, the damage might be too high.
Level 10: Vicious Claws:
The damage of your unarmed strikes is now 2d6, rather than 1d6.
It's possible this is too much. But while Wraps of Unarmed Prowess finally give us a way to boost the attack and damage of unarmed strikes with a magic item, we still don't get something like a Vicious Weapon, which can be a real important damage boost to martial characters. Maybe we could tone this down a little, like making it a d10, but honestly, I think I'm fine with this (2d6 isn't that crazy).
Level 10: Secrets of the Id:
Grappling with your inner monster has given you greater understanding of your own and others' psychology. Your Primal Knowledge feature now allows you to apply its benefits to Insight and Persuasion checks.
I think one of the best philosophical shifts in 5.5e was to give very combat-focused classes more out-of-combat utility. While Primal Knowledge isn't going to do as much as an entire spellbook full of Wizard spells, it's a feature with real utility and I think adding these skills to it (Insight in particular) feels very thematically right for the subclass. After all, confronting and integrating our Shadow can lead to greater empathy, and you could flavor this subclass as a healing journey.
Level 14: Metamorphic Manifestation:
When you enter a Rage, you can choose between a Creeping, Fathomless, or Juggernaut form, enhancing the monstrousness of your Shadow Manifestation.
I think we need a splashy thing for our capstone, and I also really like giving players more flexibility. Indeed, these three forms kind of correspond with three of the modifications Reanimator Artificers can give their companions.
Creeping Form: You have a climb speed equal to your speed and can move on vertical surfaces and upside-down without an ability check and leaving your hands free. Additionally, the reach of your Unarmed Strikes is increased by 10 feet.
I think this one is probably fine as-is. Maybe we'd nerf it to a 5-foot reach extension (bringing it down to just 10 feet total) but otherwise I think this isn't going to be game breaking (but still will be cool when we grapple a foe and then climb up a wall).
Fathomless Form: You have a swim speed equal to your speed and can breathe underwater. Additionally, creatures you are grappling cannot speak of perform the verbal components of spells.
I actually don't think that the silence effect here is that powerful - after all, Silence is a 2nd level spell, and also, most spell-casting monsters have plenty of non-spell magical effects like Arcane Burst that this doesn't affect. It's no worse than a Wizard or Sorcerer keeping several spell slots in reserve for Counterspell. And it gives the the form utility outside of those rare underwater fights.
Juggernaut Form: Your size becomes Large when you rage, unless it is already larger. Your speed is not reduced by difficult terrain. You deal double damage to objects, and you can now choose a second Mastery option for your Unarmed Strikes. The second option must be either the Push or Topple Mastery.
It's possible that the double mastery thing should be its own separate feature. But I think we needed just a little more utility for the form that doesn't get a new movement type. Is it too many things? Possibly. Maybe we remove the Siege Monster aspect, or, again, we separate out the bonus masteries. But I think this could probably work as is.
Overall Thoughts:
I think this would naturally push players toward the Grappler feat, which I'm totally fine with. Arguably it might even need a little more of a damage boost given that you'll be missing out on major martial feats like Great Weapon Master, Polearm Master, and Dual Wielder.
Most importantly, though, I think that this subclass could actually fulfill both of my Barbarian class fantasies better than any existing options. I think I'll do a "vs Death Knight" calculation to see how it actually compares to my Berserker build.
Another note: perhaps it's odd not to really interact in any way with the Frightened condition. Here, I feel a little penned in by the Berserker's design, which gives both immunity to Charm and Fear, and also allows you to inflict Fear on foes at higher levels.
That said, there are other subclasses that have overlapped in the past. I could see giving some kind of fear immunity (possibly at level 6) and then a way to inflict fear later on (likely one of the Metamorphic Manifestation options at 14). But for now, I'm going to stick with the design as I have it now.
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