Path of the Marauder

<!--

THIS TEXT IS DESIGNER NOTES, WITH MY THOUGHTS ON THE FLAVOR AND BALANCE OF THIS SUBCLASS.

-->

### Path of the Marauder

Every group intending to go into battle needs a good leader. One who leads from the front, who has a plan, who knows the strengths of his allies and deploys them where they will be the most effective. What they need is a barbarian of the Path of the Marauder.

Barbarians on this course find their rage brings great clarity of mind, allowing them to see all the ways the battle can be won. Through sly tactics and synergy, they make sure every member of their company is utilized to the fullest. These barbarians often find aspire to a position where their gifts will be the most useful. You can choose this ambition or determine it by rolling on the Marauder's Ambition table.

##### Marauder's Ambition

|     d4      | Ambition |
|:---:|:-----------|
|  1</br></br></br>  | You dream at night of the high seas and the open sky, and know you could be a privateer captain without equal.  |
|  2</br></br>  | One of your relatives leads an infamous company of bandits, and you aim to replace them. |
|  3</br></br></br>  | You don't care for fame, but the stakes and secrecy of being part of an elite military unit are all you've ever wanted. |
|  4</br></br>  | Hunting terrible monsters and otherworldly foes beside your friends is the ideal way to go out. |

<!--

Honestly the inspiration for this subclass came entirely for the art. I was browsing artofmtg.com when I came across the image of this big orc pirate with improvised armor and a crew behind him and I had to make something with it. I like the idea of a barbarian that leads a group of mildly to severely problematic individuals through daring escapades, and there isn't really something like that in official materials yet. It is sort of a counterpoint to the Ancestral Guardian barbarian, which is all about protecting your allies, whereas this subclass is focused on helping your allies be more dangerous.

-->

#### Fighting Dirty
*3rd-level Path of the Marauder feature*
<div style="margin:-6px;"></div>

Tricks and teamwork ensure your victory. You can use this feature in the following three ways while raging:

<p class='negative-indent'><b>Smokescreen.</b> You menace your foes, throwing them off from the real threat. As a bonus action, you can distract an enemy within 5 feet of you that can see or hear you until the start of your next turn. Your allies have advantage on attack rolls against the distracted target.</p>

<p class='negative-indent'><b>Plunder.</b> Whatever your targets have is yours for the taking. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can choose to make a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the target’s Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (the target chooses the ability to use). If you succeed, the target drops one item of your choice that it is holding, and the item falls at its feet.</p>

<p class='negative-indent'><b>Backscratch.</b> Your allies come to your aid, knowing you'll do the same for them. When you take damage from a creature you can see, you can use your reaction to choose one ally within 30 feet. That ally can make one weapon attack against the creature that damaged you, provided the target is within range of one of their weapon attacks.</p>

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a short or long rest.

<!--

The big feature of this subclass I think. I designed this to have as little overlap as possible so you could potentially use them all in the same round.

Smokescreen is numerically less of a boost than advantage at low levels, but it scales as the game goes on. If you don't have something else to use your bonus action on, this can greatly improve the number of hits your allies land on the target.

Plunder is similar to the Disarming Strike maneuver, but without the extra damage and a different way of determining whether the item is dropped. This has you make an Athletics check, and the DC is the Strength or Dexterity score of the enemy, which is likely to be fairly high. You do have advantage on Strength checks while raging, though. Use this to make an enemy drop their shield, then use Smokescreen for up to a +6 effective bonus to attack rolls for allies. Also, the PHB lists picking up a dropped weapon as something you can do as a free action on your turn. If you or an ally within 5 feet has a free hand you may be able to grab the dropped weapon, shield, or spellcasting focus, thus severely limiting the target.

Backscratch is probably the strongest one here, very similar to the Retaliation capstone of the Berserker but you choose an ally to make the attack. Out of everything in this subclass I think it is the most potentially unbalanced, so adjustments to this ability are likely. Does only work against the creature that damaged you, so if there is no ally that can hit them, this isn't as useful.

-->

##### Path of the Marauder v2.1 for D&D 5e
**Created by:** [u/NotTheDreadPirate](https://www.reddit.com/user/NotTheDreadPirate "u/NotTheDreadPirate's profile")</br>**Artist Credit:** [Randy Vargas - Captain Vargus Wrath](http://www.artofmtg.com/art/captain-vargus-wrath/ "Randy Vargas - Captain Vargus Wrath")</br> 
</div>

\columnbreak

#### Coarse Negotiator
*3rd-level Path of the Marauder feature*
<div style="margin:-6px;"></div>

You've learned a thing or two about how to make people see things from your perspective. Whenever you make a Charisma check, you gain a bonus to the check equal to your Strength modifier (minimum of +1).

In addition, you gain one of the following proficiencies of your choice: cartographer's tools, navigator's tools, or vehicles (land and water).

<!--

Basically a ribbon feature, but a strong one. Adding your Strength modifier to Charisma checks makes you a pretty decent Face, and you'll get a huge bonus to Intimidation checks if you have proficiency in it.

I am considering adjusting this to not include all charisma checks.

The proficiencies are quite niche but fit the theme of a pirate or bandit leader. Make maps, figure out where you are, steer the ship. Fun stuff, would be very good in a pirate or other nautical themed campaign I think. You only get one of the proficiencies though.

-->

#### Assured Assignment
*6th-level Path of the Marauder feature*
<div style="margin:-6px;"></div>

You never have any trouble trusting your faithful crew to get things done. While you are raging, your allies gain a bonus to damage rolls against creatures within 5 feet of you. The bonus equals your rage damage bonus.

In addition, when you enter your rage, you can choose a number of creatures equal to your proficiency bonus that you can see within 30 feet. Those creatures can immediately move up to half their speed.

<!--

Nothing complicated here, but this is a very strong ability. Your allies will deal more damage to creatures near you, so you get an incentive to be in the middle of the fray where this affects as many creatures as possible. The damage scales since it works off your RDB, and it synergizes well with all of your other abilities that let your allies be more offensive.

The movement is a pretty big deal, this helps your party set up better on the first round of combat which can be critical. Helping your rogue get to cover can be huge. It also helps any melee allies get closer to the enemy, or ranged allies get to a safe distance. Never will this not be useful to have.

Note that the movement will provoke opportunity attacks as normal, and your allies don't get the chance to take the Disengage action, so this won't really help someone who gets jumped early in the initiative order.

-->

#### Improvised Assault
*10th-level Path of the Marauder feature*
<div style="margin:-6px;"></div>

Knowing a good opportunity is the secret to a glorious career. When you use your action to take the Dash action while raging, you can choose to conduct an improvised assault and make a number of melee weapon attacks equal to your proficiency bonus as part of this action. Each of these attacks must target a different creature.

Once you conduct an improvised assault, you can't do so again until you finish a short or long rest, unless you expend a use of your Rage feature to do so.

<!--

The crowd control ability. This is about the only thing here that actually lets you deal increased damage. The idea was taken from Steel Wind Strike and adapted. You sacrifice your action to Dash, but you get to make up to 6 attacks against 6 different enemies (once you reach level 17 at least, since the number scales with your Proficiency Bonus). The movement still provokes opportunity attacks, but this is a good way of dealing with large fights and applying your abilities to many targets in the same round. Almost all your abilities involve helping allies attack the creatures around you, so this is your way of being around many creatures.

-->

#### Leading by Example
*14th-level Path of the Marauder feature*
<div style="margin:-6px;"></div>

As the foremost expert in the field of surprise surgery, your allies look to you for demonstrations. Whenever you score a critical hit while raging, you can choose one ally within 30 feet. That ally may use their reaction to move up to half their speed and make one weapon attack. This ability cannot trigger off the same creature more than once per round.

<!--

Backscratch uses your reaction, but this ability uses your ally's reaction, so they could both trigger in the same round. Unlike backscratch, this lets the ally move before attacking, though their movement may still provoke opportunity attacks. This works very well with Improvised Assault, where if you get one or two crits that means you can choose a few allies to make more attacks as well.

-->