Barbarian, the Bamstacks Variant v1

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Barbarian, the Bamstacks Variant
Rage, rage against your enemies and destroy them with brutal critical hits.

Rage burns in every barbarian’s heart, a furnace that drives them toward greatness. Different barbarians attribute their rage to different sources, however. For some, it is an internal reservoir where pain, grief, and anger are forged into a fury hard as steel. Others see it as a spiritual blessing, a gift of a totem animal.

Other Changes

This variant is intended to go along with the other changes, like class proficiency bonuses, detailed here.

The Barbarian

A tall human watchman strides through a blizzard, draped in fur and hefting his axe. He laughs as he charges toward the frost giant who dared poach his town’s elk herd.

A half-orc snarls at the latest challenger to her authority over the city, ready to break his neck with her bare hands as she did to the last six rivals.

Frothing at the mouth, a dwarf slams his helmet into the face of his drow foe, then turns to drive his armored elbow into the gut of another.

These barbarians, different as they might be, are defined by their rage: unbridled, unquenchable, and unthinking fury. More than a mere emotion, their anger is the ferocity of a cornered predator, the unrelenting assault of a storm, the churning turmoil of the sea.

For some, their rage springs from a communion with fierce animal spirits. Others draw from a roiling reservoir of anger at a world full of pain. For every barbarian, rage is a power that fuels not just a battle frenzy but also uncanny reflexes, resilience, and feats of strength.

The Barbarian
Level Proficiency Bonus Features Rages Rage Damage
1st +2 Rage, Unarmored Defense 2 +2
2nd +2 Reckless Attack, Danger Sense 2 +2
3rd +2 Primal Knowledge, Primal Path 3 +2
4th +2 Ability Score Improvement 3 +2
5th +2 Extra Attack, Fast Movement 3 +2
6th +3 Path Feature 4 +2
7th +3 Feral Instinct 4 +2
8th +3 Ability Score Improvement 4 +2
9th +4 Brutal Critical (+1 die) 4 +3
10th +4 Path Feature, Primal Knowledge improvement 4 +3
11th +4 Relentless Rage 4 +3
12th +4 Ability Score Improvement 5 +3
13th +5 Brutal Critical (+2 dice) 5 +3
14th +5 Path Feature 5 +3
15th +5 Persistent Rage 5 +3
16th +5 Ability Score Improvement 5 +4
17th +6 Brutal Critical (+3 dice) 6 +4
18th +6 Indomitable Might 6 +4
19th +6 Ability Score Improvement 6 +4
20th +6 Primal Champion Unlimited +4

Creating a Barbarian

When creating a barbarian character, think about where your character comes from and his or her place in the world. Talk with your DM about an appropriate origin for your barbarian. Did you come from a distant land, making you a stranger in the area of the campaign? Or is the campaign set in a rough-and-tumble frontier where barbarians are common? Or were you a trained fighter who has since lost control?

What led you to take up the adventuring life? Were you lured away from home by riches? Did you join forces with soldiers of those lands to face a shared threat? Did monsters or an invading horde drive you out of your homeland, making you a rootless refugee? Perhaps you were a prisoner of war, brought in chains to supposedly "civilized" lands and only now able to win your freedom. Or you might have been cast out from your people because of a crime you committed, a taboo you violated, or a coup that removed you from a position of authority.

Quick Build

You can make a barbarian quickly by following these suggestions. First, put your highest ability score in Strength, followed by Dexterity and Constitution. IF you want to wear heavy armor, don't worry about having a high Dexterity score. Second, choose the outlander background.

Class Features

As a barbarian, you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

  • Hit Dice: 1d12 per barbarian level
  • Hit Points at 1st Level: 12 + your Constitution modifier
  • Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d12 (or 7) + your Constitution modifier per barbarian level after 1st

Proficiencies

  • Armor: Light armor, medium armor, shields
  • Weapons: Simple weapons, martial weapons
  • Tools: None
  • Saving Throws: Strength, Constitution
  • Skills: Choose two from Animal Handling, Athletics, Intimidation, Nature, Perception, and Survival

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

  • (a) a martial weapon and a shield or (b) two martial weapons
  • (a) two handaxes or (b) any simple weapon
  • An explorer’s pack and four javelins

Alternatively, you can roll 3d4 x 10 gp and buy your starting equipment.

Barbarian Multiclassing

Barbarians follow all the normal rules for multiclassing. The following tables function as additions to the normal multiclassing rules.

Ability Score Minimum. As a multiclass character, you must have at least a Strength score of 15 to take a level in this class, or to take a level in another class if you are already a barbarian.

Proficiencies Gained. If barbarian isn’t your initial class, here are the proficiencies you gain when you take your first level as a barbarian: shields, simple weapons, martial weapons

Spell Slots. If you are a Path of the Rune Sage or Warden barbarian, add a third of your levels rounded down in the barbarian class to the appropriate levels from other classes to determine your available spell slots.

Rage

1st-level Barbarian feature

In battle, you fight with primal ferocity. On your turn, you can enter a rage as a bonus action.

While raging, you gain the following benefits if you aren’t wearing heavy armor:

  • You have advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws.
  • When you make a weapon attack using Strength, you gain a bonus to the damage roll that increases as you gain levels as a barbarian, as shown in the Rage Damage column of the Barbarian table.
  • You have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.

If you are able to cast spells, you can’t cast them or concentrate on them while raging.

Your rage lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if you are knocked unconscious. You can also end your rage on your turn as a bonus action.

Once you have raged the number of times shown for your barbarian level in the Rages column of the Barbarian table, you must finish a long rest before you can rage again.

Unarmored Defense

1st-level Barbarian feature

While you are not wearing any armor, your Armor Class equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Constitution modifier. You can use a shield and still gain this benefit.

Reckless Attack

2nd-level Barbarian feature

You can throw aside all concern for defense to attack with fierce desperation. When you make your first attack on your turn, you can decide to attack recklessly. Doing so gives you advantage on weapon attack rolls using Strength until the start of your next turn, but attack rolls against you have advantage until the start of your next turn.

Danger Sense

2nd-level Barbarian feature

You gain an uncanny sense of when things nearby aren’t as they should be, giving you an edge when you dodge away from danger.

You have advantage on Dexterity saving throws against effects that you can see, such as traps and spells. To gain this benefit, you can’t be blinded, deafened, or incapacitated.

Primal Knowledge

3rd-level Barbarian feature

You gain proficiency on one skill of your choice from the list of skills available to barbarians at 1st level. You gain another skill proficiency at 10th level in this class.

Primal Path

3rd-level Barbarian feature

You choose a path that shapes the nature of your rage. The Path of the Berserker and Path of the Totem Warrior are detailed at the end of the class description, and additional primal paths are available in other sources. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th, 10th, and 14th levels.

Ability Score Improvement

4th-level Barbarian feature

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

Using the optional feats rule, you can forgo taking this feature to take a feat of your choice instead.

Extra Attack

5th-level Barbarian feature

You can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

Fast Movement

5th-level Barbarian feature

Your speed increases by 10 feet while you aren’t wearing heavy armor.

Feral Instinct

7th-level Barbarian feature

Your instincts are so honed that you have advantage on initiative rolls. In addition, as part of the bonus action you take to enter your rage, you can move up to half your speed.

Additionally, if you are surprised at the beginning of combat and aren’t incapacitated, you can act normally on your first turn, but only if you enter your rage before doing anything else on that turn.

Brutal Critical

9th-level Barbarian feature

Your weapon attacks that rely on Strength score increase their critical range by 1, in addition you add the maximum result of one die of your weapon's damage to the damage of a critical hit with a melee weapon.

This bonus damage increases to 2 maximum die results at 13th level, and again to 3 maximum die results at 17th level.

Relentless Rage

11th-level Barbarian feature

Your rage can keep you fighting despite grievous wounds. If you drop to 0 hit points while you’re raging and don’t die outright, you can make a DC 5 Constitution saving throw. If you succeed, you drop to 1 hit point instead.

Each time you use this feature after the first, the DC increases by 5. When you rage again, the DC resets to 5.

Persistent Rage

15th-level Barbarian feature

Your rage is so fierce that after a rage would end after one minute, you can attempt to extend the rage. You can make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw. If you succeed, the rage lasts an additional minute or until you fall unconscious.

Each time you use this feature after the first, the DC increases by 5. The DC resets to 5 when you begin a new rage.

Indomitable Might

18th-level Barbarian feature

If your total for a Strength check is less than your Strength score, you can use that score in place of the total.

Whenever you have advantage on an attack roll using Strength, you can reroll one of the dice once.

Primal Champion

20th-level Barbarian feature

You embody the power of the wilds. You may divide 10 points between your Strength, Constitution and Dexterity scores. Your maximum for those scores is now 24.

Path of the Ancestral Guardian

Some barbarians hail from cultures that revere their ancestors. These tribes teach that the warriors of the past linger in the world as mighty spirits, who can guide and protect the living. When a barbarian who follows this path rages, the barbarian contacts the spirit world and calls on these guardian spirits for aid.

Barbarians who draw on their ancestral guardians can better fight to protect their tribes and their allies. In order to cement ties to their ancestral guardians, barbarians who follow this path cover themselves in elaborate tattoos that celebrate their ancestors’ deeds. These tattoos tell sagas of victories against terrible monsters and other fearsome rivals.

Bonus Proficiencies

3rd-level Ancestral Guardian feature

Your focus on utilizing the strength of your ancestors has given you insight into some of their knowledges and maybe even pieces of memory. You gain proficiency with your choice of skill from either History, Medicine, or Religion.

Ancestral Protectors

3rd-level Ancestral Guardian feature

Spectral warriors appear when you enter your rage. While you’re raging, the first creature you hit with an attack on your turn becomes the target of the warriors, which hinder its attacks. Until the start of your next turn, that target has disadvantage on any attack roll that isn't against you, and when the target hits a creature other than you with an attack, that creature has resistance to the damage of the target’s attacks.

Spirit Shield

6th-level Ancestral Guardian feature

The guardian spirits that aid you can provide supernatural protection to those you defend. If you are raging and a creature you can see within 30 feet of you takes damage, you can use your reaction to reduce that damage by 2d6.

When you reach certain levels in this class, you can reduce the damage by more: by 3d6 at 10th level, 4d6 at 14th level, and 5d6 at 18th level.

Consult the Spirits

10th-level Ancestral Guardian feature

You gain the ability to consult with your ancestral spirits. When you do so, you cast the augury or clairvoyance spell, without using a spell slot or material components. Rather than creating a spherical sensor, this use of clairvoyance invisibly summons one of your ancestral spirits to the chosen location. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these spells.

After you cast either spell in this way, you can’t use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest.

Vengeful Ancestors

14th-level Ancestral Guardian feature

Your ancestral spirits grow powerful enough to retaliate. When you use your Spirit Shield to reduce the damage of an attack, the attacker takes an amount of force damage that your Spirit Shield prevents.

Path of the Battlerager

Known as Kuldjargh (literally "axe idiot") in Dwarvish, battleragers are dwarf followers of the gods of war and take the Path of the Battlerager. They specialize in wearing bulky, spiked armor and throwing themselves into combat, striking with their body itself and giving themselves over to the fury of battle.

Bonus Proficiencies

3rd-level Battlerager feature

You gain proficiency with smith's tools and heavy armor. You can also Rage while wearing heavy armor with no drawbacks.

Battlerager Armor

3rd-level Battlerager feature

You have taken up a rare fighting style that incorporates your armor as a weapon. When you finish a long rest, you can use smith's tools to affix spikes to a set of armor that you touch, turning it into a set of Spiked Armor. For you, Spiked Armor is a martial melee weapon with a reach of 5 feet that deals 1d4 piercing damage on hit.

The damage of your Spiked Armor increases as you gain levels in this class, at 6th level (1d6) and 14th level (1d8).

While you are raging, you can use a bonus action on your turn to make an attack with your Spiked Armor. In addition, when you successfully initiate a grapple, the target takes the damage of your Spiked Armor attack.

Reckless Abandon

6th-level Battlerager feature

When you use Reckless Attack while raging, you also gain temporary hit points equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum of 1 temporary hit point). They vanish if any of them are left when your rage ends.

In addition, you can turn magical armor into Spiked Armor.

Battlerager Charge

10th-level Battlerager feature

You revel in the thrill of combat and are often the first to engage in battle. You can take the Dash action as a bonus action while you are raging.

Spiked Retribution

14th-level Battlerager feature

When a creature hits you with a melee attack while you are wearing your spiked armor, the attacker takes piercing damage equal to your Strength modifier. If you are conscious, you can use your reaction to replace this damage with the damage from a Spiked Armor attack.

Path of the Beast

Barbarians who walk the Path of the Beast draw their rage from a bestial spark burning within their souls. That beast bursts forth in the throes of rage, physically transforming the barbarian.

Such a barbarian might be inhabited by a primal spirit or be descended from shape-shifters. You can choose the origin of your feral might or determine it by rolling on the Origin of the Beast table.

d4 Origin
1 One of your parents is a lycanthrope, and you've inherited some of their curse.
2 You are descended from an archdruid and inherited the ability to partially change shape.
3 A fey spirit gifted you with the ability to adopt different bestial aspects.
4 An ancient animal spirit dwells within you, allowing you to walk this path.

Form of the Beast

3rd-level Beast feature

When you enter your rage, you can transform, revealing the bestial power within you. Until the rage ends, you manifest a natural weapon. It counts as a simple melee weapon for you, and you add your Strength modifier to the attack and damage rolls when you attack with it, as normal.

You choose the weapon’s form each time you rage:

Bite. Your mouth transforms into a bestial muzzle or great mandibles (your choice). It deals 1d10 piercing damage on a hit. Once on each of your turns when you damage a creature with this bite, you regain a number of hit points equal to half the piercing damage you dealt with the attack.

Claws. Each of your hands transforms into a claw, which you can use as a weapon if it’s empty. It deals 1d8 slashing damage on a hit. These claws count as light melee weapons and you can use two-weapon fighting with them, and you add your Strength modifier to an attack you make with your claws using two-weapon fighting.

Tail. You grow a lashing, spiny tail, which deals 1d8 piercing damage on a hit and has the reach property. If a creature you can see within 10 feet of you hits you with an attack roll, you can use your reaction to swipe your tail and roll a d8, applying a bonus to your AC equal to the number rolled, potentially causing the attack to miss you.

Bestial Soul

6th-level Beast feature

The feral power within you increases, causing the natural weapons of your Form of the Beast to count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.

You can also alter your form to help you adapt to your surroundings. When you finish a short or long rest, choose one of the following benefits, which lasts until you finish a short or long rest:

  • You gain a swimming speed equal to your walking speed, and you can breathe underwater.
  • You gain a climbing speed equal to your walking speed, and you can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
  • When you jump, you can make a Strength (Athletics) check and extend your jump by a number of feet equal to the check’s total. You can make this special check only once per turn.

Infectious Fury

10th-level Beast feature

When you hit a creature with your natural weapons while you are raging, the beast within you can curse your target with rabid fury. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw (DC equal to 8 + your Constitution modifier + your proficiency bonus) or suffer one of the following effects (your choice):

  • The target must use its reaction to make a melee attack against another creature of your choice that you can see.
  • Target takes a number of d6s of psychic damage equal to half your barbarian level.

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

Call the Hunt

14th-level Beast feature

The beast within you grows so powerful that you can spread its ferocity to others and gain resilience from them joining your hunt. When you enter your rage, you can choose a number of other willing creatures you can see within 30 feet of you equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum of one creature). You gain 5 temporary hit points for each creature that accepts this feature. Until the rage ends, the chosen creatures can use the following benefit once on each of their turns: when the creature hits a target with an attack roll and deals damage to it, the creature can roll a d6 and gain a bonus to the damage equal to the number rolled.

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

Path of the Berserker

For some barbarians, rage is a means to an end—that end being violence. The Path of the Berserker is a path of untrammeled fury, slick with blood. As you enter the berserker’s rage, you thrill in the chaos of battle, heedless of your own health or well-being.

Frenzy

3rd-level Berserker feature

You can go into a frenzy when you rage. If you do so, for the duration of your rage you can make a single melee weapon attack as a bonus action on each of your turns after this one. Each additional time you use this ability before completing a long rest, you suffer one level of exhaustion. You ignore the effects of exhaustion while raging.

At 5th level, you may make a single melee weapon attack as part of the bonus action you use to begin a Frenzy.

At 11th level, you gain temporary hit points when you use Frenzy equal to your Barbarian level.

At 17th level, you no longer suffer exhaustion when you use Frenzy.

Mindless Rage

6th-level Berserker feature

You can’t be charmed or frightened while raging. If you are charmed or frightened when you enter your rage, the condition immediately ends.

Intimidating Presence

10th-level Berserker feature

You can use your action to frighten someone with your menacing presence. When you do so, choose one creature that you can see within 30 feet of you. If the creature can see or hear you, it must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw (DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier) or be frightened of you until the end of your next turn. On subsequent turns, you can use your action to extend the duration of this effect on the frightened creature until the end of your next turn. This effect ends if the creature ends its turn out of line of sight or more than 60 feet away from you.

If you are using Frenzy, you may use a bonus action to frighten someone and maintain the effect.

If the creature succeeds on its saving throw, you can’t use this feature on that creature again for 24 hours.

Retaliation

14th-level Berserker feature

When you take damage from a creature that is within reach of a melee weapon you are holding, you can use your reaction to make a melee weapon attack against that creature.

Path of the Storm Herald

Typical barbarians harbor a fury that dwells within. Their rage grants them superior strength, durability, and speed. Barbarians who follow the Path of the Storm Herald learn instead to transform their rage into a mantle of primal magic that swirls around them. When in a fury, a barbarian of this path taps into nature to create powerful, magical effects.

Storm heralds are typically elite champions who train alongside druids, rangers, and others sworn to protect the natural realm. Other storm heralds hone their craft in elite lodges founded in regions wracked by storms, in the frozen reaches at the world’s end, or deep in the hottest deserts.

Storm Aura

3rd-level Storm Herald feature

You emanate a stormy, magical aura while you rage. The aura extends 10 feet from you in every direction, but not through total cover.

Your aura has an effect that activates when you enter your rage, and you can activate the effect again on each of your turns as a bonus action. Choose desert, sea, or tundra. Your aura's effect depends on that chosen environment, as detailed below. You can change your environment choice whenever you gain a level in this class.

If your aura's effects require a saving throw, the DC equals 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier.

Desert. When this effect is activated, all other creatures in your aura take fire damage equal to two plus half your barbarian level, rounded up.

Sea. When this effect is activated, you can choose one other creature you can see in your aura. The target must make a Dexterity saving throw. The target takes 1d10 lightning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The damage increases when you reach certain levels in this class, increasing to 2d10 at 5th level, 3d10 at 10th level, 4d10 at 14th level, and 5d10 at 18th level.

Tundra. When this effect is activated, each creature of your choice in your aura gains temporary hit points equal to two plus half your barbarian level, rounded up, as icy spirits inure it to suffering.

Storm Soul

6th-level Storm Herald feature

The storm grants you benefits even when your aura isn't active depending on your chosen environment. You gain a damage resistance, a cantrip, as well as other benefits listed in the below table.

If you gain a cantrip through this feature, you can cast it while Raging, your spellcasting ability for it is Constitution, and you can cast it as a bonus action a number of times equal to your barbarian proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Environment Resistance Cantrip Other Effects
Desert Fire control flames Ignore effects of extreme heat
Sea Lightning lightning lure Can breathe underwater and gain a swimming speed equal to your walking speed
Tundra Cold frostbite Ignore effects of extreme cold

Shielding Storm

10th-level Storm Herald feature

You learn to use your mastery of the storm to protect others. Each creature of your choice has the damage resistance you gained from the Storm Soul feature while the creature is in your Storm Aura.

Raging Storm

14th-level Storm Herald feature

The power of the storm you channel grows mightier, lashing out at your foes. The effect is based on the environment you chose for your Storm Aura.

Desert. Immediately after a creature in your aura hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to force that creature to make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes fire damage equal to twice your Barbarian level.

Sea. When you hit a creature in your aura with an attack, you can use your reaction to force that creature to make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, the creature is knocked prone and pushed 10 feet away from you, as if struck by a wave, and takes bludgeoning damage equal to your barbarian level.

Tundra. Whenever the effect of your Storm Aura is activated, you can choose one creature you can see in the aura. That creature must succeed on a Strength saving throw, or take cold damage equal to your barbarian level and have its speed reduced to 0 until the start of your next turn, as magical frost covers it.

Path of the Totem Warrior

The Path of the Totem Warrior is a spiritual journey, as the barbarian accepts a spirit animal as guide, protector, and inspiration. In battle, your totem spirit fills you with supernatural might, adding magical fuel to your barbarian rage.

Most barbarian tribes consider a totem animal to be kin to a particular clan. In such cases, it is unusual for an individual to have more than one totem animal spirit, though exceptions exist.

Spirit Seeker

3rd-level Totem Warrior feature

Yours is a path that seeks attunement with the natural world, giving you a kinship with beasts. You gain the ability to cast the beast sense and speak with animals spells, using Wisdom as your spellcasting ability. You may cast each of these spells once, regaining all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Totem Spirit

3rd-level Totem Warrior feature

You choose a totem spirit and gain its feature. You must make or acquire a physical totem object — an amulet or similar adornment — that incorporates fur or feathers, claws, teeth, or bones of the totem animal. At your option, you also gain minor physical attributes that are reminiscent of your totem spirit. For example, if you have a bear totem spirit, you might be unusually hairy and thick-skinned, or if your totem is the eagle, your eyes turn bright yellow.

Your totem animal might be an animal related to those listed here but more appropriate to your homeland. For example, you could choose a hawk or vulture in place of an eagle.

Bear. While raging, you have resistance to all damage except psychic damage. The spirit of the bear makes you tough enough to stand up to any punishment.

Eagle. While you’re raging, your movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity, and you can use the Dash action as a bonus action on your turn. The spirit of the eagle makes you into a predator who can weave through the fray with ease.

Wolf. While you’re raging, your friends have advantage on melee attack rolls against any creature within 5 feet of you that is hostile to you. The spirit of the wolf makes you a leader of hunters.

Aspect of the Beast

6th-level Totem Warrior feature

You gain a magical benefit based on the totem animal of your choice. You can choose the same animal you selected at 3rd level or a different one.

Bear. You gain the fortitude of a bear. You gain a +2 to your Constitution score. Your maximum Constitution is now 22. Your carrying capacity (including maximum load and maximum lift) is doubled, and you have advantage on Strength checks made to push, pull, lift, or break objects.

Eagle. You gain the eyesight of an eagle. You gain a +2 to your Wisdom score. Your maximum Wisdom is now 22. In addition, you gain proficiency in Wisdom saving throws if you don't have it already. You can see up to 1 mile away with no difficulty, able to discern even fine details as though looking at something no more than 100 feet away from you. Dim light doesn’t impose disadvantage on your Wisdom (Perception) checks. In addition, you have advantage on all Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.

Wolf. You gain the hunting sensibilities of a wolf. You gain a +2 to your Dexterity score. Your maximum Dexterity is now 22. You can track other creatures while traveling at a fast pace, and you can move stealthily while traveling at a normal pace (see “Adventuring,” for rules on travel pace). You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smell.

Spirit Walker

10th-level Totem Warrior feature

The spirits of your totem animals can magically take you through the planes. When you enter a rage, you can also teleport up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space you can see.

You can cast the commune with nature spell, but only as a ritual. When you do so, a spiritual version of one of the animals you chose for Totem Spirit or Aspect of the Beast appears to you to convey the information you seek.

Totemic Attunement

14th-level Totem Warrior feature

You gain a magical benefit based on a totem animal of your choice. You can choose the same animal you selected previously or a different one.

Bear. While you’re raging, any creature within 5 feet of you that’s hostile to you has disadvantage on attack rolls against targets other than you or another character with this feature. An enemy is immune to this effect if it can’t see or hear you or if it can’t be frightened.

Eagle. While raging, spectral eagle wings sprout from your back, you have a flying speed equal to your current walking speed.

Wolf. While you’re raging, you can use a bonus action on your turn to knock a Large or smaller creature prone when you hit it with melee weapon attack.

Path of Wild Magic

Many places in the multiverse abound with beauty, intense emotion, and rampant magic; the Feywild, the Upper Planes, and other realms of supernatural power radiate with such forces and can profoundly influence people. As folk of deep feeling, barbarians are especially susceptible to these wild influences, with some barbarians being transformed by the magic. These magic-suffused barbarians walk the Path of Wild Magic. Elf, tiefling, aasimar, and genasi barbarians often seek this path, eager to manifest the otherworldly magic of their ancestors.

Magic Connection

3rd-level Wild Magic feature

Your natural connection to magic grants you two benefits:

  • Absorption. As a reaction when you would take damage from a spell, you can reduce the damage from the triggering spell by an amount equal to twice your barbarian level. When you do so, you must immediately roll on the Wild Magic table.
  • Awareness. As an action, you can open your awareness to the presence of concentrated magic. Until the end of your next turn, you know the location of any spell or magic item within 60 feet of you that isn’t behind total cover. When you sense a spell, you learn which school of magic it belongs to.

Wild Surge

3rd-level Wild Magic feature

The magical energy roiling inside you sometimes erupts from you. When you enter your rage or roll a 1 or 20 on the d20 while in a rage, roll on the Wild Magic table to determine the magical effect produced.

More than one effect can be produced and maintained at the same time; however, there can only be one instance of a given effect active at any given time. If you roll a result you already have active, reroll the result until you roll an effect that isn't active already.

If the effect requires a saving throw, the DC equals 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier.

d8 Effect
1 Each creature of your choice that you can see within 30 feet of you must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or take a number of d4s of necrotic damage equal to your barbarian level. You also gain temporary hit points equal to this amount.
2 You teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see. Until your rage ends, you can use this effect again on each of your turns as a bonus action.
3 An intangible spirit, which looks like a flumph or a pixie (your choice), appears within 5 feet of one creature of your choice that you can see within 30 feet of you. At the end of the current turn, the spirit explodes, and each creature within 5 feet of it must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take force damage equal to your barbarian level. Until your rage ends, you can use this effect again, summoning another spirit, on each of your turns as a bonus action.
4 Magic infuses all weapons that you are holding. Until your rage ends, each of your weapons' damage types that you were holding when you began your rage weapon's change to force, and they gain the light and thrown properties, with a normal range of 20 feet and a long range of 60 feet. If these weapons leave your hand, the weapon reappears in your hand at the end of the current turn.
5 Whenever a creature hits you with an attack roll before your rage ends, that creature takes force damage equal to your proficiency bonus, as magic lashes out in retribution.
6 Until your rage ends, you are surrounded by multicolored, protective lights; you gain a +1 bonus to AC, and while within 10 feet of you, your allies gain the same bonus.
7 Flowers and vines temporarily grow around you; until your rage ends, the ground within 15 feet of you is difficult terrain for your enemies.
8 A bolt of light shoots from your chest. Another creature of your choice that you can see within 30 feet of you must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or take a number of d4s of radiant damage equal to half your barbarian level and be blinded until the start of your next turn. Until your rage ends, you can use this effect again on each of your turns as a bonus action.

Bolstering Magic

6th-level Wild Magic feature

You can harness your wild magic to bolster yourself or a companion. As an action, you can touch one creature (which can be yourself) and confer one of the following benefits of your choice to that creature:

  • For 10 minutes, the creature can roll a d4 whenever making an attack roll or an ability check and add the number rolled to the d20 roll.
  • Roll a d4. The creature regains expended spell slots or points of a combined level or amount equal to or less than the number rolled (the creature’s choice). Once a creature receives this benefit, that creature can’t receive it again until they finish a long rest. Spell slots gained through this feature must be 5th level or lower.

You can take this action a number of times equal to your barbarian proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

The d4 from this feature increases in size to a d6 when you reach 14th level in this class, and again to a d8 when you reach 20th level in this class.

Unstable Backlash

10th-level Wild Magic feature

When you are imperiled during your rage, the magic within you can lash out; immediately after you take damage or fail a saving throw while raging, you can use your reaction to roll on the Wild Magic table and immediately produce the effect rolled. This effect replaces your current Wild Magic effect.

Controlled Surge

14th-level Wild Magic feature

Whenever you enter a rage, you can choose to cause a wave of utter bewilderment emanate from you. All creatures within 20 feet of you of your choice when you enter your rage must make a Wisdom saving throw against a DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier. On a failure, a creature falls under the effects of the confusion spell for 1 minute. An affected creature makes a Constitution saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effects on a success.

Path of the Zealot

Some deities inspire their followers to pitch themselves into a ferocious battle fury. These barbarians are zealots – warriors who channel their rage into powerful displays of divine power.

A variety of gods across the worlds of D&D inspire their followers to embrace this path. Tempus from the Forgotten Realms and Hextor and Erythnul of Greyhawk are all prime examples. In general, the gods who inspire zealots are deities of combat, destruction, and violence. Not all are evil, but few are good.

Divine Fury

3rd-level Zealot feature

You can channel divine fury into your weapon strikes. While you're raging, the first creature you hit on each of your turns with a weapon attack takes extra damage equal to 1d6 + half your Barbarian level. The extra damage is necrotic or radiant; you choose the type of damage when you gain this feature.

Warrior of the Gods

3rd-level Zealot feature

Your soul is marked for endless battle. If a spell, such as raise dead, has the sole effect of restoring you to life (but not undeath), the caster doesn't need material components to cast the spell on you.

Fanatical Focus

6th-level Zealot feature

The divine power that fuels your rage can protect you. If you fail a saving throw while raging, you can reroll it, and you must use the new roll. You can use this ability only once per rage.

Zealous Presence

10th-level Zealot feature

You learn to channel divine power to inspire zealotry in others. As a bonus action, you unleash a battle cry infused with divine energy. Up to ten other creatures of your choice within 60 feet of you that can hear you gain advantage on attack rolls and saving throws until the start of your next turn.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.

Rage Beyond Death

14th-level Zealot feature

The divine power that fuels your rage allows you to shrug off fatal blows.

While you're raging, having 0 hit points doesn’t knock you unconscious. You still must make death saving throws, and you suffer the normal effects of taking damage while at 0 hit points. However, if you would die due to failing death saving throws, you don’t die until your rage ends, and you die then only if you still have 0 hit points.

Homebrew Adaptations

With the changes to the base barbarian classes, to adapt various popular homebrew subclasses to this variant, apply the following changes.

Bladestorm

KibblesTasty Path of the Bladestorm found here.

Furious Hurl

Rage damage is now already applied to thrown weapons with this variant. You can remove the first sentence of the feature.

Bladestorm

This feature was generally too little damage for the action cost as compared to your regular Attack action at this level, especially considering the friendly fire. Increase the damage to 2d6 per blade, to a maximum of 8d6.

Brute

Laserllama's Brute found here.

With the changes to two-weapon fighting, we just need to modify a few features to work with it.

Unarmed & Dangerous

Replace the feature with the following:

The time you have spent in the underbelly of civilization has honed your body itself into a deadly weapon. Your unarmed strikes count as light melee weapons for the purposes of two-weapon fighting and deal 1d4 bludgeoning damage on hit. If you have two free hands when making an unarmed strike, this d4 becomes a d6.

In addition, while you are raging, your unarmed strikes gain the following additional properties:

  • When you make an attack with your fists using two-weapon fighting, you add your ability modifier to the damage of the attack.
  • When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can attempt to grapple the target as part of that same attack, so long you have a free hand to grapple the target with.

Brutish Determination

Change the temporary hit points from 5 + Con to your Barbarian level for better scaling.

Colossus

from Valda's Spire of Secrets found here.

No changes suggested.

Damned

Stuffies12's Damned found here.

Hellish Fury

We want the hellish rebuke to scale. Change the last paragraph to read the following:

"In addition, while you are raging, you can use your reaction to cast hellish rebuke at a level equal to your barbarian proficiency bonus minus one without expending a spell slot (DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier). Once you do so you can't do so again until your rage again."

Deep

Laserllama's Deep found here.

The Horrors Below

Increase the psychic damage from 3d6 to your barbarian level for better damage and scaling.

Fin

from Valda's Spire of Secrets found here.

Mako

Increase the bite damage increase from 1d10 to 2d6.

Hummingbird

RiverNote's Hummingbird found here.

The save DCs of your subclass abilities will be based on Constitution instead of Wisdom.

Add the following feature, and remove the details on what the save DC for each feature.

Power of Huitzilopochtli

3rd-level Hummingbird feature

Your Hummingbird Primal Path features use your Hummingbird Save DC when they call for a saving throw.

Hummingbird Save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus +

your Wisdom modifier

Aura of Huitzilopochtli

Replace the wording of the feature with:

"You can take on aspects of your god when you rage. Your eyes burn with a bright white light and the air swirls around you with faint screaming. When you enter a rage you send a flash of bright light in a 15 foot radius. You can designate a number of creatures up to your Constitution modifier that are immune to the flash. Any other targets within range must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, each creature within range takes a number of d4s of fire damage equal to half your barbarian level, rounded up, and are blinded until the start of your next turn. On a successful save the creature takes half as much damage and is not blinded."

Mutant

Laserllama's Mutant found here.

Rapid Mutation

Remove the limiter of Con mod per day. Bonus action is already prohibitive enough for most barbarians at this level.

Quake Bringer

Benevolent Evil's Quake Bringer found here.

Seismic Smash

Increase the damage to twice your barbarian level.

Rage Mage

from Valda's Spire of Secrets found here.

Spellcasting

Your rage manifests as a surge of arcane power. While you are raging, you can cast and concentrate on spells. However, constitution saving throws you make to maintain concentration on a spell are made with disadvantage while raging.

Spell Slots. The Rage Mage Spellcasting table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your spells of 1st level or higher. To cast one of these spells, you must be raging and expend a slot of the spell’s level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.

Spells Known of 1st Level and Higher. You know three 1st-level Rage Mage spells of your choice, which you must choose from the Rage Mage Spell List

The Spells Known column of the Rage Mage Spellcasting table shows when you learn more Rage Mage spells of 1st level or higher. Each of these spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots.

Whenever you gain a level in this class, you can replace one of the Rage Mage spells you know with another spell of your choice from the Rage Mage spell list. The new spell must be of a level for which you have spell slots.

Spellcasting Ability. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for your Rage Mage spells. You use your Charisma whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Charisma modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a Rage Mage spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.

Anger-Fueled Magic. As your magical capabilities come from your unending rage, their explosive power is amplified. You add your rage damage bonus to the damage rolls of any Rage Mage spell you cast.

Arcane Rampage

If you take the Attack action while you are raging and attack recklessly, you can cast a spell in place of one of your attacks. The spell must have a casting time of 1 action or 1 bonus action.

Explosions of Rage

You manifest surges of arcane wrath with every strike. Once per turn, when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can create an explosion of energy at a point you choose within 10 feet of you.

Each creature other than you within a 10-foot radius of that point must make a Dexterity saving throw against your spell save DC, taking 2d6 force damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. You can expend a spell slot to increase this damage by 2d6 per level of the spell slot expended.

Rage Mage Spell List

1st Level

Acid Stream
Bane
Burning Hands*
Catapult
Chaos Bolt*
Chromatic Orb*
Command
Earth Tremor
Expeditious Retreat
Feather Fall
Force RamHB
Forsaken ChainsHB
Frost Fingers*
Hellish Rebuke*
Infuse HatredHB
Jump*
Magic Missile*
Oscillating ChronologyHB
Thunder PunchHB
Witch Bolt*

2nd Level

Aganazzar's Scorcher
Alter Self
Blindness/Deafness
Cloud of Daggers
Darkness
Dragon's Breath
Earthbind
Enhance Ability
Enlarge/Reduce
Flame Blade*
Flaming Sphere
GeyserHB
Gust of Wind
Heat Metal
Hurricane SlashHB
Kinetic Jaunt
Knock
Levitate
Maximilian's Earthen Grasp
Pyrotechnics
Rime's Binding Ice
Scorching Ray
Shatter
Skywrite
Snilloc's Snowball Swarm*
Spider Climb
Storming GaleHB
Warding Wind

3rd Level

Aether LanceHB
Ashardalon's Stride
Bestow Curse
Blink
Counterspell
Curse of BladesHB
Dispel Magic
Erupting Earth*
Fireball
Flame Arrows*
Fly
Gaseous Form*
Haste
Lightning Bolt
Liliander's HellspearHB
Melf's Minute Meteors
Pleonexia's Panoply of PersonasHB
Rigur's Ice SkatesHB
Slow
Through the Fire and FlamesHB
Thunder PulseHB
Vortex BlastHB
Wall of Water*
Water Breathing
Water Walk

4th Level

Abeyed DischargeHB
Aero BarrageHB
Blight*
Chaos WeaponHB
Deafening DarknessHB
Death Ward
Echoing LanceHB
Fire Shield
Ice SpikeHB
Ice Storm*
Iron MaidenHB
Oceanic SlamHB
Polymorph
Sickening Radiance
Snap FreezeHB
Storm Sphere

Warden

Laserllama's Warden found here.

Replace the Spell Slots section of the Spellcasting feature with the following:

"Spell Points. The Warden Spellcasting table shows how many spell points you have. The table also shows what the maximum level of spell you can cast through your spell points. To cast one of your Warden spells of 1st-level or higher, you must expend spell points equal to the level of the spell. You regain all of your expended spell points when you finish a short or long rest.

For example, as a 7th level Warden, you have three spell points from your Warden Spellcasting. To cast the 1st-level spell cure wounds, you can spend 1 spell point to cast it as a 1st-level spell, or 2 spell points to cast it as a 2nd-level spell."

Replace the Warden Spellcasting table with the following:

Barbarian Level Cantrips Known Spells Known Spell Points Spell Level Limit
3rd 1 2 1 1st
4th 1 2 2 1st
5th 1 3 2 1st
6th 1 3 2 1st
7th 1 4 3 2nd
8th 1 4 3 2nd
9th 1 5 3 2nd
10th 2 5 4 2nd
11th 2 5 4 2nd
12th 2 6 4 2nd
13th 2 6 5 3rd
14th 2 6 5 3rd
15th 2 7 5 3rd
16th 2 7 6 3rd
17th 2 7 6 3rd
18th 2 8 6 3rd
19th 2 8 7 4th
20th 2 8 7 4th

Primal Rage

As rage doesn't need to be sustained anymore, remove the last sentence.

Ward of the Ancients

Replace the feature with the following:

"Your connection with the natural world allows you to draw on the innate magic of the world around you to shield yourself from spells. As a reaction when you would take damage from a spell, you can reduce the damage by an amount equal to 10 times your maximum amount of spell points. Once you use this ability, you can't do so again until you finish a short or long rest."

Credits

Credit to Treantmonk and his variant found here for the changes to Brutal Critical, Relentless Rage, Persistent Rage, Indomitable Might, and Primal Champion, in addition to his changes to Berserker and Totem Warrior.

Art Credits

Art (Cover): KILART (choe, heonhwa): Maniacal Rage (Link)
Art (Page 2): Michal Ivan (Link)
Art (Page 3): Eric Summers: Barbarian's Rage (Link)
Art (Page 4): Ryan James: Barbarian Smash (Link)
Art (Page 5): Takeda11: Day 343 (Link)
Art (Page 6): zinph1212: Rage of Barbarian (Link)
Art (Page 7): Farri Lensen: Ancestral Guardian (Link)
Art (Page 8): capuzz85: Another Battlerager dwarf Commission (Link)
Art (Page 9): Christopher Moeller: Primal Visitation (Link)
Art (Page 10): Doomsday Productions: The Revised Berserker (Link)
Art (Page 11): Linus Whitlock, Storm Herald Barbarian (Link)
Art (Page 12): Path of the Totem Warrior (Link)
Art (Page 13): serendipitydoopity: R A G E (Link)
Art (Page 14): Ashkan Ganbari: Barbharian (Link)
Art (Page 15): Tony Guerola: Red Sonja (Link)
Page Stains: /u/flamableconcrete

Changelog

Base Class Changelog

  • Rage is a Barbarian's core class feature, and everything they do relies on them being in Rage. It being relatively easy to lose your rage is not great and is a feel-bad component of the barbarian's kit. Therefore, the clause about Rage ending if you haven't attacked a hostile creature or taken damage has been removed.
  • Rage also now applies to thrown weapons, and Reckless Attack also now works with them as well. You're telling me a Barbarian can't angrily shout in rage while they throw a spear?
  • Reckless Attack works until the start of your next turn, allowing it to apply to opportunity attacks.
  • Brutal Critical as printed in the PHB is a terrible damage feature. By increasing our critical range and increasing the damage on criticals, we've made this feature such that it will actually contribute meaningfully to average damage.
  • Relentless Rage has its first DC reduced to 5 to make it easier to start, and it also resets when you start a new rage. That means a Barbarian can choose to expend an additional rage to reset this DC.
  • Persistent Rage now can work with combats that are real slogs, or to try and extend a rage into a nearby combat.
  • Indomitable Might now allows you to roll a third die while you have advantage. Criticals galore!
  • Primal Champion is buffed and is more flexible. You now have 10 points to split between Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution, same maximums.

Primal Path Changelog

Ancestral Guardian

  • Bonus Proficiencies added at level 3 for thematic and narrative reasons.
  • Spirit Shield scales again at 18th level.

Battlerager

  • The restriction on dwarves has been removed.
  • You can use Heavy Armor without penalties while raging.
  • A creature grappled by you takes the damage of your Spiked Armor when you succeed the grapple attempt.
  • Reckless Abandon: you can turn magical armor into Spiked Armor.
  • Spiked Retribution: damage equals your Strength modifier, and you can use your reaction to replace the damage with your full Spiked Armor attack damage.

Beast

  • Bite's healing is now equal to half the attack's damage. Now it's no longer almost insultingly bad.
  • Claws now work with the revised two-weapon fighting rules in my variant. Same mechanics as before.
  • Infectious Fury: psychic damage option is now buffed and scales better.

Berserker

  • While in a Frenzy, you ignore the effects of exhaustion. Now when you rage, using your subclass feature does not make you a tired barbarian in combat. In addition, Frenzy scales with level for some potent effects.
  • Mindless Rage: a charmed or frightened condition you are under when you begin your rage now ends when you begin a rage.
  • Intimidating Presence is now based on your Strength modifier, and you can also use it as a bonus action while in a Frenzy. So you can either use the frighten or get the extra attack.
  • Retaliation: instead of 5 feet, it's within range of a weapon you are holding.

Storm Herald

  • Storm Aura: the damage on each of these effects before was absolutely way too small, and scaled way too slowly. Now it's reasonable.
  • Storm Soul: each effect has been paired with a thematic cantrip, which you can cast while raging.
  • Raging Storm: Desert increased to twice your barbarian level, Sea now includes a 10 feet push, Tundra now includes some cold damage.

Totem Warrior

  • Spirit Seeker: they can now cast these spells faster, not as rituals.
  • Totem Spirit: this primal path faces the problem that one option is better than the others. Eagle has been buffed to no longer provoke opportunity attacks at all while raging.
  • Aspect of the Beast: strangely, the subclass features get worse as you gain levels in barbarian... let's make some of these a bit better. All of these now buff secondary scores important to Barbarians.

Wild Magic

  • Magic Connection: Limiter on # of times has been removed, and you also gain a new ability allowing you to absorb energy from a spell and surge again. Appropriate, and I'm sure will be fun.
  • Wild Surge: You now will change the effect while raging if you roll a 1 or 20 on the d20, and multiple paths can be active simultaneously. This path will now feel appropriately unpredictable and crazed.
  • Wild Surge Table: A number of buffs to damage and abilities that allow them to scale with barbarian level so as to not be irrelevant later on. The thrown weapon option will now apply to all weapons you hold, allowing you to throw around weapons you are two-weapon fighting with.
  • Bolstering Magic: The d3 is changed to a d4, a die people will actually physically have. The mechanical bonus is not large enough to warrant the difference. The spell slot option is now more flexible; can be used to regain both a 2nd and 1st level slot on a roll of 3, for example. Spell point option is there for the revised warlock, for example.
  • If I'm a Wild Magic Barbarian, why would I want to control the effect? This effect is changed to emanate the effects of the confusion spell when you enter your rage instead.
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