Path of the Pack
The Path of the Pack is a life of friendship and unity with a spirit of nature, granting a loyal companion and presenting a strong symbiosis inside and outside of combat.
Consider the source of the beast spirit you have bonded with. The Spirit Origin table offers examples.
Spirit Origin
| d6 | Origin |
|---|---|
| 1 | It’s common in your tribe that newborns are associated with spirits of nature. |
| 2 | You found an artifact that upon acquisition created a strong bond between you and the spirit inside of it. |
| 3 | When you took a walk in the forest a beast spirit that had been hunted ran through you and became a part of you. |
| 4 | You inherited the spirit when one of your parents died. |
| 5 | You took part in a group that tried to summon a spirit. It succeeded and the spirit chose you as its host. |
| 6 | You were able to hunt down Malar, The Beastlord, in one of his lesser forms. As a reward he gave you a small part of his spirit which now is a part of you. |
Path of the Pack Features
| Level | Features |
|---|---|
| 3rd | Call of the Wild, Spiritual Connection |
| 6th | Spirit of Nature, United Ferocity |
| 10th | Vital Bond |
| 14th | Soulmate |
Call of the Wild
At 3rd level, you magically summon a manifestation of the beast spirit that is bound to you in an unoccupied space of your choice within 30 feet of you.
The beast is friendly to you and your companions and obeys your commands. See its game statistics in the accompanying Beast Companion stat block, which uses your proficiency bonus (PB) in several places. You also determine the kind of animal the beast is, choosing a kind appropriate for the stat block, e.g. a wolf, a tiger, a panther, a leopard, a lion, a jaguar, a cheetah or a cougar. Whatever kind you choose, the beast bears primal markings, indicating its mystical origin.
In combat, the beast acts during your turn. It can move and use its reaction on its own, but the only action it takes is the Dodge action, unless you take a bonus action on your turn to command it to take another action, which you can take as part of the same bonus action you use to rage. That action can be one in its stat block or some other action. You can also sacrifice one of your attacks when you take the Attack action to command the beast to take the Attack action. If you are incapacitated, the beast can take any action of its choice, not just Dodge.
If the beast drops to 0 hit points, it falls unconscious and makes death saving throws as usual. If the beast has died within the last hour, you can use your action to touch it and expend a rage. The beast returns to life after 1 minute with all its hit points restored. When you finish a long rest and have no beast summoned, you can summon your beast companion without expending a rage. The new beast appears in an unoccupied space within 30 feet of you and you choose its appearance. The beast vanishes if you die.
Beast Companion
Medium beast
- Armor Class 14 + PB (natural armor)
- Hit Points 5 + five times your barbarian level (the beast has a number of Hit Dice [d10s] equal to your barbarian level)
- Speed 40 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 15 (+2) 14 (+2) 15 (+2) 8 (-1) 14 (+2) 11 (+0)
- Saving Throws saving_throws
- Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 12 + PB
- Languages understands the languages you speak
- Proficiency Bonus (PB) equals your bonus
- Pack Tactics. The beast has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the beast’s allies is within 5 ft. of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
- Primal Bond. You can add your proficiency bonus to any ability check or saving throw that the beast makes.
Actions
Maul. Melee Weapon Attack: your Strength modifier + PB to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2d4 + PB piercing damage.
Spiritual Connection
Yours is a path that seeks attunement with the natural world, giving you a kinship with beasts. At 3rd level when you adopt this path, you gain the ability to cast the beast sense and speak with animals spells, but only as rituals, as described in chapter 10, “Spellcasting”.
Spirit of Nature
Beginning at 6th level, the beast’s attacks now count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.
United Ferocity
Starting at 6th level, your companion shares your primal ferocity. While raging, your companion gains the following benefits:
- It has advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws.
- When it makes a melee weapon attack using Strength, it gains 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.
Additionally, your rage doesn’t end early if your companion attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or took damage since then.
Vital Bond
Beginning at 10th level, while you have your beast companion summoned, whenever you take damage, you can choose to only take half the damage, but your companion takes the other half. Also, whenever your companion takes damage, you can choose that it only takes half the damage, but you take the other half.
Soulmate
Starting at 14th level, when you have your beast companion summoned and you would die, your companion doesn’t vanish and your soul gets transfered into your beast companion. Your game statistics are replaced by the statistics of your companion, but you retain your alignment and personality. You assume your companion’s hit points and Hit Dice. You can’t cast spells, and your ability to speak or take any action that requires hands is limited to the capabilities of your companion’s form. You retain the benefit of any features from your class, race, or other source other than Call of the Wild and can use them if your companion’s form is physically capable of doing so.
You need to finish a long rest before you can use this feature again. After finishing a long rest, you revert to your normal form, but without any equipment and your old body vanishes.
Credits
Image 1: by Jorge Silva. You can find his works on https://www.artstation.com/george84