Those that follow the Path of the Apex walk side by side with the great beasts of the world. Either through the trials of strength or an ancient understanding, these barbarians form a bond of mutual respect and loyalty with a ferocious predator. With their apex companion at their side, they wade into battle. This pairing of primal fury crushes their foes under foot and breaks them in hungry jaws.

Knowledge of the Wilds

At 3rd level when you choose this path, you foster a supernatural connection to the wilderness around you. You gain the ability to cast Beast Bond, and Locate Animals or Plants without a spell slot. Once you've cast a spell with this trait you can't cast that spell with it again until you finish a long rest. You can also cast either of those spells using any spell slots you have of the appropriate level. Your spell casting modifier is Wisdom.

Apex Companion

Additionally at 3rd level, you magically summon a powerful predator to your side which is drawn to your strength and ferocity. The beast is friendly to you and your companions and obeys your commands. It uses the Apex Companion stat block which uses your proficiency bonus (PB) in several places. You also determine the kind of animal it is and its appearance. These choices do not affect its game statistics

In combat, the Apex Companion 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. 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 Apex Companion to take the Attack action. If you are incapacitated, the beast can take any action of its choice, not just Dodge.

You can use your bonus action to command your Apex Companion to rage, this counts against the number of times you can rage. While raging the Apex Companion gains all the same benefits and restrictions you would if you were raging. When you command the apex companion to rage it can use its reaction to make one attack. If the Apex Companion is raging and you do not command it to attack, the beast makes an attack against a random creature within reach, if there is no creature within reach nothing happens. You can command the Apex Companion to end the rage on your turn free of action

If your Apex Companion has died within the last hour, you can use your action to touch it and expend a rage. The beast is returned to life through an otherworldly bond after 1 minute with all its hit points restored. When you finish a long rest, you can summon a different Apex Companion as an action. The new beast appears in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of you. If you already have an Apex Companion from this feature, it vanishes when the new beast appears. If you die your Apex Companion vanishes, unless it is raging, for the duration of the rage it can take any action of its choice until the rage ends, upon which the beast vanishes.

Apex Companion
Medium beast
Armor Class: 14 + PB (natural armor)
Hit Points: 10 + your Constitution modifier + 10 times your barbarian level (the beast has a number of Hit Dice [d12s] equal to your barbarian level
Speed: 40 ft.
STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
18 (+4)	14 (+2)	16 (+3)	8 (-1)	8 (-1)	12 (+1)
Saving Throws: Str +4, Con +3
Senses: Darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 9
Languages: Understands the languages you speak
Challenge: -
Proficiency Bonus (PB): Equals your bonus
Primal Bond. You can add your proficiency bonus to any ability check or saving throw that the beast makes.
Keen Senses. The beast has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks.
Actions
Maul. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 and your PB to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d10 + PB, bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage.

 

Head of the Pack

Beginning at 6th level, you and your beast become more ferocious in battle as you learn to fight side by side with keen tactics. You and your Apex Companion have advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one of your allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.

Additionally while your Apex Companion is raging their size increases to one size category larger and its attacks count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.

Apex Predator

Beginning at 10th level, your beast has grown to dominate in any fight, its brutal power striking fear into its foes. Your Apex Companion is now Large size when you summon it. While the beast is raging, all hostile creatures that start their turn within 10 feet of the beast that can see it, must make a Wisdom saving throw, unless it is immune to being frightened. Beasts have disadvantage on this saving throw. On a failed save they become frightened of the Apex Companion for a number of rounds equal to your Constitution modifier. (DC = 8 + your Constitution modifier + your Proficiency Bonus). On a successful save the creature is immune to being frightened in this way for 24 hours.

Additionally when you use your bonus action to rage, your Apex Companion can rage without expending an additional use of your rage.

Monstrous Appetite

Starting at 14th level, your beast is a behemoth with an appetite to match. The Apex Companion can make a special attack against a grappled creature that is at least two size categories smaller than it. The grappled creature must make a contested Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (the target chooses the ability to use), on a failed save they are swallowed, on a success they are not swallowed but remain grappled.

A swallowed creature is blinded and restrained, has total cover against attacks and other effects outside the Apex Companion, and takes 14 (4d6) acid damage and 14 (4d6) bludgeoning damage at the start of each of the beast's turns. The Apex Companion can only have one creature swallowed at a time. If it tries to swallow another, nothing happens. If the Apex Companion takes damage from a creature inside it, the Apex Companion must succeed a Constitution saving throw equal to half the damage taken or 10 (whichever is higher) at the end of its turn or disgorge the swallowed creature. The disgorged creature falls prone within 20 feet of the apex companion. The Apex Companion can disgorge a creature as an action during its turn. If the Apex Companion dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained by it and can escape from the corpse using 10 feet of movement, exiting prone.