"When this effect is activated, all other creatures in your aura take 2 fire damage each. The damage increases when you reach certain levels in this class, increasing to 3 at 5th level, 4 at 10th level, 5 at 15th level, and 6 at 20th level."
In a combat, Do creatures take the damage only when the rage is activated. Or does the aura stay in affect during the whole rage and applied when Creatures enter or start their turn in the aura as well?
The Storm Herald subclass is pretty great since it quickly and efficiently gives you something to do with your bonus action Round-after-Round, since Barbarians rarely get anything to do with their bonus action without dipping into feats.
The Desert Aura is great because it's just automatic damage against everyone in the aura, but the danger is that if you're next to an ally they're in risk. So that's the benefit of having it be something you trigger with a bonus action... if you've got an ally nearby you can choose not to activate your aura and avoid damaging them as well.
The Storm Herald subclass is pretty great since it quickly and efficiently gives you something to do with your bonus action Round-after-Round, since Barbarians rarely get anything to do with their bonus action without dipping into feats.
The Desert Aura is great because it's just automatic damage against everyone in the aura, but the danger is that if you're next to an ally they're in risk. So that's the benefit of having it be something you trigger with a bonus action... if you've got an ally nearby you can choose not to activate your aura and avoid damaging them as well.
The Storm Herald subclass is pretty great since it quickly and efficiently gives you something to do with your bonus action Round-after-Round, since Barbarians rarely get anything to do with their bonus action without dipping into feats.
The Desert Aura is great because it's just automatic damage against everyone in the aura, but the danger is that if you're next to an ally they're in risk. So that's the benefit of having it be something you trigger with a bonus action... if you've got an ally nearby you can choose not to activate your aura and avoid damaging them as well.
This to me kills it.
The damage is only really minor though (2/3/4/5/6 at levels 3/5/10/15/20) and once you reach level 10 your allies gain resistance to it anyway, so it really isn't that bad to be honest.
It’s also really minor against the enemies, which is a negative. What little damage it does, it also does against your allies.
The Storm Herald subclass is pretty great since it quickly and efficiently gives you something to do with your bonus action Round-after-Round, since Barbarians rarely get anything to do with their bonus action without dipping into feats.
The Desert Aura is great because it's just automatic damage against everyone in the aura, but the danger is that if you're next to an ally they're in risk. So that's the benefit of having it be something you trigger with a bonus action... if you've got an ally nearby you can choose not to activate your aura and avoid damaging them as well.
This to me kills it.
The damage is only really minor though (2/3/4/5/6 at levels 3/5/10/15/20) and once you reach level 10 your allies gain resistance to it anyway, so it really isn't that bad to be honest.
It’s also really minor against the enemies, which is a negative. What little damage it does, it also does against your allies.
Not a great sub class IMO
Aye that's the actual reason why I'm not a great fan. The flavor and mechanics are nice but the numbers are pretty underwhelming. That being said it's not like it's unplayable. You can play any campaign perfectly fine as storm herald barbarian. Your base class mechanics are enough for you to pull your weight either way.
Well, both reasons really. Friendly fire always makes an ability worse. Especially one that follows you around. Spirit Guardians is a great spell, that would be considerably worse if it had friendly fire. We both agree that the Desert Aura is already meh because of the low damage. Now add the friendly fire, and that makes it horrible IMO.
I'm actually playing as a storm herald barbarian in a long running campaign, and I'm definitely the big damage dealer in my group and use my subclass abilities constantly in both combat and roleplay. That said, I focused on the sea aura, which scales up better in damage but only targets a single enemy. It deals half damage on a successful dex save, but it's still guaranteed damage round after round and is great for barbarian which rarely has bonus action abilities to use casually.
Aye that's the actual reason why I'm not a great fan. The flavor and mechanics are nice but the numbers are pretty underwhelming. That being said it's not like it's unplayable. You can play any campaign perfectly fine as storm herald barbarian. Your base class mechanics are enough for you to pull your weight either way.
I don't think the damage is too bad; sure it's not a lot, but keep in mind you're still a Barbarian so it's a little extra damage on top of your two attacks per turn plus Rage bonus. If you compare to Path of the Zealot's Divine Fury which grants d6 + half Barbarian level, sure it doesn't sound like a lot, but you only need to affect two or more enemies to do the same or better damage with your aura.
For example, at 10th level Zealot is getting 8.5 extra damage on average; whereas Desert aura will do 8 damage if you hit two enemies, or 12 if you hit three. It's decent for crowd clearing, if not amazing.I don't think the potential to harm allies is a big problem; it's a 10 foot aura so reasonably easy to control, it's getting as many enemies into that same area that is the real challenge.
My main issue with it is that it uses your bonus action (don't see why it couldn't just be start of turn or whatever) which means you can't use two-weapon fighting or the Great Weapon Master or Polearm Master bonus action attacks and similar, so Zealot will win on raw damage if they use any of these.
I think it's a decent option if it fits your theme; personally I prefer sea and tundra for building around, tundra especially because it gives you more of the mixed support aspect to go with the 10th level Shielding Storm, especially for a party with a few melee fighters (easier to maximise the aura effects).
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I do have to say that I (very coincidentally to the campaign) flavor built my Pirate Half-Orc Barbarian with the Sea aura option for a campaign which took place in and around Waterdeep, and it worked so well I have considered picking up this subclass for practically anything. The ability to breathe underwater and having a swim speed literally changed the course of events for the campaign to the point where a very significant NPC ended up siding with us, and brought us life-saving aid against the BBEG which, in retrospect, victory could not have been achieved since we got in way over our head. Again, it turned out to be strictly coincidence, but additionally I, along with our Yuan-Ti Gloomstalker, was a top damage dealer. The base class features definitely help pull the weight of the subclass.
While I don't agree that Storm Herald looks underwhelming, I won't disagree that the damage threshold is lower than most other features provided by other sublclasses, but at the same time the flavor effects and secondary bonuses can be outstanding, especially with the right party composition. The additional bonuses more than make up for the general lack of hard hitting, initiative ending damage in my opinion. There's a lot of synergistic potential based around this Storm Herald which respectfully deserve exploration.
Aye that's the actual reason why I'm not a great fan. The flavor and mechanics are nice but the numbers are pretty underwhelming. That being said it's not like it's unplayable. You can play any campaign perfectly fine as storm herald barbarian. Your base class mechanics are enough for you to pull your weight either way.
I don't think the damage is too bad; sure it's not a lot, but keep in mind you're still a Barbarian so it's a little extra damage on top of your two attacks per turn plus Rage bonus. If you compare to Path of the Zealot's Divine Fury which grants d6 + half Barbarian level, sure it doesn't sound like a lot, but you only need to affect two or more enemies to do the same or better damage with your aura.
For example, at 10th level Zealot is getting 8.5 extra damage on average; whereas Desert aura will do 8 damage if you hit two enemies, or 12 if you hit three. It's decent for crowd clearing, if not amazing.I don't think the potential to harm allies is a big problem; it's a 10 foot aura so reasonably easy to control, it's getting as many enemies into that same area that is the real challenge.
My main issue with it is that it uses your bonus action (don't see why it couldn't just be start of turn or whatever) which means you can't use two-weapon fighting or the Great Weapon Master or Polearm Master bonus action attacks and similar, so Zealot will win on raw damage if they use any of these.
I think it's a decent option if it fits your theme; personally I prefer sea and tundra for building around, tundra especially because it gives you more of the mixed support aspect to go with the 10th level Shielding Storm, especially for a party with a few melee fighters (easier to maximise the aura effects).
The problem with this comparison is this. 4 damage on multiple Targets is entirely forgettable. A burst of damage on one target has the potential to Take a target out and swing action economy in your favour. That and if you crit That’s a further d6. and the more rounds that go on the bigger the difference is. That four damage because 8. But the zealot is on 17 at this point. An amount that could reasonably end an enemy. That’s the whole Problem with the storm herald. It doesn’t actually do enough aoe.
The problem with this comparison is this. 4 damage on multiple Targets is entirely forgettable. A burst of damage on one target has the potential to Take a target out and swing action economy in your favour. That and if you crit That’s a further d6. and the more rounds that go on the bigger the difference is. That four damage because 8. But the zealot is on 17 at this point. An amount that could reasonably end an enemy. That’s the whole Problem with the storm herald. It doesn’t actually do enough aoe.
You're only comparing them against a single target, which is missing my point entirely. It's "only" 4 damage when there's only a single target in the aura, but with two it's basically the same damage, and with three or more it's superior. The effect is clearly intended for groups of enemies rather than single targets.
While 10 feet doesn't sound like a huge area, it's measured from a melee character that should be wading into melee combat; surrounded on all sides it's effectively a 25 foot diameter sphere hitting as around 12 medium targets (two in each 90º direction, plus one in each diagonal direction), or more if your DM is fine with only partial contact. Even if you only assume a 45º arc to your front you can still get 3 to 5 enemies in a group fairly easily.
You talk about action economy, but nothing wrecks action economy like groups of enemies roaming free, and tanking them to keep them away from your ranged party members is absolutely something that a Barbarian should be doing. While in the ideal case your Bard, Wizard or whatever will lock them down further away, even then some will usually break free so mopping those up is rarely a bad thing, and dealing damage to the group every round will help them to be taken down faster (plus you can use it against the locked down ones when it's their turn).
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I have to agree with Mistborn20 there though. Even if their numbers weren't 100% correct it's still true that damaging multiple enemies is worth much much less than taking out one single enemy. It's not like you're a walking fireball. You're doing less than weapon damage.
As for the tanking part, that only works if your DM is nice to you. The Barbarian unfortunately has zero mechanics to make enemies focus on them. It's not like a damaging aura is going to help with that. In fact it would be a reason for enemies to not want to stay near the Barbarian in the first place.
I was just using their numbers. I haven’t done the maths myself. I just remember it being very lacklustre when I read the class previously.
The problem with this comparison is this. 4 damage on multiple Targets is entirely forgettable. A burst of damage on one target has the potential to Take a target out and swing action economy in your favour. That and if you crit That’s a further d6. and the more rounds that go on the bigger the difference is. That four damage because 8. But the zealot is on 17 at this point. An amount that could reasonably end an enemy. That’s the whole Problem with the storm herald. It doesn’t actually do enough aoe.
You're only comparing them against a single target, which is missing my point entirely. It's "only" 4 damage when there's only a single target in the aura, but with two it's basically the same damage, and with three or more it's superior. The effect is clearly intended for groups of enemies rather than single targets.
While 10 feet doesn't sound like a huge area, it's measured from a melee character that should be wading into melee combat; surrounded on all sides it's effectively a 25 foot diameter sphere hitting as around 12 medium targets (two in each 90º direction, plus one in each diagonal direction), or more if your DM is fine with only partial contact. Even if you only assume a 45º arc to your front you can still get 3 to 5 enemies in a group fairly easily.
You talk about action economy, but nothing wrecks action economy like groups of enemies roaming free, and tanking them to keep them away from your ranged party members is absolutely something that a Barbarian should be doing. While in the ideal case your Bard, Wizard or whatever will lock them down further away, even then some will usually break free so mopping those up is rarely a bad thing, and dealing damage to the group every round will help them to be taken down faster (plus you can use it against the locked down ones when it's their turn).
the problem with this is this damage is so insignificant that, even if it hit 12 people for the 4 or whatever damage it does, that brings every single one of them only slightly closer to death. Whereas of an ability took a single one of them down, that is infinitely better. If it did that 4 damage, aoe on HIT. Now that damage starts ramping up in a meaningful way. Or have it have multiple ways to trigger so the damage adds up to anything that can be useful. Because sure. In a very specific situation, it can do theoretically more damage. If your 12 person area holds true that could in theory be 48 damage which sounds really good. But what does that damage actually do… like. It doesn’t end a fight. It would take 6 turns to kill a zombie with it. And your first turn would still leave all the zombies on almost full health… And your team mates can be hit by it.
the Zealot on the other hand could half health the thing with just the bonus damage, not inc the attack it’s attached to. Chances are that damage is enough to turn a mediocre damage roll into a kill
you could probably get more mileage from any other melee bonus action ability. If the storm wants to be an aoe damage dealer they need to lean into it and buff the damage, or make it proc more often.
the problem with this is this damage is so insignificant that, even if it hit 12 people for the 4 or whatever damage it does, that brings every single one of them only slightly closer to death.
And in what alternate universe is that a bad thing? Three rounds doing 4 damage each to 4 targets is 48 extra damage, compared to less than half that from the Zealot bonus, or maybe two-thirds-ish if they're a two weapon fighter or have a bonus action attack feat.
While yes, single target damage may take out one of those faster, the other three remain unharmed. And keep in mind Barbarians don't exist in a vacuum; if you're acting as a distraction for some enemies while your allies deal with others then great, but more often than not you should have at least some allies helping you. Hell, with fire resistance you could even have someone blast the area with Fireball for good measure; all damage is additive, you don't get redefine it as "good" and "bad" damage just to suit your argument.
It would take 6 turns to kill a zombie with it. And your first turn would still leave all the zombies on almost full health… And your team mates can be hit by it.
Sure, because it's not like Barbarians have melee attacks and Rage damage or anything, because I definitely imagined those. 🤔 It doesn't matter that it's not a lot of damage on its own, it still helps you kill the first one, and even more-so the second, and third and so-on; each one is easier to kill than the last, because you're doing more damage in total. It doesn't matter if the zealot is (maybe) a little quicker off the line on kill count, as they'll lag behind soon enough.
You cannot complain that the per target damage is too low then refuse to accept that it deals more damage across multiple targets; either you want more damage or you don't, otherwise you're arguing against yourself.
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the problem with this is this damage is so insignificant that, even if it hit 12 people for the 4 or whatever damage it does, that brings every single one of them only slightly closer to death.
And in what alternate universe is that a bad thing? Three rounds doing 4 damage each to 4 targets is 48 extra damage, compared to less than half that from the Zealot bonus, or maybe two-thirds-ish if they're a two weapon fighter or have a bonus action attack feat.
While yes, single target damage may take out one of those faster, the other three remain unharmed. And keep in mind Barbarians don't exist in a vacuum; if you're acting as a distraction for some enemies while your allies deal with others then great, but more often than not you should have at least some allies helping you. Hell, with fire resistance you could even have someone blast the area with Fireball for good measure; all damage is additive, you don't get redefine it as "good" and "bad" damage just to suit your argument.
It would take 6 turns to kill a zombie with it. And your first turn would still leave all the zombies on almost full health… And your team mates can be hit by it.
Sure, because it's not like Barbarians have melee attacks and Rage damage or anything, because I definitely imagined those. 🤔 It doesn't matter that it's not a lot of damage on its own, it still helps you kill the first one, and even more-so the second, and third and so-on; each one is easier to kill than the last, because you're doing more damage in total. It doesn't matter if the zealot is (maybe) a little quicker off the line on kill count, as they'll lag behind soon enough.
You cannot complain that the per target damage is too low then refuse to accept that it deals more damage across multiple targets; either you want more damage or you don't, otherwise you're arguing against yourself.
I am not refusing to accept it. I am saying the damage is too low to be worth the exchange. I even said in my post that it could do technically huge amounts of damage. But that damage is so diluted that it really doesn't change much. Sure. It CAN help. But at any point past like 5th level (and even at low levels its irrelevant mostly) the damage just is so negligible. A zealot is going to take the action economy advantage quickly, reduce the incoming damage much faster, way before the storm herald can even hope to catch up and make the chip damage worth it. Most combat lasts 3-5 rounds. That is between 12-20 damage at level 10. That really isn't going to do much. hell that is pretty much a single hit. Whereas the zealot gets 3-5 d6 plus 15-25 on single targets. Which can crit. If that takes out a single creature then the difference is made. Especially if a boss is involved.
Are there some situations where the storm herald has an advantage over the zealot? Sure. Is it common? no. Is it likely going to involve damage? Almost certainly not unless it is a VERY specific situation where creatures decide to stack 12 strong on a barb and ignore everything else. I mean the amount of combats with 12 enemies total are rare these days. And we are ignoring the fact that your allies can't be near you or take the chip damage too. And if your allies can take the damage and not worry about it, then the damage isn't worth worrying about for enemies.
The storm herald could absolutely be viable with just a few tweaks. Mostly just a way to proc their abilities more than once per turn. I mean just look at spirit guardians. Sure its a third level spell that require a saving throw. But that doesn't hit allies, its a good amount of damage, and its reliable. a 20th level barb does 6 damage in the aura. that is nowhere near the level of a 3rd level spell, especially if these auras are supposed to be a selling point for the class.
Just look at tundra at 20th level. That's 6 temp hit points per turn on a bonus action. The twilight cleric outdoes that pretty much as soon as they get their channel divinity.
There is a way to deal extra fire damage as a Desert-Storm Soul Barbarian... at 14th level, you get a reaction that deals fire damage equal to half your Barbarian in reaction to being hit. Although... it calls for a Dex saving throw and deals no damage on a successful save.
In a combat, Do creatures take the damage only when the rage is activated. Or does the aura stay in affect during the whole rage and applied when Creatures enter or start their turn in the aura as well?
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.
The Storm Herald subclass is pretty great since it quickly and efficiently gives you something to do with your bonus action Round-after-Round, since Barbarians rarely get anything to do with their bonus action without dipping into feats.
The Desert Aura is great because it's just automatic damage against everyone in the aura, but the danger is that if you're next to an ally they're in risk. So that's the benefit of having it be something you trigger with a bonus action... if you've got an ally nearby you can choose not to activate your aura and avoid damaging them as well.
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This to me kills it.
It’s also really minor against the enemies, which is a negative. What little damage it does, it also does against your allies.
Not a great sub class IMO
Well, both reasons really. Friendly fire always makes an ability worse. Especially one that follows you around. Spirit Guardians is a great spell, that would be considerably worse if it had friendly fire. We both agree that the Desert Aura is already meh because of the low damage. Now add the friendly fire, and that makes it horrible IMO.
I'm actually playing as a storm herald barbarian in a long running campaign, and I'm definitely the big damage dealer in my group and use my subclass abilities constantly in both combat and roleplay. That said, I focused on the sea aura, which scales up better in damage but only targets a single enemy. It deals half damage on a successful dex save, but it's still guaranteed damage round after round and is great for barbarian which rarely has bonus action abilities to use casually.
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I don't think the damage is too bad; sure it's not a lot, but keep in mind you're still a Barbarian so it's a little extra damage on top of your two attacks per turn plus Rage bonus. If you compare to Path of the Zealot's Divine Fury which grants d6 + half Barbarian level, sure it doesn't sound like a lot, but you only need to affect two or more enemies to do the same or better damage with your aura.
For example, at 10th level Zealot is getting 8.5 extra damage on average; whereas Desert aura will do 8 damage if you hit two enemies, or 12 if you hit three. It's decent for crowd clearing, if not amazing.I don't think the potential to harm allies is a big problem; it's a 10 foot aura so reasonably easy to control, it's getting as many enemies into that same area that is the real challenge.
My main issue with it is that it uses your bonus action (don't see why it couldn't just be start of turn or whatever) which means you can't use two-weapon fighting or the Great Weapon Master or Polearm Master bonus action attacks and similar, so Zealot will win on raw damage if they use any of these.
I think it's a decent option if it fits your theme; personally I prefer sea and tundra for building around, tundra especially because it gives you more of the mixed support aspect to go with the 10th level Shielding Storm, especially for a party with a few melee fighters (easier to maximise the aura effects).
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
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I do have to say that I (very coincidentally to the campaign) flavor built my Pirate Half-Orc Barbarian with the Sea aura option for a campaign which took place in and around Waterdeep, and it worked so well I have considered picking up this subclass for practically anything. The ability to breathe underwater and having a swim speed literally changed the course of events for the campaign to the point where a very significant NPC ended up siding with us, and brought us life-saving aid against the BBEG which, in retrospect, victory could not have been achieved since we got in way over our head. Again, it turned out to be strictly coincidence, but additionally I, along with our Yuan-Ti Gloomstalker, was a top damage dealer. The base class features definitely help pull the weight of the subclass.
While I don't agree that Storm Herald looks underwhelming, I won't disagree that the damage threshold is lower than most other features provided by other sublclasses, but at the same time the flavor effects and secondary bonuses can be outstanding, especially with the right party composition. The additional bonuses more than make up for the general lack of hard hitting, initiative ending damage in my opinion. There's a lot of synergistic potential based around this Storm Herald which respectfully deserve exploration.
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The problem with this comparison is this. 4 damage on multiple Targets is entirely forgettable. A burst of damage on one target has the potential to Take a target out and swing action economy in your favour. That and if you crit That’s a further d6. and the more rounds that go on the bigger the difference is. That four damage because 8. But the zealot is on 17 at this point. An amount that could reasonably end an enemy. That’s the whole Problem with the storm herald. It doesn’t actually do enough aoe.
You're only comparing them against a single target, which is missing my point entirely. It's "only" 4 damage when there's only a single target in the aura, but with two it's basically the same damage, and with three or more it's superior. The effect is clearly intended for groups of enemies rather than single targets.
While 10 feet doesn't sound like a huge area, it's measured from a melee character that should be wading into melee combat; surrounded on all sides it's effectively a 25 foot diameter sphere hitting as around 12 medium targets (two in each 90º direction, plus one in each diagonal direction), or more if your DM is fine with only partial contact. Even if you only assume a 45º arc to your front you can still get 3 to 5 enemies in a group fairly easily.
You talk about action economy, but nothing wrecks action economy like groups of enemies roaming free, and tanking them to keep them away from your ranged party members is absolutely something that a Barbarian should be doing. While in the ideal case your Bard, Wizard or whatever will lock them down further away, even then some will usually break free so mopping those up is rarely a bad thing, and dealing damage to the group every round will help them to be taken down faster (plus you can use it against the locked down ones when it's their turn).
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
I was just using their numbers. I haven’t done the maths myself. I just remember it being very lacklustre when I read the class previously.
the problem with this is this damage is so insignificant that, even if it hit 12 people for the 4 or whatever damage it does, that brings every single one of them only slightly closer to death. Whereas of an ability took a single one of them down, that is infinitely better. If it did that 4 damage, aoe on HIT. Now that damage starts ramping up in a meaningful way. Or have it have multiple ways to trigger so the damage adds up to anything that can be useful. Because sure. In a very specific situation, it can do theoretically more damage. If your 12 person area holds true that could in theory be 48 damage which sounds really good. But what does that damage actually do… like. It doesn’t end a fight. It would take 6 turns to kill a zombie with it. And your first turn would still leave all the zombies on almost full health… And your team mates can be hit by it.
the Zealot on the other hand could half health the thing with just the bonus damage, not inc the attack it’s attached to. Chances are that damage is enough to turn a mediocre damage roll into a kill
you could probably get more mileage from any other melee bonus action ability. If the storm wants to be an aoe damage dealer they need to lean into it and buff the damage, or make it proc more often.
Have you seriously never heard of Reckless Attack? Reach weapons and opportunity attacks? Sentinel etc. etc.? Barbarians have plenty of options.
And in what alternate universe is that a bad thing? Three rounds doing 4 damage each to 4 targets is 48 extra damage, compared to less than half that from the Zealot bonus, or maybe two-thirds-ish if they're a two weapon fighter or have a bonus action attack feat.
While yes, single target damage may take out one of those faster, the other three remain unharmed. And keep in mind Barbarians don't exist in a vacuum; if you're acting as a distraction for some enemies while your allies deal with others then great, but more often than not you should have at least some allies helping you. Hell, with fire resistance you could even have someone blast the area with Fireball for good measure; all damage is additive, you don't get redefine it as "good" and "bad" damage just to suit your argument.
Sure, because it's not like Barbarians have melee attacks and Rage damage or anything, because I definitely imagined those. 🤔
It doesn't matter that it's not a lot of damage on its own, it still helps you kill the first one, and even more-so the second, and third and so-on; each one is easier to kill than the last, because you're doing more damage in total. It doesn't matter if the zealot is (maybe) a little quicker off the line on kill count, as they'll lag behind soon enough.
You cannot complain that the per target damage is too low then refuse to accept that it deals more damage across multiple targets; either you want more damage or you don't, otherwise you're arguing against yourself.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
I am not refusing to accept it. I am saying the damage is too low to be worth the exchange. I even said in my post that it could do technically huge amounts of damage. But that damage is so diluted that it really doesn't change much. Sure. It CAN help. But at any point past like 5th level (and even at low levels its irrelevant mostly) the damage just is so negligible. A zealot is going to take the action economy advantage quickly, reduce the incoming damage much faster, way before the storm herald can even hope to catch up and make the chip damage worth it. Most combat lasts 3-5 rounds. That is between 12-20 damage at level 10. That really isn't going to do much. hell that is pretty much a single hit. Whereas the zealot gets 3-5 d6 plus 15-25 on single targets. Which can crit. If that takes out a single creature then the difference is made. Especially if a boss is involved.
Are there some situations where the storm herald has an advantage over the zealot? Sure. Is it common? no. Is it likely going to involve damage? Almost certainly not unless it is a VERY specific situation where creatures decide to stack 12 strong on a barb and ignore everything else. I mean the amount of combats with 12 enemies total are rare these days. And we are ignoring the fact that your allies can't be near you or take the chip damage too. And if your allies can take the damage and not worry about it, then the damage isn't worth worrying about for enemies.
The storm herald could absolutely be viable with just a few tweaks. Mostly just a way to proc their abilities more than once per turn. I mean just look at spirit guardians. Sure its a third level spell that require a saving throw. But that doesn't hit allies, its a good amount of damage, and its reliable. a 20th level barb does 6 damage in the aura. that is nowhere near the level of a 3rd level spell, especially if these auras are supposed to be a selling point for the class.
Just look at tundra at 20th level. That's 6 temp hit points per turn on a bonus action. The twilight cleric outdoes that pretty much as soon as they get their channel divinity.
There is a way to deal extra fire damage as a Desert-Storm Soul Barbarian... at 14th level, you get a reaction that deals fire damage equal to half your Barbarian in reaction to being hit. Although... it calls for a Dex saving throw and deals no damage on a successful save.
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