Current idea is for a 7 foot tall, low charisma Tortle Barbarian Path of the Storm Herald called Low Key… because he’s not.
He has spent a lot of his wandering days on the ocean where his cultural meal of Jelly Fish was in abundance. Exploring the lands of man, the closest he has found to this delicacy is mucous. He had a collection of jars of mucous from various races that he imbibes, and also dries it out for snacks which he keeps in little tins. He has a plunger mechanism devised by a half orc artificer he once knew that can extract mucous from the dead and the unwilling, but he will pay a premium for good, fresh mucous.
I spent a good 5 minutes coming up with this idea so Tortle Barbarian is non negotiable… the Path however is.
Let's be honest... if you're going to be a Storm Herald Tortle with the Ocean as such an integral part of their backstory, then it makes the most sense to focus on the Sea Aura. It's also probably the best of the three options available to the subclass... The Lightning bonus action attack deals solid damage, and unlike the Desert Aura's bonus action Fire attack there's no chance of hitting your allies. The ability to natively breathe underwater and gaining a swim speed opens up another avenue of gameplay much more than being able to ignore the effects of extreme cold or heat. The only way the other Aura options outclass Sea is the fact that they give you resistance to Fire and Cold damage, which is much more common than Lightning Damage, but otherwise it has the other two auras beat at pretty much every stage.
The nice thing about going Tortle for this is that normally a Barbarian needs STR, CON, and DEX, since DEX normally factors into your AC. But with the Tortle shell you can dump DEX and prioritize STR and CON alone, which helps because your Subclass abilities key off of CON.
I can say all this with confidence because I've actually been playing as a Sea Aura Storm Herald Tortle Barbarian for over a year now and have consistently screwed up my DM's plans by being both impossible to kill an dealing much more damage than she had prepared for.
I can say all this with confidence because I've actually been playing as a Sea Aura Storm Herald Tortle Barbarian for over a year now and have consistently screwed up my DM's plans by being both impossible to kill an dealing much more damage than she had prepared for.
thank you.
what level are you playing at and did you choose ASI or feats (and which ones)? I normally choose feats but I’m tempted to go ASI on this one for the 20 STR and 16 CON
We're level 16 in our game right now, fairly near the end of the campaign. I took Tavern Brawler early in my build, and even put a point of an ASI into CHA because I was playing the character as a Wrestler. So Tavern Brawler was for grappling and having fun unarmed fights, but it's not really optimal for the build. I also took Sentinel to beef up my position as the tank for my party. I wield a Greataxe mostly for the visual but having a swimming speed makes it a viable weapon even underwater. Tavern Brawler and Sentinel both compete with class features... Tavern Brawler gives you a Bonus Action grapple which competes with your bonus action aura, and Sentinel gives an additional reaction which competes with your 14th Level Raging Storm ability, which consumes your Reaction. After snagging those feats I focused on maxing out STR then CON... we rolled for stats and I had rolled pretty well, so that's why I was comfortable spending two ASIs on feats.
Personally I like having options for situations. I know some of the appeal of being a barbarian is just being able to play a more simple character who can comfortably just run into combat and go ham on your opponents without having to juggle spells or keep track of ki or anything. But it's nice to know that if, say... I'm facing an opponent who's immune to Lightning, I can still use my bonus action to grapple them, or if I really want to make sure my allies are protected from a melee-focused enemy I might forego an aura attack to get in a grapple and pin them down so they're forced to focus on me. Then I've still got Sentinel if they break the grapple and try to get away.
My personal favorite combo is to hit an enemy with an unarmed strike, grapple, then shove them prone. Now they've got zero movement to get up from prone, have disadvantage on attacks, and i have advantage against them. I visualize is giving the enemy a Stunner and pinning them to the ground. Even without tavern brawler for the bonus action grapple, it's still a useful tactic to thoroughly pin down an opponent.
Another fun tortle barb idea is ancestral guardian. You can hit an opponent then retreat into your shell. Your party is at disadvantage for that opponent and your AC is buffed to make you hard to hit too.
Another fun tortle barb idea is ancestral guardian. You can hit an opponent then retreat into your shell. Your party is at disadvantage for that opponent and your AC is buffed to make you hard to hit too.
I feel like this strategy ends up being a wash. You have to be raging and hit a target for ancestral guardians to proc. This is an action and only lasts until the start of your next turn. Because it is also an action to withdraw into your shell, you could never retreat into your shell and have hit someone to proc ancestral guardians concurrently. While shell defense does give you a +4 to AC, it makes you prone—the rough equivalent of +5 to melee opponents’ attacks by way of advantage, netting them a +1 to attack overall. You have no reaction while in your shell so can’t make use of spirit shield. Unless you are hit by an attack or hit an opponent with an attack, both which are complicated by retreating into your shell, your rage will end.
Overall, timing the shell retreat seems janky and makes it difficult to use your class abilities. It does not seem to provide much benefit over just whacking guys while carrying a shield and tanking with your turtley high AC. If I’ve missed something that makes this strategy more viable than it seems to me, please do let me know.
Another fun tortle barb idea is ancestral guardian. You can hit an opponent then retreat into your shell. Your party is at disadvantage for that opponent and your AC is buffed to make you hard to hit too.
I feel like this strategy ends up being a wash. You have to be raging and hit a target for ancestral guardians to proc. This is an action and only lasts until the start of your next turn. Because it is also an action to withdraw into your shell, you could never retreat into your shell and have hit someone to proc ancestral guardians concurrently. While shell defense does give you a +4 to AC, it makes you prone—the rough equivalent of +5 to melee opponents’ attacks by way of advantage, netting them a +1 to attack overall. You have no reaction while in your shell so can’t make use of spirit shield. Unless you are hit by an attack or hit an opponent with an attack, both which are complicated by retreating into your shell, your rage will end.
Overall, timing the shell retreat seems janky and makes it difficult to use your class abilities. It does not seem to provide much benefit over just whacking guys while carrying a shield and tanking with your turtley high AC. If I’ve missed something that makes this strategy more viable than it seems to me, please do let me know.
I had forgotten that withdrawing into the shell was an action, not bonus action. The action economy of the shell feature makes it so hard to use. It’s really only helpful against ranged opponents when it takes your full action, I guess.
Ancestral Guardian is still a decent subclass for a tortle because of your naturally high AC, although by level 10 that’s likely to be closer to a wash against either half plate plus DEX or unarmored defense. Still, you can be a tank that makes it hard to hit others in your party, which is potentially very useful.
Ancestral Guardian is still a decent subclass for a tortle because of your naturally high AC, although by level 10 that’s likely to be closer to a wash against either half plate plus DEX or unarmored defense. Still, you can be a tank that makes it hard to hit others in your party, which is potentially very useful.
Yes definitely! Ancestral guardian is my favourite subclass for barbarians.
I have a tortle barb written up that I may play for an upcoming campaign so I was checking to see if there was a good strategy I was missing out on. Too bad there is not.
The optimizer in me must point out: If you have good stats, Unarmored Defense makes your Tortle's natural armor redundant and unnecessary. If you're going with point buy or standard array, then it will raise your AC some.
As for which path you should play, what are you looking to get out of the path you choose?
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Level 10 one shot with my usual campaign group.
Current idea is for a 7 foot tall, low charisma Tortle Barbarian Path of the Storm Herald called Low Key… because he’s not.
He has spent a lot of his wandering days on the ocean where his cultural meal of Jelly Fish was in abundance. Exploring the lands of man, the closest he has found to this delicacy is mucous. He had a collection of jars of mucous from various races that he imbibes, and also dries it out for snacks which he keeps in little tins. He has a plunger mechanism devised by a half orc artificer he once knew that can extract mucous from the dead and the unwilling, but he will pay a premium for good, fresh mucous.
I spent a good 5 minutes coming up with this idea so Tortle Barbarian is non negotiable… the Path however is.
level 10
if unarmoured ac is your race criteria, a high con loxodon might also work.
Let's be honest... if you're going to be a Storm Herald Tortle with the Ocean as such an integral part of their backstory, then it makes the most sense to focus on the Sea Aura. It's also probably the best of the three options available to the subclass... The Lightning bonus action attack deals solid damage, and unlike the Desert Aura's bonus action Fire attack there's no chance of hitting your allies. The ability to natively breathe underwater and gaining a swim speed opens up another avenue of gameplay much more than being able to ignore the effects of extreme cold or heat. The only way the other Aura options outclass Sea is the fact that they give you resistance to Fire and Cold damage, which is much more common than Lightning Damage, but otherwise it has the other two auras beat at pretty much every stage.
The nice thing about going Tortle for this is that normally a Barbarian needs STR, CON, and DEX, since DEX normally factors into your AC. But with the Tortle shell you can dump DEX and prioritize STR and CON alone, which helps because your Subclass abilities key off of CON.
I can say all this with confidence because I've actually been playing as a Sea Aura Storm Herald Tortle Barbarian for over a year now and have consistently screwed up my DM's plans by being both impossible to kill an dealing much more damage than she had prepared for.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
thank you.
what level are you playing at and did you choose ASI or feats (and which ones)? I normally choose feats but I’m tempted to go ASI on this one for the 20 STR and 16 CON
We're level 16 in our game right now, fairly near the end of the campaign. I took Tavern Brawler early in my build, and even put a point of an ASI into CHA because I was playing the character as a Wrestler. So Tavern Brawler was for grappling and having fun unarmed fights, but it's not really optimal for the build. I also took Sentinel to beef up my position as the tank for my party. I wield a Greataxe mostly for the visual but having a swimming speed makes it a viable weapon even underwater. Tavern Brawler and Sentinel both compete with class features... Tavern Brawler gives you a Bonus Action grapple which competes with your bonus action aura, and Sentinel gives an additional reaction which competes with your 14th Level Raging Storm ability, which consumes your Reaction. After snagging those feats I focused on maxing out STR then CON... we rolled for stats and I had rolled pretty well, so that's why I was comfortable spending two ASIs on feats.
Personally I like having options for situations. I know some of the appeal of being a barbarian is just being able to play a more simple character who can comfortably just run into combat and go ham on your opponents without having to juggle spells or keep track of ki or anything. But it's nice to know that if, say... I'm facing an opponent who's immune to Lightning, I can still use my bonus action to grapple them, or if I really want to make sure my allies are protected from a melee-focused enemy I might forego an aura attack to get in a grapple and pin them down so they're forced to focus on me. Then I've still got Sentinel if they break the grapple and try to get away.
My personal favorite combo is to hit an enemy with an unarmed strike, grapple, then shove them prone. Now they've got zero movement to get up from prone, have disadvantage on attacks, and i have advantage against them. I visualize is giving the enemy a Stunner and pinning them to the ground. Even without tavern brawler for the bonus action grapple, it's still a useful tactic to thoroughly pin down an opponent.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
I played a shifter Barbarian/rogue to maximise grappling in a previous game. Preaching to the converted here.
Another fun tortle barb idea is ancestral guardian. You can hit an opponent then retreat into your shell. Your party is at disadvantage for that opponent and your AC is buffed to make you hard to hit too.
I feel like this strategy ends up being a wash. You have to be raging and hit a target for ancestral guardians to proc. This is an action and only lasts until the start of your next turn. Because it is also an action to withdraw into your shell, you could never retreat into your shell and have hit someone to proc ancestral guardians concurrently. While shell defense does give you a +4 to AC, it makes you prone—the rough equivalent of +5 to melee opponents’ attacks by way of advantage, netting them a +1 to attack overall. You have no reaction while in your shell so can’t make use of spirit shield. Unless you are hit by an attack or hit an opponent with an attack, both which are complicated by retreating into your shell, your rage will end.
Overall, timing the shell retreat seems janky and makes it difficult to use your class abilities. It does not seem to provide much benefit over just whacking guys while carrying a shield and tanking with your turtley high AC. If I’ve missed something that makes this strategy more viable than it seems to me, please do let me know.
I had forgotten that withdrawing into the shell was an action, not bonus action. The action economy of the shell feature makes it so hard to use. It’s really only helpful against ranged opponents when it takes your full action, I guess.
Ancestral Guardian is still a decent subclass for a tortle because of your naturally high AC, although by level 10 that’s likely to be closer to a wash against either half plate plus DEX or unarmored defense. Still, you can be a tank that makes it hard to hit others in your party, which is potentially very useful.
Yes definitely! Ancestral guardian is my favourite subclass for barbarians.
I have a tortle barb written up that I may play for an upcoming campaign so I was checking to see if there was a good strategy I was missing out on. Too bad there is not.
The optimizer in me must point out: If you have good stats, Unarmored Defense makes your Tortle's natural armor redundant and unnecessary. If you're going with point buy or standard array, then it will raise your AC some.
As for which path you should play, what are you looking to get out of the path you choose?