what are just some fun gimmicks to build an barbarian around in order to avoid combat becoming nothing more that i angy, i hit bad dudes with axe, rawr? what are the most fun combat gimmics? an mounted barbarian with an lance? mobile + eagle totem to run very fast? prodigy variant human with athletics who grapples a lot? trying to find as many ways to deal recoil damage to my enemies like going spike barb, taking some asimar stuff, armor of agathys etc?
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i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
Max out your strength, take Tavern Brawler, hit one enemy, grapple them, pick them up, proceed to use them as an improvised weapon to smash another enemy. A fun DM might rule that they both take damage from the same attack.
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Max out your strength, take Tavern Brawler, hit one enemy, grapple them, pick them up, proceed to use them as an improvised weapon to smash another enemy. A fun DM might rule that they both take damage from the same attack.
ooh this is perfect, but would i go for max strength first or tavern brawler first, and would it be worth it to be an half orc or human so that i can pick up prodigy or dip into rouge to become an expert of grappling?
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i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
Be smart and strong. Be tactical yet brutal. Like finding the most efficient way to rip an enemy's spine out.
i mean yeah but that is not a build, that is just being unkind to people, i was thinking more like building your character arround being good at an very particular thing like going fast or using the shove action to knock somebody prone, then grappling them so that they cannot un-prone and doing it all in the same turn due to extra attack
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i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
Max out your strength, take Tavern Brawler, hit one enemy, grapple them, pick them up, proceed to use them as an improvised weapon to smash another enemy. A fun DM might rule that they both take damage from the same attack.
ooh this is perfect, but would i go for max strength first or tavern brawler first, and would it be worth it to be an half orc or human so that i can pick up prodigy or dip into rouge to become an expert of grappling?
Hmm, there's a few different fun things I would like to try in this regards:
1. Mountain Dwarf Battlerager - Take Tavern Brawler at 4, the +2 strength from mountain dwarf should help offset not taking the ASI, even better if your strength was an odd number, then the feat can bump you up a modifier. The 3 damage on grapples is so little that I would ask a DM to let me apply it on a Tavern Brawler grapple even if technically it doesn't work since the TB grapple is a bonus action and not an action. If your DM buys in to this fun idea you can punch'em inna face for 1d4+Str+Rage, bonus action grapple for 3 spike damage, pick'em up and hit another baddie with'em (when you have Extra Attack) to get both of them for 1d4+str+rage. Then on subsequent turns you can continue to hit with your capture baddie and use your bonus actions to hug'em into your spikes for 1d4+str+rage. You'll be a veritable meat grinder. All your damage will have a low dice (1d4) but the name of the game is multiple attacks. If your DM allows you to damage both your grappled target and the baddie you hit, that makes it worth it.
2. Variant Human with Prodigy - With Prodigy giving you Expertise in Athletics to start out with, you can try this tactic out from level 1, it'll just take longer to start doing damage because you'll have to take a turn to just grapple. Once you get Tavern Brawler, you can punch'em and grab'em on the same turn and then smash on the next turn. At 5th level, with Extra Attack, you can punch, grab, and smash all on the same turn! Again the name of the game would be multiple attacks with low dice, so it might actually be worthwhile to be a Berserker. I guess you could do the same thing with a half-orc, but without the extra feat at level 1, it would take a long time to get this build going.
3. Bugbear with a level dip in Rogue - This puts you 1 level behind in grabbing Tavern Brawler, but your long arms puts you nicely out of reach of your grapple target. Honestly this is a bit subpar and if you do this it's probably better just to stick with rogue and go with the commando build of grab and stab. As a bugbear it's always tempting to go assassin to make use of the extra racial sneak attack damage, but whichever archetype you pick, your most fun second round of combat will be to try and set up a ground and pound. You could go thief, so you can use a bag of ball bearings as a bonus action and then grapple your target and drag them through the ball bearings back and forth until they fail the saving throw and fall down. Now you've got them pinned down, unable to get up or reach you with a melee attack, and you can start stabbing them with a dagger or another finesse weapon with advantage every round for the sweet sneak attack damage. But I suppose that's a digression.
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
I have a barb in my hip pocket that's the consumate duellist, a musketeer type. He fights with rapier and buckler and doesn't get angry...he gets focused.
The concept started out by trying to make a duergar worth playing. The stats and abilities line up nicely for martials, but that sunlight sensitivity... So, I went Barbarian for reckless attack to cancel it out if I have to. His original incarnation was with a flail and a shield. I've got a buddy who's a HUGE duergar fan (while I'm a drow fanboi) and I thought to myself hmmm; I could really tweak his whiskers by dumping the flail and using a rapier instead. But why would a duergar of all things use a rapier? So, I decided he was captured by the drow, and trained to fight as a gladiator. The drow were amused by the image of a duergar duellist, so he was trained to be expert with the rapier and buckler. His costume is very musketeersy, floppy hat, huge feather...etc.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
what are just some fun gimmicks to build an barbarian around in order to avoid combat becoming nothing more that i angy, i hit bad dudes with axe, rawr? what are the most fun combat gimmics? an mounted barbarian with an lance? mobile + eagle totem to run very fast? prodigy variant human with athletics who grapples a lot? trying to find as many ways to deal recoil damage to my enemies like going spike barb, taking some asimar stuff, armor of agathys etc?
Wolf totem inspiring leader type.
make a luchador via grappler feat and tavern brawler and be a bare/bear handed wrestler.
observant feat, eagle eye (level 6 barb) dip 1 level to some mage class to “know” magic. Then go mage slayer and just be really anti anyone casting any spells. Which you can recognizing, and read their lips for verbal portions, for spells, from 1 mile away.
observant feat, eagle eye (level 6 barb) dip 1 level to some mage class to “know” magic. Then go mage slayer and just be really anti anyone casting any spells. Which you can recognizing, and read their lips for verbal portions, for spells, from 1 mile away.
might as well throw in mage slayer on that ah yes, no idea what this "magic" stuff is or how it works, but i shure do get angry when it happens
observant feat, eagle eye (level 6 barb) dip 1 level to some mage class to “know” magic. Then go mage slayer and just be really anti anyone casting any spells. Which you can recognizing, and read their lips for verbal portions, for spells, from 1 mile away.
might as well throw in mage slayer on that ah yes, no idea what this "magic" stuff is or how it works, but i shure do get angry when it happens
.... so. A multiclass spellcaster would have no idea what this “magic” stuff is you say? I wonder what they think their spells are? Bodily functions like a fart or sneeze?
observant feat, eagle eye (level 6 barb) dip 1 level to some mage class to “know” magic. Then go mage slayer and just be really anti anyone casting any spells. Which you can recognizing, and read their lips for verbal portions, for spells, from 1 mile away.
might as well throw in mage slayer on that ah yes, no idea what this "magic" stuff is or how it works, but i shure do get angry when it happens
.... so. A multiclass spellcaster would have no idea what this “magic” stuff is you say? I wonder what they think their spells are? Bodily functions like a fart or sneeze?
artificer probabaly since you can detect things but your spells are not spells, but honestly i just kinda missed the part were you said "dip one level into mage" because that is an horrible idea
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i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
observant feat, eagle eye (level 6 barb) dip 1 level to some mage class to “know” magic. Then go mage slayer and just be really anti anyone casting any spells. Which you can recognizing, and read their lips for verbal portions, for spells, from 1 mile away.
might as well throw in mage slayer on that ah yes, no idea what this "magic" stuff is or how it works, but i shure do get angry when it happens
.... so. A multiclass spellcaster would have no idea what this “magic” stuff is you say? I wonder what they think their spells are? Bodily functions like a fart or sneeze?
artificer probabaly since you can detect things but your spells are not spells, but honestly i just kinda missed the part were you said "dip one level into mage" because that is an horrible idea
“Horrible idea”
lets correct you.
”suboptimal idea”
not everyone is a power gamer. - I believe this thread was titled “fun gimmics in combat” not “power gamer fun”
a fun gimmick would be a barbarian that knows magic, is a mage slayer in combat, and does a lot of Ritual magic themselves outside combat.
observant feat, eagle eye (level 6 barb) dip 1 level to some mage class to “know” magic. Then go mage slayer and just be really anti anyone casting any spells. Which you can recognizing, and read their lips for verbal portions, for spells, from 1 mile away.
might as well throw in mage slayer on that ah yes, no idea what this "magic" stuff is or how it works, but i shure do get angry when it happens
.... so. A multiclass spellcaster would have no idea what this “magic” stuff is you say? I wonder what they think their spells are? Bodily functions like a fart or sneeze?
artificer probabaly since you can detect things but your spells are not spells, but honestly i just kinda missed the part were you said "dip one level into mage" because that is an horrible idea
I believe this thread was titled “fun gimmics in combat” not “power gamer fun”
yes indeed it is and i fail to see how knowing how to cast detect magic gives me more fun in combat. Out of combat it shure is fun, there are more fun rituals that let you roleplay more but it can be fun/ useful, but mid combat tho? concentrating on detect magic does not exactly make combat more fun (it does make it more challenging, and might be helpful in certain scenarios involving complex magical traps and magic users, just not very fun)
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i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
...dip 1 level to some mage class to “know” magic....
.... so. A multiclass spellcaster would have no idea what this “magic” stuff is you say? I wonder what they think their spells are? Bodily functions like a fart or sneeze?
artificer probabaly since you can detect things but your spells are not spells, but honestly i just kinda missed the part were you said "dip one level into mage" because that is an horrible idea
yes indeed it is and i fail to see how knowing how to cast detect magic gives me more fun in combat. Out of combat it shure is fun, there are more fun rituals that let you roleplay more but it can be fun/ useful, but mid combat tho? concentrating on detect magic does not exactly make combat more fun (it does make it more challenging, and might be helpful in certain scenarios involving complex magical traps and magic users, just not very fun)
Besides, a character doesn’t need any levels in a caster class just to “know magic,” they just need a high enough Arcana score.
do they “know” magic? Or can they just “recognize” magic?. However to your overall point. Indeed. You also often do not see Barbarians with good/competent/great/any Arcana ability. So that too, could be a fun gimmick.
do they “know” magic? Or can they just “recognize” magic?. However to your overall point. Indeed. You also often do not see Barbarians with good/competent/great/any Arcana ability. So that too, could be a fun gimmick.
As I understand it, Arcana is an academic understand of magic in general. The Spellcasting feature is the ability to actually use magic. (The Pact Magic feature too I suppose, but is it really the character doing it since a Character with that feature is just channeling their patron’s ability to use magic?)
As far as I could find, nowhere in the rules does it specify that a character has to be able to use magic in order to recognize it when you see it. So, if it came up in the campaign I DM that’s how I would rule it.
And the Mage Slayer feat doesn’t even suggest that there is any need for any Spellcasting ability to use the features of the feat. (As far as the specific plan that was suggested goes, it seemed to only require the ability to recognize magic when it is observed. Even the academic understanding of magic shouldn’t even be required.)
bugbear 10ft reach is pretty silly. combine with sentinel and polearm master.
Sentinel doesn't interact with the Bugbear's Long-Limbed feature since Long-Limbed only works on the Bugbear's turn and Sentinel only works off of reactions. The first two are specifically Opportunity Attacks, and the third could trigger on your turn through a readied attack but its requirement of the enemy being within 5 ft negates the possibility of Long-Limbed coming into play.
Long-Limbed and PAM work together with the exception of the Opportunity Attack. PAM and Sentinel are a good option. The three together are a decent option as long as you realize the limitations.
A Bugbear Barbarian could be a fun option, particularly a stealth version.
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what are just some fun gimmicks to build an barbarian around in order to avoid combat becoming nothing more that i angy, i hit bad dudes with axe, rawr? what are the most fun combat gimmics? an mounted barbarian with an lance? mobile + eagle totem to run very fast? prodigy variant human with athletics who grapples a lot? trying to find as many ways to deal recoil damage to my enemies like going spike barb, taking some asimar stuff, armor of agathys etc?
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
Be smart and strong. Be tactical yet brutal. Like finding the most efficient way to rip an enemy's spine out.
Why I think about Mimics doing Gymm everytime I see your Gimmics word ?? What da F***!!
My Ready-to-rock&roll chars:
Dertinus Tristany // Amilcar Barca // Vicenç Sacrarius // Oriol Deulofeu // Grovtuk
Max out your strength, take Tavern Brawler, hit one enemy, grapple them, pick them up, proceed to use them as an improvised weapon to smash another enemy. A fun DM might rule that they both take damage from the same attack.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Improvised weapons are always fun.
ooh this is perfect, but would i go for max strength first or tavern brawler first, and would it be worth it to be an half orc or human so that i can pick up prodigy or dip into rouge to become an expert of grappling?
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
i mean yeah but that is not a build, that is just being unkind to people, i was thinking more like building your character arround being good at an very particular thing like going fast or using the shove action to knock somebody prone, then grappling them so that they cannot un-prone and doing it all in the same turn due to extra attack
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
Hmm, there's a few different fun things I would like to try in this regards:
1. Mountain Dwarf Battlerager - Take Tavern Brawler at 4, the +2 strength from mountain dwarf should help offset not taking the ASI, even better if your strength was an odd number, then the feat can bump you up a modifier. The 3 damage on grapples is so little that I would ask a DM to let me apply it on a Tavern Brawler grapple even if technically it doesn't work since the TB grapple is a bonus action and not an action. If your DM buys in to this fun idea you can punch'em inna face for 1d4+Str+Rage, bonus action grapple for 3 spike damage, pick'em up and hit another baddie with'em (when you have Extra Attack) to get both of them for 1d4+str+rage. Then on subsequent turns you can continue to hit with your capture baddie and use your bonus actions to hug'em into your spikes for 1d4+str+rage. You'll be a veritable meat grinder. All your damage will have a low dice (1d4) but the name of the game is multiple attacks. If your DM allows you to damage both your grappled target and the baddie you hit, that makes it worth it.
2. Variant Human with Prodigy - With Prodigy giving you Expertise in Athletics to start out with, you can try this tactic out from level 1, it'll just take longer to start doing damage because you'll have to take a turn to just grapple. Once you get Tavern Brawler, you can punch'em and grab'em on the same turn and then smash on the next turn. At 5th level, with Extra Attack, you can punch, grab, and smash all on the same turn! Again the name of the game would be multiple attacks with low dice, so it might actually be worthwhile to be a Berserker. I guess you could do the same thing with a half-orc, but without the extra feat at level 1, it would take a long time to get this build going.
3. Bugbear with a level dip in Rogue - This puts you 1 level behind in grabbing Tavern Brawler, but your long arms puts you nicely out of reach of your grapple target. Honestly this is a bit subpar and if you do this it's probably better just to stick with rogue and go with the commando build of grab and stab. As a bugbear it's always tempting to go assassin to make use of the extra racial sneak attack damage, but whichever archetype you pick, your most fun second round of combat will be to try and set up a ground and pound. You could go thief, so you can use a bag of ball bearings as a bonus action and then grapple your target and drag them through the ball bearings back and forth until they fail the saving throw and fall down. Now you've got them pinned down, unable to get up or reach you with a melee attack, and you can start stabbing them with a dagger or another finesse weapon with advantage every round for the sweet sneak attack damage. But I suppose that's a digression.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
I have a barb in my hip pocket that's the consumate duellist, a musketeer type. He fights with rapier and buckler and doesn't get angry...he gets focused.
The concept started out by trying to make a duergar worth playing. The stats and abilities line up nicely for martials, but that sunlight sensitivity... So, I went Barbarian for reckless attack to cancel it out if I have to. His original incarnation was with a flail and a shield. I've got a buddy who's a HUGE duergar fan (while I'm a drow fanboi) and I thought to myself hmmm; I could really tweak his whiskers by dumping the flail and using a rapier instead. But why would a duergar of all things use a rapier? So, I decided he was captured by the drow, and trained to fight as a gladiator. The drow were amused by the image of a duergar duellist, so he was trained to be expert with the rapier and buckler. His costume is very musketeersy, floppy hat, huge feather...etc.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Wolf totem inspiring leader type.
make a luchador via grappler feat and tavern brawler and be a bare/bear handed wrestler.
observant feat, eagle eye (level 6 barb) dip 1 level to some mage class to “know” magic. Then go mage slayer and just be really anti anyone casting any spells. Which you can recognizing, and read their lips for verbal portions, for spells, from 1 mile away.
Watch me on twitch
might as well throw in mage slayer on that ah yes, no idea what this "magic" stuff is or how it works, but i shure do get angry when it happens
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
.... so. A multiclass spellcaster would have no idea what this “magic” stuff is you say? I wonder what they think their spells are? Bodily functions like a fart or sneeze?
Watch me on twitch
artificer probabaly since you can detect things but your spells are not spells, but honestly i just kinda missed the part were you said "dip one level into mage" because that is an horrible idea
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
“Horrible idea”
lets correct you.
”suboptimal idea”
not everyone is a power gamer. - I believe this thread was titled “fun gimmics in combat” not “power gamer fun”
a fun gimmick would be a barbarian that knows magic, is a mage slayer in combat, and does a lot of Ritual magic themselves outside combat.
Watch me on twitch
yes indeed it is and i fail to see how knowing how to cast detect magic gives me more fun in combat. Out of combat it shure is fun, there are more fun rituals that let you roleplay more but it can be fun/ useful, but mid combat tho? concentrating on detect magic does not exactly make combat more fun (it does make it more challenging, and might be helpful in certain scenarios involving complex magical traps and magic users, just not very fun)
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
Besides, a character doesn’t need any levels in a caster class just to “know magic,” they just need a high enough Arcana score.
Edits: Previous quoted posts truncated for size.
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IamSposta
do they “know” magic? Or can they just “recognize” magic?. However to your overall point. Indeed. You also often do not see Barbarians with good/competent/great/any Arcana ability. So that too, could be a fun gimmick.
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As I understand it, Arcana is an academic understand of magic in general. The Spellcasting feature is the ability to actually use magic. (The Pact Magic feature too I suppose, but is it really the character doing it since a Character with that feature is just channeling their patron’s ability to use magic?)
As far as I could find, nowhere in the rules does it specify that a character has to be able to use magic in order to recognize it when you see it. So, if it came up in the campaign I DM that’s how I would rule it.
And the Mage Slayer feat doesn’t even suggest that there is any need for any Spellcasting ability to use the features of the feat. (As far as the specific plan that was suggested goes, it seemed to only require the ability to recognize magic when it is observed. Even the academic understanding of magic shouldn’t even be required.)
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bugbear 10ft reach is pretty silly. combine with sentinel and polearm master.
It doesn't matter how smart you think are you. No one will want to work with you if you're an *******.
Sentinel doesn't interact with the Bugbear's Long-Limbed feature since Long-Limbed only works on the Bugbear's turn and Sentinel only works off of reactions. The first two are specifically Opportunity Attacks, and the third could trigger on your turn through a readied attack but its requirement of the enemy being within 5 ft negates the possibility of Long-Limbed coming into play.
Long-Limbed and PAM work together with the exception of the Opportunity Attack. PAM and Sentinel are a good option. The three together are a decent option as long as you realize the limitations.
A Bugbear Barbarian could be a fun option, particularly a stealth version.