I know they were available in UA, and the changes made have been minor, but what are everyone's thoughts on the Path of the Beast and Path of Wild Magic as printed in Tasha's?
My thoughts so far.
Path of the Beast
I'm disappointed that they changed the damage on the tail to a D8 rather than D12. However, having natural weapons is useful and the special properties could be useful. Personally, I think I'd be choosing the tail a lot. Having an additional weapon with reasonable damage and reach available even when you're wielding a greataxe seems useful, and the reaction seems great against a single, powerful opponent.
Bestial Soul seems like it could be really in the right situation. Swimming and Climbing have a lot of uses, and Jumping... I assume it works for high- as well as long-jump as it doesn't say not. With fairly standard L3 Barb stats you're going from 6 to (11 + D20) ft, which means a minimum of double the height (even more for a standing high jump: RAW as I see it is that the bonus is added after the height is halved)
Infectious Fury and Call the Hunt both seem about right for the level, and both are powerful and useful
Path of Wild Magic
Magic Awareness is going to be really useful outside combat.
The Wild Magic Surge effects are all positive and all pretty powerful, although some will be better in certain situations than others. The randomness takes a little away from the power but, to be honest, I doubt there will be many times you roll and are that upset at what you received.
Bolstering Magic's +D3 to attack/check rolls is going to increase your damage output, or that of an ally. The regaining of a spell slot could be very useful, too. Together, they're not overwhelming but both incredibly useful in the right situation.
Unstable Backlash may be useful if you didn't get what you wanted on the roll, especially if you rolled a 1 (the only one-shot effect). As they are all good effects, though, it seems highly situational.
Controlled Surge takes a large portion of the randomness out of the equation. 1 in every 8 times, you will be able to choose exactly what you want, and the rest of the time there is a 25% chance you'll get exactly what you wanted anyway. This sounds very powerful, although by this point the effects are not as powerful as they were at L3 so it probably just balances that out.
Overall, I think the Beast may be fun to play, but Wild Magic seems very good. I am still disappointed that there are no "real" magic barb subclasses with more "active" effects (like Fighter's Eldritch Knight or the Monk's Way of the Four Elements), but it's a really good path with some great RP potential. I am very tempted to choose Wild Magic over Bear Totem for my own barb.
I'll be playing a Wild Magic Barbarian soon in a campaign. I consider Magic Awareness and Bolstering Magic balanced and thematically fitting, but I think if you choose this subclass, it really is because of the Wild Magic Surge and that's where I see some problems:
Mechanically, almost all of the effects become weaker as you progress in level, as the damage effects don't scale. The only ability that continues to be really good beyond levels 6/7 and onwards is the teleportation, whereas the damage effects become negligible and even effects like the AC bonus and difficult terrain fall of. Compare this to features of other subclasses: Totem barb and Ancestral Guardian resistances stay useful throughout the whole game and damage buffs like the Zealot or Storm Herald scale with your level. On top of that, you will rarely get the effect needed in a specific situation until your level 10/14 upgrades. Fighting against a bunch of flying monsters? I bet you don't get to throw your greataxe the one time it would be useful.
So mechanically speaking, I would classify the Path of Wild Magic as average-goodish for Tier 1 play, but increasingly weaker as your level progresses. BUT, if you are picking this class, you probably don't care about maximizing anyway. The joy of rolling random effects and getting to roleplay a goofy brute with no control over his magical abilities is the real reason to go this path, at least that's my opinion.
So tldr...don't pick it because of the mechanics (they are on the weaker side compared to other subclasses), but because of the flavor and RP-potential!
"Until the rage ends, you manifest a natural weapon. It counts as a simple melee weapon for you"
So, things which say "hit with a (melee) weapon", for instance, I would say this counts for. This means an MC with Monk could work with these natural weapons counting as Monk Weapons, as they are all "simple melee weapons that don’t have the two-handed or heavy property". A one-level dip into Monk would (IMHO) allow you to (for instance) take claws, attack twice (or 3 times with Extra Attack) with them, then make an unarmed strike as a bonus action.
EDIT: Barb 3/Monk 17 would also replace all the damage dice on those weapons, and on your unarmed strikes, with D10s. Taking claws, again, you can attack 3 times with your claws and twice with Flurry of Blows, for a total of 5 attacks using D10 damage dice
Honestly I feel Wild was kinda disappointing like c'mon it was a magic Barbarian the one class that can't cast spells and it can't cast spells?!!?? How cool would it have been to rage so hard you create a fireball that explodes on your enemies I know you can't cast while raging but there could easily be a subclass feature that stops that but what we got was just meh
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I know they were available in UA, and the changes made have been minor, but what are everyone's thoughts on the Path of the Beast and Path of Wild Magic as printed in Tasha's?
My thoughts so far.
Path of the Beast
Path of Wild Magic
Overall, I think the Beast may be fun to play, but Wild Magic seems very good. I am still disappointed that there are no "real" magic barb subclasses with more "active" effects (like Fighter's Eldritch Knight or the Monk's Way of the Four Elements), but it's a really good path with some great RP potential. I am very tempted to choose Wild Magic over Bear Totem for my own barb.
I'll be playing a Wild Magic Barbarian soon in a campaign. I consider Magic Awareness and Bolstering Magic balanced and thematically fitting, but I think if you choose this subclass, it really is because of the Wild Magic Surge and that's where I see some problems:
Mechanically, almost all of the effects become weaker as you progress in level, as the damage effects don't scale. The only ability that continues to be really good beyond levels 6/7 and onwards is the teleportation, whereas the damage effects become negligible and even effects like the AC bonus and difficult terrain fall of. Compare this to features of other subclasses: Totem barb and Ancestral Guardian resistances stay useful throughout the whole game and damage buffs like the Zealot or Storm Herald scale with your level. On top of that, you will rarely get the effect needed in a specific situation until your level 10/14 upgrades. Fighting against a bunch of flying monsters? I bet you don't get to throw your greataxe the one time it would be useful.
So mechanically speaking, I would classify the Path of Wild Magic as average-goodish for Tier 1 play, but increasingly weaker as your level progresses. BUT, if you are picking this class, you probably don't care about maximizing anyway. The joy of rolling random effects and getting to roleplay a goofy brute with no control over his magical abilities is the real reason to go this path, at least that's my opinion.
So tldr...don't pick it because of the mechanics (they are on the weaker side compared to other subclasses), but because of the flavor and RP-potential!
Hmm, just read this and it's rather interesting:
"Until the rage ends, you manifest a natural weapon. It counts as a simple melee weapon for you"
So, things which say "hit with a (melee) weapon", for instance, I would say this counts for. This means an MC with Monk could work with these natural weapons counting as Monk Weapons, as they are all "simple melee weapons that don’t have the two-handed or heavy property". A one-level dip into Monk would (IMHO) allow you to (for instance) take claws, attack twice (or 3 times with Extra Attack) with them, then make an unarmed strike as a bonus action.
EDIT: Barb 3/Monk 17 would also replace all the damage dice on those weapons, and on your unarmed strikes, with D10s. Taking claws, again, you can attack 3 times with your claws and twice with Flurry of Blows, for a total of 5 attacks using D10 damage dice
Which monk would be best tho?
Unarmed Fighting Style Fighter.
Honestly I feel Wild was kinda disappointing like c'mon it was a magic Barbarian the one class that can't cast spells and it can't cast spells?!!?? How cool would it have been to rage so hard you create a fireball that explodes on your enemies I know you can't cast while raging but there could easily be a subclass feature that stops that but what we got was just meh