On Path of the Spirit Totem, there's a sentence in the description that got me pondering this :
"Your totem animal might be an animal related to those listed here but more appropriate to your homeland. For example, you could choose a hawk or vulture in place of an eagle."
Bear / Eagle / Elk / Tiger / Wolf
Have any of you tried an alternate animal to be your totem? I'm getting ready to lean towards Wolf, but was looking for similar types of animals (Coyote? Fox?) that might be even better? Maybe I am splitting hairs, but I'd love to explore alternate totems that aren't too outside-the-box and fit within the normal parameters. Everything is subject to DM approval, I know, but was curious if anyone has tried this or if I'm just insane.
I can't be bothered to change the mechanics of the class but if your Northern seafaring barbarian who comes from an icey shore wants to have the walrus as totem instead of the bear that would be perfectly fine by me. Eagles could be condors, tigers could be panthers and if you want a coyote instead of a wolf, go for it. :)
Although it sounds like reflavoring would be the way to go, if you are interested I actually have tried my hand at writing a few new totem options
Totem Spirit
Constrictor: A creature that is grappled by you must use Strength (Athletics) when attempting to escape the grapple. While raging, any creature your size or smaller which is grappled by you takes additional bludgeoning damage equal to your rage damage at the start of each of its turns. The spirit of the constrictor snake aids in making your enemies quickly submit.
Hare: While raging and not wearing heavy armor, after a creature makes a melee attack against you, you can use your reaction to teleport up to 10 feet to an unoccupied space you can see. The spirit of the hare makes you difficult to pin down.
Monkey: While raging, you gain a bonus to the damage roll of ranged weapon attacks made using a weapon with the thrown property equal to your rage damage bonus. The spirit of the monkey empowers your grip.
Aspect of the Beast
Constrictor: When you take the Attack action on your turn, you can make a special melee weapon attack using your bite as a natural weapon in place of one of the attacks you would normally make. You use your Constitution modifier for the attack roll instead of Strength or Dexterity. When you hit with this special attack, you release a harsh venom into the target instead of dealing damage, causing the creature to become poisoned until the end of your next turn.
Hare: You gain the hearing of a hare. You enhanced hearing grants you blindsight with a range of 10 feet. Within that range, you can effectively see anything that is not behind total cover, even if you’re blinded or in darkness. Moreover, you know the location of an invisible creature within that range, unless the creature successfully hides from you. You lose this blindsight while you are deafened.
Monkey: You gain a climbing speed equal to your walking speed and gain proficiency in Acrobatics. If you are already proficient in Acrobatics, you can instead gain proficiency in another skill available to the Barbarian class which you are not yet proficient with.
Totemic Attunement
Constrictor: While raging, you can make a single melee weapon attack as a bonus action on each of your turns against a creature that is grappled by you.
Hare: While raging, if you are not wearing heavy armor you are treated as if affected by the Freedom of Movement spell.
Monkey: While raging, immediately after you make a ranged weapon attack using a weapon with the thrown property, you can use your bonus action to teleport to the weapon’s location (or the nearest unoccupied space if that space is occupied by another creature). Immediately after teleporting, you can make a single unarmed strike against a creature within your reach as part of the same bonus action.
On Path of the Spirit Totem, there's a sentence in the description that got me pondering this :
"Your totem animal might be an animal related to those listed here but more appropriate to your homeland. For example, you could choose a hawk or vulture in place of an eagle."
Bear / Eagle / Elk / Tiger / Wolf
Have any of you tried an alternate animal to be your totem? I'm getting ready to lean towards Wolf, but was looking for similar types of animals (Coyote? Fox?) that might be even better? Maybe I am splitting hairs, but I'd love to explore alternate totems that aren't too outside-the-box and fit within the normal parameters. Everything is subject to DM approval, I know, but was curious if anyone has tried this or if I'm just insane.
Thanks.
Now that WOTC is abandoning magical P/S/B on virtually all of its high-end monsters, it's more important than ever for a Totem Barbarian's first totem to be Bear, rather than relying on their native rage ability to keep them alive.
In terms of reflavoring, bear (hah!) in mind that there's literally zero reason to stick to the PHB's re-use of the same animal at different levels, because you are explicitly allowed to have a different totem at each subclass step - you could reflavour them all to be different animals if you want. Here, I'll do a quick run as an example.
L3:
Bear -> Tortoise
Eagle -> Cheetah
Elk -> Horse
Tiger -> Toad
Wolf -> Honeybee
L6:
Bear -> Ox
Eagle -> Mantis Shrimp
Elk -> Wildebeest
Tiger -> Spider
Wolf -> Lion
L14:
Bear -> Mosquito
Eagle -> Sugar Glider
Elk -> Mountain Goat
Tiger -> Elephant
Wolf -> Jaguar
But you can use any animals you want, it's just flavor.
In the distant future I'll be compiling a list of options for gnome characters, which may very well include a badger/wolverine totem that includes the ability to burrow.
If the animal is similar and exists in the setting, go for it. It’s your character, and saying your wolf totem is a coyote will break exactly nothing. It’s all pure flavor.
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Fast, lives in a herd, strong enough to just run others over -> Well Boars and Triceratops came to my mind immediately ... and not much more to be honest. Perhaps (giant) goats would fit as well I guess.
Honestly, that sentence just tells you that it's okay to reflavour things ... which is not something that should require extra mention. Anyone who has played a few games already knows that they can reflavour things and I have yet to see a DM that is against it unless that specific flavour doesn't work for setting related reasons. Heck, I made a totem barbarian and flavoured everything I picked as wind/storm themed instead since the character was an Air Genasi lol
As for specific animal reflavours, look at the things they give you and what traits those are supposed to represent. Then which animals would fit those traits.
Level 3 - Totem Spirit
Bear: Let's you soak more damage -> resilience Eagle: Makes you difficult to hit and fast -> speed Elk: Makes you fast but different -> speed again I guess? Tiger: Lets you jump better -> agility Wolf: Makes your friends stronger when fighting with you -> Pack animal
Level 6 - Aspect of the Beast
Bear: Lets you carry more -> Strong and/or big Eagle: Lets you see well -> Perceptive Elk: Lets you and your group travel better -> Herd animal Tiger: More proficiencies -> An animal considered particularly skilled Wolf: Lets you track better -> Perceptive and silent
Level 14 - Totemic Attunement
Bear: Distracting enemies around you -> Loud/obviously dangerous/scary Eagle: You can fly short bursts -> being able to fly obviously Elk: You can run through an enemy -> charging/strong Tiger: An additional attack when you ran straight at an enemy -> a ferocious initial attack I guess? Wolf: You can drag an enemy down -> smart/teamwork (gives advantage for others in melee range ... kinda overlaps with the level 3 ability though)
So to summarize we got: Bear -> Resilient, strong/big and scary. Eagle -> Fast, perceptive and flying. Elk -> Fast, lives in a herd, strong enough to just run others over. Tiger -> Agile, skilled, a ferocious initial attack (so probably waiting for the right moment and then striking hard). Wolf -> Fights in a pack, perceptive and silent, smart.
Next, let us see what other animals we can find for those traits. Of course some are very obviously focussed on a specific type of animal though, so for those it's hard to find something new and exotic.
Resilient, strong/big and scary -> A tough one since irl there aren't really any other big land predators other than bears and big cats which obviously already got covered, but with some handwaving I'd say Walruses (despite no swimming speed), T-Rex (remember, it's DnD where dinosaurs can still exist), Giant Ape, Crocodile or Killer Whale would fit.
Fast, perceptive and flying -> Well that's quite clearly just any kind of predator bird. Maybe not one that has a different strong flavour like owls which are known for being silent though. Also flying dinosaurs (don't really know any of their names and too lazy to google lol).
Fast, lives in a herd, strong enough to just run others over -> Well Boars and Triceratops came to my mind immediately ... and not much more to be honest. Perhaps (giant) goats would fit as well I guess.
Agile, skilled, a ferocious initial attack (so probably waiting for the right moment and then striking hard) -> Mmmh I feel like monkeys and such would be a good fit here but also a bunch of predatory birds if you don't want to go with the Eagle stuff.
Fights in a pack, perceptive and silent, smart -> This again is very focussed on dog-type beasts so it's kinda hard to come up with something else, really. Pack hunters are surprisingly rare irl and often are rather closely related. Lions and Chimpanzees work here though I'd say Velociraptors would be a nice fit as well. A type of Dolphins are known to hunt in groups as well and they are commonly known as smart animal though again the subclass isn't going to give you any swimming speed.
I'm sure there are many more examples one can come up with. Especially since I went the simple route and only looked for "equivalents" within the restrictions of the same totem animal. Since you can mix and match the animals you could come up with an animal that fits only a very specific mix of those traits and stick to that for your character. Like, combining the agility trait from Tiger, the strong/big trait from Bear and the fast/flying trait from Eagle would allow you to "simulate" a whole other kind of animal instead.
Buffalo for herds!
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On Path of the Spirit Totem, there's a sentence in the description that got me pondering this :
"Your totem animal might be an animal related to those listed here but more appropriate to your homeland. For example, you could choose a hawk or vulture in place of an eagle."
Bear / Eagle / Elk / Tiger / Wolf
Have any of you tried an alternate animal to be your totem? I'm getting ready to lean towards Wolf, but was looking for similar types of animals (Coyote? Fox?) that might be even better? Maybe I am splitting hairs, but I'd love to explore alternate totems that aren't too outside-the-box and fit within the normal parameters. Everything is subject to DM approval, I know, but was curious if anyone has tried this or if I'm just insane.
Thanks.
I can't be bothered to change the mechanics of the class but if your Northern seafaring barbarian who comes from an icey shore wants to have the walrus as totem instead of the bear that would be perfectly fine by me. Eagles could be condors, tigers could be panthers and if you want a coyote instead of a wolf, go for it. :)
Although it sounds like reflavoring would be the way to go, if you are interested I actually have tried my hand at writing a few new totem options
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Now that WOTC is abandoning magical P/S/B on virtually all of its high-end monsters, it's more important than ever for a Totem Barbarian's first totem to be Bear, rather than relying on their native rage ability to keep them alive.
In terms of reflavoring, bear (hah!) in mind that there's literally zero reason to stick to the PHB's re-use of the same animal at different levels, because you are explicitly allowed to have a different totem at each subclass step - you could reflavour them all to be different animals if you want. Here, I'll do a quick run as an example.
But you can use any animals you want, it's just flavor.
In the distant future I'll be compiling a list of options for gnome characters, which may very well include a badger/wolverine totem that includes the ability to burrow.
If the animal is similar and exists in the setting, go for it. It’s your character, and saying your wolf totem is a coyote will break exactly nothing. It’s all pure flavor.
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Thanks for the amazing ideas and responses.
I went with Wolf, but am exploring things within that mode.
What about whale totem barbarians? 🐋
GorpGorp
Bison for herd animal! Or Bull.
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I wanted to do bat instead of eagle (for level 14, of course, the eyesight at level six in no way suits it)
…and then I swing him into a hedge.
Buffalo for herds!