I have come up with an idea for how the berserker barbarian could be fixed. I have never tried to fix a subclass before, all feedback are welcome. I have divided the level 3 into two features.
Feature 1:
Whenever you are raging and making a strength-based melee weapon attack with advantage, you have a chance to do extra damage. If both of the attack dice hit, you get to apply your proficiency bonus to your damage dealt.
Frenzied Rage
Once per long rest, you can enter into a frenzy when you rage or are raging. When you are in a frenzied rage, you are unable to use your bonus action to cancel the rage. On the turn you are entering the frenzied rage, and on every following turn, you can use your bonus action to make a melee weapon attack against your enemy If you are fighting with two weapons, you can make a second attack on your bonus action in addition to the first one. All melee hits made during a frenzied rage that uses your strength apply your proficiency bonus.
In addition, all melee attacks during a frenzied rage are reckless and the enemy can reroll one of their attack rolls once on every attack against you (super advantage)
It's a good debut to fix some of the Berserker issues. I'd make the following changes instead;
Frenzy
Starting when you choose this path at 3rd level, you can go into a frenzy when you rage. If you do so, for the duration of your rage you can make an additional melee weapon attack when you take the Attack action. When your rage ends, you suffer one level of exhaustion unless you used Reckless Attack on each of your turn.
Mindless Rage
Beginning at 6th level, you are immune to the charmed or frightened condition while raging. .
Intimidating Presence
Beginning at 10th level, you can use your bonus action to frighten someone with your menacing presence. When you do so, choose one creature that you can see within 30 feet of you. If the creature can see or hear you, it must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw (DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strenght modifier) or be frightened of you until the end of your next turn. The saving throw is made at disadvantage if you are raging. On subsequent turns, you can use your bonus action to extend the duration of this effect on the frightened creature until the end of your next turn. This effect ends if the creature ends its turn out of line of sight or more than 60 feet away from you. If the creature succeeds on its saving throw, you can't use this feature on that creature again for 24 hours.
Retaliation
Starting at 14th level, when you take damage from a creature that is within 5 feet of you while raging, you can use your reaction to make a melee weapon attack against that creature.
IMO, that homebrew over-complicates things. The Exhaustion at the end of a Frenzied Rage is a non-factor if you only use it once per day for a boss fight, because it will go away on your next Long Rest, so a variant Frenzied Rage that can only be used once per day that has more restrictions on it (like having to be fighting with two weapons and Frenzied Raging to get the additional attack) seems unnecessary. The standard version we have allows for a Bonus Action attack when you're wielding a two-handed weapon like a greatsword, for which there are very few options in the game that let you do that.
I think the best use of a Berserker Barbarian I've seen yet is to take 5 levels in Berserker Barbarian (getting Extra Attack), then taking the rest of your levels in Swashbuckler Rogue (Using a Rapier and Shield. When you get to the boss fight where you want to use your Frenzied Rage, you Ready your action to attack when the next character takes their turn and use your Bonus Action to make an attack. (Use your Strength so you can Reckless Attack for Advantage when needed, but the weapon has to be a Finesse weapon so it qualifies for Sneak Attack)
The Bonus Action Attack on your turn gets the Sneak Attack Damage.
When you use your Readied Attack Action on another character's turn, one of your hits will deal Sneak Attack Damage again.
It's a good debut to fix some of the Berserker issues. I'd make the following changes instead;
Frenzy
Starting when you choose this path at 3rd level, you can go into a frenzy when you rage. If you do so, for the duration of your rage you can make an additional melee weapon attack when you take the Attack action. When your rage ends, you suffer one level of exhaustion unless you used Reckless Attack on each of your turn.
Mindless Rage
Beginning at 6th level, you are immune to the charmed or frightened condition while raging. .
Intimidating Presence
Beginning at 10th level, you can use your bonus action to frighten someone with your menacing presence. When you do so, choose one creature that you can see within 30 feet of you. If the creature can see or hear you, it must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw (DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strenght modifier) or be frightened of you until the end of your next turn. The saving throw is made at disadvantage if you are raging. On subsequent turns, you can use your bonus action to extend the duration of this effect on the frightened creature until the end of your next turn. This effect ends if the creature ends its turn out of line of sight or more than 60 feet away from you. If the creature succeeds on its saving throw, you can't use this feature on that creature again for 24 hours.
Retaliation
Starting at 14th level, when you take damage from a creature that is within 5 feet of you while raging, you can use your reaction to make a melee weapon attack against that creature.
Doesn't this make wild shifter a bit op? 3 attacks per turn, with advantage?
I have come up with an idea for how the berserker barbarian could be fixed. I have never tried to fix a subclass before, all feedback are welcome. I have divided the level 3 into two features.
Feature 1:
Whenever you are raging and making a strength-based melee weapon attack with advantage, you have a chance to do extra damage. If both of the attack dice hit, you get to apply your proficiency bonus to your damage dealt.
Frenzied Rage
Once per long rest, you can enter into a frenzy when you rage or are raging. When you are in a frenzied rage, you are unable to use your bonus action to cancel the rage. On the turn you are entering the frenzied rage, and on every following turn, you can use your bonus action to make a melee weapon attack against your enemy If you are fighting with two weapons, you can make a second attack on your bonus action in addition to the first one. All melee hits made during a frenzied rage that uses your strength apply your proficiency bonus.
In addition, all melee attacks during a frenzied rage are reckless and the enemy can reroll one of their attack rolls once on every attack against you (super advantage)
It's a good debut to fix some of the Berserker issues. I'd make the following changes instead;
IMO, that homebrew over-complicates things. The Exhaustion at the end of a Frenzied Rage is a non-factor if you only use it once per day for a boss fight, because it will go away on your next Long Rest, so a variant Frenzied Rage that can only be used once per day that has more restrictions on it (like having to be fighting with two weapons and Frenzied Raging to get the additional attack) seems unnecessary. The standard version we have allows for a Bonus Action attack when you're wielding a two-handed weapon like a greatsword, for which there are very few options in the game that let you do that.
I think the best use of a Berserker Barbarian I've seen yet is to take 5 levels in Berserker Barbarian (getting Extra Attack), then taking the rest of your levels in Swashbuckler Rogue (Using a Rapier and Shield. When you get to the boss fight where you want to use your Frenzied Rage, you Ready your action to attack when the next character takes their turn and use your Bonus Action to make an attack. (Use your Strength so you can Reckless Attack for Advantage when needed, but the weapon has to be a Finesse weapon so it qualifies for Sneak Attack)
The Bonus Action Attack on your turn gets the Sneak Attack Damage.
When you use your Readied Attack Action on another character's turn, one of your hits will deal Sneak Attack Damage again.
Doesn't this make wild shifter a bit op? 3 attacks per turn, with advantage?
DMing:
Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Playing:
None sadly.
Optimization Guides:
Literally Too Angry to Die - A Guide to Optimizing a Barbarian
Strong for sure but i don't think it'd be overpowered