it just kind of feels like they made barbarian weaker for no reason, like with level six aspect of the beast, why did they remove the bear aspect witch gives double carry capacity. being strong and able to carry alot seems like it would be a pretty common fantasy among barbarian players, especially totem warriors, why would they remove it and not just add the new features and keep these ones? i get the rage nerf to bear totem, but why remove the carry capacity? (im malding this decision is stupid in my opinion)
I totally disagree. What they have done is allow the Wildheart barb to actually have a choice every time they rage, with the 2014 totem barb there was no choice, BEART ALWAYS. That was boring. Now people will actually look at orc eagle dash barb builds, or wolve builds to help gain advantage for all attacks from allies. Fight against a fire elemental? Select bear for that fight. The choice is great :)
I think it is mid, but I am not sure the other options are much better. Barbairans in general and the sub classes as well don't really give me much of a reason to stick with it past level 5 maybe 6.
I think it is mid, but I am not sure the other options are much better. Barbairans in general and the sub classes as well don't really give me much of a reason to stick with it past level 5 maybe 6.
There's far more of a reason to stick with barbarian past 6 in 5.24 than there was in the 2014 PHB. I mean Brutal Strike replaced something pointless and Relentless Rage won't get you taken down by a papercut any more.
And they changed all the level 6 abilities because too many people felt like they were locked in at level 3 and couldn't mix and match. The level six abilities are now better and you can mix and match them. (I've never capped out my carrying capacity as a strength based character).
As you can choose a different animal whenever you rage, it would be pretty useless to have your carry capacity go up only for a few minutes.
I really like the Wild Hearth. It's the most versatile barbarian, allowing you to always pick the best option in any combat, and probably one of the best class for exploration. They can also shine in combat, even if they do not get the dmg boost of the berserker or Zealot. What they can do is dealing their dmg with utmost reliability on almost any battlefield.
Going to the underdark? : you have darkvision. Trekking over a mountain range? : you have a climb speed. Underwater adventure? : you have a swim speed and take no penalty to your attacks.
The ennemy is at the other side of the battlefield shooting spells and arrows? Well, be an eagle and start dishing out dmg on the first round by running as fast as any monk or rogue. Surprise!
Fighting a Dragon, well, you can fly!
Using the power of the ram, now you can knock prone while still using any other weapon mastery property of your weapon, meaning that if you dual wield, you can knock prone with your first attack (no save), push them away from your Wizard or break a grapple with a push weapon at the same time, then follow and attack again, and use a nick weapon for a third attack, all with advantage without using reckless attack, which is a big boost to your survivability.
Or, if you have melee companions and are piling on a big monster, you can use both Wolf and Lion and give advantage to all of them while making the monster roll with disavantage on all his attacks (with multiattack, this will make a big difference). Also, you are basically doubling the crit range for your melee companions.
They are very, very solid imho.
Edit : I will not compare them with the Path of the World Tree, because so much battle control on a barbarian is just sick.
Its especially cool if you flavor your rage more as channeling the spirits of animals than actually getting angry. I'm working on a build that starts with Magic Initiate: Wizard so I can pick up Elementalism, Message and Find Familiar to make the class more Shaman than Barbarian. All the spells would manifest a spectral animal of some kind such as a ghostly humming bird for message, a ghostly bat for beckon air, a marmot for beckon earth, a desert lizard to beckon fire, and a spitting frog for beckon water. With the familiar being a ghostly gray/white colored Norwegian Forest Cat that mischievously follows you on your adventures.
Its especially cool if you flavor your rage more as channeling the spirits of animals than actually getting angry. I'm working on a build that starts with Magic Initiate: Wizard so I can pick up Elementalism, Message and Find Familiar to make the class more Shaman than Barbarian. All the spells would manifest a spectral animal of some kind such as a ghostly humming bird for message, a ghostly bat for beckon air, a marmot for beckon earth, a desert lizard to beckon fire, and a spitting frog for beckon water. With the familiar being a ghostly gray/white colored Norwegian Forest Cat that mischievously follows you on your adventures.
Nice Idea for the familiar, but beware, as it is not a beast, you will not be able to use beast sense with it. The advantages of beast sense is that there is no range limit when you share the senses, you do not loose your own senses and you are not limited to sight and sounds. You do get telepathy with a familiar, tough. That being said, you still get beast sense for other critters anyway.
I went with Magic initiate druid for Guidance, message, and speak with animals, that I will change for another spell, at level 3 (when I get it from the class), maybe animal friendship as it does not require concentration and has a duration of 24h, or longstrider. I wanted Guidance to represent the luck of Yondalla, as my character is a halfling. I think being able to run through ennemies or hide behind another character for a "instant barbarian surprise" will be great fun. A bodyguard hiden behind the talking diplomat caster is neat.
It's another kind of shaman, but yes, it's a very cool and well rounded subclass.
I have gone back and forth on Magic Initiate: Druid or Wizard, love the Goodberry spell from Druid but having an actual animal running around seemed to tip the scales. Yeah its not a beast for Beast Sense but it can do some cool stuff like you stated and less hoops to jump through, and its a ritual so you can recast it when the critter gets smooshed. Animal Friendship sounds like a great idea, you could use it to make sure the beast is willing for Beast Sense and maybe get multiple uses of Beast Sense for the same critter in the day.
it just kind of feels like they made barbarian weaker for no reason, like with level six aspect of the beast, why did they remove the bear aspect witch gives double carry capacity. being strong and able to carry alot seems like it would be a pretty common fantasy among barbarian players, especially totem warriors, why would they remove it and not just add the new features and keep these ones? i get the rage nerf to bear totem, but why remove the carry capacity? (im malding this decision is stupid in my opinion)
I totally disagree. What they have done is allow the Wildheart barb to actually have a choice every time they rage, with the 2014 totem barb there was no choice, BEART ALWAYS. That was boring. Now people will actually look at orc eagle dash barb builds, or wolve builds to help gain advantage for all attacks from allies. Fight against a fire elemental? Select bear for that fight. The choice is great :)
I think it is mid, but I am not sure the other options are much better. Barbairans in general and the sub classes as well don't really give me much of a reason to stick with it past level 5 maybe 6.
There's far more of a reason to stick with barbarian past 6 in 5.24 than there was in the 2014 PHB. I mean Brutal Strike replaced something pointless and Relentless Rage won't get you taken down by a papercut any more.
And they changed all the level 6 abilities because too many people felt like they were locked in at level 3 and couldn't mix and match. The level six abilities are now better and you can mix and match them. (I've never capped out my carrying capacity as a strength based character).
As you can choose a different animal whenever you rage, it would be pretty useless to have your carry capacity go up only for a few minutes.
I really like the Wild Hearth. It's the most versatile barbarian, allowing you to always pick the best option in any combat, and probably one of the best class for exploration. They can also shine in combat, even if they do not get the dmg boost of the berserker or Zealot. What they can do is dealing their dmg with utmost reliability on almost any battlefield.
Going to the underdark? : you have darkvision. Trekking over a mountain range? : you have a climb speed. Underwater adventure? : you have a swim speed and take no penalty to your attacks.
The ennemy is at the other side of the battlefield shooting spells and arrows? Well, be an eagle and start dishing out dmg on the first round by running as fast as any monk or rogue. Surprise!
Fighting a Dragon, well, you can fly!
Using the power of the ram, now you can knock prone while still using any other weapon mastery property of your weapon, meaning that if you dual wield, you can knock prone with your first attack (no save), push them away from your Wizard or break a grapple with a push weapon at the same time, then follow and attack again, and use a nick weapon for a third attack, all with advantage without using reckless attack, which is a big boost to your survivability.
Or, if you have melee companions and are piling on a big monster, you can use both Wolf and Lion and give advantage to all of them while making the monster roll with disavantage on all his attacks (with multiattack, this will make a big difference). Also, you are basically doubling the crit range for your melee companions.
They are very, very solid imho.
Edit : I will not compare them with the Path of the World Tree, because so much battle control on a barbarian is just sick.
Its especially cool if you flavor your rage more as channeling the spirits of animals than actually getting angry. I'm working on a build that starts with Magic Initiate: Wizard so I can pick up Elementalism, Message and Find Familiar to make the class more Shaman than Barbarian. All the spells would manifest a spectral animal of some kind such as a ghostly humming bird for message, a ghostly bat for beckon air, a marmot for beckon earth, a desert lizard to beckon fire, and a spitting frog for beckon water. With the familiar being a ghostly gray/white colored Norwegian Forest Cat that mischievously follows you on your adventures.
Nice Idea for the familiar, but beware, as it is not a beast, you will not be able to use beast sense with it. The advantages of beast sense is that there is no range limit when you share the senses, you do not loose your own senses and you are not limited to sight and sounds. You do get telepathy with a familiar, tough. That being said, you still get beast sense for other critters anyway.
I went with Magic initiate druid for Guidance, message, and speak with animals, that I will change for another spell, at level 3 (when I get it from the class), maybe animal friendship as it does not require concentration and has a duration of 24h, or longstrider. I wanted Guidance to represent the luck of Yondalla, as my character is a halfling. I think being able to run through ennemies or hide behind another character for a "instant barbarian surprise" will be great fun. A bodyguard hiden behind the talking diplomat caster is neat.
It's another kind of shaman, but yes, it's a very cool and well rounded subclass.
I have gone back and forth on Magic Initiate: Druid or Wizard, love the Goodberry spell from Druid but having an actual animal running around seemed to tip the scales. Yeah its not a beast for Beast Sense but it can do some cool stuff like you stated and less hoops to jump through, and its a ritual so you can recast it when the critter gets smooshed. Animal Friendship sounds like a great idea, you could use it to make sure the beast is willing for Beast Sense and maybe get multiple uses of Beast Sense for the same critter in the day.
Multiclass into lycan bloodhunter
Whyyyyyy? Bloodhunters are kinda bad and Lycans are only not terrible because they basically get Rage