I have thoughts on making a path of the world tree barbarian. Reading up on it, might pair well and possibly dangerously with bugbear, though what would yall suggest?
Bugbear's early damage bonus seems a straight positive on any build.
To me the question is how often can you attack an enemy before it attacks to get that bonus damage? Barbarian's Advantage on Initiative seems very helpful here. You should hopefully have about a +2 to your DEX, so not bad. Also Barb's +1 to speed helps you reach enemies. And so does your extra Bugbear reach! AND on top of that at level 10 you get an extra 10-foot reach on World Tree, so you should be able to close distances well enough I'd think?
Speaking of, that extra 10 ft. reach at level 10 on a Bugbear in general, is kind of crazy. Good synergy.
Shifter maybe, one of them has a trait that means nobody withing 30' of you gets advantage on attack rolls. Stacks quite staunchly with Barbarians reckless attack, as you get adv and they don't. Got to be good right?
World Tree Barbarian stacks nicely with a Warlock with Armour of Agythus cranking, feed those temp hp each round.
A fun build idea I have been toying with is what I call the Goliath Golfer.
Goliath World Tree Barbarian, Warhammer for Push Mastery, take the Crusher and Charger Feats. Run 10' towards the enemy and hit them with your warhammer, giving up advantage from Reckless Attacks to activate Brutal Strikes. When it hits, apply Crusher first to move the enemy 5' (move them straight up since it doesn't specify it must be along the ground), then apply the Push mastery, Charger, and Forceful Blow (Brutal Strike option) for a total of 35' of pushing power. Since the enemy was moved upwards first, the following pushes will push them diagonally upwards and away from you. They will end up 40' in the air, then land Prone and take an extra 4d6 fall damage.
This works on any creatures Large or smaller. If you use your Goliath feature Large Form, it will work on Huge creatures. Should a caster bless you with Enlarge/Reduce after using Large Form, you would be able to tee up even Gargantuan creatures.
Reliable damage boost/extra chance to crit from Bonus Action attack. Barbarians have little competition for their Bonus Action once they start their rage. World Tree’s BA feature isn't until level 14.
The Reaction attack does compete with World Tree’s key level 6 feature. But the former doesn’t trigger every or most times, and the latter is up to you if/when you do it. And either way, the BA damage alone seeks pretty solid?
Okay. Finally got to test out a World Tree Barbarian in a one shot (level 10), and it was pretty cool. Definitely recommend.
Stand outs: A) The temp HP for an ally each turn functioned like free healing against the BBEG. There is no cost to action economy - it's just happens at the start of your turn. B) The extra 10-ft. reach on my turn gave good options: ensuring I could hit every enemy I wanted to and then position myself to use my temp HP (requires 10 feet) or be able to use the enemy/all teleport option (requires 30 feet). C) Cleave: This was a lot of fun with a reach weapon (and being Bugbear!). Got a lot of extra attacks this way.
Challenges: C) Couldn't use the signature teleport ability as much as I'd hoped. Often it either didn't make sense, or the range was too far. But a lot of it is how things changed each round (a lot in a BBEG fight with Legendary Actions..), who is available to be teleported, enemy or ally, and just remembering you can only do so as a Reaction on the start of their turn. To get the most out of it, we all had to learn to remember the logistics of it, each round, and accept more communication than usual. Again, BBEG fight, so people were getting knocked around a lot. I think it's a really useful feature most times.
Other than that, in general felt the resiliency of a Barbarian, though didn't have to deal with many mental saves. I don't think I used Brutal Strike once. The rider effects just never seemed needed, and the extra damage wasn't it worth it to me to sacrifice hit rate. I'm guessing other combats it'd prove useful? Think I'm in the minority who isn't that impressed with it, at least not so far.
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I have thoughts on making a path of the world tree barbarian. Reading up on it, might pair well and possibly dangerously with bugbear, though what would yall suggest?
World tree thrives in prolonged fights where its over time abilities add up, not sure bugbear fits that since its more about burst
Bugbear's early damage bonus seems a straight positive on any build.
To me the question is how often can you attack an enemy before it attacks to get that bonus damage? Barbarian's Advantage on Initiative seems very helpful here. You should hopefully have about a +2 to your DEX, so not bad. Also Barb's +1 to speed helps you reach enemies. And so does your extra Bugbear reach! AND on top of that at level 10 you get an extra 10-foot reach on World Tree, so you should be able to close distances well enough I'd think?
Speaking of, that extra 10 ft. reach at level 10 on a Bugbear in general, is kind of crazy. Good synergy.
Shifter maybe, one of them has a trait that means nobody withing 30' of you gets advantage on attack rolls. Stacks quite staunchly with Barbarians reckless attack, as you get adv and they don't. Got to be good right?
World Tree Barbarian stacks nicely with a Warlock with Armour of Agythus cranking, feed those temp hp each round.
Life's hard - get a helmet!
A fun build idea I have been toying with is what I call the Goliath Golfer.
Goliath World Tree Barbarian, Warhammer for Push Mastery, take the Crusher and Charger Feats. Run 10' towards the enemy and hit them with your warhammer, giving up advantage from Reckless Attacks to activate Brutal Strikes. When it hits, apply Crusher first to move the enemy 5' (move them straight up since it doesn't specify it must be along the ground), then apply the Push mastery, Charger, and Forceful Blow (Brutal Strike option) for a total of 35' of pushing power. Since the enemy was moved upwards first, the following pushes will push them diagonally upwards and away from you. They will end up 40' in the air, then land Prone and take an extra 4d6 fall damage.
This works on any creatures Large or smaller. If you use your Goliath feature Large Form, it will work on Huge creatures. Should a caster bless you with Enlarge/Reduce after using Large Form, you would be able to tee up even Gargantuan creatures.
How about Polearm Master on a World Tree Barb?
Reliable damage boost/extra chance to crit from Bonus Action attack. Barbarians have little competition for their Bonus Action once they start their rage. World Tree’s BA feature isn't until level 14.
The Reaction attack does compete with World Tree’s key level 6 feature. But the former doesn’t trigger every or most times, and the latter is up to you if/when you do it. And either way, the BA damage alone seeks pretty solid?
Definitely
Okay. Finally got to test out a World Tree Barbarian in a one shot (level 10), and it was pretty cool. Definitely recommend.
Stand outs: A) The temp HP for an ally each turn functioned like free healing against the BBEG. There is no cost to action economy - it's just happens at the start of your turn. B) The extra 10-ft. reach on my turn gave good options: ensuring I could hit every enemy I wanted to and then position myself to use my temp HP (requires 10 feet) or be able to use the enemy/all teleport option (requires 30 feet). C) Cleave: This was a lot of fun with a reach weapon (and being Bugbear!). Got a lot of extra attacks this way.
Challenges: C) Couldn't use the signature teleport ability as much as I'd hoped. Often it either didn't make sense, or the range was too far. But a lot of it is how things changed each round (a lot in a BBEG fight with Legendary Actions..), who is available to be teleported, enemy or ally, and just remembering you can only do so as a Reaction on the start of their turn. To get the most out of it, we all had to learn to remember the logistics of it, each round, and accept more communication than usual. Again, BBEG fight, so people were getting knocked around a lot. I think it's a really useful feature most times.
Other than that, in general felt the resiliency of a Barbarian, though didn't have to deal with many mental saves. I don't think I used Brutal Strike once. The rider effects just never seemed needed, and the extra damage wasn't it worth it to me to sacrifice hit rate. I'm guessing other combats it'd prove useful? Think I'm in the minority who isn't that impressed with it, at least not so far.