Path of the Beast with 5.5 weapon mastery rules

I feel like if the subclass was updated to 5.5 they would limit the extra attacks to one per turn like Nick so it's a bit of an exploitation of the gap between 5 and 5.5.

Quote from CharlesThePlant >>

I feel like if the subclass was updated to 5.5 they would limit the extra attacks to one per turn like Nick so it's a bit of an exploitation of the gap between 5 and 5.5.

This is entirely conjecture on your part. Currently Path of the Beast Barbarian as published is still legal and valid for 2024, and it works just fine. Nothing is broken about it and none of this conjecture helps your case.

The natural weapons granted by Path of the Beast already have extra effects. Feel free to homebrew them if you want, but I personally would just adjust the numbers of the healing from Maw and clarify the duration of the defense from the Tail.

I've wondered this exact thing if ever they brought the Beast Barbarian into 5.5, so I've got some ideas on what they could do to "implement" weapon masteries into the natural weapons:

For Bite, I would add the Sap mastery, as well as add Advantage on this attack roll if you are Bloodied.

For Claws, I would add the Vex mastery, as I feel the repeated attacks would be befitting of it- even though the Barbarian already has access to Reckless Attack.

For Tail, I would add either the Cleave or Push mastery, as I imagine a tail sweeping across potentially hitting or moving multiple enemies.

I also considered adding another option entirely, Horns, which take a bit of inspiration from Minotaurs. It would get the charge attack as well as the Topple Mastery.

I feel that in order to keep up with 5.5 subclasses, the Beast Barbarian does need some more boons than what it has- adding weapon mastery effects to the natural weapons makes sense to me.