Look into the idea of a "Rage Mage" people have been building them ever since Barbarian became a class. I would argue though that the 3.5 version is a bit... Out there... But just think logically.
Barbarians = Rage... Rage = Wrath... Wrath of Nature?... I think the Druid spell list is what would have to be used. Consider it like a tribal Augur or Shaman. I personally tried to build "Path of the Augur" but gave up because I was having too much trouble. And really when you think about it, a druid is just a spell casting barbarian anyways. Instead of weapons they wield beast shapes and nature.
No idea how to balance it, but I've been playing around with the idea of a barbarian that uses magic to enhance their physical prowess such as long strider, jump, enlarge, barkskin, haste and heck if they could learn spells high enough tensors transformation 😜
Maybe a feat that allows concentration during rage and the rest could be through multiclassing?
If done through a subclass maybe a certain selection of spells that can be cast from a limited short rest resource like the shadow monk or by sacrificing hp like blood hunter. Though again to make it worth while these spells would either have to not require conc or have an exception to the rage rule.
If I was to homebrew it, I would make it something along the lines of wild magic surge from the sorcerer to be honest as a subclass. It makes sense if whenever you go into the rage the magical forces of nature burst from your body and you get some spellcasting as well as the fun wild magic table. It would probably be a 1/3 caster like an eldritch knight (so nothing too crazy) and take from maybe the druid spell list? Sorcerer? idk. That's a decent baseline though and I'd work from there. It could be overpowered, but that's what play testing is for. You could restrict them to only casting magic when raging, which is small fix or when they rage they have to choose between magic or melee and can't be both (Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde anyone?). There's a lot of ways you can do this, but it would have to carefully be made so it doesn't step on other classes or make the barb too much stronger.
Dragonslore1987, my Spirit Shaman subclass was built giving barbarians half-caster druid spell access. I use rage as a balancing tool. The barbarian can use spells or they can rage. When they rage I give access to a few spell like abilities that allow them to still do some amount of healing. Those abilities are limited to a raging barbarian only, therefore they can only be used as often as a barbarian can rage.
My solution to this is to find another class that has the spellcasting abilities you want and then build a character of that class but with a background where they were raised in a barbarian clan. They may still have the strength of a barbarian and prefer to use simple armor, or none at all, but they are just not a Barbarian Class character. Otherwise you risk creating an OP PC. The second option is to multi-class a Barbarian. But for me I'd go with option 1 and have a Tribal Ranger, a Ranger character that was raised in a barbarian clan. Good luck.
Dragonslore1987, my Spirit Shaman subclass was built giving barbarians half-caster druid spell access. I use rage as a balancing tool. The barbarian can use spells or they can rage. When they rage I give access to a few spell like abilities that allow them to still do some amount of healing. Those abilities are limited to a raging barbarian only, therefore they can only be used as often as a barbarian can rage.
You could take that a step further and treat it like the druids ability to consume spell slots to self heal while shapeshifted, instead while raging.
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"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Well I mean we definitely do have Magical Barbarians, I found this thread trying to find an official Barbarian Path with no Magic that was any good (Beserker is awful)
As for actual spell casting, I don’t see why not. People in this thread have said that it’s intended as a martial class, but the same applies to Rogues and Fighters, and they got 3rd caster subclasses. Bard or Druid would be more appropriate sources to draw from for Barbarians than Wizard would be. Maybe similar to Arcane Tricksters’ lockpicking mage hand, they could have a punching or even sword-wielding mage hand.
As for the fact that Rage stops Spellcasting and concentration, consider the following:
You don’t rage every combat.
Spells aren’t just for combat.
Some duration spells aren’t concentration, like Armour of Agathys and Spiritual Weapon.
You can give this Barb spell-slot-fuelled abilities, similar to Paladins’ Divine Smite and Rangers’ Primeval Awareness, as those will be usable during Rage.
You can give this Barb limited access to spells while Raging, for example: you could allow only reaction spells triggered by hostility, so that they can counterspell, shield, or hellish rebuke; you could say “While Raging, you can replace any number of weapon attacks on your turn with a cantrip that involves an attack roll. When you cast a cantrip this way, it is cast as if you were a 1st level caster. Melee Cantrips cast in this way benefit from Rage Damage and Reckless Attack.”; you could let them use Vicious Mockery as a bonus action, because destroying enemies’ morale at the same time as you mow down their bodies is a very Barbarian thing to do.
I made a Spirit Shaman subclass for barbarians. It uses the druid spell list (half caster rate) and has a few spell-like abilities that can be used during raging. The draw back is that there are a lot of druid spells that require concentration and raging cancels that, so it keeps it fairly well-balanced I think. You can take a look at it here:
Interesting subclass idea. For me I will combine the totem warrior subclass of the barbarian with the druid circle of the sheperd. These two sounds pretty cool in company and even that the barbarian can't cast spells while raging is there enough time without raging to cast perhaps some magic. And in total this also looks like a nice spirit shaman
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Look into the idea of a "Rage Mage" people have been building them ever since Barbarian became a class. I would argue though that the 3.5 version is a bit... Out there... But just think logically.
Barbarians = Rage... Rage = Wrath... Wrath of Nature?... I think the Druid spell list is what would have to be used. Consider it like a tribal Augur or Shaman. I personally tried to build "Path of the Augur" but gave up because I was having too much trouble. And really when you think about it, a druid is just a spell casting barbarian anyways. Instead of weapons they wield beast shapes and nature.
No idea how to balance it, but I've been playing around with the idea of a barbarian that uses magic to enhance their physical prowess such as long strider, jump, enlarge, barkskin, haste and heck if they could learn spells high enough tensors transformation 😜
Maybe a feat that allows concentration during rage and the rest could be through multiclassing?
If done through a subclass maybe a certain selection of spells that can be cast from a limited short rest resource like the shadow monk or by sacrificing hp like blood hunter. Though again to make it worth while these spells would either have to not require conc or have an exception to the rage rule.
If I was to homebrew it, I would make it something along the lines of wild magic surge from the sorcerer to be honest as a subclass. It makes sense if whenever you go into the rage the magical forces of nature burst from your body and you get some spellcasting as well as the fun wild magic table. It would probably be a 1/3 caster like an eldritch knight (so nothing too crazy) and take from maybe the druid spell list? Sorcerer? idk. That's a decent baseline though and I'd work from there. It could be overpowered, but that's what play testing is for. You could restrict them to only casting magic when raging, which is small fix or when they rage they have to choose between magic or melee and can't be both (Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde anyone?). There's a lot of ways you can do this, but it would have to carefully be made so it doesn't step on other classes or make the barb too much stronger.
Dragonslore1987, my Spirit Shaman subclass was built giving barbarians half-caster druid spell access. I use rage as a balancing tool. The barbarian can use spells or they can rage. When they rage I give access to a few spell like abilities that allow them to still do some amount of healing. Those abilities are limited to a raging barbarian only, therefore they can only be used as often as a barbarian can rage.
My solution to this is to find another class that has the spellcasting abilities you want and then build a character of that class but with a background where they were raised in a barbarian clan. They may still have the strength of a barbarian and prefer to use simple armor, or none at all, but they are just not a Barbarian Class character. Otherwise you risk creating an OP PC. The second option is to multi-class a Barbarian. But for me I'd go with option 1 and have a Tribal Ranger, a Ranger character that was raised in a barbarian clan. Good luck.
You could take that a step further and treat it like the druids ability to consume spell slots to self heal while shapeshifted, instead while raging.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Take a look at the Path of the Wild Soul in Unearthed Arcana. One of the abilities is precisely what a previous poster suggested - Wild Magic + Rage.
Well I mean we definitely do have Magical Barbarians, I found this thread trying to find an official Barbarian Path with no Magic that was any good (Beserker is awful)
As for actual spell casting, I don’t see why not. People in this thread have said that it’s intended as a martial class, but the same applies to Rogues and Fighters, and they got 3rd caster subclasses. Bard or Druid would be more appropriate sources to draw from for Barbarians than Wizard would be. Maybe similar to Arcane Tricksters’ lockpicking mage hand, they could have a punching or even sword-wielding mage hand.
As for the fact that Rage stops Spellcasting and concentration, consider the following:
Interesting subclass idea. For me I will combine the totem warrior subclass of the barbarian with the druid circle of the sheperd. These two sounds pretty cool in company and even that the barbarian can't cast spells while raging is there enough time without raging to cast perhaps some magic. And in total this also looks like a nice spirit shaman