This homebrew is based on Cú Chulainn, this wholesale bonkers Irish folk hero I read about as a kid. It's a story about a warrior famous for his terrifying berserker rage that transformed him into an unrecognizable monster. I don't think it's a very well known story, which is a shame because the description of some of these battle frenzies sound like manic Cronenberg fever dreams:
"The first warp-spasm seized Cúchulainn, and made him into a monstrous thing, hideous and shapeless, unheard of. His shanks and his joints, every knuckle and angle and organ from head to foot, shook like a tree in the flood or a reed in the stream. His body made a furious twist inside his skin, so that his feet and shins switched to the rear and his heels and calves switched to the front... On his head the temple-sinews stretched to the nape of his neck, each mighty, immense, measureless knob as big as the head of a month-old child... he sucked one eye so deep into his head that a wild crane couldn't probe it onto his cheek out of the depths of his skull; the other eye fell out along his cheek. His mouth weirdly distorted: his cheek peeled back from his jaws until the gullet appeared, his lungs and his liver flapped in his mouth and throat, his lower jaw struck the upper a lion-killing blow, and fiery flakes large as a ram's fleece reached his mouth from his throat... The hair of his head twisted like the tangle of a red thornbush stuck in a gap; if a royal apple tree with all its kingly fruit were shaken above him, scarce an apple would reach the ground but each would be spiked on a bristle of his hair as it stood up on his scalp with rage."
I really wanted to make a non-magic fighter that had a wild magic surge type of mechanic, and this seemed like a good fit. The randomized nature of the benefits your rage confers, while strong, are intended to make players think on their feet and adjust their strategy on the fly to best utilize their buffs. This is a barbarian for players who crave more variety in their combat experience and aren't risk-averse, or players who enjoy making choices that have consequences. I've been fiddling with this concept for a while, but I'm pretty happy with this version.
Let me know what you think!
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https://www.dndbeyond.com/subclasses/221114-path-of-the-riastrad
This homebrew is based on Cú Chulainn, this wholesale bonkers Irish folk hero I read about as a kid. It's a story about a warrior famous for his terrifying berserker rage that transformed him into an unrecognizable monster. I don't think it's a very well known story, which is a shame because the description of some of these battle frenzies sound like manic Cronenberg fever dreams:
"The first warp-spasm seized Cúchulainn, and made him into a monstrous thing, hideous and shapeless, unheard of. His shanks and his joints, every knuckle and angle and organ from head to foot, shook like a tree in the flood or a reed in the stream. His body made a furious twist inside his skin, so that his feet and shins switched to the rear and his heels and calves switched to the front... On his head the temple-sinews stretched to the nape of his neck, each mighty, immense, measureless knob as big as the head of a month-old child... he sucked one eye so deep into his head that a wild crane couldn't probe it onto his cheek out of the depths of his skull; the other eye fell out along his cheek. His mouth weirdly distorted: his cheek peeled back from his jaws until the gullet appeared, his lungs and his liver flapped in his mouth and throat, his lower jaw struck the upper a lion-killing blow, and fiery flakes large as a ram's fleece reached his mouth from his throat... The hair of his head twisted like the tangle of a red thornbush stuck in a gap; if a royal apple tree with all its kingly fruit were shaken above him, scarce an apple would reach the ground but each would be spiked on a bristle of his hair as it stood up on his scalp with rage."
I really wanted to make a non-magic fighter that had a wild magic surge type of mechanic, and this seemed like a good fit. The randomized nature of the benefits your rage confers, while strong, are intended to make players think on their feet and adjust their strategy on the fly to best utilize their buffs. This is a barbarian for players who crave more variety in their combat experience and aren't risk-averse, or players who enjoy making choices that have consequences. I've been fiddling with this concept for a while, but I'm pretty happy with this version.
Let me know what you think!