The fact it also lets you deal damage (even a piddling amount) when initiating a grapple is a bonus as well, as you normally don't, and this encourages you to grapple more which is never a bad thing as Barbarian players really should grapple more, since Rage gives you advantage.
I hear this a lot. "People should grapple more." You know why they don't? Because it's not as good as you think it is. Most of the time, locking an enemy down is not really giving you a huge benefit when it can still attack you and was probably going to attack you anyway regardless. Also as a barbarian, you're giving up 50% of your Attack action to do this. Just killing faster is better control.
Yes, everyone has an anecdote about how grappling was super useful in a combat. It's a great tool, but you can't make a build around it because the situation where it counts is just not very common.
There is a reason that every single grapple-y monster has a real, damaging attack that also grapples. Because trading your damage for a grapple is generally a bad trade. There will not be a grapple-focused PC build that is in any way competitive until PCs have access to that same kind of mechanic. Battlerager is a great opportunity to do that IMO.
Bolded for relevance. This, this, a thousand times this. Grappling is just not a great tactics. It's a cool niche to build into a character's repertoire, but not something you can rely on like archery or polearm fighting. There aren't enough benefits to pulling off a grapple to make up for the lack of damage. Not only does the battlerager have a collection of mediocre abilities, but it's also built around a mediocre combat style. Grapplers could get A LOT more and not be anywhere close to broken thanks to the inherent limitations of the technique.
They did give PCs the ability to grapple on an attack but unfortunately it was another toy added to Battle Masters instead of sharing the love with the battlerager. Happy to see it somewhere I suppose.
Any barbarian with high enough Constitution and Dexterity will surpass this barbarian in AC, which just feels backwards for this type of barbarian. Look at that picture. That looks like plate armor, not wimpy Half-Plate.
…
the Double Bladed Scimitar can be magical, and this spiked attack can't be.
In my first response in this thread, and which I repeated in the post you're quoting, I pointed out that my main fix for the Battlerager would be clarification of how Spiked Armour, +1 interacts with spike damage; it should boost spike related features and make them magical since the armour is the weapon in this case. That was my proposed fix, my comment being that fixing the Battlerager is more about expanding the armour than changing the sub-class features themselves. This could include a "full-plate" style version of the armour (higher AC but no DEX bonus).
Otherwise the double-bladed scimitar is an odd line of attack; the Battlerager can take a stronger two-handed weapon and still deal their bonus action attack without locking themselves into a particular weapon type just to build for something similar to what they can do with any weapon they like for free.
If you want to be a damaging grappler, just take the Unarmed Fighting Style
Getting that fighting style isn't free; you're either taking a feat to get it, or multi-classing. And you seem to be forgetting that if this is an option, then nothing prevents the Battlerager from taking it, in which case they do bonus damage during the initial grapple (which the Unarmed Fighting Style doesn't).
The temporary hit points aren't awful, but they pale in comparison to every other 6th level barbarian subclass feature in the game. Berserkers get immunity to two conditions while raging. Storm Heralds get resistance to a damage type and an additional benefit dependent on their Storm Aura. Totem Warriors can grant huge buffs to themselves or allies (seeing 1 mile away and perfected darkvision, doubled carrying capacity, doubled travel pace, etc). Zealots get Indomitable once a rage, Wild Magic Barbarians can refuel spell slots or grant super guidance for 10 minutes, and Ancestral Guardians can save the puny wizard's life. This just is not good in comparison, especially if no one chooses to attack you.
You say the other options are better, but don't actually establish how, or how they're not just as (if not more) situational.
Berserkers having immunity to two conditions while raging is great… when those conditions actually come up, but the rest of the time?
A Storm Herald's Storm Aura is again nice when it's relevant, but like built in racial damage resistance it only matters when the enemies you are fighting deals that type of damage. Besides which, as with Bear Totem's extra resistances, the benefit of additional resistances on Barbarians is highly variable, as most of the time you should be in melee where most of the damage you suffer will be of the types you already resist.
Totem's 6th level boosts are pretty situational, and mostly about non-combat utility so it's hard to compare them at all, yet alone declare one is better since it depends on your campaign and group.
A Zealot's free indomitable is the only one I feel is legitimately arguable as potentially better, but remember that Barbarians already have Danger Sense for advantage on DEX saves, and Rage for advantage of STR saves, so this is mostly useful when you're forced to take another type of save.
The Wild Magic 6th level boost is fun; I'd say it's more more like a combination Bless and Guidance for just a single creature (and not on saves). It's of modest in combat benefit, and handy out of combat but not necessarily better. Being able to replenish spell slots is very useful, but again is group dependent.
I'm not saying that you can't get more mileage out another sub-class' 6th level ability, but free temporary hit points is almost always useful in combat; you can attack Recklessly whenever you want, and it enhances two basic features of being a Barbarian (durability, and reckless attack).
It actually sucks in comparison to all other barbarian subclass features of the same level. This competes with all of your other bonus actions (spiked armor attack, rage, etc), and doesn't empower any of your previous features.
None of your other bonus actions are much use if you're not in range to actually make use of them; being able to use your bonus action to actually be in range and to still use your action is going to be infinitely better in most cases.
I'm not saying it's not situational, and it partly depends on whether your campaign is prone to "every battle is in a 30 foot room" syndrome, but it's an extremely useful ability to have on Rogues and Monks for the same reasons.
And again, a lot of the other 10th level Barbarian sub-class you're comparing it to are also situational or limited. A Berserker's Intimidating Presence feature can be great for example, but it requires an investment into Charisma (or some other boost to Charisma) to be properly reliable, and an enemy has to susceptible to it. I feel like you're being extremely forgiving of the limitations of other sub-classes in a way that you're refusing to be for the Battlerager.
I never said it was the most amazing 10th level ability, but it's limited only by your ability as a player to make use of it; it enables you to switch from front-line tank to chasing down particular enemies if you want to, especially with a Barbarian's extra speed.
It's an okay feature, but in comparison to a Berserker's Retaliation, this is normally going to be worse than that, unless you have a massive horde of monsters attacking you each round.
Actually a horde isn't required; it's per hit, not per attacker. Higher level creatures tend to have multiple attacks, so you can deal multiples of the damage either way. Yes the Berserker's Retaliation is better in several ways, but it also consumes your reaction; what a Battlerager gets is simply free damage.
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I hear this a lot. "People should grapple more." You know why they don't? Because it's not as good as you think it is.
Actually it's exactly as good as I think it is; it lets you lock an enemy in place and/or move them around, that's literally what it does.
Barbarians are a classic tank class, but the role of a tank isn't just to be durable, it's to control enemies which means keeping their focus on you whether by making them attack you, or preventing them from leaving your range, and grappling is perfectly good for this purpose.
People put way, way too much emphasis on damage and damage alone, especially on these forums; but doing one extra attack's worth of damage doesn't help much if a nasty enemy runs away from you and wrecks your party's wizard. And you make it sound like you're sacrificing a whole bunch of attacks to grapple but you're not; it's one attack to initiate and that's it; you get advantage while raging, making it very reliable on a Barbarian and once they're grappled you can do as much damage as you like safe in the knowledge that the enemy won't be leaving your reach without passing that contested roll stacked in your favour. One attack to hold an elite enemy in position is fantastic value and can often be more useful than a bit of extra damage.
You're absolutely right that more people won't do it without the able to deal damage and grapple, but that's a problem with player mindsets that damage is the single most important thing in D&D when it isn't. Sure, ultimately the Battlerager isn't the grapple sub-class that's going to change everyone's minds, but it's got a small bonus to something Barbarians are actually already good at before feats etc., making it a perfectly good option if you decide to use that underused ability.
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Also the temp hit points dont stack, so when you reckless (if you have a 20 in con) you are getting 5 temp hitpoints no matter what. At level 6 I cant think of a single thing that does less than 10 points of damage in a single round against a barbarian. and you only have resistance to blg, prc, and slash dmg, any other damage type will blow through those.
The point of temporary HP is rarely to stop you from taking damage, it's to reduce the damage you take to your hit-points; don't look it at as a 5 point buffer before you take damage, look at it as 5 less damage taken per round; it adds up, especially with a Barbarian's Rage resistances meaning it's actually potentially 10 damage that you've ignored.
the unarmed fighting style does far more damage, makes sense, and is viable to barbarians (sense they can get it from a feat now).
You know a Battlerager can take that too, right? Feats aren't free though.
Dash action as a bonus action, at level 10? only while raging? really? Thats a diet third level eagle totem, literally. you could go two levels into rogue to grab some expertise in your skills and cunning section to make it better. Or just go charger so when you dash you gan make a charging great weapon master attack as a bonus action and clear 20 modifier damage if you hit.
Again, feats and multi-classing aren't free; they slow your progression in other areas (or lock you into Variant Human as a race). Multi-classing Rogue is a great option on many classes, but for a Barbarian it slows your normal Barbarian progression and hit-point gains; if you flip it the other way around, then Battlerager doesn't have to take two levels in Rogue, but apparently that's a bad thing? Also comparing with 3rd level Eagle Totem is tricky, as a lot of Barbarian 3rd level sub-class abilities are stronger than 10th level features.
Also the 14th level ability, take AT MAX (if we are counting that you have a legendary set of +3 spiked armor and that it stacks to the dmg) is 6 dmg to someone that makes a melle attack at you. Only if you are raging, not incapacitated, and wearing spiked armor. god forbid someone makes a ranged attack or force you to make a saving throw. hell the 300 hp mini boss is gonna take 9 dmg from you if they resist magical damage an wail on you with their multi attack.
That's damage they wouldn't have taken otherwise, so the complaint is what exactly? Free damage is bad? Combined with Reckless Abandon you basically get a free casting of Armor of Agathys every single round you are raging, which is going to be most of the time by 14th level.
It feels like a lot of people are just using this thread to vent, but a lot of you seem to be doing it in a way that is unfairly maligning Battlerager features while ignoring the limitations of other sub-classes you are claiming are superior; you can't give leeway to one and not another.
And to be clear, I'm not (never have and never will be) arguing that the Battlerager is the "best" Barbarian sub-class, it may even be the "worst" (though that's still highly subjective, situational and relative). Ultimately Barbarian is a solid class in its own right without any sub-class abilities added on top, so "worst" in this case is incredibly hard to define, and it doesn't necessarily mean that the Battlerager is in any way broken or unusable.
Also I seem to be the only one who's actually suggested any kind of change (sorry anyone I've missed). The majority here just seem to be ranting about how much they hate the sub-class which is frankly pointless; unlike Barbarians, raging about something won't solve anything 😝
As to why Bladesinger got updates; it's a book very heavily focused on magic, and Bladesinger is a Wizard sub-class. Very few other changes in the book directly touch on any sub-classes; Beast Master Ranger may be the only other one, and that is through added (magical) beasts not direct changes.
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Excuse me Haravikk but I started this thread to vent. And not about the power level, but about its lack of inclusion in Tasha's update. You were the one that started this "debate" by overreacting to one hyperbolic comment about the subclass's power level.
I did not create this thread to debate about how weak or not this sub is. Just read the OP and you'll know what this thread is about. Please take your crusade to protect maligned subclasses elsewhere. You seem to think there is a proper way to vent. There isn't one. Coming in here to tell us how to vent fairly is just pompous. You can just not respond next time.
Somewhere along the line this got linked to from another thread. That thread got a little off topic about the perceived relative strength of the Battlerager. I think that's how it got coopted. Sorry about that.
I think the fundamental problem is that Bladesinger has replaced Eldritch Knight as the go-to Fighter/Wizard hybrid class option. Meanwhile, Battlerager is... kind of replaced with Forge Cleric as the iconic dwarf class of 5e. And Forge Clerics aren't race locked.
And Zealot actually covers a lot of the same territory as Battlerager - Zealot even fits the original flavor from the 2e Battlerager kit better than the 5e Battlerager subclass!
I think that Battlerager is being ignored simply because we have already replaced it with better, more inclusive subclasses already as well as the simple fact that the whole "requires special armor" bits were frowned upon.
Excuse me Haravikk but I started this thread to vent. And not about the power level, but about its lack of inclusion in Tasha's update. You were the one that started this "debate" by overreacting to one hyperbolic comment about the subclass's power level.
I did not create this thread to debate about how weak or not this sub is. Just read the OP and you'll know what this thread is about. Please take your crusade to protect maligned subclasses elsewhere. You seem to think there is a proper way to vent. There isn't one. Coming in here to tell us how to vent fairly is just pompous. You can just not respond next time.
Actually I started in this thread by trying to discuss how the Battlerager could have been fixed given the ways in which WotC handled other sub-classes in Tasha's Cauldron, and just got ignored and told it was "really, really bad" so I elaborated why I don't think it's that bad and why it wouldn't take much to "fix" it without having to re-publish the sub-class. I've even popped some Spiked Armor, +N items into my items homebrew.
Also as I've said Tasha's Cauldron is very, very heavily skewed towards magical sub-classes (literally all of them are magical in some way), so I don't think it was terribly surprising that the Battlerager was ignored, though they absolutely could have done it through magic items as I proposed (would have still been on theme).
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It seems like the only fixes the battlerager needs is for the DM to lift the race restriction, and offer the occasional chance for the battlerager to upgrade their armor. And with Artificers officially in the game, its even easier to do that through an npc or pc. I dont' see what the battlerager still needs.
You could say the same for all the other fixes and additions in Tasha's. They didn't need to add the racial customisation rules or officially lift racial restrictions. They didn't need to add magical tattoos, puzzles, patrons, or any of the new sub classes, feats or items. The DM could just make those changes themselves.
I think the subclass is alright but it could use some benefits to make it great. I know a lot of people hate it but personally I think it's a B. It could be an A with a few tweaks.
Make it explicit about the ways magical spiked armor can benefit the subclass beyond the obvious increase to AC.
+ hit/damage for the level 3 attack
+ damage for the grappling
+ damage for Spiked Retribution.
Fix the rare edge case where an AC can actually be lower from wearing armor (all barbarians). Probably by using whatever is higher.
Let your spikey armor attacks also be used as an action.
I'd also like to see something added to the level 10 feature. My personal favorite would be that you can move through enemy space unhindered while dashing and deal 3 damage (per 5 feet for larger creatures?) to them when dashing. Probably limit it so this damage can't be done repeatedly in the same space. Maybe dealing this damage also prevents the target from making AOOs against you while you're dashing. Just give the Battlerager something fun more than something super amazing. I love the visual of seeing a spikey dwarf running around cutting up people.
I'm less concerned with the dwarf only requirement but it should probably be removed.
I hear this a lot. "People should grapple more." You know why they don't? Because it's not as good as you think it is.
Actually it's exactly as good as I think it is; it lets you lock an enemy in place and/or move them around, that's literally what it does.
Barbarians are a classic tank class, but the role of a tank isn't just to be durable, it's to control enemies which means keeping their focus on you whether by making them attack you, or preventing them from leaving your range, and grappling is perfectly good for this purpose.
Yes, but how often do ungrappled things actually run away from you? Unless it's a rogue or a goblin, you're already giving the enemy three big incentives to stay on you
You're granting advantage, especially if you're a Battlerager. Monsters like to hit and DMs like to hit. So if you're up in something's face, you pose a tempting target even with your HP and resistances.
You can make OAs. This above all discourages enemies from just running around, and you can make it better with Sentinel if you're focused on being a tank.
If you are actually a threat, you become a priority target. When you give up all offense to be "tanky," of course the monsters will be going after the wizard because that's who's hurting them. They have every incentive to ignore you if you're not hurting them.
So if you don't grapple, you end up with two scenarios. Either monsters stay on you anyway, or they leave and expose themselves to OAs. A decent party can brutally punish the latter strategy just through good positioning. I am not saying that grapple doesn't have potential to be good control under certain circumstances. I'm saying that in most cases, it's not control that actually changes the flow of the fight - you're stopping monsters that weren't going to move and encouraging monsters to attack you when they were going to attack you anyway.
If you want to tank, there are resources like Sentinel that you can take that layer on top of attacking rather than replacing it. I'm sorry you feel damage is overrated, but dropping the enemy to 0 hp is the most effective control effect there is. And furthermore, strategies that focus on stalling and attrition make for longer, less dynamic combats. Making that your go-to-strategy for every fight gets tedious. I have tried it.
There are plenty of creatures that thrive on hit and run tactics. Vampires come to mind. They're pretty easy if you can keep them in place. Eating one AOO isn't that big a deal because they can run away and regenerate. Sentinel is a great way to keep them in place but so is grappling. It's not always the answer but it is a fantastic tool in the barbarian kit.
It's not always the answer but it is a fantastic tool in the barbarian kit.
I think part of the problem is that it is highly situational. If you have grappled in the "wrong" situation a couple of times and not in the "right" one, you're going to feel like it is a really bad idea and are less likely to do so again. By the time a situation comes up that would benefit, many players will not even think of it as they've either already dismissed it as a bad option or never used it and don't even remember that it is an option.
Yes, but how often do ungrappled things actually run away from you? Unless it's a rogue or a goblin, you're already giving the enemy three big incentives to stay on you
To be clear, I've never said a Barbarian (or Battlerager) should grapple all the time, only that I wished that they'd do it more, and that I like that Battleragers have a bonus to it, even if it's only a minor one.
Yes there are other incentives to attack a reckless attacking Barbarian, but that doesn't always mean that you're the favoured target of an enemy; you've already mentioned two examples of enemies that might try to slink away and strike elsewhere (rogue-types and goblins) but there are others, as well as plenty that will happily trade an attack of opportunity for the chance to wreck the character that's ruining the DM's plans.
Sentinel is always a great option for tanking, but again I have to point out that feats aren't free; they're either locking you into variant human as a race, or you're trading an ability score increase for it. Grappling is something you can do with advantage from 1st level for free. For the same feat cost you can also take Fighting Initiate Unarmed Fighting and double down on grappling (and unarmed fighting) if you want to, which is going to be very on brand for a battlerager (though it raises the same issue of how to get magical attacks, but if your DM rules that magic spiked armour counts for your features then it should count if you're using it as a weapon), there are quite a few fun options.
For weapon Barbarian's there's this big focus online at least on full two-handed weapons like a greataxe, greatsword or maul, but a warhammer or longsword actually doesn't do much less damage (average of 1 less vs. greataxe, or a little above 1 for the other two due to being 2d6), yet it enables you to attack one handed and take other actions like grappling which just gives you so many more options.
The ability to move things you are grappling is also something that's sadly under-utilised; sure you can always shove, but with a grapple you can trade a single attack over several turns to move someone towards a cliff edge, or hold them in the area of Hunger of Hadar etc., which are both very satisfying when you can do them. 😉
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Yes, but how often do ungrappled things actually run away from you? Unless it's a rogue or a goblin, you're already giving the enemy three big incentives to stay on you
To be clear, I've never said a Barbarian (or Battlerager) should grapple all the time, only that I wished that they'd do it more, and that I like that Battleragers have a bonus to it, even if it's only a minor one.
Yes there are other incentives to attack a reckless attacking Barbarian, but that doesn't always mean that you're the favoured target of an enemy; you've already mentioned two examples of enemies that might try to slink away and strike elsewhere (rogue-types and goblins) but there are others, as well as plenty that will happily trade an attack of opportunity for the chance to wreck the character that's ruining the DM's plans.
Sentinel is always a great option for tanking, but again I have to point out that feats aren't free; they're either locking you into variant human as a race, or you're trading an ability score increase for it. Grappling is something you can do with advantage from 1st level for free. For the same feat cost you can also take Fighting Initiate Unarmed Fighting and double down on grappling (and unarmed fighting) if you want to, which is going to be very on brand for a battlerager (though it raises the same issue of how to get magical attacks, but if your DM rules that magic spiked armour counts for your features then it should count if you're using it as a weapon), there are quite a few fun options.
The ability to move things you are grappling is also something that's sadly under-utilised; sure you can always shove, but with a grapple you can trade a single attack over several turns to move someone towards a cliff edge, or hold them in the area of Hunger of Hadar etc., which are both very satisfying when you can do them. 😉
Tasha's did introduce the Eldritch Claw Tattoo to help with unarmed strikes and it would be nice in this instance. It would use an attunement slot, but it's uncommon.
Dude other subclasses do battle rager better, considering how half of battle rages shit can be taken by grabbing a feat as another barbarian subclass, or if you like an ability it has, there is another subclass that has it and more.
3rd level, while raging can use a bonus action to attack with 1d4 after making a melee attack. you also get spike armor, which has an AC cap and cost 75 gold to replace or make (min).
Bonus action 1d4 is good, grappling is good too, but like the rest of the subclass it's restrictive in playstyles, and even while being restrictive it's not even the best of it. you have to use a versatile weapon at most, in order to make use of the entire 3rd level feature (well get into more later about that.). Wanna use any weapon that has the heavy/two-handed feature, cant if you want to use this 3rd level feature.
Yeah, feats can be expensive, but so can an entire subclass, considering if I could do either of these 3rd level features on top of an entirely different subclass. Wanna do damage on grapple, pick up that mu****in unarmed fighting style feat and take totem wolf, zealot, berserker, or beast claws and unload those attacks on them.
you want to bonus action attack with 1d4 damage (instead of bonus action frenzied attack) take any other barbarian subclass other than this one and berserker and pick up yourself a polearm fighter feat. you got an extra reaction trigger and bonus action 1d4 damage that doesn't need to be house-ruled to be magical/viable.
6th level, by now barbarians have a couple rages, two attacks, and are wicked fast. If you reckless attack, which can be used outside of raging, you get at MAX 5 temp hit points as a buffer against all attacks having an advantage against you. But watch out as this ability only works while raging, and if you don't have a 20 in con you gotta use one of your very expensive ABI's as they've been put to scale it.
let's all remember that reduction comes before resistance. So I went and filtered DND beyond monster catalog to CR 6, and chose the first one. Annis hags make three attacks with their multi-attack, and you just reckless. So these three attacks are all at advantage, and considering your AC caps at 16 she only needs to roll an 8 or higher. Since if you wanna use your 3rd level ability you cant use a shield. She has about a 35% chance of missing with her attacks, so let's halve that cause advantage (if this math is incorrect let me know) leaving us with a 17.5% chance of failure on her three attacks. Now there is no way those 5 temp hp are lasting all three attacks, so I'm going to do the math based on averages, and if she doesn't crit to given an estimate of how much damage your about to take. (the second number is if you didn't have temp HP)
If all three hit: 19 vs 21
If the two hit: 11 vs 14
If one hits: 5 vs 7
This is assuming you have a max con, now this damage isn't insane but this reduction in damage can ONLY happen when reckless attack while raging. If you didn't reckless you get no reduction. There is almost no gain, the temp hp isn't enough to validate constant reckless attacks. If you're using it every round, then yeah it's going to take away a little of the hp you're going to lose, but it's not WORTH it.
I will say playing a barbarian is all about risks, but a feature that only works when raging and using an ability that gives me an advantage AND the enemy advantage is too much. The ability doesn't even scale at higher levels until you reach level 20, or use a VERY RARE item to boost the temp hp by 1 or 2. So later on down the road when your level 15 and use reckless to get that sweet sweet 5 temp hp and an ADULT GREEN DRAGON decides to multi attack you, you're screwed.
and yes I'm doing math again. So your armor class hasn't increased at all, unless your dm lets you house rule that sweet magical armor, so let's be gracious and say you have +3 LEGENDARY armor. your armor class is now 19, and an adult green dragon has a +11 to hit, they have to roll a 7 or lower, just like the Annis hag. For the sake of the subclass, that you are a dwarf in this case.
All three: 20 vs 24
Bite: 8 vs 12
Bite+Claw: 14 vs 18
2 claws: 10 vs 12
1 Claw: 4 vs 6
2 to 4 damage nullified while raging if it doesn't crit and you have +3 armor and MAX con. Or if I'm missing something and the temp HP is that amazing, be got storm herald and you and everyone in your radius gets it as a bonus action, without the enemy getting an advantage against you. Also, it scales without you using your ABI's, so even though it starts lower, you don't need to get max CON to make it viable. As that's the only reason to raise con as a battle rager outside of gaining HP, cause unarmored defense doesn't matter to a battle rager.
OR you can go beast and choose the jaws when you rage and regain hp every round. Both of those are third level and are better than the 6th level ability. So once again if this feature is so good that you need to go to this subclass to get it, there are other subclasses that do it better, at a lower level.
Also, most 6th level subclass abilities can be used when not raging, there is only a few that you have to be raging for.
Ancestral guardians: as a reaction reduce damage taken by another creature by 2d6, perfect for this subclass which is all about that defense, scales up to 4d6, and deals damage when used.
Berserker: Immunity to two conditions, can be rare but these two conditions are also the primary ways to lose a rage. IF you are frightened and have to run away or charmed to do nothing your rage is a boutta be gone in the next round.
Zealot: one use of indomitable per rage, nuff said on that.
All 6th level features are either a buff to your rage abilities, abilities that don't need you raging, or both. Zealots is the only one that requires you to rage and use and makes the downside to an ability a little less worse. but to receive that buff YOU have to use that ability that has a downside
10th level, WHEN RAGING, you can bonus action dash. Is this even a discussion guys, a bonus action dash, only when you can rage?
Going back to totem eagle, only while raging, but they also cant have opportunity attacks against them.
If movement speed to you is such a big deal that you need to get on someone quick, take the charger feat. And the argument of precious ABI's don't work considering when you choose this subclass you need to use them to get you con to max or your 6th level ability will never get stronger.
All other 10th level abilities: 2 let you cast ritual spells which can do a lot in a campaign (ancestral and totem), 3 (including battle rager) makes their rages stronger (beast and wild magic) and battle rager is once again the weakest of those by far, Zealot lets you and allied creatures gain advantage on all attacks and saving throws and can be used outside of rage, storm herald extends the resistance of lighting/cold/fire damage to allies in their aura, and Berserker can cause an enemy to be frightened.
The bonus action dash is good, yes but how often has the need to bonus action dash been a problem that you decided to wait until level 10 to do something about it. It is such a reoccurring problem that makes this ability good, you probably have found a way to combat it by the time you reach this level. Like the charger feet to get up on someone, or magical items/spells you have others cast on you.
the 14th level ability once again requires you to be raging, that they hit you, you're wearing your armor, is within 5 feet of you, and you are not incapacitated. If any of these conditions aren't met, nothing happens.
Let's be honest, you've reached 14th level in a campaign, people know who you are and you have some enemies. They are going to get smart. Ambushes, nets, ranged weapons, reach weapons make your 14th level ability and others useless.
There is 1 ability that this subclass gets that you can use outside raging, whenever you grapple a creature they take three damage.
There are two abilities you can use without your armor, but while you are raging. Bonus action dash and reckless attacking gets 5 temp hp.
There is nothing you get from this subclass without your armor and raging.
The subclass they made for this restricted you to playing a certain way, and was reliant that you only played that way. To top it all off, after restricting you to a certain playstyle, the subclass isn't even the best at that playstyle. Nothing about it is viable.
They need to redo it, and they need to make it more open. To fully use the 3rd level abilities, you have to use a 1 handed weapon, or you one hand a versatile weapon. ok, going a grappler way is pretty good. Except that if you want to go a grappler way, other barbarian subclasses are better at it.
The armor itself has an AC cap at 16, and since you're going the grapple way, you gotta have an open hand for that bonus action attack or that action grapple. so no shield. There is no way to buff the armor without the house ruling it.
The subclass adds nothing new and nothing unique without being weak, useless, or unscalable. They wanna make a rough and tumble dwarf that gets his stubby little ass in the thick of battle and stops cowards from running away.
1. Take away the armor, I understand he's a dwarf, and dwarfs love craft but you don't need crappy armor to put that across.
Dwarven brawling. You are apt at fighting outnumbered and against bigger foes. Shove and grapple people as a bonus action while raging. In addition, whenever you attack with a Str based weapon, you can use a bonus action to make an attack with that weapon, though you only do 1d4 damage with this attack.
allows players to stick with two-handed weapons if they want, or get wrassling. Compliments both, and if they want to make it WWE they just pick up the grappler feet next level, and it's fun times. Also, enemies cant outrun you if they are crawling.
2. 6th level, Stand against the horde. Attacking en masse is typical of goblins and orcs, too bad you like it that way. At the start of your turns while you are raging, you gain temporary HP equal to the number of hostile creatures within 5 feet of you.
Makes sense from a dwarvish perspective, rewards you for getting in there, doesn't rely on you buffing a stat, and doesn't force you to use an ability with a downside.
3. 10th level. Stubborn Kindness. Your allies can be weak, slow, or dare say it ELVES, that's why you need to be there to help them and get the job done quick, else they muck it up for you. While Raging your speed is doubled.
4. 14th level, Unyielding Grudge. Your spite is never-ending, and your grudges last even longer. You need to see your enemies defeated before you, and won't stop until that happens. While raging, if you are reduced to zero hit points or reduce another creature to zero hit points, you may spend one of your hit die to regain hit points.
Thats my way of making the subclass better and more like dwarves without being hella restrictive, useless, and weak. Lemme know if you think it can be balanced better.
Just going to point out that it's not a house rule to give magical spiked armor. It's medium armor and qualifies for anything that specifies medium armor as an option. For example:
Armor, +1, +2, or +3
Armor (light, medium, or heavy), rare (+1), very rare (+2), or legendary (+3)
You have a bonus to AC while wearing this armor. The bonus is determined by its rarity.
Bolded for relevance. This, this, a thousand times this. Grappling is just not a great tactics. It's a cool niche to build into a character's repertoire, but not something you can rely on like archery or polearm fighting. There aren't enough benefits to pulling off a grapple to make up for the lack of damage. Not only does the battlerager have a collection of mediocre abilities, but it's also built around a mediocre combat style. Grapplers could get A LOT more and not be anywhere close to broken thanks to the inherent limitations of the technique.
They did give PCs the ability to grapple on an attack but unfortunately it was another toy added to Battle Masters instead of sharing the love with the battlerager. Happy to see it somewhere I suppose.
In my first response in this thread, and which I repeated in the post you're quoting, I pointed out that my main fix for the Battlerager would be clarification of how Spiked Armour, +1 interacts with spike damage; it should boost spike related features and make them magical since the armour is the weapon in this case. That was my proposed fix, my comment being that fixing the Battlerager is more about expanding the armour than changing the sub-class features themselves. This could include a "full-plate" style version of the armour (higher AC but no DEX bonus).
Otherwise the double-bladed scimitar is an odd line of attack; the Battlerager can take a stronger two-handed weapon and still deal their bonus action attack without locking themselves into a particular weapon type just to build for something similar to what they can do with any weapon they like for free.
Getting that fighting style isn't free; you're either taking a feat to get it, or multi-classing. And you seem to be forgetting that if this is an option, then nothing prevents the Battlerager from taking it, in which case they do bonus damage during the initial grapple (which the Unarmed Fighting Style doesn't).
As for the damage scaling, see above.
You say the other options are better, but don't actually establish how, or how they're not just as (if not more) situational.
I'm not saying that you can't get more mileage out another sub-class' 6th level ability, but free temporary hit points is almost always useful in combat; you can attack Recklessly whenever you want, and it enhances two basic features of being a Barbarian (durability, and reckless attack).
None of your other bonus actions are much use if you're not in range to actually make use of them; being able to use your bonus action to actually be in range and to still use your action is going to be infinitely better in most cases.
I'm not saying it's not situational, and it partly depends on whether your campaign is prone to "every battle is in a 30 foot room" syndrome, but it's an extremely useful ability to have on Rogues and Monks for the same reasons.
And again, a lot of the other 10th level Barbarian sub-class you're comparing it to are also situational or limited. A Berserker's Intimidating Presence feature can be great for example, but it requires an investment into Charisma (or some other boost to Charisma) to be properly reliable, and an enemy has to susceptible to it. I feel like you're being extremely forgiving of the limitations of other sub-classes in a way that you're refusing to be for the Battlerager.
I never said it was the most amazing 10th level ability, but it's limited only by your ability as a player to make use of it; it enables you to switch from front-line tank to chasing down particular enemies if you want to, especially with a Barbarian's extra speed.
If enemies aren't attacking your Barbarian then as a party's tank you have far bigger problems than not getting to do your extra damage. 😝
Actually a horde isn't required; it's per hit, not per attacker. Higher level creatures tend to have multiple attacks, so you can deal multiples of the damage either way. Yes the Berserker's Retaliation is better in several ways, but it also consumes your reaction; what a Battlerager gets is simply free damage.
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Actually it's exactly as good as I think it is; it lets you lock an enemy in place and/or move them around, that's literally what it does.
Barbarians are a classic tank class, but the role of a tank isn't just to be durable, it's to control enemies which means keeping their focus on you whether by making them attack you, or preventing them from leaving your range, and grappling is perfectly good for this purpose.
People put way, way too much emphasis on damage and damage alone, especially on these forums; but doing one extra attack's worth of damage doesn't help much if a nasty enemy runs away from you and wrecks your party's wizard. And you make it sound like you're sacrificing a whole bunch of attacks to grapple but you're not; it's one attack to initiate and that's it; you get advantage while raging, making it very reliable on a Barbarian and once they're grappled you can do as much damage as you like safe in the knowledge that the enemy won't be leaving your reach without passing that contested roll stacked in your favour. One attack to hold an elite enemy in position is fantastic value and can often be more useful than a bit of extra damage.
You're absolutely right that more people won't do it without the able to deal damage and grapple, but that's a problem with player mindsets that damage is the single most important thing in D&D when it isn't. Sure, ultimately the Battlerager isn't the grapple sub-class that's going to change everyone's minds, but it's got a small bonus to something Barbarians are actually already good at before feats etc., making it a perfectly good option if you decide to use that underused ability.
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The point of temporary HP is rarely to stop you from taking damage, it's to reduce the damage you take to your hit-points; don't look it at as a 5 point buffer before you take damage, look at it as 5 less damage taken per round; it adds up, especially with a Barbarian's Rage resistances meaning it's actually potentially 10 damage that you've ignored.
You know a Battlerager can take that too, right? Feats aren't free though.
Again, feats and multi-classing aren't free; they slow your progression in other areas (or lock you into Variant Human as a race). Multi-classing Rogue is a great option on many classes, but for a Barbarian it slows your normal Barbarian progression and hit-point gains; if you flip it the other way around, then Battlerager doesn't have to take two levels in Rogue, but apparently that's a bad thing? Also comparing with 3rd level Eagle Totem is tricky, as a lot of Barbarian 3rd level sub-class abilities are stronger than 10th level features.
That's damage they wouldn't have taken otherwise, so the complaint is what exactly? Free damage is bad? Combined with Reckless Abandon you basically get a free casting of Armor of Agathys every single round you are raging, which is going to be most of the time by 14th level.
It feels like a lot of people are just using this thread to vent, but a lot of you seem to be doing it in a way that is unfairly maligning Battlerager features while ignoring the limitations of other sub-classes you are claiming are superior; you can't give leeway to one and not another.
And to be clear, I'm not (never have and never will be) arguing that the Battlerager is the "best" Barbarian sub-class, it may even be the "worst" (though that's still highly subjective, situational and relative). Ultimately Barbarian is a solid class in its own right without any sub-class abilities added on top, so "worst" in this case is incredibly hard to define, and it doesn't necessarily mean that the Battlerager is in any way broken or unusable.
Also I seem to be the only one who's actually suggested any kind of change (sorry anyone I've missed). The majority here just seem to be ranting about how much they hate the sub-class which is frankly pointless; unlike Barbarians, raging about something won't solve anything 😝
As to why Bladesinger got updates; it's a book very heavily focused on magic, and Bladesinger is a Wizard sub-class. Very few other changes in the book directly touch on any sub-classes; Beast Master Ranger may be the only other one, and that is through added (magical) beasts not direct changes.
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Excuse me Haravikk but I started this thread to vent. And not about the power level, but about its lack of inclusion in Tasha's update. You were the one that started this "debate" by overreacting to one hyperbolic comment about the subclass's power level.
I did not create this thread to debate about how weak or not this sub is. Just read the OP and you'll know what this thread is about. Please take your crusade to protect maligned subclasses elsewhere. You seem to think there is a proper way to vent. There isn't one. Coming in here to tell us how to vent fairly is just pompous. You can just not respond next time.
Somewhere along the line this got linked to from another thread. That thread got a little off topic about the perceived relative strength of the Battlerager. I think that's how it got coopted. Sorry about that.
I think the fundamental problem is that Bladesinger has replaced Eldritch Knight as the go-to Fighter/Wizard hybrid class option. Meanwhile, Battlerager is... kind of replaced with Forge Cleric as the iconic dwarf class of 5e. And Forge Clerics aren't race locked.
And Zealot actually covers a lot of the same territory as Battlerager - Zealot even fits the original flavor from the 2e Battlerager kit better than the 5e Battlerager subclass!
I think that Battlerager is being ignored simply because we have already replaced it with better, more inclusive subclasses already as well as the simple fact that the whole "requires special armor" bits were frowned upon.
Actually I started in this thread by trying to discuss how the Battlerager could have been fixed given the ways in which WotC handled other sub-classes in Tasha's Cauldron, and just got ignored and told it was "really, really bad" so I elaborated why I don't think it's that bad and why it wouldn't take much to "fix" it without having to re-publish the sub-class. I've even popped some Spiked Armor, +N items into my items homebrew.
Also as I've said Tasha's Cauldron is very, very heavily skewed towards magical sub-classes (literally all of them are magical in some way), so I don't think it was terribly surprising that the Battlerager was ignored, though they absolutely could have done it through magic items as I proposed (would have still been on theme).
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It seems like the only fixes the battlerager needs is for the DM to lift the race restriction, and offer the occasional chance for the battlerager to upgrade their armor. And with Artificers officially in the game, its even easier to do that through an npc or pc. I dont' see what the battlerager still needs.
You could say the same for all the other fixes and additions in Tasha's. They didn't need to add the racial customisation rules or officially lift racial restrictions. They didn't need to add magical tattoos, puzzles, patrons, or any of the new sub classes, feats or items. The DM could just make those changes themselves.
I think the subclass is alright but it could use some benefits to make it great. I know a lot of people hate it but personally I think it's a B. It could be an A with a few tweaks.
I'm less concerned with the dwarf only requirement but it should probably be removed.
Yeah, re-stating that the existing rule that battle-ragers can be any race at the DM's discretion is the same as adding entirely new content. /s
At least with the things that were brought back up, there were real changes made, like with Blade-singers.
Yes, but how often do ungrappled things actually run away from you? Unless it's a rogue or a goblin, you're already giving the enemy three big incentives to stay on you
So if you don't grapple, you end up with two scenarios. Either monsters stay on you anyway, or they leave and expose themselves to OAs. A decent party can brutally punish the latter strategy just through good positioning. I am not saying that grapple doesn't have potential to be good control under certain circumstances. I'm saying that in most cases, it's not control that actually changes the flow of the fight - you're stopping monsters that weren't going to move and encouraging monsters to attack you when they were going to attack you anyway.
If you want to tank, there are resources like Sentinel that you can take that layer on top of attacking rather than replacing it. I'm sorry you feel damage is overrated, but dropping the enemy to 0 hp is the most effective control effect there is. And furthermore, strategies that focus on stalling and attrition make for longer, less dynamic combats. Making that your go-to-strategy for every fight gets tedious. I have tried it.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
There are plenty of creatures that thrive on hit and run tactics. Vampires come to mind. They're pretty easy if you can keep them in place. Eating one AOO isn't that big a deal because they can run away and regenerate. Sentinel is a great way to keep them in place but so is grappling. It's not always the answer but it is a fantastic tool in the barbarian kit.
I hadn't seen the "DM's discretion" bit. That's fair enough, then.
I think part of the problem is that it is highly situational. If you have grappled in the "wrong" situation a couple of times and not in the "right" one, you're going to feel like it is a really bad idea and are less likely to do so again. By the time a situation comes up that would benefit, many players will not even think of it as they've either already dismissed it as a bad option or never used it and don't even remember that it is an option.
To be clear, I've never said a Barbarian (or Battlerager) should grapple all the time, only that I wished that they'd do it more, and that I like that Battleragers have a bonus to it, even if it's only a minor one.
Yes there are other incentives to attack a reckless attacking Barbarian, but that doesn't always mean that you're the favoured target of an enemy; you've already mentioned two examples of enemies that might try to slink away and strike elsewhere (rogue-types and goblins) but there are others, as well as plenty that will happily trade an attack of opportunity for the chance to wreck the character that's ruining the DM's plans.
Sentinel is always a great option for tanking, but again I have to point out that feats aren't free; they're either locking you into variant human as a race, or you're trading an ability score increase for it. Grappling is something you can do with advantage from 1st level for free. For the same feat cost you can also take Fighting Initiate Unarmed Fighting and double down on grappling (and unarmed fighting) if you want to, which is going to be very on brand for a battlerager (though it raises the same issue of how to get magical attacks, but if your DM rules that magic spiked armour counts for your features then it should count if you're using it as a weapon), there are quite a few fun options.
For weapon Barbarian's there's this big focus online at least on full two-handed weapons like a greataxe, greatsword or maul, but a warhammer or longsword actually doesn't do much less damage (average of 1 less vs. greataxe, or a little above 1 for the other two due to being 2d6), yet it enables you to attack one handed and take other actions like grappling which just gives you so many more options.
The ability to move things you are grappling is also something that's sadly under-utilised; sure you can always shove, but with a grapple you can trade a single attack over several turns to move someone towards a cliff edge, or hold them in the area of Hunger of Hadar etc., which are both very satisfying when you can do them. 😉
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Tasha's did introduce the Eldritch Claw Tattoo to help with unarmed strikes and it would be nice in this instance. It would use an attunement slot, but it's uncommon.
Dude other subclasses do battle rager better, considering how half of battle rages shit can be taken by grabbing a feat as another barbarian subclass, or if you like an ability it has, there is another subclass that has it and more.
3rd level, while raging can use a bonus action to attack with 1d4 after making a melee attack. you also get spike armor, which has an AC cap and cost 75 gold to replace or make (min).
Bonus action 1d4 is good, grappling is good too, but like the rest of the subclass it's restrictive in playstyles, and even while being restrictive it's not even the best of it. you have to use a versatile weapon at most, in order to make use of the entire 3rd level feature (well get into more later about that.). Wanna use any weapon that has the heavy/two-handed feature, cant if you want to use this 3rd level feature.
Yeah, feats can be expensive, but so can an entire subclass, considering if I could do either of these 3rd level features on top of an entirely different subclass. Wanna do damage on grapple, pick up that mu****in unarmed fighting style feat and take totem wolf, zealot, berserker, or beast claws and unload those attacks on them.
you want to bonus action attack with 1d4 damage (instead of bonus action frenzied attack) take any other barbarian subclass other than this one and berserker and pick up yourself a polearm fighter feat. you got an extra reaction trigger and bonus action 1d4 damage that doesn't need to be house-ruled to be magical/viable.
6th level, by now barbarians have a couple rages, two attacks, and are wicked fast. If you reckless attack, which can be used outside of raging, you get at MAX 5 temp hit points as a buffer against all attacks having an advantage against you. But watch out as this ability only works while raging, and if you don't have a 20 in con you gotta use one of your very expensive ABI's as they've been put to scale it.
let's all remember that reduction comes before resistance. So I went and filtered DND beyond monster catalog to CR 6, and chose the first one. Annis hags make three attacks with their multi-attack, and you just reckless. So these three attacks are all at advantage, and considering your AC caps at 16 she only needs to roll an 8 or higher. Since if you wanna use your 3rd level ability you cant use a shield. She has about a 35% chance of missing with her attacks, so let's halve that cause advantage (if this math is incorrect let me know) leaving us with a 17.5% chance of failure on her three attacks. Now there is no way those 5 temp hp are lasting all three attacks, so I'm going to do the math based on averages, and if she doesn't crit to given an estimate of how much damage your about to take. (the second number is if you didn't have temp HP)
If all three hit: 19 vs 21
If the two hit: 11 vs 14
If one hits: 5 vs 7
This is assuming you have a max con, now this damage isn't insane but this reduction in damage can ONLY happen when reckless attack while raging. If you didn't reckless you get no reduction. There is almost no gain, the temp hp isn't enough to validate constant reckless attacks. If you're using it every round, then yeah it's going to take away a little of the hp you're going to lose, but it's not WORTH it.
I will say playing a barbarian is all about risks, but a feature that only works when raging and using an ability that gives me an advantage AND the enemy advantage is too much. The ability doesn't even scale at higher levels until you reach level 20, or use a VERY RARE item to boost the temp hp by 1 or 2. So later on down the road when your level 15 and use reckless to get that sweet sweet 5 temp hp and an ADULT GREEN DRAGON decides to multi attack you, you're screwed.
and yes I'm doing math again. So your armor class hasn't increased at all, unless your dm lets you house rule that sweet magical armor, so let's be gracious and say you have +3 LEGENDARY armor. your armor class is now 19, and an adult green dragon has a +11 to hit, they have to roll a 7 or lower, just like the Annis hag. For the sake of the subclass, that you are a dwarf in this case.
All three: 20 vs 24
Bite: 8 vs 12
Bite+Claw: 14 vs 18
2 claws: 10 vs 12
1 Claw: 4 vs 6
2 to 4 damage nullified while raging if it doesn't crit and you have +3 armor and MAX con. Or if I'm missing something and the temp HP is that amazing, be got storm herald and you and everyone in your radius gets it as a bonus action, without the enemy getting an advantage against you. Also, it scales without you using your ABI's, so even though it starts lower, you don't need to get max CON to make it viable. As that's the only reason to raise con as a battle rager outside of gaining HP, cause unarmored defense doesn't matter to a battle rager.
OR you can go beast and choose the jaws when you rage and regain hp every round. Both of those are third level and are better than the 6th level ability. So once again if this feature is so good that you need to go to this subclass to get it, there are other subclasses that do it better, at a lower level.
Also, most 6th level subclass abilities can be used when not raging, there is only a few that you have to be raging for.
Ancestral guardians: as a reaction reduce damage taken by another creature by 2d6, perfect for this subclass which is all about that defense, scales up to 4d6, and deals damage when used.
Berserker: Immunity to two conditions, can be rare but these two conditions are also the primary ways to lose a rage. IF you are frightened and have to run away or charmed to do nothing your rage is a boutta be gone in the next round.
Zealot: one use of indomitable per rage, nuff said on that.
All 6th level features are either a buff to your rage abilities, abilities that don't need you raging, or both. Zealots is the only one that requires you to rage and use and makes the downside to an ability a little less worse. but to receive that buff YOU have to use that ability that has a downside
10th level, WHEN RAGING, you can bonus action dash. Is this even a discussion guys, a bonus action dash, only when you can rage?
Going back to totem eagle, only while raging, but they also cant have opportunity attacks against them.
If movement speed to you is such a big deal that you need to get on someone quick, take the charger feat. And the argument of precious ABI's don't work considering when you choose this subclass you need to use them to get you con to max or your 6th level ability will never get stronger.
All other 10th level abilities: 2 let you cast ritual spells which can do a lot in a campaign (ancestral and totem), 3 (including battle rager) makes their rages stronger (beast and wild magic) and battle rager is once again the weakest of those by far, Zealot lets you and allied creatures gain advantage on all attacks and saving throws and can be used outside of rage, storm herald extends the resistance of lighting/cold/fire damage to allies in their aura, and Berserker can cause an enemy to be frightened.
The bonus action dash is good, yes but how often has the need to bonus action dash been a problem that you decided to wait until level 10 to do something about it. It is such a reoccurring problem that makes this ability good, you probably have found a way to combat it by the time you reach this level. Like the charger feet to get up on someone, or magical items/spells you have others cast on you.
the 14th level ability once again requires you to be raging, that they hit you, you're wearing your armor, is within 5 feet of you, and you are not incapacitated. If any of these conditions aren't met, nothing happens.
Let's be honest, you've reached 14th level in a campaign, people know who you are and you have some enemies. They are going to get smart. Ambushes, nets, ranged weapons, reach weapons make your 14th level ability and others useless.
There is 1 ability that this subclass gets that you can use outside raging, whenever you grapple a creature they take three damage.
There are two abilities you can use without your armor, but while you are raging. Bonus action dash and reckless attacking gets 5 temp hp.
There is nothing you get from this subclass without your armor and raging.
The subclass they made for this restricted you to playing a certain way, and was reliant that you only played that way. To top it all off, after restricting you to a certain playstyle, the subclass isn't even the best at that playstyle. Nothing about it is viable.
They need to redo it, and they need to make it more open. To fully use the 3rd level abilities, you have to use a 1 handed weapon, or you one hand a versatile weapon. ok, going a grappler way is pretty good. Except that if you want to go a grappler way, other barbarian subclasses are better at it.
The armor itself has an AC cap at 16, and since you're going the grapple way, you gotta have an open hand for that bonus action attack or that action grapple. so no shield. There is no way to buff the armor without the house ruling it.
The subclass adds nothing new and nothing unique without being weak, useless, or unscalable. They wanna make a rough and tumble dwarf that gets his stubby little ass in the thick of battle and stops cowards from running away.
1. Take away the armor, I understand he's a dwarf, and dwarfs love craft but you don't need crappy armor to put that across.
Dwarven brawling. You are apt at fighting outnumbered and against bigger foes. Shove and grapple people as a bonus action while raging. In addition, whenever you attack with a Str based weapon, you can use a bonus action to make an attack with that weapon, though you only do 1d4 damage with this attack.
allows players to stick with two-handed weapons if they want, or get wrassling. Compliments both, and if they want to make it WWE they just pick up the grappler feet next level, and it's fun times. Also, enemies cant outrun you if they are crawling.
2. 6th level, Stand against the horde. Attacking en masse is typical of goblins and orcs, too bad you like it that way. At the start of your turns while you are raging, you gain temporary HP equal to the number of hostile creatures within 5 feet of you.
Makes sense from a dwarvish perspective, rewards you for getting in there, doesn't rely on you buffing a stat, and doesn't force you to use an ability with a downside.
3. 10th level. Stubborn Kindness. Your allies can be weak, slow, or dare say it ELVES, that's why you need to be there to help them and get the job done quick, else they muck it up for you. While Raging your speed is doubled.
4. 14th level, Unyielding Grudge. Your spite is never-ending, and your grudges last even longer. You need to see your enemies defeated before you, and won't stop until that happens. While raging, if you are reduced to zero hit points or reduce another creature to zero hit points, you may spend one of your hit die to regain hit points.
Thats my way of making the subclass better and more like dwarves without being hella restrictive, useless, and weak. Lemme know if you think it can be balanced better.
Just going to point out that it's not a house rule to give magical spiked armor. It's medium armor and qualifies for anything that specifies medium armor as an option. For example:
Armor, +1, +2, or +3
Armor (light, medium, or heavy), rare (+1), very rare (+2), or legendary (+3)
You have a bonus to AC while wearing this armor. The bonus is determined by its rarity.