I am making a Lizardfolk Path of the Beast Barbarian and I am thinking of picking a magic item that leans into their mobility. I know the obvious choice for mobility magic items are the Winged Boots, but they just seem way to powerful to me for their rarity and I don't want to do that to the table I am playing at.
So instead I am considering either Gloves of Swimming and Climbing or Slippers of Spider Climbing to add verticality to my movement. The Slippers of Spider Climbing seem to be the better option because it explicitly grants a climb speed and enables walking on ceilings, but have the drawback of not working on slippery surfaces. Gloves of Swimming and Climbing on the other hand always work and while they don't grant an explicit climb speed, they do remove the penalty to movement for climbing. My character has expertise in Athletics to feed into Path of the Beasts jumping ability so as long as an attempted climb is allowed I am confident I will be passing the Athletics check called for.
I am also considering Boots of Striding and Springing and capitalizing on Path of the Beasts climbing ability instead, but it is the climbing oriented magical items I am having trouble deciding on if I go that route.
For a Barbarian? Boots of Striding and Springing. Climbing features are mostly useful for a ranged attacker, who can take up a sniping position outside of combat... for a Barbarian, they're mostly useful for chasing after enemies who can also climb. The boots, however, also boost your horizontal movement options, since you can leap gaps, hop over difficult terrain, and still jump to catch enemies out of range. If you've already got expertise in Athletics, the +5 for Athleics checks from the glove is largely pointless... if you've already got expertise plus advantage for Rage, the +5 is really only good for showing off by rolling a super-duper big number, when a regular old super big number would have still accomplished the same thing.
For a Barbarian? Boots of Striding and Springing. Climbing features are mostly useful for a ranged attacker, who can take up a sniping position outside of combat... for a Barbarian, they're mostly useful for chasing after enemies who can also climb. The boots, however, also boost your horizontal movement options, since you can leap gaps, hop over difficult terrain, and still jump to catch enemies out of range. If you've already got expertise in Athletics, the +5 for Athleics checks from the glove is largely pointless... if you've already got expertise plus advantage for Rage, the +5 is really only good for showing off by rolling a super-duper big number, when a regular old super big number would have still accomplished the same thing.
Yeah, this is probably the best way to go. And to me the benefit of the gloves is being able to climb without a penalty to my movement, because yeah, the +5 is an over investment into athletics.
I was looking at climbing options because I figured they would be more useful in exploration outside of combat. In combat I could potentially grapple and then climb up to set up a fall, but this might also be accomplished by jumping with the grappled creature. Though jumping and falling is already an intersection of the rules that is debatable as to how to handle it and adding a grappled creature along for the ride probably further complicates it.
Unless it's a sea-based campaign where swimming is most likely to often occur, i would go with Slippers of Spider Climbing as they grant climbing speed and let you move across walls and ceilings, while leaving your hands free to wield weapons, shields etc.
Uncommon items for a barbarian...hmmmm. How about the Coiling Grasp Tattoo? Or Gauntlets of ogre power? Or if you're really interested in movement items, winged boots?
I feel like the BoSS are pretty useless for a Barbarian too. You already have 30 feet of movement speed (which will be 40 at level 5), you will (or should) never wear heavy armor, and you should never be encumbered (assuming you even use that mechanic) as Str should be your primary stat. All you get out of that is a tripled jump distance that cannot be more than the speed you have left, which is going to come up almost never.
I find that interesting because I often see Boots of Striding and Springing among lists of best Uncommon Magic Items for a Barbarian... I wonder how much of that is based on them being mechanically useful, and how much people just like that it lets you Hulk-Jump in front of people.
I feel like the BoSS are pretty useless for a Barbarian too. You already have 30 feet of movement speed (which will be 40 at level 5), you will (or should) never wear heavy armor, and you should never be encumbered (assuming you even use that mechanic) as Str should be your primary stat. All you get out of that is a tripled jump distance that cannot be more than the speed you have left, which is going to come up almost never.
I find that interesting because I often see Boots of Striding and Springing among lists of best Uncommon Magic Items for a Barbarian... I wonder how much of that is based on them being mechanically useful, and how much people just like that it lets you Hulk-Jump in front of people.
I mean, being able to running long jump 60ft is pretty nice. It means you can clear 15ft vertically when long jumping and avoid hazards or even opportunity attacks from enemies between you and your destination. RAW the height you can clear is 1/4 the distance you jump, so you would have to dash to actually jump 60ft and clear a 15ft obstacle. But a more lenient or realistic DM might allow you to clear a 15ft obstacle with a shorter long jump as physics-wise it is strictly an easier jump to make.
Really though it is tripling the high jump that I feel is the biggest mechanical benefit. Even with a maxed Strength your running high jump is 24 feet, so well within a Barbarian's normal movement. Exactly how useful will depend on the environment and the DM of course, but Orym from Critical Role has certainly been getting mileage out of it.
For my particular build though BoSS has one benefit the other mobility items I have been considering doesn't have. BoSS stacks with the Bestial Soul movement option that is similar to it, rather than competing with it. I would probably only stack them though when I know I am going to face a flying creature and go with the Bestial Soul climbing option the rest of the time.
The mobility items I've mentioned so far are not the only magical items I am considering, they are just the ones I was looking for an outside perspective on.
For defense Cloak of Protection is the best choice, and likely the best choice overall. With it my unarmored AC is 17 and I am looking at multicasting into Monk later on. The bonus to saves of course is just great.
I am making a character and get to start with one uncommon magic item and I was curious what peoples thoughts were regarding Gloves of Swimming and Climbing and Slippers of Spider Climbing?
I am making a Lizardfolk Path of the Beast Barbarian and I am thinking of picking a magic item that leans into their mobility. I know the obvious choice for mobility magic items are the Winged Boots, but they just seem way to powerful to me for their rarity and I don't want to do that to the table I am playing at.
So instead I am considering either Gloves of Swimming and Climbing or Slippers of Spider Climbing to add verticality to my movement. The Slippers of Spider Climbing seem to be the better option because it explicitly grants a climb speed and enables walking on ceilings, but have the drawback of not working on slippery surfaces. Gloves of Swimming and Climbing on the other hand always work and while they don't grant an explicit climb speed, they do remove the penalty to movement for climbing. My character has expertise in Athletics to feed into Path of the Beasts jumping ability so as long as an attempted climb is allowed I am confident I will be passing the Athletics check called for.
I am also considering Boots of Striding and Springing and capitalizing on Path of the Beasts climbing ability instead, but it is the climbing oriented magical items I am having trouble deciding on if I go that route.
For a Barbarian? Boots of Striding and Springing. Climbing features are mostly useful for a ranged attacker, who can take up a sniping position outside of combat... for a Barbarian, they're mostly useful for chasing after enemies who can also climb. The boots, however, also boost your horizontal movement options, since you can leap gaps, hop over difficult terrain, and still jump to catch enemies out of range. If you've already got expertise in Athletics, the +5 for Athleics checks from the glove is largely pointless... if you've already got expertise plus advantage for Rage, the +5 is really only good for showing off by rolling a super-duper big number, when a regular old super big number would have still accomplished the same thing.
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Yeah, this is probably the best way to go. And to me the benefit of the gloves is being able to climb without a penalty to my movement, because yeah, the +5 is an over investment into athletics.
I was looking at climbing options because I figured they would be more useful in exploration outside of combat. In combat I could potentially grapple and then climb up to set up a fall, but this might also be accomplished by jumping with the grappled creature. Though jumping and falling is already an intersection of the rules that is debatable as to how to handle it and adding a grappled creature along for the ride probably further complicates it.
Unless it's a sea-based campaign where swimming is most likely to often occur, i would go with Slippers of Spider Climbing as they grant climbing speed and let you move across walls and ceilings, while leaving your hands free to wield weapons, shields etc.
I would go with the slippers. They don't require a skill check
Uncommon items for a barbarian...hmmmm. How about the Coiling Grasp Tattoo? Or Gauntlets of ogre power? Or if you're really interested in movement items, winged boots?
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I find that interesting because I often see Boots of Striding and Springing among lists of best Uncommon Magic Items for a Barbarian... I wonder how much of that is based on them being mechanically useful, and how much people just like that it lets you Hulk-Jump in front of people.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
I mean, being able to running long jump 60ft is pretty nice. It means you can clear 15ft vertically when long jumping and avoid hazards or even opportunity attacks from enemies between you and your destination. RAW the height you can clear is 1/4 the distance you jump, so you would have to dash to actually jump 60ft and clear a 15ft obstacle. But a more lenient or realistic DM might allow you to clear a 15ft obstacle with a shorter long jump as physics-wise it is strictly an easier jump to make.
Really though it is tripling the high jump that I feel is the biggest mechanical benefit. Even with a maxed Strength your running high jump is 24 feet, so well within a Barbarian's normal movement. Exactly how useful will depend on the environment and the DM of course, but Orym from Critical Role has certainly been getting mileage out of it.
For my particular build though BoSS has one benefit the other mobility items I have been considering doesn't have. BoSS stacks with the Bestial Soul movement option that is similar to it, rather than competing with it. I would probably only stack them though when I know I am going to face a flying creature and go with the Bestial Soul climbing option the rest of the time.
The mobility items I've mentioned so far are not the only magical items I am considering, they are just the ones I was looking for an outside perspective on.
For defense Cloak of Protection is the best choice, and likely the best choice overall. With it my unarmored AC is 17 and I am looking at multicasting into Monk later on. The bonus to saves of course is just great.
For offense I am looking at Eldritch Claw Tattoo but the Javelin of Lightning is really tempting.
Then of course there is everyone's favorite magic item, the Bag of Holding.
I hadn't looked that closely at Periapt of Wound Closure but the doubling of hit dice healing is really strong for Barbarian.