Path of the Knuckle Sandwich

In a universe where a band of wizards discovered that every living thing has a life essence and this life essence can be manipulated, the barbarians learned to infuse their life essence with rage. The Path of the Knuckle Sandwich barbarian has levels of rage never seen before, and has even learned to manipulate life essence in a way that causes others to go into a rage as well.

Hit Die Pool

You have learned to harness your own life essence to power certain features and abilities. Your life essence is represented by your Barbarian hit dice and your hit point maximum at any given time. You have a number of Barbarian hit dice equal to your class level and you can recover a number of them equal to one half your class level when you finish a long rest.

Rampage

Harnessing the power of your own life essence has allowed you to unlock higher limits of your rage. You gain access to 5 additional stages of rage. As a bonus action while raged, you can expend a number of Barbarian hit dice to enter the next stage of rage.

The stage of rage you enter determines the number of Barbarian hit dice you must expend as shown in the Rampage table. Your stage of rage also determines the number of times you add your Strength modifer (Multiplier) to all of your Strength checks and saving throws, and damage rolls for attacks that use Strength; extra attacks (Attacks) you can make when you take the attack action; and the damage of your unarmed strikes as shown in the "Rampage Table."

When you enter a deeper stage of rage, you continue to follow the rules of each previous stage of rage.

Rampage Table

Stage of Rage	Hit Dice	Multiplier	Attacks	Damage
1st	0	1	0
2nd	2	2	0
3rd	3	2	1	1d8
4th	4	3	1	1d8
5th	5	3	1	2d8
6th	6	4	2	3d8

While raging at 2nd stage:

• You lose the cognitive ability to use your off-hand as anything other than to hold onto the weapon in your main hand if it can be held with 2 hands.

If you are holding an object in your off-hand when you enter this stage of rage, you must make a ranged attack against an enemy creature with the object as part of the same bonus action. Objects and weapons that do not have the thrown property are treated as improvised weapons for this attack.

While raging at 3rd stage:

• Your unarmed strikes become magic for the purpose of overcoming resistances
• You lose the cognitive ability to use your hands as anything other than fists for punching.

If you are holding an object when you enter this stage of rage, you must make a ranged attack against an enemy creature with the object as part of the same bonus action. Objects and weapons that do not have the thrown property are treated as improvised weapons for this attack.

While raging at 4th stage:

• Rough terrain does not cost you any extra movement
• You have disadvantage on all Wisdom checks and saving throws

 

While raging at 5th stage:

• When a creature within 5 feet of you hits you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction to make 1 unarmed strike against the attacking creature
• You cannot be charmed
• You have disadvantage on all Intelligence checks and saving throws
• You are vulnerable to psychic damage
• You lose the cognitive ability to speak in anything other than grunts

While raging at 6th stage:

• Your base movement speed doubles
• You lose the cognitive ability to discern friend from foe, and you attack the nearest creature to you on each of your turns.

While raging at a stage deeper than 1st, unless you are knocked unconscious, any action or effect that would otherwise end your rage only lowers your stage by 1.

Swelled Fury

You always have a reserve of anger inside of you that fuels your rage, and you have learned how to access more of that anger at one time. When you use a bonus action to enter any stage of rage, you can choose to skip 1 stage and enter the next stage of rage instead. You must expend a number of your barbarian hit dice as if you entered both stages of rage individually.

For example: If you are at 2nd stage rage, you can use a bonus action on your turn to enter 4th stage rage instead of 3rd; you must expend 7 barbarian hit dice. 3 for 3rd stage and an additional 4 to enter 4th stage.

The number of stages of rage that you can skip increases to 2 when you reach 14th level in this class.

Rage Fuel

You have noticed the rage that permeates your life essence has started to tug at the rage and fear in the life essence of other creatures in combat, and have learned to control it. As an action while raging, you can choose one creature within 10 feet of you that you can see and force it to make a Constitution saving throw. It takes force damage equal to 2d4 + your Constitution modifier and loses a number of hit dice equal to one half the damage on a failed save, or half as much damage and does not lose any hit dice on a success.

You gain a number of temporary hit points equal to the damage the target takes, and regain a number of expended Barbarian hit dice equal to the number of hit dice the target loses.

Translate Pain

You have learned how to translate your pain into more anger. While raging, when you take damage from a creature that is within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to deepen your rage by one stage. You must expend the amount of Barbarian hit dice for the new stage of rage as listed in the Rampage Table.