Path of the Tyrant

Barbarians who follow the Path of the Tyrant channel their rage into a dark, oppressive force that crushes all who dare stand in their way. Fueled by a burning hatred, their fury warps them into a terrifying, unstoppable monster on the battlefield. With each swing of their weapon, their enemies are overwhelmed not just by raw power, but by the sheer malevolence radiating from them. Tyrant Barbarians don’t just fight to survive—they fight to dominate, imposing their will upon the world through sheer brutality. As their rage deepens, so too does their transformation into a fearsome being of relentless wrath, a living nightmare that leaves only destruction in its wake.

As a Path of the Tyrant Barbarian, use your rage to overwhelm your enemies as your rage and hatred transform into an unstoppable monster. 

Unleash the Tyrant

3rd-level Path of the Tyrant feature

When you enter your rage, you let your hatred and wrath for your enemies overwhelm you as you transform into the Tyrant. In this new form, you increase your size level by one,  and you gain advantage on strength rolls. These bonus advantages override the advantage bonuses gained the ones gained from the base Barbarian features. During the rage, your health is reverted to its maximum and you are cleansed of all debuffs and natural effects. 

Your newfound power and abilities fill you with arrogance, granting you advantage on intimidation checks. 

When transformed into the Tyrant, you gain the following benefits:

Increased Size. Your body transforms as it grows larger. Increase the size levels of your body, equipment, and weapons by one. When attacking with a melee weapon, the range of the weapon increases by 5 ft, and the damage increases by 2. 

Slam of the Tyrant. Instead of a weapon attack, you can use an action to Slam of the Tyrant, which launches a slam attack that hits all targets in a 10 ft. radius around you, including allies. This slam attack deals 1d10 + Strength modifier.

Feed the Tyrant. After landing the killing blow on a target, heal yourself for half the damage dealt on the finishing blow. For example, if the attack that deals the killing blow to a target deal 10 damage, heal yourself for 5 health. In the event that you deal the killing blow to multiple targets, still use the attack's damage roll instead of the total damage dealt to the targets altogether. 

 

Tyrant Form drains 8 + Strength modifier HP per turn. It ends once your HP reaches 0. After reaching 0, the Tyrant Form ends and you are reduced to 1 HP. 

Mortis Engine

3rd-level Path of the Tyrant feature

When you transform into Tyrant Form, release a foreboding aura that instills fear in your enemies and poisons their will to resist. While raging, release an aura of hatred to your enemies, granting disadvantage on constitution, wisdom, and charisma checks. This aura extends to a radius of 20 ft. Additionally, targets within the aura take damage.

Mortis Engine acts as a concentration for the Tyrant. However, this concentration can only be broken by Crowd Control effects. This concentration acts independently of other sources of concentration such as spells and other abilities. 

Mortis Engine grants the barbarian the following benefits: 

• Targets within the Mortis Engine aura take 1d10 + Charisma modifier psychic damage every turn. At levels 6, 10, 14, and 18, the damage increases to 2d10, 3d10, 4d10, and 5d10 psychic damage respectively. The damage from the Mortis Engine is rolled once at the beginning of every new round, rather than every time a targets enter the radius. All targets that go into the aura will take the same damage as the roll made at the beginning of a new round. Alternatively, the DM can decide to roll the damage when the rage is first popped, and the damage stays the same until Tyrant Form ends.  
• Targets within the Mortis Engine must succeed in a Wisdom saving throw (DC equals the 8+ barbarian's Strength + Charisma modifier) or become frightened. This frightened effect lasts indefinitely until they perish or leave the radius. 
• For every target feared due to Mortis Engine, the Tyrant's speed increases by 5 ft, and all melee attacks' damage increases by 1. 

 Mortis Engine can also be willingly dismissed without Tyrant Form being dismissed. If Mortis Engine is lost in any way, whether willingly or unwillingly, it cannot be used until a brand new rage is activated.

The effects of Mortis Engine also apply to allies.

Lust for Power

6th-level Path of the Tyrant feature

The seeds of wrath kept deep inside your soul prevent you from retreating. You will achieve victory at any cost. Once per long rest, you can choose to refresh your rage transformation. You regain all missing health points back and cleanse yourself of all negative effects. But power does not come for free.  

The refreshed transformation will be a weaker version of the original. When choosing to use this feature, you must announce it to the DM and have them choose one of the following options:

1. During your refreshed rage, your AC is reduced by an amount equal to your Strength + Constitution modifiers. 
2. During your refreshed rage, you have disadvantage on spell save DC rolls. This stacks with other disadvantage sources. 

These effects last for the entire duration of the refreshed rage and cannot be removed. After ending this rage and starting a new one, these drawbacks will not be counted. 

Using this feature will not consume another rage slot. However, if Mortis Engine is down when used, or you are below 20% Max HP, a rage slot will be used. 

 

The Power of Fear

10th-level Path of the Tyrant feature

Your tyrannical rule and diabolical presence on the battlefield teach you to instill fear in every aspect of the adventure. Once per long rest, when initiating a charisma or charisma-related check, use your reaction to briefly transform into your Tyrant Form and gain bonuses in social situations. 

You gain different bonuses depending on the situations and checks involved: 

• Using this feature on an intimidation check will cause it to automatically succeed. 
• All other charisma checks will grant the barbarian advantage on the roll. 

Using this feature in combat will consume a reaction. 

The One True King

14th-level Path of the Tyrant feature

The hatred in your soul has continued to grow stronger as you envelop your enemies with a fraction of your undying rage. When activating rage (does not apply to refreshed rage), choose an additional effect from one of the three options: Heart of Tyranny, Let The World Remember My Name, or Worthy of Rulership. 

Heart of Tyranny. When activating rage, enhance your Mortis Engine. When enemies are slain within the radius of your Mortis Engine, they are immediately resurrected as your undead minions. You can choose whether to have these spawns be either zombies or skeletons and use the monster sheets allocated to each monster. Any minions will be added at the very end of the turn order. 

Let The World Remember My Name. When activating rage, forgo the physical boosts to your body and let your wrath manifest into the world. You do not gain any benefits from raging (including those from the class feature, "Unleash the Tyrant"), however, your Mortis Engine is greatly enhanced. Mortis Engine has an extended range of 150 ft. Additionally, the effects of Mortis Engine now go through cover and elevation. It no longer becomes a concentration and lasts until the rage ends (either by the user dismissing rage or they drop to 0 HP). 

Worthy of Rulership. When activating rage, dismiss the playful tricks and face your opponents with everything you have. You do not gain the power of the Mortis Engine nor any of its additional effects. However, the physical boosts from "Unleash the Tyrant" are greatly enhanced. The increased size effects are doubled, including your equipment and weapons. This also applies to the bonuses to your Strength, Constitution, and Charisma rolls. Furthermore, when dealing damage to enemies using a melee weapon, or Slam of the Tyrant, any damage that drops them to below 15% Max HP will immediately execute them. Lastly, Feed the Tyrant now grants HP back equal to the full damage done to the killing blow. 

 

Only one of these effects can be used at a time. When using a refreshed rage or deactivating the current one, all effects will immediately be removed (this includes minions spawned if you use the "Heart of Tyranny" option). Additionally, each effect can only be used once per long rest.