Base Class: Barbarian
It takes a certain type of warrior to look upon a fully armored enemy and think "I wann punch that thing to death". Those who chose this class use their brawn and might, over their brain and intelligence.
HP
Your hit dice is 1d12
Abilities
STR +3, INT -3, CON +1, WIS -2
Sturdy Build
Your body has been tested and pushed to the utmost limits of physical power. You have a natural AC of 10 + your CON modifier + your STR modifier, up to a maximum of 18.
Natural Born Tank
Starting at level 4 you gain resistance to 1 type of damage of your choice, and once more at level 12. As a bonus action you can try to completely negate damage with a 15% chance. On a fail you take twice as much.
Fists of the Elements
Starting at level 6 you have to option to chose an elemental affinity. In exchange for cutting the base damage done by your melee attacks, you can add 1d6 of your chosen element per level (level 7 would so 3d8 + 1d10 + "4d6 your element") (level 14 would do 7d8 + 1d12 + "7d6 your element")
Luck or Skill?
Starting at level 10, you can roll a 1d12 and do that elemental damage instead of your chosen type
(*NOTE* this erases your chosen element and you must use the random element everytime)
1 fire
2 water
3 earthen
4 air
5 ice
6 lightning
7 necrotic
8 radiant
9 acid
10 curse
11 *life
12 *void
*Life* Roll damage, heal the creature for that many hit points instead of damaging, regardless of friend or foe
*Void* Roll damage as normal, that attack does x2 damage
Stoic Protector
Starting at level 6, as a bonus action you can jump in front of an ally about to take damage and take the damage in their place.
Grappler Baki
Starting at level 10 you can add your proficiency bonus to grapple rolls, also enemies grappled by you have disadvantage on escaping.
Broken Defence
Starting at level 14, whilst grappled, the enemy cannot defend, therefore all outside attacks do maximum damage to both the enemy and the player.
Crushing Grip
Starting at level 12 you can attempt to crush an opponent you have grappled, you both roll and the highest roll wins. On a fail the creature takes 6d10 bludgeoning damage, on a pass the creature is freed.
Not a Place Fit to Die In
Starting at level 18, once per long rest, if you fall below 0 hp, you instead ignore that and gain your maximum hp, fighting on for 1d4 rounds. After those 1d4 rounds have passed you collapse, failing 2 death saves instantly.
*NOTE this feature is ONLY taken at level 18, due to restrictions it was set to 14, but is only TRULY gained at level 18*
Heavy Handed
Starting at level 1, you have no proficiency in any weapons nor can you wield and shield or other tool, but any unarmed attacks do 1d8 base + 1d8 for every level. At level 5 it increases to 1d10, level 12 is 1d12, level 20 is 1d20. (Level 3 would do 3d8 + 1d8, level 7 would do 7d8 + 1d10, level 16 16d8 + 1d12, and level 20 is 20d8 + 1d20)
Lead Footed
Beginning at Level 6, you can chose to do a kick of the same damage as a punch, with the added affect of a 30% chance to knock the enemy prone. On a fail the opponent gets an opportunity attack.
Counterpoint, it's funny, this is a game, and this was probably made for fun, or by someone new to homebrew or even DND as a whole, and y'all are probably just gonna scare them off.
Don't mind these guys, TheTwistedKeeper. I can tell you had a lot of fun making this, and a lot of people had a lot of fun reading it. If you would like help balancing this into a state more in line with usual 5th edition, reach out, but even if you don't, thanks for contributing to the DND community, and I hope to see more work from you in the future. :)
Edit: I just now realized these three comments were all made by the same guy, lmao continue malding The_Angriest_Goat
No offense my guy, but this is straight unusable if you don't axe a good chunk of it. There's no risk to getting a ton of free damage on hit, and there's no reason to use any of the risk/reward abilities, because those ones are so weighted against you that they'll never be worth it. If you want to fix it yourself, by all means, but as a DM I'd never allow this without redoing the entire thing.
This subclass has far too many features, but just going from level order:
lv1:
Heavy Handed: Absolutely unworkable, without just making it the Brute's damage bonus. Scrap it.
Ability boosts: Why is this even here? Scrap it.
Sturdy Build: Not really appropriate when you already have unarmoured AC imo. Scrap it.
lv4:
Natural Born Tank: Remove the ability to pick BPS as options, and it works. It's kind of strange, since nothing here implies an elemental resistance or a specialization like that. Also remove the 15% negation thing. That doesn't mesh with D&D in the slightest.
lv6:
Fist of the Elements: Why is this here on what's seemingly just a bare knuckle brawler? Either way, heavily dunk the damagebonus and lock it to rages only.
Stoic Protector: Actually an interesting idea! Make it a reaction, give it a 5ft range, and you have something interesting on your hands.
Lead Footed: Scrap it, it's not how D&D works.
lv10:
Luck or Skill?: Scrap, with prejudice. Why is this subclass a brawler, elementalist and dice roller? Pick one, and do it properly if you're going to use a luck table.
Grappler Baki: This is fine, but I'd make it advantage on grappling, and allowing you to grapple any size creature.
lv12:
Crushing Grip: Heavily reduce the damage, and make it a DoT while you have someone grappled, and it's cool.
lv14:
Broken Defence: Rework it to be 1/rage or something. It's a cool idea, but as is it's busted.
lv18:
Not a place to die in: Scrap. You're not just stepping on Zealot's toes, your crushing them with a hydraulic press.
All in all, scrap more than half this subclass, figure out what you're trying to make here, and rework the rest to fit. Idk how anyone here thinks this is even remotely usable in its current state besides as a monster statblock to beat the party to death with. XP23 is far too lenient on homebrew
Dude your crazy if you think this is bad, I'm a DM and I'm gonna use this 100% as it's a high risk high reward build. Totally awesome for the people who love danger and keep in mind when you play Barbarian you don't have to play this subclass. You can be unfun with your stuff, but this is awesome. Though some things still need to to be tweaked, as just like everything else, it will never be perfect. Similar to anything I make, or you make, or anyone makes.
Same here Brother.
hey everybody! im back! Wrote the base description for the class based on this subclass this morning. going to continue to work on it as i have time. ok new edit. realized links wont work so here are two screenshots of what i currently have.
Just came here to say that aside from needing some adjustment on the damage numbers, the idea for this subclass is really cool. Its like "wilder" Wild Magic barbarian
same
After XP to Level 3's Video, I came here just to get it.
This subclass is really cool! A bit strong, but still pretty cool. Some suggestions that I might have to balance it a bit:
- Have the stat changes be decideable by the player. If the player gets to chose which stat points to lower in exchange to raise others, maybe with the standard cap of 20, then it could give them more customization. If you want to keep in theme, you can have it so that the feature is optional, but you have to lower mental stats (Int, Wis and Cha) and raise physical stats.
- I would lower the additional unarmed strike damage per level to +1d6 per level at MOST. Barbarians get unarmed attacks. I do think giving this subclass a larger damage output is fair, though, because they have literally zero ranged options by design.
- Maybe change the elemental damage output a bit? IDK.
Overall, really cool idea!
Hey. Don't listen to the people saying to discard everything here and this class is a sin. I can clearly see the concept you had in your mind and I love it! its really cool and theirs honestly nothing like it in DnD. There are issues of course but i can see this was meant to be a full class. I see that maybe you don't quite understand the distinction between class and subclass or that you really had no choice other than to build it here since dnd beyond has the stupid limitation of not allowing actual homebrew classes.
I can see that the damage types aren't actually meant to be damage types. Instead they are meant to be elements associated with certain kinds of effects within the class features.
There are issues that do pose a significant or major problem such as the damage numbers and changing stats via the class/subclass, but they ARE balance-able and fixable to make a fully balanced class or subclass.
Your concept behind it though is amazing and inspiring! I'm going to take this concept and begin working on it to try and balance it and see if i can succeed. I'm probably going to ask my DM for my next campaign if I can play the edited class i come up with in the campaign. if there's anyone else here working on a full balanced class please reply to this with a link to what you're working on and i'll do the same once i have a rough draft. Then our individual ideas and thoughts can work to balance mechanically this incredible amazing concept and make a full class with subclasses..
To you the OP. Thank you so much for putting your concept out there! Takes courage to at at least try to make a working class. I can really see that even with not understanding what is a problem you actually tried to build a mechanically sound class based on the concept you had as unlike other home-brew things that are literally incompletable this has the base structure to actually be completed and made a full balanced class with subclasses.
I think that not understanding mechanics may have actually allowed you to come up with something truly unique as sometimes we get so fixated on the mechanics when we do homebrew that although cool it's still rather samey compared to everything else. This on the other hand is so wildly unique and amazing and gives opportunities for some incredible subclasses!
So keep that mind humming and be creative! Learn more about the mechanics and other things and you'll be able to make even better homebrew!
Yeah it's kinda insane with the damage output but not everything needs to be discarded there are some weird abilities that don't mix at all but there are some ideas that could work and be balanced.
This subclass is a sin. it gives ASI boosts which is not normal for subclasses. Sturdy Build is redundant for anyone who besides sticklers for super high AC, Natural Born Tank is designed for the wrong system. Fist of the elements is both on the wrong level and so absurdly busted it makes double smite crits look like the wizard's melee attack. I'm not even sure wtf 'Luck or Skill?' is supposed to do, besides ruin your damage and fill space. Stoic Protector is neat, but it both steps on ancestral barbarian's toes and has no range limit set. Grappler Baki is the only acceptable feature in this ENTIRE subclass. Broken Defence is outright absurd, and Crushing Grip is just plain stupid. Not aPlace Fit to Die In is busted. Heavy Handed is out of order and absurdly busted. Lead Footed is in the wrong system.
Discard everything here, this is unworkable. Start again with the basics of either a punching barbarian or an elemental barbarian, and go from there.
I hope you don't mind, but I decided to make a revised version of this subclass with various balancing tweaks. If you want to check it out, it's posted here. I have no idea if you even care about this subclass anymore lol but I figured the ideas in it were good so I wanted to give it my own spin.
numbers need adjustment but this is really cool
Why is this so downvoted? Aside from some wonky damage numbers this is a fantastic idea for a subclass. It's basically Wild Magic Barbarian and that's kickass.
I am ready for the Redemption arc for this Subclass!
I'm a ***** for "this is OP! but you got that small chance to kill yourself immediately" things. I dig it!
This shit is fire
This guy's subclass might be incredibly unbalanced and all that, but at least it's fun. It could have been like the rest of the subclasses where it's just confusing and all wacky and stuff. But this one is at least original and fun.