One D&D Playtest 8*: Barbarian

Here follow my notes on the Playtest 8 Barbarian class.

For more context and my Standard Disclaimer, check out the introduction to this series.

Grumpy Words About Playtest Numbering

I need to get this off my chest before we get started… Of all the ups and downs in the playtest process, nothing from WoTC bugs me quite as much as how they’ve messed up their playtest naming schemes.

The first few playtest packets didn’t even get numbers – they were just named after their contents. Then when we got the arcane classes and the first two warriors, they introduced numbering with UA5. When UA7 was released, we were told that UA8 would be Bastions and Cantrips, and that UA9 would be revisions to classes and subclasses.

Then UA8 was released without the 8, and now UA9 has been released as UA8, and the result is that I’ve got blog posts with titles – and worse, URLs! – that aren’t accurate. (And as we know, cool URLs don’t change.)

It’s enough to make me declare that… I… would like… to RAGE!

Which I guess is appropriate, as UA9 UA8 opens with a the return of the Barbarian for one more round. What’s new since Playtest 7?

One more quick note before we begin – I am only focusing on changes since UA7 here; anything not mentioned hasn’t changed, which is pretty much fine with me as I was mostly positive on the Barbarian last time.

Base Class

  • Rage (level 1) now regains one spent use when you finish a Short Rest, fulfilling the promise to give every class a reason to want a short rest. Yay!
  • Brutal Strike (level 9) replaces the poorly-received Brutal Critical. It allows you, while using Reckless Attack, to trade that Advantage on an attack in order to do 1d10 extra damage plus a bonus tactical effect. Forceful Blow pushes a target away from you and then lets you close on it for free without provoking Opportunity Attacks. Hamstring Blow reduces the target’s speed for a turn.
  • Brutal Strike Improvement (level 13). Instead of getting an extra die of Brutal Critical damage that you will almost never get to roll, this expansion of Brutal Strike adds two more options. Staggering Blow gives your target Disadvantage on its next save and prevents it from making Opportunity Attacks for a turn. Sundering Blow gives an ally a bonus to an attack roll against your target based on your Rage Damage.
  • Persistent Rage (level 15) restores all expended uses of Rage when rolling initiative, regardless of whether or not you’ve still got any, but limits this to once per Long Rest. In UA7, this was a restoration of one Rage, without the Long Rest restriction, but with the “it only works if you’re all out” restriction. It also emphasizes that the Incapacitated condition no longer ends your Rage.
  • Another Brutal Strike Improvement (level 17) replaces an extra die of Brutal Critical damage. It now upgrades your extra damage from Brutal Strike with a second d10, and it lets you simultaneously deploy two different effects. Nice!
  • Primal Champion (level 20) has been updated to cap your Strength and Constitution at 26 (formerly the cap was raised to 24). Sure, why not?!

Path of the World Tree

This class didn’t really connect with me last time around, but I guess it scored decently enough in the previous playtest to stay around and get refinements.

  • Vitality of the Tree (level 3) now gives you temporary hit points when activating Rage. In the prior UA, it provided healing – which might have been useless if you went into a Rage without having taken any damage. This feels much better!
  • Branches of the Tree (level 6) has a number of tweaks… Its range has been increased from 20 feet to 30 feet. After the target is teleported to you, you can optionally reduce its speed to zero until the end of the turn. And a design note calls out that the new PHB will make it clearer that any creature can voluntarily fail any saving throw, which solidifies this as being able to reposition allies as well as foes. You can basically use your Reaction (while in Rage) to Misty Step a party member! I can imagine a ton of both offensive and defensive uses for this.
  • Battering Roots (level 10) has been updated to restrict it to particular types of Melee weapons (those that are Heavy or Versatile), and makes it clearer that it lets you use two Weapon Mastery properties at the same time (your choice of Push or Topple plus any others currently in use on the weapon).
  • Travel Along the Tree (level 14) has been completely rewritten. All the Teleportation Circle stuff is gone, and in its place is a much more DM-acceptable Rage-based local teleportation ability. You can teleport yourself up to 60 feet either when activating the Rage or as a Bonus Action while in Rage, and you can choose to bring up to six willing, nearby partners along for a journey of up to 500 feet. And instead of being able to use this feature once per Long Rest, you can bring your party along once per Rage… and apparently self-teleport without limit while in Rage (as long as you want to use Bonus Actions on it).

Hot Takes

  • Brutal Strike seems like it’ll be more fun than Brutal Critical – it’s more reliably useable as you’re not at the mercy of the fickle dice, and it gives you some tactical options in a way that’s very similar to the Rogue’s Cunning Strike. I really like that it all builds on Reckless Attack – taking a core feature and doing giving you interesting new things to do with it. Waiting until level 9 to start using this feature is kind of a bummer, but Barbs already get a lot at 5 and 7, so… yeah. Honestly this does make me interested in playing a Barbarian into higher levels. I will admit, however, that I’m a little sad that the damage gets downgraded from a d12 to a d10 – the poor d12 just doesn’t get enough work in 5E!
  • Persistent Rage is, I think, overall better. You won’t get to use it as frequently, but I think it’ll be more narratively satisfying to get to the boss fight and suddenly regain all your spent Rage at once, so only doing it once per day is probably acceptable.
  • Primal Champion means you’re basically playing a giant when you hit level 20. It’s hard to complain about getting stat caps raised, though as someone who lived through the roll-3d6-in-order-and-that’s-it days, stats that hit 20 or higher just seem a little ridiculous to me. (Anyone remember 18-double-zero?)
  • Path of the World Tree seems pretty satisfactory to me now. Vitality of the Tree is more useful. Branches of the Tree seems full of fun ways to mess with the battlefield. Travel Along the Tree ditches all the stuff that would make me scream as a DM in favor of some more great tactical options for getting into or out of trouble. I can forsee unlimited self-teleporting getting abused, though – which could become a source of DM frustration, though I suspect players will take perverse joy in it.

In short… yeah, I like what I see here! I’d even be interested in playing a Path of the World Tree now. I’m not as obsessed with running the math to figure out if the class will “keep up” at higher levels, but it certainly seems like this would be fun, and that’s really what I’m after from D&D.