Happy Friday the 13th, everyone!
Spooky/scary month continues with my first-ever option for the barbarian, the Slasher! A horrifying reaver powered by the dark energies of death, the Slasher is compelled to murder innocents that stray to the wrong parts of the world. An almost-definitely evil character, the slasher has many features that harken back to a certain well-known murderer I probably shouldn't name for copyright reasons.
Now where's that list of class options I haven't done yet? Oh, yes:
FEATURES:
- Grapple while you rage as a bonus action or reaction, and hold close those who would probably like to get far, far away.
- Sense the blood of your victims, and find them where ever they may hide.
- Teleport to where they least expect you and burst forth effortlessly from within hiding spaces.
- Just. Never. Die. Keep coming back when you really should be dead.
CONCERNS:
- The grapple/fear synergy is probably too strong. Any ways of weakening it while remaining true to the theme?
- Shadowmorph might need to be more concise.
- Unkillable may be too powerful, but it seems like it's probably fine. Having ~10 hit points is probably not going to keep you up forever.
WHAT I LEARNED:
- I actually started this off as a fighter option before thinking, wait, why wouldn't this be a barbarian? It's surprisingly easy to port options between those two classes.
I have a friend called Jason that's gonna love this (winks repeatedly).
ReplyDelete*wink wink wink wink wink* ;)
DeleteSo, this is unlikely to land in the hands of players even if I can think of some anti-hero options.
ReplyDeleteImagine a barbarian possessed by a spirit of the land, turning into a raging beast after it's sacred grove was destroyed, and the spirit grants them unstoppable power in exchange for brutally murdering the people responsible.
Or, for a less green aesop character, a Barbarian that was severely injured on a raiding party and left to die. He did everything he could to survive, even butchering humanoids to avoid starving, and it permanently changed him even after he escaped.
Hold the Hunted isn't *that* powerful
"A frightened creature has disadvantage on Ability Checks and Attack rolls while the source of its fear is within line of sight. The creature can’t willingly move closer to the source of its fear."
The second part is moot because the moment the grapple ends the character is no longer frightened. It applies heavy disadvantage but considering how dangerous grappling can be (it provides zero defence against them just punching you in the face and you're going to be unable to use your 2handed weapon while grappling) it's an okay trade-off.
Bloodsense is okay. The fact that it doesn't cover 5 types of enemy means there's a huge number of ways a DM can work around the ability.
Unstoppable is fine. It's essentially an ever-so-slightly worse Mindless rage. Charm > Forced Movement, outside a few rare corner cases.
I *adore* shadowmorph. The ability isn't too powerful, especially seeing as you get it at level 10, but it add so many great ways to play the character. Imagine just how *horrifying* it'll be for someone to run out of cover only for your six foot eight lunatic to explode out of a barrel and grab someone.
While the other abilities are strong, they aren't really that bad and aside from the strong theme of "lunatic fleshtearer" I'd be fine with letting players choose this.
However, Unkillable is frankly broken. Even for level 14. I suggest you make it so that on a 18-20 the ability triggers. The way the ability works right now, they can only be killed by a mob trying to rip them apart while they're down.
In fact, a more fun ability I suggest is that they don't drop unconscious and remain fully functional right up until the last failed death saving throw and if they manage to kill a creature they automatically regain 1d12+con mod hit points.
(Though that could be pretty OP too.)
In fact, I just got reminded of a hood from Neo Scavanger (it's such a weird game, look it up) that makes you almost unkillable and gives you a crazy powerful attack but if you go 3 days without killing another human being it smothers you to death. It also kills you if you try to take it off.
That'd make a good slasher.
Don't forget, barbarians already have Relentless Rage. So maybe you could make Unkillable modify that ability. You could also give it a rest limit. So once you hit 0 hp you gain back x hp (maybe a bit larger than the current amount since it will only happen once). That prevents a near constant respawn but still makes them harder to kill.
Delete@Issac Sasquatch
Delete@Polish Codex
>this is unlikely to land in the hands of players
Yeah, I can see that. Evil character options are often lesser-used than their good counterparts. Even knowing that, I felt the option was thematic and thus worth making, though.
>Unkillable
I'm thinking Polish Codex has a point, here. I should scale back Unkillable, but make it modify Relentless Rage. A simple "you have advantage on saving throws you make due to Relentless Rage" seems like it would be solid.
>hood from Neo Scavanger
Hah, I like it.
I really should make a compendium of cursed items one of these days. Cursed items are some of my favorite things as a DM.
Hah, love me some of the more evil-inspired archetypes. Remember guys not all campaigns are good campaigns.
ReplyDeleteNow generally speaking this archetype seems balanced, thematic and just plain ol' fun!...Except for Unkillable. That just...breaks things. Limiting it to once per long rest or altering the Relentless Rage ability as suggested above seems like the way to go with it.
Quick comment: can't a player already attempt a grapple as an opportunity attack as the grapple is a special kind of attack made in place of an attack? Or am I missing something from the AoO rules?
ReplyDeleteGrapple rules are (always) weird. Here's the relevant info:
Delete>you can use the Attack action to make a special melee attack, a grapple.
So yes, you CAN replace one of the attacks you get with a grapple, BUT that attack MUST come from the Attack action. This means that attacks gained from Two-Weapon Fighting, a monk's Flurry of Blows, or opportunity attacks need not apply.
Oh and I do agree that not having a limit to not being able to die leads to game breaking problems quickly. Otherwise option seems kind of weak compared to Bear/Berserk but thats not necessarily a bad thing. Adding resistance or immunity to damage types would go a long way (immunity to BSP at 14 might better represent unkillable)
ReplyDeleteOne of the hard things about having to balance against Bear is that Bear is so dang good. Anything I make at that level can either be balanced against Bear, or against all other barbarian options.
DeleteMuch as I'd like resistance to BSP to be here, Bear already corners the market on that pretty well. I guess you're right that I could slot it in at 14th level for even non-raging slashers, but it'd be odd to have a level 14 ability that competes directly with a level 6.
Maybe give them resistance to all damage once they drop below a certain health threshold?
DeleteNot a bad idea, I'll need to take a closer look at how that measures up to Bear totem and similar features in other classes, like a Champion fighter's health regen.
DeleteHi Walrock, buddy turned me on to your content, you've got some great stuff here. This Slasher is no exception, going to allow a (slightly tweaked) one in my game.
ReplyDeleteOne final form draft recommendation I would make is to balance out Bloodsense. As it stands, it's True Sight level power for 1 minute per short rest, at level six. While it has caveats True Sight doesn't, it also *doesn't* have caveats True Sigh does - you can physically hide from true seeing, or just break line of sight.
Functionally this is Blindsight in a 120' radius against all living creatures. It's just kinda too good. It outclasses any detection magic that other classes, including full casters, have access to at that level, and you can use it a lot. The only similarly problematic ability is ranger Primeval Awareness, but that's narrowly locked to creature types and has almost no in-combat functionality.
Either it should probably be a lot shorter radius (less interesting and thematic) or just let you sense the location of any creature with blood within 120 feet but not actually see through invisibility or LOS (more interesting and thematic).
In regards to other posts about Unkillable's balance, it's honestly fine. Any encounter at level 14+ that can drop a barbarian to Actually Zero Hit Points can kill a barbarian through Unkillable, or repeatedly knock the barbarian down on their 55% of turns where they succeed on a saving throw.
I think it's fine and the unkillable part is fine and it's great for a bad guy NPC. Still concerned on the action economy with a bonus action grapple. That gives the Barbarian 3 attempts to grapple as the wording states he MAY grapple with a bonus action, but nothing will stop him from doing so again with his other two attacks if he misses the first time. Followed by a high DC frightened (Natural strength from barbs) and combine that with a raging grapple ability score (advantage on athletics) combined with a disadvantaged ability score to break out. So to put that in perspective:
ReplyDeleteBarbarian has 3 chances to grapple and high DC for frightened.
Target has disadvantage and a much lower chance to break free, which each attempt consumes their whole action.
I see what you're going for here but it's still too much. I honestly think this needs to just be worded to allow a barbarian to apply the frighten as a bonus action after he's already grabbed someone.