Talk:Aberrant Bloodline, Variant (5e Subclass)

Sorry for late, I was busy, what with interns and whatnots. Anyway, here are my comments on the archetype, as requested:

• Great Old Ones. I see that there are lists of GOOs you can worship and gain benefit. That's nice, but I'd like to make some comments on this part.

I see that the names all come from Forgotten Realms setting. Yes, it is the "default" setting for 5th edition, but then, that doesn't mean you can easily assume that all D&D campaigns are set on FR setting. Personally, I think instead of specifying the actual name of GOOs, presenting the main characteristics of them would help players flesh out their characters. I suggest using something like warlock's Pact Boon feature: Blade, Chain, Tome, and much more.

There are six GOOs present, each giving specific bonuses. That makes this one archetype like six separate archetypes, even moreso considering that Dendar gives spellcasting and Ghaunadaur gives mutation. The balancing is tricky as heck, and not to mention, wordings could be very complicated.

• Initiate. The stepping stone of the archetype. Let's see:

Dendar gives you spellcasting ability, but it could be very risky, if you consider barbarians cannot cast spells or even concentrate on one while raging. The design of barbarian is in such that its full potential is supposed to work while raging, and it's kinda sorta less potential while not raging. Adding spells to barbarians could alleviate that design, making it super strong, even moreso when you consider they have the best hardware in the game (d12 Hit Dice, best weapon proficiency, armor proficiency in all but heavy armor but with Unarmored Defense). In fact, I did the similar archetype (it's called Path of the Scourge if you're interested) and it was a tricky feat.

Ghaunadaur turns you into an aberration. At 3rd level, it's kinda meh compared to other features, because all it does is giving a d6 natural weapon (kinda obsolete when barbarians have proficiency in all weapons, including their trustworthy greatsword), darksight, and oh yeah, vulnerability to radiant damage. And it takes away your precious bonus action. Your rage suddenly has more penalty.

Kezef lets you recover what by 1d6? Hit points? Notice that you always regain all lost hit points upon long rests.

Moander gives damage bonus to all ranged weapon attacks. Including longbow? I had this player who specialized in ranged weapon attacks, he was a Battle Master fighter, and he dealt like 1d8+15 damage per each attack, at 6th level. I should say that you really must be extra careful here, because ranged attacks don't get much feature bonus and magic items, only because they're... well... ranged. I suggest restricting it to ranged weapon attacks using Strength, in par with normal barbarian's rage. Oh, and reloading is already a "free action" (as in, you don't have to specify it) so you're looking for "You ignore the reload property of your weapons."

Tyranthraxus has simple, yet very strong feature. It makes a skillmonkey barbarian, which is rather uncommon but not bad per se. Although, from what I see from other archetypes in my PHB, I think barbarian's 3rd-level feature could do with more combat abilities. Oh, and it's very vulnerable to minmaxing abuse, because it gives you three skills without any restrictions whatsoever.

Zargon gives you extra damage reduction, the mechanism which is almost completely disappeared in 5th edition. (I am aware that some features and feats still grants such damage reductions.) And I thought resistance against b/p/s was already enough? Too strong.

• Adept. Let's see:

Dendar gives you too much. Not even fighter's Eldritch Knight archetype gives this much.

Ghaunadaur has poor writing (I guess it should be "You can make one additional attack when you take the Attack action on your turn.") and imposes another penalty. I guess the premise here is "high risk, high return", but maybe you should consider how you impose high risks. A constant -2 penalty to all attack rolls, for starter, is probably not the best way you can impose risks.

Kezef gives you advantage on saving throws, once per each of your turn. The wording is kinda vague here - does that mean I can have advantage on saving throw only on my turn, or does that happen once every round, before I take another turn?

Moander kinda beats the very premise of barbarians. Long-range sharpshooting is for fighter and ranger, especially fighter, preferably not barbarians, who should get close to enemies to retain their rage. Plus, even fighters and rangers do not get range bonus, +60/+120 range bonus means you can snipe your enemies before they can even get close to you, Hayha-style.

Tyranthraxus - It's very nice to see an actual, written-out version of bard#expertise, instead of lazy arse "You gain Expertise on skills". Again, it's more of a skilllmonkey feature than a combat feature, but not bad per se.

Zargon gives you resistance in, what, three damages type of your choice? Technically speaking, having resistance in damage type is as efficient as doubling your hit point maximum. And this is barbarian, with the largest Hit Dice in all classes. Are you sure you want to buff this?

• Master. Let's see:

Dendar's feature is... uh... I had to read like three times to get what it exactly does. Plus, damage output increase is better off as 1 minute, because most combats don't get longer than 10 rounds. Flat-out damage increase could be a bit boring, I thought implementing paladin's Divine Smite would be more interesting. (At least, that's what I did with my homebrew archetype.)

Ghaunadaur adds yet another penalty to rage. Combat encounter rarely lasts more than 10 rounds, so it doesn't matter if it lasts 1 minute longer than before. Plus, the manadatory exhaustion stack limits the uses of rage, because three to six uses and plop, you're dead. But then, let's see the Mutation feature to see how much it would worth:

Dendar-mutation adds somewhat wimpy psychic damage, plus imposing Wisdom saving throw against your attack rolls (which is flexible, not exactly good for setting DC) to give disadvantage to its next what roll? Plus, this is what Marasmusine has said to me: Forcing saving throw on every single hit could make things a bit tedious.

Ghaunadaur-muatation makes your natural weapon now deals 2d6 slashing damage, which is like having a greatsword all the time. Plus yet another wimpy damage increase, this time poison, and has a chance of poisoning the target - for how long? And why is the save DC slightly higher than the "standard" DC calculation?

Kezef-mutation gives you temporary hit points, presubamly when entering rage. Slightly tankier barbarian is not bad. Plus yet another 1d4 damage increase, this time acid.

Moander-mutation has a rather sloppy "saving throw" mechanism. So you're slightly chipping off the target's hit point maximum at a half-to-half chance on every hit? And they restore their hit point maximum when you finish a long rest? Very poorly written, I'm afraid to say.

Tyranthraxus-mutation has a slightly higher damage input, and it lits the target on fire. But what exactly it does, setting things on fire? How much damage does it take, does the target shed light to surroundings, and much more?

Zargon-mutation gives you resistance in one damage type of your choice during rage. Again, I thought resistance against b/s/p was already enough?

Uh... I'm very afraid to say that most features are rather... wimpy, even without considering the exhaustion penalty.

Kezef gives you half the monk's Timeless Body feature. While very useful in adventurings, I am afraid to say that compared to other features granted on the same level, it could be a bit meh.

Moander's feature is overpowered. Notice how barbarians have to risk themselves with Reckless Attack feature to gain advantage on one attack rolls? And you deal extra 1d8 damage on 14th level, as if barbarian's damage output was already good enough?

Tyranthraxus's feature is too late. You already have like seven skill proficiencies, I suppose other adventurers could make out for your vacancies, and you get bard's Jack of All Trades at what, 10th level?

Zargon's feature is overpowered. Barbarians already have d12 Hit Dice, and you give them even more hit points? And a +1 bonus to AC?

• Mentor. Let's see:

Dendar allows you cast a spell wile raging. The reason it's bad is, that you can abuse both strong hardware features from your rage, and cast spells if that doesn't help, without wasting your rage uses. And it says that "you can cast a spell as a bonus action or as a part of your attack," but as you can see, each spell has a specified casting time. If you mean you can cast spells with casting time of 1 action as a bonus action or as a part of attack, you're giving an absurdly overpowered version of Quickened Spell Metamagic option as a passive feature. What the heck.

Gahaundar gives you +1 modifier to Strength, {Dexterity, and Constitution. Notice how abusing directly with ability scores (and, by extent, ability modifiers) are now almost gone in 5th edition. Each time you enter or end your rage, you have to scribble down so many things. In 3.5rd edition, it was the norm, but not so much in 5th edition. You can just say you gain a +1 bonus in many, many rolls, as well as AC. But that's kinda strong by itself, judging how rage gives you tons of benefits already.

Kezef suddenly lifts the penalty. Half the exhaustion is interesting, but it doesn't change the fact that you still gain exhaustion every time you enter and end your rage.

Moander gives you, what, a whole action? Not one extra attack or similar sort, but a full action that you can use on anything? I suggest toning this a bit down.

Tyranthraxus gives you rogue's capstone feature, with multiple uses. It's restricted to skill checks, but still, too strong. In most cases, having double proficiencies would work just as much as you need.

Zargon... uh... I'm not quite sure how would a barbarian even drops below half hit points with resistance to six damage types. This can even render a barabarian literally unkillable.

Phew! That was long! To summarize: Too many features, most of which are of questionable balance. I suggest taking few features into a separate archetype (especially the spellcasting part) and slimming down some bit. I see you are ambitious with this archetype, so if you need further feedbacks and suggestions, please feel free to contact me. Wish you good luck, fellow wikian! --WeirdoWhoever (talk) 20:12, 6 September 2017 (MDT)

THIS ARCHETYPE MAY BE CHANGED TO WHOEVER HAS AN ACCOUNT SEES FIT.Iberisdiablo (talk) 04:25, 1 December 2017 (MST)