Of you’re not spending your Frenzy charge for the day, transforming might be a good use of a bonus action. Choose the Path of the Berserker or the Path of the Totem Warrior, both detailed at the end of the class description. 1 of 3 Go to page. The Wizard drops a fireball on you and another melee. Website built with MkDocs. This effect ends if the creature ends its turn out of line of sight or more than 60 feet away from you. As you enter the berserker’s rage, you thrill in the chaos of battle, heedless of your own health or well-being. Came here to say this about mindless rage. Starting at 5th level, your speed increases by 10 feet while you aren’t wearing heavy armor. If you do so, for the duration of your rage you can make a single melee weapon attack as a bonus action on each of your turns after this one. You can reasonably be dropping 40 damage in a round at level 3, which is absurd for that level. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Frenzy Starting when you choose this path at 3rd level, you can go into a frenzy when you rage Not even close to worth it. To gain this benefit, you can’t be blinded, deafened, or incapacitated. Beginning at 6th level, you can't be charmed or frightened while raging. You don’t mind wasting actions here, because… what else were you going to do? As you enter the berserker's rage, you thrill in the chaos of battle, heedless of your own health or well-being. Frenzy Is this rather dangerous subclass a good idea to bring into a dungeon? A Berserker who wanders onto a battlefield is interested only in the slaughter. However, Rage is still a super limited resource, so… this can be a bit of a weird use for it. The charm effect is less important, but being charmed means you can’t attack your charmer. It can be used to build up tense moments where the player charaters are pushed to their brink, having no time to sleep or whatever your narrative is, as your character feels worse and worse to play due to disadvantages. (a) a greataxe or (b) any martial melee weapon, (a) two handaxes or (b) any simple weapon. View and manage file attachments for this page. If the creature succeeds on its saving throw, you can't use this feature on that creature again for 24 hours. That’s because it is, If the last sentence is completely ignored, this ability becomes, to make an Attack Action to gain access to this bonus action attack. As you enter the berserker's rage, you thrill in the chaos of battle, heedless of your own health or well-being. If you do so, for the duration of your rage you can make a single melee weapon attack as a bonus action on each of your turns after this one. Tools: None If you ignore Frenzy, then the Berserker has weird but useful combat utility, such as causing Frighten or suppressing Charms. The Dragonborn are a proud (and intimidating!) Next Last. Saving Throws: Strength, Constitution Get the scoop with our Gravity Sinkhole 5E Guide. If your DM likes to try and disable barbarian rages with fear and charm effects, then I would think Berserker is the way to go. 5E isn't really about character optimization. […]. I always wanted to play Storm Barb, but everything I see on this sub tells me it’s not worth it. To my knowledge, it is the only ability that results in a detrimental effect in addition to resource expenditure. They dealt damage to you, after all. You hit things and that is about it. Starting at 14th level, when you take damage from a creature that is within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to make a melee weapon attack against that creature. Update your cookie preferences, For some barbarians, rage is a means to an end— that end being violence. So now you get to do it with a Greatsword! This, Barbarian has rage that overwhelms their entire bodies. You also gain resistance to cold damage, a good resistance to have. And also a really heavy decrease to your damage, the one thing a Barbarian is supposed to do well. Barbarians usually want to use Reckless Attack whenever they can. That’s priority #1. For some barbarians, rage is a means to an end – that end being violence. By 7th level, your instincts are so honed that you have advantage on initiative rolls. For some barbarians, rage is a means to an end, that end being violence. The stuff in between that isn't so impressive. If the last sentence is completely ignored, this ability becomes amazing. And at three, you have disadvantage on attacks. Your actions should be dedicated to Extra Attack and fishing for critical hits. As a DM I could definitely rule that you could take out the exhaustion part of it. However, the Totem damage resistance only matters if you'd have gone done without it ... and my frenzied barbarian (14th berserker / 4th champion at retirement) didn't have it and *never* went down. Treating it as a once per long rest ability works well; if we’re in dire straits in combat, a second use is occasionally warranted. But with such a hefty downside. Thematically appropriate, and it makes using frenzy a bit more tempting. The Wizard drops a fireball on you and another melee. Even better, you don’t need to get damaged by attack rolls; DC-based damaging effects also apply. Each time you use this feature after the first, the DC increases by 5. But, just today, I noticed a combo for Frenzy built right into the class. The Uncontrolled Warrior: Berserker 5E The Berserker is an extremely risky class, solely because of their 3rd level ability. If you go all in it is extremely powerful. Smoothed out the rough edges my group felt it has and made it a lot more enjoyable, but still felt it was kept within reasonable power levels compared to Zelots and Bear Totem. A commendable choice. However, divine fury will catch up as you level and will be available every fight. Considering later made subclasses with no downsides and all benefits. Omitted is that you can only stare someone down once per 24 hours, if they save. Best Familiar 5E | Which Familiar Should You Take? 1. JavaScript is disabled. See our Illithid names guide for examples and naming conventions. 2. If you want to be a Berserker, you just have to have high Strength. Path of the Berserker ( – ) ... I’ll NEVER Die! And, if you’re walking through a desert or climbing a mountain… Ugh, you can’t frenzy safely at all! Click here to toggle editing of individual sections of the page (if possible). This ability is the only really problematic ability that the Berserker has. I've always been a fan of house-ruling that Berserkers don't feel the effects of exhaustion while raging. Rules provided by Wizards of the Coast under the OGL 1.0a. Problem, however; exhaustion is really bad. The Berserker is an extremely risky class, solely because of their 3rd level ability. Persistent rage doesn't remove the 1 minute cap on rage, so you are still limited by that. Now, you have a. to cause the vampire to become Frightened, and take disadvantage to ability checks. But the bad part is 1 exhausted player will have the whole group to slow down. At this point, Reckless Attack means you’re almost guaranteed to get hit by attacks. It is generally considered weaker than the other subclasses, but has its strong points. The Path of the Berserker is a path of untrammeled fury, slick with blood. Change the name (also URL address, possibly the category) of the page. Their Frenzy, as you say, should be considered a once-twice a Long Rest Feature, with Adult Supervision Mode. Take your pick, because that's where the balance point lays. Not the Berserker. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy Update. You can use a shield and still gain this benefit. Then, Constitution will let you tank hits for your party, and become a larger threat for your enemies. Your most complex ability comes at level 10. Find out what you can do. One of the players in my party is playing a half-orc GWM berserker barbarian and loving it. Barbarians are typically rather defensive warriors, using rage to fuel their bodies to ignore pain. If that wasn’t enough, you also get Darkvision and Athletics proficiency for free, great for a Barb. You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background: In battle, you fight with primal ferocity. If you succeed, you drop to 1 hit point instead. Interestingly enough, this is one of the few Barbarians where charisma isn’t a complete waste of your time, thanks to Intimidating Presence. At 20th level, you embody the power of the wilds. Your Strength and Constitution scores increase by 4. Is this rather dangerous subclass a good idea to bring into a dungeon? Then, you still get to swing as a Bonus! Last to be talked about, Frenzy depends on the group. You can’t use this ability with a Reach weapon, for example. I am really against the Frenzy ability of the Path of the Berserker. It is also the only non-Rage feature at that level compared to other Barbarians. In other words, if the player wants to, they can really push their character. You get to punch him in the face for that! Otherwise, this is a fine striker in the lategame. Frenzy is basically a once per long rest damage boost. Most barbarians control their rage, using it merely as a means to an end. At 2nd level, you gain an uncanny sense of when things nearby aren't as they should be, giving you an edge when you dodge away from danger. But you should probably get 14 Dexterity instead, for medium armors. He is now Storm barb and is having a lot more fun with it. (A Guide to the 5e Barbarian) D&D 5E Character Optimization – Barbarian – Tribality Barbarian Character Optimization Charop DnD5e Dungeons and Dragons. You can also frenzy twice in a day if you know there is down time coming up and you can rest for multiple days.