Path of the Garden | Barbarian Subclass, and on ribbons

This is a relatively new subclass I started working on last weekend. Barbarian is definitely my favorite class to brew for, and it shows in the amount I make of them!

To start, this brew's combat loop is about the same complexity as the Path of the Tempest's. At the start of your turn while raging, or when you enter a rage, you create a bloom of flowers, essentially a land mine. When another creature gets too close, you can use your reaction to trigger it, causing damage. Sometimes, it may be wise to let a couple creatures move in first, then trigger, and it can also be used to control the space, blocking off certain routes on the battlefield. 

For this homebrew, I tried to get some features that were very much ribbons (Flowercraft and Orchard Walk), and features that essentially scaled off each other (the other three). With the combat loop of placing blooms, the class is encouraged to move through the field, potentially drawing others towards bombs, or moving around to control an area. It could equally spend its time staying on one target in melee, forcing them to make saving throws or choose to take opportunity attacks.

I'd also like to talk about ribbon features. In 5e, most abilities can be split between "rocks" and "ribbons". Rocks are core features; in this subclass, Blooming Petals, Sakura Flurry, and Seasonal Bloom are rocks. Ribbons are thematic features, adding to the flavor of a brew without messing with its balance; in this subclass, Flowercraft is a ribbon, while Seasonal Bloom is somewhat of a mix between a ribbon and a rock (leaning heavily towards ribbon).

In brewing, one of the most important things of a brew is it's thematic, specifically how the player can feel that thematic when playing it. A ribbon feature can be something small, such as borrowing an effect from a cantrip or minor feat (like Flowercraft does, taken from druidcraft), or could be a bit larger, but only situationally useful. If you look at some official content, you'll see ribbon features all over the place, which is a great place to start adding these thematics into your own games. Some prime examples include Storm Sorcerer's Storm Guide, Paladin's Divine Sense, Ranger's Primeval Sense, the second half of Ranger's Vanish, Horizon Walker Ranger's Detect Portal, and Grave Cleric's Eyes of the Grave. Another good place to look is in cantrips and feats, such as druidcraft, prestidigitation, Observant, Keen Mind, and others of that style. Adding ribbons into a brew helps a lot, and in my opinion, the best homebrews are often set apart by the inclusion of ribbons (either as stand alone features, or integrated into other features), which allow them to masterfully make the flavour of the brew really stand out!

Next time, I plan on releasing some new animal tokens for the Totem Warrior Barbarian!

Path of the Tempest | Barbarian Subclass, and on combat loops

This is a subclass I've been tinkering on for a couple months (I had started it right after posting my Sun Domain here), and it is definitely one I'm pretty happy with.

As a quick recap, the Path of the Tempest channels the power of a storm through its raging, able to manifest abilities such as teleporting around the battlefield to attack and evade, emitting minor charges to hamper enemies, and creating electric bursts. The 'core' ability of the subclass is certainly its L3, the Lightning Step, which allows for short teleportation and attacking along the line of teleportation (creating an interesting AoE effect). This ability is what I'll be touching on most today, as it is the basis for the rest of the subclass to play on, and ultimately is really what the player will be using most.

In my homebrewing experience, one bit of feedback I've gotten a lot is about a concept I like to call "Combat Loops". Effectively, this is what the player will be doing every fight on a regular basis, with no cost, or rather, no cost that won't likely be gotten back by the next encounter. For example, one could say that the Combat Loop of a fighter is to take the Attack action every turn and use their Action Surge feature on the first round of every combat. Another example is that the Combat Loop of a cleric is to cast Toll the Dead (or Sacred Flame) using your action, starting the first round casting Spiritual Weapon as a bonus action, and using your subsequent bonus actions to continue attacking with it. This loop could be interrupted with other spells, but in general, this is what one could expect (when number crunching) of what a cleric would do. Identifying a subclass or class's Combat Loop helps us analyze it better, ensuring that its damage isn't too low or high. (This is a vital step before you should even think about playtesting. Running the numbers will make sure your stuff is balanced while playtesting will show if it's fun.)

Now, for barbarians, I'll analyze the Combat Loop a bit more specifically. Overall, most barbarians will be spending their turn immediately entering a rage, then taking the Attack action. On subsequent turns, a barbarian will use their action to continue to Attack, while some barbarians (such as berserker) will start using their bonus action to use their subclass features. The Path of the Tempest starts the same as others, and on subsequent turns will be using Lightning Step to move across groups of enemies, so as to proc the lightning/thunder damage. This sort of loop encourages a lot of movement around the battlefield, which should ensure the player is more actively engaged on their turns (as they will need to pay attention to their position much more than the "I attack whatever is nearest to me" that I hear so often!)

In future posts (especially subclasses), I'm going to touch on what the Combat Loop is for the brew, in addition to the rest of the quick recap! Hopefully, I'll have the next brew ready within the next two weeks; a month and a half is much too long!