| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I also agree with others here that think the barbarian class chassis as a whole seems very underwhelming. The class feat choices at many levels generally feel both too weak and too few to choose from.
I really like the 3-round rage mechanic, but I believe the implementation needs work. I am not even convinced the rage mechanic itself is good as written. A small scaling damage bonus that does not increase already low accuracy versus losing 1 AC, not sold on that when considered with the rest of the class and its lack of survivability.
The totem mechanic itself I am fine with, but the individual totems and the abilities/feats they confer need a lot of work. This part of the critique could/should be a standalone topic if it has not been already.
I am ok with not being as proficient in weapons as a fighter, but not becoming expert until 13th level? That is ridiculous when fighters get master at 3 and legendary at 13. Rangers are expert at 3/master at 13. Even paladin which is supposed to be the tank class, get expert at 5/master at 15. IF rage bonus continues to not increase accuracy, this needs changed.
That brings me back to my main problem with the class right now. Barbs have a big problem staying alive to actually play. I think a lot of people that have played and love the barb class somewhat enjoy that aspect and find it fits thematically. The problem is with the way the new critical system works, hits that you used to take and absorb with barb HP become crits far too often. Raging resistance being lower than 9th would help, even if your totem has bad damage types.
In my playtest, I chose the Giant totem (like many) to try out. During play I was effectively playing with untrained armor AC at most times between rage's -1 and titan mauler's -1 and spent a lot of time down/dead. After that character was gone I rebuilt as both animal and fury totems to try them out, but the problem was still there. Maybe I had really bad luck and the GM just rolled 15+ a lot, but I have talked to others that had the same thing happen more than a few times.