A friend of mine wanted to play an improvised weapon-wielding barbarian. He was using a homebrew subclass he found online, but frankly speaking, it was terrible, so I reworked it. This is the result of 2 hours of rushed brainstorming and development. I’m not a barb main, so I’m not really familiar with how they work, but I’m satisfied with the result.

While creating the subclass, I tried to satisfy the following demands:

  • Allow the player to use unarmed strikes and improvised weapons, obviously.
  • Try to make improvised weapons unique and not just “reflavoured martial weapons” (achieved with the random roll and additional effects to unarmed stirkes and attacks with improvised weapons, I hope).
  • More choices during combat. The person who was going to play this doesn’t like how shallow and same-y most martials in 5e play (hence the “Barbarian Exploits” feature at 6th level).

Any kind of feedback is very much appreciated!

  • Aielman15@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    3·
    9 months ago

    Good call. While writing it, I decided to stick with the subclass and not dabble any further into homebrew feats/magic items, but you’re correct, at higher levels the DM should give the Magpie Barbarian a way to bypass resistance or immunity to nonmagical physical damage.

    The Battle Standard of Infernal Power kind of works:

    While you hold the banner, your weapon attacks and those of all creatures within 300 feet of you count as magical the purposes of overcoming damage immunities and resistances.

    But it’s limited to weapon attacks only, so no luck for the unarmed strikes. I would probably homebrew a similar item, limit it to the wearer/wielder, and make it work with unarmed strikes and improvised weapons.

    Alternatively, a feat would work too. For example:

    Unfettered Pugilist
    Either your training, your experience, or perhaps your raw and unorthodox fighting style allow you to overcome the defenses of your foes. Your unarmed strikes and attacks you make with improvised weapons ignore resistance to nonmagical bludgeoning damage, and treat immunity as resistance.
    Additionally, increase your Strength or Dexterity by 1.

    Maybe I should just add it to the 6th level feature, though.

    • Dagnet@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      9 months ago

      I think a feat is bad because you are making them ‘pay’ for something is usually ‘free’. Most martial classes get magical items naturally by adventuring. You could just add it to Savage Warrior something like “Starting at level X, your unarmed attacks and attacks made with improvised weapons count as magical bla bla” which is how monks do it I think.

      EDIT: I do like the gloves tho cause he could eventually upgrade it to +3 since, unlike monks, his damage dice doesn’t increase naturally.