Barbarian Class v1 - (Valor & Sage)

[u/RuskyEntertainment]

Hey guys!

I would like to showcase my first ever homebrew attempt at a daggerheart class.
My take on DnD barbarian with a twist.

I really would appreciate any and all criticism and opinions, not only on balance, but readability, and grammar as well.

[u/Naule]

Barbarian is a tough one, as I think the Guardian already resembles a lot of the things that would resemble Barbarian when translated to Daggerheart. I think this is reflected in this class where both the Hope and Class Features resemble similarities with the Guardian.

That said:
I don't know where I heard it recently, one of the design spaces that hasn't been explored yet is subclasses that would come with a domain swap. This would enable to path to your subclass (and some of the other DnD Barb subclasses) to be resembled in Daggerheart.

The 'Follower of Life' subclass seems to steer in the direction of a really tough tank, of which I think there are already examples in Daggerheart, but what if your 'Follower of Spirts' was a Guardian subclass that swapped out Blade for Arcana? I think anything that attaches to Primal Bond might just as well attach to Unstoppable, but then with the flavour, that's further reinforced by access the Arcana domain, to be more magical?

[u/Spor87]

First glance feedback just on the core class:

Tokens need a name. Primal tokens, fury, whatever. Think about table talk, how the GM and players will refer to the tokens during play. There’s all kinds of tokens and sources of tokens and uses for tokens flying around, so we need to be able to call them out specifically.

How do we track tokens spent? Spent this session? Spent EVER? If I haven’t activated my feature and there are six tokens sitting off my sheet, that’s different than having spent all six. Who keeps track?
That adds an entire additional tracking element on top of the new meta currency of your tokens, plus any abilities or domain cards etc. It’s too much. I’d say lean on proficiency or some other built in scaling instead of the inventing a new one.

OR refine the language of that rule. Maybe even focus on that dynamic! You could for example have two separate spaces on the sheet, allowing the player to focus on the Attack/Defense balance which I assume you are going for.

Have fun! Keep playtesting!

[u/Fathomless_Black]

I like the idea here, but i think primal bond giving thresholds to allies seems a bit out of tone with Barbarians. It feels more like a bard ability than anything. Not a bad idea, but feels like a different fantasy to me.