Talk:Path of the Runescarred (5e Primal Path)

Design Notes

Here's a few of my thoughts on the design of this subclass.

• I'm well aware that giving a Barbarian the ability to cast spells during Rage is a very powerful ability, and that is only because of their resistance to three of the five most common damage types in 5e. However, during Rage, they may only cast the spells they learned from this subclass - At 3rd level, you know three spells, and those are the only spells you can cast during Rage, even if you have spells from another class. This means that, in order to cast a spell that isn't a cantrip or a ritual, you have to expend the use of your most valuable combat resource, which only recharges on a long rest.

Additionally, you still can't concentrate on spells during your rage, meaning that spells like Zephyr Strike, Hex, or Tasha's Caustic Brew are useless for you to learn, as you'll never actually be able to cast them. And since the strongest spells in the game require concentration, this means you can't stack much power onto your Rage this way.

• The small shield given to you by Warded Fury is meant to encourage you to use your spells in combat whenever you can to increase your survivability. At 3rd level, it'll have around 5-6 hit points, and it'll never have more than 27 hit points as a 20th level Barbarian with a Con score of 24.

The other reason this shield exists is, Barbarian has a ton of things in their kit that encourages them to attack - That's what they're good at, so it makes sense. As they were designed not to work with spells, they have even less in their kit to encourage spellcasting than any other martial class does - Fighter gets Action Surge to let you nova; Rogue gets Cunning Action and eventually Uncanny Dodge, to make you harder to nail down and kill; Monk gets their Ki features; and Paladin gets their ability to Smite when your spells aren't doing much else. The only other martial class with very little to encourage them to cast spells is Ranger, which is just a problem with that class's design as a whole.

Finally, when you Rage, you Rage, you're proficient with saving throws against any spell from the two schools of magic you chose for your Runic Affinity. This isn't a huge buff, but it makes the easy-to-control Barbarian a lot more difficult to debuff and lock down. However, I decided not having aces to concentration spells meant that Enchantment and Conjuration weren't very good spell school choices - And neither do they match Barbarian's theme at all - So those were omitted from the list, making sure the Barbarian is still as vulnerable as everyone else to things like Crown of Madness or Spirit Guardians.

• I chose Sorcerer as the main basis for the spells the Runescarred can pick up, in the spirit of the Bloodrager hybrid class from Pathfinder. However, I decided that for flavor, I'd expand it to include the Warlock spell list (For darker themed Barbarians) and the Ranger spell list (For more nature-themed Barbarians). This gives it the greatest potential spell selection of any tertiary spellcaster, giving it access not only to powerful defensive options like Shield and Armor of Agathys, but also to a few healing spells, and some very strong offensive spells. It's very well-rounded, but its limitation to non-concentration spells keeps it in check balance-wise, and while a Barbarian that can stack temp HP, high reactive AC and healing on top of their Rage is powerful, their resources are extremely limited.

• With Runic Frenzy, you can get mad and smack people with spells. Bladesinger's version of Extra attack is one of my favorite features in the entire game, and seeing it attached to a Barbarian swinging Booming Blades at people is an awesome picture. Balance-wise it's incredibly strong and allows for high damage output at any level, which is why most of the features after this one are fairly weak. Strong up-front scaling abilities, with smaller abilities later on to keep things spicy.

• Runic Bulwark is a very flexible resistance ability that gains more versatility as you gain additional subclass levels, without being as strong as Bear Totem Barbarian, which is, in most peoples' opinions, a bad design. And you can change the resistances every time you Rage, making it easier to adapt to every fight while still leaving room for the DM to throw things at you that you're not resistant to.

• Using Brutal Spell is meant to feel like powering into the enemy the moment you catch them off guard, much in the spirit of the Brutal Critical ability you gained the previous level. Hitting home with the added punch of a spell can mean anything from dealing a paralyzing blow with Hold Person to searing them from the inside out with Fire Bolt.

• And last but not least, Immutable Font expands on the "Too angry to die" part of Barbarian, sprinkled with "Too angry to be prevented from casting my spells". A powerful capstone for a level where tertiary spellcasters have fallen long behind, letting your angry fist mage shine when everyone else would be vulnerable to the lich's counterspell.