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!
I like the random table for improv weapons, but I think it makes sense to give the player or DM the option to base the available weapons on an existing scene that has been set.
Has a fight broken out at a banquet the party is attending? I’d give the player the choice of grabbing some plates (light, thrown) or a chair (heavy, two handed) rather than insisting on a d12 roll.