Path of the Defiant - 5E Barbarian Subclass
by Nines, V1.2
One Foot in the Grave
Your arms are burning, your breath is tight, your hands are shaking, and yet you fight on. In a burst of energy, you swing your sword once again, and the muscled figure before you finally falls to its knees - until, with a roar, it rises back up, stronger and angrier than ever.
"You made me use half of my full power. Congratulations. How would you like to die?"
Warriors who draw strength from their pain, the risk-driven barbarians who walk the Path of the Defiant unleash monstrous strength as they madly drive themselves to the edge of death.
Subclass Features
Defiance
Starting when you choose this path at 3rd level, you learn a number of ways to further focus and channel your rage, known as Defiances. You learn your choice of 3 of the following Defiances. You learn additional Defiances at 10th level, and you can replace one known Defiance with another Defiance available to you whenever you level up.
At 3rd level, you may channel the effects of a maximum of 2 Defiances at the start of your turn if your HP is below half and you are raging. You may also switch which are active (no action required) if you already have active Defiance effects at the start of your turn, up to your maximum. This maximum increases to 3 at 10th level.
You automatically cease channeling Defiances at the end of your turn if your current HP is greater than half its maximum or you are not raging. If you are channeling more than your maximum number of Defiances at the end of your turn, you may choose which ones to deactivate until you no longer exceed your maximum.
- Defiant Eruption: While you channel Defiant Eruption, your weapon attacks can deal your choice of fire, ice, lightning, or poison damage instead of their normal damage type. In addition, your weapon shines with elemental energy, emitting bright light out to 10 feet and dim light out to 30 feet.
- Defiant Focus: While you channel Defiant Focus, you may use your bonus action to mark a creature you can see within 60 feet for one minute. Your critical hit range is expanded by one, and you heal a number of Hit Points equal to your Constitution modifier (min: 1) when the marked creature dies. In addition, when the marked creature dies, you may move your mark to another creature within 60 feet. You may only have one creature marked at a time.
- Defiant Hope: While you channel Defiant Hope, you can add 1d4 to a saving throw once per turn.
- Defiant Resilience: While you channel Defiant Resilience, you gain resistance to your choice of fire, ice, lightning, or poison damage.
- Defiant Strength: While you channel Defiant Strength, when you hit with a weapon attack, you may reroll any number of damage dice and use the higher sum.
- Defiant Swiftness: While you channel Defiant Swiftness, you gain 15 additional feet of movement speed, and can take the Disengage action as a bonus action.
- Defiant Toughness: While you channel Defiant Toughness, all incoming damage is reduced by 3. (Damage reduction occurs before damage resistances are factored.)
- Defiant Vengeance: While you channel Defiant Vengeance, enemies take necrotic damage equal to half your proficiency bonus (rounded down) when they hit you.
Refusal
Starting at 6th level, when you would regain Hit Points, you can choose to gain an number of temporary Hit Points equal to the amount you would have healed instead of regaining Hit Points (no action required).
Inflammation
Also starting at 6th level, as a bonus action, you can take psychic damage equal to one Barbarian Hit Dice and channel one of your known Defiances. This damage cannot be resisted or reduced in any way. This Defiance effect will last until the start of your next turn.
Greater Defiance
At 10th level, you learn 2 additional Defiances. You may also now have up to 3 known Defiances active at once.
In addition, your Defiance options expand. The following Defiances can be learned after reaching 10th level in this class:
- Defiant Bloodlust: 10th level. While you channel Defiant Bloodlust, you heal a number of Hit Points equal to half your proficiency bonus (rounded down) the first time you land a hit with a melee weapon attack each turn. This healing cannot heal you over half your maximum Hit Points.
- Defiant Growth: 10th level. While you channel Defiant Growth, your size doubles in all dimensions, along with anything you are wearing, and your weight increases by eight times. Your size doesn't change if there isn't enough space for you to do so. In addition, your weapons also enlarge, and your attacks deal 1d6 additional damage.
- Defiant Life: 10th level. While you channel Defiant Life, all other creatures you choose within 30 feet gain a number of temporary Hit Points equal to half your proficiency bonus when you take damage.
- Defiant Physics: 10th level. While you channel Defiant Physics, you gain a 30 ft flying speed, and you are also immune to the Grappled and Restrained conditions.
Last Straw
Starting at 14th level, whenever you take damage, you may channel one of your known Defiances as a reaction until the end of your next turn.
Image Credit
Barbarian's Rage by Eric Summers
Closing Thoughts
- Also avaliable on DnDBeyond here.
- This is a very experimental subclass, with a lot of options to choose from as well as a different mindset in combat. If you don't lose enough HP to get into Defiant range, you literally don't have a subclass. It may well be optimal to attack yourself until you're in Defiant range every morning!
- The main idea behind this subclass is using an HP threshold to gain extra powers, but even getting to half HP is hard for your usual adventuring day with no way to get more aggro. A full rework might be in store later on, giving it more reliable powers and then a small boost at low HP, to make the subclass less reliant on a polite DM.
- The 6th level feature Inflammation aims to alleviate this problem somewhat, but you're still pushed to take risks with your health in order to benefit further. To be clear, this is in principle a good thing. Subclasses should make a difference in how you play!
- However. You can just replace your Long Rest healing with temp HP. Makes it a lot easier to activate your Defiances.
- That being said, I don't know how well the Defiance options themselves are balanced. The 10th level ones in particular may be over the top. Defiant Bloodlust mimics Beast Barbarian's bite-regeneration, Defiant Physics lets you trade HP for flight even without Raging, and so on.
- Is it better to scale with proficiency for these features, or should they be Constitution-based? With the precedents set by Tasha's, I'm leaning towards proficiency.
- I was considering additional utility effects for each Defiance, but with the need to either sustain Rages or spend health to keep them active, I realized that such effects wouldn't be sustainable outside of a fight. Defiant Eruption still has the vestiges of a utility feature.
Changelog v1.2
- Defiant Hope changed to only give +1d4 to a saving throw once per turn, instead of +1d4 to all attack rolls and all saving throws every turn. It outclassed the Defiances specifically made for extra damage in terms of damage, and then it also had a big boost to saves too.
- Changed Defiant Life to only give temporary HP. Having multiple Barbarians with both Defiant Life and Defiant Bloodlust would become absurd.
- Inflammation wears off at the start of your turn instead of at the end of your turn, but now explicitly ignores the usual limit on active Defiances.
- Added a failsafe for if you have more than your maximum active Defiances active at the end of your turn.
- Changed some language and formatting to match official wording.
- Added picture.