Path of the Honey Badger
The power of rage is not limited to creatures of large or imposing stature. Among those that are raised in barbaric cultures and environments, the small that survive are truly the toughest of all. In order to compensate for their shortcomings, they must learn to cast aside all fear and turn the tables on anyone or anything that would consider them easy prey.
Restriction—Small Races Only
Only small characters can follow the Path of the Honey Badger. Your DM can lift this restriction to better suit the campaign or your character. Perhaps you've had a significant growth spurt since your upbringing, or maybe you were raised among the exceptionally large.
Ankle Biter
When you choose this path at 3rd level, the benefits of your brutal upbrining begin to show. You've learned how to best use your size and speed to your advantage. You can move through the spaces of hostile creatures of any size.
While you're raging, you can deal an extra 1d4 damage when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack if you were in the same space as it at any point during your turn. You can't deal this extra damage to the same creature more than once per round. The damage of this feature increases when you reach certain levels in this class, increasing to 1d6 at 6th level, 1d8 at 10th level, and 1d10 at 14th level.
Fearless Mount
Starting at 6th level, you never let your foes escape once in your reach. When you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack on your turn, you can use a bonus action to attempt to grapple the target.
When you attempt to grapple a creature larger than you, you may attempt a Fearless Mount instead, following the rules for climbing onto a bigger monster from page 271 of the Dungeon Master's Guide, with the following exceptions:
- Your hands that are holding weapons are considered free for the purpose of ability checks made to initiate and maintain the Fearless Mount.
- When the creature you are mounting moves on its turn, you can use your reaction to halve its speed until the start of your next turn.
- When a creature other than the one you are mounting attacks you, you can use your reaction to utilize the creature you are climbing as half cover for that attack, and the attack follows the rules for hitting cover on page 272 of the Dungeon Master's Guide.
Vicious Attack
At 10th level, your ability to get up close and personal allows you to identify your enemies weak points, and to strike them without mercy. When you use your Reckless Attack feature, you can forgo its benefit of gaining advantage on your attacks. If you do, your melee weapon attack rolls using Strength score a critical hit on a roll of 18-20 this turn.
The Harder They Fall
Beginning at 14th level, no difference in size stops you from felling your enemies. When you deal bonus damage to a creature with your Ankle Biter feature, you may attempt to shove it prone as part of the attack. A shove made in this way has no size restrictions.
Image: Badger, Gnome Barbarian
By Salvinicus