Check out Obvious Mimic here! obviousmimic.com/discount/COLBY10 - and don't forget their patreon: patreon.com/obviousmimic - oh and check out the upcoming kickstarter!!! www.kickstarter.com/projects/obviousmimic/the-mystery-of-witchhaven-a-5e-solo-adventure - ALSO! Regarding Brutal Strike: I'm seeing some comments about whether or not you could still have advantage if an enemy were prone, since the wording for Brutal Strike is that you give up "any advantage" - by the strictest reading of the rules, you probably can't have advantage. My reading is that the intent is that we forego advantage granted from Reckless attack (or why mention Reckless Attack at all? Why not just say "if you have advantage, you can instead forego advantage to gain X"), but definitely discuss with your DM!
I agree with you Colby. RAI notwithstanding, I see no reason why brutal strike would prevent the mechanical advantage of an enemy being knocked to the ground or a magic spell from an ally helping the barbarian strike true. It should only negate the advantage the barbarian has by virtue of attacking recklessly.
Thanx for the discount Colby and Obvious Mimic! I loved the first solo adventure, and I'm in the middle of the second one. Now I'll have something to do with my character later this month!
I really like the Obvious Mimic solo adventures, but they are definitely not from levels 1-4. I've played the first two (after backing Oki Island on kickstarter on the back of your previous advert) and both are designed for lvl 1 and only hit 2 upon completion. They're fun, but they're definitely not great for testing out low level character concepts in my experience, as builds rarely come together at lvl 1.
About brutal strikes: RAW suggests that you have to forego advantage AND have to be using reckless attack ("If you use reckless attack, you can forego..."). So, even if you have advantage from another source, you cannot use brutal strikes unless you are also using reckless attack. I think it kinda sucks, but regardless, RAW is unambiguous here in my estimation!
This is basically the build I have. Dwarven farmer, village was raided by Goblins and Orcs and everyone died except him as he was on his way back to the village. Comes back, sees the chaos and his dead family and goes into a RAGE! Fights his way to the village chiefs house fighting off goblins with his pitchfork and when he sees everyone is also dead there he steals the Chiefs ceremonial Longsword and Shield (Giving me my 2 weapon mastery) and slays all the goblins. He vows to destroy all Evil in the world to quell his rage
@@charlesboots6508I am always extremely grateful for any support and shout outs I receive, especially so when they come from creators that I have so much respect for like Colby. You’re 100% correct that the algorithm can be brutal so getting any external support is always a blessing :)
You probably know by now, but that disadvantage to attack others is still available in the new rules, it is just attached to the grappling rules now rather than a subclass feature
@@BinxyBrown Early game? Absolutely. A monk can grab two enemies, move them away from everyone and use their deflect attacks to survive way longer. Later levels I feel the monk is too fragile for that alas.
The change from opposed test to DC based test means grapple tanking isn’t really a thing anymore. The enemies you’re most concerned about locking down are very likely to resist being grappled or knocked prone and/or immediately break free.
@31:31 Pretty sure this doesn't work that way. It says in the Brutal Strike description: "You can forgo *any* Advantage on one Strength-based attack roll of your choice on your turn." *Any* being the big word. Otherwise this would be busted AF. Also once you attack Recklessly, there is no going back... you will always have advantage (unless you brutal strike) and enemies will always have advantage against you. "When you make your first attack roll on your turn, you can decide to attack recklessly. Doing so gives you Advantage on attack rolls using Strength until the start of your next turn, but attack rolls against you have Advantage during that time."
By playing a Wildhunt Shifter, nothing within 30 feet of you can make attacks with advantage against you. Given, you can't activate this on the same turn as Rage, but it's worth it if you can't take the risk.
@RokuroCarisu sure, just consider that *Reckless Attack* is effectively a soft taunt, as enemies are more compelled to target the tank if they have Advantage on doing so.
I'd take mage slayer instead of polearm master on this build, no fighter dip, get that once per short rest mental save immunity, (which at 3 levels later no longer ends your rage, but still messes you up)
I'm playing a WT Barb in my next campaign starting next month, can't wait. He's a Goliath whose tribe was attacked and killed by hill giants. His father threw him in a river to save him and he was found and raised by an elderly couple who were farmers with no kids (yes I know how much that sounds like Superman now that I write it out)
Colby, You missed an even more amazing part of Primal knowledge. Because it changes those skills into strength checks, You also have advantage on those checks as well since rage gives you advantage on all strength checks. That combined with the 10-minute duration and the short rest recharge means that feasibly the Barbarian can be in rage using Primal knowledge for the entirety of the dungeon or heist sequence. A hard-hitting tank that can also do skills good
After you regulalry saying "I am beholden to the spreadsheet" I just realized: you are a spreadsheet warlock. You make yourself beholden to its biddings, and in exchange it grants you gifts of insight. And you have high charisma.
its not always a question of being "better", its more about being fun and this class is one that clearly stand out, just like monk of element and shadow.
Double comment from me: Please do start calculating tank survivability based on Deadly encounters! I'd also love to get a traditional damage report each time. Now that you have the Champion Fighter baseline it would be fun to compare a build that isn't being built for pure damage against the baseline. Happy Tuesday!
Durable Feat is very good with the periapt of wound closure, which allows you to double the healing from H.D. effects. If you are going to go this route you may want to get the dwarven feat that allows you to spend H.D for healing when you take the dodge action. Now you can Dodge and bonus action heal for 2d12x2 healing. Not bad if you are holding a choke point.
Excited to see how you work around the soft taunt, I feel like there are so many new control options for martials that it opens up a new path to tanking.
Thank you for all the content! I have really appreciated all your build guides, for both the 2014 and 2024 versions of dnd. I have been curious about a build for a little while, and I was a little confused about how to propose it (do I have to become a member/discord). I don't know if it would be of interest, but a fighter with a double-bladed scimitar with the new two-handed weapon fighting style sounded pretty cool to me. because you can't roll lower than a 6 on each attack it sounded like fun consistent damage. Thank you so much!
My backup to my giant barbarian is pretty much the basic build for this, dwarf, tough feat, world tree barbarian focused on protecting my homies as the battlefield control meat wall. Glad to see the tank role getting some love!
I'm playing a gnome farmer world tree barb for my very first time playing in the Tomb of Annihilation. I'll be using pole arm master with Glaive (cleave) and Pike (Push). At level 2 this character will have advantage on all saves (except con). At level 4 he will have up to 4 or 5 attacks via cleave and the AoO from Pole Arm Master. Passive Perception of 20 when raging at level 3. It's going to be such a fun character to play :)
I like the protection fighting style as the soft taunt now, its the similar to cavelier, (ofc bc 5ft and disadvantage blah blah) but takes reaction, so no shield spell or absorb elements, but i feel it opens up a lot of builds that want to tank that dint use reaction, like your old swords bard build that took the protection fighting style
I want to shout out the new Mage Slayer as an outstanding new tank feat. A free success on a Dominate Person spell with our 8 Wisdom once per short rest is pretty good.
I'll play an *Eladrin* (reflavored as a Dryad). Choosing the *Spring* season, I could *Fey Step* myself or my allies around the battlefield as soon as 3rd level, imitating the later subclass features of the *World Tree Barbarian.*
If you don't like the idea of a plantwispering Barbarian, here's an alternative: An "Eldritch" Barbarian. The roots are tentacles of some otherworldly horror that they are bonded with.
When the class videos started coming out Barbarian looked like one of the top most improved classes and World Tree was by far my favorite subclass. I initially wanted to do 2 weapon fighting with battle axes or longswords but the new dual wielder feat requires a light weapon for the 1st attack.
I really wish they had added the Rage damage bonus into the Grappled condition saving throw calculation. It's weird that in the new rules Barbarians who are raging dont have any bonus to being super strong compared to any other class.
With the *Grappler* feat, Barbarians at least add their *Rage damage bonus* to damage of Unarmed Strikes. Granted, you need to pick *Tavern Brawler,* a species with *Natural Weapons,* or do a *Fighter* dip for *Unarmed Fighting* style to deal more damage than every other class with Unarmed Strikes. *Leonin* has *Claws* and *Daunting Roar.* After Grappling 1-2 foes, they can frighten all foes within 10 feet, potentially giving them *Disadvantage* on Acrobatics or Athletics checks to escape the Grapple for one round.
At my table we’re just straight up sticking with the contested checks for grappling, we think it’s more fun than imposing a save and it leaves more room for grapple-based build shenanigans. I’m currently playing a World Tree Barbarian with the Skill Expert feat, so I can grapple with expertise and advantage, and I’m a Simic Hybrid with grappling appendages, so I can grapple 2 creatures, lock down a third’s movement with Branches of the Tree, and still have both hands free to make attacks with (usually a Halberd for that extra Cleave mastery attack).
A Bugbear World Tree Barbarian would be hilarious. Constantly smacking people from uncomfortably far away, a LOT harder than you'd expect, and teleporting around all the time.
TLDR Gnome with mage slayer! My small variaton in for optimization that would not show on the spreadsheet: You have more than enough hit points, you need better saves, especially mental saves so i would change: Be a gnome (best) or halffing (ok) or human (to take 2 prob on feats) As origin feat tough is good, but consider lucky or musician Right at level 4 take mage slayer Later consider resiliant wisdom
From the PHB about Brutal Strikes "you can forgo any Advantage on one Strength-based attack roll". it says "any advantage" meaning you don't get advantage from another source (like prone) when using Brutal Strikes. Won't affect your damage report in terms of survivability, but will reduce damage and ability to apply "tanking" debuffs.
barbarians are amazing skill monkeys (with their selective primal knowledge stuff) as they get advantage on all strength based skill checks (which ofc are strength based with rage RAHH 💪
Feel like a Halberd could be REALLY good on this build, particularly for the Cleave Mastery. With this Subclass' ability for maneuverability and forced movement, putting two creatures (that are larger or smaller) next to each other would be VERY doable. And since you can always use Push and Topple at will with your Battering Roots feature, using your first attack (and even a second if you needed to) to push one enemy towards another and then either with your second attack or your BA attack hit both of them with Cleave. So, at level 10, you could theoretically have 2 medium enemies 20 ft apart on your turn. Stand on the opposite side of one enemy and hit them twice, pushing them 20 feet (no save) all while you don't have to move more than 5 more feet between the two attacks as you have 20 ft reach. Push them together, then as long as both enemies are 5 feet from each other, and both are within 20 feet of you, you can then attack BOTH of them with the Cleave mastery with your BA polearm master attack, damaging them, but possibly pushing them both 10 more feet, or attempt to topple both. All the while you are still 20-30 feet from them and hopefully standing between them and your allies. This is how you tank in 5e
Sorry to hear they jacked up your dnd man cave. But wherever you go the biggest draw card and the main reason to tune in, is to see your amazing gift at work making awesome builds. Keep rolling 20’s
After seeing the character art and was excited to see how you make dual wielding a Flail and a Trident work well. …..But I guess it was just artistic liberty….. Can’t say I’m not disappointed
I'd be very interested to see what you could come up with using the new thief rogue. Even just scribing true strike scrolls with a wizard dip could result in some crazy damage.
I think soloing a medium difficulty encounter is fine, as far as a whiteboard fight goes. Realistically, there would be 4 of you in a deadly encounter. Although you may need to end up changing how you define a medium encounter once the new DMG comes out.
Been wanting to see a world tree barb build since i saw Treantmonk's detailed view of the 2024 classes, it just sounds like a really cool concept for a character.
since you were talking about maximum "effective" HP in this video i wanted to mention that the across-the-board buff to healing spells lets an artificer with spell-storing item get some pretty ridiculous amounts of "effective" HP. with a +5 INT mod they get on average 140 (10 x 2d8 + 5) additional HP per long rest (and obviously, that uses your action to gain but we are speaking in a vacuum). combining that with guardian armorer's ability to gain temporary HP equal to your artificer level PBTPLR (for 65 total at level 13 or 102 at level 17). in addition to tough, magic initiate for the shield spell, the newly buffed heavy armor master feat, concentrating on stoneskin (twice as good thanks to heavy armor master), and using infusions you can boost your survivability to ridiculous extremes, at the expense of all else. and you'd also get the armorer's 'soft taunt' in the thunder gauntlets so you could probably be a pretty effective tank (again, at the expense of all else). sorry for the ramble i just wanted to get out some thoughts that i had
We need the ANTI-Sanctuary Spell where the target needs to roll Wisdom to hit anyone else but the caster and if they do make the save to hit another target they hit at disadvantage. If target of spell hits caster it does not affect concentration (Others can hit caster to affect concentration. This way they are not hitting your teammates.) Just my 2 coppers.
I really like the new barbarian and especially this subclass. I've thought about the idea of making the ultimate battlefield control barb, by using a whip for slow mastery, slasher feat, the frost goliath species slow, and hamstring blow to stop most enemies from moving (45 foot slow) with no save and no size restrictions (unlike topple). The large size also really increases the reaction pull area to shut down another opponent. Also means you can slow (slasher/frost goliath), push (brutal strike), and cleave (weapon mastery) with a halberd in one attack.
I like the idea of goliaths over dwarves for World Tree Barbs to provide the extra control options on top of taking Sentinel for shutting down potential movement.
Concerning smiting Barbarians: I may be wrong, and it would take a way heavier investment, but!!! You could get the Eldritch Smite invocation from the Warlock and it would still work because it's neither a spell nor uses concentration. Could be an interesting build in there somewhere.
We have had 8 sessions with the new rules, my friend is a WT. We cooked up a dual wielding far reaching "Kratos" inspired norse barbarian. Our Dm let him get the extra reach granted by the level 10 feature even though he's dual wielding shortsword and scimitar. It's so sick. I'm playing a warrior of the serpents (way of the serpent) monk. We're having such a blast. It would be awesome if you could compare your 2 drakkenheim builds with the 2024 rules, to see how busted those subclasses are with the new monk. Maybe you could do them both in one video, and not a super indepth build for each (kind of like your bg3 videos). Great video, Colby ❤️
I kind of wish that world tree got the option to select a druid cantrip or two and can cast it as part of raging, because I'd *love* to do a shaman world tree that maxes wisdom thematically and just swirls around with a quarterstaff all the time.
23:40 - Well, this just became a really fun GOW/GOW Ragnarok Kratos build idea lol, use the “World Tree Branches” as the Blades of Chaos for example….. (Battle axe for Leviathan, Whip for the Blades of Chaos, (Reach+Slashing Damage+Slow), ideally both are Dragon’s Wrath weapons to add the elemental damage)
Want to add something fun? Find a wizard that has Fire Shield, get a weapon, craft an enspelled weapon that is able to cast it and use it before you rage. Can also do the same with armor of agathyz. Of course, this video was taken before the DMG so it isnt considered here
Currently running a grimmdark, fairytale campaign setting inspired by Neverafter/The Wolf Among Us, and the Path of the World Tree (Beanstalk) barb is kicking my ass. It's supposed to be a deadly campaign and 6 months in not a single PC death all thanks to him.
Colby, you need to find a way to work out a Monk with a whip, slasher, and either spirit guardians, Spirit Shroud, or conjure minor elementals, or some other way to reduce their speed even further, and play a lock down battlefield control martial!
I NEED to see what you can make out of this! I know you said you wanted to stick to the 2024 phb for a while, but when you start going around there’s a decent Loxodon Ranger/Monk build. People say the trunk can’t unarmed strike but it can, just can’t use weapons. So you can grapple someone, move them next to someone else and still be able to use a cleave weapon, and the horde breaker feature (attack order matters). Stats can be a little weird with point buy, but can start fighter for heavy armor and Con saves. Farmer background comes in CLUTCH.
Restricted Movement. Your only movement options are to crawl or to spend an amount of movement equal to half your Speed (round down) to right yourself and thereby end the condition. If your Speed is 0, you can’t right yourself.
@DndDeepDive you need a metric for tanks that shows how well they can taunt. DTPR and RTD are very closely related and you need something that shows how well a tank can taunt. Maybe they get 1 point for each enemy action they remove or occupy and 0.5 points for an incentivized action or soft taunt.
I've heard differently about Brutal Strike. It says "If you use Reckless Attack, you can forgo any Advantage on one Strength-based attack roll of your choice on your turn." It doesn't say that you can forgo the Advantage granted by the Reckless attack. It says you can forgo ANY Advantage, which could be interpreted as a straight roll even if they're prone or if you have any other source of advantage. Thoughts on this reading?
Sure. It seems like, by mentioning Reckless attack, the implication is that you're giving up Reckless Attack's advantage (or why mention it at all? Why not just say "if you have advantage, you can instead forego advantage to gain X"), but I can see a DM ruling it otherwise.
@@DnDDeepDive Because that would allow you to use Brutal while not Reckless. Seems the design intent is tie the two together, part of the increased risk/reward of Brutal?
My personal opinion is that Goliath with Stone Endurance is probably the most resistent species of all (Considering you aren't using your reaction for something important every turn). From level 1 to 4 you can mitigate at least 4 damage or 9.5 avarage (with 16 con) and 2 times. This means a level 1 goliath/barbarian with 16 con and tough feat has virtual hitpoints of at least 25 and an avarage of 36. A dwarf would have only 16. In comparison: A max level barbarian can mitigate even more times and has increased CON which Stone Endurance uses. If the level 20 goliath barbarian has 24 CON, Tough feat, and Boon of Fortitude you would have virtual hitpoints of at least 413 or 446 avarage (normally 365 HP). You can even get more virtual hitpoints if you grap the Boon of Recovery, which lets you regenerate half your total HP, and regenerate with your bonus action. If my math is correct, you can at least 497.5 or 542.5 avarage virtual hitpoints and a goliath with Stone Endurance would have at least 545.5 and avarage of 623.5 virtual hitpoints in this way.
BARBARIAN BUILD :D Ok its the new World Tree, which is admitted super ultra mega cool! But I will still await a berzerker build for the bursty smashy bois! Great Build Today Colby!
I would like to see you explore the new True Strike cantrip in a build. I realized that with that, Clerics can now be built to use Longbows if you can get magic initiate (wizard)
35:28 No, you can't get the Slow mastery . . . but you _could_ get a similar effect from the Slasher feat (which should then stack with your other effects). Might it be better to take that instead of, say, the Polearm Master feat?
I would go for a Dex/Con x Rogue, 2 barbarian, Evasion + danger sense + Rage + high AC basically enables you to tank and let your wizard to fireball without worrying about you
Withstand punishment is potentially the wrong way to consider tanking, the goal is to protect the serious damage dealers who likely optimised for all the dakka and none of the survivablitly. Doesn't directly correlate that you have to take the hits yourself. For instance a highly mobile style 'tank' - perhaps a monk could with a reach weapon and sentinel forever keep the BBEG locked at zero movement, so unless they have lots of ranged attacks or reach themselves....
I’m about to start playing in a new campaign and chose a Cloud Giant lineage Goliath World Tree Barbarian to double down on the teleporting- not just to me, but me to others, and I picked the farmer background too! Although seeing this video means I DEFINITELY need to flavor a trident as a pitch fork 🤣 Nightcrawler Goliath teleporting overtop of enemies to rain down Rage with a pitchfork 😱🤘🏼👨🏼🌾
Treantmonk said that you don’t get advantage period when you use brutal strike (this was in his dpr calculation for barbarian). I/he could be wrong. Keep it up!
Check out Obvious Mimic here! obviousmimic.com/discount/COLBY10 - and don't forget their patreon: patreon.com/obviousmimic - oh and check out the upcoming kickstarter!!! www.kickstarter.com/projects/obviousmimic/the-mystery-of-witchhaven-a-5e-solo-adventure - ALSO! Regarding Brutal Strike: I'm seeing some comments about whether or not you could still have advantage if an enemy were prone, since the wording for Brutal Strike is that you give up "any advantage" - by the strictest reading of the rules, you probably can't have advantage. My reading is that the intent is that we forego advantage granted from Reckless attack (or why mention Reckless Attack at all? Why not just say "if you have advantage, you can instead forego advantage to gain X"), but definitely discuss with your DM!
Nice video I feel like an interesting build would be using conjure minor elementals on the moon Druid.
I agree with you Colby. RAI notwithstanding, I see no reason why brutal strike would prevent the mechanical advantage of an enemy being knocked to the ground or a magic spell from an ally helping the barbarian strike true. It should only negate the advantage the barbarian has by virtue of attacking recklessly.
Thanx for the discount Colby and Obvious Mimic! I loved the first solo adventure, and I'm in the middle of the second one. Now I'll have something to do with my character later this month!
I really like the Obvious Mimic solo adventures, but they are definitely not from levels 1-4. I've played the first two (after backing Oki Island on kickstarter on the back of your previous advert) and both are designed for lvl 1 and only hit 2 upon completion. They're fun, but they're definitely not great for testing out low level character concepts in my experience, as builds rarely come together at lvl 1.
About brutal strikes: RAW suggests that you have to forego advantage AND have to be using reckless attack ("If you use reckless attack, you can forego..."). So, even if you have advantage from another source, you cannot use brutal strikes unless you are also using reckless attack. I think it kinda sucks, but regardless, RAW is unambiguous here in my estimation!
Farmer background and Trident weapon mastery? Flavor it as a pitchfork and it's a great day to throw some hay!
Brilliant. :3
This! Arrhhhggg, Stay away from my turnips!!!!
@@AllNighterProduction I read that in the voice of groundskeeper Willy 🤣
This is basically the build I have.
Dwarven farmer, village was raided by Goblins and Orcs and everyone died except him as he was on his way back to the village. Comes back, sees the chaos and his dead family and goes into a RAGE! Fights his way to the village chiefs house fighting off goblins with his pitchfork and when he sees everyone is also dead there he steals the Chiefs ceremonial Longsword and Shield (Giving me my 2 weapon mastery) and slays all the goblins.
He vows to destroy all Evil in the world to quell his rage
I just found my new character haha
My face at 11:43 when I get name dropped by Colby
Nice to see you get a shout-out! The algorithm can be brutal, so hopefully this sends some traffic your way.
@@charlesboots6508I am always extremely grateful for any support and shout outs I receive, especially so when they come from creators that I have so much respect for like Colby.
You’re 100% correct that the algorithm can be brutal so getting any external support is always a blessing :)
Traffic Diverted! Insight gained!
Did u finish the video yet? Curious to see the differences
You probably know by now, but that disadvantage to attack others is still available in the new rules, it is just attached to the grappling rules now rather than a subclass feature
Indeed grappling is much better.
Ooh monk tank incoming?
@@BinxyBrown Early game? Absolutely. A monk can grab two enemies, move them away from everyone and use their deflect attacks to survive way longer.
Later levels I feel the monk is too fragile for that alas.
The change from opposed test to DC based test means grapple tanking isn’t really a thing anymore. The enemies you’re most concerned about locking down are very likely to resist being grappled or knocked prone and/or immediately break free.
@@diana.winter I mean that completely depends on the new monster manual but currently I'd agree
I'm going to be playing a world tree Barb in my first ever campaign starting in 2 weeks, so this is VERY exciting for me
Yes! Glad to see the Dwarf/Farmer back Ground. So much HP!
Tbh, I missed the videos you did at home anyway. The occasional kid laughing in the background or wife cameo is just the icing on those older videos!
@31:31 Pretty sure this doesn't work that way. It says in the Brutal Strike description:
"You can forgo *any* Advantage on one Strength-based attack roll of your choice on your turn."
*Any* being the big word. Otherwise this would be busted AF.
Also once you attack Recklessly, there is no going back... you will always have advantage (unless you brutal strike) and enemies will always have advantage against you.
"When you make your first attack roll on your turn, you can decide to attack recklessly. Doing so gives you Advantage on attack rolls using Strength until the start of your next turn, but attack rolls against you have Advantage during that time."
Indeed, only the epic boon that makes a miss a hit once a turn would work well with this feature. Otherwise no way to make it more. Likely to hit.
By playing a Wildhunt Shifter, nothing within 30 feet of you can make attacks with advantage against you.
Given, you can't activate this on the same turn as Rage, but it's worth it if you can't take the risk.
Agreed, any advantage means ANY advantage. Not "advantage from this feature."
@RokuroCarisu sure, just consider that *Reckless Attack* is effectively a soft taunt, as enemies are more compelled to target the tank if they have Advantage on doing so.
I'd take mage slayer instead of polearm master on this build, no fighter dip, get that once per short rest mental save immunity, (which at 3 levels later no longer ends your rage, but still messes you up)
I'm playing a WT Barb in my next campaign starting next month, can't wait. He's a Goliath whose tribe was attacked and killed by hill giants. His father threw him in a river to save him and he was found and raised by an elderly couple who were farmers with no kids (yes I know how much that sounds like Superman now that I write it out)
Sounds better than superman*
Sounds like Hercules tbh
Sounds like Thrall from Warcraft
I actually thought about Thrall from WoW, he has a similar background for when he was a child.
@@vikingspartan never played Warcraft or WOW, shows there's never an original idea though.
Colby, You missed an even more amazing part of Primal knowledge. Because it changes those skills into strength checks, You also have advantage on those checks as well since rage gives you advantage on all strength checks.
That combined with the 10-minute duration and the short rest recharge means that feasibly the Barbarian can be in rage using Primal knowledge for the entirety of the dungeon or heist sequence.
A hard-hitting tank that can also do skills good
YES! It specifically says you turn these into strength-checks, not that strength is the attribute for these checks. This is massive!
If you ever get to Level 18, you also get these skills automatically at your Strength score at a minimum
Don’t forget to take a picture of this studios background for nostalgia inducing green screen shenanigans.
World Tree is the very epitome of "I am not locked in here with you. YOU’RE locked in here with ME!"
The Path of the World Tree barbarian is the one thing that might be able to draw me back into D&D. Whoever designed it rolled a 20.
After you regulalry saying "I am beholden to the spreadsheet" I just realized: you are a spreadsheet warlock.
You make yourself beholden to its biddings, and in exchange it grants you gifts of insight.
And you have high charisma.
its not always a question of being "better", its more about being fun and this class is one that clearly stand out, just like monk of element and shadow.
Double comment from me:
Please do start calculating tank survivability based on Deadly encounters!
I'd also love to get a traditional damage report each time. Now that you have the Champion Fighter baseline it would be fun to compare a build that isn't being built for pure damage against the baseline.
Happy Tuesday!
Durable Feat is very good with the periapt of wound closure, which allows you to double the healing from H.D. effects. If you are going to go this route you may want to get the dwarven feat that allows you to spend H.D for healing when you take the dodge action. Now you can Dodge and bonus action heal for 2d12x2 healing. Not bad if you are holding a choke point.
Very true we'll have to wait for the dmg to get an official ruling on the prices of magic items but when that happens this can fully come online
I love how this build encourages being more tactical with the weapon masteries, exactly what I wanted for martials.
After seeing You Might Be a World Tree Barbarian, this video has a special place in the RUclips universe.
Can finally play the Viking styled barbarian I've always wanted to. Great video as always Colby 👌
*Yggdrasil,* The World Tree, has amazing lore in Norse mythology!
Excited to see how you work around the soft taunt, I feel like there are so many new control options for martials that it opens up a new path to tanking.
Thank you for all the content! I have really appreciated all your build guides, for both the 2014 and 2024 versions of dnd. I have been curious about a build for a little while, and I was a little confused about how to propose it (do I have to become a member/discord). I don't know if it would be of interest, but a fighter with a double-bladed scimitar with the new two-handed weapon fighting style sounded pretty cool to me. because you can't roll lower than a 6 on each attack it sounded like fun consistent damage. Thank you so much!
@@treeckoex7740 thanks! Got this on my to do list :)
These videos are one reason to why I look forward to Tuesday mornings because of these!
My backup to my giant barbarian is pretty much the basic build for this, dwarf, tough feat, world tree barbarian focused on protecting my homies as the battlefield control meat wall. Glad to see the tank role getting some love!
Excited to start this after the Magic Item reveal! So much good content!
I'm playing a gnome farmer world tree barb for my very first time playing in the Tomb of Annihilation. I'll be using pole arm master with Glaive (cleave) and Pike (Push). At level 2 this character will have advantage on all saves (except con). At level 4 he will have up to 4 or 5 attacks via cleave and the AoO from Pole Arm Master. Passive Perception of 20 when raging at level 3. It's going to be such a fun character to play :)
I've been so excited for you to build this!
I like the protection fighting style as the soft taunt now, its the similar to cavelier, (ofc bc 5ft and disadvantage blah blah) but takes reaction, so no shield spell or absorb elements, but i feel it opens up a lot of builds that want to tank that dint use reaction, like your old swords bard build that took the protection fighting style
I want to shout out the new Mage Slayer as an outstanding new tank feat. A free success on a Dominate Person spell with our 8 Wisdom once per short rest is pretty good.
I would love it if you made a "Burning Bush" duo build with a Wildfire Druid and a World Tree Barbarian teleporting enemies into their Wall of Fire.
Could flavor the tree roots as tentacles for some Davey Jones / Kraken action. I love it
Medium armored and/or bare-chested warrior with trident and shield? This is a dang gladiator build
I'll play an *Eladrin* (reflavored as a Dryad). Choosing the *Spring* season, I could *Fey Step* myself or my allies around the battlefield as soon as 3rd level, imitating the later subclass features of the *World Tree Barbarian.*
I’m gonna cry no more room. I am sad along with you. Oh also great video as always
If you don't like the idea of a plantwispering Barbarian, here's an alternative:
An "Eldritch" Barbarian. The roots are tentacles of some otherworldly horror that they are bonded with.
Another alternative: chains
When the class videos started coming out Barbarian looked like one of the top most improved classes and World Tree was by far my favorite subclass. I initially wanted to do 2 weapon fighting with battle axes or longswords but the new dual wielder feat requires a light weapon for the 1st attack.
I really wish they had added the Rage damage bonus into the Grappled condition saving throw calculation. It's weird that in the new rules Barbarians who are raging dont have any bonus to being super strong compared to any other class.
With the *Grappler* feat, Barbarians at least add their *Rage damage bonus* to damage of Unarmed Strikes. Granted, you need to pick *Tavern Brawler,* a species with *Natural Weapons,* or do a *Fighter* dip for *Unarmed Fighting* style to deal more damage than every other class with Unarmed Strikes.
*Leonin* has *Claws* and *Daunting Roar.* After Grappling 1-2 foes, they can frighten all foes within 10 feet, potentially giving them *Disadvantage* on Acrobatics or Athletics checks to escape the Grapple for one round.
At my table we’re just straight up sticking with the contested checks for grappling, we think it’s more fun than imposing a save and it leaves more room for grapple-based build shenanigans.
I’m currently playing a World Tree Barbarian with the Skill Expert feat, so I can grapple with expertise and advantage, and I’m a Simic Hybrid with grappling appendages, so I can grapple 2 creatures, lock down a third’s movement with Branches of the Tree, and still have both hands free to make attacks with (usually a Halberd for that extra Cleave mastery attack).
I have been so excited to see you build this subclass since I heard about it! YAY!
A Bugbear World Tree Barbarian would be hilarious. Constantly smacking people from uncomfortably far away, a LOT harder than you'd expect, and teleporting around all the time.
TLDR Gnome with mage slayer!
My small variaton in for optimization that would not show on the spreadsheet:
You have more than enough hit points, you need better saves, especially mental saves so i would change:
Be a gnome (best) or halffing (ok) or human (to take 2 prob on feats)
As origin feat tough is good, but consider lucky or musician
Right at level 4 take mage slayer
Later consider resiliant wisdom
From the PHB about Brutal Strikes "you can forgo any Advantage on one Strength-based attack roll". it says "any advantage" meaning you don't get advantage from another source (like prone) when using Brutal Strikes. Won't affect your damage report in terms of survivability, but will reduce damage and ability to apply "tanking" debuffs.
Aye - see pinned comment :)
The World Tree Barbarian: D&D Ep #186
Level 01 (see above) [barbarian 1, species, background & weapon mastery]
Level 02 (see above) [barbarian 2]
Level 03 (@17:18) [barbarian 3, Primal Knowledge & subclass]
Level 04 (@19:45) [barbarian 4, feat & weapon mastery]
Level 05 (@22:37) [barbarian 5]
Level 06 (@23:03) [barbarian 6]
Level 07 (see above) [barbarian 7]
Level 08 (@29:54) [barbarian 8 & feat]
Level 09 (@30:35) [barbarian 9]
Level 10 (see above) [barbarian 10 & weapon mastery]
Level 11 (@35:51) [barbarian 11]
Level 12 (@36:59) [barbarian 12 & feat]
Level 13 (@39:24) [fighter 1, weapon masteries & fighting-style]
Level 14 (see above) [barbarian 13]
Level 15 (@44:05) [barbarian 14]
Level 16 (@45:10) [barbarian 15]
Level 17 (@45:50) [barbarian 16 & feat]
barbarians are amazing skill monkeys (with their selective primal knowledge stuff) as they get advantage on all strength based skill checks (which ofc are strength based with rage RAHH 💪
Thanks Colby! ❤
Feel like a Halberd could be REALLY good on this build, particularly for the Cleave Mastery. With this Subclass' ability for maneuverability and forced movement, putting two creatures (that are larger or smaller) next to each other would be VERY doable. And since you can always use Push and Topple at will with your Battering Roots feature, using your first attack (and even a second if you needed to) to push one enemy towards another and then either with your second attack or your BA attack hit both of them with Cleave.
So, at level 10, you could theoretically have 2 medium enemies 20 ft apart on your turn. Stand on the opposite side of one enemy and hit them twice, pushing them 20 feet (no save) all while you don't have to move more than 5 more feet between the two attacks as you have 20 ft reach. Push them together, then as long as both enemies are 5 feet from each other, and both are within 20 feet of you, you can then attack BOTH of them with the Cleave mastery with your BA polearm master attack, damaging them, but possibly pushing them both 10 more feet, or attempt to topple both. All the while you are still 20-30 feet from them and hopefully standing between them and your allies.
This is how you tank in 5e
Next barbarian was definitely going to be this one. So cool to have another opinion on the theming of this neat subclass!
Sorry to hear they jacked up your dnd man cave. But wherever you go the biggest draw card and the main reason to tune in, is to see your amazing gift at work making awesome builds. Keep rolling 20’s
Came for the build, stayed for the tipsy Balrog. 😂
This one looks extremely fun. World Tree just moved up my list to try for sure...
Great song from an all time great album ❤️
Another way to get the enemy to attack you is to be bigger than them, you are obviously a threat. Goliath gets the ability to grow Large at 5th level.
After seeing the character art and was excited to see how you make dual wielding a Flail and a Trident work well.
…..But I guess it was just artistic liberty…..
Can’t say I’m not disappointed
I'd be very interested to see what you could come up with using the new thief rogue. Even just scribing true strike scrolls with a wizard dip could result in some crazy damage.
I think soloing a medium difficulty encounter is fine, as far as a whiteboard fight goes. Realistically, there would be 4 of you in a deadly encounter. Although you may need to end up changing how you define a medium encounter once the new DMG comes out.
Been wanting to see a world tree barb build since i saw Treantmonk's detailed view of the 2024 classes, it just sounds like a really cool concept for a character.
I was just contemplating making a World Tree barbarian so the timing of this couldn’t be any more perfect
since you were talking about maximum "effective" HP in this video i wanted to mention that the across-the-board buff to healing spells lets an artificer with spell-storing item get some pretty ridiculous amounts of "effective" HP. with a +5 INT mod they get on average 140 (10 x 2d8 + 5) additional HP per long rest (and obviously, that uses your action to gain but we are speaking in a vacuum). combining that with guardian armorer's ability to gain temporary HP equal to your artificer level PBTPLR (for 65 total at level 13 or 102 at level 17). in addition to tough, magic initiate for the shield spell, the newly buffed heavy armor master feat, concentrating on stoneskin (twice as good thanks to heavy armor master), and using infusions you can boost your survivability to ridiculous extremes, at the expense of all else. and you'd also get the armorer's 'soft taunt' in the thunder gauntlets so you could probably be a pretty effective tank (again, at the expense of all else). sorry for the ramble i just wanted to get out some thoughts that i had
We need the ANTI-Sanctuary Spell where the target needs to roll Wisdom to hit anyone else but the caster and if they do make the save to hit another target they hit at disadvantage. If target of spell hits caster it does not affect concentration (Others can hit caster to affect concentration. This way they are not hitting your teammates.) Just my 2 coppers.
I really like the new barbarian and especially this subclass. I've thought about the idea of making the ultimate battlefield control barb, by using a whip for slow mastery, slasher feat, the frost goliath species slow, and hamstring blow to stop most enemies from moving (45 foot slow) with no save and no size restrictions (unlike topple). The large size also really increases the reaction pull area to shut down another opponent.
Also means you can slow (slasher/frost goliath), push (brutal strike), and cleave (weapon mastery) with a halberd in one attack.
I like the idea of goliaths over dwarves for World Tree Barbs to provide the extra control options on top of taking Sentinel for shutting down potential movement.
This is the one new subclass that impresses me
Concerning smiting Barbarians: I may be wrong, and it would take a way heavier investment, but!!! You could get the Eldritch Smite invocation from the Warlock and it would still work because it's neither a spell nor uses concentration. Could be an interesting build in there somewhere.
We have had 8 sessions with the new rules, my friend is a WT. We cooked up a dual wielding far reaching "Kratos" inspired norse barbarian. Our Dm let him get the extra reach granted by the level 10 feature even though he's dual wielding shortsword and scimitar. It's so sick.
I'm playing a warrior of the serpents (way of the serpent) monk. We're having such a blast.
It would be awesome if you could compare your 2 drakkenheim builds with the 2024 rules, to see how busted those subclasses are with the new monk. Maybe you could do them both in one video, and not a super indepth build for each (kind of like your bg3 videos).
Great video, Colby ❤️
An all barbarian party of colby's. Good luck.
I have still been loving my artificer clockwork sorcerer tank thank you very much!
I kind of wish that world tree got the option to select a druid cantrip or two and can cast it as part of raging, because I'd *love* to do a shaman world tree that maxes wisdom thematically and just swirls around with a quarterstaff all the time.
23:40 - Well, this just became a really fun GOW/GOW Ragnarok Kratos build idea lol, use the “World Tree Branches” as the Blades of Chaos for example…..
(Battle axe for Leviathan, Whip for the Blades of Chaos, (Reach+Slashing Damage+Slow), ideally both are Dragon’s Wrath weapons to add the elemental damage)
Want to add something fun? Find a wizard that has Fire Shield, get a weapon, craft an enspelled weapon that is able to cast it and use it before you rage. Can also do the same with armor of agathyz. Of course, this video was taken before the DMG so it isnt considered here
Feral Instinct does help a barbarian to leap into the way of danger. This is before others may have a chance to strike allies.
Good luck on your new digs!
Currently running a grimmdark, fairytale campaign setting inspired by Neverafter/The Wolf Among Us, and the Path of the World Tree (Beanstalk) barb is kicking my ass. It's supposed to be a deadly campaign and 6 months in not a single PC death all thanks to him.
Colby, you need to find a way to work out a Monk with a whip, slasher, and either spirit guardians, Spirit Shroud, or conjure minor elementals, or some other way to reduce their speed even further, and play a lock down battlefield control martial!
I NEED to see what you can make out of this!
I know you said you wanted to stick to the 2024 phb for a while, but when you start going around there’s a decent Loxodon Ranger/Monk build. People say the trunk can’t unarmed strike but it can, just can’t use weapons. So you can grapple someone, move them next to someone else and still be able to use a cleave weapon, and the horde breaker feature (attack order matters). Stats can be a little weird with point buy, but can start fighter for heavy armor and Con saves. Farmer background comes in CLUTCH.
@@drakejackson7374 on the to do list!
Pretty sure we could save computational power by implementing Colby's to-play list as a stack
Perfect timing, just made my own Thri-kreen 3 cavalier / x World tree barbarian!
Tell me all the good things about world tree!
Perfect timing! :D
A Barbarian build on my birthday? Heck yeah
32:00 - I didn't realise it worked like that. I always thought it took half a creatures total speed to stand up from prone.
Restricted Movement. Your only movement options are to crawl or to spend an amount of movement equal to half your Speed (round down) to right yourself and thereby end the condition. If your Speed is 0, you can’t right yourself.
I'm not sure, you could read it either way
Finally! I've been waiting for you to do this.
@DndDeepDive you need a metric for tanks that shows how well they can taunt. DTPR and RTD are very closely related and you need something that shows how well a tank can taunt. Maybe they get 1 point for each enemy action they remove or occupy and 0.5 points for an incentivized action or soft taunt.
I've heard differently about Brutal Strike. It says "If you use Reckless Attack, you can forgo any Advantage on one Strength-based attack roll of your choice on your turn." It doesn't say that you can forgo the Advantage granted by the Reckless attack. It says you can forgo ANY Advantage, which could be interpreted as a straight roll even if they're prone or if you have any other source of advantage. Thoughts on this reading?
Sure. It seems like, by mentioning Reckless attack, the implication is that you're giving up Reckless Attack's advantage (or why mention it at all? Why not just say "if you have advantage, you can instead forego advantage to gain X"), but I can see a DM ruling it otherwise.
@@DnDDeepDive My guess is that it is intended to still give enemies advantage on hitting you even when you give up advantage to hit them.
@@DnDDeepDive Because that would allow you to use Brutal while not Reckless. Seems the design intent is tie the two together, part of the increased risk/reward of Brutal?
@@mavtube perhaps!
My personal opinion is that Goliath with Stone Endurance is probably the most resistent species of all (Considering you aren't using your reaction for something important every turn). From level 1 to 4 you can mitigate at least 4 damage or 9.5 avarage (with 16 con) and 2 times. This means a level 1 goliath/barbarian with 16 con and tough feat has virtual hitpoints of at least 25 and an avarage of 36. A dwarf would have only 16.
In comparison:
A max level barbarian can mitigate even more times and has increased CON which Stone Endurance uses. If the level 20 goliath barbarian has 24 CON, Tough feat, and Boon of Fortitude you would have virtual hitpoints of at least 413 or 446 avarage (normally 365 HP). You can even get more virtual hitpoints if you grap the Boon of Recovery, which lets you regenerate half your total HP, and regenerate with your bonus action. If my math is correct, you can at least 497.5 or 542.5 avarage virtual hitpoints and a goliath with Stone Endurance would have at least 545.5 and avarage of 623.5 virtual hitpoints in this way.
BARBARIAN BUILD :D Ok its the new World Tree, which is admitted super ultra mega cool! But I will still await a berzerker build for the bursty smashy bois! Great Build Today Colby!
Thanks Colby!
I would like to see you explore the new True Strike cantrip in a build. I realized that with that, Clerics can now be built to use Longbows if you can get magic initiate (wizard)
Why did I just see a Direwolf... oh that's right Colby said "Winter is coming"
I'm slacking man, I still need to watch the bladesinger video.
35:28 No, you can't get the Slow mastery . . . but you _could_ get a similar effect from the Slasher feat (which should then stack with your other effects). Might it be better to take that instead of, say, the Polearm Master feat?
Weapon Masteries for the win 🤘
DM advice - Every party with a tank or melee death-dealer should have a plan on what to do when your ally is charmed.
“Now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time”
I would go for a Dex/Con x Rogue, 2 barbarian, Evasion + danger sense + Rage + high AC basically enables you to tank and let your wizard to fireball without worrying about you
I so badly want to be in a game of 'Oops all Colby tanks'
and just watch the DM's dreams die
🤣🤣🤣
On our new Vecna campaign my wife is playing a world tree barbarian/echo knight and it's honestly very fun
Good luck with the move, Colby
Withstand punishment is potentially the wrong way to consider tanking, the goal is to protect the serious damage dealers who likely optimised for all the dakka and none of the survivablitly. Doesn't directly correlate that you have to take the hits yourself. For instance a highly mobile style 'tank' - perhaps a monk could with a reach weapon and sentinel forever keep the BBEG locked at zero movement, so unless they have lots of ranged attacks or reach themselves....
28:15 truer words have never been said.
Yggdrasil
Eeg-dra-sil
Love your work Colby.
I’m about to start playing in a new campaign and chose a Cloud Giant lineage Goliath World Tree Barbarian to double down on the teleporting- not just to me, but me to others, and I picked the farmer background too! Although seeing this video means I DEFINITELY need to flavor a trident as a pitch fork 🤣 Nightcrawler Goliath teleporting overtop of enemies to rain down Rage with a pitchfork 😱🤘🏼👨🏼🌾
Treantmonk said that you don’t get advantage period when you use brutal strike (this was in his dpr calculation for barbarian). I/he could be wrong. Keep it up!
22:06 Weapon Juggling isn’t going to fly at many tables.