Barbarian

Subclasses

Path of the Ancestral Guardian

Some barbarians hail from cultures that revere their ancestors. These tribes teach that the warriors of the past linger in the world as mighty spirits, who can guide and protect the living. When a barbarian who follows this path rages, the barbarian contacts the spirit world and calls on these guardian spirits for aid.
Barbarians who draw on their ancestral guardians can better fight to protect their tribes and their allies. In order to cement ties to their ancestral guardians, barbarians who follow this path cover themselves in elaborate tattoos that celebrate their ancestors’ deeds. These tattoos tell sagas of victories against terrible monsters and other fearsome rivals.

Path of the Beast

Barbarians who walk the Path of the Beast draw their rage from a bestial spark burning within their souls. That beast bursts forth in the throes of rage, physically transforming the barbarian. Such a barbarian might be inhabited by a primal spirit or be descended from shape-shifters.

Path of the Berserker

For some barbarians, rage is a means to an end – that end being violence. The Path of the Berserker is a path of untrammeled fury, slick with blood. As you enter the berserker's rage, you thrill in the chaos of battle, heedless of your own health or well-being.

Path of the Storm Herald

Typical barbarians harbor a fury that dwells within. Their rage grants them superior strength, durability, and speed. Barbarians who follow the Path of the Storm Herald learn instead to transform their rage into a mantle of primal magic that swirls around them. When in a fury, a barbarian of this path taps into nature to create powerful, magical effects.
Storm heralds are typically elite champions who train alongside druids, rangers, and others sworn to protect the natural realm. Other storm heralds hone their craft in elite lodges founded in regions wracked by storms, in the frozen reaches at the world’s end, or deep in the hottest deserts.

Path of the Totem Warrior

The Path of the Totem Warrior is a spiritual journey, as the barbarian accepts a spirit animal as guide, protector, and inspiration. In battle, your totem spirit fills you with supernatural might, adding magical fuel to your barbarian rage. Most barbarian tribes consider a totem animal to be kin to a particular clan. In such cases, it is unusual for an individual to have more than one totem animal spirit, though exceptions exist.

Path of Wild Magic

Many places in the multiverse abound with beauty, intense emotion, and rampant magic; the Feywild, the Upper Planes, and other realms of supernatural power radiate with such forces and can profoundly influence people. As folk of deep feeling, barbarians are especially susceptible to these wild influences, with some barbarians being transformed by the magic. These magic-suffused barbarians walk the Path of Wild Magic. Elf, tiefling, aasimar, and genasi barbarians often seek this path, eager to manifest the otherworldly magic of their ancestors.

Path of the Zealot

Some deities inspire their followers to pitch themselves into a ferocious battle fury. These barbarians are zealots – warriors who channel their rage into powerful displays of divine power.
A variety of gods across the Endless Lands inspire their followers to embrace this path. Kord of the Lucent Pantheon and Gruumsh of the Ashen Pantheon are both prime examples. In general, the gods who inspire zealots are deities of combat, destruction, and violence. Not all are evil, but few are good.

Path of the Giant

Barbarians who walk the Path of the Giant draw strength from the primal forces that are the Giants and their elemental ilk. Their rages surge with elemental power and cause these barbarians to grow in size, transforming them into avatars of primordial might.
During their rage, a barbarian may take after a legendary storm giant, hair turning white and eyes crackling with lightning. Others adopt the monstrous features of apocalyptic titans, rending the world around them so that it may be made anew.

Path of the Juggernaut

Barbarians who follow the Path of the Juggernaut stand so resolutely that none can deter them, and they swing their weapons with such force that all who stand against them are flung aside. In might and in spirit, juggernauts are immovable object and unstoppable force all at once.

Path of the Depths

Encounters with the terrors of the deep can break the minds of the weak-willed, but some forge their trauma into weapons never seen above the waves. The barbarian who walks this path has survived such an encounter and has gained extraordinary abilities from the experience.