I'm quite fond of Path of the Primal Spirit; animal companions feel like they shouldn't just be the province of Rangers, and the Barbarian makes a worthy contender besides the Druid (who tbh already has enough stuff).
They are a little overtuned, though in line with something like Tasha's. That's normal in an edition as developers try to push the limits, but it's nice to know I'm not crazy.
Alright, folks, let's keep this going. After a wild Halloween in the McDibben household, we are back with...
Fighter:
Bulwark Warrior: A warrior that's all about protecting your allies. Your hit points are there to be spent, gosh darnit! And this subclass gives you two or three different ways to acquire temp hp to help you spend them. You gain the ability (3rd level) to, with a bonus action, gain temp hp at the end of each of your turns equal to your fighter level for a minute, recharge on a rest. That's really good! You also gain a taunt feature at 3rd level, allowing you to force enemies to attack you. Unfortunately this uses your reaction and only applies to enemies within 5 feet, but it's better than what we got in the core classes, so I'll give them credit on this one. The one problem I have with this fighter is that most of your subclass items are reactions, which slows down play, but the idea is quite interesting.
Living Crucible: It's a fighter that drinks compounds to give themselves abilities. I don't know where this idea could have come from. No idea at all.
Oh not this guy again...
Basically, this subclass is all about setting yourself up for a fight with just the right edges. So as you level up, you get the ability to drink more compounds, having more effects on you at any given time. I would have preferred for the "Toxicity" timer (the number of compounds you can safely drink) to reset on a short rest rather than a long one, but it's not that big of a deal, I think. The actual compounds are interesting, but poorly named. For example, there's one called "Liquid Rage" that just gives you an extra 1d4 weapon damage. Another one is called "Liquid Courage" and gives you temp hp. The only problem is that extra temp hp doesn't help with the frightened condition, which is what I'd expect Liquid Courage to do. It's an interesting idea, but I think the player-facing communication here needed a little work.
Monk:
Way of the Leaden Crown: In John Locke-ian fashion, these monks want humanoids to govern themselves, not be enslaved by horrifying extraplanar creatures. So they train to fight these extraplanar creatures to enable folks to handle themselves. This monk is a little OP. For example, your unarmed attacks have a reach of 10 feet starting at 3rd level, and deal force damage. You gain a number of spells that you can cast with your ki, including hold person, which on a monk is incredibly powerful. You can also push or pull creatures around with your punches at higher levels (though there is a save), which is situationally very useful.
Way of Pride: Monk manscaping! These guys are all about honing themselves and having a lot of pride. Mechanically, it's a monk subclass that wants to have been damaged. You gain several incentives, including more temp hp, the worse off you are. The problem for me is that the incentives aren't nearly worth taking the damage in the first place, given my d8 HD. The 11th level feature is basically a ki-fueled version of Relentless Rage from barbarian. And the capstone kinda sucks (it lets you use two features that normally trigger when you're below half hp whenever you're below total hp). No thanks.
Paladin: (These are both effectively right out of 40K)
Oath of Pestilence: Because Grandfather Nurgle loves you! Not gonna lie, this one is not my bag. This is definitely a bad-guy subclass, all about spreading disease. Your aura sucks (you can give a d20 roll inside your aura disadvantage with a reaction), and your spells include acid arrow, which is garbage. No thanks. Your Channel Divinity is awesome, as you can incapacitate creatures with a melee weapon attack...once per short rest.
Oath of Zeal: Because who doesn't love playing a righteous douche? Your Oath tenets include "Purge the heretics," so....
Seriously go watch the Astartes short film; it's damn good
Again, the aura isn't great (you can't be blinded), but the Channel Divinity is OK (there's also a more investigative option for CD, which is great!). You get as oath spells hunters mark, detect thoughts, and fear, all of which are fantastic on paladins. Despite the crap I'm giving these guys for 40K-ing 5E, this is a solid subclass.
Ranger:
Green Reaper: It's a poisonous ranger! This bad boy gets a bunch of archetype spells (5 of them, including hold person, greater invisibility and cloudkill), which are mostly great. You can deal extra poison damage at 3rd level equal to 1d4, and you can manufacture a variety of poisons that range from "target cannot read, speak or write and has disadvantage on concentration" to "reduces them to 0 movement speed and disadvantage on Dex saves." Yikes! The one thing I am concerned about is that poison is one of the most immunized damage types and conditions in the Monster Manual, and this ranger is going to have a problem dealing with that. At 11th level, you can deal necrotic damage instead of poison, but all of your manufactured poisons still rely on the poisoned condition. Good idea, iffy execution.
Vermin Lord: I remember this from the Book of Vile Darkness! Man, I miss that supplement. Anyway, this ranger is basically the Swarmkeeper in concept, but with even more gross-ness! You can deal necrotic damage, have your cloud of pestilential friends attack on your off-turn, etc. It's an interesting approach and terribly icky. Decent execution, just turns my stomach. Sparky don't mess about with creepy crawlies, y'all.
Alright, guys, I'll continue this next time with rogues! See you then!
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