Berserker (revised)

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Class Features

1st

  Rage: In battle, you fight with primal ferocity. On your turn, you can enter a rage as a bonus action.   While raging, you gain the following benefits if you aren’t wearing heavy armor:   You have advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws. When you make a melee weapon attack using Strength, you gain a bonus to the damage roll that increases as you gain levels as a barbarian, as shown in the Rage Damage column of the Barbarian table. You have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. If you are able to cast spells, you can’t cast them or concentrate on them while raging.   Your rage lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if you are knocked unconscious or if your turn ends and you haven’t attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then. You can also end your rage on your turn as a bonus action.   Once you have raged the number of times shown for your barbarian level in the Rages column of the Barbarian table, you must finish a long rest before you can rage again.   Unarmored Defense: While you are not wearing any armor, your Armor Class equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Constitution modifier. You can use a shield and still gain this benefit.  

2nd

  Reckless Attack: Starting at 2nd level, you can throw aside all concern for defense to attack with fierce desperation. When you make your first attack on your turn, you can decide to attack recklessly. Doing so gives you advantage on melee weapon attack rolls using Strength during this turn, but attack rolls against you have advantage until your next turn.   Danger Sense: At 2nd level, you gain an uncanny sense of when things nearby aren’t as they should be, giving you an edge when you dodge away from danger.   You have advantage on Dexterity saving throws against effects that you can see, such as traps and spells. To gain this benefit, you can’t be blinded, deafened, or incapacitated.  

3rd

  Primal Path: For the purposes of this revision, it is assumed that you've picked the Path of the Berserker. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th, 10th, and 14th levels.  

4th

  Ability Score Improvement: When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.   Using the optional feats rule, you can forgo taking this feature to take a feat of your choice instead.  

5th

  Extra Attack: Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.   Fast Movement: Starting at 5th level, your speed increases by 10 feet while you aren’t wearing heavy armor.  

6th

  Path feature  

7th

  Feral Instinct: By 7th level, your instincts are so honed that you have advantage on initiative rolls.   Additionally, if you are surprised at the beginning of combat and aren’t incapacitated, you can act normally on your first turn, but only if you enter your rage before doing anything else on that turn.  

8th

  Ability Score Improvement  

9th

  Brutal Critical: Beginning at 9th level, you can roll one additional weapon damage die when determining the extra damage for a critical hit with a melee attack.   This increases to two additional dice at 13th level and three additional dice at 17th level.  

10th

  Path feature  

11th

  Relentless Rage: Starting at 11th level, your rage can keep you fighting despite grievous wounds. If you drop to 0 hit points while you’re raging and don’t die outright, you can make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw. If you succeed, you drop to 1 hit point instead.   Each time you use this feature after the first, the DC increases by 5. When you finish a short or long rest, the DC resets to 10.  

12th

  Ability Score Improvement  

13th

  Brutal Critical: At 13th level, you can roll two additional weapon damage dice when determining the extra damage for a critical hit with a melee attack.   This increases to three additional dice at 17th level.  

14th

  Path feature  

15th

  Persistent Rage: Beginning at 15th level, your rage is so fierce that it ends early only if you fall unconscious or if you choose to end it.  

16th

  Ability Score Improvement  

17th

  Brutal Critical: At 17th level, you can roll three additional weapon damage dice when determining the extra damage for a critical hit with a melee attack.  

18th

  Indomitable Might: Beginning at 18th level, if your total for a Strength check is less than your Strength score, you can use that score in place of the total.  

19th

  Ability Score Improvement  

20th

  Primal Champion: At 20th level, you embody the power of the wilds. Your Strength and Constitution scores increase by 4. Your maximum for those scores is now 24.

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Starting Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:   (a) a greataxe or (b) any martial melee weapon   (a) two handaxes or (b) any simple weapon   An explorer’s pack and four javelins

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Subclass Options

Berserker

  Preamble: So it's no secret that the Berserker subclass isn't very good, especially when compared to Totem Barbarians. This is a optional revision for the Berserker to give the subclass a bit more appeal without completely rewriting the subclass from the ground up. No more exhaustion.   Frenzy: Starting when you choose this path at 3rd level, your rage becomes more frenetic. Once per round while raging, you may reroll an attack that you've missed. Additionally, add half your level (rounded down) to your rage bonus damage. (This increases your average damage per turn without radically increasing your damage ceiling, which seems fair)   Mindless Rage: Beginning at 6th level, you can't be charmed or frightened while raging. If you are charmed or frightened when you enter your rage, the effect is suspended for the duration of the rage. (I actually think mindless rage is a pretty good ability)   Intimidating Presence: Beginning at 10th level, you can use your action to frighten those around you with your menacing presence. When you do so, choose any number of creatures that you can see within 30 feet of you. If the creatures can see you, they must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw (DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier) or be frightened of you until the end of your next turn. This effect ends if the creature ends its turn out of line of sight or more than 60 feet away from you. If a creature succeeds on its saving throw, you can't use this feature on that creature again for 24 hours. (By 10th level, most barbarians will have an intimidation DC of between 11 to 14, which is easily overcome by most creatures of moderate power, provided they don't already have immunity to fear, so the idea of using a turn to target one creature with this ability is a total joke.)   Whirlwind: Starting at 14th level, as an action, you may make a melee weapon attack against all creatures within 5 ft of you as you spin in a deadly dervish. Additionally, before the beginning of your next turn, you make a melee weapon attack against any creature that ends its turn within 5 ft of you. (Originally written, this capstone is entirely underwhelming, a single attack made as a reaction. I thought that this would be better for dealing with hordes and minions, enemies that attack in groups and generally have pretty manageable AC, better allowing the barbarian to recklessly wade into combat swinging wildly. Also, I like Diablo).

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