Guardian Instinct

Seeing your allies in harm's way ignites a burning fury deep inside you. Whether this is from a previous failure to protect someone, the loss of a friend, or a genuine desire to protect people, your allies have one of the hardiest shields, you.

Anathema

Refusing to protect those who cannot protect themselves is anathema.

Vengeful Guardian

(Instinct Ability)

You’re determined to protect your allies in battle. While raging, you can increase the additional damage from Rage from 2 to 3. You gain the Vengeful Guardian Barbarian reaction.

Vengeful Guardian [R]

[Barbarian] , [Rage]

Trigger: A creature damages your ally, and both are within 15 feet of you.

As your ally is struck, you rush to the enemy and show them who they should fear. Stride up to your speed, putting the foe within your reach, then make a melee Strike against the triggering creature. This Strike doesn't count toward your multiple attack penalty, and your multiple attack penalty doesn't apply to this Strike. You can use Vengeful Guardian to Burrow, Climb, Fly, or Swim instead of Stride if you have the corresponding movement type.

Specialization Ability

Increase the additional damage from Rage from 3 to 7. If you have greater weapon specialization, instead increase the additional damage from Rage to 13.

Raging Resistance

You resist physical weapon damage, but not physical damage from other sources (such as unarmed attacks).

Barbarian Feats for Guardian Instinct

The following feats are added to the barbarian class feat choices to supplement the addition of the Guardian Instinct.

Poised Defender - - - - - - - - - - - - Feat 6

[Barbarian] , [Instinct] , [Rage]

Prerequisites: guardian instinct

While you are raging, your senses are heightened, allowing you to more clearly perceive your surroundings. You gain a +1 status bonus to AC instead of taking a -1 penalty to AC; if you have the greater juggernaut class feature, this status bonus increases to +2.

Being unable to protect your allies makes your blood boil. If you are not raging and an enemy would trigger your Vengeful Guardian Reaction, your defensive instincts kick in, awakening the rage within you. You can immediately Rage as part of the Vengeful Guardian Reaction.

Steadfast Presence - - - - - - - - - Level 12

[Barbarian] , [Instinct] , [Rage]

Prerequisites: guardian instinct

While you are raging, you are at the peak of your performance, allowing you to react to danger faster than some think possible. At the start of each of your turns, you gain an additional reaction that you can use only for Vengeful Guardian.

Credit: Daniel Denova (https://tartankiwi.artstation.com/)

Change Log

First, I would really like to say thank you all for giving this a look over. I am really happy to see any comments or feedback you may have. If you decide to play this and have any feedback at all, please don't hesitate to send me a message on reddit. I would love to hear about how it functions in actual play! Thank you so much!

v1.1

• So far no one has had a problem with these features, so they have not been touched. Anathema, Specialization Ability, Raging Resistance.

• Vengeful Guardian: Changed damage bonus from double rage bonus down to only +4.
  • Changed this to make it scale in a more linear fashion. The goal is to keep the base rage damage bonus below Giant Instinct, while making it higher than Giant instinct only with the reaction to give it a "revenge" mechanic.

• Poised Defender: Removed the "Intercept attack" aspect and replaced it with a reactive Rage activation.
  • The "Intercept" aspect felt out of place and more shield champion/fighter than intended. This has been replaced with an added effect to Vengeful Guardian that allows the barbarian to Rage at the start of an encounter if an ally is struck, similar to Wounded Rage, but if an ally is struck instead of the Barbarian. I'm still debating on if allowing them to immediately use the Reaction is Over-Powered or not. Comparing it to Wounded Rage, a level 4 feat, makes this level 6 feat seem very powerful, but considering it is a "once-per-fight" activation (probably) I don't think it is too powerful compared to dragon breath or Giant Stature. I would love more input on this in particular.

• Steadfast Presence: Some have mentioned that this feat is too powerful due to the strength of Vengeful Guardian and needs to be addressed.
  • Currently I am comparing it to other similar feats such as Level 8 Quick Block for Champion and Quick Shield Block for Fighter or Level 10 Combat Reflexes for Fighter. Steadfast Protector is two levels behind the highest level one currently and I believe it should be fine when compared to Dragon Rage Wings, Titan Stature or Predator's Pounce. (I'm not too keen on Spirit Barbarian, so I haven't compared it to those feats since the level 12 one is rather complex and situational.) More input would also be appreciated here.

v1.2

• After some personal playtesting, I felt the increased damage to the reaction was too powerful and pushes the damage numbers too far to be balanced.

• Vengeful Guardian: Removed damage bonus entirely.
  • This Instinct Ability at level 1 was just dealing too much damage. A giant instinct barbarian using the same equipment (longsword for math reasons) with the same stats was dealing 14.5 average damage per swing while the guardian was doing 12.5. After one swing each (Rage then sudden charge for example), the giant instinct is trading clumsy 1 for 2 damage, as designed. However, the guardian instinct was able to deal 12.5, and then if their reaction was triggered, they would deal a whopping 16.5 for "free", pushing their damage well beyond the giant sitting at 29 average, doubling the giant. This was not the intended outcome and I have removed the bonus 4 damage from the instinct to reign it in. It still retains normal rage benefit, so in an average round, assuming 2 attacks and something else, the giant will be dealing 29 damage with the guardian dealing 25, unless their reaction activates, pushing them to 37.5. I feel this is a more reasonable outcome, making them a bigger threat than giant instinct only when they are ignored. As others have said, just allowing the guardian to stride as part of the reaction makes it strong, it doesn't need an additional bump to damage to be competitive. This damage disparity would likely go away and even go into the giant's favor if they were to multiclass champion for their reaction, or just take the opportunity attack feat at level 6, but I feel the mobility afforded the guardian keeps it in line.

• This will likely be the last update to this barbarian instinct option. I feel it is as close as I can get it to being a truly balanced option. Enjoy!

v1.3

• After posting v1.2 on the sub, i realized that this instinct could use 1 final thing to make it more of a bruiser on the battlefield without being an overly-tuned powerhouse. The following changed have been made to the features and feats.

• Vengeful Guardian: Some people still suggest that the damage output for this ability is too high and have suggested to drop the rage damage for this instinct down to be equivalent with spirits instinct. I have made that change with this patch, but I am unsure if it is a good middle ground. Here's the math for it. I would GREATLY appreciate more feedback on this.

  • My math currently shows that changing it to the 3 rage damage instead would make it deal the following. Per swing: 11.5 down from 12.5. With no reaction, it deals 6 less on an average turn. With a reaction, it deals 6 more instead. This is equivalent to half an attack's worth of damage on either side. I feel like this is a good spot for it to be in. Thoughts?

• Poised Defender: This feat has been described as an all around buffed version of Animal Skin for the Animal Instinct. Which, on the surface, it is.

  • The balance of this feat vs animal skin comes from the benefits that animal totem as a whole has. I have ran the numbers on this feat vs animal skin vs a champion in full turtle-mode. Animal skin barbarians come out 1 AC lower than an armored, Poised Defender barbarian, while the barbarian comes out a point or 2 behind the champion, varying by level due to proficiency bumps etc. I believe this is a fine place for it to be so that the barbarian can suitably replace a champion in the defender role without playing anything similar to one. The 1 AC higher than the animal druid shouldn't be seen as a huge increase when you think to realize all of the benefits that animal druids have by keeping their hands open such as doing full attack damage with unarmed AND getting a shield or torch or combat manuever usage without weapon-specific availability. I do not think this feat needs to be split into seperate portions or have the AC boost reduced. If you have a mechanical reason for why this shouldn't hold true, please let me know.

• Steadfast Presence: No one has had issues with this.

• Ignore Pain: This is a new feat idea that I made to incorporate some ideas from a redditor about temp HP.

  • My Number 1 biggest concern with this feat is the level it should be available at. I have no clue where it's benefit would best be added. I considered several levels to get it, and i'm just not sure which...
    • Level 4: This option would give access to the double rage health, making it a relatively weak early pick up, but setting it up to flow better later on when you get renewed vigor. But there are currently no other instinct feats pre-level 6, so I don't know if they didn't want to include that kind of thing.
    • Level 8: It would now directly conflict with Renewed Vigor. Comparing the two at that point means choosing between once per rage gaining a bonus 8 THP, or at-will as an action gaining 4 extra THP. Renewed vigor just outclasses it in my opinion.
    • Level 10: This was an idea to get it directly after renewed vigor, contesting with another defender feat come and get me, which is fine, but not optimal.
    • Level 16: I considered this as an interesting option since you can really turn up the power since its competing with Dragon Transformation. I was thinking maybe remove the bonus THP from rage, add a Renewed Vigor and vengeful strike Prerequisite so it can only be taken after renewed vigor, come and get me, and vengeful strike have been taken at levels 8, 10 and 14, and make vengeful strike generate THP on hit equal to renewed vigor.
    • What about making 2 seperate feats?

v1.4

• After posting v1.3 I couldn't exactly figure out how to balance ignore pair and make it feel like it belonged and I didn't get much feedback on it. So, until an idea strikes me or a suggestion is made, I am removing it from the options. It will remain below. Refer to v1.3 notes for more information about my ideas with it.

• Ignore Pain: Completely removed. The original text is below in case anyone has an idea.

Ignore Pain - - - - - - - - - Level 4/8/10/16?

[Barbarian] , [Instinct] , [Rage]

Prerequisites: guardian instinct

As your anger sets in, you ignore the damage you take and become much harder to put down. When you rage, you gain a number of temporary Hit Points equal to twice your level plus your Constitution modifier instead of the normal amount. If you also have the Renewed Vigor feat, you gain temporary Hit Points equal to your level plus your Constitution modifier when using that action instead of the normal amount.

(Author's Note: Please read the change log, it explains my ideas for this in great detail.)