Barbarian Path of the Wild Soul UA Analysis

“Barbarian Hunter” by JoanPiqueLlorens, CC Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License

Finally, a magic-based Barbarian has come to light in the new Unearthed Arcana playtest material. The Path of the Wild Soul is whimsical, unpredictable, and imaginative. But is it worth playing? We think so, and we’ll explain what we like and dislike about this Barbarian archetype.

Lore

The Feywild shapes the nature of a Barbarian’s rage through rampant magical expression and unpredictable emotion. It’s true that a Barbarian still cannot cast magic in this Path, but the effects of magic manifest in mysterious ways. 

Lingering Magic | Level 3

Cast Detect Magic without expending spell slots or components a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier each long rest, with Constitution as your spellcasting ability. Your body glows a color dependent on the school of magic detected.

While this feature is fun in how it affects the Barbarian, we are often disappointed with Detect Magic as a useful game mechanic. Some Dungeon Masters will rely on a party to use this spell, but often they don’t count on it. Lingering Magic might be a waste of an ability. However, one benefit is that the Barbarian can cast this at will, thus freeing up a spell known for the party’s spellcasters.

Wild Surge | Level 3

When you start your rage, magic erupts from you, creating an effect determined by the Wild Surge table. These effects include conjuring spirits, bursting forth with damaging energy, teleporting, boosting your AC, growing difficult terrain, and more.

This is an ability we can really get behind. Starting at level 3, you have three uses of Rage per long rest, meaning you can Wild Surge three times per day. Note also that according to RAW, Rage lasts for one minute. This may not be impressive with only three uses of Rage, but look at the level 20 row of the Barbarian Table: a Barbarian has unlimited Rages. We’ll discuss another detail of Wild Surge with the level 14 feature Chaotic Fury.

Magic Reserves | Level 6

Channel your Feywild magic into your companions. As an action, restore a creature’s expended spell slots with a simple touch. Roll a d4, and the creature will regain a spell slot equal to that level. If they cannot or haven’t any spell slots of that level expended, they gain temporary hit points equal to 5xd4. The die increases to a d6 at level 14. However, when you use this ability, you take force damage equal to 5xd4.

Is this ability broken? Even the possibility of restoring a spell slot to a caster make this ability incredible. However, there is a risk of taking damage to just give someone temporary hit points if they can’t accept that spell slot. These temporary hit points could also override temporary hit points they may already have.

Nevertheless, we are absolutely impressed with Magic Reserves. A Wild Soul Barbarian is not limited in using this ability: she can do so as many times per day as she desires. Having a healer in the party or some healing abilities makes this a beautiful and powerful ability.

Arcane Rebuke | Level 10

While Raging, when a creature forces you to make a saving throw, use your reaction to deal 3d6 force damage to the creature.

This is a unique feature with interesting effects that apply to both magical and physical saving throws: being grappled, avoiding alchemist fire, being poisoned, having your mind infiltrated, or resisting a spell effect.

For saving throws against spellcasting, the order of operations here is:

1. Spellcaster casts a spell
2. Spell takes effect
3. Barbarian makes a saving throw, and effects are applied
4. Barbarian deals 3d6 force damage as a reaction
5. Caster makes a concentration check

According to the Dungeon Master’s Guide (page 252), “If a reaction has no timing specified, or the timing is unclear, the reaction occurs after its trigger finishes, as in the Ready action.”

Therefore, a Barbarian could thwart the spellcaster’s spell by breaking his concentration and ending the spell early (after initial effects occur).

Chaotic Fury | Level 14

As a bonus action, reroll on the Wild Surge table to replace your current effect with the new one.

Some effects on the Wild Surge table are instantaneous, and some continue until your rage ends. There are also effects that last until the end of your turn. The wording of Chaotic Fury and Wild Surge are a bit ambiguous: “When you enter your rage, roll on the Wild Surge table to determine the magical effect produced” and “reroll on the Wild Surge table, replacing your current effect with the new one.”

The confusion occurs in determining if instantaneous effects trigger when you replace your current effect, or only when you begin your Rage. We would argue that the new effect triggers when you use Chaotic Fury regardless of if it’s instantaneous or ongoing, and your former effect ends. Otherwise, this ability would not be worthwhile, as you’d only produce a new effect with 4 out of 8 of the rolls.

If this build ever gets published in a manual, we would hope that this language becomes more direct. 

Conclusion

Overall, we are utterly impressed with the Path of the Wild Soul. By restoring spell slots, conjuring wild effects, and dealing damage upon saving throws, this Barbarian subclass is an absolute winner in our books.