Slake Your Dark Fantasy Magic Hunger with the 5E D&D Path of the Spelleater Barbarian

If you’re not watching Nerdarchy’s new fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons live play on Nerdarchy Live, now’s the perfect time to catch up! In this dark fantasy 5E D&D campaign I take the reins in my homebrew setting of Aulmn, the same setting for Quill & Sword. The rest of Team Nerdarchy are playing Nerdarchy original subclasses.

Revisiting 5E D&D’s Path of the Spelleater

Robin plays a dwarf rogue with the Thought Thief Roguish Archetype found in Dark Paths: Thought Thief. Nerditor Doug’s Aslari (Aulmn’s version of leonin) blows it all out with the Shaggy Soul Sorcerous Origin found in Hairable Ideas. Nerdarchist Ted stonewalls the enemies with his druid Circle of the Stone Gaze character from the Garden of Statuary.

And what’s Nerdarchist Dave playing, you may ask? He’s playing a subclass offered for FREE right here on the Nerdarchy blog — the Path of the Spelleater Primal Path for barbarians. The original post for this Primal Path still holds up with its flavor text and descriptions of what a Spelleater barbarian is all about, complete with some tables for an extra flair. However, the mechanics were a bit unbalanced and even underpowered when I looked back at the subclass.

While the original Spelleater idea is really cool it depends heavily on your Dungeon Master pitting you against a lot of magic. It also required a lot of excessive dice rolling. Don’t get me wrong — it’s fun rolling funny shaped dice — but the subclass needed a little love.

As a designer, I’m fully aware of my own shortcomings and for me I tend to skew underpowered when designing new 5E D&D classes, subclasses and feats. As such I thought it would be good to revisit the Path of the Spelleater barbarian in time for Ashes of Ardor.

Branded Rage

Beginning when you choose this path at 3rd level, your rage becomes fueled by the magic in the air. Your tattoos, eyes or other features glow brightly, shedding bright light within 30 feet of you and dim light within an additional 30 feet. While you are raging in this way, your attacks are magical and you deal additional force damage with each of your attacks equal to your Constitution modifier.

Additionally, you learn one cantrip of your choice. Choose from druidcraft, prestidigitation or thaumaturgy. This is a side effect of the latent mystical power flowing through your body.

Spell Eating

Also starting at 3rd level, you learn to eat spells by absorbing their magical essence into your body. When you are hit with a spell or fail a saving throw for a spell, you can use your reaction to gain resistance to any damage from the spell and regain one use of your rage feature.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier. You regain all expended uses of this feature when you finish a long rest.

Arcane Memories

Beginning at 6th level, you can perfectly remember anything you have experienced within the past month, as remnants of arcane energy send temporal visions through your mind.

Additionally, you can make an Intelligence (Arcana) check to attempt to harvest memories from locations or objects, as you absorb the residual magic around them.

Bonus Proficiency

Also at 6th level, you gain proficiency in the Arcana skill, as residual magic seeps into your mind, charging your instincts with magical intuition.

Sigil Body

At 10th level you add new tattoos, brands or other markings to your body you can invoke to aid you in battle with spells. All of these spells can be cast by you while you are raging. You gain the following sigils:

• Aegis. You can cast the shield spell a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier. You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
• Locatus. You can expend a use of your rage to cast locate creature or locate object.
• Oratio. You can expend a use of your rage to cast sending.
• Sana. As a bonus action, you can spend hit dice to recover hit points. You can spend a number of hit dice up to your proficiency bonus.
• Silentium. You can expend a use of your rage to cast silence.

Magical Recovery

Beginning at 14th level, you regain a hit die every time you regain a use of your rage. Additionally, you can expend a hit die as an action to end any number of magical effects on yourself.

Spell Gluttony

Also starting at 14th level, your Spell Eating feature is no longer limited by your Constitution modifier.

Does the Spelleater barbarian have you hungry for some 5E D&D?

Feel free to use this subclass in your own games, then let us know what you think by dropping a comment here, tweeting @Nerdarchy, or by connecting with us on Facebook! And don’t forget to tune in live with us every Tuesday at 8 p.m. EST for our dark fantasy 5E D&D campaign Ashes of Ardor! You can watch the first episode below.

*Featured image — Mogis, a god of Theros, makes fine inspiration for a Spelleater barbarian. Nyxborn minotaur sounds perfect to me. [Image courtesy Wizards of the Coast]