I enjoy the barbarian class but when I get to their theme powers against similar ones from Fighter or Paladin, it seems quite lack luster.
Berserker Path is simply not very viable. The downsides of exhaustion are quite severe (if you go into combat twice in a game day, you are going to be in a terrible situation before long where you simply wont be able to rage like a normal barbarian).
The Totem Path includes a number of 'rp' powers which I appreciate, but they are pretty poor. Talking to animals is nifty, but the remainder are relatively so so. Resistance vs everything is nice, as is granting advantage, but many of the other perks vs the aforemention class perks seem lack luster. Would you trade the entire archetype for manuever master? I think most people would. Even champion (albeit redundant) or CERTAINLy eldritch knight.
I was a bit dissapointed to see they only got 2 themes (similar to rangers here who also got 2 themes): granted they get options within the theme but it seems (comparing them to Rangers) they are simply not as good in that respect either.
What do people think? Or is there some awesome way people are getting around exhaustion?
Im actually about to play in our second campaign as a Barbarian. Aside from the narrative cool factor of being a Barbarian which I think is a lot of fun to role-play, I would say the Barbarian is one of the biggest melee rippers in the game.
By the time my barbarian is 3rd level when I frenzy I get 2 attacks (1 bonus attack for frenzy) so my damage potnetial with a great axe is 2d12+10 (+2 for rage damage and +3 for strength for each attack) aka assuming you hit with both attacks your doing 12-34 points of damage. At third level thats kind of crazy. And your chances of hitting with both attacks is quite good since your can go Reckless Attack and gain advantages on both attacks. By 5th level it gets even crazier with 2 attacks + 1 for frenzy bonus action attack, all three with advantages thanks to reckless attack. Your max damage at 5th level as a berserker is 51 points. Now you might be a little lower depending on your strength but he is a bruiser like no other. So yeah exhaustion is a drawback but when you start swinging things are going to die.
You realize that after the first combat, you are at disadvantage on all skill checks, and 3 encounters in, are now at disadvantage on ALL attack rolls. Resting does not remove exhaustion---it removes '1' level of exhaustion (LONG REST, not a short rest).
In reality, unless your ignoring the rules, or your DM only throws 1 encounter at you a day, OR you have lengthy downtimes between each game, its unusable.
I covered that in the original post, and you also dont even touch on the main complaint which was the bad nature of the theme/archetype choices. I did not address the base class or the class as whole (although fighters generally will out damage barbarian by 10th or so; action surge + extra attacks). Barbarians are actually the tankiest characters at the moment, if you want damage then Vengeance paladins or great weapon fighters are where you should be looking.
The main problem is that the Barbarian is already a fairly specific concept, so there's not much room to expand with its subclasses. The Monk kind of has the same problem, though they also have Avatar to build from.
I wouldn't mind some more themes and some better theme powers. I can see druids being picky about beasts vs monstrosities, but barbarians would look at the strongest critters they have heard about, so a dragon totem, a hydra totem, or even a (giant) shark totem (for sea-going barbarians), among others, would make sense. Don't get me started on why it is wrong that there is no tiger/jaguar sneaky barbarian.....
O.p. Yep, in fact I am quickly finding 5e is failing to hold my interest as a gamer. Though I like the base system I am noticing a lack of meaningful choices at it's core. I am finding the options in the PHB as stifling,cookie cutter, and lack luster. meh. 
The lack is...pretty bad. I feel the core paladin (without theme) is VERY good, comparable infact. Half dozen immunities, charisma added to saving throws, Smite and Improved Smite (improved smite btw=4.5 average damage, basically a max level rage when they get it). And their spells are utterly amazing.
THEN you add in themes and suddenly, they can get advantage on a big bad every encounter for the duration, they get access to things like hold person and haste and other crazyness. Its a case where the base class is good (like the barbarian) and the theme is good (unlike the barbarian).
I kind of wished the extra attack power of berserker came at a later level and was sans the exhaustion (getting it so early is logically why it has such a downside, but its far too penalizing in real world use. Most games have 2-3 encounters, so taking 2-3 DAYS off between ing game adventures seems pretty extreme in most campaigns I have played in).
I wish they implemented maneuvers as a baseline for martial classes. Best case it will be a ghetto option in the DMG.
Brightmantle wrote:
Uchawi wrote: