Rage Chanter - Wayfarers of the Farwood Barbarian Subclass Review
Wayfarers of the Farwood is a D&D 5th edition supplement, containing a new setting, campaign and additional player rules. It takes us to the world of Lor’Zun, a world dominated by the constantly changing Farwood and terrifying terralanches. Wayfarers of the Farwood is broken down into five main sections. The first introduces the world of Lor’Zun. This includes information about the primal and lesser gods of the world, and the hidden harmony. The second chapter talks about running the game in Lor’Zun, with rules for travelling through different terrain and terralanches.
The third, and largest, section of the book contains the Iron Thieves campaign. The fourth section contains extra rules for players, including the Spirit Chanter class, and an additional subclass for each class from the player’s handbook. The final section is the appendix, containing rules for the Sun Order Monks, random material tables, and Woe Encounter generator, a set of special encounters for the world of Lor’Zun.
Today, I’ll be focusing on the Rage Chanter subclass for Barbarians. You can see my previous review of the Stream Weaver sorcerer here.
Barbarian Path: Rage Chanter
The chants of these barbarians resonate in the spirits of those nearby, bolstering their allies and striking fear in the hearts of their enemies. Rage chanters are deeply connected to the world around them, but once their rage has been woken, only blood can quench their fury.
Level 3:
Rage Chant:
When you enter a rage, you may also begin a chant. You may also start chanting as action without raging. While chanting, your draw power from a source other than yourself, such as spirits, the gods, nature, or the weave of magic. You gain the following benefits while chanting:
You gain advantage of Wisdom saving throws and concentration checks
Other friendly creatures within 10 feet of you add your Rage Damage to their damage rolls when making melee weapon attacks using Strength.
You need to maintain concentration while chanting; your chant ends early if your concentration is broken. Otherwise, you may maintain your chant for a number of minutes equal to your barbarian level. You can concentrate on your chant even when raging. If your rage ends, your chant does not, and vice versa.
Your chant requires your voice to carry, but doesn’t require your mouth to open or move; targets don’t need to be able to hear the chant to be affected, as it affects the targets spirit. Your chant works on deaf creatures.
Your chant can’t affect non-living things, including constructs, undead, and objects. You can communicate for short periods whilst chanting, without breaking your chant, with phrases such as “run!” and “over here!”.
Some of your chant features require a saving throw by the target. Where applicable, your Chant Save DC = 10 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier.
In the early game, the benefits of this feature depend heavily on the composition of your party. If a lot of your party are playing dexterity based characters, like a rogue, or are spellcasters, you’ll get little use of this feature, If, instead, your party contains strength based characters, such as paladins, some fighters, and other barbarians, you’ll get a lot more use of this feature, as more characters will be able to make use of the extra Rage Damage. The advantage on Wisdom saving throws is also useful, as Barbarians typically have lower mental characteristics, and this gives you some protection from spellcasters. I really like the feature, but its usefulness will vary with party composition. There’s no limit on the number of times you can use this feature, allowing to chant all the time, should you wish.
Keen Defense:
When you are hit by an attack, you may use your reaction to add half your Wisdom modifier (rounded up to a minimum of 1), to your AC until the start of your next turn.
Although it doesn’t necessarily give you a huge boost to your AC, this subclass requires you to have a relatively high Wisdom modifier for some of your chant features. As it’s a reaction, you can make good use of this ability, as long as you aren’t fighting creatures which rely on saving throws. Unless you’ve taken a feat or multi-classed, most of your reactions would otherwise be opportunity attacks, making this a good ability to have. I really like this ability, as it makes your character a little bit tougher, as they’re hit less, somewhat counteracting the advantage your opponents have if you’ve used reckless attack.
Level 6:
Enraging Chant:
While chanting, you can use a bonus action to enrage a creature within 10 feet. The creature must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against your Chant Save DC or become enraged until your chant ends. An enraged creature must use their action to attack you if able; attacks they make against other creatures are made with disadvantage. If the creature succeeds on their saving throw, they are immune to becoming enraged for the next 24 hours.
This is an interesting feature, that I feel really plays into the Barbarian playstyle of being a tank. You want creatures to attack you, and if they don’t, they’re significantly less likely to be able to hit your party. As this is a bonus action, you can make use of this every turn, as Barbarians have little use for their bonus action otherwise. I really like this feature; it gives you a limited amount of control over your enemies, adding a twist to every encounter.
Level 10:
Protective Chant:
While chanting, friendly creatures within 30 feet of you gain advantage on Wisdom saving throws and concentration checks. Friendly creatures within 30 feet of you, instead of 10 feet, get to add your Rage Damage to their damage rolls when making melee weapon attacks using Strength.
The boost to your allies Wisdom saving throws and concentration checks is amazing here; Wisdom is one of the more common saving throw types, and giving everyone near you advantage is a strong buff. The advantage on concentration is also great for your allies, if you have a lot of spellcasters, especially if they haven’t taken feats like Warcaster or Resilient (Con). Increasing the range of your Rage Chant is also useful, meaning your allies are less likely to be caught up in area effect abilities, but very few characters rely on strength, so it is heavily dependant on party composition.
Level 14:
Breaking Toll:
While chanting, you can use an action to release a mighty toll. All creatures within 15 feet of you must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be knocked prone and take 8d6 force damage. On a successful save, they take half as much damage. On a fail, creatures also gain disadvantage on saving throws until your chant ends. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.
I love this feature; the idea of running straight into the model of a crowd of enemies and using this sounds really cool. I think this is a great feature, which mainly benefits your allies, although it also gives you a limited amount of area effect. Knocking your foes over allows your allies to charge in and pick them off the ground if they’re melee based, or slows down your foes if your allies prefer to pick them off at range. This is also really useful for spellcasters who make use of spells that use saving throws, potentially giving foes disadvantage.
Overall, I really enjoy the theme of the Spirit Chanter. I think it’s a great subclass, with the potential for a lot of synergy with other party members. While it doesn’t have the damage output or resilience of other barbarian subclasses, the benefits provided to other party members could easily outweigh this. However, the Spirit Chanter doesn’t work so well with dexterity based characters, such as monks, rogues, and other ranged characters, so some abilities may be dependant upon your party composition.
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this review, and if you want to support me and gain access to extra content, become a member or Patron now!
Gain access to additional content, behind the scenes, and sneak previews!
Want to support me but can’t afford to do a monthly subscription? Click here to make a one-off donation now!
See you next time!
Chris