Path of the Sinful | Barbarian Primal Path

Does this count as Easter homebrew?

The Path of the Sinful was not my first barbarian homebrew, but it was the first primal path I made. My earlier barbarian homebrews had always been totem options for the Path of the Totem Warrior. (I made the Path of the Sinful before the Path of the Beast, though I blogged the latter first.)

I created the Path of the Sinful in response to a homebrewing prompt shared by a friend. A variety of words were suggested with the challenge to make a barbarian primal path based on one of the words, and I settled on "sinful." In the context of Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons and the typical Fantasyland aesthetic, it's a kind of esoteric notion, but the challenge of it appealed to me.

Bedevil by Seb McKinnon.

When I set out to make the homebrew, I very intentionally wanted to avoid two possible extremes. On the one hand, a Path of the Sinful could sanitize the idea of "sin," focusing on the notion of having cool superpowers based on vices like greed or pride. To me, that idea seemed a little superficial, though, as if it didn't take the theme seriously enough. On the other hand, I didn't want players to feel like their character had to be a bad person in order to take on the subclass. That's not very fair to players who might like the subclass mechanics and ideas but don't want to feel pressured to play their character in a certain way, especially when that way might seem immoral.

I tried to capture an alternative: a Path of the Sinful that could be based not just on actual sin, but also on the self-perception of sin. Rather than have superpowers based on vices, the barbarian channels self-loathing into a battle rage. This opens the door for a player to play their character in a variety of ways. Maybe there is actual "sin" involved, if the player and their table are so inclined. Or maybe the self-loathing is the product of skewed perceptions.

The Path of the Sinful is much grimmer than my usual homebrew. Yet I'm pleased with how it turned out. I don't often homebrew barbarians, so I hope you enjoy the archetype.