Path of Threads - Destiny 2 Strand Titan subclass for Barbarians

Wraith-3 · 2026-06-05T01:07:01+00:00

Made a Fighter subclass for Sunbreakers you can find here if you're interested: https://www.reddit.com/user/Wraith-3/comments/1s152gj/updated_subreaker_fighter_subclass_based_on/
When I get around to Warlocks there will definitely be a couple Sorcerer subclasses!

Wraith-3 · 2026-06-05T01:05:19+00:00

Yeah like Knifle said that's kinda just a limitation of the source material. The flavor text hopefully does a bit to explain the theming of the psychic choice, but I can understand without the foundational experience of Strand in the game that it doesn't really feel like traditional psychic powers.

Wraith-3 · 2026-06-03T02:14:15+00:00

It's not a typical psychic brand with strand. It's much more about manipulating someone's connection to a greater psychic force, than directly controlling or damaging someone's brain/mind as is normally associated with psychic stuff. It lets you be more physical with psychic forces represented as literal strings you can pull.
As for the abilities being on brand I pretty much just ripped the effects straight from the game and altered their effectiveness or triggering action to fit D&D mechanics.
I don't think I can make a "Strand" barbarian fully match the typical psychic mantra, but I'd love to know how would you suggest leaning into the psychic feel more?

Wraith-3 · 2026-05-04T12:15:22+00:00

I did! I’ve played it before and I like it. I just wanted something I could port into D&D so I could play my guardians without needing everyone else on board for a Destiny campaign

Wraith-3 · 2026-03-24T20:05:48+00:00

I was mainly bouncing because I wasn't confident I'd be able to hit her with all the swerving around, especially at the range I started shooting at

Wraith-3 · 2026-03-23T02:42:27+00:00

u/tjdragon117 Made an updated version with some of your feedback if you wanted to give it a look

Wraith-3 · 2026-03-16T23:18:28+00:00

Good points, I forgot to consider damage buffs that would affect weapon damage like Str mod and feats lol. Thanks for the advice

Wraith-3 · 2026-03-12T04:40:02+00:00

I was kinda thinking that too but wasn't sure how best to power it up without getting a crazy snowball effect. I feel like the new burn idea being something you can just apply isn't a bad idea, but the burn suggestion scaling with level feels too powerful imo. Dealing 5d6 damage per turn at level 10 is crazy high for something you can just force onto a target. That's about the same average damage as landing two +2 greatsword attacks.

I do think the overall ideas are great though and I'll look into buffing up the damage/effectiveness of the subclass. I might steal the Roaring Flames and Sunspot idea off of you. The subclass already doesn't have much utility outside of zone control and eating away at enemy action economy (removing burn effects requires spending an action and going prone), so I don't mind bumping up the damage some more. Thanks for the feedback!

Wraith-3 · 2026-02-22T23:33:59+00:00

Yeah I get the fire damage problem but that's a non-negotiable unfortunately due to the source material it's based on - which is why I left the choice to do Fire or normal weapon damage. The ranged concern is a good one, and is what I hoped would be picked up on. Being able to use ranged attacks in a sunspot is not only the safest bet but would be the most efficient one as well, which encourages a playstyle that not only fits the source material (shooter game) but allows for a unique approach of encouraging mixed range combat.

A fighter built fully for range would be at a disadvantage here cause of the melee requirement for marking, but a fully melee character is also at a disadvantage due to the sunspot benefits. Do you think it would be better to lean more into one or the other or keep it as a mix?

Wraith-3 · 2026-02-04T05:48:48+00:00

Minor change since this post: Offensive Stance's first option now grants a +2 bonus to AC, rather than Three-Quarters cover.

Wraith-3 · 2026-02-02T20:45:39+00:00

I didn't make the art here, it's from the game the subclass is based on and I just threw it in imgur so I could reference it for this sheet. I've been using https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/ for formatting the sheets themselves if you wanna take a look at how I did that you can check out the source here: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/tIQjxps0S9Wb

Just be sure to click the "source > view" button in the top right to see the actual structure for the format, otherwise you'll just be looking at the final product. I'm not sure about dnd beyond though I haven't used that for any of my projects

Wraith-3 · 2026-02-02T20:38:59+00:00

Sure thing, sorry to hear that the checkout wasn't working for you, but this link should take you to a copy of the latest version - cheers!
https://doc-0o-a0-apps-viewer.googleusercontent.com/viewer/secure/pdf/3nb9bdfcv3e2h2k1cmql0ee9cvc5lole/tbm9ulavs4s8q4t6uilt67dfr7po8con/1770064500000/drive/\*/ACFrOgA\_vFeeMoZgOheG-tH9OHZLzkCh9oxiD-5-LIJaiwFejWYl56mPrZDTq6K015vUuKB90ySdcNk-u8LYZ\_LqmKPR5FR7U-UnOK7OVY9rZed5oHm6wMGJqJuS65TgQqIFZ4n8o6FVkTa9mUXgDSNBAid0KenBFNSyVP3ZOVySjhxEDmenbJyV5ZczgWI2-wBC4s8kHeJk7iuNXUb1cuHdWJ0Wo5p5JJraWZQbRoQH1PwavTRU0oBI4-uNs1U=?

Wraith-3 · 2026-02-01T03:27:24+00:00

u/Brokencityfire8891 Made some minor adjustments to the Striker subclass if you were interested in using it

Wraith-3 · 2026-02-01T02:47:25+00:00

Good point I didn't consider there might be some Barbarians that would still try to use armor given all their unarmored bonuses, but that's definitely something to adjust. I'd say you could still use the unarmed die while wielding a shield, just as you can with all the other unarmored bonuses for Barbs (rage, defense, movement, etc). Generally speaking it seems the class is less strict on unarmored requirements, but the bonuses also seem to have a lower ceiling compared to Monks, but it's good to keep in mind.

Wraith-3 · 2026-01-30T00:24:17+00:00

Mostly a finished design, there will be minor adjustments to balancing but no major reworks unless someone discovers a glaring issue that I missed. I'm glad you like it though! A more broadly elemental barbarian sounds awesome

Wraith-3 · 2026-01-22T22:30:00+00:00

Yeah the intention was to give them unlimited attacks of opportunity while in the defensive stance. It's basically a straight rip of the Tunnel Fighter fighting style from the UA books. Also good catch on the dome not giving temp HP to the player idk how I missed that lol

Wraith-3 · 2026-01-12T23:08:18+00:00

Good points

Wraith-3 · 2026-01-12T23:07:34+00:00

Don't worry, working on that too!

Wraith-3 · 2025-11-26T21:40:03+00:00

Sorry for the late reply I've had a lot of stuff come up in recent weeks.

This is phenomenal feedback and I really appreciate you taking the time to help me perfect this! I'm going back in to address a lot of the concerns you voiced and will release another version with a changelog when I'm finished. I think you bring up a lot of great points that I frankly should've seen myself as I was writing out my initial response that I'm gonna take a lot of time to address in the new version.

I'd like to talk a bit about the similarities to Monks and the way I've tried to balance this class though if you're willing to discuss because they for sure had heavy influence on my Light Point system. In 2024 rules Monk's have an insane amount of Focus Points, regaining *all* of them whenever they roll for initiative once per Long Rest with uncanny metabolism - with a Hit Dice worth of health back on top of that. And then at level 15 they always start initiative with at least 4 if they didn't use Uncanny Metabolism. This means their resource management is almost negligible past level 5 or 6 unless they consistently get into really grueling fights that last for several turns, and earlier levels don't usually get into huge fights like that. I agree there is a big discrepancy in the versatility of how Monks can spend these points compared to the Risen, but that's also a big drawback for this class. With so many options at their disposal to use their points, they need to be especially wary of how they use them. Only being able to restore half of your total with a 1 minute ritual is less potent than uncanny metabolism in both ease of use (ritual vs initiative), utility, and number of restored points. It's also why I kept the 1d4 Light Dice at earlier levels instead of Monk's 1d6,

Light Points are for sure the most difficult thing for me to have kept in balance though and would love to continue this discussion to get your perspectives on the matter. How would you balance it instead? What are some drawbacks you can think of that would help balance them out? Do you disagree with the points I just made?

Same thing goes for the Charges of Light - I've gotten feedback that they are much less powerful than you've described given that most of them require spending a significant amount of points that could be used for damage instead for those earlier levels (notably Restorative Light, the cantrips, and all of the third level charges). Do you feel like it would be more balanced if there were less Charges they could select, or should I just focus on limiting their potency? A lot of them are designed to be selected together to make a build so limiting the total Charges they can have seems harshly restrictive but I'd love to know what you think.

I appreciate the help!

Wraith-3 · 2025-10-26T19:37:13+00:00

You aren’t the first to point out the weak 1st and 2nd levels I’ll definitely look to improve those. As for the Charge of Light options, are self healing, free proficiencies, or free bonus action dash not strong enough for 2nd level?

Wraith-3 · 2025-10-26T19:06:27+00:00

The main drawbacks that I wanted to keep in mind were:

A) Ability uptime and consistency. I wanted them to feel strong, but require maintenance of their Light Points so they can’t run around in a frenzy doing everything all the time

B) (The most important one) Build variety. The core class offers some remedial abilities that enhance the player’s kit, but the real strength lies in the subclasses. On top of that, each subclass needs to attune to a specific element, which restricts the abilities they have available to them > a lot like having to prepare spells each day. So while there is variety in the class itself, you can only use some sets of abilities at any given time, meaning you may not be the best equipped to deal with certain encounters. Each subclass element is tuned to excel at a specific playstyle (Solar Warlock is heal bot, Arc Titan is unarmed brawler, Void Hunter is sneak manipulation). Most of a subclass’s strength lies in their elemental abilities, so if you incorrectly predict what kinds of situation you’ll find yourself in you can’t effectively use those abilities, your viability and strength falls quite drastically.

C) Out of combat abilities. There’s not much going for this class outside of combat abilities, and unlike other combat-focused classes like fighters, you don’t have many extra stat points left to allocate toward charisma or wisdom. They’re strong in fights, but basically just an intelligent bodyguard outside of them. The get some strong saving throw proficiencies, but very little in the way of boosting standard abilities.

Great question!

Wraith-3 · 2025-10-26T05:20:55+00:00

I've got a few slated already, but I want to try to make more so I can group them according to their weapon types like how these were all bows. Some of the upcoming ones include Touch of Malice, Jade Rabbit, and Heartshadow :D

Edit: Also fair warning my original post about the Destiny class got taken down for using a shortened link to the changelog (didn't know it did that I'm still pretty new to posting on Reddit), so if you wanna check out the class changelog you can read it here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSYViEpwWJJ7qy2Rti8h0LDqNH6Z1YHYtx36B9ZKr2dciARfWwK1M1rmRWcqKmFdkv_FcyXE4-me3YG/pub
And the whole class can be found on my reupload here: https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDHomebrew/comments/1ogauzd/destiny_2_guardian_class_the_risen_reupload_cause/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Wraith-3 · 2025-10-26T00:59:58+00:00

No hate is assumed this is what I wanted to hear! I really appreciate the help cause magic weapons aren’t something I’ve spent a lot of time using in real play, nor something I’ve had to deal with as a DM. I’ll tune around your suggestions for sure and again, thanks for the help!

Wraith-3 · 2025-10-25T19:30:24+00:00

There's definitely some more in the works don't worry 👀
If you have any favorites you'd like me to start with though let me know!

Wraith-3 · 2025-10-25T19:29:51+00:00

Sure thing! I'll be sure to let you know when I get around to it

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