In other
threads, it has been suggested that Larian is going to reintroduce an exhaustion mechanic. This is of course most interesting for Berserker Barbarians, who right now, because of the lack of exhaustion, are the strongest subclass in the game.
I am not sure if they will stay the strongest or if this is an artifact of the game currently stopping at level 4 (at lv 5, they go from 2x the attacks of a fighter to 1.5x, and at 11, fighters also have 3, in addition to Riposte, extra feats/ ASIs, other maneuvers etc), but I am sure that Berserkers in 5e are really, really terrible, specifically because of the exhaustion mechanic.
Barbarians will have 3-5 rages per day in the full game. That means, if you actually use your class features and do not rest after every little fight (which, again, goes against the narrative of the game, with us trying to QUICKLY remove the parasite before we turn, time is not on our side), you will either quickly gain multiple levels of exhaustion, or simply not get to use your main subclass feature.
Now, frenzy is not just a little ribbon feature for Berserkers, it IS the subclass.
At later levels, they can not be charmed or frightened when raging, and gain a TERRIBLE intimidation feature, based on their charisma, which is likely a dump stat.
(Sidenote: Please change Intimidating Presence, so that it is based on str. My Barbarian is not trying to threaten the enemy with their wit, he is flexing his muslces)
And I think people might not appreciate just how terrible exhaustion levels are.
Level Effect
1 Disadvantage on ability checks
2 Speed halved
3 Disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws
4 Hit point maximum halved
5 Speed reduced to 0
6 Death
Yes, you read that right, 6 levels of exhaustion, and you simply die. And even 3 levels make you more or less unplayable.
So either, you basically play without subclass features (why pick a berserker then?) or you have to rest after every time you use frenzy, so probably every combat. Sure, that is the optimal way to play anyways because of wizards, but is it fun? And is it how you would roleplay these characters in this situation? Again, time is running out!
Now, there are three ways to possibly fix the problem.
1) Do not include exhaustion
This means, that spells like Sickening Radiance can not be included at all, and possibly makes Berserkers too strong, especially at level 3 and 4.
2) Reduce the consequences of exhaustion
This would again make Sickening Radiance useless, but would at least allow for some overworld mechanics etc that also include exhaustion.
Berserkers would still gain more and more exhaustion though. So you have to remove the death mechanic from exhaustion, as well as the more brutal consequences. Even if you add more intermediary levels of exhaustion, so that you only die at lv 10 etc, eventually Berserkers will reach those levels of exhaustion! You simply gain them faster than you can long rest. Kind of defeats the purpose of the feature...
3) Only change Berserkers
It seems to me the problem is not exhaustion itself, but just how quickly Berserkers can gain levels of exhaustion, and how hard it is to remove them. Instead of changing the exhaustion mechanic itself, I would suggest changing the actually problematic feature, that being the Berserker subclass.
I think, Berserkers specifically (not other classes or even other Barbarians) should have the ability to remove a level of exhaustion with short or long rests, not just long rests. That still means you are limited in how often you can use frenzy (2 shor rests per long rest, but up to 5 uses of frenzy), and especially limits how often you can use it consecutively in dungeon crawls. So the idea behind the subclass feature is still intact, it is just not as crippling for the subclass.
And it DOES let the player experience the consequences of overexhausting themselves.
But it does no longer punish the player for simply playing the game as intended.
It also does not interfere with other exhaustion features, in particular the spell Sickening Radiance.
So TL;DR:
- include exhaustion like in the PHB
- add a feature to Berserkers, that lets them remove one level of exhaustion per SHORT OR LONG rest
