Path of the Belly Brewer

These barbarians are masters of brewing potions on the fly—directly in their guts! Where others must painstakingly prepare potions with finesse, they channel their inner hunger to unlock the latent magic within raw ingredients without any prep.

Those born with the rumble in their belly often find that regular food can’t quite satisfy. They require something more unusual. A generation ago, a handful of adventurous eaters with the appetite set out to find a way to appease their seemingly unappeasable appetites. This is how they discovered “belly brewing.” Certain morsels consumed together not only quieted the rumble for a time, but they also yielded the potion-like effects they’ve since come to be known for.

Belly Concoction

Starting at 3rd level, you learn the hard-earned skill of belly brewing, an arcane technique in which you swallow, mix, and brew magical concoctions inside your gut, creating a number of unique effects.

When you enter your rage, you focus your energy to harness and activate the effects of a belly concoction. Choose combat, utility, or whimsy. You gain the effects of the chosen belly concoction, as detailed below. You can change your belly concoction each time you rage.

Combat

Your body undergoes a unique change which magically alters your physical form, giving it the characteristics of rubber. While in this elastic state, you can use your reaction when you are hit by a ranged attack, deflecting it with your belly. When you do so, the damage you take from the attack is reduced by 1d12 + your Constitution modifier + your barbarian level.

Additionally, immediately before you make a melee weapon attack on your turn, you can use your bonus action to stretch your arms, increasing your reach by 5 feet for the rest of the turn. The first time you hit while your arms are stretched in this way, the attack deals an extra 1d6 damage of the weapon’s type.

Utility

The bubbling elixir in your stomach is perfectly mixed to dissolve and absorb anything you can swallow. As a bonus action, you can consume any object you can fit in your mouth. When you do so, you can expend one of your Hit Dice as part of this bonus action to heal yourself. Roll the die, add your Constitution modifier, and regain a number of hit points equal to the total (minimum of 1). Swallowing an object in this way destroys it, provided the object isn’t magical. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Whimsy

You focus on the magical brew inside you, only to get an array of strange and unruly effects. While in this state, you gain one of the following effects at the start of each of your turns:

• You teleport to an unoccupied space within 10 feet of you that you can see.
• You take 1d4 necrotic damage; the next ability check you make before the end of your turn gains a bonus equal to the number rolled.
• You can immediately take the Help action as a bonus action.

Additionally, you gain a random visual effect that accompanies the other whimsical features, such as your hair turns to moss, a spectral bird circles above your head, or a tattoo of a dancing man appears on your person and moves about your body.

Side Effects

At 3rd level, you gain a number of magical side effects due to the countless magical ingredients you’ve ingested. You learn the Prestidigitation and Thaumaturgy cantrips.

Quick Brew

Beginning at 6th level, you’ve learned how to better control the effects your belly concoction produces.

Choose a common potion that you would normally consume. You can activate the effects of the chosen potion as a bonus action. Once you activate it, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest. If the potion’s effects require a saving throw, the DC equals 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier.

Each time you gain a level in this class, you can swap your chosen potion with a different one.

Lingering Effects

At 10th level, the ever-present concoction in your stomach is now so potent it grants you benefits even when you aren’t raging.

When you finish a long rest, choose one of the following conditions: blinded, charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained, or stunned. You have advantage on saving throws against that condition until you choose a different one with this feature.

Mighty Quick Brew

Starting at 14th level, you learn an additional common potion as well as an uncommon potion, using your Quick Brew feature.

Each time you gain a level in this class, you can swap one of your chosen potions with a different one.

An alternate way of using this feature is to only allow the player to choose from a list of potion recipes that they’re aware of. If the belly brewer has yet to learn any potion recipes, then the GM should provide a list of 10 options to choose from.