D&D 5E Builds: Path of the Merciless Beast

Does anyone else remember 3.5 Edition’s Black Blood Cultist? A Champions of Ruin prestige class that combined savage unarmed combat with grappling, the Cultist used to be one of my favorite options for playing a feral, wilderness warrior. Plenty of grapplers could already lockdown an enemy, but if you wanted to shred them like my cat shreds anyone who pets his super soft belly, there was nothing scarier than the Cultist. Especially its terrifying Savage Grapple feature; all natural attack damage on every successful grapple?? Next Unearthed Arcana, please?? 5th Edition has proven great for grapplers, but always lacked a viable replacement for this bestial style of tooth-and-nail combat. Then came Tasha’s and the Path of the Beast Barbarian.

Today I’m introducing a flavorful and powerful way to grapple with Path of the Beast (PotB) Barbarians. We’ll relive the Black Blood Cultist glory days by combining PotB with Way of Mercy (WoM) Monk, also from Tasha’s. This will unlock a ferocious natural weapon grappler by level 9 with a vicious five attacks and nearly unbeatable Athletics. If you’ve ever wanted to unleash your inner beast and claw through the battlefield, this is the build for you.

Sources and disclaimers

The only thing I love more than playing D&D is designing D&D characters. And the only thing I love more than that is when people can actually play my builds in their games. To make sure readers can bring my builds home to most tables, I’m sticking to official Wizards-published and occasionally Adventure League-legal material. I’m also staying within Rules As Written (RAW) rails as much as I can. Here are the sources for today’s build:

• The Player’s Handbook (PHB)
• Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
• Refresher on 5E grappling/shoving rules (NerdBear, Grappler’s Manual, SkullSplitter, etc.)
• Review of key D&D conditions: grappled, prone, stunned, incapacitated, and the real fun one, poisoned.

Big disclaimer: builds like today’s aren’t necessarily about creating the most overtuned optimizations in D&D. I want to make functional, flavorful characters that let players live out a specific vision and playstyle while also having a big mechanical impact. Builds might not always be best-in-class for damage, tankiness, skill bonuses, etc. but they’re always going to be thematic and effective. Finally, I’ll use RPGBot’s color system to rate features.

Path of the Merciless Beast build

Our PotB/WoM character has two combat goals: grapple/shove an enemy out of the fight and then rip it to pieces. We’re a nasty, single-target murder machine who trades some traditional Barbarian and Monk optimization paths for a vicious, hyper-focused combat style. No whining about Monks wanting dexterity and not strength. No whinging about steep multiclass ability requirements. Roundhousing and spirit-punching ogres is lame. You know what’s not lame? Pinning their big butts to the ground and clawing them apart.

Less reading, more rending. Here’s the build:

Race: Tasha’s custom lineage (+2 Str, Skill Expert feat for Athletics and +1 Str)

Ability scores (standard array): 18 Str, 12 Con, 13 Dex, 10 Int, 14 Wis, 8 Cha
Ability Scores (27 point buy): 18 Str, 12 Con, 14 Dex, 8 Int, 14 Wis, 8 Cha
(Remember you need 13+ in Str, Wis, and Dex for the Barb/Monk multiclass. Ew)

• Monk 1: We’re starting Monk to get Wis-based Unarmored Defense for an okay 14 AC. Con-based AC is generally better but our stat-heavy build doesn’t play nice with it. Martial Arts is, of course, amazing.
• Monk 2: Unarmored Movement for mobility, ki points for Flurry of Blows. Patient Defense and Step of the Wind aren’t efficient for damage output but can be helpful to keep us alive.
• Monk 3: Deflect Missiles is solid, Way of Mercy -> Hand of Harm gives a small damage boost now but becomes amazing at lvl 6. Hand of Healing keeps us and allies alive if needed. Tasha’s Ki-Fueled Attack makes non-Flurry abilities viable.
• Monk 4: ASI for +2 Strength brings us to 20. Slow Fall is fun for jumpy grapplers but Quickened Healing is often a waste of actions and limited ki.
• Monk 5: Extra attack time! 1d6 damage die increase! Stunning Strike to wreck mages! Focused Aim is also great when we need that first poison to hit next level.
• Monk 6: Physician’s Touch secures the full grappling lockdown with no-save poisoned. Ki-empowerd strikes makes unarmed attacks, but not claws, magical. Bonus fast movement is nice too.
• Monk 6 / Barbarian 1: Rage is a build cornerstone, Skill Expert from custom lineage gets 18 Str and Athletics expertise, and D12 HD is sturdy. Barb Unarmored Defense doesn’t stack or replace Monk.
• Monk 6 / Barbarian 2 Reckless Attack for advantage on attack rolls if an enemy isn’t prone, Danger Sense for survivability.
• Monk 6 / Barbarian 3: Path of the Beast -> Form of the Beast for our staple claws. Bite is okay if you really need to trade damage for a little extra survivability, but tail is defensive and lame.

You can pursue Barb 3 before Monk 6 if you really want to focus on grappling right away, but straight Monk 6 is probably safer. This gets you Extra Attack and magic unarmed strikes on schedule to keep pace with allies and NPCs alike. Otherwise, these first nine levels are locked into this progression. From there you can either keep doing Barb to beef up and get magical claws, Rune Knight to grapple bigger enemies, or Monk for more mobility and ki points. I’m going in that direction because scaling walls and dropping NPCs never gets old.

• Barbarian 3 / Monk 7: Everyone loves Evasion. Stillness of Mind is niche but cleanses the anti-grappling frightened condition.
• Barbarian 3 / Monk 8: You can take a feat here for specific builds (e.g. Mage Slayer, Mobile) or just get the ASI for +2 Wis. This gets you 15 AC, +1 dmg on Way of Harm punches, and +1 DC for Stunning Strike.
• Barbarian 3 / Monk 9: Unarmored movement improvement lets you parkour up walls and drop people, or spring off high surfaces to jump-grapple flyers.
• Barbarian 3 / Monk 10: More fast movement, Purity of Body prevents disadvantage-imposing diseases/poisons.
• Barbarian 3 / Monk 11: Flurry of Healing and Harm supercharges ki efficiency for more Stunning Strikes. 1d8 martial arts is tasty.
• Barbarian 3 / Monk 11 / Fighter 1: For Fighting Style, you actually don’t need Unarmed Fighting at this point, and Dueling won’t work with your unarmed/natural weapons. Blind Fighting is flavorful for your beastly combat techniques, but Superior Technique is probably the best for damage and control. Second Wind helps in a pinch but eats your bonus action.
• Barbarian 3 / Monk 11 / Fighter 2: Action surge! TEAR THEM APART.
• Barbarian 3 / Monk 11 / Fighter 3: Battle Master maneuvers adds even more damage and control options. Disarming Attack is nasty when you can drag someone from their dropped weapon. Trip Attack locks someone down even more. You also can’t go wrong with Rune Knight for the size increase to grapple bigger enemies plus the untyped Frost Runes bonuses.
• Player’s choice: You have a bunch of options from 18-20. If you want feats or ASIs, just go +1 in each of Fighter/Barb/Monk. You can also go up to Barb 6 to get the nifty Bestial Spirit for more powerbomb jump grappling plus (finally) magical claws. Feel free to take Barb 4-6 at lvls 15-17 instead if you already have a reliable way to get to size large.

You’re a raging, clawing warrior wearing a deathly Way of Mercy mask. That blood-spattered visage is the last thing your prey will see as you give them a final mercy after many rounds of clawing. Don’t moan about how raging Barbs can’t be Wis-based Monks. It’s 100% RAW legit and just listen to the furious Bruce Lee in a total frenzy at the end of his climactic Fists of Fury fight.

Here’s what two brutal rounds of combat look like for a level 9 Merciless Beast:

• Round 1: Fly into a Rage (bonus action) and bare those claws. Charge a victim with your 45 move speed.
  • Strike/poison: Take Attack action (extra attack) with a Reckless Attack unarmed strike (can’t use claw for this): +9 to hit with advantage. Use Tasha’s Focused Aim if you miss to spend 1-3 ki points for +2 per point. When this hits, apply WoM Hand of Harm to deal 1d6 (base) + 5 (str) + 2 (rage) + 1d6 (Hand of Harm bonus) + 2 (Hand of Harm Wis) and inflict poisoned.
  • Grapple: With second attack, make a grapple attempt. You’ll get +13 with advantage on Athletics. They’ll have disadvantage to resist this due to poisoned, so they probably end your turn grappled and poisoned.

• Round 2: Now we don’t have to use our bonus action to rage so we can really start the bloodbath. Let’s assume between our +13 advantage Athletics and enemy disadvantage they’re still grappled. They’re also still poisoned until the end of this turn.
  • Shove prone: Take Attack action (extra attack) and replace the first with a shove. Poisoned imposes disadvantage on their check to resist, so now your prey is probably grappled, prone, and poisoned.
    • OPTIONAL – Attack instead: You technically don’t need to shove prone because Reckless Attack already gives attack roll advantage. If you want more damage instead, replace this shove with an unarmed strike/claw.
  • Double-claw: With second extra attack, claw them twice. You’ll have advantage against the prone target: 2*(1d6+5+2).
  • Flurry of blows: Spend ki to Flurry of Blows for two unarmed strikes with advantage. Spend a second ki to apply Hand of Harm to one strike: (2d6+5+4+poisoned) and (1d6+5+2) dmg.

HAIL MALAR! For Rounds 3 and beyond, they’ll be trapped under grappled/prone/poisoned and you can just ravage them with five claw/unarmed strikes every turn (2 from Extra Attack, 1 from the double-claw, 2 from bonus action Flurry). They’ll be stuck with disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks, 0 movement speed, and you and all nearby allies will have advantage. Add Stunning Strikes as needed for more lockdown, especially against squirrely mages. There are plenty of two-weapon Barb builds that might deal more damage, but attacking with advantage for 6d6+25 (str)+10 (Rage) + 2 (Wis) every round (average 58) against a completely stuck foe is excellent. And deliciously gory.

Overall, here are pros/cons for this Path of the Beast build:

• Pro: Strong single target control via grapple, shove, and poisoned condition.
• Pro: Consistent single target damage during the lockdown.
• Pro: High mobility with Barbarian/Monk movement, slow fall, wall-running, etc.
• Pro: Survivability abilities to offset average HP: Rage resistances, Danger Sense, Evasion, ki dodging, WoM healing, etc.
• Pro: Stunning Strike addresses classic grappling problems like Freedom of Movement and Misty Step.
• Pro: 4-5 attacks per round keeps you relevant against hordes where single-target grappling would suck.

• Con: Crappy AC because you can’t abuse either Unarmored Defenses and you can’t use armor/shields without losing Monk features.
• Con: Lower damage than burstier builds; you’re trading damage for control.
• Con: Can’t multiclass for magical abilities due to Rage reliance.
• Con: Claws won’t become magical unless you ditch WoM Monk and go Kensai, get something like Insignia of Claws, or take +3 Barb levels at lvls 10-12.
• Con: No reliable ranged combat options.
• Con: Limited resources. You need Barb 6 for 4 rages and your combos are ki point dependent.

I’ve never actually played with this build but I’ve played enough Druids and Barbarians to know this monster will do exactly what you want a savage close-quarters melee specialist to accomplish. As long as you’re interested in this vicious playstyle, this build guarantees a functional and flavorful primal champion.

Important abilities and features

If you have as much free weekend time as me and also memorized Tasha’s, you probably don’t need an explanation of major PotB/WoM abilities. For those with better time management, we’re going to unpack important Barbarian and Monk features that make this build work:

Skill Expert (custom lineage feat)

Mandatory grappler feat for non-Expertise classes. This doubles proficiency bonus in a proficient skill, which for us means Athletics for grapple/shove. We also really want this at level 1 because it’s our quickest path to 18 Str with custom lineage. If your DM prohibits Tasha’s lineages, you’ll need variant human instead, lvl 4 (Barb 4 before Mnk 1), or deferring the lvl 7 ASI for the feat. If you’re playing a higher-level PotB character, you can pick this up later in the progression.

Rage (Barbarian)

You can’t be an effective 5E grappler without advantage on Athletics. Think Rune Knight, Enlarge/Reduce, Enhance Ability, and, of course, Rage. One of the most elegant parts of this build is getting our Athletics advantage right away at level 1 on the way to our other mandatory level 3 feature. This prevents weird dips in other classes just to secure advantage. It also commits us to Str-based weapons which we’re going to maximize with Rage bonus damage and Reckless Attack on our Str-based claws.

Form of the Beast (PotB Barbarian)

The meat and potatoes more meat of the build. Skip bite unless you really need to tank an encounter. Skip tail entirely; claws is the reason we’re on the beastly path at all. These natural weapons only appear when you’re raging and hit for 1d6+Str. But they really shine in their free extra attack; no bonus action required! Once per turn, when attacking with a claw “using the Attack action,” you get “one additional claw attack as part of the same action.” This allows level 3 Barbs to get two attacks with just claws, and allows Barb 3/Mnk 1+ players to double-claw before getting one unarmed strike as a bonus action. In essence, claws become a “free” +1 attack per turn without costing bonus actions. Here’s some boring but important RAW about how PotB claws do and don’t work:

• Claws only get a second attack once per turn no matter how many total attacks you do.
• As simple melee weapons, claws count as monk weapons (which PHB defines as “any simple melee weapons that don’t have the two-handed or heavy property”), but do not count as unarmed strikes (specific weapon type). This means:
  • You can use claws as monk weapons to trigger a bonus action unarmed strike via Martial Arts.
  • You can use your martial arts damage die instead of your 1d6 claw die (relevant at Mnk 11+).
  • You can’t use claw damage instead of unarmed strike damage.
  • You can’t Flurry of Blows with claws.
  • Ki-empowered strikes do not make claws magical.
  • You can’t apply WoM Hand of Harm/Physician’s Touch to claws.
• If you grapple/shove on your first attack during an Attack action, this doesn’t count as attacking with the claws for the purposes of triggering a second claw attack.
• The second claw attack can’t be replaced with a grapple/shove. That second claw only happens as an “additional attack as part of the same action” so it’s not a full Attack action that can be replaced.
• You can grab someone in one hand and claw them twice with the other hand without letting go. There’s no “offhand” claws or even “offhand” attacks in D&D 5E.
• If you have two hands and grapple an enemy in each, you can’t use your claws to attack because they are no longer “empty.” You could still unarmed strike though. Or drop one and claw both/either foe.
• If you somehow attacked with a claw as part of a bonus action, you wouldn’t trigger a second attack because it wouldn’t count as “using the Attack action.”
• Once you get Extra Attack, you can replace one attack with a grapple/shove and the other with a claw to trigger your second claw on that second attack.

Martial Arts / Ki Flurry of Blows (Monk)

Monk bonus attacks enable the furious multi-attack style of PotB. Martial Arts always lets you take a bonus action unarmed strike on any turn where you use monk weapon claws. But if you have spare ki points, you can spend a point to Flurry two unarmed strikes instead. Remember that you can’t replace any of these bonus action unarmed strikes with grapple/shove attempts, which means lower-level Merciless Beasts will probably skip the shove and just grapple on round 1 before rending with Reckless Attack on rounds 2 and later.

Extra Attack (Monk)

This ability is always fantastic for grapplers but is even better for us because it allows us to double-claw and wrestle. Now we can grapple on the first attack (or unarmed strike once we get Physician’s Touch) to establish control and then use our second two attacks to trigger start carving. For maximum control, you can also just grapple/shove with both attacks. You’ll miss a double-claw that turn but because you still took the “Attack action,” you are still able to use Flurry of Blows.

Hand of Harm / Physician’s Touch (WoM Monk)

Without WoM abilities, the Merciless Beast is just a multi-attacking monster with generically powerful grappling. WoM’s lvl 3 Hand of Harm into lvl 6 Physician’s Touch give you a completely new grappling edge with a condition grapplers are always trying to impose: poisoned. Poisoned inflicts disadvantage on both attack rolls and all ability checks, i.e. the Athletics and Acrobatics an enemy will need to perform to escape their grapple/prone statuses.

It gets better. Not only does WoM allow you to poison enemies by applying the feature to unarmed strikes, but it does so with NO SAVING THROW (?!). Yep. None. But what about high Con save baddies? Or Legendary Resistance?? F*** Legendary Resistance. Your Dragon is poisoned, DM. Deal with it. Reapply Physician’s Touch every turn just by hitting with an unarmed strike and spending ki. Once you have advantage and expertise on your 20 Str Athletics check and the enemy has disadvantage on Athletics/Acrobatics, you’ll basically never lose a grapple again.

Combat options and techniques

Unsurprisingly, you can play a Merciless Beast without getting too deep into tactics. Just grab, rip, and repeat. Like my cat! But in addition to all the smart techniques any melee combatant can use, there are still a few sequences and fight-tools you’ll want to remember with this build:

Always grapple and shove

I know players are going to get fixated on the Merciless Beast’s five attacks. Clawing face is good but what makes it great is its combination with the grapple/shove lockdown. Other grapplers often only benefit from advantage to Athletics. You still get advantage but also impose a no-save disadvantage on the enemy, all while still dealing a bunch of damage. Your opponent will also have disadvantage on all attack rolls and 0 move speed. This allows you and your party to murder goons way bigger than you have any business fighting.

Even the brawniest D&D monsters are generally just not ready to wrestle an optimized PC grappler. Look at the CR13 Storm Giant with their +14 to Athletics, a Monster Manual record-setter. Even before we poison them, we have a 59% chance to grapple/shove them at level 9 after chugging Potion of Growth (assuming +13 Athletics and advantage). Poisoned Storm Giants? 78%. And that’s against a CR13 monster with one of the, if not the single, highest Athletics in the game. Against CR9 Fire Giants (+11 Athletics), it’s 74% and 88%. Against CR9 Cloud Giants, beefier than Fire Giants (+8 vs. +7) but with no Athletic proficiency, it’s 85% and 94%. Grapple and shove fight on a different axis than most monsters can handle. Abuse this first. Claw them to pieces second.

Stunning Strike

As long as you have ki, you can add a Stunning Strike to any melee weapon attack (unarmed strikes/claws). This is probably less valuable against high-Con brutes, but gets way better against sneaky-stabbers and spellcasters. In particular, Stunning Strike is a partial solution to the classic grappling problem of crap like Misty Step and Freedom of Movement. For evasive spells like Misty, the mechanism is simple; once you’re stunned/incapacitated, you can’t move or take actions like cast the escape spells in the first place. Stun them on your turn and never let them get another action.

FoM is trickier (assuming you even buy that it works due to really bad RAW wording). If you do and you think this is an RAW case of specific (FoM escape clause) beating general (grappled normally locks speed to 0), Stunning Strike still has you covered. FoM only protects against “paralyzed” and “restrained”, not “stunned” or “incapacitated.” It also means magical effects can’t “reduce the target’s speed.” Stunning Strike is probably a magical effect based on RAW PHB readings of how ki works, but it’s not actually reducing speed. It just says they “can’t move.”

There’s two ways you can read this. Either a stunned enemy that “can’t move” also can’t spend any speed to escape grapples, or they can still spend speed to escape but then definitely couldn’t stand up from prone or crawl away. Either way, you can grapple and/or stun-lock a spellcaster long enough for your 4-5 attacks per turn to finish the job.

Jump, climb, and drop

Monk wall-running plus fast movement lets you play everyone’s favorite WWE superstar: the powerbomb grappler. By the time you can Matrix walls at lvl 9, you’ll have 45 move speed. Grapple someone and drag them up (move speed is halved), then drop them from 22 feet. They’ll take 2d6 damage on the fall and land prone. Use Slow Fall as a reaction to take zero damage and land standing, then just reestablish a grapple on your proned enemy. Give them a few claws and poisoned knees to remind them who’s in charge. Repeat next round. Careful against heavy baddies who encumber: you might only be able to drag them up 11 feet. Not impressive but still enough to sting for 1d6 damage and prone them out.

If you really want to drop someone to their death and don’t mind falling with them, use Step of the Wind bonus action to dash the full 45 feet (90 halved) up that wall before dropping them. You’ll even get one unarmed strike on the way up courtesy of Ki-Fueled attacks! Then just fall prone on top of them to deal an additional 4d6 damage split between both of you (see Tasha’s falling onto a creature rule). Use your remaining attacks to grapple them and claw (you’ll get disadvantage from being prone but you can stand up for free next turn and can still attack with a regular D20 because the enemy’s prone condition gives advantage).

Other Path of the Beast progressions

There are a lot of ways to build and play Path of the Beast if you don’t like the Way of Mercy flavor. Or if your mean DM won’t let you pack a dozen Tasha’s features into the same character. For those looking for different bestial themes or abilities, here are other options:

• Alternate races: I love custom lineage but there are mechanical and flavor reasons to go another direction. Whatever race you pick, definitely try and convince your DM to at allow swapping racial ability scores around. You want +2 Str and +1 Wis.
  • Aarakocra/Protector Aasimar/Winged Tiefling/etc.: It doesn’t take many rounds for fliers to carry victims to lethal heights, especially Aarakocras with Monk fast movement. With 50 base fly speed, +15 for Monk, doubled with Step of the Wind, you’re ascending 75 feet per round assuming the enemy isn’t too heavy to encumber any more. By the end of round three, you’re at the max 20d6 falling height, which should be more than enough to finish off anyone who survived the claw/talon fury on the way up.
  • Lizardfolk: Natural armor might be relevant if you ditch Con for Dex but you’re really doing this for the bite which you can actually use for unarmed attacks! This increases your unarmed damage from 1d4 to 1d6 for Monk lvl 1-4, which makes Lizardfolk a solid choice for earlier level PotB Barbs. Hungry Jaw bonus action attack is also great at early levels. Most importantly though, huge flavor win for the clawing, biting terror of this scaled monstrosity.
  • Variant Human: Capital B Boring but unless you want to delay either Monk lvl 6 or 20 Str by taking Barb 4, you need the level 1 bonus feat for Skill Expert.
  • Bugbear: Path of the Sneaky Beast! If you surprise a foe, you’ll get +2d6 on one attack. Extra reach helps if you’re pushing people around the battlefield, and powerful build helps you drag heavier enemies up walls.

• Fun feats: The Merciless Beast is pretty lean on feat requirements, and you can freely move around some of the levels to pick up feats earlier or later as needed. Or just pump awkward stats.
  • Lucky: Yeah, it’s still good. Even more boring than variant humans, but always strong.
  • Mage Slayer: You can really mess spellcasters up with this plus your other abilities. Stunning Strike doesn’t actually require the attack action; just a “melee weapon attack.” This means if someone casts a spell, you can stun them as a reaction. Sadly, they still get the spell off per RAW, but you can stop them from running away after they cast it or break their concentration on a new buff.
  • Grappler (JK!): Obligatory “this feat is bad, never ever take it on a grappling character” reminder.
  • Dual Wielder: There’s a whole RAW/RAI mess about whether or not natural weapons are “wielded in your hand” and I’m not touching it. If your DM lets you use claws with one hand and a weapon with the other, you’ll probably need this feat for that build. In a non-Monk build, this is also a way to get a bonus action attack once you unlock Extra Attack (double-claw on first attack, draw both weapons and finish the action).

• Cool classes: PotB Barb is compatible with a lot of multiclasses as long as you’re playing a non-spellcaster who likes high strength and, preferably, grappling.
  • Monk – Way of the Kensai: If your DM has a good-faith read on this, it probably allows you to make your claws magical. You’ll still get most Monk perks minus the WoM poisoned edge, and your claws will now overcome magic resistance.
  • Fighter – Rune Knight: You can either get this right after Monk 6 or just ditch Monk entirely and play an armored, massacre machine. Giant’s Might gives redundant advantage but the damage bonus is solid and its size increase is critical to staying relevant against larger, higher-CR enemies. You can also use a shield and proper armor with this build for better AC and some Shield Master abuse.
  • Barbarian – deeper PotB progression: Today’s build stops Barb at lvl 3 in favor of Monk, but you can definitely go deeper. This gives you magical claws at level 6 plus better movement options, a stackable supernova psychic burst at level 10 (8d12 no-save damage if four attacks hit in a single round!), and the ability to either get Shield Master or dual wield (claw twice, draw two weapons with Dual Wielder, attack and bonus action attack). So many builds to make!

More builds to come!

I’d been playing a lot of pandemic Skyrim this last year, but with things opening up again, I’m trying to drag myself back into the D&D swing of things and out of solo gaming depression. I have this crazy idea to keep going through Tasha’s and eventually XAN to make awesome, flavorful builds for all the melee and lower-magic classes.Iif ADHD brain doesn’t torpedo the project, I’ll keep going until I might even touch on some of the horrible PHB ones. Poor Frenzied Berserker. How far you have fallen since 3.5.

Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this character build and creation exercise! Come find me on Discord in the DnDNext or official D&D servers, Reddit, my underused Twitter account, or just send me a message. Let me know if there are any other cool Path of the Beast ideas you have and I’ll hopefully be back soon with more RPG writing.

Art credits from top to bottom

• Featured image: “Primal Visitation” by Christopher Moeller, Magic: The Gathering
• “Path of the Beast” uncredited, Tasha’s
• “Ambuscade” by Kev Walker, Magic: The Gathering
• “Devouring Rage” by Vance Kovacs, Magic: The Gathering
• “Savage Punch” by Wesley Burt, Magic: The Gathering
• “Yawning Portal Tavern Brawl” by Christopher Russell, Dungeons and Dragons
• “Thorn Thrash Viashino” by Jon Foster, Magic: The Gathering