The Barbarian class in Dungeons and Dragons (D and D) Fifth Edition (5e) is a fierce warrior with a primary ability of strength. They can enter battle rage, but cannot cast or concentrate on spells while raging. This makes them more like the fighter than any other class.
The Barbarian class is built around the Rage mechanic, which allows them to absorb tremendous damage. They have an advantage on Dexterity saving throws against effects that they can see, such as traps and spells. To gain this benefit, they cannot be blinded, deafened, or incapacitated.
The Barbarian DnD 5E guide evaluates each option for the Barbarian on a scale of 1-5, rating their abilities’ potency and overall usefulness, primarily focusing on combat where appropriate. Tools are none, and saving throws are Strength and Constitution.
Barbarians embrace their primal instincts and use them to fuel their adventurous spirit. They are the only D and D class without a dedicated spellcasting subclass, unlike the Wild Magic subclass. However, spellcasting is not completely off the table for Barbarians.
Some barbarian Primal Paths have magical effects that they can use while raging. The Barbarian class has great incentives to have a high Con modifier and can cast spells. However, their Rage will drop if they go a long way. Each of these spells must be a conjuration or divination spell of your choice, and must be of a level for which you have spell slots.
📹 5 Tricks All Good Barbarians Know In D&D
Five useful tricks and tips that all great barbarian players know and use in Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition! 0:00 – Maintaining …
📹 Making Barbarians Actually Fun to Play in D&D
Finally, barbarians! I have a huge soft spot for barbarians in D&D, so this video was important for me. Dumb barbarians are fine …
A “DM” I have played with, gave my Barbarian boots of speed, and a cloak that casts blur, and a ring that allows him to regain hit points…. Now every encounter is either the Barbarian kills everything while the party watches, or a monster appears that just happens to undermine all the Barbarian’s strengths. I’ve actually started “forgetting” some of the strategies possible with this character, just to give the other players a chance to participate in a meaningful way.
I’m currently building a fighter, and the potions section here had some good stuff. I’m doing Polearm Master with variant human (and will get Sentinel asap), but I’m doing Battlemaster fighter for the superiority dice with tripping people when they enter the range and their speed drops to zero. So they stay on the ground for their turn. and then I get advantage.
very good tips here! I’m playing a barb myself right now, who’s whole stick is that he’s a disgruntled town guard who really just wants to fing die but won’t (he’s a zelot because Ilmater thinks he’ll find his way) and he’s got a combination of polearm master (his trusty halberd is his main weapon) and tavern brawler (he’s all about fighting dirty and going for nutshots and just smacking people with barstools, just last session i beat a wizard to death with his own spellbook) so what i like to do is rage, use great weapon master to be a threat to protect my squishies and then i smack with the halbard, move in, punch and do a bonus action grapple with advantage. alot of the time I have trouble keeping rage after that so fing lighting myself on fire is the perfect tip, depending on how the DM rules it it might even hurt whoever I’m grappling XD
I’m playing a Bugbear (long arms racial feature gives him reach) barbarian in a friend’s game, and his main weapon is a halberd and has both sentinel and Polearm master. With a 15 foot reach (20 foot when someone casts enlarge), he can stop people in their tracks from far away, spend all his attacks on them, then just take a 5 foot step back. Wash and repeat. One of our better tactics is for him to stand near the center of the group, while enlarged, and he can cover a MASSIVE area around him and hit anything within that 9×9 square. Plus being able to melee anything flying within 20 feet of you.
Man, crazy to think that Meteor Swarm, the most powerful damage dealing spell in the game, would most likely do no damage to a Bear Totem Barbarian Rogue. They would already have proficiency in the saving throw from the Rogue class and advantage from danger sense and take no damage if they succeed because of evasion. Even if they fail, they only take half damage from evasion, half from Bear Totem, and another half if they uncanny dodge, which basically means they take 1/8th of an average of around 128 damage for a total of only 16 damage if they fail the saving throw.
The feat I like for barbarians (specifically the bear one, because it doesn’t have much for bonus actions), is Shield master. It’s not a great feat on most classes, but since you probably don’t have a high dex, the bonus that occasionally comes into play is nice, and with danger sense, you stand a decent chance of passing the save and using your reaction to take very little damage. Plus, you’ve already got advantage on STR checks from Rage, so shoving people around is pretty easy as a result.
re: Fighter Multiclass, i’d argue 3 levels of fighter gives enough to make it worthwhile. Echo Knight, Rune Knight, or Champion all give some pretty nice bonuses as their 3rd level benefits. Echo Knight gives some mobility options, extends your Attack of Opportunity coverage and how far you can threaten in a fight, and your CON mod in extra attacks per long rest. Rune Knight lets you pick from a handful of neat bonus effects based on the Runes you scribe, several of which can be pretty strong if used correctly. Champion extends your Crit range to be 19-20. it’s amazing. when you have two attacks each round, with advantage, you have an almost 20% chance to land a crit each round. be a Berzerker Barbarian in a Frenzied Rage (so potential 3 attacks in a round) and you are at a 27% chance to get a crit every round.
For the multiclass options as Barb, there is one more: Champion Fighter 3/Barb X. Though granted, this is very much a late-game build that works best past Level 12. Barbarians get Brutal Crit which makes their crits extra deadly. Champion Fighter crits on 19. On reckless attack, your chance to crit normally is 9.75%. With the Champion’s superior Crit though, you can get to 19% crit chance. If you’re feeling spicy, you can do this in the other way with Barb 3/Champion X. At level 20, you’ll have a 27.5% crit chance. That is slightly more than 1 in 4 chances of critting. You can stick with Great Axe but if you go Dual Wielder then you can make an extra attack with a Bonus Action using your off-hand Long Sword and so that’s 4 attacks, 7 with action surge (Because one attack is with BA) and it is very likely that one of those 4 attacks you make every turn is going to crit because you’re making all those attacks with advantage thanks to Reckless attack. Downside is that both of these are only good at high levels so unless the DM says, “We’re doing a campaign starting at Level 12 (Or higher)” Consider using one of the other builds.
Also if you pick the race bugbear, you have gangly limbs for that extra 5′ melee range, and if you’re using a reach weapon you effectively threaten a 15′ sphere around yourself. Or if you pick half-orc or tabaxi, you can outrun any enemy trying to flee without needing magical help, but if you do oh boy you can chase down even playing foes.
Bear Totem Barb 5+ Celestial Warlock 5+ (Blade Pact, Eldritch Smite) Paladin 2+ Warlock’s Armor of Agathys spell is non-concentration, so you can maintain it while you rage. This spell is a barbarian’s dream – as Bear rage is equivilent to doubling each hitpoint you have (Unless you’re taking psychic damage, Power word kill, etc). So you’ll get 15 THP that act like 30, and deal 15 damage to whatever hits you in combat, every time you get hit until the THP goes away. And it lasts an HOUR. This gives you extra tankiness and damage output at the same time. Celestial lock gives you healing as a bonus action, Warlock level + CHA times per LR. That probably means warlock level +1, unless you’re rolling. With a 13 CHA you can only really roll 1 dice at a time, but having that extra 1d6 is really helpful, especially since once again – it’s effectively doubled. Speaking of doubling, Eldritch Smite and Divine smite can be done on the same attack. That’s right. You have spell slots that you’re basically doing nothing else with. Drop those smites. With Warlock SR slots, you can even keep this up all day with at least 1 per combat (2 if you don’t use Armor of Agathys), and this is a massive buff to your damage. Even better, you can choose to smite after the attack hits RAW, so you can fish for a critical hit and drop a massive attack on the enemy (Also ES knocks them prone, which makes your job of killing them even easier)
There was a moment where our party’s sorcerer set a plant boss’ vines on fire, causing it to burn off and create a wall of flames. My Dwarf Beast Barbarian ran through the flames to prolong rage (which was about to die out) and then proceeded to hit the boss with 2 attacks with advantage. Both hit for 1d12 each and were augmented by rage damage bonus AND fire damage since his entire body was on fire. Scariest shit my party has ever seen.
I know this is an older article, but I just want to point out that in 5e, barbarians can wear heavy armor and enter rage. They just need to get the proficiency and they don’t get all of their features. The rage feature says, “While raging, you gain the following benefits if you aren’t wearing heavy armor:” and lists the main 3 features. Some of the features they do get are reckless attack and the bear totems resistance to all damage but psychic.
In my opinion you missed 2 things. First is the Potion of Growth for it’s added damage, reach, and advantage on STR checks and saving throws. This leads nicely into the second point, which is grappling. If you use a 1 handed weapon then you have a free hand to take up to grapple a bad guy which shuts down a lot of their turn trying to escape it. In addition you’re detaining an enemy and can still deal out damage not only to them but anyone around. Use a 2 handed weapon? Set it aside and drink your Potion of Growth! Congrats on having a 1d12 weapon in one hand and still grappling people without any issue! In addition, your wonderfully silly STR abilities at that time should allow you to act as a roaring homing missile that jumps into the bad guys to find the really important dude, grapple the heck out of him with advantage, and still have your second attack to toss the poor SOB into the middle of your party, hurt and prone. Don’t feel like tossing them away though? Try my favorite thing, saving time by beating your enemies to deal with your other enemies! Sure it’s disadvantage but that’s hardly an issue to take care of and completely worth it to deal with a bunch of minions by smashing their boss into them!
Frenzy Barbarian: You can keep up your rage with your bonus action attack, while doing other things with your action, like drinking potions, activating magic items, saving comrades, dashing, dodging, disengaging, etc. Maintaining Rage: Keep a few throwable weapons, like hand axes or daggers, to keep the attacks going if your cowardly enemies are out of your reach. Reckless Attack: Once you’ve got Retaliation, Reckless Attack becomes even more inviting, as you WANT enemies to hit you. I don’t always use Reckless Attack, but in a situation where enemies would have Advantage to hit ANYWAYS, like wolves with Pack Tactics, or flanked, etc. you may as well Reckless, and get something on your side. Reckless Attack Counterpoint: My barbarian has a nice magic longsword. He often uses a shield, and has a pretty good AC. He has more of a circus strongman stoic than a bloodthirsty screaming lunatic, so I’m okay with not going Reckless on EVERY round. His party has some good spellcasters so he’s okay with playing tank while the opponents battering fruitlessly on his shield are burned, frozen, disintegrated… sometimes all at once!
Unarmored Defence is honestly a trap option, its generally better to run around in half plate-and always remember that barbarians with their double health pool make them a great attack sponge so reckless attack isn’t the best thing to do. You aren’t a damage dealer, especially at higher tiers of play. Also go echo knight ancestral barbarian with pole arm master and sentinel and tell the monsters to go to hell with disadvantage to hit your party while you stand behind everyone and the echo makes all of your attacks. Obviously if you can take UA options in your game, take tunnel fighter.
It should be noted that there are no rules for attacking yourself afaik so it will always be a DMs decision whether or not you can even do it (i know technically every is at the DMs discretion, but improvising actions not in the rules are especially so). As a DM, I rule an auto success and whatever you use to hit with must be used at full force. No “I’m raging! but I’m also holding back just a tiny bit. I’m simply using my giant greataxe to give me a 1hp paper cut”. Assuming no monk levels/unarmed fighting style, just punch yourself for 1 + (STR) + (RageBonus) worth of bludgeoning damage. If your hands are natural weapons (like a tabaxi or because you’re a beast barbarian), just headbutt a blunt surface for the same damage. Like all bludgeoning damage, your rage halves it. DMs, please allow this. It’s a very invocative image of the barbarian psyching themselves up. It also uses a full attack so there is a trade off. Especially pre level 5, spending your full action to do 3 points of damage to yourself is significant. Post level 5, barbarians never really get more than 2 attacks and while their HP increases, so does their Str and Rage bonus
One of my favorite feats for Barbarians is the fell handed feat. What the fell handed feat does is give you a +1 to hit with axes and hammers, and if you attack with advantage and the lower of the two damage dice hit you knock enemies prone. The feat also does other stuff, but those are the parts which really matter.
Barb warlock is great, but I think eldritch blast is the least cool thing about it. There’s an invocation to let you smite like a paladin, but an even better use of your spell slots is armour of agathys. No concentration so just cast it before you rage, 10+ temporary hit points and 10+ damage to people who hit you in melee. As a barbarian, especially if you have bear totem, these temporary hit points will last much longer, so the spell will dish out even more damage.
Barbarian with 7 oath of glory paladin… 20 extra movement speed at lvl 12, lay on hands, website divinity with smite for a big chunk of bonus hp on a smite hit, plus aura of protection. Just remember that you don’t want to take paladin spells you have to concentrate on except niche ones you can use out of combat. A good spell to prebuff for combat is warding bond on a melee ally, and take interception as your fighting style to potentially negate all damage on an ally as a reaction to them getting hit.
I am thinking about trying out a Tortle Barbarian as my first character. I did have a Halfling Bard and a Minotaur Paladin, but the DM was awful. For the Bard, I was in a party with people that had all sorts of insanely powerful weapons while I had a standard crossbow. I know that damage isn’t the point of a Bard, but when you have level 1 gear against an Adult Red Dragon, there is little you can do to help. For the Minotaur… I had chainmail armor and basic gear in the Underdark while a different member of the party had full darksteel plate armor and what was essentially a lightsaber. Needless to say, that wasn’t a good first introduction to D&D, and I would definitely like to try it again.
One great combo is the polearm master/sentinel build with a 10ft reach weapon while being a bugbear. On your turn you can step 5ft back and still hit them, then if they get closer they enter your reach again. It’s best if they need to get past or to you and they can’t get more than 10ft to your sides.
Here’s an alternative solution to dealing with flying enemies, jumping. A path of the Beast barbarian with the Jumping option of their Bestial Soul feature, with advantage on strength checks you can get some huge athletics skill rolls and jump surprisingly high, you just need to get in close enough to make one of your attacks, but rather then attacking you use it to grapple. Again with advantage on your athletics checks and high strength there are very few things you won’t be able to grapple. Grapple reduces a creature’s movement speed to 0, a flying creature with 0 speed can’t fly anymore and they begin to fall. Sure you might take some fall damage as well when you both hit the ground, but who cares, you’re raging. Even if the creature can hover and doesn’t fall, you’re still grabbing on tight so you can stay in the grapple and keep hitting them with your claws. I also did this with a Rabbitfolk from the fey creatures UA (though that should soon become an official option) for that extra hop of jump distance. If you wanna get REALLY nasty take a few levels of rogue, like suggested here, and take expertise in athletics. At that point you can wrestle dragons to the floor.
You sumbich. You made my mind up for me. Ive been struggling about which path to take with my barb 1/Fighter 3 hill dwarf. Do i take all the extra feats with fighter or do i become a mindless rage monster with brutal crit? Yeah im taking that nasty brutal crit as well as GWM and Polearm master…..and also sentinel….metagame be damned
Reminder to sneak attack with a barbarian, you’re going to need a finesse weapon Meaning 1d6 at most with sowmthing like a rapier Unless you plan on investing many levels into rogue, it’s better to take a greatsword instead. These classes are basically antithesises to one another, dex base with hit and run tactics vs strength based with up close and personal
That polearm master/Sentinel combo is much better on the fighter than the barbarian. Barbarians lose rage if they aren’t taking damage and that feat combo prevents you from taking any damage making it terrible on a barbarian and fantastic on a fighter. That Alchemist’s fire idea is superb though, especially if you’re playing a red dragonborn, a tiefling or a Totem barbarian.
I was playing with a half-orc 5th level Bear-Totem barbarian + 4th level Fighter battlemaster reckless attack every turn with -5 attack +10 dmg from Great Weapon Master possibly with action surge for 4 attacks in the same turn if by some reason I missed, I could use the “precision” maneuver and add a 1d8 to the attack and if I hit, I could use some other maneuver that added 1d8 dmg plus some other nice effect If something needed to die, it was not hard do 100+ dmg in one turn
I am mostly sure Halberds are applicable to each of the feats mentioned. There is also the tough feat which is +2 hp per level. If you rolled solid stats taking all of these could give your DM a healthy challenge for balancing future encounters, keep in mind it wouldn’t be possible until 12 at the earliest and an average of 16
Rogue barb and tavern brawler. You are proficient with literally everything you get your hands on and can grapple after smacking a chump. You are the hard core pro-wrestler of D&D. reckless attack gives you advantage, but grappling forces disadvantage on the enemy, negating the advantage reckless attack would have given them. You only need 1 ‘hand’ free to start a grapple, so play Loxodon, Simic Hybrid or Thri-Kreen to lock down 3 to 4 enemies and use them as improvised weapons which, thanks to tavern brawler, you are proficient with. Unarmed counts as a light dex weapon, so flavor those ‘sneak attacks’ as power bombs, or slamming the enemy into the environment. Enjoy!
Another good tip is to take the readied action outside of combat specifically for the dash action because barbarians need to be up close and personal with whatever their fighting, and taking the dash action before anyone even rolls initiative means that the barbarian can run right up to whatever he wants to stick his axe in then still have their movement on their own turn making it great for gap closing.
Abuse your grapples, use your strength advantage to hold onto an enemy and do all sorts of bullshit – Since a grapple is an attack, you can use your extra attack to also whack the target in the same turn – If you also shove the creature, they don’t only get prone, but they are also unable to get up (since doing so costs movement, and being grappled sets your movement to 0) – If you do the previous technique, now ALL your attacks have advantage against the target until it breaks free AND gets up – Dragging them towards a hazard and shoving them into it – Preventing an escape – Wasting their action when they attempt to break free – You can also grapple 2 people in one turn, one with each hand and each using an attack, you won’t be able to attack them since both of your hands will be occupied, tho – You automatically maintain your grapple if the opponent doesn’t attempt to escape, which makes attempting to escape a very favorable option – Assuming you are a medium creature, if you become larger trough any means, you can now carry small creatures (or smaller creatures) without hindering your speed at all
Okay, if I read the rules on Rage correctly. Making a thrown weapon attack should maintain the rage right? Doesn’t even have to hit. You just have to attempt it. So move 30 ft, throw a hand axe, and keep going. Why even do the self harm? Probably a reason they get two javelins in their basic equipment.
There’s also subclasses like Path if the beast which is fun to use when raging with the tail, claws, and mandible which all have different abilities if you choose one of them during your rage. My favorite being tail since I could use my reaction to roll a 1d8 and add it to my a.c. which was always fun.
Ummm….I might be a little late but the rage bonus damage is included only on strength weapons and the sneak attack only works with finesse or ranged weapons. The finesse weapon with the most amount of damage is the rapier with a 1d8…and it’s one handed, the scimitar deals 1d6 and it’s also one handed.
One thing I think is neglected by most barbarians and that should be used more often…..SHIELD MASTER. Yes we don’t care about AC, but we do care about action economy. After you rage, what exactly are you using your bonus action for? Why not sacrifice alittle bit of damage and start shield bashing fools to the ground on your bonus action? Most DM’s rule the Shove action as contested strength checks, which while raging you have ADVANTAGE on! Knock your enemy prone so your other allies can start swinging at them with advantage!
You missed one: Grapple + Shove (prone) is amazing (it’s basically the same as restraining someone, and WAY better than the grappler feat). They are prone so have disadvantage on attacks, and they have zero movement from the grapple so can’t stand up. To get out they have to spend their action trying to break the grapple, and if you are raging, that’s gonna be hard. Really hard. Meanwhile you and your friends get to attack them with advantage. Bonus: Shove and grapple are considered “attacks” so you can actually play a ‘pacifist’ barbarian this way, while still maintaining rage.
Barbarian/Rouge is an EASY flavor to run with; street thug. You know how to act on the downlow when the situation calls for it, & when going pure APE$HIT is the best course of action. Make sure you keep that rep on the streets so that people are too scared to let the city guard know to go after you, or better yet have them quaking in their boots too, at least the ones that aren’t your plants or on you payroll.
5 Reponses from Barbarian Main 1. Fuck Yea 2. Abso-fucking-lutely 3. I always look for reasons to gain advantage outside of Reckless Attacks, then use it when the DM doesn’t use Flanking Rules. 4. Barbearian is the ONLY viable Multi Class. 5. Yes to ALL of this. Jokes aside, all points are good advice, and article was funny.
one of my players, a cleric, wanted to multiclass into barbarian, which sounded freaking awesome… except for the rage downside of “no spells”. Good thing this is a homebrew campaign and I am above the judgments of both God and Crawford: Primal Path: Path of Ecstatic Excess Primal Expression: At 3rd level, your emotions run with the strength of leylines, allowing you to cast some spells while raging. You learn the Cure Wounds and Inflict Wounds spells, and can cast them at first level using this feature a total number of times up to your proficiency modifier per long rest. Strength is your spellcasting ability for these spells when cast this way. You must be raging to cast using this feature. Spells are empowered by your emotions, allowing you to add your rage modifier to damage and healing done by spells while raging. Additionally, you may cast other spells you know that have a range of touch while raging, but cannot concentrate on spells. Impatient Cast: At 6th level, your emotions spur you to see results before others would be able to act. You learn the Guiding Bolt spell and can cast it at first level using this feature once per long rest. Strength is your spellcasting ability for this spell when cast this way. You must be raging to cast using this feature. When you cast Guiding Bolt using this feature against a creature within your movement range, you may immediately move next to that creature and use a melee weapon attack as a bonus action. Additionally, you can cast any spell you know while raging, but cannot concentrate on spells.
Another one to note is that Barbarians dont have a fighting style. So they are free to swap weapons and weapon style as much as they want. You dont have to be married to one. Horde of weak enemies? Dual wield for more swings. Low on HP? Whip out a shield. Flying enemies? Chuck some darts, hand axes or javelins at them. You wont get the damage bonus but you can maintain your rage by attacking them and you use strength for those weapons.
It all seems so dependent on DM play. If you can take a feat and get defensive duelist, a barbarian with a rapier and shield is basically impossible to hit if you take the right ASIs and feats until very late game. AC 22 (as a reaction) at level 1 is crazy at the table but the math works if you get 2 or 3 good rolls out of 6.
The only time I didn’t use reckless attack was when I already had advantage. Another tip: GET A HOLD OF THE BLOOD FURY TATTOO! It has 10 charges and on a hit you can use a charge to do an extra 4d6 necrotic damage that also heals you. Alternatively you can also use a charge to make an attack as a reaction when hit. This tattoo let me solo a bone devil as a level 7 zealot and afterwards I never ended a fight with less than 100 health (I wouldn’t start activating charges until I hit half or so)
I have Wings of Flying on my Dragonborn Barb (who at lvl 10 already has 20 STR and 19 CON thanks to RNG-esus), which makes him the most terrifying powerhouse at 60ft flying speed. My DM is slightly regretting it I think, but I’m also wielding a unique Trident he made for me instead of a great weapon because I was already getting too busted XD (But I’m busy making him consider to make Trident fall under Polearm Master as well, because it just doesn’t make sense). Personally I’m not gonna multiclass (due to me wanting the +4 capstone eventually), but a trick to get the expertise anyway: Get the Skill Expert Feat. It’s only one expertise skill, but put it on Athletics with 20 Strength and at lvl 20 you have a full +19 on Athletics. You roll a Nat 1? Still a DAMN TWENTY on a critical fail. You could grab an Ancient Dragon’s talon and just snap it off and make him your bitch without dropping a sweat! XD
Great weapon master and being a half-orc with savage attack deals absurd amounts of damage if your lucky Lets say you crit, you can now roll 3 d12 instead of 2 cuz of savage attack. Then +10 thanks to great weapon mastery and +6-+8 depending on weapon. My best result out of this is dealing 50 damage on a single boss enemy.
So here’s a fun story from our last session: I actually managed to maintain rage for a whole 10 rounds of combat, in the middle of which my allies murdered the last enemy so I couldn’t attack to continue raging. So here I go dash – burst into room full of enemies – do a football slide on both knees to go prone – scream “HIT ME YOU CHICKENSUCKING RICHARDS!” (or something similar) – goes 5 ft backwards.
On the AC remark, while understandable, still have the chance of not getting hit. I have a LVL 8 Tortle Barbarian Storm Herald, giving a base AC of 17+Con, currently making it 21. Yes, mixing AC features but DM allowed it. I’m going Reckless all the time with my Maul and yet I’m hardly EVER hit. For whatever reason, my DM always rolls shitty with ADV against him. The most I’ve lost was like a dozen HP in a full combat session even when jumping head first into a swarm of Necrotic Sea Elves. I’m intending on him to Multiclass into Artificer too, going Artillerist to be blasting foes with my cannon each bonus action too
Yes it’s a great idea to buy Potions of Speed for every major fight…. if you have 17,500gp to spend each use. I don’t know what kind of crazy money that you’re used to having access to in your campaigns but even in Tier 4 this will blow through money faster than you can make it. The same could be said for the Oil of Sharpness or the Potion of Storm Giant Strength which cost 17,500 and 87,500 respectively. For the cost of one Potion of Storm Giant Strength you could instead buy a Belt of Fire Giant Strength, a +3 Weapon and Boots of Speed. Consumables (especially high value potions) are too expensive to be reliable. In addition the potion of flight does not trivialize a Beholder fight due to it’s Antimagic Field
just to pile on, The thing about polearm master and sentinel is, it doesnt require barbarian. Anyone can use it, but, preferably, you’ll be a Fighter. Heres why: Fighter: Fighting Style- I think its called Tunnel Fighter, it gives you unlimited reactions. Race: Variant Human for that juicy juicy feat Feats required: Polearm Master, Sentinel, Get yourself a big boy weapon with range or, be a bug bear or some other race with extended melee. Now, heres how this plays out. And unlimited number of enemies can charge up to you, and you get an unlimited number of reactiosn to attack them, and end their movement. You can complete this build as early as level 4 with Human Variant or level 8 with Bug Bear or some other race, though Bug Bear can do this with Greatswords I think. Imagine this. Imagine you have a flametongue greatsword, you have reach as a bug bear, you see 12 goblins charging at you. You stand still and hold action. One attacks you, nope, reaction, kill it with 4d6+5. IT dies before it even gets to attack you. Next one walks up, dead dead again dead dead dead dead You wipe out every single one of them…ON THEIR TURN. finally your turn. Shrug shoulders and walk carefully over pile of goblin corpses.
Yep, fighter for Action Surge is great. Also, add Sorcerer for Shield and Elemental Resistance – spread the 3 Levels of it for fluff but a twinned “Elemental Resistance” is fine and saved the one who failed his Saving throw. This makes your “naked Fighter” a lot more Tanky. Also, 3 Levels of Ranger are nice – Monster Hunter gives you double Hunters Mark and a Second Fighting Style is nice – and as Class Feature the 1D8-Mark it is no spell and works with Rage. Finally, the one Level in Rogue adds up 1D6 Damage whenever flanking or ganging up when beeing able to restrict on Finesse Weaponry – but, you need at least 6 Level to get on par with the Damage of a proper 2H-Weapon. On the other Hand, having a Rogue with “Anger Issues” always pays off. Still, I would not recommend it, as the Juice in Rogue comes between 3 and 9.
I have a game with all new players I’m in. This first game, the DM ( also his first time ) is basically making the mistake of letting anyone do anything. We agreed after this adventure is over. I will DM the next one. My plan is to give all the players pre made characters. In terms of abilities and ways to go about leveling up. I want them to make the personalities of the characters. I have already made a warlock, a fighter, a paladin, a bard, a wizard, and now I want a barbarian. Unfortunately I never played barbarians. I kinda just want to make a Krieg The Psycho barbarian. This player I am thinking should play this class. He first language is Spanish, he doesn’t have English down so awesome. The DM let him play a spell caster. This guy is always forgetting his abilities he can do. So I thought wouldn’t it be smart if he played a character that doesn’t speak much, but when he does it’s just random screaming of nonsense.
One more good multiclass option is, imho, 3-4 levels of Barbarian, combined with 16-17 levels of Fighter (depending on the subclasses and personal preference). You start with 5 levels of Fighter for Extra Attack, then add 3 levels of Barbarian for Rage, Reckless Attack and your subclass of choice, then go to at least Fighter 11 for Extra Attack, and then you can add a 4th level of Barbarian if you really care about getting an additional ASI before going Fighter all the way for more ASIs.
In regards to barbarian AC, it’s just outright foolish to give them any armor since they have the Unarmored Defense feature. Their particular version of it sets their AC to 10 + their DEX and CON modifiers. At level 20, barbarians gain the Primal Champion feature, which gives +4 current and max STR and CON. This means that, by themselves, barbarians can get up to 22 AC, potentially more since, unlike the monk’s version, they can use it with shields.
Remember there is an advance technique for barbarians called “Double rage” it sound complicated but its really simple. As long as you got extra rages and your rage is on 1 turn you can bonus action to rage again while you’re still raging. This resets all per rage abilities and the timer back to 1 minute. This is way better than letting your rage drop and then raging again. When its past 15th level and you can maintain rage infinitely its great to get back your per rage abilities. Also it doesn’t stack the rage damage you only apply it once.
PSA: Dipping 3 levels of ANY non-caster on a full caster class is problematic. Dipping 3 levels of barbarian on a moon druid is a total waste. Wild Shape is only super strong from levels 2-6 ish, and ONLY because of the way druid itself progresses through those levels. Past that point most moon druids become full casters anyways, only using wild shape to occasionally soak a hit using Earth Elemental. I HAVE SEEN Bear Totem + Moon Druid at a table, and I can honestly say it’s somewhat underwhelming. You’d be better off just taking all your levels in one or the other. If you want to do it for fun.. go for it. Jus know it feels shit to be raging and not able to use most of your good spells.
2 years later- Thought you were gonna say “Kids- Abuse, your, friends. If you haven’t been hurt, can’t hurt yourself, and didn’t hurt a foe- Fear not, that shit is for your friends. You know what else is for your friends? Lemons! When life gives you lemons, beat your party to death and there! You’ve attacked someone!”
Rouge Barbarian: You need a Finesse weapon for Sneak Attack, but must use it with strenght because you want the Rage Bonus and reckless attacks Your DM could even say that it’s Not possible to have both. Also if you dont Talent for it, your offhand must be light. And Barbarian have a hard time Picking feats because Attributes are Just amazing for them. (Looking envious at you Fighter …)
NO bearbarian is not worth it. like with the idiotic cofeelock, sure on paper it looks awesome untill you realise that: The beast form you can take are 1/3 your DRUID level (rounded down). you need 3 level in barbarian for this to even come online While you rage, you cannot hold concentration on your druid spells. Beast form (and even elemental form) do lag behind and are not as powerfull as one cna think. So yeah you can be a cute raging CR 1 bear at level 5 with 14AC and 68hp (34HP twice) +46HP (assuming a 14 in constitution since you need to spred your stats between strenght, dex, constitution and wisdom to be viable outside animal form) attacking twice for 2d6+6 non magical damage (and bear claws are not great weapon so no great weapon master feat)… or a straight level 5 barbarian with multi attack a magic weapon 55 HP (assuming a 16 constitution) a 16AC (breastplate that later can be upgraded with psychic resistance, crit resistance, hide bonus or whatever…) and attacking twice for 2d6+16 (could be even higher with a magical weapon) + great weapon master feat giving you a 3rd attack if you crit or kill a target and with reckless attack you can pretty much ignore the -5 penalty except on the highest AC target. So yeah bearbarian might have double the HP, but it hit like a teddy bear…. so the ennemy can safetly ignore the HP sponge and go attack the deadly rogue, or the menacing wizard. you have no way to generate enougth treath to convinced that create to attack you instead of the wizard.
I’ve toyed with multi-classing my Tabaxi barb into Fighter a few times, but I’m eyeing that Great Weapon master feat as we’re just about to hit level 8 in our Strahd campaign and I’d love to introduce that bastard to the business end of my reflavored-as-warhammer-in-lore-but-it’s-really-a-maul warhammer. She’s already a wrecking ball as it is, but that would make her obscene.
2:15 not from concentrate…that killed me 😂 5:05 nope I lied, this killed me 5:18 finally I’m fucking vindicated! My Barb is a shifter beast Barb and I was considering going moon Druid on her….everywhere I look it’s like beast Barb/moon Druid combo doesn’t exist…they synergize so well…you could literally turn into a fucking Bear, multi attack maul a mf and use the tail rage so you can add the 1d8 reaction to your AC. 🤯
I played a Firbolg Moon Druid, Barbearian, Vengeance Paladin in a short, high level campaign once. Used the exact reference you did for the Druid Barbarian. He was rhe most busted PC I’ve ever made. Pike, polearm master, ring of freedom of movement. Cast plant growth or entangle, and move in for the kill.
you mentioned both PAM and GWM and mentioned the synergy between PAM and Sentinel, but PAM and GWM also work well together. They both offer substantion increases in average damage per round that not only stack, but synergize. Just like PAM offers an additional attack each round (after your initial rage) to apply Reckless Attack’s advantage and Rage bonus damage, PAM’s bonus action attack can also apply the -5/+10 “tradeoff” of GWM, as can opportunity attacks offered by PAM when an enemy enters your square. There’s a little bit of overlap between the BNS action attack offered by PAM and the one conditionally offered by GWM but you can always opt into the stronger one when available and then default to the weaker one when not. I like getting both of these feats on my barbarians because, as you alluded to multiple times, barbarians are naturally super tanky, and have subclass options to get even moreso. So opting for two damage increasing feats and using a reach weapon for added threat range make you overall much more capable in combat, instead of just being a giant damage sponge
The potion idea is a good idea until you remember that the rarity cost for Very Rare items in D&D is 5,001-50,000 gold and potion costs are half of the normal rarity cost so a Potion of Speed, Flying, or Oil of Sharpness as he mentioned costs 2,500-25,000 gold and the potion of Giants Strength is 25,000 gold minimum. So while the potion idea is good it’s not economically viable since the Barbarian is better off spending that gold on magic items that will give long term usage over a 1 and done potion. Though once the Barbarian is well equipped with magic items grabbing a potion of 2 for the BBEG fight is a good idea.
I play a Storm Sorcery Sorcerer – Path of the Storm Barbarian multiclass Leonin, and I have to tell you, it’s hella fun! 😀 Imagine throwing around lightning spells like freaking Darth Sidious, then flying into the middle of a fight with Tempestuous Magic and raging to make a goddamn storm break out around you! Combine it with the Daunting Roar and this becomes a hyper badass thundercat entry. 😀
Funny enough I made a scourge aasimar barbarian strictly for the purpose of uninterruptable rage. Now one might say that my character is replaceable by about 50 gold. I say, my technique is home grown, all natural, organic, with no added chemical, additives or pesticides, GMO free, batch of kick ass.
Okay using Alchemist Fire to maintain rage is freaking Genius! Its also so, so very badass. Lets also not forget the fear factor… Like, Imagine seeing a man whose already built like a tank and ferocious and stuff; proceed to light himself in fire and charge toward you like a bull on crack, screaming his head off. I think that is a “DM have them make a Wisdom Saving Throw at disadvantage.” Moment…
I’ve given the punch in the face every so often. Also ranged weapons are recommended for maintaining rage. Haste is definitely heavenly though, also great for skirmishing. One of the best armors is distance. I also recommend doing 3rd level in fighter for champion. Let’s you really utilize brutal critical between reckless and 19-20 crits.
instead of standing there doing nothing in position for enemies to walk in into a Sentinel PAM OA, you could just like; take both GWM and PAM and maybe attempt to actually help the party. Most Barbarians are a nuissance to the control casters of a given party (and are way wayyyyy weaker). Barbarians suck. Melee sucks.
trick 6 : While ac is a bit pointless, crit aren’t. that’s why I suggest buying a suit of adamantine armor. It nullify all crits. No attunement needed trick 7 : winged boots is actually much more common than potions of flight. It will be probably cheaper to use that. Or maybe a carpet of flying later on when you’re starved for attunement. It should be what you want right after the cheapest magic weapon. trick 8 : prepare for resistances. A moon touched sword is a common item that is still technically still magical, allowing you to pierce resistance and immunity to nonmagical weapons for 100 gp or less. Ideal for budget ghost hunting. Take this unless you have better. ALso backup weapons made or silver or adamantine maybe beat resistances that even magic weapon cannot. Something to consider next time you want to fight a golem. Trick 9 : belt of giant strengh. Get them early and upgrade them often. It is better than any magic weapon. it allows you to build around them spending the ability score increases in feats rather than strength. Much more useful. Consider lucky or resilient wisdom so you stop being mind-controlled by those pesky nerdy wizards.
“Barbarians are too simple for tactical players to strategize as” Well.. see.. Barbarians usually have a minimal perception, even if their brains are like potatoes, so.. have you ever looked at the surroundings of where you’re fighting? Maybe pillars, breakable walls, things you can throw at your enemies, even windows are useful, you have a massive strength, remember? Depending on your level, as strong as, if not stronger than a Troll, and you have advantage on strength checks. Use them for something, mess with the enviroment, maybe “just smash” could be useless against that mage, but are you sure that he can dodge a massive pillar if you knock it at him? Maybe this armored dude is really hard to hit, but you probably have the upper hand to overcome him on a Strength contested check, so… throw him out the window, big armor in high buildings go BOOOM
Bro my mini barbarian is op, reckless attack plus stunning strike and it’s truly just amazing roleplay. Plus I gave her the hermit flaw that her exile failed to quench her blood-lust. Also I like the roleplay of only using rage when it’s best to do so, using that primal blood-lust along with monk discipline to hone that power and then breathe or meditate to voluntary get out of rage or just chill. I call the barbarian monk, the BONK.
The Barbarian/Rogue multiclass showing up in this article really reaffirms the idea i came up with. Currently building a Little Red Riding Hood Axe weilding murderer character for a oneshot. Roleplaying her rage as bloodthirst manic. Thinking laughing psychotically while drunk on violence. Plus unarmored defense means i get to wear what ever “pretty dresses” I want. Was specking into barbarian but recognized that being level 9 only gets me an advantage on saving throws and initiative. Which is nice but its a one shot and Im not used to typically having that so why not search for something better. Then it occured to me that barbarians dont have a lot to do with their bonus action and that the reckless attack procs sneak attack. So for only 2 levels into rogue i can get extra damage, proficiencies, things to do with my bonus action, keep my advantage on saving throws/initiative, AND it feels thematic for a psychotic little girl in a cloak to be stealthier than most.
Scourge Aasimar Paladin Barbarian – adds even more damage, an aura, and a source of damage from Radiant Consumption to yourself every turn to help keep your rage going, which is halved by the Aasimar’s resistance, and if you want to, halved again by bear totem barb (though for my character i personally went Zealot Barb for backstory reasons). Plus “God is busy, He sent me.” Radiant Supersaiyan Ragesmite is one helluvan opening line.
I totally agree with number 5. CON for a Barbarian improves A.C thanks to Unarmored Defense in addition to boosting HP, and it also makes passing Relentless Rage checks easier, which means that it makes number 1 easier, too. Another tip. Some thrown weapons can use the STR mod for the attack role, like javelins. So ranged attack is somewhat easier.
I currently have a level 11 character, level 8 zealot barb, level 3 phantom rogue. On first hit, reckless with a rapier, I’m dealing base damage + rage + 1d6 necrotic + 2d6 sneak. I have tavern brawler so I can use an unarmed strike for my second attack (a headbutt is nice) and then grapple with a bonus action, or use any of the rogue bonus actions as needed. It’s an amazingly fun build.
Do yourself a favour and play a paladin/barbarian. Most unga bunga explosive damage dealing martial I’ve ever laid hands on. Get great weapon master, and then go conquest paladin. Use reckless attack and GWM every turn, and if your attack missed but you really wanted it to hit, do guided strike to make it hit anyway. You can pump smites into it if you want, and get even more damage with your barb subclass
An alternative to maintaining rage that doesn’t involve self immolation (seriously? That’s unbelievably dumb) is the bit about making sure you attack someone on your turn. You have javelins. All barbarians get javelins. They have a maximum range of 120 feet. Huck one of them at someone, you don’t even have to score a hit, you just need to make the attack.
Alternative option for multiclass. 3 levels of fighter, gives fighting style, action surge, second wind, and champion subclass crits on 19s. Play a half orc barbarian of any kind, and take the great weapon master feat while wielding a greataxe. Reckless attack on every turn. Observe as your crit possibility goes from 5% to 20%, and your crit damage becomes 3d12 + 10 + rage bonus + strength, with scoring a crit or a kill granting you an extra attack as a bonus action thanks to great weapon master. I am in the process of doing this with a character for one of the campaigns I’m in, and his theoretical max damage in a turn once I finish the build is 330hp, or enough to leave an ancient white dragon on 3hp. At level 12.
Taking a three level dip into Fighter to get champion and the improved critical works great with a half-orc primal path barbarian with the piercer feat. that’s giving your self advantage to hit and on a natural 19-20 you hit with 4d8+str with tail shenanigans rage and piercer damage re-roll. Then use action surge and extra attack to do it two more times and then an off-hand attack with a finesse weapon just for LOLZ!
One fun trick about Barbarians is that they’re possibly the best class for grappling, thanks to their high HP, getting advantage on Strength checks while raging, and an extra attack to get multiple attempts or to make sure you can maintain your rage. You do have to build around it a bit – 2-handed weapons aren’t great for grappling – but it can be real handy, especially against more mobile enemies. For extra spice, multiclass into rogue for expertise in Athletics, giving you a very difficult to contest grapple.
Sentinel with Polearm mastery is brocken when combined with tunnel fighter .. You just stand there, let them come: attacks of opportunity don’t cost reaction anymore . .and you can attack every creature moving as much as a finger inside your range. combine it even further with spear mastery: EVERY enemy that comes into 10 feet of you (remember attack of opportunity doesn’t cost a reaction anymore) gets hit, stops ( because sentinel reduces their movment to 0) and can’t attack you ( they have at most a range of 5), you hit them with an attack and walk away ( they can’t reach you-> no attack of opportunity) next round, they again try to reach you or want to go around you .. 10 foot reach and everything you hit stops in it’s tracks… even better with bear stance from savager .. so you don’t need to wait to get the feat spear mastery because: every enemy you hit gets pushed back 5 feet as written, there is no saving throw involved so : enemy gets into 5 feet of you, you can attack them without reaction, push them back 5 feet and they can’t move anymore. bingobangobongo
When I first heard of the Sentinel/Polearm Master combo I’d thought it was great and perfect. However I have thought up an improvement to it. Bugbear Cavalier Fighter with Polearm master and Great Weapon Master, this build is really weird and requires you to either swap in feats if you start below level 10 and also is way more reach than you need until the level when you get Cavalier’s highest level feature. Once you get that you lock down a 30 by 30ft cube centered on you with an opportunity attack any time a creature walks into it, moves 5 ft in it or leaves it with the attack reducing their speed to 0 on a hit.
The easiest way to maintain rage – even if self-punching is allowed – is usually to simply attack any hostile creature with a javelin (or a longbow if no hostile creature is within 120 ft.). You don’t have to have any realistic hope of actually hitting the target, you only have to attack it – so that target that has three-quarters cover and an AC of 22 is totally fair game – and hey, maybe you’ll get really lucky.
Everyone always goes on about the barbarian/rouge multiclass, but sneak attack really doesn’t synergise with rage very well. You’re either making a finesse attack to get sneak attack (that negates your rage bonus) or using strength based attacked that won’t give sneak attack but will give the rage bonus to damage.
0:55 people might think this is just a cheesy way but no….I’ve seen people in real life literally punch themselves full force in the face to get themselves going. Thankfully you can’t really put your weight behind it but you get the idea. Is it weird that sort of behavior didn’t strike me as odd until 10 years later?
In our previous session last week, we got a new party member who’s playing an Ancestral Guardian Barbarian. After learning how her Ancestral Protectors trait worked, my Armorer Artificer immediately cheesed the enemy by making use of my thunder gauntlets in combo with her ghosts. My ability gave it disadvantage if it attacked anyone but me, and her ghosts did the same for her. So no matter who it attacked in the party, it had disadvantage. (Enemy’s best bet would still be to go for her since the protectors trait also gives any ally attacked aside from the barbarian resistance to the damage if the disadvantage attack manages to land)
I wanna implement a custom action for barbarians called focus rage, or draw rage, something like that. But it’s basically just an action that allows rage to continue if you can’t meet the requirements for keeping up rage. Also unrelated but multiclassing barbarian with celestial warlock means you can do healing in combat with that healing light ability, which is a bonus action. Even better if you do zealot barbarian with this, 1: flavor and 2: zealot barbarians don’t get a great bonus action, so this fills some previously unused potential
I play a barbarian named Kilrut, and one of my friend’s play a sorcerer that screws up a lot and set a town on fire and is being chased by the villagers, I was able to get them to stop with some trout ahead of my pocket by smacking everyone there, and a Mischievous, God I forgot the name of gifted my a Vorpal Sword that can turn people into trout 😂
So I’ve never played 5e. Last time I played was in 3.5. Is the Bola Barbarian no longer a thing? It was memey and broken back in the day. Dragons, liches and demons all getting tied up and losing a turn to the Bola and then getting merked by the Barbarian. Is the bola worse in 5e or does it not work at all?
Put enough levels in Barbarian to have the totem warrior subclass (and any more levels if the abilities will benefit you) and then put levels in moon Druid for wild shape, and on top of this, with at least an intelligence of 13 which hopefully is your lowest stat that you put in intelligence, multiclass into blood hunter for 3 levels to be part of the lycan subclass, and then 5 levels of Rogue for uncanny dodge. This basically gives you resistance against non-magical attacks 3 times over because of doing the lycan transformation first, then wild shape, and then rage, but being a bear totem Barbarian you will have triple resistance to nonmagical weapons and attacks in total and resistance against magical attacks except psychic. And depending on your race, one of those magical resistances with bear totem can be doubles as well and then use your reaction to uncanny dodge to half an attack. Of course this is if your DM allows it but if your DM is a rules lawyer, they won’t be able to find anything in the books that says this is not possible. Realistically you can’t double or triple resistances by doing one of the same thing having it pile up, but if you were to do it by multiple different means then it is logically possible. Now I recommend that when you do this you have a character that thematically makes sense to have all of these classes so then it’s fun to play as them even outside of combat and go for this if your DM loves to be unfair and throw high level enemies at your for no reason other than because he/she has a god complex or you pissed them off for some reason