Hey. I got a question you can probably answer. I’m thinking about playing my first game of D&D and I want to create a character that is both useful and hilarious. I was thinking something like a barbarian/thief gnome. Would that work? And if it does is there anything I could do to enhance it? Considering that it’s a gnome.
I did that once a couple years back, my barbarian/fighter was surrounded by 5-7 Spawn of Kyuss. (He was level 12 or 13 at that point.) He doused himself with Alchemist's Fire to keep the grubs from burrowing into his skin.
I’ve recently started playing a pit fiend themed tiefling barbarian, and I’ve already been lugging those around for a thematically fitting ranged attack. Definitely gonna use this in the next big fight
I would love to see a mini series on the role-playability of each class, their strengths and weaknesses as role playing characters and how best to play them, and some tips on how to get the most out of your abilities in a role playing scenario.
@@DnDShorts Yes please! I still struggle to figure out my level 8 circle of the moon druid's role within our party of a paladin, sorcerer, rogue, and fighter. I feel like a jack of all trades but a master of none.
The best rp class is fighter, you can be anything Others discourage players to branch out... Like monk, my monk is a thief who simply isn't the rogue class. He's a duelist and thief who's mechanics are monk, not the monk behavior.
@@elgatochurro yeah, flavor is free. I have a barbarian, but only mechanically. All the flavor is a very precise, focused gentleman. Rage is just a very focused state.
Piggybacking on the ‘always use reckless attack’, it is important to use armor, but not for AC, but for adamantine properties. Adamantine negates critical hits on you, which will be more often when every attack on you is at advantage.
I'm glad to see there is easier ways to keep rage. When I played my Barbarian, my friend who was a wizard would just set me on fire and watch me rage. That way if an enemy gets too close, I could set them on fire too.
None of this makes sense to me. You only have to attack an enemy to keep it going, not damage an enemy. Just keep throwing shit if they are out of melee range. Or are you guys talking about maintaining rage between combat? Like setting the barb on fire while exploring? Shutting a barbs rage down in combat is actually really difficult.
@@negandavidson9600 Rage only lasts a minute. You can't explore while raging for very long. 2 rooms without combat and the minute is up, rage is done. Now you're just a normal guy on fire.
On the bear-barian, remember that you can spend your spells to heal your wild shape, so don’t feel like you need to cast first then charge in if it doesn’t suit your style or the scenario
I would justify a rogue-barian flavor wise as an executioner, who knows exactly where to land his axe to get a quick and painless death. It’s works good enough in my opinion
@@spencervance8484 You could argue that the clan you were from did a type of trial by combat as a form of execution. The condemned faces the village champion/executioner in a fight that's unfair but offers a warriors death and small chance to survive should they win. The executioner would need to be very good to do his job.
@@Smite_Sion You don't need to use dex for sneak attack. Finesse weapons don't _force_ you to use dex for attack and damage rolls, you know. It just gives you the option. I know a roguebarian that's doing exactly this, in fact. He's using a rapier, activating reckless and swinging with strength and still getting sneak attack.
2:44 Unless the beholder just, you know, looks at you with its giant antimagic eye. And potions are magical items, so they won`t work in the antimagic field. That`s literally the whole point of a beholder.
@@goldencalf13 Of course beholder have a number of rays that would desimate barbarian, but they have two problems. 1) They are random. 2) They all allow saving throws and barbarians will be good at 7 of those (STR, DEX, CON). And a good thing about antimagic eye, this 150 ft CONE, most likely to touch most of the party anyways.
@@МолчаливыйКлинок It's cone also affects its own eye rays, so a beholder will cripple himself by sheltering his most important targets. Learning how to place a beholder's cone is key.
Hats off for just starting the video and getting right into the topic of the video. No 2 min summary and explanation. No stupid in video ad. Just to the point. Love it.
Always the final option, but man it sucks when you're used to doing 30+ damage a turn to go down to 8! If you find yourself caught at range a lot, I recommend checking out the Javelin of Lightning as well as a few potions of flight!
@@DnDShorts You could also throw a handaxe, and use your bonus action to throw another(which might not do extra STR damage but will add extra rage damage anyway). Either way you'd be out of range on your next turn.
I took Path of Beast on a simichybrid and a multiclass into rogue to get around this. Take acid spit attack as one of the mutations so you always have a ranged attack to continue proccing rage, and Path of the Beast gives you an extra 10 feet of movement speed per round plus half your total movement speed when you rage, and Cunning Action let's you dash as a bonus action so you don't waste a whole turn doing nothing when you could be smacking people around. Flying enemy? No problem just use your lvl 6 Beast barb ability to add an athletics check to your jump distance and make an insane jump to grapple the enemy, which you have advantage on thanks to Beast subclass. Enemy gets grappled 9 times our of ten and plummets to the ground. You both take damage but they always take more than you. Then proceed to slaughter. Rinse, repeat. Enjoy!
3:36 you can disable the downside of reckless attack by playing as a Wildhunt Shifter because their shifting feature makes it so within 30ft of you enemies can't benefit from advantage to hit you
Or if you go roguebarian (or what I like to call the dervish) you could bonus action disengage to dance back out of melee if you're scared of taking it like a man.
@@Guille2033 *Wildhunt* -Ability Scores: Dex +1 Wis +2 -Natural tracker: You have proficiency in the survival skill. -Shifting feature: While shifted, you have advantage on Wisdom checks, and *no creature within 30 feet of you can make an attack roll with advantage against you, unless you're incapacitated.*
@@Guille2033Yeah they do and this combo is actuallynot that bad. Just because its not a powergamer race doesnt make it bad. It actually has great flavour.
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.
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.
Playing my very first campaign as a Bugbear Barbarian and i'm loving the extra reach bonuses. Also chose Path of Giant to add more reach. Just waiting for level ups to gain more feats
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 have been watching your vids for a while and I’m starting my first D&D campaign EVER and I’m playing a barbarian. Perfect timing my man lol thank you!!
I have a high elf barbarian with mage hand to carry their maul, since it is within the 10lbs limit. Also puts mage hand on throwing axes for a returning effect.
Hop in the discord! People are making a lot of one shots to let forever DMs play! If I ever get enough from this YT to leave my job I'll also start running regular ones for the community too!
@@bastiondon How does this slow down combat significantly for you because i coud imagine that if you add multiple "DM Player Charekters" to the combat who are all quit complex. PS: I'm ary that my englisch is not the best, I'm not a nativ speaker.
@@Velatus5978 That's okay! The way I do it is, I don't use whole character sheets for NPCs I throw at the party. I instead make monster stat blocks for them using the abilities from the classes I want them to have. It's smaller, but you still get the details and power on one clean stat block!
Simic Hybrid/Path of the Beast Barbarian. It's so much fun. You get so many options. Ray-like fins and grappling appendages fit so well with beast barb it's insane.
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.
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.
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.
currently playing a level 18 barbarian, im so hyped for capstone. i do have a belt of storm giant strength, but a 24 strength to fall back on in antimagic situations is incredible
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)
Awesome video! Definitely learned a lot that I'll be using! I multiclassed my barbarian with draconic sorcerer which so far has been fun! Got that extra free AC bonus, plus I'm able to now apply mage armor to myself with a couple range and speed spells.
Barbarian/Alchemist is a good combo too. Make your own magic items, make your own potions (using spell slots that you can't use while raging), make your Alchemist fire... And the best part is using magic tinkering to play the DOOM OST when you rage.
Not sure if you meant it that way but you can actually use spell slots when you rage, you just cant cast spells. Using a spellslot to make a quick potion during battle is totally viable but of course its better to make them beforehand. Thats also why Barb/Paladin works as you can smite while raging.
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 played a tortle bear totem barb/ champion fighter/ moon druid with a cloak of displacement, and had the gwm,polearm master and sentinel feats(used charger as well to turtle slide into people) that man was disgustingly dangerous in an enclosed space
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.
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
I like imagining the confusion and terror on the enemy's faces when they see the Barbarian pulling out a flask of Alchemists Fire and dousing themselves in it.
One character I will never forget was my Glaive wielding Battlerager Barbarian, Multi Champion fighter. Polearm Master, Great weapon master, Sentinel, Great weapon fighting style, improved critical hit. Wearing the cloak of displacement and striking with a +1 Glaive. He was an absolute unit.
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.
Played in a meatgrinder at a comic con with a druid barbarian multi class. The two clerics realized the because I was taking half damage from everything, if they just pored their spell into me, and sent me up the gut we'd be unstoppable. Jamed the game for the 4hr run time. Good memories
Not sure if you mention it but if you can get your hands on an adamantine breast plate it is medium armor so you still get the benefits of rage and you can always reckless attack without worrying about getting critical hits on you.
The Barbarian/Rogue multiclass showing up in this video 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.
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 9x9 square. Plus being able to melee anything flying within 20 feet of you.
Sidenote for Rogue/Barbarian: Daggers can use either your strength or dexterity modifier when thrown, which means you could easily continue down the path of a Barbarian and focus on strength alone while still having the finesse property of a thrown dagger.
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
You could go Scourge Aasimar, use Radiant Consumption and take 2 or 3 damage radiant damage on the end of your turn and do extra radiant damage per level.
Barb is my most goodest smash. Is good smash overall, plus it has greatest longevity usefulness over averaging of levels, as opposed to peaking or slacking in late game. Always angry good.
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...
Also, consider the Crusher feat, being able to provide a free disengage to your party members feels so damn good. And it's full of flavor; you are so powerful that you can choose to knock enemies away from your allies. Great for Protector-type Barbarians.
Fave barb multiclass I've tried was a BarbLock with armour of agathys, because after casting it and raging for resistances, it took the enemy a lot of hits (and a fair bit of cold damage) to actually break through the temporary hit points
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. Emotional Locus: By 10th level, not only are you experiencing the full spectrum of your emotions while raging, those emotions are experiencing and sharpening you. You can concentrate on spells while raging. Raise the Roof: By 14th level, your overflowing emotions are infectious, empowering your allies around you. When an allied creature casts a spell that deals damage or restores hit points, you may add your rage bonus multiplied by that spell's level to the amount dealt or healed. You may add this bonus once this way, or expend two rages to add it to a different spell, before completing a long rest. (yes i know Emotional Locus does nothing for a barbarian without a multiclass, but remember this was designed for a character who was already a cleric)
Sadly, Sneak attack only works with a finesse or ranged weapon, while Reckless attack only works on an attack that uses strength. Loved the rest of the video!
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)
I used that great weapon/polearm/sentinel combo with a tortle fighter..i was an iron wall nothing on foot or low flying made it past me to the party. plus if it was something big and scary i would use my attacks then my movement speed to move back 5 ft
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.
ooo this is great news. my current character is a rune knight fighter/barbarian. definitely going to put more levels into barbarian now that my fighter side is decent after seeing this. 👍🏼
I'm an experienced player, and I enjoy playing a barbarian. Without all the fiddly spell slots, oaths, and what not, that leaves loads of pure rp goodness to tool around in
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.
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.
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.
I multiple classed into monk as a barbarian and its been a blast punching, biting, kicking and having 45 movement and massive jump distance that its crazy
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.
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.
Sneak attack requires a finesse weapon and you are still allowed to use str with it you will be stuck with a 1d8 weapon so going zealot getting an additional 1d6 + half barb level, wield a shield, and take the fighting initiate feat for the dueling fighting style So it can work just doesn't deal the most damage
@@mohammadmurie exactly! It doesn't synergise as well as people expect. You have to take specific sub classes and feats to make it work almost as well as you'd think it does.
@@CleverUserNameTaken77 yeah true the damage ain't the best but cunning action is good but still it ain't the best But to be fair most mylti classes ain't that better to a pure build
@@mohammadmurie so true! Multiclass is ok for lower tier play but it really dilutes the abilities. Speaking as someone who plays cleric, if I'm going all the way to level 20, I want my deity on speed dial 😂
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.
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.
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!
Alternatively on point 1, carry javelins so you can just make a long ranged attack with disadvantage. You might hit, and the attack will keep rage going (doesn't specify melee).
We made a discord where we share pictures of pets, play Connect Four, and occasionaly talk about D&D! Check it out! discord.gg/XZahjbx8ee
Just joined. Heya23
Barbarian with rogue dip = Jason Vorhees
Hey. I got a question you can probably answer. I’m thinking about playing my first game of D&D and I want to create a character that is both useful and hilarious. I was thinking something like a barbarian/thief gnome. Would that work? And if it does is there anything I could do to enhance it? Considering that it’s a gnome.
I tried to join but it's not letting me in the server
@@that_chem_guy you may need to react to the message in the welcome room! Try reacting a second time and see if that helps
"Sure sex is great... I would imagine" That shit killed me fr 🤣🤣🤣
I laughed so hard
😭😭😭
Using Alchemists Fire to maintain rage is a stroke of genius.
1d4+Dex(per a Crawford tweet) for Rage and the added benefit of BEING ON FIRE as you CHARGE YOUR FOES is pretty badass
Throw on a grapple check and you get to light them on fire, too! Flaming hugs for everyone!
I did that once a couple years back, my barbarian/fighter was surrounded by 5-7 Spawn of Kyuss. (He was level 12 or 13 at that point.)
He doused himself with Alchemist's Fire to keep the grubs from burrowing into his skin.
I’ve recently started playing a pit fiend themed tiefling barbarian, and I’ve already been lugging those around for a thematically fitting ranged attack. Definitely gonna use this in the next big fight
The scurge asimar is also a great option to keep deal aoe damage and keep your rage up.
I would love to see a mini series on the role-playability of each class, their strengths and weaknesses as role playing characters and how best to play them, and some tips on how to get the most out of your abilities in a role playing scenario.
awesome idea I'll put it on my list of video plans!
@@DnDShorts Yes please! I still struggle to figure out my level 8 circle of the moon druid's role within our party of a paladin, sorcerer, rogue, and fighter. I feel like a jack of all trades but a master of none.
The best rp class is fighter, you can be anything
Others discourage players to branch out... Like monk, my monk is a thief who simply isn't the rogue class. He's a duelist and thief who's mechanics are monk, not the monk behavior.
@@elgatochurro yeah, flavor is free. I have a barbarian, but only mechanically. All the flavor is a very precise, focused gentleman. Rage is just a very focused state.
Web DM did a series like this, highly recommend!
I now have the urge to make a barbarian. Very nice, as usual man.
I'm gonna multiclass my barbarian into alchemist artificer to make a meth dealer
watler whit
@@kermitenthusiast485 yis
Tuco Salamanca!!!!!
Piggybacking on the ‘always use reckless attack’, it is important to use armor, but not for AC, but for adamantine properties. Adamantine negates critical hits on you, which will be more often when every attack on you is at advantage.
Another notable thing about reckless attack: great when you’re one on one, not so great in mob battles. Seventeen orca have advantage on you?
@@oscarbalfour6851 oh fuck not 17 killer whales
@@ribry8512 yeebaby, the famous roving orca bands of faerun, with their war chiefs Willie and tillikum
Same with Mizzium armor.
@@oscarbalfour6851 I hope you're happy.
Now I have to make this for my game
I'm glad to see there is easier ways to keep rage. When I played my Barbarian, my friend who was a wizard would just set me on fire and watch me rage. That way if an enemy gets too close, I could set them on fire too.
None of this makes sense to me. You only have to attack an enemy to keep it going, not damage an enemy. Just keep throwing shit if they are out of melee range. Or are you guys talking about maintaining rage between combat? Like setting the barb on fire while exploring? Shutting a barbs rage down in combat is actually really difficult.
@@tonyyachuk8484 I know when I played we did it for dungeons so that way I was always enraged, so I didn't have to use any time to rage.
@@negandavidson9600 Rage only lasts a minute. You can't explore while raging for very long. 2 rooms without combat and the minute is up, rage is done. Now you're just a normal guy on fire.
On the bear-barian, remember that you can spend your spells to heal your wild shape, so don’t feel like you need to cast first then charge in if it doesn’t suit your style or the scenario
And then only prepare healing and utility spells so you're not casting in combat.
I've seen bears ride unicycles, I'm sure they can cast spells or drink potions
I would justify a rogue-barian flavor wise as an executioner, who knows exactly where to land his axe to get a quick and painless death. It’s works good enough in my opinion
An executioner has the criminal already chained down by the time he arrives though
@@spencervance8484 well yeah it’s not perfect but it’s something
@@spencervance8484 You could argue that the clan you were from did a type of trial by combat as a form of execution. The condemned faces the village champion/executioner in a fight that's unfair but offers a warriors death and small chance to survive should they win. The executioner would need to be very good to do his job.
Reckless attack only works with strength based attacks sadly, so the multiclass actually doens't work
@@Smite_Sion You don't need to use dex for sneak attack. Finesse weapons don't _force_ you to use dex for attack and damage rolls, you know. It just gives you the option.
I know a roguebarian that's doing exactly this, in fact. He's using a rapier, activating reckless and swinging with strength and still getting sneak attack.
2:44 Unless the beholder just, you know, looks at you with its giant antimagic eye. And potions are magical items, so they won`t work in the antimagic field. That`s literally the whole point of a beholder.
But why would the beholder look at the barbarian instead of like any of the casters
@@goldencalf13 Because Barbarian will kill it?
@@МолчаливыйКлинок then look at it with an eye that does something that will detriment all barbarians not the anti-magic eye
@@goldencalf13 Of course beholder have a number of rays that would desimate barbarian, but they have two problems. 1) They are random. 2) They all allow saving throws and barbarians will be good at 7 of those (STR, DEX, CON). And a good thing about antimagic eye, this 150 ft CONE, most likely to touch most of the party anyways.
@@МолчаливыйКлинок It's cone also affects its own eye rays, so a beholder will cripple himself by sheltering his most important targets. Learning how to place a beholder's cone is key.
"Look I'm more into Feat than Quinten Terantino, why did I write that" I cannot stop laughing at this, it is known, but damn that one got me!
Hats off for just starting the video and getting right into the topic of the video. No 2 min summary and explanation. No stupid in video ad. Just to the point. Love it.
“Set yourself on fire!” That’s so metal!!! 🔥🤘
1:19 or attack an enemy with a javelin
Always the final option, but man it sucks when you're used to doing 30+ damage a turn to go down to 8! If you find yourself caught at range a lot, I recommend checking out the Javelin of Lightning as well as a few potions of flight!
@@DnDShorts You could also throw a handaxe, and use your bonus action to throw another(which might not do extra STR damage but will add extra rage damage anyway). Either way you'd be out of range on your next turn.
@@DnDShorts i mean, it's what you gotta do to keep rage up, why let an attack go to waste?
@@gabejones8112 extra rage only applies on melee.
I took Path of Beast on a simichybrid and a multiclass into rogue to get around this. Take acid spit attack as one of the mutations so you always have a ranged attack to continue proccing rage, and Path of the Beast gives you an extra 10 feet of movement speed per round plus half your total movement speed when you rage, and Cunning Action let's you dash as a bonus action so you don't waste a whole turn doing nothing when you could be smacking people around. Flying enemy? No problem just use your lvl 6 Beast barb ability to add an athletics check to your jump distance and make an insane jump to grapple the enemy, which you have advantage on thanks to Beast subclass. Enemy gets grappled 9 times our of ten and plummets to the ground. You both take damage but they always take more than you. Then proceed to slaughter. Rinse, repeat. Enjoy!
Bearbarian is busted - Kalshtar Bearbarians have resistance to damage while raging. Not a type, not most types, just *damage resistance*.
Why say bearbarian when Barbearian is right there???
@@NaskaRudd i guess this was amateur hour
Gem Dragonborn, too
3:36 you can disable the downside of reckless attack by playing as a Wildhunt Shifter because their shifting feature makes it so within 30ft of you enemies can't benefit from advantage to hit you
Wildhunt shifters don't have that ability (none of the shfiters do). Also shifters in general suck
Or if you go roguebarian (or what I like to call the dervish) you could bonus action disengage to dance back out of melee if you're scared of taking it like a man.
@@Guille2033
*Wildhunt*
-Ability Scores: Dex +1 Wis +2
-Natural tracker: You have proficiency in the survival skill.
-Shifting feature: While shifted, you have advantage on Wisdom checks, and *no creature within 30 feet of you can make an attack roll with advantage against you, unless you're incapacitated.*
@@francomoreira4222
Daym. that would TOTALLY bust rage.
@@Guille2033Yeah they do and this combo is actuallynot that bad.
Just because its not a powergamer race doesnt make it bad. It actually has great flavour.
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.
Reading what it gives you it’s no surprise that it stayed in UA, where is belongs
@@Clarity_Control Broken things are fun sometimes
@@tankeasy8180
True, but power creeping everything else isn't,
6:40 I loved how the barbarian was looking for any other target after dealing with a kobold and simply went for you.
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.
The Bugbear, polearm master and sentinel build is insane
For some really dumb reason, the bugbeat extra reach only counts on your own turn
Combine it with battlemaster fighter and you become a strategic god.
Barbarian with fighter multiclass? You outreach enemies while doing a load of damage, don't forget the extra speed from barbarian as well
Playing my very first campaign as a Bugbear Barbarian and i'm loving the extra reach bonuses. Also chose Path of Giant to add more reach. Just waiting for level ups to gain more feats
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 have been watching your vids for a while and I’m starting my first D&D campaign EVER and I’m playing a barbarian. Perfect timing my man lol thank you!!
😂 oh my God, that little line you slipped in 1:51 got me good! "Sure sex is great, Iwouldimagine, but!"
This is one of the best videos I've seen on barbarians. Thank you for the ideas sir!
I have a high elf barbarian with mage hand to carry their maul, since it is within the 10lbs limit.
Also puts mage hand on throwing axes for a returning effect.
I'm stealing this. Thank you
@@jessep794
Welcome 😁
Genius. You are a genius.
yea but you should choose beetween attack or move the hand... so not so good.
@@kjarllan7097 By dm's discretion you could attack with the hand in one action. Or were you referring to throwing it and bringing it back?
The alchemists fire tip was super helpful. Gonna use that
Finally, a D&D channel to support my crippling addiction to making characters spontaneously!
.... and will never get to use.
I am the DM 😔
Hop in the discord! People are making a lot of one shots to let forever DMs play! If I ever get enough from this YT to leave my job I'll also start running regular ones for the community too!
I do the same but I sometimes use those characters and builds against my players to test them out
I like to throw groups of said characters together for boss fights
@@bastiondon How does this slow down combat significantly for you because i coud imagine that if you add multiple "DM Player Charekters" to the combat who are all quit complex.
PS: I'm ary that my englisch is not the best, I'm not a nativ speaker.
@@Velatus5978 That's okay!
The way I do it is, I don't use whole character sheets for NPCs I throw at the party.
I instead make monster stat blocks for them using the abilities from the classes I want them to have.
It's smaller, but you still get the details and power on one clean stat block!
Potion of Speed does have the round loss effect of haste, it just happens on round 11 by which point the combat is likely over.
Simic Hybrid/Path of the Beast Barbarian. It's so much fun. You get so many options. Ray-like fins and grappling appendages fit so well with beast barb it's insane.
It certainly feels very "mutant experiment," which is dope
There did used to be a mutant class in DnD or pathfinder, some fighter sub I think.
Okay, the information you give is good, but the real reason I listen is your voice and your sense of humor. Both are awesome.
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.
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.
Multiclass fighter and barb togheter. Now you have the barbs rage, extra speed, AND Avoid advantage on reckless attacks in a 1v1.
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.
Though this applies to all martial or melee characters I guess.
currently playing a level 18 barbarian, im so hyped for capstone. i do have a belt of storm giant strength, but a 24 strength to fall back on in antimagic situations is incredible
My new players have been learning well but the barbarian will love this one. Genius as always.
I just sent this to both my barbarian teamates... Amazing job and hilarious
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)
Awesome video! Definitely learned a lot that I'll be using!
I multiclassed my barbarian with draconic sorcerer which so far has been fun! Got that extra free AC bonus, plus I'm able to now apply mage armor to myself with a couple range and speed spells.
We need one for paladins and every class
I did not know about many of these feats and combos. Most excellent information, good sir! Cheers!
Having Snape as a friend is a boon for a barbarian. He gives great advice and makes great consumables.
Barbarian/Alchemist is a good combo too. Make your own magic items, make your own potions (using spell slots that you can't use while raging), make your Alchemist fire... And the best part is using magic tinkering to play the DOOM OST when you rage.
This multiclass sounds perfect for my potion-addicted Berserker who’d rather drink a potion of speed than rest
i wanted to be a barbificer but i have 9 int unfortunately
Not sure if you meant it that way but you can actually use spell slots when you rage, you just cant cast spells.
Using a spellslot to make a quick potion during battle is totally viable but of course its better to make them beforehand.
Thats also why Barb/Paladin works as you can smite while raging.
The multiclass sounds like Doomguy and Witcher's Geralt mix.
The alchemists fire is also good for re-rolling saves against nasty charm/domination effects that try to shut you down.
A barbarian charging at you on fire sounds pretty scary.
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 played a tortle bear totem barb/ champion fighter/ moon druid with a cloak of displacement, and had the gwm,polearm master and sentinel feats(used charger as well to turtle slide into people) that man was disgustingly dangerous in an enclosed space
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.
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
I like imagining the confusion and terror on the enemy's faces when they see the Barbarian pulling out a flask of Alchemists Fire and dousing themselves in it.
Hey! My Conan O’Brien comedic barbarian feels attacked
(1:36) "Winners don't use drugs, except steroids, in which case use lots of drugs"
- NPC
I actually just made a level 4 Leonin AG Barb with GWM, this is just making me more excited to use him
4:57 if you make a dex barb you dont add the rage damage, it only applies to your attacks made with strenght
One character I will never forget was my Glaive wielding Battlerager Barbarian, Multi Champion fighter. Polearm Master, Great weapon master, Sentinel, Great weapon fighting style, improved critical hit. Wearing the cloak of displacement and striking with a +1 Glaive. He was an absolute unit.
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.
Played in a meatgrinder at a comic con with a druid barbarian multi class.
The two clerics realized the because I was taking half damage from everything, if they just pored their spell into me, and sent me up the gut we'd be unstoppable.
Jamed the game for the 4hr run time. Good memories
All I could think in this video is
"yo is that spider dance?"
Instant Sub/Like! The Tarantino joke made me spit coffee all over my desk!!
I took my like away to add it back for the Feet joke. Fucking genius mate.
Not sure if you mention it but if you can get your hands on an adamantine breast plate it is medium armor so you still get the benefits of rage and you can always reckless attack without worrying about getting critical hits on you.
The Barbarian/Rogue multiclass showing up in this video 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.
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 9x9 square. Plus being able to melee anything flying within 20 feet of you.
Sidenote for Rogue/Barbarian: Daggers can use either your strength or dexterity modifier when thrown, which means you could easily continue down the path of a Barbarian and focus on strength alone while still having the finesse property of a thrown dagger.
This is so helpful... But what got me more on this Video was the Spyro Theme song in the background hahaha
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
you can't use two Maneuvers on one attack...
You could go Scourge Aasimar, use Radiant Consumption and take 2 or 3 damage radiant damage on the end of your turn and do extra radiant damage per level.
you are resistant to radiant damage so you will take 1 dmg per turn all the way up to level 7 and then two points of damage up to level 11
Barb is my most goodest smash. Is good smash overall, plus it has greatest longevity usefulness over averaging of levels, as opposed to peaking or slacking in late game. Always angry good.
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...
Also, consider the Crusher feat, being able to provide a free disengage to your party members feels so damn good. And it's full of flavor; you are so powerful that you can choose to knock enemies away from your allies. Great for Protector-type Barbarians.
Tiefling Bear Totems can theoretically use that double half damage to take one tick of fire damage each turn to maintain their rage.
Damage resistance doesn't stack. Tieflings resist fire and bear totem rage resists fire, you will still only receive 1/2 damage, not a 1/4.
The thing I like about Bard-barian is that give someone inspiration while raging, so you can shout or flex the violence into your party.
I cannot believe I’ve never thought about the alchemists fire thing before…. This changes *everything*
Fave barb multiclass I've tried was a BarbLock with armour of agathys, because after casting it and raging for resistances, it took the enemy a lot of hits (and a fair bit of cold damage) to actually break through the temporary hit points
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.
Emotional Locus: By 10th level, not only are you experiencing the full spectrum of your emotions while raging, those emotions are experiencing and sharpening you. You can concentrate on spells while raging.
Raise the Roof: By 14th level, your overflowing emotions are infectious, empowering your allies around you. When an allied creature casts a spell that deals damage or restores hit points, you may add your rage bonus multiplied by that spell's level to the amount dealt or healed. You may add this bonus once this way, or expend two rages to add it to a different spell, before completing a long rest.
(yes i know Emotional Locus does nothing for a barbarian without a multiclass, but remember this was designed for a character who was already a cleric)
Sadly, Sneak attack only works with a finesse or ranged weapon, while Reckless attack only works on an attack that uses strength. Loved the rest of the video!
Finesse weapons don't REQUIRE you to use your DEX mod. They only give you the OPTION to use your DEX mod instead of your STR mod.
Imagining a raging war hammer wielding barbarian charging you WHILE ON FIRE is terrifying
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)
I used that great weapon/polearm/sentinel combo with a tortle fighter..i was an iron wall nothing on foot or low flying made it past me to the party. plus if it was something big and scary i would use my attacks then my movement speed to move back 5 ft
Great sword with slasher feat is one of my favourite combos,if you crit an opponent has disadvantage which counters advantage from reckless attack.
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.
The alchemist fire trick is honestly awesome. Always worth spreading the truth
I am using these now! Its awesome keep them coming .
ooo this is great news. my current character is a rune knight fighter/barbarian. definitely going to put more levels into barbarian now that my fighter side is decent after seeing this. 👍🏼
I'm an experienced player, and I enjoy playing a barbarian. Without all the fiddly spell slots, oaths, and what not, that leaves loads of pure rp goodness to tool around in
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.
Speaking as someone currently playing a centaur barbarian, that Potion of Speed idea would be downright INSANE if I tried it. XD
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.
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.
For dex barbarians, there is the scimitar of speed for even more attacks on top of a potion of speed.
I multiple classed into monk as a barbarian and its been a blast punching, biting, kicking and having 45 movement and massive jump distance that its crazy
Great video! I'm still not sure what to make in the full game but barbarians sounds like a lot of fun!
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.
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.
Sneak attack requires a finesse weapon and you are still allowed to use str with it you will be stuck with a 1d8 weapon so going zealot getting an additional 1d6 + half barb level, wield a shield, and take the fighting initiate feat for the dueling fighting style
So it can work just doesn't deal the most damage
@@mohammadmurie exactly! It doesn't synergise as well as people expect. You have to take specific sub classes and feats to make it work almost as well as you'd think it does.
@@CleverUserNameTaken77 yeah true the damage ain't the best but cunning action is good but still it ain't the best
But to be fair most mylti classes ain't that better to a pure build
@@mohammadmurie so true! Multiclass is ok for lower tier play but it really dilutes the abilities. Speaking as someone who plays cleric, if I'm going all the way to level 20, I want my deity on speed dial 😂
@@CleverUserNameTaken77 same here with my barbarian and being basically a demi-god
Thank you for the video.
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.
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.
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!
Every barbarian rages supreme as long as the DM controlled npc doesn't cast calm emotions.
Alternatively on point 1, carry javelins so you can just make a long ranged attack with disadvantage. You might hit, and the attack will keep rage going (doesn't specify melee).