Barbarian Subclass Tier Ranking in Dungeons & Dragons
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- Опубликовано: 15 июл 2024
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I wanted to rank the best and worst subclasses for Barbarians in Dungeons and Dragons, because sometimes you just gotta check them all out.
-CHAPTERS-
00:00 Da Rulez
00:52 Totem Warrior
02:54 Berserker
05:24 Beast
09:13 Storm Herald
11:40 Wild Magic
15:12 Zealot
17:17 Battlerager
19:08 Giant
20:48 Ancestral Guardian
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I'm gonna argue for Path of the Giant to deserve an A because not only do I think you undersold Elemental Cleaver a bit, but something people don't tend to think about is the amount of utility there is in just being really big. But that's just based on my personal experience with the class, I think it's tied with Beast on how fun it is
I’ll make that arguement too, he also never mentioned the subclass turns your melee weapon into a thrown weapon. Making you Thor
id even go S tier as it objectively outperforms Zealot in terms of damage
@jamesdaley1674 not only that, but your thrown attacks also get your rage modifier, which normally they don't
@csgotrainingbot2160 Honestly Zealot is only as viable as the Cleric willing to keep reviving them 🤣
Watching a half-orc zealot barbarian just destroyed demons was a highlight of the baldur's gate descent into avernus campaign for me
Half orc and barbarian is such a classic combo, they always work well together
I've had two ideas for barbarian subclasses, but i dont know the first way to go about it;
1 a "path of the warlord" who builds up teams and armies through intimidation
And 2 "path of the spellbreaker" like a barbarian who is so angry that they just punch through the wizards' Force Cage and Dominate Person
i like the second one they could be a religious institution that specializes in breaking curses and dealing with out of control wizards or something else
For 1, 4e had a Bravado Barbarian (or something like that) in the PHB whose abilities keyed off of Charisma, and made them into a battlefield leader IIRC. Seeing something like that come back would be awesome
@@samusamu5342 the 2e barbarian Handbook has a kit that does that. 1e barbarian gained save bonuses as they increased in level.
One idea I had for a Wild Magic Barbarian was to also multiclass into a Wild Magic Sorcerer. Thematically, play it off as a Sorcerer who gets really, really angry when their magic goes wild. Then as they rage, Magic stuff still happens.
As for a Battlerager, my only suggestion would be to really play up the background Rakdos Cultist from Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica pg. 79. Also maybe take Unarmed Fighting Style for the 1d8 punching 🤷♂️
For me I see barbs and sorcerers as narrative polars in a spectrum anyway (rage for me is not simply emotion, it is primal magic) so they have innate access to primal magic whereas sorcerers are innately tied to magic too but a much more articulated connection
Path of the giant don’t have a once per turn limitation on their elemental cleaver extra damage and can indeed be very powerful thanks to it.
I think if they just made it so that Berserker Barbarians are immune to the effects of exhaustion while raging it could be a much better subclass, and it kinda comes with the threat of "keep your rage up, or youre probably going to die"
Many small things about battlerager that could make them better is instead of the spiked damage being once per grapple let it be at the beginning of each of their turn, this way if you grab unarmed fighting fighting style you do 1d4+3 damage per round with the spikes rather than once, and battlerager charge should in addition to what it does allow you to knock an enemy prone after hitting it or deal extra damage.
first of all Great video, barbarians dont get the attention they deserve imo, one inaccuracy I noticed was about Elemental cleaver, it works on all attacks ( it says the weapon deals the extra damage when the weapon hits) making the path of the giant the subclass that deals the most damage (Im mostly sure but I could be wrong) , loved the video keep up the great work.
Remember the circumstances of your session effect how viable a certain subclass is. If you're like me and do short one-shot games that only have 1 or 2 rounds of initiative per session, then congratulations, Path of the Berserker now jumps up in viability because one exhaustion level doesn't matter. Go wild with rages.
Anyways, as a new player with my first character being a Wild Magic barbarian, I'm having a blast playing a beefy lad who doesn't deal the most damage but just eats crits and asks for more while keeping the focus off the squishy casters in the back.
(BTW it'd be interesting to see this with homebrew subclasses, there's a lot out there to spice up barbarian builds.)
I have a Beast Barbarian who I'm very fond of that I made for an Eberron campaign, Jenny "Rizzo" Rizolli.
She has wererat in her parentage and wields a metal baseball bat (reflavoured warhammer); my favourite natural weapon is her rat tail. One time she parried a bite attack from a monster by poking its uvula.
Side note: Level 6 of Beast Barbarian also makes your natural weapons magical, not unsimilar to the Monk's Ki-Empowered Strikes.
I have had some fun playing a Reborn Lizardfolk that multiclassed Path of the Giant and Eldritch Knight..Getting large and biting a monster to drag them underwater while casting a cantrip to attack another monster all in the same round is just one example in the highlights reel for this character.
Your DM let's you cast spells while raging?
Sorry, I was not specific. I cast the cantrip, raged (Growing Large), action surged, and then bit/grappled the second monster, then used my move speed to drag them into the water.
Is this your first teir ranking? I don't recall seeing this from you. Keep um coming!
Thanks, I plan to make plenty more, but this is the first on my channel.
For a level 3-5 oneshot or small campaign, the Battlerager is great fun. The bonus attack is a d4... +Strength mod+rage damage.
IMO I would say that the grapple damage, (which doesn't require rage) should apply rage damage if raging because a grapple is a form of melee attack that requires strength. Either way though they're really fun.
Cool! I've been trying do decide whether or not I want to multiclass my Level 7 Hadozee Path of the Giant Barbarian.
(I was planning to make a Donkey Kong inspired character but went with a more Hulk-y build, both inspired by your earlier videos)
At the moment, I have a barbarian-friendly set of armor that bumps my STR up to 22.
* Posted before I finished the video. Oh well. Still leaving my comment up. *
Giant Barbarian should be a tier higher. The size increase also increases reach, which is super valuable.
You can protect allies near you very effectively, especially with a polearm + the Sentinel feat
Ive played path of the giant and it was amazing. It definitely deserves to be ranked higher.
I am shocked, yes the bear totem does get over used, but since the elk, came out that has become my favorite, strictly due to the above average movement buff. That alone has solved so many issues due to the barbarian now able to reach the next target easily. Yes ranged weapons, such as spear and javelins are still necessary, but not used as much. Don’t count out the ELK!
im surprised you didnt wait for the 2024 phb to come out to start this series considering how close it is
I was tempted to, but I didn't want to wait until September when it's supposed to come out. And if there's a drastic enough change that would change the rankings, then I have excuse to make the video all over again. Which I know some people had some big opinions on this tier list
I’m redesigning all the totems because outside of the bear and maybe wolf totem, they’re all garbage. And after 3rd level bear totem, while hella resilient gets nothing. Like two ribbon features in a row.
I’m actually redesigning the barbarian class in general because they basically don’t get that much better after 5-8 level. If u can hang on until level 20 it’s awesome again but what a drought until then
The barbarian doesn’t even keep up w fighters or paladins and I aim to fix it. Got someone gonna play test it before I attempt a public drop
So I’d argue that beast actually makes your overall barb weaker than a subclassless barb. The natural weapons are just worse than regular ones because they can’t work with great weapon master, and the other features only offer minor benefits. Giant is definitely the best in both power and fun factor, growing big has tons of benefits and it does big damage. Always remember that you can just throw something straight up into the air, have them fall prone and take damage, then attack with advantage!
Are you going to rnake the other subclasses too? That would be awesome.
Yeah I'm planning to do a video about each class
Only one I would maybe change personally is the path of the giant. But that's just cause I love the subclass. Lol I would have made it an A. But I do think the B was a fair placement.
Ohhh, i got a really cool idea for a Barbarian build. Probably sub-optimal but here it goes:
You said a Berserker Barb gets 4 attacks when they get retaliation. And all the light weapons are usable with strength. So, an interesting build would be, Serker Barb dual wielding with alternative rules for dual wielding (two attacks per action, instead of 1 action and bonus action), plus remove the exhaustion thing from it's feature, it is outdated as shit.
I'd rule it so that they can use their frenzy to do double attacks with their bonus action. Since it'd be choosing a whole subclass just for that feature. So at lvl5 they'd get 6 attacks per turn while raging. Which honestly sounds kinda broken on it's own, but then you remember that it is the only thing they can do anyway, and it's fine.
Yeah that does feel a bit broken, mostly because you could throw in some Great Weapon Master, and if all 6 attacks land that means you have +14 Damage per hit (assuming you have 18 STR at that point) so with a greatsword that's an average of 132 Damage Per Round at level 5. I think that might be a bit over the top. But it would definitely make that subclass worth it by a huge amount.
@@dndbuilds But light weapons are not heavy, lmao
@@emanuelseibert3790 yup totally skipped that dual wielder part lol... So yeah a lot more balanced then lol
I’ve had someone try and argue that Berzerker is so good it’s broken because he couldn’t die while playing as one, when he was using a Goliath and their feature to reduce damage to do so.
With the wild magic barbarians 6th level feature I don’t see a use for the first of the features 2 effects outside of you party ran out of spell slots to regenerate since it only works once on each of them.
Guessing before watching the video, bear totem barbarian is going to be high
Path Of TheJuggernaut? (T’al Dorei campaign setting)
14 level berserker feature is really weak for that level you can literally give it at 3rd.
What about a dragon totem
do you not like the totem warrior?
I like it, it's good, but it's not overly interesting, kind of boring, and I feel like everybody plays it just because it's solid but in actuality it doesn't provide a really fun mechanic it's just some resistances 90% of the time because everybody usually goes with bear
@@dndbuilds ok but I think path of the giant should be A or S tier since it can make you grow to the size of a Kaiju, it can give you some elemental powers and it gives you a ranged option
@@chrismenary3340 yeah I've been getting a lot of comments about the giant, and I think I did judge it a little too harshly. It's fun and it does have some better mechanics than I gave it credit for. But unfortunately I can't really edit the video after I post
@@dndbuilds ok fair enough
Mate, hard disagree on Giant barbarian. Elemental cleaver adds to every attack. I don’t see any wording for once per turn. So at high levels that’s 2d6 to every attack. Also throwing enemies into aoe spells like spirit guardians or sickening radiance damages them upon entry and at the start of their round which adds huge amounts of damage. Plus all that reach and polearm master means you get a lot of opportunity attacks which all do weapon plus strength plus rage plus elemental damage. Also changing the damage type is situationally fantastic to avoid resistance or bonus damage if they are vulnerable to that type. The thrown weapon avoids losing rage if enemies are flying or out of reach. Plus the size increase is great for grapple builds. This subclass is a high A for me.
Love to see Ancestral Guardian getting some respect, feels like way to many folks sleep on it.
I'll admit bias towards the Path of the Giants (you can make a great Thor-feel character with it, that I'd love to play some day), but I'd probably rank it higher (tho that build would include more then just that subclass, so theres that).
You’re way off base with the Beast Barbarian’s ranking. The Beast Barbarian is undeniably cool but it’s just not an A-tier subclass. The natural weapons you get are cute but they don’t scale outside of dealing magical damage so they fall off hard once you get magic items. The best one is the tail since it gives you a reaction but a Barbarian who’s Recklessly Attacking still has to expect nearly all attacks to land potentially turning one per turn into a miss isn’t that impactful. The level 6 ability is interesting since the jump boosts move speed but being a skill roll makes it inherently unpredictable so you can’t really count on a jump letting you reach a high priority target. Infectious Fury is decent but it’s too limited. The capstone is just hot garbage it’s low impact and has an arbitrary limitation put on how much you can use it to rub salt in the wound.
Actually the best is Actually the claws. You get 4 attacks all at advantage if you take duel wielder rules as written. I do agree the others could be buffed more, but the claws ain't bad at all because they do by far the most damage outside of high AC
If you want to play a Berserker ask your DM if he would allow the BG3 version of frenzy. It still has a negative if you abuse the bonus action, but it is no where as bad as Exhaustion, and falls off when you exit rage.
I never really thought about how great Ancestral Guardian is, but you’re right 🤔
~_~
All. All barbarians are actually bad except for Zaelots.
Meanwhile Totem barbarians: