Dwarven guide of the Battleragers
Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Stats and Races
3. Class Features
4. Path Features
5. Skills, Backgrounds and Feats
6. Weapons and Armor
7. Multi-classing
8. Sample builds
Introduction:
Welcome to one of the most suicidal classes out there. A properly played battlerager is a lot of fun, but don't expect to stand back and avoid danger with this build.
Color guide:
Gold is your primary choice and is what you want to focus on the most.
Turqoise represents a great choice, just below the gold mark.
Dark Blue represents a solid choice that helps your character, but isn't a priority.
Black represents the middle of the road choice. It's not going to hurt you, but it won't help you that much either.
Purple represents a weaker choice. You'll want to avoid focusing on this unless you have something specific in mind.
Red represents the weakest choice, one that you should probably consider as a last resort to take.
Stats:
You will be focusing on three stats above all else: STR, then CON, then DEX.
Strength: This is your bread and butter stat. A high STR improves your min/max damage, as well as increasing the chance your attacks or grapples succeed.
Constitution: You aren’t designed to stand back. The Battlerager is an in-your-face class, and you are going to get hit….a lot.
Dexterity: This is an important stat, but don’t worry about improving this past 14 unless you have stats to spare or decide to use a DEX build. Spiked Armor has a maximum dexterity bonus
of +2 to Armor Class, so 14 is as much as you’ll need.
Wisdom: Perception is a useful skill, both active and passive. Survival also relies on WIS. Not an important
Charisma: Intimidation is what puts this slightly above INT.
Intelligence: You’re here to kick butt and take names. Leave the investigating for the arcane classes.
Races:
Dwarf, dwarf, dwarf. This class is dwarven exclusive unless your DM says otherwise.
The dwarf is built to be a Battlerager, regardless of which path you take. You add +2 to your CON as a dwarven bonus. You have darkvision, advantage against poison saving throws, and resistance against poison among other abilities. These are all very useful racial traits.
Gray Dwarf (Duergar): It’s a tough battle between Mountain and Gray dwarves as to which one is better, and it may depend on your campaign. Add +2 CON like all dwarves, plus +1 for STR for the duergar. You also get to double your darkvision to 120 feet. In addition, you have advantage on saving throws against illusions and against being charmed or paralyzed. That is a huge bonus to make sure you stay raging. You also get to cast Enlarge at 3rd level, which lets you become large (a factor for grappling), have advantage on STR checks and saving throws (so-so, you get that anyway if raging), and your weapons deal 1d4 extra damage, which is great. The downside is that you can't concentrate on Enlarge while raging. You also can cast Invisibility at 5th level. Spiked Armor has a disadvantage in stealth checks, however, so this ability is reduced somewhat.
So why wouldn’t you play a gray dwarf? One single reason: Sunlight Sensitivity. Disadvantage on attack rolls and Perception Checks while in direct sunlight can be a huge negative feature if your campaign fights a lot in the day. If you spend most of your time underground or adventuring at night, this effect is mostly ignored. It’s the only thing that holds the gray dwarf from clearly being superior to the other two.
Mountain Dwarf: In addition to your +2 dwarven CON, you also get to add +2 STR. You just put +2 to two of your most important stats. There isn’t much more you could ask for.
Hill Dwarf: +2 to CON as all dwarves get, as well as +1 to WIS. WIS doesn’t do much for you, so a hill dwarf is generally inferior to a mountain dwarf in stats. Hill dwarfs do get +1 hitpoint per level, which is a nice perk, but still not enough to miss out on the mountain dwarf’s +2 STR.
Class Features:
Rage: Your key skill. There are very few times you don’t want to be raging. Advantage on STR checks and saving throws. This ties in very well with the Battlerager armor when you grapple. It also adds bonus damage to your STR melee attacks, which includes your spiked armor bonus attack. Resistance to blunt, piercing, and slashing damage. This is huge. You’ll be the tip of the spear, charging into battle. Reducing damage is one of the few things that will help keep you alive.
Unarmored Defense: Bleh. You want to be wearing spiked armor. No point in being a Battlerager without it. You’ll mostly ignore this ability unless you lose all of your gear.
Reckless Attack: Advantage on STR melee attack rolls at the cost of giving your opponent advantage until your next turn on you. Powerful ability, but it can be deadly to you. Best used when you are in one on one combat or are in a must hit your enemy situation.
Danger Sense: Advantage on DEX saving throws against effects you can see. Very useful considering you like to charge into battle. If you chose to use a shield and the shield mastery feat, this gets even better.
Extra Attack: 5th level can’t come soon enough. Another attack is always useful. Your STR bonus plus Rage bonus adds up when you have multiple attacks, even if you roll a 1 on the damage dice.
Fast Movement: Yes, yes, yes, yes ! Finally your little dwarven legs can keep up with the rest of the party.
Feral Instinct: Getting to attack before your opponents is always a bonus. This is especially nice if you choose to grapple or shove a lot.
Brutal Critical: Battleragers get a bonus attack with spike armor. In addition, you also have reckless attack. Chances are you are going to get some critical hits, so an extra die of damage comes in handy. This is a nice feature that you pick up at 9th, and it gets better at 13th and 17th level.
Relentless Rage: You are going to be taking as many hits as anyone in your party. This 11th level skill is yet another way you’ll have a chance to survive to fight another day, giving you a chance to make a saving throw and drop to 1 hit point instead of dying.
Persistant Rage: The bane of all barbarians are DM’s who use tricks to make you lose your valuable rages. At 15th level those tricks are going to be nearly impossible to play on you.
Indomitable Might: Let’s just say that between having advantage on STR checks when raging, let alone this 18th level ability, there aren’t many chances you are going to lose STR battles.
Primal Champion: Your final ability. This gives you +4 to STR and CON, your two most important statistics, as well as allowing you to reach a maximum of 24 in those scores. Looks like it’s time to arm wrestle some giants…..unless you decide you are just going to bash in their faces instead with your newly found STR.
Path Features:
Dwarf only, unless your DM lifts this restriction.
Battlerager Armor: For 75 gold, you get armor that gives you 14 AC with a max DEX modifier of +2. You also get disadvantage on Stealth checks. In return, if you are wearing the armor and raging you can use your bonus action to attack with the armor. This attack uses STR to hit and add damage, as well as doing 1d4 piercing damage. It also lets you deal 3 points of damage when you successfully grapple an opponent. This feature is 99% of the reason you play a Battlerager.
Don’t underestimate the spiked armor attack. Considering that it is a melee attack, you can add your STR and your Rage bonus to it, it makes the 1d4 dice roll much more impressive as a bonus action. This spike attack is the number one reason why you want STR to be your primary stat. A raging dwarf with 18th STR at level 4 (very doable with racial +STR bonus and level 4 stat bump), you are doing 7-10 points of damage every time you connect with your bonus action spike attack.
Reckless Abandon: 6th level ability to let you gain temporary hit points (equal to your constitution bonus) if you are raging and reckless attack. Not a huge amount of life, but considering you will almost always be taking attacks, everything helps.
Battlerager Charge: Lets you Dash as a bonus action if you are raging. Useful ability to get those short dwarf legs moving and get into melee range, but considering you already get Fast Movement at 5th level, it’s not as useful as you’d like.
Spiked Retribution: This makes an opponent not want to attack you. 3 points of damage every time an opponent hits you with a melee attack and is within 5 feet if you are raging and not incapacitated. Great ability, but it doesn’t come until 14th level. The damage is a nice perk, but at this stage it’s probably too little too late to have a significant impact against powerful enemies.
Skills, Backgrounds and Feats:
Skills:
Athletics: This comes in handy often and is one of the skills you’ll use most.
Acrobatics: Your DEX score will limit you, but this is a good skill to have if you like to do some crazy attacks, battlerager style.
Sleight of hand: Skip the tricks…just bash them instead
Stealth: Spiked armor….not so sneaky. Skip
Arcana: Who cares about magic?
History: You have dwarven stone knowledge. Everything else is pointless to you usually.
Investigation: Leave the investigating to the eggheads. You are here to bash.
Nature: Sometimes useful, sometimes not.
Religion: Kill ‘em all, let someone sort them out while you skip this skill.
Animal handling: Not many cases where this skill comes in handy.
Insight: Your wisdom is bad. Let others determine enemy intentions
Medicine: You kill, others heal. Better than nothing, though.
Perception: One of the most valuable skills, no matter the class you play.
Survival: Seldom as useful as it seems it might be.
Deception: You smash, not lie.
Intimidation: The battlerager way. What’s scarier than an angry dwarf in spikes? Decent skill.
Performance: Skip. You don’t entertain people.
Persuasion: Intimidation is more of your style, especially if DM’s let you use STR to roll on intimidation checks.
Backgrounds:
Acolyte: A proficiency bonus to insight and access to free healing are the best features of this class for you.
Charlatan: You lose a lot of your key features without spiked armor on. Disguising yourself is going to be tough unless you take off that armor. Skip.
City Watch: Useful in city campaigns, and skills are decent with athletics and insight.
Clan Crafter: Free room and board is O.K. Artisan tool proficiency already covered by being a dwarf, however.
Cloistered Scholar: What do you need library access for?
Courtier: A battlerager isn’t really a politician. Skip in most campaigns.
Criminal: Stealth is not your focus. Skip.
Entertainer: Acrobatics is a nice skill to add, but not much else here for you.
Faction Agent: Faction assistance is nice. Not much else here for you.
Far Traveler: You already draw attention wearing spiked armor.
Folk Hero: You already get the skills here, and the feature isn’t enough to be anything special. Skip.
Guild Artisan: Gaining access to a place to smith might be useful should you need to replace your spiked armor. Other than that, it’s not worth taking.
Hermit: Kind of a flavor background. Medicine and religion skills should not be your concern.
Inheritor: I guess the value of this background depends on what your DM is willing to give you.
Knight of the Order: Shelter. Doesn’t really fit your style, however.
Mercenary Veteran: Finding mercenary work is nice, but you could probably do that without this background.
Noble: Not too much gained here, and your persuasion checks aren’t worth taking this background.
Outlander: Skills are useless, but ability to find food and fresh water is nice in outdoor campaigns. Better than nothing.
Sage: You are a blood spiller, not a sage. Skip.
Sailor: Getting proficiency in Perception makes up for you most likely having low wisdom. Ships passage will rarely if ever be used, but useful if you ever do.
Soldier: One of the better feats for you. Proficiency in athletics and intimidation is right up your alley. Land vehicles has rare uses but is nice to have if you can use it.
Urban Bounty Hunter: It might be hard to hunt people down with your Stealth disadvantage armor.
Urchin: Sleight of hand and stealth are for sneaky classes, you ain’t that.
Uthgardt Tribe Member: Knowing the land is a nice feature, as is finding extra food and water. Useless outside of your homelands, however.
Waterdhavian Noble: More room and board, but in style. Skills don’t really fit your skillset.
Feats:
Alert: Nice to have a +5 bonus to initiative or be surprised, but stat increases and other feats are better choices to make.
Athlete: Let’s you get +1 STR or DEX (take STR usually), but the jumping and climbing isn’t hugely valuable to you.
Actor: Avoid. No reason for you to pretend to be anything other than a one-man army.
Charger: Not as important at later levels considering you get Battlerager charge. Dashing as a dwarf to make up for your lesser movement rate and then attacking with +5 to damage that same turn is a better than average feature, however.
Crossbow Expert: You are a spiked wrecking ball. Leave the crossbows at home.
Defensive duelist: Wait, why are you using a finesse weapon as a barbarian?
Dual wielder: One of the better feats to take if you don’t like great weapons, but otherwise it’s ok to skip this one. +1 to AC and ability to use heavier weapons isn’t too bad.
Dungeon Delver: You aren’t here to search for traps. Your disadvantage on stealth rolls makes it unlikely you are scouting ahead of the party looking for traps. Leave it to the rogues.
Durable. Constitution +1 is a nice perk, as are the hit point minimums if you play in a campaign where you roll for hitpoints.
Elemental Adapt: You don’t cast spells, so why would you want this?
Grappler: Sounds great initially, but you already get advantage on STR checks if you are raging, so this doesn’t add much to you.
Great Weapon Master: Not a bad feat if you use one, especially combined with reckless attack to make sure that if you use the -5 attack roll for +10 damage feature.
Healer: Your job is to make things dead. Save the healing for other classes.
Heavily armored: No use other than +1 STR. You use spiked armor (medium)
Heavy Armor Master: Same deal as above. Shame you can’t use heavy armor and rage (damage resistance + reduction would be ridiculous)
Inspiring Leader: It’s doubtful you have much of a Charisma bonus. Skip it.
Keen Mind: Intelligence isn’t your forte. Skip it.
Lightly Armored: You already have the skill to use light and medium armor. Skip it.
Linguist: Do you plan on talking to enemies or killing them? Skip.
Lucky: By far one of the best feats. Lets you recklessly attack (or save or whatever) without the downside.
Mage Slayer: Useful if you fight a lot of casters, useless if you don’t.
Magic Initiate: Raging doesn’t like casting, skip it.
Martial Adept: Pretty good feature for burst damage. Stick to the maneuvers that let you attack and add superiority dice to the damage.
Medium Armor Master: Dexterity should probably be stat number three in priority, so chances are you won’t see as much of a benefit from this feat as you’d like.
Mobile: As a dwarf, the extra speed helps. It doesn’t help enough to take it over stat increases though.
Moderately Armored: You can use medium armor and shields already. Pass.
Mounted Combat: As amusing as a mounted dwarven battlerager is, you want to be on the ground in combat normally. Skip.
Observant: You are here to cause blood to spill, not read lips.
Polearm master: Pretty good feat, but the bonus attack isn’t much of a benefit considering you can spike armor attack.
Resilent: Skip. Better off getting +1 to two stats instead unless you need the saving throw BADLY.
Ritual Caster: More of that useless casting stuff.
Savage Attacker: Nice little feat to make sure that you can maximize your weapons. 1d12 on a great axe can be rough if you roll a 1. This gives you a chance to try for a 12 instead.
Sentinel: Solid feat that ties in well with you charging into the middle of your enemies.
Sharpshooter: You are a melee master, leave the bows to the elven rangers.
Shield Master: Very nice feat if you use a shield. You already have advantage on many dexterity saving throws. Adding your shield AC bonus to that roll and taking no damage in many cases if you succeed make this very valuable. Probably the first feat you should take if you plan to use a shield.
Skilled: Bleh. You are a killer, not a skill monkey.
Skulker: Good luck sneaking with spiked armor.
Spell Sniper: Trash. You don’t cast spells.
Tavern Brawler: Spiked armor attack pretty much makes this just a redundant feature. Using a bonus action to grapple is nice, though.
Tough: Hitpoints are very important for a battlerager, but unless you are maxed out on Constitution, you should skip for awhile.
War Caster: Caster, caster, blah blah.
Weapon Master: You know plenty of weapons already. This is basically just +1 STR or DEX. Skip.
Multi-Classing:
The battlerager wants to be a single class. Stat bonus increases, rage bonus increases, and proficiency (attack) increases make it worth it to stay one class.
Spell casters are pretty much a no-no. They don’t work well with rage. There are some useful spells, but you need to cast them before battle. In most builds, you’ll want to skip.
Bard: The best bard features don’t work well with a battlerager. You want to be using your bonus action with spike attacks, not inspiring people.
Cleric: If you add this class, War Domain is probably your best bet. Adding +10 to an attack roll helps you hit without Reckless Attack (and its downside), especially if you use a feat like Great Weapon Mastery to add extra damage.
Druid: Spiked armor doesn’t do much if you shapechange into an animal.
Fighter: Specializing in Great Weapon Fighting or Two-Weapon Fighting can really up your damage output when raging and with a high STR, but remember that TWF is already pretty much covered by using spiked armor attacks instead. Battlemasters add some useful maneuvers if you go to 3rd level. Skip Eldritch knights. Rage and casting don’t mix well.
Monk: Monk speed is nice as a dwarf. Unarmored defense is already covered as a barbarian, and the wisdom based monk defense isn’t going to help you much. You also already have a bonus attack with spike armor.
Paladin: Great Weapon Fighting and Defense are nice fighting styles to have. Divine smite is also nice for damage, but spell casting isn’t your best style.
Ranger: Defense or Two-Weapon Fighting should be your fighting styles to take, but keep in mind that you already have a spike bonus attack you can use. Colossus Slayer as a Hunter is nice.
An animal companion for the beast master is more often a hindrance than a bonus.
Rogue: It’s hard to utilize sneak attack in spiked armor and with short dwarven legs. Rogue fighting styles are the opposite of what you are about.
Sorceror: Spells? No thanks
Warlock: A blade pact is probably the best route to go if you take this class. Thirsting blade is a nice invocation to have as well. Best caster class for a battlerager.
Wizard: Move along, nothing to see here.
Sample build:
The classic barbarian: Take the biggest weapon you can get (Great Axe or sword or maul) and swing away. Get your DEX to 14 and never worry about it again. That will give you a 16 AC. Getting your STR to 18 is your number one priority, followed by CON. All other stats are pretty much fluff for you. In most cases, you are going to want to skip feats at 4th level and instead get STAT increases. This is most likely true for 8th level as well. Stats for a battlerager trump anything feats do for you usually.
STR + Rage damage on your weapon and spike armor make you an offensive juggernaut. If you are going to take a feat, take Great Weapon Master, as it works very well with Reckless Attack. An enlarged Gray dwarf adds 1d4 damage as well with its weapons (but you can't be enlarged and raging), so you could theoretically deal 2d6 (weapon) + 4 damage (18 STR) + 2 damage (Rage) + 1d4 (spike attack) + 2 (Rage) + 4 (18 STR) for 15-28 damage if your regular attack and spike attack hit. If you elect to be a giant gray dwarf instead of raging, you deal 2d6 (weapon) + 4 damage (18 STR) + 1d4 (Enlarged) + 1d4 (spike) + 1d4 (enlarged) + 4 (STR) for a total of 13-32 damage.
The shield master: This build works well for a battlerager, especially early on. Like the classic barbarian build, you are going to put your DEX to 14 and forget about it. With a shield, you'll have an 18 AC at level 3 (14 AC spiked armor + 2 DEX + 2 shield AC). The disadvantage you take is that you must use a weaker weapon. This build relies heavily on STR if you want to put out consistent damage, so make sure you get it maxed ASAP. Your damage output will be much weaker if you don't..
Your main consistent damage is going to come from rage (or enlarge) and STR bonuses rather than just a brute high damage weapon. Your damage output isn't bad, however, because the spikes do get STR damage bonus to them. You can expect to do 1d8 (weapon) + 4 (STR) + 2 (Rage) + 1d4 (spikes) + 4 (STR) + 2 (Rage) if a mountain or hill dwarf or gray dwarf raging for a total of 14-24 damage per 1 regular and 1 bonus attack. If you choose to be enlarged as a gray dwarf, you will do 1d8 (weapon) + 4 (STR) + 1d4 (enlarged weapon) + 1d4 (spikes) + 4 (STR) + 1d4 (enlarged weapon) for a total of 12-28 damage.
With the shield master, you'll want to take stats at level 4. You need that 18 STR and high CON asap to survive, as you will often be considered the party's tank. Level 8 is trickier, and if you stay with the shield build it is a toss-up whether to take more stats or to take shield master. A level 12 shield master build will almost always want to have that feat. This is the tankiest build you can play, but at the cost of lower damage.
Battle Options:
Round one of battle: Charge your opponent like a madman with your movement, use bonus action to rage, and either grapple your opponent (3 damage) or swing with your weapon. Keep in mind that a raging barbarian has advantage on STR checks.
Round two: Time to do some damage. Swing with your main attack, swing with your bonus spike armor attack. If you grappled, maintain that grapple and shove your opponent prone.
Round three: Rinse and repeat if you are doing damage first. If you grappled and shoved your opponent prone, you now have them at disadvantage on the ground. Time to smash !
Your group encounters a boss and his underlings- Charge the boss, rage and grapple him. Knock him prone if possible so he has a speed of zero while prone and grappled. Let your party wipe up the underlings while you keep the boss occupied. This strategy works well with the shield battlerager, due to his higher AC and making the boss attack with disadvantage for being prone.
Be creative with your attacks. Some DMs will give you a lot of space to do some crazy maneuvers. WWE is an excellent fighting style to emulate. Grapple your opponent and body slam him off of a small cliff or drop. A heavy dwarf in spiked armor landing on top of his foe has to hurt !
Choosing to be a gray dwarf has it's advantages, but remember that you lose the biggest advantage a barbarian has if you choose to use Enlarge instead of Rage. Rage gives you a higher minimum damage, but Enlarge has a slightly higher damage maximum. The biggest problem with Enlarge is that you can't rage and concentrate on the spell. This means no rage bonus of having resistance to piercing, slashing, and blunt weapons. You can expect that sooner than later the non-resistance is going to catch up to you as you take full damage from melee attacks.
Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Stats and Races
3. Class Features
4. Path Features
5. Skills, Backgrounds and Feats
6. Weapons and Armor
7. Multi-classing
8. Sample builds
Introduction:
Welcome to one of the most suicidal classes out there. A properly played battlerager is a lot of fun, but don't expect to stand back and avoid danger with this build.
Color guide:
Gold is your primary choice and is what you want to focus on the most.
Turqoise represents a great choice, just below the gold mark.
Dark Blue represents a solid choice that helps your character, but isn't a priority.
Black represents the middle of the road choice. It's not going to hurt you, but it won't help you that much either.
Purple represents a weaker choice. You'll want to avoid focusing on this unless you have something specific in mind.
Red represents the weakest choice, one that you should probably consider as a last resort to take.
Stats:
You will be focusing on three stats above all else: STR, then CON, then DEX.
Strength: This is your bread and butter stat. A high STR improves your min/max damage, as well as increasing the chance your attacks or grapples succeed.
Constitution: You aren’t designed to stand back. The Battlerager is an in-your-face class, and you are going to get hit….a lot.
Dexterity: This is an important stat, but don’t worry about improving this past 14 unless you have stats to spare or decide to use a DEX build. Spiked Armor has a maximum dexterity bonus
of +2 to Armor Class, so 14 is as much as you’ll need.
Wisdom: Perception is a useful skill, both active and passive. Survival also relies on WIS. Not an important
Charisma: Intimidation is what puts this slightly above INT.
Intelligence: You’re here to kick butt and take names. Leave the investigating for the arcane classes.
Races:
Dwarf, dwarf, dwarf. This class is dwarven exclusive unless your DM says otherwise.
The dwarf is built to be a Battlerager, regardless of which path you take. You add +2 to your CON as a dwarven bonus. You have darkvision, advantage against poison saving throws, and resistance against poison among other abilities. These are all very useful racial traits.
Gray Dwarf (Duergar): It’s a tough battle between Mountain and Gray dwarves as to which one is better, and it may depend on your campaign. Add +2 CON like all dwarves, plus +1 for STR for the duergar. You also get to double your darkvision to 120 feet. In addition, you have advantage on saving throws against illusions and against being charmed or paralyzed. That is a huge bonus to make sure you stay raging. You also get to cast Enlarge at 3rd level, which lets you become large (a factor for grappling), have advantage on STR checks and saving throws (so-so, you get that anyway if raging), and your weapons deal 1d4 extra damage, which is great. The downside is that you can't concentrate on Enlarge while raging. You also can cast Invisibility at 5th level. Spiked Armor has a disadvantage in stealth checks, however, so this ability is reduced somewhat.
So why wouldn’t you play a gray dwarf? One single reason: Sunlight Sensitivity. Disadvantage on attack rolls and Perception Checks while in direct sunlight can be a huge negative feature if your campaign fights a lot in the day. If you spend most of your time underground or adventuring at night, this effect is mostly ignored. It’s the only thing that holds the gray dwarf from clearly being superior to the other two.
Mountain Dwarf: In addition to your +2 dwarven CON, you also get to add +2 STR. You just put +2 to two of your most important stats. There isn’t much more you could ask for.
Hill Dwarf: +2 to CON as all dwarves get, as well as +1 to WIS. WIS doesn’t do much for you, so a hill dwarf is generally inferior to a mountain dwarf in stats. Hill dwarfs do get +1 hitpoint per level, which is a nice perk, but still not enough to miss out on the mountain dwarf’s +2 STR.
Class Features:
Rage: Your key skill. There are very few times you don’t want to be raging. Advantage on STR checks and saving throws. This ties in very well with the Battlerager armor when you grapple. It also adds bonus damage to your STR melee attacks, which includes your spiked armor bonus attack. Resistance to blunt, piercing, and slashing damage. This is huge. You’ll be the tip of the spear, charging into battle. Reducing damage is one of the few things that will help keep you alive.
Unarmored Defense: Bleh. You want to be wearing spiked armor. No point in being a Battlerager without it. You’ll mostly ignore this ability unless you lose all of your gear.
Reckless Attack: Advantage on STR melee attack rolls at the cost of giving your opponent advantage until your next turn on you. Powerful ability, but it can be deadly to you. Best used when you are in one on one combat or are in a must hit your enemy situation.
Danger Sense: Advantage on DEX saving throws against effects you can see. Very useful considering you like to charge into battle. If you chose to use a shield and the shield mastery feat, this gets even better.
Extra Attack: 5th level can’t come soon enough. Another attack is always useful. Your STR bonus plus Rage bonus adds up when you have multiple attacks, even if you roll a 1 on the damage dice.
Fast Movement: Yes, yes, yes, yes ! Finally your little dwarven legs can keep up with the rest of the party.
Feral Instinct: Getting to attack before your opponents is always a bonus. This is especially nice if you choose to grapple or shove a lot.
Brutal Critical: Battleragers get a bonus attack with spike armor. In addition, you also have reckless attack. Chances are you are going to get some critical hits, so an extra die of damage comes in handy. This is a nice feature that you pick up at 9th, and it gets better at 13th and 17th level.
Relentless Rage: You are going to be taking as many hits as anyone in your party. This 11th level skill is yet another way you’ll have a chance to survive to fight another day, giving you a chance to make a saving throw and drop to 1 hit point instead of dying.
Persistant Rage: The bane of all barbarians are DM’s who use tricks to make you lose your valuable rages. At 15th level those tricks are going to be nearly impossible to play on you.
Indomitable Might: Let’s just say that between having advantage on STR checks when raging, let alone this 18th level ability, there aren’t many chances you are going to lose STR battles.
Primal Champion: Your final ability. This gives you +4 to STR and CON, your two most important statistics, as well as allowing you to reach a maximum of 24 in those scores. Looks like it’s time to arm wrestle some giants…..unless you decide you are just going to bash in their faces instead with your newly found STR.
Path Features:
Dwarf only, unless your DM lifts this restriction.
Battlerager Armor: For 75 gold, you get armor that gives you 14 AC with a max DEX modifier of +2. You also get disadvantage on Stealth checks. In return, if you are wearing the armor and raging you can use your bonus action to attack with the armor. This attack uses STR to hit and add damage, as well as doing 1d4 piercing damage. It also lets you deal 3 points of damage when you successfully grapple an opponent. This feature is 99% of the reason you play a Battlerager.
Don’t underestimate the spiked armor attack. Considering that it is a melee attack, you can add your STR and your Rage bonus to it, it makes the 1d4 dice roll much more impressive as a bonus action. This spike attack is the number one reason why you want STR to be your primary stat. A raging dwarf with 18th STR at level 4 (very doable with racial +STR bonus and level 4 stat bump), you are doing 7-10 points of damage every time you connect with your bonus action spike attack.
Reckless Abandon: 6th level ability to let you gain temporary hit points (equal to your constitution bonus) if you are raging and reckless attack. Not a huge amount of life, but considering you will almost always be taking attacks, everything helps.
Battlerager Charge: Lets you Dash as a bonus action if you are raging. Useful ability to get those short dwarf legs moving and get into melee range, but considering you already get Fast Movement at 5th level, it’s not as useful as you’d like.
Spiked Retribution: This makes an opponent not want to attack you. 3 points of damage every time an opponent hits you with a melee attack and is within 5 feet if you are raging and not incapacitated. Great ability, but it doesn’t come until 14th level. The damage is a nice perk, but at this stage it’s probably too little too late to have a significant impact against powerful enemies.
Skills, Backgrounds and Feats:
Skills:
Athletics: This comes in handy often and is one of the skills you’ll use most.
Acrobatics: Your DEX score will limit you, but this is a good skill to have if you like to do some crazy attacks, battlerager style.
Sleight of hand: Skip the tricks…just bash them instead
Stealth: Spiked armor….not so sneaky. Skip
Arcana: Who cares about magic?
History: You have dwarven stone knowledge. Everything else is pointless to you usually.
Investigation: Leave the investigating to the eggheads. You are here to bash.
Nature: Sometimes useful, sometimes not.
Religion: Kill ‘em all, let someone sort them out while you skip this skill.
Animal handling: Not many cases where this skill comes in handy.
Insight: Your wisdom is bad. Let others determine enemy intentions
Medicine: You kill, others heal. Better than nothing, though.
Perception: One of the most valuable skills, no matter the class you play.
Survival: Seldom as useful as it seems it might be.
Deception: You smash, not lie.
Intimidation: The battlerager way. What’s scarier than an angry dwarf in spikes? Decent skill.
Performance: Skip. You don’t entertain people.
Persuasion: Intimidation is more of your style, especially if DM’s let you use STR to roll on intimidation checks.
Backgrounds:
Acolyte: A proficiency bonus to insight and access to free healing are the best features of this class for you.
Charlatan: You lose a lot of your key features without spiked armor on. Disguising yourself is going to be tough unless you take off that armor. Skip.
City Watch: Useful in city campaigns, and skills are decent with athletics and insight.
Clan Crafter: Free room and board is O.K. Artisan tool proficiency already covered by being a dwarf, however.
Cloistered Scholar: What do you need library access for?
Courtier: A battlerager isn’t really a politician. Skip in most campaigns.
Criminal: Stealth is not your focus. Skip.
Entertainer: Acrobatics is a nice skill to add, but not much else here for you.
Faction Agent: Faction assistance is nice. Not much else here for you.
Far Traveler: You already draw attention wearing spiked armor.
Folk Hero: You already get the skills here, and the feature isn’t enough to be anything special. Skip.
Guild Artisan: Gaining access to a place to smith might be useful should you need to replace your spiked armor. Other than that, it’s not worth taking.
Hermit: Kind of a flavor background. Medicine and religion skills should not be your concern.
Inheritor: I guess the value of this background depends on what your DM is willing to give you.
Knight of the Order: Shelter. Doesn’t really fit your style, however.
Mercenary Veteran: Finding mercenary work is nice, but you could probably do that without this background.
Noble: Not too much gained here, and your persuasion checks aren’t worth taking this background.
Outlander: Skills are useless, but ability to find food and fresh water is nice in outdoor campaigns. Better than nothing.
Sage: You are a blood spiller, not a sage. Skip.
Sailor: Getting proficiency in Perception makes up for you most likely having low wisdom. Ships passage will rarely if ever be used, but useful if you ever do.
Soldier: One of the better feats for you. Proficiency in athletics and intimidation is right up your alley. Land vehicles has rare uses but is nice to have if you can use it.
Urban Bounty Hunter: It might be hard to hunt people down with your Stealth disadvantage armor.
Urchin: Sleight of hand and stealth are for sneaky classes, you ain’t that.
Uthgardt Tribe Member: Knowing the land is a nice feature, as is finding extra food and water. Useless outside of your homelands, however.
Waterdhavian Noble: More room and board, but in style. Skills don’t really fit your skillset.
Feats:
Alert: Nice to have a +5 bonus to initiative or be surprised, but stat increases and other feats are better choices to make.
Athlete: Let’s you get +1 STR or DEX (take STR usually), but the jumping and climbing isn’t hugely valuable to you.
Actor: Avoid. No reason for you to pretend to be anything other than a one-man army.
Charger: Not as important at later levels considering you get Battlerager charge. Dashing as a dwarf to make up for your lesser movement rate and then attacking with +5 to damage that same turn is a better than average feature, however.
Crossbow Expert: You are a spiked wrecking ball. Leave the crossbows at home.
Defensive duelist: Wait, why are you using a finesse weapon as a barbarian?
Dual wielder: One of the better feats to take if you don’t like great weapons, but otherwise it’s ok to skip this one. +1 to AC and ability to use heavier weapons isn’t too bad.
Dungeon Delver: You aren’t here to search for traps. Your disadvantage on stealth rolls makes it unlikely you are scouting ahead of the party looking for traps. Leave it to the rogues.
Durable. Constitution +1 is a nice perk, as are the hit point minimums if you play in a campaign where you roll for hitpoints.
Elemental Adapt: You don’t cast spells, so why would you want this?
Grappler: Sounds great initially, but you already get advantage on STR checks if you are raging, so this doesn’t add much to you.
Great Weapon Master: Not a bad feat if you use one, especially combined with reckless attack to make sure that if you use the -5 attack roll for +10 damage feature.
Healer: Your job is to make things dead. Save the healing for other classes.
Heavily armored: No use other than +1 STR. You use spiked armor (medium)
Heavy Armor Master: Same deal as above. Shame you can’t use heavy armor and rage (damage resistance + reduction would be ridiculous)
Inspiring Leader: It’s doubtful you have much of a Charisma bonus. Skip it.
Keen Mind: Intelligence isn’t your forte. Skip it.
Lightly Armored: You already have the skill to use light and medium armor. Skip it.
Linguist: Do you plan on talking to enemies or killing them? Skip.
Lucky: By far one of the best feats. Lets you recklessly attack (or save or whatever) without the downside.
Mage Slayer: Useful if you fight a lot of casters, useless if you don’t.
Magic Initiate: Raging doesn’t like casting, skip it.
Martial Adept: Pretty good feature for burst damage. Stick to the maneuvers that let you attack and add superiority dice to the damage.
Medium Armor Master: Dexterity should probably be stat number three in priority, so chances are you won’t see as much of a benefit from this feat as you’d like.
Mobile: As a dwarf, the extra speed helps. It doesn’t help enough to take it over stat increases though.
Moderately Armored: You can use medium armor and shields already. Pass.
Mounted Combat: As amusing as a mounted dwarven battlerager is, you want to be on the ground in combat normally. Skip.
Observant: You are here to cause blood to spill, not read lips.
Polearm master: Pretty good feat, but the bonus attack isn’t much of a benefit considering you can spike armor attack.
Resilent: Skip. Better off getting +1 to two stats instead unless you need the saving throw BADLY.
Ritual Caster: More of that useless casting stuff.
Savage Attacker: Nice little feat to make sure that you can maximize your weapons. 1d12 on a great axe can be rough if you roll a 1. This gives you a chance to try for a 12 instead.
Sentinel: Solid feat that ties in well with you charging into the middle of your enemies.
Sharpshooter: You are a melee master, leave the bows to the elven rangers.
Shield Master: Very nice feat if you use a shield. You already have advantage on many dexterity saving throws. Adding your shield AC bonus to that roll and taking no damage in many cases if you succeed make this very valuable. Probably the first feat you should take if you plan to use a shield.
Skilled: Bleh. You are a killer, not a skill monkey.
Skulker: Good luck sneaking with spiked armor.
Spell Sniper: Trash. You don’t cast spells.
Tavern Brawler: Spiked armor attack pretty much makes this just a redundant feature. Using a bonus action to grapple is nice, though.
Tough: Hitpoints are very important for a battlerager, but unless you are maxed out on Constitution, you should skip for awhile.
War Caster: Caster, caster, blah blah.
Weapon Master: You know plenty of weapons already. This is basically just +1 STR or DEX. Skip.
Multi-Classing:
The battlerager wants to be a single class. Stat bonus increases, rage bonus increases, and proficiency (attack) increases make it worth it to stay one class.
Spell casters are pretty much a no-no. They don’t work well with rage. There are some useful spells, but you need to cast them before battle. In most builds, you’ll want to skip.
Bard: The best bard features don’t work well with a battlerager. You want to be using your bonus action with spike attacks, not inspiring people.
Cleric: If you add this class, War Domain is probably your best bet. Adding +10 to an attack roll helps you hit without Reckless Attack (and its downside), especially if you use a feat like Great Weapon Mastery to add extra damage.
Druid: Spiked armor doesn’t do much if you shapechange into an animal.
Fighter: Specializing in Great Weapon Fighting or Two-Weapon Fighting can really up your damage output when raging and with a high STR, but remember that TWF is already pretty much covered by using spiked armor attacks instead. Battlemasters add some useful maneuvers if you go to 3rd level. Skip Eldritch knights. Rage and casting don’t mix well.
Monk: Monk speed is nice as a dwarf. Unarmored defense is already covered as a barbarian, and the wisdom based monk defense isn’t going to help you much. You also already have a bonus attack with spike armor.
Paladin: Great Weapon Fighting and Defense are nice fighting styles to have. Divine smite is also nice for damage, but spell casting isn’t your best style.
Ranger: Defense or Two-Weapon Fighting should be your fighting styles to take, but keep in mind that you already have a spike bonus attack you can use. Colossus Slayer as a Hunter is nice.
An animal companion for the beast master is more often a hindrance than a bonus.
Rogue: It’s hard to utilize sneak attack in spiked armor and with short dwarven legs. Rogue fighting styles are the opposite of what you are about.
Sorceror: Spells? No thanks
Warlock: A blade pact is probably the best route to go if you take this class. Thirsting blade is a nice invocation to have as well. Best caster class for a battlerager.
Wizard: Move along, nothing to see here.
Sample build:
The classic barbarian: Take the biggest weapon you can get (Great Axe or sword or maul) and swing away. Get your DEX to 14 and never worry about it again. That will give you a 16 AC. Getting your STR to 18 is your number one priority, followed by CON. All other stats are pretty much fluff for you. In most cases, you are going to want to skip feats at 4th level and instead get STAT increases. This is most likely true for 8th level as well. Stats for a battlerager trump anything feats do for you usually.
STR + Rage damage on your weapon and spike armor make you an offensive juggernaut. If you are going to take a feat, take Great Weapon Master, as it works very well with Reckless Attack. An enlarged Gray dwarf adds 1d4 damage as well with its weapons (but you can't be enlarged and raging), so you could theoretically deal 2d6 (weapon) + 4 damage (18 STR) + 2 damage (Rage) + 1d4 (spike attack) + 2 (Rage) + 4 (18 STR) for 15-28 damage if your regular attack and spike attack hit. If you elect to be a giant gray dwarf instead of raging, you deal 2d6 (weapon) + 4 damage (18 STR) + 1d4 (Enlarged) + 1d4 (spike) + 1d4 (enlarged) + 4 (STR) for a total of 13-32 damage.
The shield master: This build works well for a battlerager, especially early on. Like the classic barbarian build, you are going to put your DEX to 14 and forget about it. With a shield, you'll have an 18 AC at level 3 (14 AC spiked armor + 2 DEX + 2 shield AC). The disadvantage you take is that you must use a weaker weapon. This build relies heavily on STR if you want to put out consistent damage, so make sure you get it maxed ASAP. Your damage output will be much weaker if you don't..
Your main consistent damage is going to come from rage (or enlarge) and STR bonuses rather than just a brute high damage weapon. Your damage output isn't bad, however, because the spikes do get STR damage bonus to them. You can expect to do 1d8 (weapon) + 4 (STR) + 2 (Rage) + 1d4 (spikes) + 4 (STR) + 2 (Rage) if a mountain or hill dwarf or gray dwarf raging for a total of 14-24 damage per 1 regular and 1 bonus attack. If you choose to be enlarged as a gray dwarf, you will do 1d8 (weapon) + 4 (STR) + 1d4 (enlarged weapon) + 1d4 (spikes) + 4 (STR) + 1d4 (enlarged weapon) for a total of 12-28 damage.
With the shield master, you'll want to take stats at level 4. You need that 18 STR and high CON asap to survive, as you will often be considered the party's tank. Level 8 is trickier, and if you stay with the shield build it is a toss-up whether to take more stats or to take shield master. A level 12 shield master build will almost always want to have that feat. This is the tankiest build you can play, but at the cost of lower damage.
Battle Options:
Round one of battle: Charge your opponent like a madman with your movement, use bonus action to rage, and either grapple your opponent (3 damage) or swing with your weapon. Keep in mind that a raging barbarian has advantage on STR checks.
Round two: Time to do some damage. Swing with your main attack, swing with your bonus spike armor attack. If you grappled, maintain that grapple and shove your opponent prone.
Round three: Rinse and repeat if you are doing damage first. If you grappled and shoved your opponent prone, you now have them at disadvantage on the ground. Time to smash !
Your group encounters a boss and his underlings- Charge the boss, rage and grapple him. Knock him prone if possible so he has a speed of zero while prone and grappled. Let your party wipe up the underlings while you keep the boss occupied. This strategy works well with the shield battlerager, due to his higher AC and making the boss attack with disadvantage for being prone.
Be creative with your attacks. Some DMs will give you a lot of space to do some crazy maneuvers. WWE is an excellent fighting style to emulate. Grapple your opponent and body slam him off of a small cliff or drop. A heavy dwarf in spiked armor landing on top of his foe has to hurt !
Choosing to be a gray dwarf has it's advantages, but remember that you lose the biggest advantage a barbarian has if you choose to use Enlarge instead of Rage. Rage gives you a higher minimum damage, but Enlarge has a slightly higher damage maximum. The biggest problem with Enlarge is that you can't rage and concentrate on the spell. This means no rage bonus of having resistance to piercing, slashing, and blunt weapons. You can expect that sooner than later the non-resistance is going to catch up to you as you take full damage from melee attacks.
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