D&D 5E How good are Barbarians?

[daddystabz]

How good are Barbarians in D&D 5e? Can a human Barb be just as good mechanically as a Half Orc Barb?

Do you think Monks are better overall?

 

[Sacrosanct]

Afraid I'd need more info. What context? White room scenario? Do you allow short rests after every encounter or do you expect 5-6 combats before each short rest? What type of opponents? What's the environment like?

 

[rollcrit]

This is just my opinion, so by no means am I correct. I did have a bit more success when I was palytesting a monk over a barbarian. I don't think I fully understand the barbarian rules, because I didnt find much benefit with the rage? Can anyone give us some better info on how to really take advantage of rage or how to really play a barbarian well?

 

[SilverfireSage]

I don't think I fully understand the barbarian rules, because I didnt find much benefit with the rage? Can anyone give us some better info on how to really take advantage of rage or how to really play a barbarian well?

Extra damage? Resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage?

 

[Sacrosanct]

I think the answer may also be heavily impacted by use of feats. For example, I have a shadow monk who has the magic initiate feat. The 1st level spell he has is hex. when you're attacking four times (2x for multi attacks and 2 more for flurry of blows), that's a potential +4d6 necrotic damage per round. On top of that, you're imposing disadvantage on an ability check. So cast hex on the barbarian, giving him disadvantage on CON checks. Then proceed to stun lock the hell out of him with stunning strike or worse, death touch..er...quivering palm If that doesn't work, I could use 60ft movement rate to stay at range and use deflect missiles to keep from getting hurt by the barbarian while I use eldritch blast cantrip.

I'm sure you could come up with a barbarian variant that would be equally dominant over the monk, and that's not even factoring in factors mentioned in my first post.

 

[Syntallah]

I have a young man (15yrs) playing a mountain dwarf barbarian in my Game, currently 2nd level. He absolutely loves it!

- he has more hit points than the tank
- he ignores half damage taken when raging [and when he hits 3rd level, and bear totem, I believe he has resistance all the time; iirc - dhbifom]
- he wears no armor but blue paint, and has competitive AC (I had mentioned the blue paint that certain celtic berserkers wore in battle and he ran with it)
- he tears things up with his great axe, especially with Reckless Attack

 

[TerraDave]

How "good"

For barbarians, the best in life is to "Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of their women."

But otherwise they can be OK.

 

[SilverfireSage]

I think the answer may also be heavily impacted by use of feats. For example, I have a shadow monk who has the magic initiate feat. The 1st level spell he has is hex. when you're attacking four times (2x for multi attacks and 2 more for flurry of blows), that's a potential +4d6 necrotic damage per round. On top of that, you're imposing disadvantage on an ability check. So cast hex on the barbarian, giving him disadvantage on CON checks. Then proceed to stun lock the hell out of him with stunning strike or worse, death touch..er...quivering palm If that doesn't work, I could use 60ft movement rate to stay at range and use deflect missiles to keep from getting hurt by the barbarian while I use eldritch blast cantrip.

I'm sure you could come up with a barbarian variant that would be equally dominant over the monk, and that's not even factoring in factors mentioned in my first post.

PC are meant to fight monsters, not other PCs. Making a build purely built to fight other players is somewhat irrelevant.

 

[Sacrosanct]

PC are meant to fight monsters, not other PCs. Making a build purely built to fight other players is somewhat irrelevant.

replace "barbarian" with "monster x" if you want. Point still stands. I.e., there are soooo many different factors that could go into chargen that I don't think you can objectively say which is better. I just happen to be familiar with that particular build, and used that as an example

 

[Mr Fixit]

I think the answer may also be heavily impacted by use of feats. For example, I have a shadow monk who has the magic initiate feat. The 1st level spell he has is hex. when you're attacking four times (2x for multi attacks and 2 more for flurry of blows), that's a potential +4d6 necrotic damage per round.

Ah, yes. One more reason to really dislike hex/hunter's mark as spells (rather than core class features). Any high APR class, like monks or fighters, would be stupid not to take it. My personal pet peeve.