D&D 5E Why play a low-level Fighter when the Barbarian is so much better?

[KarinsDad]

Like I said, just one anecdote. If the random encounter had been any of the 7 other results that didn't include an /Ambush/ Drake, I probably wouldn't have even had the monsters try to hide. As it was, they were +4 stealth vs passive perceptions of 11-14 - they got lucky.

Did you roll group stealth checks? That's very important in 5E. Taking your example here:

5 PCs: PPs of 11, 11, 12, 13, 14

Monsters each roll: 6, 11, 13, 19.

Surprise round: PCs 1, 2, and 3 are surprised. PC 4 and 5 are not surprised since only one monster had a Stealth DC higher than their passive perception. In a group stealth check, half of the one side's stealth rolls has to beat the passive perception of a given creature of the other side.

Hmmm. Still working on which system is better.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Did you roll group stealth checks? That's very important in 5E. Taking your example here:

5 PCs: PPs of 11, 11, 12, 13, 14

Monsters each roll: 6, 11, 13, 19.

Surprise round: PCs 1, 2, and 3 are surprised. PC 4 and 5 are not surprised since only one monster had a Stealth DC higher than their passive perception. In a group stealth check, half of the one side's stealth rolls has to beat the passive perception of a given creature of the other side.

Actually, no, I didn't. I rolled for each monster, with /all of them/ needing to beat a given PC's passive perception for that PC to have been surprised. All 4 of them beat the two highest passive perceptions of 14. Actually a pretty unlikely result, maybe 1:14 or so. One of the dangers of anecdotes, the ones that go like you expect aren't interesting enough to mention...

 

[Lucas McMellon]

Barbarian/Fighter

You don't need a high AC when you take half damage. You have essentially doubled your hp pool. Take the tough feat if you're worried about dying. Resilient wisdom us a must. As well as great weapon fighter.

 

[CapnZapp]

I envy your necromancy skills

My best solution: play a Barbarian! Then play another Barbarian in the next campaign!

And a third!

Then, you might want some variety, and for that I give you: the Fighter

In other words, there really isn't much to say. If you are personally convinced the Barbarian is better than the Fighter, nothing and nobody stops you from playing one.

 

[Blue]

First, the basic premise is wrong. If you'd like to say "A low-level barbarian is better than a STR melee fighter in an particular fight" I could see a reasonable argument.

Let me break those down.

STR - a dex based fighter gets a lot of advantages. Barbarians on the other hand lose reckless attack and rage bonus to damage if they aren't using STR.

melee - fighter makes a unquestioned superior platform for an archer or hand-crossbow than a barbarian. fighting style, dex use, rage resistance much less useful at range, subclass features usable at ranged.

particular fight - low level barbarians have 2-3 rages/long rest. That means they are ranging somewhere between 25-50% of the encounters going by the DMG recommendations on encounters per day. Fighters are much more consistent, and their low-level abilities that do recharge tend to recharge on short rest.

In other words, barbarians are great at the one thing to do, and if you straight-jacket a fighter to try to compete in that exact same niche they won't do as well in an encounter that the barbarian is raging. But the low level fighter is good across all of the encounters in a day, and has a lot of other niches such as dex based or primary ranged that if yu straight-jacketed the barbarian to compete in you would find the barbarian lacking.

 

[Ninja-radish]

The issue with Barbs is rage is ridiculously easy to neutralize. Fear, charm, really any mental effect will pull a Barb out of rage. Especially with their garbage Wisdom saves.

Why play a Fighter or Barbarian when Paladins are better than both? It comes down to personal preference really. Play what you want.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

The issue with Barbs is rage is ridiculously easy to neutralize. Fear, charm, really any mental effect will pull a Barb out of rage. Especially with their garbage Wisdom saves.

Why play a Fighter or Barbarian when Paladins are better than both? It comes down to personal preference really. Play what you want.

Take the berserker path and it is a lot harder.

Sent from my GT-I9506 using EN World mobile app

 

[The Crimson Binome]

The issue with Barbs is rage is ridiculously easy to neutralize. Fear, charm, really any mental effect will pull a Barb out of rage. Especially with their garbage Wisdom saves.

If you have a spellcaster lying around who has a mental effect available, then you can have them spend their entire turn in order to try and de-buff the barbarian so it takes more damage. Or if they make their save, you can do nothing.

Expecting any given PC to fail a save is not a reliable option. The dice are too random, and saving throw DCs are too low. You could spend an entire campaign trying to knock a barbarian out of rage, and it might just make the fights easier for the party since that's a turn where you're not throwing a fireball.

 

[The Hierophant]

Or Resilience Wis.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Take the berserker path and it is a lot harder.

But still not THAT hard. A 5th level Berserker in a party of four PCs could easily use up all of his Rages in single fight with a dozen goblins. All that has to happen for him to lose rage is for him to start a turn without seeing any goblin within 30' because they are either (1) hidden from him using their Nimble Escape and Stealth Expertise; or (2) further than 45' away because they were plinking away with their shortbows, and he already killed the one last round that was in range of him. In fact, even if he hits a clump of three goblins and kills one, the other two goblins still can and naturally should Dash away in opposite directions to safety, using Nimble Escape to avoid his opportunity attack.

Yes, there are ways around this, including drawing a dagger and chucking it at the goblins, or even cutting on yourself to keep your rage up if there is no one within dagger range. But having to waste actions and possibly HP to keep rage up is not ideal. And it's also something a heavily-armored fighter or dexterous archer doesn't have to worry about at all.

Low-level Barbarians are okay, but even at low levels they don't eclipse fighters.