D&D 5E Horde of shifter barbarians, prepare for the deluge!

[ccs]

I doubt I'm going to be deluged by shifter barbarians IRL. It's just not an OMG! problem.

Between two groups (8-9 people) I've got 4 people who've ever heard of Ebberron & only 2 players who're even aware the books even come out.
And one of those 2 isn't an Ebberron fan. So he's not likely to even crack the cover to glance through it, let alone drop his current character.
I do have 1 player (who's never heard of the setting) that might play a shifter - were she aware of it. But it wouldn't be done from a power gaming perspective (even if she did stumble across the best ever combo - wich I doubt this is).

I might read plenty of crap here on EW about it though.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

There are actually several Eberron races that work well with barbarian. Beasthide is good. Warforged now get a +1 AC bonus that stacks with unarmoured defense. Mark of the Sentinel's ability to take a hit for someone else is better if you have damage resistance. Bugbears and Orcs suit barbarian. Aberrant Dragonmark works well for barbarians.

Also: Warforged Battlerager. Because who doesn't want to weld spikes onto their warforged?

 

[TwoSix]

And Barbarian wouldn't be my choice either. Choosing either the shifter race or barbarian class are equally sub-optimal choices for maximising melee DPS.

That's an interesting assessment, and I think would be dependent on what tier(s) the game is targeted for. Beyond the scope of this thread, though.