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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BookBarbarian" data-source="post: 7871591" data-attributes="member: 6802553">Monks in 5e are more single target controllers than Tanky damage dealers. They excel at getting past the front rank and stunning a big threat bad guy.Barbarians are built to go toe to toe against bosses with big AC and/or bit attack bonuses. Reckless attack helps you land blows against High AC, and if the target was going to hit you anyway giving them advantage isn't a big deal. For example I'm playing a Barb in Storm King's Thunder right now, and a Fire Giant can hit me on a flat die roll of 4 or better, so reckessly attacking to get past his AC of 18 was a no brainier. You can also turn that Reckless attack into big damage numbers against low AC hordes with GWM. I find GWM is at it's best effect when the +10 damage can help kill a foe in a single hit. I had one encounter where I raged and using GWM  killed two Shadows (which were pretty close to killing our low strength warlock through their strength damage) then next round killed 3 more (killing just one triggered the Bonus action attack from GWM). Now fighters, with their extra attacks will do better with GWM than Barbarians do after level 11 but from 1-10 GWM Barbarian's are pretty nasty.As far as Bear Totem goes, they really shine in tier 2 to early tier 3, when you encounter more elemental damage. At lower levels I find most damage is B/P/S which any Barbarian get's resistance. At level 14+ a Zealot ignoring all damage while raging is better than Bear Totem resistance.Overall Id recommend going Ancestral Guardian for Tanky Barb, for Damage Barb go Zealot.In regards to Paladins, they get great damage through Smite, and have control over when they want to use it and great defense with Heavy armor, shields and Auras.</blockquote>

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