D&D 5E Requesting help building a barbarian

[greg kaye]

Path of the ancestral guardian might be great fun too, if you want to have the enemy focussed on you and not your team.. Might really play well with swashbuckler. ...

omg, that's awesome. You hit while raging to give disadvantage via ancestral protectors. Even without swashbuckler, you can cunning action disengage leaving opponents with disadvantage and (barb5) even go, try and hit someone else. (Allies next to the hit opponent or who can get next to them before their turn will get opportunity arracks if the opponent pursues). With swashbuckler3 you can, Fancy Footwork, ... slip away without opportunity attacks from creatures you attacked. You could then cunning action dash with the likely result that, at best, they could just dash to get to a space where they threatened you. Otherwise, they might then be limited to ranged attacks - if they had them. Other otherwise, they might alternatively try to retreat (if there weren't obstacles preventing such movement) but your own ranged attacks could sustain your rage while closing back in on them again.
Bugbear is great but, with cunning action dash, even halfling, with ability to move through opponent's spaces, might be workable. Who needs to tank when you can force your opponents to pursue you away from your allies?

 

[aco175]

My son had a lot of fun with his halfling barbarian. He though about adding rogue, but stayed full barbarian. Not sure what path he took.

 

[greg kaye]

Mau Glee, my raised by wolves, Chultan, halfling barb3/druid6/cleric1, was flavourfully suboptimal.

For optimisation it would have been better to have stuck to 14 dex, sought a breast plate (over than Kiplingesk nakedness), gone for a single weapon rapier (over clawlike, dual wielded shortswords), gone ancestral guardians (over totem wolf), gone rogue for things like cunning action and, if wanted, opted for (nature) cleric for the out of combat spells.
(The dexterity saving throws only applied with barbarian danger sense).

 

[Stoutstien]

You definitely don't want to multiclass anywhere in the first five levels - that delays extra attack. Level 6 is a subclass feature, usually not great to delay that. After that, some fighter in the mix works well. Rogue is not easy because it's Dex based, and as said above casters are problematic.

Zealot is a straightforward subclass with good damage and the benefit of being very hard to permanently kill.

Ancestral Guardian is a good defender if that's what you want for your barbarian. BUT if there are a lot of encounters rage goes quick she then you can't do your schtick.

I REALLY dislike the path of Wild Magic. None of the 3rd level features are all THAT great and because they are 100% random you can't count on getting the one you need regardless - is just terrible. The 6th level feature is decent but doesn't make up for the awfulness of the 3rd level one, IMO.

None of the wild magic options are that bad either and leads to making different choices than the usual barbarian action tree which is basically a line.
They also actually get a usable non combat feature at level 3 that isn't tied to rage use. At lv 6 they get another non rage feature that is ...really good once you combine it with someone with GWM/SS or have someone who can stretch out spell slot economy.

 

[Mort]

None of the wild magic options are that bad either and leads to making different choices than the usual barbarian action tree which is basically a line.
They also actually get a usable non combat feature at level 3 that isn't tied to rage use. At lv 6 they get another non rage feature that is ...really good once you combine it with someone with GWM/SS or have someone who can stretch out spell slot economy.

I agree that the level 6 feature is good and very party friendly, which is great for a barbarian.

But, for me, the level 3 feature is just too random (and yes that's the point, it's "wild magic" after all). I suppose if the player likes the challenge of having to adapt their strategy depending on a die roll, it could be interesting. But for me, it would get frustrating fast.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Rapier is better under those circumstances.

1 average point of damage does not matter most of the time. I like the flexibility of short swords (second attack with dagger offhand) and hate rapiers with a passion.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

1 average point of damage does not matter most of the time. I like the flexibility of short swords (second attack with dagger offhand) and hate rapiers with a passion.

Brutal critical.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Brutal critical.

Not until very late.

 

[Stoutstien]

I agree that the level 6 feature is good and very party friendly, which is great for a barbarian.

But, for me, the level 3 feature is just too random (and yes that's the point, it's "wild magic" after all). I suppose if the player likes the challenge of having to adapt their strategy depending on a die roll, it could be interesting. But for me, it would get frustrating fast.

That's fair. Randomized features has a strong love/hate factor for individual or even tables. For me it was the only non hyper niche barb I've played (like the AG archer or beast XCOM fighter) that didn't grow stagnant by lv ~8.

 

[Seramus]

None of the wild magic options are that bad either and leads to making different choices than the usual barbarian action tree which is basically a line.
They also actually get a usable non combat feature at level 3 that isn't tied to rage use. At lv 6 they get another non rage feature that is ...really good once you combine it with someone with GWM/SS or have someone who can stretch out spell slot economy.

Wild Surge really needs damage scaling to stay relevant at higher levels.
Even just adding an extra die to all the damage effects at Level 10 would help immensely.