“Well he fought with the strength of many men
The Tale Of Cú Chulainn, Miracle Of Sound
A beast who bloodied the fields
In a bloodlust battle frenzy
His skin would shift and peel”
So what is the Barbarian all about? How does it work, and do you want to play one? Today we have a look at the history of savages and see that Barbarians are ill-named. I will then break down how to build and play an effective Barbarian before finishing with a rating of the class and what it offers.
This is not an optimisation guide — you can find those elsewhere. In particular, I will focus on core class mechanics rather than examining subclasses, and will highlight reasonable options rather than dictating the best ones.
This is the first how-to-play class guide. You may want to check out this introduction first. Following the common character levels from this discussion, this series will focus on levels 3-12.
What is a Barbarian?
Not So Barbaric After All
The Ancient Greek word barbaros (βαρβαρoς) refers to anyone who does not speak Ancient Greek, supposedly because to the Greeks any other languages sounded like “bar-bar-bar.” The term stood in contrast to their word for civilised.” At various points, it was used by Athenians to refer to non-Athenians, Greeks to refer to non-Greeks, and eventually by the Romans to mean…non-Roman. Sadly, language has been used to create these arbitrary distinctions throughout all of history, not just today.
Vikings have suffered from from a similar smear campaign. Explorers who travelled from Istanbul to Newfoundland, the histories of those they warred with attest not to their nautical skills, but to their bloodthirstiness and savagery. As the enemies of the vikings, these writers had a clear agenda — to decry their foes as evil. One Abbot famously lamented the vikings’ ability to undermine the virtue of good woman thanks to their atrocious habits of combing their hair, changing their clothes, and bathing once a week, rather than the recommended annual wash.
History frees Barbarians from a call to mindless savagery — they can be well-groomed and refined. After all, one nation’s barbarians may well call those same “civilised” lands barbarians themselves. Barbarians do not lack for culture; they simply have a different culture.
Barbarians of Legend
On the other hand, perhaps mindless savagery is what you want. In that case, look not to history, but legend.
Cú Chulainn was a deadly warrior who, in rage of battle, would transform into a hideous being of unthinkable strength. Robed in the skin of a lion killed with his bare hands, Heracles looks the part. Samson was a brutal warlord with a horrifying kill count. Conan is not called “the Barbarian” without reason. There is no shortage of inspiration
Build a Barbarian
Barbarians have unmatched staying power — with extra HP and damage resistances, they are extremely hard to kill. This can be taken in one of two ways: double down on survival, acting as a tank; or count on already being unkillable, and focus on dealing damage. These are extremes, and most Barbarians will fall somewhere in the middle.
Ability Scores
Above all, the Barbarian is strong. To benefit from Rage, they must use a Strength-based melee weapon, so this will be their highest stat. After that are Dexterity and Constitution. As both contribute to AC, Barbarians are less Dexterity-dependent than most classes. The damage resistances of Rage effectively double HP, so every increase to their Constitution modifier is doubly valuable for HP, and is also good for AC. For a quick build, order your ability scores as: Strength, Constitution, then Dexterity. You also have a brain, but if you need to use it something has gone wrong.
Arms and Armour
Barbarians do not need armour. With a Constitution of 14, light armour is redundant. Medium armour might give a bonus before your Constitution reaches 20 or Dexterity reaches 16, but comes at the cost of losing Fast Movement.
To benefit from rage, Barbarians must use Strength-based melee weapons. A backup ranged or thrown weapon is unlikely to be useful, especially once Fast Movement is available. The first decision a Barbarian must make is whether to use a two-handed weapon or a shield. The former will boost their damage, especially once Brutal Critical is unlocked. The later will further improve their ability to soak up attacks and damage.
Fight!
The Barbarian’s abilities are almost exclusively combat-orientated. Their available skills and tools are few, and only Danger Sense is useful outside a fight.
Rage
The Barbarian’s go-to move is to get angry. To keep it up, they must fight, so it is hard to use this outside of combat, but can be used for a one-round boost if necessary. The boost to Strength checks and Saving throws comes up infrequently — the main advantages are the extra damage and the damage resistance.
The extra damage is a small boost, but unlike similar effects (like Hunter’s Mark), it does not require concentration and applies regardless of the target. To make use of this, you will need to attack often (which will also maintain rage) and hit often in order to apply the bonus to something.
The damage resistance is a massive bonus. Against most attacks, this will double your effective HP. It is hard to use this effectively, as you cannot make a monster attack you. Smart enemies will try to kill your friends first. Your best bet is to get in the way so that no one can run past you — the Sentinel feat helps here. You can also work to keep your damage output high so that you are a threat that cannot be ignored. Smart commanders will then send weaker grunts to slow you down, but every attack against you is one that does not hurt someone else.
Danger Sense is a useful supplement — Dexterity saves are often used to avoid non-bludgeoning/piercing/slashing damage, which Rage will not prevent, so succeeding at those saves is valuable.
Reckless Brutality
Brutal Critical gives a small boost to damage, as critical are normally rare. However, when making Reckless Attacks, a natural 20 is more likely than any other result. Barbarians can hit very reliably, and crit quite reliably. The cost is that you are easier to hit — but this is a blessing in disguise! With Rage and too many HP, you can take the hit, so making yourself a more attractive target is a way to draw attacks away from your allies.
Rate My Barbarian
Throughout this series, I will give a rating from 1 (low) to 5 (high) in several categories. Hopefully, you should be able to judge which categories you would want to be high and which you want to be low for you to enjoy. Complexity is about how much you must keep track of while playing. Strategy is about the number of options available in combat. Versatility indicates how many options a character has in non-combat scenarios. Each class represents an archetypal character — Flavor is about how clear and distinct this concept is. Finally, Diversity represents how many options there are for making different characters of the same class distinct.
Complexity: 1
The Barbarian is very easy to play. The only limited use ability they must track is Rage, and their only situational feature that is easily forgotten is Danger Sense. Some Primal paths increase complexity, but more often they give minor modifications to Rage, so requires no additional attention.
Strategy: 1
In the first round of combat, the Barbarian Rages as a bonus action, moves up to an enemy, and makes a Reckless Attack. In future rounds, they do the same, but without spending the bonus action to Rage again. They have no new strategic options not available to all classes.
Versatility: 1
If it can be killed, the Barbarian can kill it. If not, the Barbarian has limited options. This is not improved by any Primal Paths. If you want non-combat options, this is not the class for you.
Flavour: 5
The Barbarian is an extremely strong thematic archetype, and Primal Paths strengthen this. There are plenty of sources of inspiration in fiction and history.
Diversity: 2
Several Primal Paths give passive defensive bonuses, so are all fairly similar. However others — specifically the Ancestral Guardian and Wild Magic — are quite different. These Barbarians still function in much the same way, but have access to enough extra options to keep it original.