Barbarian is Broken | Dungeons and Dragons 5e Guide
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ส.ค. 2024
- The Barbarian brings a simplicity to DND 5e that makes it extremely easy to take advantage of! Enjoy this Barbarian class guide for Dungeons and Dragons 5e!
The Barbarian in D&D 5e often gets ruled out as the brain-dead muscle of any given adventure group but it's actually always been so much more--even before Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, Xanathar's Guide to Everything, and Bigby's Glory of the Giants. Now, in addition to the Totem Warrior and Berserker, we also have the Ancestral Guardian, Battle Rager, Beast, Giant, Storm Herald, Zealot, and Wild Magic. Most of them are pretty decent and this DM knows nearly all of them can be Broken!
That said, let's take a look at why the Barbarian is broken in DND 5e!
00:00 Intro
00:15 Barbarians in DND
00:42 Ability Scores & Species
01:28 Level 1
03:45 Level 2
04:37 Level 3
04:47 Ancestral Guardian
05:42 Battle Rager
06:52 Beast
08:00 Berserker
08:51 Giant
10:21 Storm Herald
11:48 Totem Warrior
13:35 Zealot
14:21 Wild Magic
16:06 Level 4
17:12 Level 5
17:28 Level 7
17:44 Level 9
18:14 Level 11
18:32 Level 15
18:38 Level 18
18:46 Level 20
Amazon Affiliate Links:
D&D 5e Player's Handbook: amzn.to/45bIgri
D&D 5e Dungeon Master's Guide: amzn.to/4354U2I
D&D 5e Monster Manual: amzn.to/3BzTF6N
D&D 5e Xanathar's Guide to Everything: amzn.to/3BElOcU
D&D 5e Tasha's Cauldron of Everything: amzn.to/3WiEhVD
D&D 5e Monsters of the Multiverse: amzn.to/3BC5Rnh
Discord: / discord
Instagram: / constructed. .
Facebook: / constructedc. .
Patreon: / constructedchaos
New episodes posted on Mondays along with various Dungeons and Dragons videos and content about printing and painting terrain in between! What other videos would you like to see?
Be sure to tell us what you think in the comments and please enjoy!
#barbarian #dnd #dungeonsanddragons - บันเทิง
The best thing about the Battlerager is that the Dwarvish word for it is Kuldjarg, which literally translates to Axe Idiot. Also, Juggernaut Barbarian is surprisingly brutal if it finds itself in a sci-fi campaign with a lot of robots.
Haha I like that! Axe Idiot!
Small correction regarding Zealot:
even if you fail all your death saves, the Rage Beyond Death feat explicitly says that you cannot die until AFTER your rage ends
in other words, you CAN keep fighting even after failing all your death saves...as long as you are still raging. and even then, if someone heals you, it's nullified, because you only die if you are still at 0 HP.
a level 1 healing word right before your rage ends will stop you from dying.
Good catch there!! I appreciate that! I try not to go too in depth with each subclass but I’ll try to trim that out so it isn’t as confusing!
@@ConstructedChaos understandable.
love the work still, great summary of the big highlights of what Barbarian has to offer
@@ConstructedChaos With that Sub-Class a way to make it even more brutal is be a Half-Orc.
Anyhow, I unfortunately don't have a group to play with:(
But I have created 12 different lvl 1 characters in case I found a group.
1 of which is a Custom Race Female Half-Moon Elf Half-Frost Giant Planar Philosopher background Barbarian planning Path of the Giant (Chaotic Neutral like all my characters).
Seriously though, Path of the Giant is the best indeed. Though my second favorite Sub-Class for Barbarian is Storm Herald.
Finally, an underappreciated Sub-Class for Barbarian is Battlerager. Probably because it is officially restricted to Dwarves, but it's abilities are actually fun sounding, fairly powerful, and great for the vibe of Barbarian.
@@morrigankasa570 ancestral guardian with echo knight and polearm master is quite broken
Was just thinking that we needed another one of these! Thank you very much! Best content on TH-cam!!
Wow! Thanks so much! I’m glad you’ve been enjoying these!
Playing a Path of the Giant Barbarian in a brand new campaign. DM has ruled that oversized weapons are allowed. That ruling makes the damage of this barbarian subclass very powerful.
I've played one other barbarian before, a bear totem barbarian. I think the path of the giant with oversized weapons is more powerful in game. He really is the embodiment of the saying "the best defense is a good offense".
@@Hanssolo93 Ohh I hadn’t thought of that! I don’t think it’s rules as intended but that is SUPER flavorful! I love it!
@@ConstructedChaos The reason that some people mention large weapons is because, even though it's in the how to make a monster section of the DMG, it switches terms to say that a large CREATURE with a large weapon gets double damage dice, triple for huge, quadruple for gargantuan. And Storm king's thunder has a giant greataxe that does 3d12 damage and a potion of giant size that turns you and your weapon huge and triples the damage dice of your weapon.
The end of a journey! 🎉 Congratulations dude
Thanks so much!! It’s almost time to start it again haha
YEESSS!! I was waiting for this one!
It's here!!
Another great video , thanks brother .
Happy to oblige!! Glad you liked it!
Ahh memories, in a campaign before elden ring has made it a visual possibility i was a minotaur Barbarian with a ship anchor for a weapon with alot of chains around the waist. In comedic fasion, i was for many diplomatic peace negotiations between kingdoms with our pali, cleric druid and mage... I was resting rent free at the staples ( dm's running joke for my guy since my character rarely spoke and didn't think he was at most smart. ) it wasn't until mid campaign that the party got themselves in hot water with a raid that the mage blew the high pitch whistle to call me in... and lets just say i was creative with the anchor as I swung that ludicrous weapon to smash the raiders and rip apart the ships with a chain attachments. The enemies were jaw dropped and our lawful evil mage gave a knowing smirk of the unbelievable carnage i left behind after. Once the bbeg at campaigns end was done, the mage who grew compassion throughout let me go to journey on for myself. Using my talents into voice acting to really sell the parting i gave the brute somber first words. " Thank you " before taking the journey to the meadows where my minotaur wants to spend his days, leaving behind the heavy anchor and chains behind. Dm actually shed tears as well as our mage for actually hearing a voice.
Beautifully done! A character of few words carries a lot of weight!
Hey Alex, whenever you have your next DnD session, please let your crew know about Critical Role cast member Sam Riegel as he is currently dealing with health issues, specifically trying to get past a threat of tonsil cancer!! Please have you and your crew say some prayers for Sam Riegel and wish him well as he continues to fight for his life!!
Absolutely! I heard about that. Apparently professor DM from the dungeoncraft channel has cancer as well. It's been a tough week for the DND community and my heart goes out to both of them.
Halfling Barbarian - loads of fun! Gnome Barbarians are great too!
Short kings unite!
These are the best! I mean not just your best videos but out of all the other dnd class videos by other people. I do love Barbarians but only got to lvl 2 in a game.
I have 3 that I want to play.
First was a cambion, not teifling but I just used teifling to make it simple for my GM. She was to be a zealot...after escaping from Hell. 😂 Yeah. I was going to do Tempest...fast-forward I still love this character, her back story but I'm thinking that since her escape and being rejected everywhere because she looks demonic she would have learned to survive the woods. I did originally pick the outlander but I'm now thinking I should dip in ranger. She should be more of an outdoors figure. Barbarian first of course!!! Hell is a rough place to grow up. Her 2 older brothers were murdered. Her mother dies in the escape. I was considering doing the Beast barbarian (scorpion tail since she was born with no tail or wings) then go with the gloom stalker ranger and have a 4 eyed hell goat as a pet if GM will allow. I do agree that the totem Barbarian is more of a badass. I'm on the fence atm. Opinions Welcome. Thematically the Beast works best. She has jet black eyes with skin that looks sunburnt, hoved feet, goat ears and jet black hair. "The pathfinder" because maybe she meets group by offering services as a guide.
Second Barbarian character concept, The Veteran, he is a nice well-dressed, well mannered gentleman in a kilt. Long funny story why he left home but he was a warrior that was the sole survivor of battle where he lost his clan. Instead of rage he has ptsd. When conflict arises, he snaps thinking he's back in that traumatic battle again and loses himself. I haven't settled but zealot + battle master mainly because I like zealot and maybe he thinks tempest spared him... I could do totem too 🤷♀️
Third idea is a Faun from the fey realm, zapped here when her parents were killed later adopted by a old woman who was barren. Will start as a rogue, urchin background. I haven't worked out how far into rogue but 2nd lvl will be Barbarian then will go to the wild magic. It works well with this theme. She's going to be like a Conan Thief with comedy. She's going to be an expert in Intimidation. And probably not too good with the theives tools but sneaky.
Input welcome
Thanks so much! I'm glad you like them! I'm definitely planning to do more when the next iteration of D&D drops!
And, honestly, it works out that you haven't played too far with the barbarian because I do find it plays best in tiers 1 and 2! In particular, the Faun barbarian and rogue multiclass sounds like a lot of fun too!
Hey Alex, any chance you could make a video about all the Totem Warrior animal abilities at level 3, 6 and 14? You might get a very nice video out of it!!
Hmmmm I might do something like that eventually but it's definitely lower on the "totem pole" since it revolves around one specific subclass and 5e will be changing over pretty soon.
Just in time for me to make a new character!!! I missed these!!!
Haha Happy to oblige! This is the last one in the core series but I may do blood hunter as well if enough people want that!
Hey Alex, quick question about the Tough feat!! I understand that you get 2 HP per level earned. After that, when you roll your hit die, you add your Con mod AND the extra 2 HP, right?
That’s effectively correct! The feat scales with you!
Thanks brother man!! Just double checking!!
@@deantitus9734 happy to help!!
Hey Alex, now I've got a question about the Resilient feat. Is it possible to take that feat more than once(example: start with Strength and Dexterity saving throw proficiency, get Con proficiency at level 4. Could I take it again at level 8 for Wisdom proficiency?
I don’t see why not!
Cool!! Good to know!!
Hey Alex, if I'm reading this right, you can still rage even if you miss with your attack rolls, or do you have to actually hit a target for the rage to continue?
That's correct! You just have to attempt the attack!
Cool!! Much obliged for the information!!
@@deantitus9734 absolutely! Happy to help
I’m the only martial in my group, I just had to explain to the casters that they don’t need health potions every time they drop, they take 0 damage I average 30. I tried talking to the but he didn’t listen, so I said this is on “you” and increased my AC through increasing my dexterity and magic items to a point where he can’t touch me in our current campaign. If he wants to mess with me I’ll mess right back
You can't blame the casters for feeling squishy when they are ;). Keep raging and happy adventuring!
Hey Alex, I seriously believe that the Berserker subclass is even worse than the Beast for one simple reason: FRENZY!! Only because of having a forgiving DM(my nephew) did I not get killed off by bad guys only because he never enforced the exhaustion rules!! I'll NEVER play a Berserker ever again!! If given the choice, I'd rather play either a Totem Warrior or a Zealot!!
I’d be fine with the exhaustion penalty if Frenzy didn’t replace rage and was instead like a power up you could use selectively.
It actually is an option. You don’t have to frenzy when you rage!
That said, I do agree that the exhaustion from frenzy is pretty brutal without enough upside to really and truly warrant it. It’s a workable subclass but far from my favorite.
@@ConstructedChaos is it? I’m gonna have to go back and read the description for frenzy, the way I remember it you get a point of exhaustion even if you don’t use frenzy’s extra attack.
Yeah frenzy's just an extra thing you can do on top of rage
Though I personally give the berserker altered exhaustion rules, and also makes some of the abilities more play on exhaustion - I would link a homebrewery page butyt likes being dumb
Bugbear Path of the Giant Barbarian with a polearm 🤔
Hehehe taking advantage of your reach I see 😜
12:35 Kalashtar also has resistance to psychic damage. I have a Kalashtar Barbarian concept character ready to go, but I want to take path of wild magic for flavor rather than path of totem warrior for brokenness.
You're absolutely right and I forget about that often even as a fan of the kalashtar. Wild magic barbarian is a blast! I don't think you'd regret that choice!
I'm kinda surprised that you didn't even bother mentioning that the Half-Orc is as great a race as the others that you mentioned!!
Absolutely they are! Truly there are tons of great races for each class but I usually only mention 4
Barbarians of all flavors really bring the hurt to enemies while taking huge amounts of abuse and still going. In our current game, our Ancestral Guardian Barb tanked a fireball without batting an eye and then proceeded to lay waste to the enemy. He died...twice...but that's actually part of his strategy.
"What is dead may never die"
"He died twice"
"Gods help us all...."
It looks like there is a small issue with heavy armor. You only lose SOME of your features while wearing heavy armor, and if you're a bear totem barbarian, you still get damage resistance to all damage types except psychic while wearing heavy armor.
I mean, you still need proficiency to wear heavy armor. Without it, your strength and dexterity checks are really going to suffer.
I am just putting this out there: all barbarian party.
You know I’m down
5 barbarians vs one puzzle for toddlers
@@ConstructedChaos have a pull door that says push, they'll get past it eventually
@@NarutoHigh160 😂😂😂😂
Go Deep Gnome for the spell resistance. Go multiclass Circle of the Moon druid and Bear Totem barbarian. Rage and wild shape in a prep round, then stand toe-to-toe with ANYTHING with all those resistances and that tanky wild shape HP pool. Get knocked out of wild shape? Keep on swinging and tanking damage... :D
The ultimate meat shield!!
While the campaign disolved cause the DM couldn't keep up a challenge in fear of killing us off, I had a Barbarian that I think was a pretty epic combo.
I had a Tortle Storm Herald Barbarian that was a Shipwright. My DM allowed me to add my Con Mod to my base 17AC, granting him 21 with no shield @LVL5. Though when I rolled his stats, I gave his Dex a 6 cause I found it HILAROUS that his shell is so thick and sturdy, his reflexes were crap cause he's used to having things bouncing off his shell.
Was quite a powerhouse with his Maul and the Lightning Blast every turn. It only grew stronger when I multiclassed him into Artillerist Artificer. Gained range abilities with my Cannon and a few spells to help me survive more. And with Arcane Firearm, I would have my spells in wands so I could still cast as an Action even while I was raging.
Never got to have him all the way up to LVL 20, but I was quite happy with the combo and his battle strategies
What I'm hearing is that you made blastoise in DND haha. No, but seriously, this sounds like a really cool build that I'm sure was really fun to play and RP!
@@ConstructedChaos lol, yeah, you can say that ~. It'd fit better if I went more into Artificer than Barbarian to get my 2nd cannon. Then I TRULY would be Blastoise with a cannon on each shoulder ~.
But yeah, he was fun. Really brought down the heat with his powers and abilities
@@alexlathrop1462 plus Tortles are just the bees knees 😎🐢
@@ConstructedChaos can't deny that ~, Tortles are freaking baller ~!!!
2nd only to Dragonborn cause they my fav
@@alexlathrop1462 Dragonturtleborn maybe? 🧐
Seriously don't get the hate on the Battlerager, you get a bonus action attack that can benefit from rage damage and reckless attack. It's one of the most mobile choices, especially when you can't normally dash (as an action) and then attack, so you can literally fling yourself at your enemies! Later you get the equivalent of Heavy Armor Master when reckless attacking? yes please.
I think I covered my issues with it pretty thoroughly. It just feels like a missed opportunity for something much better rather than a highly restrictive and mechanically suboptimal subclass.
I think a barbarian would be really fun to play, but I’ve noticed I usually play better when I do spellcasters for some reason. I definitely want to do a barbarian though next time I do a martial class!
Absolutely! I love casters but barbarian fills such a unique role in the party. I never have a bad time playing one!
Funny I seem to have the opposite problem. But my Barbarian in baldur's gate 3 kicks asd
Well Our DM hates my Bear barbarian.... we are level 11 now and i did Not drop on 50% HP ever in the campain....and we dort habe a Header in the troope^^
Hahaha yeah bear toten is insanely good!
I have only ever been a barbarian
Honestly, more power to ya! My wife often struggles to get behind playing anything else haha
If you can do it go 16 14 16 10 8 8. That's my advice
Sound advice!
So the barbarian is starting to sound kinda like a shaman.
I don't really think so but maybe I'm missing your point!
Bear totem should absolutely not the the 3rd level ability. Way to overpowered
Haha it’s about as frontloaded as it gets!
I
WOULD LIKE
TO RAAAAAGEEEEE
Hahaha and rage you shall!!
You beat me to it...
I
Would like
to
WAAAAAATCH!!
Tldr, pick any other class if you want to have fun not great tanks, okay dmg, no real utility for team play.
Barbarians are not broken they suck literally math for dps, utility for the party, access to story elements and flavor. Not only that but the suck gets worse as your progress through the levels at 20 other classes become gods and access to reality bending powers. You get slight dps boost or live longer boots and you don't even get the best version of those boosts of all the classes. I wish this was not true but pushing a barb to its limits and you have an okay pc push anything else to its limits ( maybe not monk sorry guys) and you have a literal godthat doesn't even need a party. .
Don’t forget that combat is not just DPS and that D&D is also not just combat 😜
The barbarian is a huge damage sponge that gets constant advantage and is extremely important to have in order to properly protect squishy casters in the early game-where most D&D is played anyway.
'Promo SM'
?
Why would you hype up the ribbon feature that can at worst turn into a huge trap for players: unarmored defense.
To reach 18 AC at level one you need to use a shield and have 16 Dex and 16 Con. With regular point buy that probably means you'll be leaving your Str at 15, and your Int, Wis and Cha will probably be 8, 10, 8. That's hardly worth it when you could just invest 50 gp to buy Scale Mail, only needing 14 Dex to reach that 18 AC, and being free to choose what Con modifier you'd fancy, up to +3. You're also free to pump up your Str unlike with the unarmored build.
Additionally you don't have to feel bad you wasted your starting ability scores when you find that magical medium armor in a dungeon, and when you actually have some Wisdom to resist being Frightened by the dragon you've been inching to fight.
Relying or theorycrafting any build on rolling stats is disingenuous and/or dumb, and should be avoided. Anyone can make whatever godly character they like if their worst roll is a 15, but that is not the expectation.
That's a totally fair assessment but I wouldn't say that I "hyped it up". I simply pointed out what's possible with the feature. To your credit, it might have been a good idea to also mention that putting on some armor later might actually be a decent option.
bruh. go read again how reckless attack work
I've read it plenty of times haha. Where's the error?
He's entirely right on it man - grants you advantage, but also grants enemies advantage against you until your next turn
I think *you* might need to reread