Comment Clarifications 1. I said bards get expertise at level 1, this is not true they get it at level 3. The ranking is not changed because of this, still A tier. 2. Warlocks can’t learn catnap, got confused because a wizard warlock I play has catnapt 3. A lot of rebuttals for the Druids position in this list are usually written from the perspective of “Druid barb good” and I agree! The Druid/barb is god tier. But that’s not what this list is covering. This list covers the barb/Druid which is not as useful IMO. You can oft be better service by other multi classes, or more levels in Barb if you are interested in the extra bulk wildshape provides.
One thing that you failed to mention with the Druid is the wild shape and high hp or as I like to call it Guess I’ll never die. When you wild shape you become normal again after losing all of your hp and still have your base hp. So become a high health creature every time and you cannot die. I think that this is god tier but you could make an A tier case. The C tier was uncalled for. Please know I mean no disrespect.
@@bench5236 I understand where you’re coming from, my issue with the reasoning is that realistically you aren’t going to have enough uses of wild shape to have that infinite HP you are describing. Druid main class is god tier, but as a multiclass you aren’t realistically going to have enough uses of wild shape to take advantage of that. Also consider the fact that you most likely won’t be able to transform into the biggest baddest monsters out there either. But that was my reasoning
Can you go over a hexblade warlock armorer artificer build (you infuse the pact weapon into the armor and it's just so op with improved pact weapon cause wrist mounted crossbows)
Artificer could actually make a good combo if you take the Alchemist Subclass. Alchemists can make potions at the cost of spell slots. Since you can’t cast them anyways, you could just spend them all on potions to use later while raging. Now you can have the ability to heal, fly, increase speed, increase AC, and Guidance on all your attacks. And these effects aren’t even limited to you, as you couple still give the potions for someone else to use.
Argument in favor of Barbarian/Monks: you can call it a Bonk, that alone lifts it to A tier. But yeah you're right they're crap and that still won't stop me from playing my terrible himbo Bonk pugilist lol
Our Barbarian multiclassed into Artificer because his original concept was "nerd rage" so now his 16 Intelligence makes sense. He is such a weird character.
@@mohammadmurie oath of the ancients paladin and storm harold barbarian. He is a tortle and started off as a barbarian so I was sticking with the sea theme but if you plan on mixing the 2 class I'd do a zealot barbarian mixed with a paladin.
@@mohammadmurie it does indeed. Zealot just seems to fit more athletically with paladin considering radiant and gods too (I know paladins dont have to worship gods but it still feels more pleasing)
Honestly this was really simple for me to understand. Even as a relatively new player to DnD. I've only been playing for about 2 years. Maybe a bit more. But I liked it. Thanks for the info and we all watch FOR FIREBALL!!!!
2 years new?? Geez, I've played one game so far and I'm trying to get more into it. I joined in on an ongoing campaign as a lvl 8 barbarian and was wondering if I should level into another class
One thing to note for an artificer barbarian is the Spell storing item feature. The spell storing item allows you to produce the effects of the spell, but you don't have to actually cast a spell. RAW a barbarian could use a spell storing item to produce spell effects even while raging.
Bearbarian Bear is the best. You take half damage whilst raging in your bear form then as that drops you become a barbarians hit pool still taking half damage from everything. Best tank
This is probably the tankiest one. Totem barbarian + moon druid, half damage on almost everything, and you can use your useless spell slots to heal the wild shape. This one is probably the best multiclass choice for a barbarian and by fara.
I usually see barbarian as the multiclass option for other classes. Doing a Rage Mage is a lot of fun. You can do a Celestial Warlock multiclass to heal while raging, and get some of those ever useful invocations like Devil's Sight. Paladin is the same, but you get to smite instead of having invocations. There are some fun options for casting duration spells before raging that make for some interesting builds. Armor of Agathys being one. I'm a Zealot Barbarian Main, so throwing in those self healing options is hilarious because you're literally raging through death and just Rage slap a Band-Aid on it to stabilize yourself.
hex-blade barb is pretty great. get life-drinker and you do way better in terms of damage, in addition to spells like armor of agythys and abilities like hex. is gud, do it
@@charlespedersen5752 fiend is even better. Free temp hp on kills, floating resistance, d10 to patch up poor mental save to not go and kill your own party. And you get fire shield, which is a buff with yet another resistance on top. And the same lifedrinker and smite to boot.
Really glad you put PalBarian as God tier. I'm playing a Barb/Conq Paladin right now and I'm outdamaging everyone while tanking while also bumping everyone's saving throws. It's really fun to play
I think the idea or methodology with this video is that whichever class is the focus (in this case Barb) automatically goes directly in the middle, and then if a multi makes the char better it goes above & if it makes it worse it goes below. He’s not necessarily ranking Barb as a class in general as a B… In fact if you look at his “general class ranking” type video I’m pretty sure he puts Barb as an A, and if I remember correctly he was very close to putting it as God-tier :)
Ok, let's talk about the Bear Totem Barb- Moon Druid combo. You can bonus action rage and then wildshape, enabling you to resist everything but psychic damage, with two wildshape forms giving you a crazy amount of hit points. Your Unarmored defense allows you to use the beasts physical stats which will generally raise your wildshape's AC. I'm playing one right now and am loving it. You're an almost endless pool of HP and perhaps the best tank in the game. Maybe I'm a little biased but I think the Barb Druid is an A.
Ancestral Guardian Barb + War Magic Wizard, 2 level dip gets you concentration free Longstrider and Arcane Deflection. Pretty amazing and lets you take all the 1st level rituals for out of combat usage
I agree with druid being C tier. However moon druid specifically I would rank A or even God tier. You missed the ability to convert spell slots to HP while in wild shape as a moon druid. As we all know giving a barbarian HP is incredibly effective because of their resistance to various damages
The artificer barbarian combo I. Running right now is highly effective but not for damage output which is ok. The reason is it is a damage soaking sponge. Ancestral guardian plus artillerist gives you both a. Bonus action and reaction method for reducing damage being dealt by the enemies. Technically it's temp hp from the artificer side but it works to the same end that the enemies need to do a lot more damage to even harm you or your party members. I absolutely love it.
I’m just waiting for people to coment stuff like “but if you are a monk rage and stuff could boost certain things” and I’m nodding like, yeah, but your a Barbarian mainly, not a monk.
I'm currently playing a STR based Monk with a 2 level dip into Barbarian, and I gotta say... The first levels... SUCKED... XD But now, at level 11, it's really nice, and I can say without a doubt that my character is better than a same level pure Monk or pure Barbarian 💪
Bard is an awesome multiclass. Bardic inspiration and blade flourishes, and cutting words can all be used while raging, and getting expertise for grappling is insane. Jack of all trades is great too. My next character is gonna be a Wild Magic barbarian/College of Swords bard.
I honestly think that artificer would be equal to the bard, not for expertise but for battlefield presence, even while raging. Extra dmg from cannon, extra healing from cannon, steel defender, alchemy potions before encounters for boosts, and the spell casting (with rituals) for outside of combat for identifying building, etc....def A tier if not more. And your other infusions you could use to buff the party...gives a lot more flavor and use to a barb who is typically just an encounter hungry PC
Fun thing. You don't need dex as a rogue. You just need to use a FINESSE weapon to use sneak attack. And as a Barbarian you would likely already have the minimum dex to multiclass. It's definitely a god tier multiclass. And finesse weapons are underrated especially when used in conjunction with defensive duelist. So put two shortswords or a shortsword and shield on your barb and you can sneak attack until the break of dawn.
Or just a rapier and keep a hand free to grapple as you can only sneak attack 1 attack and if the first attack lands you can grapple with your free hand
Wizard is super underrated for the subclass but here me out 1. Blade song , with unarmed defense plus blade song at level 5 you can get your ac at 23 2. With only a two level barbarian you have advantage on all dex saves 3. You have proficiency in con saves so is amazing for holding concentration on spells 4. If you run out of blade songs since the nerf you can rage and then double your hit points as a wizard because of the resistance you get
plus use dragonburn gem to be resistent to psy damage, bear totem cast these spells Disguise Self,False Life,Find Familiar aid,Enlarge/Reduce,Invisibility before striking then rage, Web flying enemies then rage, Mirror Image, Blink, no con,
@@evasimbiottrying to web a flying enemy is really tough since you need at least two solid anchor points and once you start raging, the web goes away immediately. Pretty much a waste of a spell slot.
@@evasimbiot I know that but I also just don't think it's a great use of a 2nd level spell most of the time. It's very niche. Using a big AoE spell to deal maybe 3d6 damage to one creature and get it to land but it'll probably still have the opportunity to get airborne again is pretty mediocre.
@@ArvelDreth tell that to an angry red dragon raining fire from the sky, and your party i 1 fighter, one bearbarian, 1 pala, and a target I mean a mage
If you double multiclass into monk (6levels Kensei) and paladin (2 levels for casting/smite) with 12 levels of bear totem barbarian you could potentially have a resting AC of 22 maxing up to 26 once you cast shield of faith and activate the Kensei +2 AC by using a martial arts attack. Plus all your attacks would count as magic for overcoming resistances. AC could go even higher depending on magic items you have.
Barb X/ Circle of the Moon Druid. Wildshape into a Deinonychus for 4 attacks at advantage. Can be done at level 3 with 1 in barb and 2 in druid, but really takes off at barb 2/druid 2 due to reckless attacks.
I think 4 levels of ranger (gloom stalker) is actually great for barbarian because plant growth is a no-save movement and vision debuff which stacks with difficult terrain effects and that doesn't require concentration. Meanwhile, pass without trace gives the entire party a nearly guaranteed way to sneak up on enemies and you don't need to keep concentration on it once you actually start fighting. So you can get those three attacks off round one, cast plant growth to keep them from getting away or getting to your allies, and then start raging and go ham.
One of my favorite things you can do as a Divine WarBarian Fighter(Paladin 12/Warlock 3/Barbarian 3/Fighter 2)was right before combat was to cast Armor of Agathys (lasts for one hour no concentration) at your highest possible level and then rage. So now enemies take static damage when they hit you with a melee attack as long as you have the temp hit points, which last longer because you’re raging. Works great early game. Add on to that you have hexblades curse and vow of enmity you can use as bonus actions, improved divine smite, bonus to saves based on charisma, advantage on certain saves from danger sense, can heal yourself while raging with lay on hands and second wind, ACTION SURGE and more. It’s my current favorite class combination.
So there is one sorcerer subclass that works really well with barbarian. Clockwork sorcerer, 1st level and 6th level features work amazing and complement the bar being play style. Also, you can always cast a spell before you roll for initiative that has a duration and persist through the rest of the fight. Keeping you or one of the other squishy’s in your party alive while simultaneously getting all the attention away from them to you instead. I’m speaking of the spell enthrall that with aid display style, reckless attack isn’t as reckless when you combine the 1st level feature from the clockwork sub class, Or aiding an ally with saving throw with a disadvantage. I’d say that’s strong.
Rogue barbarian is one of my favorite multiclasses. Reckless attack means unlimited sneak attack. Uncanny dodge combos with rage. Danger sense combos with evasion. It all just makes sense.
a personal favorite turn for me with a multiclass, 6 lvls Barbarian, 6 lvls Wizard, 2 lvls Fighter: Hobgoblin. Teleported (in Rage) to strike an enemy with a great axe (wild soul), power surged him (war magic), canceled Rage as my action surge, and fireballed him to the face as my bonus action (my DM friggin loved it)
Currently rocking a Ancestral Barbarian 8/Devotion Paladin 6 right now: Aura of Protection + Aura of Devotion next level means that your biggest weaknesses (saving throws, Charm spells) as a barbarian are now effectively covered. Also, damage wise, superior to flat barbarian, Reckless Attack increases chances of a crit which grants you the ability to do a brutal Divine Smite critical hit, also Devotion paladins Channel Divinity Sacred Weapon gives you Charisma bonus to attacks for a minute, which really helps out with GWM attack penalty. Overall a really surprising amount of synergy, I plan on riding it out to Ancestral Barbarian 12 / Devotion Paladin 8
Consider: barbarian+tempest cleric Provoke oppies and punish enemies for it. Light cleric? Counteract your reckless Attack. War cleric for getting a 3rd Attack without the penalty of exhaustion. Heal yourself outside of combat, and get extra hp with Aid (which is effectively double with your damage resistance).
Only change to this I'd say is moving the Druid and Ranger up to at least B Tier. Druid cause well, Wildshape and Circle of the Moon are pretty much the "saving grace" for it as it were. There are a number of really strong CR1 and CR2 (At Moon Druid 6) creatures you can wildshape into. For instance, instead of being a Barbarian, you could be... a Bearbarian or wildshape into some other powerful/tanking creature. Also, since wildshaping replaces your physical attributes, you can raise your others instead. Alternatively, some Druid subclasses alter your Wildshape to grant you other abilities instead of changing into a creature. Circle of Spores for example grants you a few Temp HP, adds and extra d6 necrotic damage to your melee attacks and an extra damage die for your Hallow of Spores. Ranger I would say either B or even A Tier for all its Martial features, such as Fighting Styles like Two Weapon Fighting. Take the Dual Wielder Feat and you can be a raging whirlwind with a pair of pair of battleaxes. Could use Favored Foe to mark (even while raging) and deal extra damage. Now is debatable if Favored Foe loses "Concentration" when Raging, but then Raging only says you can't cast spells or "concentrate on them" and Favored Foe is technically not a spell. Plus some of the Ranger subclasses could add even more to the Barbarian, such as the Gloomstalker Dead Ambusher and Umbral Sight, The Monster Slayers Slayer's Prey.
I was considering this, haven't decided yet, but Ancestral Guardian is underrated for being highly versatile. AG Samurai or Battlemaster are great builds
@@buckshott00 facts even though ag barb is still considered as among the top choices for barb subclasses it is the best one for dex build barbarians and yeah those options also work very well with ag barb
@@mohammadmurie Yeah I have thought about making that build. AG makes a Ranged Barb a real possibility. Imagine. Reckless attack with a bow or firearm out of the enemies reach. Your Guardians turn your whole party into mini-bear totem barbs, you wreck up folks in order of threat assessment.
Remember that sneak attack only works on ranged and finesse weapons. This means that sneak attack won't work for things like great weapon and pole arm master. Rogues should dip into barbarian, bu I don't think barbarians should dip into rogue unless you're doing a grapple build and want expertise in that. Cunning action is fine, but you can usually find better things to do with your bonus action. Uncanny dodge is nice, but that's a lot of investment. Warlocks on the other hand are excellent, particularly the hex blade as mentioned. Something you forgot is that the curse makes the crit range increase by 1 which combos nicely with barbarian's brutal crit feature. The proficiency bonus to damage is great. You can use your spell slots on things like armor of Agathys which don't require concentration and therefore don't end with rage. some of the invocations are great. casting false life on yourself is cool, mage armor for free may boost your AC depending on stats, devil's sight is always handy (and could be super good to combo with a party member that has the darkness spell). You always have access to your pact weapon which is sometimes crucial. For just three levels in warlock, you gain a ton of benefits!
I know that spells are not good but I think that an angry bear that never dies is pretty good. Just my opinion, the druid should be A tier. I have played it in a campaign and i just wanted to give some insight. :)
The one real justification I can think of for like a sorcerer is if you’re already a barb/paladin. Faster spell progression offsets the levels you’re spending on barbarian and makes sure you’ve got better smites faster. Barbarian levels offset the sorc levels for HP, probably putting you somewhere in the paladin-equivalent range for health. Something like pal (up to 7), barb (up to 6), sorcerer the rest, I dunno, maybe viable. You’ve got the spells for non-combat use; you’ve got tons of smite slots; it’s probably not the best build out there, but it’s at least an interesting one. Plus, who doesn’t want to play someone with strange unearned powers and anger management issues? They’re a great addition to any party dynamic.
I think a beast/hulk flavored barbarian artificer sounded so fun, and is among my backup characters should I pass in my current campaign. Rockasaurusrex love this series
So I decided to try a variation on one of your builds.... the end result was a monster. Kalashtar. 9 Levels totem barbarian (bear totem of course). 7 levels Swashbuckler rogue. 4 levels Echo Knight Fighter. Alert, Shield Master, Tough, and Piercer feats. Fairly high stats in everything but wisdom and intelligence which both were essentially dump stats. For one shot purposes I got to use a Dragon's Wrath Rapier (Cold Damage) for my legendary item, Manual of Quickness of Action for my very rare, the Pariah's Shield and Mantle of Spell Resistance for rare slot items, Boots of Elven Kind, Gloves of Thievery, and Ring of Water Walking for uncommons, and a few various staples for common items. The end result was a monster neither I nor the DM could actually manage to kill with surprisingly effective damage output. Im weighing the possibility of changing it up by swapping the echo knight subclass to Battle Master (like your build used), using the superior technique fighting style and Martial Adept Feats to have 5 possible maneuvers with 6d6 total superiority dice. the trade off being an additional attack each turn, the extended range for melee attacks provided by the echo, and the teleportation the echo provides, none of which consume a limited resource. it really comes down to those 5 maneuvers and how situational they are given the dice wont increase beyond d6. What are your thoughts on that? as it stands, we have a guy who while raging, takes half damage from all sources, halved again with uncanny dodge and evasion. He has a stupidly high bonus to initiative between alert, rakish audacity, and advantage from the barbarian's feral instinct. His AC can be higher than it has any right to be, thanks to Barbarians Unarmored Defense, the manual boosting my dex stat even further than it should be able to be, and a magic shield that can give up to +5 to AC instead of just +2 (depending on the number of team mates near by). Currently with 3 attacks available per turn (2 with self, 1 from echo) using the rapier which can deal dumb damage with critical hits thanks to piercer and the barbarians brutal crit feature, but even without that it still controls enemies movement with hits and still deals decent damage per hit (1d8 piercing, 3d6 Cold Damage, +3 From Rage, +3 from magic weapon, +6 from High Dex Stat, per hit, assuming my math is correct for level 20. This doesnt include the 4d6 sneak attack damage once per turn either.). Overall I enjoy the build quite a bit and will likely save it for future use in another one shot, though Im always open to improvements.
So, there are a few spells that if you cast before going into rage will remain active these spells are spells which do not require concentration, but also have an active duration allowing them to remain active on the barbarian while raging despite their inability to cast or concentrate on spells. Some of the spells in this list are blink, dark vision, disguise self, false life, feather fall, find familiar, grease, and many many more spells. In other words barbarians can actually have a lot to gain from a few levels into a spell casting class.
Barbarian 5/Rogue 15 is just so wonderfully fun and surprisingly well-synergized. On-demand advantage from Reckless Attack means Sneak Attack basically no matter what, Uncanny Dodge stacks with your damage resistances from Rage to let you completely neuter damage once per round, expertise on Athletics is *disgusting* for a Barbarian who wants to grapple and/or shove people, Fast Movement lets you get more bang for your buck out of Cunning Action, Evasion combines really well with Danger Sense even without proficiency in Dex saves, and the full martial weapon list you get from being a Barbarian gives you weapon options Rogues don't normally get like Scimitars or Whips. Even Wisdom save proficiency as the effective capstone is nothing to sneeze at. Maybe the most fun you'll get out of a pure martial character. Personally, while it probably isn't the best subclass choice from a powergaming standpoint, I feel like Scout Rogue is really thematically cool with Barbarian if you're going for a sort of outdoorsman or wilderness expert (sorry Ranger).
funny thing about barb rogue, not only can you use reckless sneak attack, it only needs a finesse weapon, you don't need to attack with dex, thus you can rage, use 2 shortswords then reckless attack then sneak attack so that's advantage + sneak attack + rage bonus + two sword dual attack + str bonus
Another thing to remember about Warlock is that invocations like maddening hex and swarm of flies while raging, as they are not spells. The best thing (imo) to cast is to upcast Armor of Agathys as high level as you can, ideally before combat. The hit points it gives basically double while raging, and that means it can deal more damage if it doesn't go down on one hit. Undying Servitude allows you to cast Animate Dead once a day, and that doesn't require your concentration. Eldridch Smite is worth a look. If you go all the way to level 10, your hexed target basically gets a 66% miss chance independent of your armor. Makes giving advantage to use reckless attack less painful. Unfortunately it takes 12 levels to get to Lifedrinker, adding charisma bonus to damage rolls. And you may want to attack with strength to get the rage bonus.
I think monk is not a good multiclass for barbarian, but barbarian is a good multiclass for monk if that makes sense. being high level monk benefits a lot from barb’s advantage on dex saves, and you can just go totem bear to be tankier, or zealot to do more damage
Armourer artificer barbarians are a unique build, great grappling(advantage and add intelligence to the check with infusion), heavy armour, and the ability to focus damage onto yourself with the gauntlets. The problem is, of course, being a bit MAD.
It's kind of interesting because a list like this sort of already exists but it's cool having more talking points around it. I am happy that Rogue and Fighter are high up on the list though. Barbarian/Rogue = Take Shield Master, Expertise Athletics, Raging to get advantage on shove. Bonus action to knock enemies prone guaranteed sneak attack. Also, free sneak attack if you go Reckless. Uncanny Dodge halves damage that's already halved from raging. Take 5 levels in Barbarian for the extra attack, go rogue, it's gravy.
Alchemist Artificer can use the non concentration spell slots to grant... +10 movement speed for 1 hour, +1 AC, for 10 minutes, +1d4 to your own attack rolls and saving throws, a different version of +10 movement speed that stacks with the first for 1 hour, a 10ft flight speed isnt great (except for the fact it lasts for 10 minutes), 2d4+int (probably +1 tbh) healing, and also alter self without concentration for 10 minutes, not to mention you could hold onto absorb elements in case you lose out on initiative and it comes up. not saying its better than 3 levels in barbarian but it is still pretty nice
I’m doing a Shifter (Beasthide) Path of the Beast 8 / Circle of the Moon Druid 2. I would rate this combo an “A” honestly. The healing (only made more potent when raging due to resistance), Hit Points, utility. You can tank like…well a BEAST.
@@jamesbaker2092 no actually, it’s fairly consistent…each round demands a different thing from me so rarely do I wanna do two different things with my one bonus action.
@@jamesbaker2092 OK...you only need "full power" for boss fights which give you plenty of time to set all that up (3 rounds). And with this build its not detrimental to not have it all up quickly. (You must also consider the fact that barbs get to rage when there is a surprise round). Most combats dont last more that 3 - 5 rounds... so youre not even going to need "full power" for most fights. Rage and shift do just fine most fights. Wildshape is to soak up a burst in damage taken. I have played this, i have actual experience with it... i promise you...its fine, chill.
I personally have good experience with using a Sorcerer with the Barbarian. Although I designed it as were when not raging to be a little supportive with range. Making were the easy spell access with small amount of spells in use to give advantage, then having range with some to assist players while being the main tank of the group. Besides that, I can see your ranking, but I thought c rank was nicer for it. Also just realized I could get the same thing for the Bard, but that won't work with the solely being a tank with some useful magic at hand thing. If you read this thank you so much, also if you want, tell me maybe the best class for that kind of style I use with the Barbarian. Thanks again smile😊.
For what you’re suggest I would actually maybe consider looking into the battle master fighter as you multiclass! It not only has great damage options but also excellent support options. It also gives you tons of useful tanking abilities. But thank you for your comment, it was a very good case for the Sor/barb 😁
2 levels in barbarian and going the rest monk is actually really good. The other way around is really Bad. However, with monk you now only need dex and con. You no longer need wis. Which is great
So, Barbarian multiclass Warlock has an interesting little trick for raging. Start of combat, before raging cast Armor of Agathys, this is NOT a concentration spell, gives you temp HP and while you have this temp HP you deal cold damage to all enemies that attack you in melee. Immediately after casting AoA, rage for resistance. You have effectively doubled your temp HP and made your cold damage last longer. Additionally, if you have pact of the blade then at warlock 5 you can get eldritch smite for short rest psychic smites. Alternatively, if you go pact of the chain you get an invisible Imp familiar for free Help actions, so you don't have to go reckless, and pick up the Gift of the Ever Living Ones Invocation to make all healing on you be maxed.
Barbarian monk can be done pretty damn well. Take the barbarian beast subclass, giving you d6 claws that allow you to attack 1 extra time, and they count as unarmed strikes. Stack this with monk's martial arts, at level 6 you're attacking 4 times/round, and at level 7 you can add flurry of blows and sometimes attack 5 times/round. 5d6, all with a +7 to hit and +7 damage (assuming you have 18 strength, and are enraged) at level 7 is terrifying. Your AC most likely isn't going to be too high, so reckless attack mathematically won't hurt you too much meaning you should get advantage on all attacks (take tough feat to mitigate this). Sure, you might be able to argue that a pure barbarian is more useful in some situations, but I'm pretty sure this is the highest barbarian mid level dps build.
Warlock invocations can improve any class if your creative enough, keeping in mind that they can be switched out when taking a level means you can tailor them to whatever is happening in the campaign.
BTW if your looking for a balance between the defensive shield using barbarian and the offensive great axe using barbarian using duel wield can be the answer though you would need access to the duel weapon fighting style to really make the most of it. The reason for the balance is that you get access to a bonus action attack as always, and the feats around duel wielding let you get bonus armor class while using two weapons.
Barbarian. artificer with the subclass armorer at level 6. Three of each level you can do some pretty bad ass stuff. You're like the hulk buster. Plus how artificer work you can "cast a spell " before raging and the infusion armor can be a mage armor type so it won't effect the bones to the barbarian's no armor state
My group and I are doing a pirate campaign right now and my character was a level 12 bugbear ancestral barbarian and 8 battle Smith artificer named Kaleid Tarak and he was the captain of our ship named The Brass Monkey. He had a steel defender which I gave the shape of an orangutan named ganbuul. We were hired by an organization called the steel Phoenix mercenary company who gave us a job to help them expand their reach around various locations. The way he was was to essentially work was that you had two things coming at you where one was a giant bugbear wielding a war hammer with a heavy crossbow as backup raging and applying disadvantage to anyone else the opponent would attack, and a medium robotic orangutan also slamming into you with its weight also prepared to use deflect attack. essentially making it so that no matter who you attacked, you were getting disadvantage. I found that spells could be more used in the beginning before raging to apply an effect to your defender. (Varies with dm)
In fairness to Warlock, Sorcerer, and Cleric; at least a few have good first level features that are a worthwhile dip for in combat, and of course a touch of utility spells out of combat. Examples off the top of my head Forge Cleric, give yourself a plus 1 weapon, or more potently Peace Cleric for emboldening bond. d4 added to a bunch of shit for you and scales in uses and teammates effected by proficiency. Clockwork Souls sorc also scales off prof and can negate some of those attacks with adv on you after you reckless. Wild magic allowing for something similar with giving you adv with some fun fun chaos in the mix. and Warlock outside of hexblade has Genie for that extra elemental damage, and Undead giving another prof scaling thing granting temp hp that stretches more as a barbarian with resistances and the ability to frighten foes on hit. Still agreed over all but there are DEF options here.
There are some really useful Eldritch invocations that a Barbarian could use. If you take pact of the chain, Gift of the Ever-Living Ones heals maximum hit points if your familiar is within 100 feet of you. This is fantastic for a tank like the barbarian. If you choose pace of the blade, Eldritch smite let’s you eckend your spell slot to do extra damage, similar to the paladin. You can do this even while raging. If you choose pact of the time, you can ritual cast spells. As you will be primarily using your spells outside of combat, this will be really useful. All in all, a gish warlock/barbarian multiclass wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
I kinda want to try a specific monk/barbarian combo. Path of the Beast Barbarian for the claws and the extra swing when you hit with claws. Gives you 3 attacks plus flurry of blows, all getting the extra rage damage. Counting your claws as a monk weapon means you can then get an extra bonus action attack. 6 swings. All benefit from Reckless Attack for crit-fishing, and all get the extra rage damage if you use your strength stat.
Wizard lvl 3 blade singer shield ,Disguise Self,False Life,Find Familiar aid,Enlarge/Reduce,Invisibility before striking then rage, Web flying enemies then rage, Mirror Image, Blink. + BLADESONG, int to ac+speed plus 10, advantage on acrobatics, etc.... warlocks lvl 5--with invocations+Eldritch Blast against flying enemies (not spells) fly incisivily etc in combat---Beguiling Influence,Devil's Sight,Eldritch Sight,Fiendish Vigor,Gift of the Ever-Living Ones,Improved Pact Weapon,Thief of Five Fates,Cloak of Flies,Eldritch SmiteEldritch SmiteEldritch SmiteEldritch Smite, One with Shadows,Thirsting Blade
I just really quickly want to offer a defence for the wizard/barbarian, and it's very simple... Rage + Bladesong. Rules as written, they work perfectly together. You get to add 3 different modifiers to your AC, get additional movement, and advantage on both strength and dex checks. Just maybe take the tough feat to balance out the stat issues and we're golden
Warlock is S-Tier not because Hex blade (can't use charisma attacks for Barb features), but because fiend. All that Temp HP you're getting per kill, along with your resistances makes you basically unkillable by damage. Also, so many of your good spells can be cast before a combat and last without requiring concentration!
My first campaign was Strahd. I played a barbarian warlock. 9/3 respectively. Our dm homebrewed “choker of infinite rage” or something like that. Basically, you could cast while raging but take a d6 of damage per spell level. It was so nice and I loved it. Granted, we were a 3 person party on a fairly difficult campaign so I get it might be too powerful for other campaigns.
I have a friend that would disagree with D tire for the Monk. He wound up playing as a Barb Monk, wound up being able to do some mad hops and grappling people before slamming them to the ground, and reducing the damage he would normally take thanks to the monk's Slow Fall. Granted he is playing it 50/50 with the class levels if I remember properly, and he is sacrificing ranged combat, but it turned out to be a mad brawler that is really good at getting speeding to the front and beating the crap out of the enemy. Like you said, not the best, but that can't stop you from doing some pretty fun shit with it.
Warlock is good because you have less spell slots so it fits well into Rage because you can use your limited spell slots for buffs then rage. The good combo is Armor of Agathys and Fiend or Efretti Genie Warlocks get Fire Shield for non concentration buffs that damage foes when they hit you, but Rage makes Armot of Agathys last longer.
early level cleric can get those really nice channel divinity options like guided strike or sentinel at death's door, and you can use them while raging
I have a barbarian, artificer, fighter And as confusing as the setup is, most of the levels sre in artificer, this is to allow me to have all the infusions possible, but I can still only infuse 4 items, 6 if I make my armour arcane armour The rage I would use as a defensive ability, since I chose path of the totem warrior, bear, and gave the infusion resistant armour in psychic damage, This is for the full resistance to everything, for a brief period of time, whilst I think of what to do next, On top of this the half orc barb/art/fighter has a total of 45ft movement and technically 55ft if I cast longstrider from the artificers prepared spells, invisibility also works well since it means I can run in hit them and then turn invisible. The character practically supports itself, and allows for more strategy of moving enemies and escaping their grasps whilst activating rage, Bare in mind I also have action surge and 2 attack actions per turn.
Some thoughts on multclassing barbarian with warlock ... None of the warlock subclass abilities are spells, so you're free to charm creatures or teleport (Archfey), "summon" a NO-CONCENTRATION spectre (Hexblade), use your healing pool (Celestial), or summon a tentacle (Fathomless) while raging. I don't know how this channel feels about an even split on levels, but if you choose to go to Great Old One or Fiend warlock 10 with your Bear Totem barbarian, you can be resistant to LITERALLY ALL damage while raging. Armor of Agathys is an idiotically good spell for barbarians. It lasts for an hour without concentration and its temporary hit points are essentially doubled while you're raging. Even better, the barbarian *WANTS* to be up in melee range, so he's going to get a lot more out of the no-save cold damage than your typical single-class warlock. Similarly, some of the PH subclasses have spells that can be cast out of, before, or at the beginning of combat and will either last through the combat or have "instantaneous" (but actually permanent) durations. The Archfey is the real winner here (Sleep, Plant Growth, Seeming), but if you want to play anything besides a bearbarian, Fire Shield from the Fiend list provides both some nice resistances and a damage boost against anything that hits you ... and you're GOING to get hit. Many of the Invocations are either NOT spells or they give you spells you're not going to cast in combat but will help in other areas of play where barbarians are usually weak. Just offhand,. Beguiling Influence, Devil's Sight, Eldritch Sight, Mask of Many Faces, most of the Talisman invocations, Cloak of Flies, and Gift of the Ever-Living Ones all stand out as Invocations a barbarian with a decent CHA might want (you'll note that some of these require Pacts other than Blade; that's OK, that pact by itself doesn't actually do much for a barbarian). Finally, we should note that if we're multiclassing barbarian, *WE'RE GOING TO RUN OUT OF RAGES EVENTUALLY.* Only level 20 barbarians get unlimited rages. So we should probably grab a few fight-winning spells ... or summons ... or both ... for when that inevitably happens.
the monk opinion is a weird one. You get a free bonus action attack at level 1, second level you get 10 movement speed and the class lets you bump it to two and do other things with your bonus action (barbarians only rage as a bonus action, so once you rage, you don't have any bonus actions to do a lot of the time). Then third level really does a lot since almost every subclass will give you either better combat options or utility. I'd put druid in B tier though. I'd say that yeah, moon druid is the only thing you'd really take, but keep in mind monk again; Take 1 level of monk and 4 levels of moon druid with everything else in Barbarian, and you're now a giant octopus that slaps people 3 times a round. basically all features here effect your wild shape, including a bear totem's resistance.
Beast Master/Ranger + Barbarian + Mounted Combatant = Advantage on all melee attacks smaller than your mount. Horse = Large size Result = Advantage on all attack rolls. Also if you lose your mount you can use the new tashas features to summon one.
Artificer, a half caster that give non spell options for spell slots and other rage synergistic bonuses from its class like magic items, extra skills and tools and double proficiency to all tiols at lvl 6(including thieves tools): B tier, has magic that it can't use Bard: a full caster that has a few subclasses and one class feature that are compatible, and gets expertise in 2 skills at lvl 3: A tier, has some subclass features that are good. The artificer in me is salty, so I'll be over here raging with a flamethrower and half cover for free
A Moon Druid/Bear Totem Barbarian is probably one of the best tanks going, but it does mean being higher levelled on the druid side. Being able to wildshape into a CR 5 creature and then rage to take half damage... Also you get to use your unarmed defence to potentially increase the AC of the wildshape, altho it won't help that much. Also you're not really losing out on your spellcasting from rage, since you're losing out on the spellcasting from wildshape anyways. It takes a level 18 druid to be able to cast while in wildshape. You could drop the Bear Totem and just get normal rage+wildshape to end out with the CR6 wildshape which can cast when not raging with druid 18/barbarian 2.
And that is why it is a c you spent most of your levels in druid not in barb so it does not qualify for this tier list as you think as this tier list is about majority of your levels are in barb with a few levels dip into another so a moon druid really doesn't do much for you
Okay. I agree with you. Let's be clear on that. However. I have played a character with a class you had in d as primary, and it did massive damage when needed. Course only had 1 level out of 6 in barbarian when campaign ended, but was nasty. Was primary a divine soul sorcerer. Spell casting when in range, but almost always still ended up in melee. When raging, was doing more damage then the monk and fighter characters , combined. So when you get around to doing that, consider that divine soul with the unarmored defense is insane enough. But you can also step in and kick ass when needed because of that.
The warlock is very good as a couple of points dipped because many of its low level class features are very strong and you only get TWO spells until 11 anyway. eldritch invocations are incredibly strong. IMO warlock dip is probably the most versatile BEFORE considering subclass. most eldritch invocations only require a total level not a warlock level meaning a two point dip with 15 or more levels means a barbarian with infinite invisibility uses.
The first thought that came to mind when I heard barbarian/wizard is Dr. Jakle and mister hide. Though, the artificer alchemist is probably a better choice still.
I think it is important to remember that reckless attack only gives advantage to one melee attack. So no reaction sneak attacks. Also, you can't sneak attack unless you use a ranged or finesse weapon. So you are limited to a 1d6? 1d8? So your brutal critical adds 1d8 instead of the 1d12 you get with great axe.
Reckless Attack Starting at 2nd Level, you can throw aside all concern for Defense to Attack with fierce desperation. When you make your first Attack on Your Turn, you can decide to Attack recklessly. Doing so gives you advantage on melee weapon Attack rolls using Strength during this turn, but Attack rolls against you have advantage until your next turn. It gives you advantage for the whole turn
Druids can be good for a more Tanky build because rage transfers over to wildshape so you take moon Druid for better wild shapes go rage then wildshape next turn and you have another health bar with effectively twice the normal hp with bear totem barbarian
i mean, you can still make use of spellcasting as a bard-barian by just being the utility spellcaster of the group. and really where barbarians fall short is outside of combat, so having your other class be bard i think should still be S tier given that it directly fills in the weakness of the barbarian solo class
You need a finesse or ranged weapon to sneak attack, so the heaviest hitting weapon you would be able to use with the barb/rogue is a rapier. And you wouldn't get fighting style for the +2 damage. But at least you could use a shield.
Honestly danger sense plus the rogues evasion is just silly. Cartwheeling through fireballs with nothing but my loin clothe and my sweet abs to protect me.
Barb warlock with fiend pact is good. Every time you get a kill you get temp hp. Armor of agathys with rage is great. And you can get eldritch smite as well. Probably works better as lock main but still not bad
I agree with Wizard but I was puzzled to the reason why, which I was assuming would be the existance of Bladesinger subclass, but the "useful spells" argument would seem to surely put in on par with Sorcerer? Since you said "you'll always have something to get you out of a situation" but you... won't. You simply won't! You'll usually be raging in a situation you need to get out of, and when that's the case, you won't be able to use them! So it's right on back to the decision between wasting the rage to then use a spell, or behaving like you basically don't have the spell. To me, Sorcerer is a better choice as a base simply due to the triple-class potential of adding two levels of Paladin to then-max-out those slots... and that being significantly less attribute-heavy than the wizard choice. But I'd still put them both in D if it wasn't for Bladesinger which could bump Wizard up to C. Bard seemed oddly high for the mere reason of expertise. It shares the exact same problem as all the other full casters you put in C and D. With Swords or Valor you have some added combat tools but not that many especially since Extra Attack won't stack (another reason why the Rogue multi is so good btw - unlike with most martials, no wasted doubling up). I really don't see why Bard is ranked so very much higher. Solidly C tier in this list, imo. I'd very easily put a Druid dip above it. You did also talk about a Hexblade Warlock's feature to attack with charisma as a positive. It *usually* is, but it specifically isn't when you're raging, as charisma-based attacks don't grab the bonuses strength-based attacks will - Barbarian's about the only multiclass combination that'd make you not want that feature. Don't think that's enough to knock down the ranking or anything, but thought it worth a mention.
Comment Clarifications
1. I said bards get expertise at level 1, this is not true they get it at level 3. The ranking is not changed because of this, still A tier.
2. Warlocks can’t learn catnap, got confused because a wizard warlock I play has catnapt
3. A lot of rebuttals for the Druids position in this list are usually written from the perspective of “Druid barb good” and I agree! The Druid/barb is god tier. But that’s not what this list is covering. This list covers the barb/Druid which is not as useful IMO. You can oft be better service by other multi classes, or more levels in Barb if you are interested in the extra bulk wildshape provides.
One thing that you failed to mention with the Druid is the wild shape and high hp or as I like to call it Guess I’ll never die. When you wild shape you become normal again after losing all of your hp and still have your base hp. So become a high health creature every time and you cannot die. I think that this is god tier but you could make an A tier case. The C tier was uncalled for. Please know I mean no disrespect.
@@bench5236 I understand where you’re coming from, my issue with the reasoning is that realistically you aren’t going to have enough uses of wild shape to have that infinite HP you are describing. Druid main class is god tier, but as a multiclass you aren’t realistically going to have enough uses of wild shape to take advantage of that. Also consider the fact that you most likely won’t be able to transform into the biggest baddest monsters out there either. But that was my reasoning
Can you go over a hexblade warlock armorer artificer build (you infuse the pact weapon into the armor and it's just so op with improved pact weapon cause wrist mounted crossbows)
@@OffbeatOutlaw I see your point but I think it might work. But I don’t want to argue but just offer an alternate point of view.
@@bench5236 fair enough, respect your opinion too homie 😎
Artificer could actually make a good combo if you take the Alchemist Subclass. Alchemists can make potions at the cost of spell slots. Since you can’t cast them anyways, you could just spend them all on potions to use later while raging. Now you can have the ability to heal, fly, increase speed, increase AC, and Guidance on all your attacks. And these effects aren’t even limited to you, as you couple still give the potions for someone else to use.
Plus, flavor-wise, your Rage could be explained as giving yourself roid rage, Bane style.
Argument in favor of Barbarian/Monks: you can call it a Bonk, that alone lifts it to A tier.
But yeah you're right they're crap and that still won't stop me from playing my terrible himbo Bonk pugilist lol
People usually call them Wolverinesque
Artificer: Toolbreaker
Bard: Skald
Cleric: Spiritspeaker
Druid: Shaman
Fighter: Warrior
Ranger: Hunter
Rogue: Brute
Sorcerer: Bloodrager
Warlock: Soothsayer
Wizard: Sage
Palladin: Zealot / Fanatic
@@hoimamin3321 ... That’s the zealot barbarian. A paladin/barbarian is “The Crusader”
Bloodrager is actually a real thing in pathfinder. Not really sure what they but they just seem like a worst barbarian imo
Monk?
@@X_Dot04 the guy that takes martial arts lessons because of anger management issues
Barbarian using a finesse weapon sounds gross, but it’s actually big pp energy.
I cant get over the conceptual hurdle, I like my barbs with big axes and GWM
Also you can still use a shield with your unarmored defense and finesse weapons are all one handed
Rapiers and soul knifes ftw.
Just imagine a fierce looking man coming at your direction with notting more than a knife in one hand
@@paulovictor4018 street gang vibes / mobster muscle vibes
Our Barbarian multiclassed into Artificer because his original concept was "nerd rage" so now his 16 Intelligence makes sense.
He is such a weird character.
Love it
As a barbarian 7 and paladin 11. I can confirm barb/pal is indeed at least God tier.
What are the subclasses
@@mohammadmurie oath of the ancients paladin and storm harold barbarian. He is a tortle and started off as a barbarian so I was sticking with the sea theme but if you plan on mixing the 2 class I'd do a zealot barbarian mixed with a paladin.
@@Djh_2002 nice I also heard ancestral guardian also works with tank builds
@@mohammadmurie it does indeed. Zealot just seems to fit more athletically with paladin considering radiant and gods too (I know paladins dont have to worship gods but it still feels more pleasing)
@@Djh_2002 yeah I get that as that was my first thoughts too just trying to maybe give you another poternrtal build idea
Outlaw: "However... Yes?"
The ad that played immediately after: "Knock knock!"
Same lol
Honestly this was really simple for me to understand. Even as a relatively new player to DnD. I've only been playing for about 2 years. Maybe a bit more. But I liked it. Thanks for the info and we all watch FOR FIREBALL!!!!
Awesome! Glad it was easy to understand 😁
FOR THE FIREBALL AND OUR GOD DAMN BEACH EPISODE
2 years is NOT new lol
2 years new?? Geez, I've played one game so far and I'm trying to get more into it. I joined in on an ongoing campaign as a lvl 8 barbarian and was wondering if I should level into another class
@@bradenbowden5683 What subclass?
Completely unrelated, but nice Mustache!
Twirls moustache: Yes, Yes! It’s MaGNiFicENT MWAHAHAHAHA
One thing to note for an artificer barbarian is the Spell storing item feature. The spell storing item allows you to produce the effects of the spell, but you don't have to actually cast a spell. RAW a barbarian could use a spell storing item to produce spell effects even while raging.
Ok, but let’s talk about that GLORIOUS HAIR ON YOUR FACE
He looks like a dashing rogue
Lookin' like a regular Guy Fawkes over here!
I really gotta disagree with the Druid being a C class, the Totem warrior Moon druid is insane makes you a god teir tank
couldn't agree more
Bearbarian Bear is the best. You take half damage whilst raging in your bear form then as that drops you become a barbarians hit pool still taking half damage from everything. Best tank
This was not a subclas combo one though. It was overall. There are two Druid subclasses that multiclass well with one barbsubclass.
That build is better as a Druid barbarian not a barbarian Druid.
This is probably the tankiest one. Totem barbarian + moon druid, half damage on almost everything, and you can use your useless spell slots to heal the wild shape. This one is probably the best multiclass choice for a barbarian and by fara.
I usually see barbarian as the multiclass option for other classes. Doing a Rage Mage is a lot of fun. You can do a Celestial Warlock multiclass to heal while raging, and get some of those ever useful invocations like Devil's Sight. Paladin is the same, but you get to smite instead of having invocations. There are some fun options for casting duration spells before raging that make for some interesting builds. Armor of Agathys being one. I'm a Zealot Barbarian Main, so throwing in those self healing options is hilarious because you're literally raging through death and just Rage slap a Band-Aid on it to stabilize yourself.
hex-blade barb is pretty great. get life-drinker and you do way better in terms of damage, in addition to spells like armor of agythys and abilities like hex. is gud, do it
@@charlespedersen5752 fiend is even better. Free temp hp on kills, floating resistance, d10 to patch up poor mental save to not go and kill your own party. And you get fire shield, which is a buff with yet another resistance on top.
And the same lifedrinker and smite to boot.
Really glad you put PalBarian as God tier. I'm playing a Barb/Conq Paladin right now and I'm outdamaging everyone while tanking while also bumping everyone's saving throws. It's really fun to play
Hey, I'd say pure barb deserves an A at least. It's a really good class on its own, it deserves some love :(
I think the idea or methodology with this video is that whichever class is the focus (in this case Barb) automatically goes directly in the middle, and then if a multi makes the char better it goes above & if it makes it worse it goes below. He’s not necessarily ranking Barb as a class in general as a B… In fact if you look at his “general class ranking” type video I’m pretty sure he puts Barb as an A, and if I remember correctly he was very close to putting it as God-tier :)
Ok, let's talk about the Bear Totem Barb- Moon Druid combo. You can bonus action rage and then wildshape, enabling you to resist everything but psychic damage, with two wildshape forms giving you a crazy amount of hit points. Your Unarmored defense allows you to use the beasts physical stats which will generally raise your wildshape's AC. I'm playing one right now and am loving it. You're an almost endless pool of HP and perhaps the best tank in the game. Maybe I'm a little biased but I think the Barb Druid is an A.
Me: *Thinks about a barbarian/paladin/warlock* That's one hell of a SMITE!
My face when I got a heart. :O
Stack an Eldritch Smite on top of that and we are cooking with fire, ladies and gents!
Too bad that if you take hexblade, replacing strength with charisma is probably worse as you lose out on the rage damage
@@maxdixonman and reckless attack too
Wait....how do you worship God but the devil is your sugar daddy?
When you realize Offbeat has that Tony stark mustache going on
Ancestral Guardian Barb + War Magic Wizard, 2 level dip gets you concentration free Longstrider and Arcane Deflection. Pretty amazing and lets you take all the 1st level rituals for out of combat usage
Ancestral guardian barbarian with Necromancer Wizard is a decent multiclass. Just use your spell slots for creating undead and tank for your undead.
Yes. You can fling out bardic inspiration while raging. So feel free to flavor that how you want it.
Scream at them to do and be better
Heavy metal has inspired you
Drill Sargeant barbarian
I agree with druid being C tier. However moon druid specifically I would rank A or even God tier. You missed the ability to convert spell slots to HP while in wild shape as a moon druid. As we all know giving a barbarian HP is incredibly effective because of their resistance to various damages
The artificer barbarian combo I. Running right now is highly effective but not for damage output which is ok. The reason is it is a damage soaking sponge. Ancestral guardian plus artillerist gives you both a. Bonus action and reaction method for reducing damage being dealt by the enemies. Technically it's temp hp from the artificer side but it works to the same end that the enemies need to do a lot more damage to even harm you or your party members. I absolutely love it.
And then you get half cover :)
I’m just waiting for people to coment stuff like “but if you are a monk rage and stuff could boost certain things” and I’m nodding like, yeah, but your a Barbarian mainly, not a monk.
Already getting a few about Druid lol
I'm currently playing a STR based Monk with a 2 level dip into Barbarian, and I gotta say... The first levels... SUCKED... XD
But now, at level 11, it's really nice, and I can say without a doubt that my character is better than a same level pure Monk or pure Barbarian 💪
Bard is an awesome multiclass. Bardic inspiration and blade flourishes, and cutting words can all be used while raging, and getting expertise for grappling is insane. Jack of all trades is great too.
My next character is gonna be a Wild Magic barbarian/College of Swords bard.
I honestly think that artificer would be equal to the bard, not for expertise but for battlefield presence, even while raging. Extra dmg from cannon, extra healing from cannon, steel defender, alchemy potions before encounters for boosts, and the spell casting (with rituals) for outside of combat for identifying building, etc....def A tier if not more. And your other infusions you could use to buff the party...gives a lot more flavor and use to a barb who is typically just an encounter hungry PC
Fun thing. You don't need dex as a rogue. You just need to use a FINESSE weapon to use sneak attack. And as a Barbarian you would likely already have the minimum dex to multiclass. It's definitely a god tier multiclass. And finesse weapons are underrated especially when used in conjunction with defensive duelist. So put two shortswords or a shortsword and shield on your barb and you can sneak attack until the break of dawn.
Or just a rapier and keep a hand free to grapple as you can only sneak attack 1 attack and if the first attack lands you can grapple with your free hand
With an invocation you can smite with warlock spells, and a hexblade can crit on a 19. They also get spell slots back on short rest so more smites.
Wizard is super underrated for the subclass but here me out
1. Blade song , with unarmed defense plus blade song at level 5 you can get your ac at 23
2. With only a two level barbarian you have advantage on all dex saves
3. You have proficiency in con saves so is amazing for holding concentration on spells
4. If you run out of blade songs since the nerf you can rage and then double your hit points as a wizard because of the resistance you get
plus use dragonburn gem to be resistent to psy damage, bear totem cast these spells Disguise Self,False Life,Find Familiar aid,Enlarge/Reduce,Invisibility before striking then rage, Web flying enemies then rage, Mirror Image, Blink, no con,
@@evasimbiottrying to web a flying enemy is really tough since you need at least two solid anchor points and once you start raging, the web goes away immediately. Pretty much a waste of a spell slot.
@@ArvelDreth a non magical flying enemy will be restrain and fall (full damage) even if the web last just one round
@@evasimbiot I know that but I also just don't think it's a great use of a 2nd level spell most of the time. It's very niche. Using a big AoE spell to deal maybe 3d6 damage to one creature and get it to land but it'll probably still have the opportunity to get airborne again is pretty mediocre.
@@ArvelDreth tell that to an angry red dragon raining fire from the sky, and your party i 1 fighter, one bearbarian, 1 pala, and a target I mean a mage
Moon Druid is like Hex Blade when coupled with Barb. Raging and Wild Shape! It is the one Druid subclass that really works.
In combat use rage when not combat bard up. S tier the BARDbarian
If you double multiclass into monk (6levels Kensei) and paladin (2 levels for casting/smite) with 12 levels of bear totem barbarian you could potentially have a resting AC of 22 maxing up to 26 once you cast shield of faith and activate the Kensei +2 AC by using a martial arts attack. Plus all your attacks would count as magic for overcoming resistances. AC could go even higher depending on magic items you have.
Barb X/ Circle of the Moon Druid. Wildshape into a Deinonychus for 4 attacks at advantage. Can be done at level 3 with 1 in barb and 2 in druid, but really takes off at barb 2/druid 2 due to reckless attacks.
For context just saw this and decided to put in what I saw as useful.
I think 4 levels of ranger (gloom stalker) is actually great for barbarian because plant growth is a no-save movement and vision debuff which stacks with difficult terrain effects and that doesn't require concentration. Meanwhile, pass without trace gives the entire party a nearly guaranteed way to sneak up on enemies and you don't need to keep concentration on it once you actually start fighting. So you can get those three attacks off round one, cast plant growth to keep them from getting away or getting to your allies, and then start raging and go ham.
One of my favorite things you can do as a Divine WarBarian Fighter(Paladin 12/Warlock 3/Barbarian 3/Fighter 2)was right before combat was to cast Armor of Agathys (lasts for one hour no concentration) at your highest possible level and then rage. So now enemies take static damage when they hit you with a melee attack as long as you have the temp hit points, which last longer because you’re raging. Works great early game. Add on to that you have hexblades curse and vow of enmity you can use as bonus actions, improved divine smite, bonus to saves based on charisma, advantage on certain saves from danger sense, can heal yourself while raging with lay on hands and second wind, ACTION SURGE and more. It’s my current favorite class combination.
So there is one sorcerer subclass that works really well with barbarian.
Clockwork sorcerer, 1st level and 6th level features work amazing and complement the bar being play style.
Also, you can always cast a spell before you roll for initiative that has a duration and persist through the rest of the fight. Keeping you or one of the other squishy’s in your party alive while simultaneously getting all the attention away from them to you instead. I’m speaking of the spell enthrall that with aid display style, reckless attack isn’t as reckless when you combine the 1st level feature from the clockwork sub class,
Or aiding an ally with saving throw with a disadvantage. I’d say that’s strong.
Rogue barbarian is one of my favorite multiclasses. Reckless attack means unlimited sneak attack. Uncanny dodge combos with rage. Danger sense combos with evasion. It all just makes sense.
Expertise in athletics also makes you a great grappler
@@ArvelDrethTrue. I've utilized this in some grappling builds I've done
a personal favorite turn for me with a multiclass, 6 lvls Barbarian, 6 lvls Wizard, 2 lvls Fighter: Hobgoblin. Teleported (in Rage) to strike an enemy with a great axe (wild soul), power surged him (war magic), canceled Rage as my action surge, and fireballed him to the face as my bonus action (my DM friggin loved it)
Currently rocking a Ancestral Barbarian 8/Devotion Paladin 6 right now: Aura of Protection + Aura of Devotion next level means that your biggest weaknesses (saving throws, Charm spells) as a barbarian are now effectively covered.
Also, damage wise, superior to flat barbarian, Reckless Attack increases chances of a crit which grants you the ability to do a brutal Divine Smite critical hit, also Devotion paladins Channel Divinity Sacred Weapon gives you Charisma bonus to attacks for a minute, which really helps out with GWM attack penalty.
Overall a really surprising amount of synergy, I plan on riding it out to Ancestral Barbarian 12 / Devotion Paladin 8
Consider: barbarian+tempest cleric
Provoke oppies and punish enemies for it.
Light cleric? Counteract your reckless Attack.
War cleric for getting a 3rd Attack without the penalty of exhaustion.
Heal yourself outside of combat, and get extra hp with Aid (which is effectively double with your damage resistance).
Pact of the blade warlock can also smite, and just use your spell slots for that if you take the invocation. Great vid, BTW.
Only change to this I'd say is moving the Druid and Ranger up to at least B Tier.
Druid cause well, Wildshape and Circle of the Moon are pretty much the "saving grace" for it as it were. There are a number of really strong CR1 and CR2 (At Moon Druid 6) creatures you can wildshape into. For instance, instead of being a Barbarian, you could be... a Bearbarian or wildshape into some other powerful/tanking creature. Also, since wildshaping replaces your physical attributes, you can raise your others instead. Alternatively, some Druid subclasses alter your Wildshape to grant you other abilities instead of changing into a creature. Circle of Spores for example grants you a few Temp HP, adds and extra d6 necrotic damage to your melee attacks and an extra damage die for your Hallow of Spores.
Ranger I would say either B or even A Tier for all its Martial features, such as Fighting Styles like Two Weapon Fighting. Take the Dual Wielder Feat and you can be a raging whirlwind with a pair of pair of battleaxes. Could use Favored Foe to mark (even while raging) and deal extra damage. Now is debatable if Favored Foe loses "Concentration" when Raging, but then Raging only says you can't cast spells or "concentrate on them" and Favored Foe is technically not a spell. Plus some of the Ranger subclasses could add even more to the Barbarian, such as the Gloomstalker Dead Ambusher and Umbral Sight, The Monster Slayers Slayer's Prey.
For the fighter mutliclass I recommend the echo knight with the ancestral guardian barbarian for a great tank build
I was considering this, haven't decided yet, but Ancestral Guardian is underrated for being highly versatile.
AG Samurai or Battlemaster are great builds
@@buckshott00 facts even though ag barb is still considered as among the top choices for barb subclasses it is the best one for dex build barbarians and yeah those options also work very well with ag barb
@@mohammadmurie Yeah I have thought about making that build. AG makes a Ranged Barb a real possibility. Imagine. Reckless attack with a bow or firearm out of the enemies reach. Your Guardians turn your whole party into mini-bear totem barbs, you wreck up folks in order of threat assessment.
@@buckshott00 exactly it is so good
Remember that sneak attack only works on ranged and finesse weapons. This means that sneak attack won't work for things like great weapon and pole arm master. Rogues should dip into barbarian, bu I don't think barbarians should dip into rogue unless you're doing a grapple build and want expertise in that. Cunning action is fine, but you can usually find better things to do with your bonus action. Uncanny dodge is nice, but that's a lot of investment.
Warlocks on the other hand are excellent, particularly the hex blade as mentioned. Something you forgot is that the curse makes the crit range increase by 1 which combos nicely with barbarian's brutal crit feature. The proficiency bonus to damage is great. You can use your spell slots on things like armor of Agathys which don't require concentration and therefore don't end with rage. some of the invocations are great. casting false life on yourself is cool, mage armor for free may boost your AC depending on stats, devil's sight is always handy (and could be super good to combo with a party member that has the darkness spell). You always have access to your pact weapon which is sometimes crucial. For just three levels in warlock, you gain a ton of benefits!
I know that spells are not good but I think that an angry bear that never dies is pretty good. Just my opinion, the druid should be A tier. I have played it in a campaign and i just wanted to give some insight. :)
I think a moon Druid specifically. I think for barbarian Druid is a B multiclass but for a moon Druid barbarian is an A or higher multiclass.
The one real justification I can think of for like a sorcerer is if you’re already a barb/paladin. Faster spell progression offsets the levels you’re spending on barbarian and makes sure you’ve got better smites faster. Barbarian levels offset the sorc levels for HP, probably putting you somewhere in the paladin-equivalent range for health. Something like pal (up to 7), barb (up to 6), sorcerer the rest, I dunno, maybe viable. You’ve got the spells for non-combat use; you’ve got tons of smite slots; it’s probably not the best build out there, but it’s at least an interesting one.
Plus, who doesn’t want to play someone with strange unearned powers and anger management issues? They’re a great addition to any party dynamic.
I think a beast/hulk flavored barbarian artificer sounded so fun, and is among my backup characters should I pass in my current campaign. Rockasaurusrex love this series
So I decided to try a variation on one of your builds.... the end result was a monster. Kalashtar. 9 Levels totem barbarian (bear totem of course). 7 levels Swashbuckler rogue. 4 levels Echo Knight Fighter. Alert, Shield Master, Tough, and Piercer feats. Fairly high stats in everything but wisdom and intelligence which both were essentially dump stats. For one shot purposes I got to use a Dragon's Wrath Rapier (Cold Damage) for my legendary item, Manual of Quickness of Action for my very rare, the Pariah's Shield and Mantle of Spell Resistance for rare slot items, Boots of Elven Kind, Gloves of Thievery, and Ring of Water Walking for uncommons, and a few various staples for common items. The end result was a monster neither I nor the DM could actually manage to kill with surprisingly effective damage output. Im weighing the possibility of changing it up by swapping the echo knight subclass to Battle Master (like your build used), using the superior technique fighting style and Martial Adept Feats to have 5 possible maneuvers with 6d6 total superiority dice. the trade off being an additional attack each turn, the extended range for melee attacks provided by the echo, and the teleportation the echo provides, none of which consume a limited resource. it really comes down to those 5 maneuvers and how situational they are given the dice wont increase beyond d6. What are your thoughts on that? as it stands, we have a guy who while raging, takes half damage from all sources, halved again with uncanny dodge and evasion. He has a stupidly high bonus to initiative between alert, rakish audacity, and advantage from the barbarian's feral instinct. His AC can be higher than it has any right to be, thanks to Barbarians Unarmored Defense, the manual boosting my dex stat even further than it should be able to be, and a magic shield that can give up to +5 to AC instead of just +2 (depending on the number of team mates near by). Currently with 3 attacks available per turn (2 with self, 1 from echo) using the rapier which can deal dumb damage with critical hits thanks to piercer and the barbarians brutal crit feature, but even without that it still controls enemies movement with hits and still deals decent damage per hit (1d8 piercing, 3d6 Cold Damage, +3 From Rage, +3 from magic weapon, +6 from High Dex Stat, per hit, assuming my math is correct for level 20. This doesnt include the 4d6 sneak attack damage once per turn either.). Overall I enjoy the build quite a bit and will likely save it for future use in another one shot, though Im always open to improvements.
So, there are a few spells that if you cast before going into rage will remain active these spells are spells which do not require concentration, but also have an active duration allowing them to remain active on the barbarian while raging despite their inability to cast or concentrate on spells. Some of the spells in this list are blink, dark vision, disguise self, false life, feather fall, find familiar, grease, and many many more spells. In other words barbarians can actually have a lot to gain from a few levels into a spell casting class.
If you have a fun DM who'll let you bend the rules a lot you could even have your find familiar cast touch based spells in your stead.
Oh shit, it’s the bowler hat guy’s cousin!
Barbarian 5/Rogue 15 is just so wonderfully fun and surprisingly well-synergized. On-demand advantage from Reckless Attack means Sneak Attack basically no matter what, Uncanny Dodge stacks with your damage resistances from Rage to let you completely neuter damage once per round, expertise on Athletics is *disgusting* for a Barbarian who wants to grapple and/or shove people, Fast Movement lets you get more bang for your buck out of Cunning Action, Evasion combines really well with Danger Sense even without proficiency in Dex saves, and the full martial weapon list you get from being a Barbarian gives you weapon options Rogues don't normally get like Scimitars or Whips. Even Wisdom save proficiency as the effective capstone is nothing to sneeze at. Maybe the most fun you'll get out of a pure martial character. Personally, while it probably isn't the best subclass choice from a powergaming standpoint, I feel like Scout Rogue is really thematically cool with Barbarian if you're going for a sort of outdoorsman or wilderness expert (sorry Ranger).
funny thing about barb rogue, not only can you use reckless sneak attack, it only needs a finesse weapon, you don't need to attack with dex, thus you can rage, use 2 shortswords then reckless attack then sneak attack
so that's advantage + sneak attack + rage bonus + two sword dual attack + str bonus
Another thing to remember about Warlock is that invocations like maddening hex and swarm of flies while raging, as they are not spells.
The best thing (imo) to cast is to upcast Armor of Agathys as high level as you can, ideally before combat. The hit points it gives basically double while raging, and that means it can deal more damage if it doesn't go down on one hit.
Undying Servitude allows you to cast Animate Dead once a day, and that doesn't require your concentration.
Eldridch Smite is worth a look.
If you go all the way to level 10, your hexed target basically gets a 66% miss chance independent of your armor. Makes giving advantage to use reckless attack less painful.
Unfortunately it takes 12 levels to get to Lifedrinker, adding charisma bonus to damage rolls. And you may want to attack with strength to get the rage bonus.
I think monk is not a good multiclass for barbarian, but barbarian is a good multiclass for monk if that makes sense. being high level monk benefits a lot from barb’s advantage on dex saves, and you can just go totem bear to be tankier, or zealot to do more damage
Armourer artificer barbarians are a unique build, great grappling(advantage and add intelligence to the check with infusion), heavy armour, and the ability to focus damage onto yourself with the gauntlets. The problem is, of course, being a bit MAD.
It's kind of interesting because a list like this sort of already exists but it's cool having more talking points around it. I am happy that Rogue and Fighter are high up on the list though. Barbarian/Rogue = Take Shield Master, Expertise Athletics, Raging to get advantage on shove. Bonus action to knock enemies prone guaranteed sneak attack. Also, free sneak attack if you go Reckless. Uncanny Dodge halves damage that's already halved from raging. Take 5 levels in Barbarian for the extra attack, go rogue, it's gravy.
Alchemist Artificer can use the non concentration spell slots to grant... +10 movement speed for 1 hour, +1 AC, for 10 minutes, +1d4 to your own attack rolls and saving throws, a different version of +10 movement speed that stacks with the first for 1 hour, a 10ft flight speed isnt great (except for the fact it lasts for 10 minutes), 2d4+int (probably +1 tbh) healing, and also alter self without concentration for 10 minutes, not to mention you could hold onto absorb elements in case you lose out on initiative and it comes up. not saying its better than 3 levels in barbarian but it is still pretty nice
I’m doing a Shifter (Beasthide) Path of the Beast 8 / Circle of the Moon Druid 2. I would rate this combo an “A” honestly. The healing (only made more potent when raging due to resistance), Hit Points, utility. You can tank like…well a BEAST.
Your bonus action has gotta be hurting
@@jamesbaker2092 no actually, it’s fairly consistent…each round demands a different thing from me so rarely do I wanna do two different things with my one bonus action.
@@AfroditeBell But between shifting, rage, and wildshaping, it takes ages to get you to full power.
@@jamesbaker2092 OK...you only need "full power" for boss fights which give you plenty of time to set all that up (3 rounds). And with this build its not detrimental to not have it all up quickly. (You must also consider the fact that barbs get to rage when there is a surprise round).
Most combats dont last more that 3 - 5 rounds... so youre not even going to need "full power" for most fights. Rage and shift do just fine most fights. Wildshape is to soak up a burst in damage taken. I have played this, i have actual experience with it... i promise you...its fine, chill.
I personally have good experience with using a Sorcerer with the Barbarian. Although I designed it as were when not raging to be a little supportive with range. Making were the easy spell access with small amount of spells in use to give advantage, then having range with some to assist players while being the main tank of the group. Besides that, I can see your ranking, but I thought c rank was nicer for it.
Also just realized I could get the same thing for the Bard, but that won't work with the solely being a tank with some useful magic at hand thing. If you read this thank you so much, also if you want, tell me maybe the best class for that kind of style I use with the Barbarian. Thanks again smile😊.
For what you’re suggest I would actually maybe consider looking into the battle master fighter as you multiclass! It not only has great damage options but also excellent support options. It also gives you tons of useful tanking abilities. But thank you for your comment, it was a very good case for the Sor/barb 😁
@@OffbeatOutlaw and thank you for replying to my comment, it made my day.
2 levels in barbarian and going the rest monk is actually really good. The other way around is really
Bad.
However, with monk you now only need dex and con. You no longer need wis. Which is great
Monk is a bad class in general thanks to everything relying on Ki, a dip in any class improves it a great deal
1:35 As an Artificer main, this hurts my soul
(They'd be in B tier though as a Barbarian multiclass)
So, Barbarian multiclass Warlock has an interesting little trick for raging. Start of combat, before raging cast Armor of Agathys, this is NOT a concentration spell, gives you temp HP and while you have this temp HP you deal cold damage to all enemies that attack you in melee. Immediately after casting AoA, rage for resistance. You have effectively doubled your temp HP and made your cold damage last longer.
Additionally, if you have pact of the blade then at warlock 5 you can get eldritch smite for short rest psychic smites.
Alternatively, if you go pact of the chain you get an invisible Imp familiar for free Help actions, so you don't have to go reckless, and pick up the Gift of the Ever Living Ones Invocation to make all healing on you be maxed.
Barbarian monk can be done pretty damn well. Take the barbarian beast subclass, giving you d6 claws that allow you to attack 1 extra time, and they count as unarmed strikes. Stack this with monk's martial arts, at level 6 you're attacking 4 times/round, and at level 7 you can add flurry of blows and sometimes attack 5 times/round. 5d6, all with a +7 to hit and +7 damage (assuming you have 18 strength, and are enraged) at level 7 is terrifying. Your AC most likely isn't going to be too high, so reckless attack mathematically won't hurt you too much meaning you should get advantage on all attacks (take tough feat to mitigate this). Sure, you might be able to argue that a pure barbarian is more useful in some situations, but I'm pretty sure this is the highest barbarian mid level dps build.
Especially if you go with either a open hand or a long death monk you can make your life steal great making it more viable to stay up longer
I've played a Zealot Barbarian Oath of Vengeance Paladin, it was probably one of my favorite multiclass builds I've done
Warlock invocations can improve any class if your creative enough, keeping in mind that they can be switched out when taking a level means you can tailor them to whatever is happening in the campaign.
BTW if your looking for a balance between the defensive shield using barbarian and the offensive great axe using barbarian using duel wield can be the answer though you would need access to the duel weapon fighting style to really make the most of it. The reason for the balance is that you get access to a bonus action attack as always, and the feats around duel wielding let you get bonus armor class while using two weapons.
Barbarian. artificer with the subclass armorer at level 6. Three of each level you can do some pretty bad ass stuff. You're like the hulk buster. Plus how artificer work you can "cast a spell " before raging and the infusion armor can be a mage armor type so it won't effect the bones to the barbarian's no armor state
My group and I are doing a pirate campaign right now and my character was a level 12 bugbear ancestral barbarian and 8 battle Smith artificer named Kaleid Tarak and he was the captain of our ship named The Brass Monkey. He had a steel defender which I gave the shape of an orangutan named ganbuul. We were hired by an organization called the steel Phoenix mercenary company who gave us a job to help them expand their reach around various locations. The way he was was to essentially work was that you had two things coming at you where one was a giant bugbear wielding a war hammer with a heavy crossbow as backup raging and applying disadvantage to anyone else the opponent would attack, and a medium robotic orangutan also slamming into you with its weight also prepared to use deflect attack. essentially making it so that no matter who you attacked, you were getting disadvantage. I found that spells could be more used in the beginning before raging to apply an effect to your defender. (Varies with dm)
In fairness to Warlock, Sorcerer, and Cleric; at least a few have good first level features that are a worthwhile dip for in combat, and of course a touch of utility spells out of combat.
Examples off the top of my head
Forge Cleric, give yourself a plus 1 weapon, or more potently Peace Cleric for emboldening bond. d4 added to a bunch of shit for you and scales in uses and teammates effected by proficiency.
Clockwork Souls sorc also scales off prof and can negate some of those attacks with adv on you after you reckless. Wild magic allowing for something similar with giving you adv with some fun fun chaos in the mix.
and Warlock outside of hexblade has Genie for that extra elemental damage, and Undead giving another prof scaling thing granting temp hp that stretches more as a barbarian with resistances and the ability to frighten foes on hit.
Still agreed over all but there are DEF options here.
There are some really useful Eldritch invocations that a Barbarian could use. If you take pact of the chain, Gift of the Ever-Living Ones heals maximum hit points if your familiar is within 100 feet of you. This is fantastic for a tank like the barbarian. If you choose pace of the blade, Eldritch smite let’s you eckend your spell slot to do extra damage, similar to the paladin. You can do this even while raging. If you choose pact of the time, you can ritual cast spells. As you will be primarily using your spells outside of combat, this will be really useful. All in all, a gish warlock/barbarian multiclass wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
I kinda want to try a specific monk/barbarian combo.
Path of the Beast Barbarian for the claws and the extra swing when you hit with claws.
Gives you 3 attacks plus flurry of blows, all getting the extra rage damage. Counting your claws as a monk weapon means you can then get an extra bonus action attack. 6 swings. All benefit from Reckless Attack for crit-fishing, and all get the extra rage damage if you use your strength stat.
I did a (Storm Herald Barbarian/Shadow Sorcerer) thingy, in theory it's very good, but we'll see, and I don't care if it is D I will still play
Wizard lvl 3 blade singer shield ,Disguise Self,False Life,Find Familiar aid,Enlarge/Reduce,Invisibility before striking then rage, Web flying enemies then rage, Mirror Image, Blink. + BLADESONG, int to ac+speed plus 10, advantage on acrobatics, etc....
warlocks lvl 5--with invocations+Eldritch Blast against flying enemies (not spells) fly incisivily etc in combat---Beguiling Influence,Devil's Sight,Eldritch Sight,Fiendish Vigor,Gift of the Ever-Living Ones,Improved Pact Weapon,Thief of Five Fates,Cloak of Flies,Eldritch SmiteEldritch SmiteEldritch SmiteEldritch Smite, One with Shadows,Thirsting Blade
I just really quickly want to offer a defence for the wizard/barbarian, and it's very simple... Rage + Bladesong. Rules as written, they work perfectly together. You get to add 3 different modifiers to your AC, get additional movement, and advantage on both strength and dex checks. Just maybe take the tough feat to balance out the stat issues and we're golden
additionally if your constitution modifier is lower than a 3 mage armor isn't concentration and also has synergy with bladesong
Warlock is S-Tier not because Hex blade (can't use charisma attacks for Barb features), but because fiend. All that Temp HP you're getting per kill, along with your resistances makes you basically unkillable by damage. Also, so many of your good spells can be cast before a combat and last without requiring concentration!
My first campaign was Strahd. I played a barbarian warlock. 9/3 respectively. Our dm homebrewed “choker of infinite rage” or something like that. Basically, you could cast while raging but take a d6 of damage per spell level. It was so nice and I loved it. Granted, we were a 3 person party on a fairly difficult campaign so I get it might be too powerful for other campaigns.
I have a friend that would disagree with D tire for the Monk. He wound up playing as a Barb Monk, wound up being able to do some mad hops and grappling people before slamming them to the ground, and reducing the damage he would normally take thanks to the monk's Slow Fall. Granted he is playing it 50/50 with the class levels if I remember properly, and he is sacrificing ranged combat, but it turned out to be a mad brawler that is really good at getting speeding to the front and beating the crap out of the enemy.
Like you said, not the best, but that can't stop you from doing some pretty fun shit with it.
Warlock is good because you have less spell slots so it fits well into Rage because you can use your limited spell slots for buffs then rage. The good combo is Armor of Agathys and Fiend or Efretti Genie Warlocks get Fire Shield for non concentration buffs that damage foes when they hit you, but Rage makes Armot of Agathys last longer.
early level cleric can get those really nice channel divinity options like guided strike or sentinel at death's door, and you can use them while raging
I have a barbarian, artificer, fighter
And as confusing as the setup is, most of the levels sre in artificer, this is to allow me to have all the infusions possible, but I can still only infuse 4 items, 6 if I make my armour arcane armour
The rage I would use as a defensive ability, since I chose path of the totem warrior, bear, and gave the infusion resistant armour in psychic damage,
This is for the full resistance to everything, for a brief period of time, whilst I think of what to do next,
On top of this the half orc barb/art/fighter has a total of 45ft movement and technically 55ft if I cast longstrider from the artificers prepared spells, invisibility also works well since it means I can run in hit them and then turn invisible.
The character practically supports itself, and allows for more strategy of moving enemies and escaping their grasps whilst activating rage,
Bare in mind I also have action surge and 2 attack actions per turn.
Some thoughts on multclassing barbarian with warlock ...
None of the warlock subclass abilities are spells, so you're free to charm creatures or teleport (Archfey), "summon" a NO-CONCENTRATION spectre (Hexblade), use your healing pool (Celestial), or summon a tentacle (Fathomless) while raging. I don't know how this channel feels about an even split on levels, but if you choose to go to Great Old One or Fiend warlock 10 with your Bear Totem barbarian, you can be resistant to LITERALLY ALL damage while raging.
Armor of Agathys is an idiotically good spell for barbarians. It lasts for an hour without concentration and its temporary hit points are essentially doubled while you're raging. Even better, the barbarian *WANTS* to be up in melee range, so he's going to get a lot more out of the no-save cold damage than your typical single-class warlock. Similarly, some of the PH subclasses have spells that can be cast out of, before, or at the beginning of combat and will either last through the combat or have "instantaneous" (but actually permanent) durations. The Archfey is the real winner here (Sleep, Plant Growth, Seeming), but if you want to play anything besides a bearbarian, Fire Shield from the Fiend list provides both some nice resistances and a damage boost against anything that hits you ... and you're GOING to get hit.
Many of the Invocations are either NOT spells or they give you spells you're not going to cast in combat but will help in other areas of play where barbarians are usually weak. Just offhand,. Beguiling Influence, Devil's Sight, Eldritch Sight, Mask of Many Faces, most of the Talisman invocations, Cloak of Flies, and Gift of the Ever-Living Ones all stand out as Invocations a barbarian with a decent CHA might want (you'll note that some of these require Pacts other than Blade; that's OK, that pact by itself doesn't actually do much for a barbarian).
Finally, we should note that if we're multiclassing barbarian, *WE'RE GOING TO RUN OUT OF RAGES EVENTUALLY.* Only level 20 barbarians get unlimited rages. So we should probably grab a few fight-winning spells ... or summons ... or both ... for when that inevitably happens.
the monk opinion is a weird one. You get a free bonus action attack at level 1, second level you get 10 movement speed and the class lets you bump it to two and do other things with your bonus action (barbarians only rage as a bonus action, so once you rage, you don't have any bonus actions to do a lot of the time). Then third level really does a lot since almost every subclass will give you either better combat options or utility.
I'd put druid in B tier though. I'd say that yeah, moon druid is the only thing you'd really take, but keep in mind monk again; Take 1 level of monk and 4 levels of moon druid with everything else in Barbarian, and you're now a giant octopus that slaps people 3 times a round. basically all features here effect your wild shape, including a bear totem's resistance.
Beast Master/Ranger + Barbarian + Mounted Combatant = Advantage on all melee attacks smaller than your mount.
Horse = Large size
Result = Advantage on all attack rolls.
Also if you lose your mount you can use the new tashas features to summon one.
Artificer, a half caster that give non spell options for spell slots and other rage synergistic bonuses from its class like magic items, extra skills and tools and double proficiency to all tiols at lvl 6(including thieves tools): B tier, has magic that it can't use
Bard: a full caster that has a few subclasses and one class feature that are compatible, and gets expertise in 2 skills at lvl 3: A tier, has some subclass features that are good.
The artificer in me is salty, so I'll be over here raging with a flamethrower and half cover for free
A Moon Druid/Bear Totem Barbarian is probably one of the best tanks going, but it does mean being higher levelled on the druid side. Being able to wildshape into a CR 5 creature and then rage to take half damage... Also you get to use your unarmed defence to potentially increase the AC of the wildshape, altho it won't help that much. Also you're not really losing out on your spellcasting from rage, since you're losing out on the spellcasting from wildshape anyways. It takes a level 18 druid to be able to cast while in wildshape.
You could drop the Bear Totem and just get normal rage+wildshape to end out with the CR6 wildshape which can cast when not raging with druid 18/barbarian 2.
And that is why it is a c you spent most of your levels in druid not in barb so it does not qualify for this tier list as you think as this tier list is about majority of your levels are in barb with a few levels dip into another so a moon druid really doesn't do much for you
Okay. I agree with you. Let's be clear on that. However. I have played a character with a class you had in d as primary, and it did massive damage when needed. Course only had 1 level out of 6 in barbarian when campaign ended, but was nasty. Was primary a divine soul sorcerer. Spell casting when in range, but almost always still ended up in melee. When raging, was doing more damage then the monk and fighter characters , combined. So when you get around to doing that, consider that divine soul with the unarmored defense is insane enough. But you can also step in and kick ass when needed because of that.
this tierlist only covers barb main class so expect some stuff to change when covering the class you spoke of.
Looking like Zorro or Wesley from 'Princess Bride.' Love it.
The warlock is very good as a couple of points dipped because many of its low level class features are very strong and you only get TWO spells until 11 anyway. eldritch invocations are incredibly strong. IMO warlock dip is probably the most versatile BEFORE considering subclass. most eldritch invocations only require a total level not a warlock level meaning a two point dip with 15 or more levels means a barbarian with infinite invisibility uses.
*Raises hand* Artificer here.
Loving it.
The first thought that came to mind when I heard barbarian/wizard is Dr. Jakle and mister hide. Though, the artificer alchemist is probably a better choice still.
1 level in monk allows you to use unarmed strikes as a bonus action that gets your ability modifier
1:35 I am the Artificer and I find this funny because I don't know any others.
I think it is important to remember that reckless attack only gives advantage to one melee attack. So no reaction sneak attacks. Also, you can't sneak attack unless you use a ranged or finesse weapon. So you are limited to a 1d6? 1d8? So your brutal critical adds 1d8 instead of the 1d12 you get with great axe.
Reckless Attack
Starting at 2nd Level, you can throw aside all concern for Defense to Attack with fierce desperation. When you make your first Attack on Your Turn, you can decide to Attack recklessly. Doing so gives you advantage on melee weapon Attack rolls using Strength during this turn, but Attack rolls against you have advantage until your next turn.
It gives you advantage for the whole turn
@@OffbeatOutlaw
Maybe I got the trigger opportunity confused with the duration of the effect.
Thanks for that. It makes my barb better. XD
Druids can be good for a more Tanky build because rage transfers over to wildshape so you take moon Druid for better wild shapes go rage then wildshape next turn and you have another health bar with effectively twice the normal hp with bear totem barbarian
i mean, you can still make use of spellcasting as a bard-barian by just being the utility spellcaster of the group. and really where barbarians fall short is outside of combat, so having your other class be bard i think should still be S tier given that it directly fills in the weakness of the barbarian solo class
You need a finesse or ranged weapon to sneak attack, so the heaviest hitting weapon you would be able to use with the barb/rogue is a rapier. And you wouldn't get fighting style for the +2 damage. But at least you could use a shield.
There is fighting initiate feat to get that fighting style but still I get the point you are making
Honestly danger sense plus the rogues evasion is just silly. Cartwheeling through fireballs with nothing but my loin clothe and my sweet abs to protect me.
Barb warlock with fiend pact is good. Every time you get a kill you get temp hp. Armor of agathys with rage is great. And you can get eldritch smite as well. Probably works better as lock main but still not bad
I agree with Wizard but I was puzzled to the reason why, which I was assuming would be the existance of Bladesinger subclass, but the "useful spells" argument would seem to surely put in on par with Sorcerer? Since you said "you'll always have something to get you out of a situation" but you... won't. You simply won't! You'll usually be raging in a situation you need to get out of, and when that's the case, you won't be able to use them! So it's right on back to the decision between wasting the rage to then use a spell, or behaving like you basically don't have the spell. To me, Sorcerer is a better choice as a base simply due to the triple-class potential of adding two levels of Paladin to then-max-out those slots... and that being significantly less attribute-heavy than the wizard choice. But I'd still put them both in D if it wasn't for Bladesinger which could bump Wizard up to C.
Bard seemed oddly high for the mere reason of expertise. It shares the exact same problem as all the other full casters you put in C and D. With Swords or Valor you have some added combat tools but not that many especially since Extra Attack won't stack (another reason why the Rogue multi is so good btw - unlike with most martials, no wasted doubling up). I really don't see why Bard is ranked so very much higher. Solidly C tier in this list, imo. I'd very easily put a Druid dip above it.
You did also talk about a Hexblade Warlock's feature to attack with charisma as a positive. It *usually* is, but it specifically isn't when you're raging, as charisma-based attacks don't grab the bonuses strength-based attacks will - Barbarian's about the only multiclass combination that'd make you not want that feature. Don't think that's enough to knock down the ranking or anything, but thought it worth a mention.