The Age of Barbarians: A Guide for post-Mordenkainen's Barbarians

[Protato]

A Barbarian. He is rather displeased with you.

Barbarian Stats, Proficiencies, Equipment, Party Role, and Class Features

You ability scores are what you're good at, and what you want to be good at, is hitting things. I'm putting numbers after the analysis of each stat, taken from the Standard Array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8), meant to represent roughly what you want to have. Of course, the numbers listed are 1.Fairly low (to me) and 2.A guideline. You may roll numbers (which I tend to do at my tables), use a higher array (I tend to give my players 18 16 14 12 10 8 but that's pretty high for most tables) or use point buy but either way these scores are roughly where you'd want your numbers to go.

Strength: This is your best stat hands-down. Important for your attack and damage rolls, and for grappling. I'd start with 15.
Dexterity: Barbarians aren't really "made for" Dex, mostly because Rage keys off your Strength, but its important to have decent Dex for your AC since you're a frontliner. I'd have 13.
Constitution: More important on you than even other martial classes due to your high hit die. You also get to use it for your AC. I would get 14.
Intelligence: Your dump stat. You learned a lot about hitting people, not about history or math. I'd put the 8 here.
Wisdom: Good because perception, but your class features don't use it. Nice to have, but don't be afraid to dump if needed. 12 would go here.
Charisma: You're a smelly mound of man-meat, leave it to the Bard. Leave it at 10.

Dexterity-based Barbarians switch Strength and Dexterity.


1d12 Hit Die: Barbarians, as stated above, have the best hit die in all of 5e.
Con and Strength Saves: Both are good, especially Con, because it helps with things like resist disease, forgo sleep, or hold your breath. Strength is rare but is important when it comes up.
Armor: You get Light, Medium, and Shields. Not bad but kind of redundant with the Unarmored Defense.
Weapons: All of them.
Tools: None, but why would you need them? You're a Barbarian!
Class Skills: Animal Handling, Athletics, Intimidation, Nature, Perception, Survival.

I would take Athletics (probably your most useful skill) and something else. Perception is good on most anyone but you're not as likely to be outstanding as the Druid or Cleric, or the Rogue with their Expertise. Intimidation is nice to have, and even if you're not mainly social, it's flavorful and you just might get mileage out of it. As is mentioned on this page, a variant rule in the Player's Handbook allows you to use Strength modifiers instead of Charisma for Intimidation checks. The skill is much better on you if that's allowed. Survival and Nature are fairly similar, but I've seen DMs rule that Nature can sometimes be used to learn more about creatures and Survival is mostly used for tracking and finding food. Animal Handling can be used to get pets (if the DM allows it, that is, yours may not but mine usually do, and I tend to in my games) and calm wild beasts. Overall, I recommend Athletics and then something flavorful. Don't forget, backgrounds get you more skills, as do certain races and most DMs allow for custom backgrounds.

Basic Equipment
Maul, Greatsword, and Greataxe are all good items for you. Greataxes are better than Mauls and Greatswords for critical hits but have lower minimum damage. I'd use a Maul/Greatsword until you get Brutal Critical, but you're not gimping yourself too much in any case so go with what's cooler to you. I'm partial to mauls myself. Throwing Weapons, especially Javelins, are the best ranged options for you, but make no mistake, you're a frontliner. Darts aren't to be underestimated as a low-cost means of doing ranged damage. Their range is awful and the damage is low, but they're extremely cheap and can be bought in bulk. The other option that might be good for a Barbarian's main weapon is a Longsword, Battleaxe, or Warhammer and a Shield. If you have good Con and Dex, plus a Shield, you'll have pretty high AC and a decent attack. If you have good Dex and Con, you won't be needing armor. Of course, if you do want armor, get Half-Plate as soon as you can, or a Breastplate if you care about stealth. If using a reach/polearm build I'd take a Glaive/Halberd. If you're a Dexterity Barbarian, I'd take a Rapier (two with Dual Wielder) and shield (if you don't have Dual Wielder, or two Shortswords or Scimitars (if you don't take Dual Wielder but want to use two weapons). I'd also take a Longbow for ranged damage. Just know that, unless your DM houserules it, you won't have Rage bonus damage. It's still good on you because resistance. Medium Armor is a good choice if your stats are lower, and either a Chain Shirt or Scale Armor are good early-game options. Breastplates and Half-Plate armor are better options later on.

Class Features
Unarmored Defense: From first level until the very end of you Barbaric career, you can forgo armor and isntead get an AC equal to 10 + Dex mod + Con mod. Not half bad, as long as your stats are decent. If not, then don't be afraid to put on Medium Armor.

Rage: This is the reason you became a Barbarian instead of a prancing Paladin or a foppish Fighter. You get advantage on Strength checks and saves, resist physical damage, and get a damage boost! You can't use spells, maintain concentration, or wear heavy armor, but why would you need any of that? Your whole point is to break people in half with a hammer, and you're unparalleled at that!

Reckless Attack: Gain advantage, but enemies get advantage on you. Not that big a deal though, because you can just sit there and take the hit with your Rage resistance. Since it requires Strength attacks to work though, this means unless your DM allows it to work with Dexterity attacks, this is pretty worthless on a Dexterity Barbarian.

Dangersense: Advantage on Dexterity saves, so that means you more-or-less have three saves. At level 2. With no feat. If you're a Dexterity Barbarian it works with you even better.

ASI: Standard amount as most other classes. Its only Green because you have the standard amount.

Extra Attack: You get just one sadly, but hey, another chance to do more damage. Only reason its not better is cause you don't get more.

Fast Movement: Always-on ribbon power, although it can be a pretty useful one. Might help you catch up if you were outside a room while your party investigated or something.

Feral Instinct: Advantage on initiative! Also can't be surprised on initiative but you HAVE to pop Rage first. Still, advantage on initiative!

Brutal Critical: More damage! Not too likely to land though, lowering the rating.

Relentless Rage: A chance to not die when you otherwise might. You don't wanna be in this situation but its good to have. Would be better if the DC didn't go up as it was used.

Persistent Rage: I'd have made this a standard Rage feature, but every class needs its ribbons.

Indomitable Might: Take your Strength score on a Strength roll if you roll less than your Strength. In other words, never fail a grapple check ever again. If you're a Dexterity Barbarian with low Strength this is a lot worse, but still nice to have.

Primal Champion: An excellent capstone! You can have up to 24 on Strength with no magic items! If you think you might get to Level 20, I wouldn't multiclass JUST for this. Constitution going up and making your saves and health higher is just gravy. Even Dexterity Barbarians benefit from this.

Magic Items

A note on Magic Items from people coming from other editions: 5e doesn't have the "magic mart" as an assumed mechanic anymore. Not to say no one's used it but its not the way the game is "meant to be played" as it were. Even so, I felt making a list of magic items that could help Barbarians out might be prudent. Also worth noting, every character only has three attunement slots.

+ Weapons: Probably the most common and easiest to stat magic items/weapons. They can go from Uncommon (+1) to Very Rare (+3).
+ Armor and Shields: They work similarly to the Weapons but go from +1 (Rare) to +3 (Legendary).
Bracers of Defense: Needs attunement and is rare. Then again, +2 AC.
Weapon of Warning and Sentinel Shield: Nice to have, and they can keep you from using Feral Instinct and using Rage when you don't want. They WoW needs attunement though, so it's rated a bit lower.
Sun Blade: A powerful option for most characters, really. I'd give it to someone else first but on you they aren't half bad, extending vision and being really quite good versus Undead, a common enemy type. Plus, Fantasy Lightsaber.
Hammer of Thunderbolts: I'm rating it as if you have the Belt of Giant Strength and Gauntlets of Ogre Power to use or if the requirement is waived. If so, then this is fantastic. Just be Thor!
Javelin of Lightning: They can be used up and you may not be able to make/buy/find them in bulk but otherwise they're good ranged options, DC is a mite low though.
Adamantine Armor: Doesn't give a + but is otherwise solid.
Stat raising items: If you have naturally good stats or plan to bump them to the number the item gives, you won't need it. If the stat is low, you do. The biggest caveat is, of course, don't be greedy. Your Wizard needs that Headband of Intellect way more than you ever would, buster. These items all need attunement.
Cloak of Protection: A good pick for any build. It's good on you because you lack heavy armor, and on some builds, may be unarmored.

Epic Boons

These tend to be rare because of how late they show up in games but if you do get there, start at a high level, or were allowed to receive one early, then here's a few options to give yourself, or if you're reading this as a DM then what you could give your team Barbarian.

Boon of Combat Prowess: You missed? No you didn't.

Boon of Fortitude: 40+ to HP on a tank is good.

Boon of Invincibility: "W-what? That attack didn't even phase him!!". And then you go Super Saiyan.

Boon of Recovery: You aren't dying anymore.

Boon of Speed: Move up to enemies faster, and while Disengaging isn't something most raging Barbarians will do, is not a bad bonus. Dashing, though, especially with the bonus 10ft. of speed, is very good, especially on such an aggressive character.

Party Role

Barbarians serve a few roles in most DnD parties, and as you an guess, you probably aren't going to be the idea guy. I'll divide the roles into Heavy Hitter (single-target damage), Meat Shield (taking hits), Utility (doing things out of combat to help explore or solve puzzles), Face (being good at social encounters), Healing (recovering from damage), Nuking (multi-target damage), Control and Debuffs (being able to disable enemies before they die/go down), and Buffing (giving a temporary increase to a character)

Heavy Hitter: Barbarians are very good at hurting a single target. They get two attacks, like most other 5e martial classes, and with the Rage bonus damage and Brutal Critical, plus Reckless Attack for greater accuracy, you're likely to be very good at hurting individual enemies.

Meat Shield: You're also likely to have high HP due to having a good hit die, and Rage resistances makes you unlikely to die from most melee attacks. Bear Totem increases your ability to tank hits even more. Medium Armor isn't quite as nice as Heavy, and Unarmored Defense depends on having good scores, but overall, your AC should be around a Monk's, which isn't bad.

Utility: Outside of what I've heard been called "meleemancy", you're not likely to have much out of combat utility. Meleemancy is still good though, but DM dependent.''

Minionmancy: You have none.

Face: You can Intimidate people (ideally with Strength), making you a good backup face. The Bard botched his Persuade roll? Well, you can try to persuade with your bulging pecs. You're not likely to be ideal at this though, hence being a backup face and not generally a main face, and if your DM disallows Strength as with Intimidate then you're still lackluster.

Healing: Barbarians lack healing for themselves or others, focusing on not taking a ton of damage or being able to get up from death rather than mitigation.

Nuking: You're bad at this, probably one of the worst, in all honesty. Leave it to the Wizard to shoot Fireballs.

Control/Debuff: Grappling lets you be pretty good at this, actually.

Buffing: Rage is a great self-buff that gets better with subclasses. Outside of that, you're not very good at it.

Barbarian Tactics

Barbarians excel at hitting things with weapons but otherwise, there's things you can do. Grappling is a pretty powerful tool in your arsenal, and is easy to overlook. Otherwise, try "meleemancy"! Breaking down doors (or walls!) with hammers, throwing things at people, including other people, and shoving people into or out of harm's reach is a lot of fun and is quite effective too...if the DM allows it. Some might not like it much, you circumventing their locked door puzzle but smashing it into chips, so I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't always work. Ask the DM about her stance on that sort if you're not sure if it's allowed.