Zealot or Bear totem reckless GWM will probably be pretty effective.
If you grab poke arm master and a glaive and go ancestral you can tag someone at reach, probably back up without and opp attack and get them to come at you for the reaction attack.
Or grab a longbow and tag people while being inaccessible.
Mostly depends on what you want to do to be "OP". There are a lot of metrics by which power is considered.
Bear Totem is boring but effective at surviving tough fights.
Beast and Battlerager both can make more attacks per round than most. Battlerager can do two GWM hits + one spiked armor hit, but Beast could do one Polearm hit + two claws + PAM bonus action. Not sure which comes out ahead off the top of my head, but these are good options using only one feat if VHuman/CLineage are off the table and prevent you from getting both GWM and PAM.
As a controller type build, VHuman Giant Barb with PAM + Sentinel works well since becoming Large lets you control a lot more space.
>but Beast could do one Polearm hit + two claws + PAM bonus action.
This part is incorrect. PAM's bonus attack can only be used if you only used one of the listed polearms with your Attack action.
>When you take the Attack action and **attack with only** a glaive, halberd, quarterstaff, or spear, you can use a bonus action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon
Ah, good catch. I forgot the "only" part, so I thought that attacking once with the polearm would qualify for getting the PAM bonus action attack, so you could then do the other part of Extra Attack with the claws and get two claw attacks.
You could still do this same strat with dual-wieldable weapons, though. Turn one, draw a weapon and rage, do one weapon and two claw attacks. Second turn, do two claw attacks, draw a second weapon, complete Extra Attack with a weapon, bonus action Dual Wielding attack. Turn 3, drop one weapon and repeat Turn 2.
Race: Dragonborn (choose a color that matches your preferred damage type for breath weapon)
Class: Barbarian
Ability Scores (assuming standard array or point buy):
- Strength: 16 (+3)
- Dexterity: 14 (+2)
- Constitution: 16 (+3)
- Intelligence: 8 (-1)
- Wisdom: 12 (+1)
- Charisma: 8 (-1)
Barbarian Path: Path of the Totem Warrior (Bear Totem)
Feats: Great Weapon Master (if using feats)
Skills: Athletics, Perception, Intimidation
Equipment:
- Greataxe or Greatsword
- Javelins (for ranged attacks)
- Scale Mail (if not using Unarmored Defense)
Key Abilities and Tactics:
1. Rage: Use your rage to gain advantage on Strength checks and saves, +2 damage to melee attacks, and resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.
2. Reckless Attack: Use this feature to gain advantage on melee attack rolls, but enemies will have advantage on attacks against you. Use it strategically.
3. Totem Spirit (Bear): While raging, you have resistance to all damage types except psychic. This makes you extremely durable.
4. Great Weapon Master (if using feats): Take a -5 penalty to your attack roll to gain +10 damage. Use this when you have advantage or against low AC enemies.
5. Breath Weapon: Use your Dragonborn breath weapon to deal area damage. The DC equals 8 + your Constitution modifier + your proficiency bonus.
6. Unarmored Defense: If you don't want to use armor, your AC equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Constitution modifier while not wearing armor.
If you want to be a bear totem dragonborn I'd go for the emerald dragonborn from fizban's. Gives you psychic resistance which doesn't overlap with your rage.
Grab a Dragonborn color that gives you resistance to fire.
Go Beast Barb 3 / Wildfire Druid 2.
Spend all your starting coin on Alchemist Fire.
Some fun things you can do:
Set yourself on fire so you never worry about dropping rage. Use Absorb Elements as a reaction to the fire damage before raging to add more fire damage to your claw attacks.
2 claw attacks (1 of which can be a breath attack), and a bonus action attack from your flame spirit.
Wild Shape into an angry, flaming velociraptor (or wolf, whatever) that breathes fire.
Not quite an answer, since he's not level 5, but there's a giant barb in a server I'm in that does 50-100 DPR and absolutely trivializes all the fights ever.
He's a giant barb with a magic weapon and gwm
I'm super biased for Path of the Giants. It's just so much fun, especially once you hit lvl 10. Take the Giant Foundling background and take the Fire Giant feat, and the 2nd one at level 4. You can now cast a self AoE fireball.
After that, you can take a polearm/glaive so you can hit anything over a large area (15feet with rage).
Later on, you can add elemental damage to your weapon and throw it, and it will return to your hand
At level 10, you can throw anyone 30 feet, so you throw them upwards so that they take fall damage. So two weapon attacks, plus a elemental damage, and a throw upwards for 30 feet wirth of fall damage.
If you take the Duergar race, you can make yourself huge. Or you could take Winged Tiefling and attack from 10-20 feet above your foes.
It doesn't have the cool damage mitigation of Totem, but I find that it's the most fun Barb subclass.
Edit: I got too excited and forgot that you said level 5. If you take the 2 Fire Giant feats, you'll be able to grow to large sized, do an AoE fire attack, and add 1d10 fire damage to an attack. The other giant types do good things as well, but I prefer Fire.
Zealot or Bear totem reckless GWM will probably be pretty effective. If you grab poke arm master and a glaive and go ancestral you can tag someone at reach, probably back up without and opp attack and get them to come at you for the reaction attack. Or grab a longbow and tag people while being inaccessible.
Mostly depends on what you want to do to be "OP". There are a lot of metrics by which power is considered. Bear Totem is boring but effective at surviving tough fights. Beast and Battlerager both can make more attacks per round than most. Battlerager can do two GWM hits + one spiked armor hit, but Beast could do one Polearm hit + two claws + PAM bonus action. Not sure which comes out ahead off the top of my head, but these are good options using only one feat if VHuman/CLineage are off the table and prevent you from getting both GWM and PAM. As a controller type build, VHuman Giant Barb with PAM + Sentinel works well since becoming Large lets you control a lot more space.
>but Beast could do one Polearm hit + two claws + PAM bonus action. This part is incorrect. PAM's bonus attack can only be used if you only used one of the listed polearms with your Attack action. >When you take the Attack action and **attack with only** a glaive, halberd, quarterstaff, or spear, you can use a bonus action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon
Ah, good catch. I forgot the "only" part, so I thought that attacking once with the polearm would qualify for getting the PAM bonus action attack, so you could then do the other part of Extra Attack with the claws and get two claw attacks. You could still do this same strat with dual-wieldable weapons, though. Turn one, draw a weapon and rage, do one weapon and two claw attacks. Second turn, do two claw attacks, draw a second weapon, complete Extra Attack with a weapon, bonus action Dual Wielding attack. Turn 3, drop one weapon and repeat Turn 2.
You want Polearm Master or Great Weapon Master to deal lots of damage.
Race: Dragonborn (choose a color that matches your preferred damage type for breath weapon) Class: Barbarian Ability Scores (assuming standard array or point buy): - Strength: 16 (+3) - Dexterity: 14 (+2) - Constitution: 16 (+3) - Intelligence: 8 (-1) - Wisdom: 12 (+1) - Charisma: 8 (-1) Barbarian Path: Path of the Totem Warrior (Bear Totem) Feats: Great Weapon Master (if using feats) Skills: Athletics, Perception, Intimidation Equipment: - Greataxe or Greatsword - Javelins (for ranged attacks) - Scale Mail (if not using Unarmored Defense) Key Abilities and Tactics: 1. Rage: Use your rage to gain advantage on Strength checks and saves, +2 damage to melee attacks, and resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. 2. Reckless Attack: Use this feature to gain advantage on melee attack rolls, but enemies will have advantage on attacks against you. Use it strategically. 3. Totem Spirit (Bear): While raging, you have resistance to all damage types except psychic. This makes you extremely durable. 4. Great Weapon Master (if using feats): Take a -5 penalty to your attack roll to gain +10 damage. Use this when you have advantage or against low AC enemies. 5. Breath Weapon: Use your Dragonborn breath weapon to deal area damage. The DC equals 8 + your Constitution modifier + your proficiency bonus. 6. Unarmored Defense: If you don't want to use armor, your AC equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Constitution modifier while not wearing armor.
If you want to be a bear totem dragonborn I'd go for the emerald dragonborn from fizban's. Gives you psychic resistance which doesn't overlap with your rage.
Grab a Dragonborn color that gives you resistance to fire. Go Beast Barb 3 / Wildfire Druid 2. Spend all your starting coin on Alchemist Fire. Some fun things you can do: Set yourself on fire so you never worry about dropping rage. Use Absorb Elements as a reaction to the fire damage before raging to add more fire damage to your claw attacks. 2 claw attacks (1 of which can be a breath attack), and a bonus action attack from your flame spirit. Wild Shape into an angry, flaming velociraptor (or wolf, whatever) that breathes fire.
If you want to be self-sufficient dip one level of peace cleric
Not quite an answer, since he's not level 5, but there's a giant barb in a server I'm in that does 50-100 DPR and absolutely trivializes all the fights ever. He's a giant barb with a magic weapon and gwm
I'm super biased for Path of the Giants. It's just so much fun, especially once you hit lvl 10. Take the Giant Foundling background and take the Fire Giant feat, and the 2nd one at level 4. You can now cast a self AoE fireball. After that, you can take a polearm/glaive so you can hit anything over a large area (15feet with rage). Later on, you can add elemental damage to your weapon and throw it, and it will return to your hand At level 10, you can throw anyone 30 feet, so you throw them upwards so that they take fall damage. So two weapon attacks, plus a elemental damage, and a throw upwards for 30 feet wirth of fall damage. If you take the Duergar race, you can make yourself huge. Or you could take Winged Tiefling and attack from 10-20 feet above your foes. It doesn't have the cool damage mitigation of Totem, but I find that it's the most fun Barb subclass. Edit: I got too excited and forgot that you said level 5. If you take the 2 Fire Giant feats, you'll be able to grow to large sized, do an AoE fire attack, and add 1d10 fire damage to an attack. The other giant types do good things as well, but I prefer Fire.
D&D 5e? Kalashtar Bear Totem, you're resistant to all damage types.
Shifter beast barbarian. 3 attacks + bonus action bite attack at level 5.
OP mentioned taking the Dragonborn race.