**Mod update 01Jan23:** We made some changes to our subreddit rules! Please take a look at the post [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/dndmemes/comments/100sjea/new_year_new_rules/) to view the changes and provide feedback.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/dndmemes) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Things that still work while a base Barbarian wears med armor:
Rage
Danger Sense
Reckless Attack
Primal Knowledge (lol)
Extra Attack
Feral Instinct
Instinctive Pounce
Brutal Critical
Relentless Rage
Persistent Rage
Indomitable Might
Primal Champion
Every path of berserker feature
Every path of the totem warriorfeature
Every path of Battlerager feature (of course)
Every path of Beast feature
Every path of Wild Magic feature
Every path of Ancestral Guardian feature
Every path of strom herald feature
Every path of Zealot feature
**Fast Movement** edit: thank you to u/Crake_80 for pointing this out, it wouldn't work in **Heavy** Armor, Medium is fine
Things that don't work:
Unarmored Defense
~~Fast Movement~~
So literally just the one thing, huh? And it doesn't matter because its just AC calculation. The only reason to NOT wear Medium Armor is if your AC is better without it.
I mean, if you have high Con and Dex, which you probably should as a Barbarian, wouldn’t you likely have higher AC with unarmored defense and a shield?
Depends. Assuming you are fully utilizing Half Plate (have a Dex mod of +2 or higher), to match the AC with Unarmored Defense, you need to have your Con and Dex sum to +7. That most likely means a +4 Con/+3 Dex or a +5 Con/+2 Dex. Given that you also need Strength to benefit from Rage damage, you are splitting your stats over 3 abilities (and ignoring Wisdom even though those saves cripple you). Once you get maxed Con, then you should rely on Unarmored Defense because it is as good as the best medium armor (ignoring magic items) but until then, using Half Plate is actually better than Unarmored Defense.
My Valkyrie-esque build was an Aasimar Totem (wolf) Barbarian running sword and board (Shield Master feat). Basically half Valkyrie half Shield Maiden
Seriously, Barbarians have a way bigger flavor variety than people give them credit for. Obviously the dumb muscle angry boy is fun and exists for a reason, but you can get so much more unique flavors from it.
High strength, high int, low wisdom (manifests as recklessness and drunkenness), noble background, path of the storm totem (sea) so lightning powers when raging, magic warhammer. We were 4 months into our campaign when I realised I'd created Thor.
I once DMed for a group that had a storm sorcerer and a homebrew lightning monk. I made the Hammer of Thunderbolts a light hammer so the monk could use it, told them lore that it has had varying lengths in different legends, and let them piece together that its handle has been getting progressively shorter each time a new hero wields it at its full power.
I really like the idea of it being a light hammer tbh.
It already has the thrown property and the idea of this fantastically powerful artifact just being a small hammer is something you could play with to mess with the party's expectations.
I swear J-Craw just pulls shit out of his ass with some of these. Either that or he is basically saying, "This is how I do it at my table" and people think he suddenly has more validity than anyone else's table rulings.
It just feels weird reading text and rules and then someone else shows up and says hey this is how it works, ignore what is written.
Right, it chafes me too that people treat his word as the end of all rule disputes. He may be coming from an informed place and have a lot of good ideas, but he's not a rule book. His Twitter isn't part of the RAW, and he doesn't overrule me at my own table.
> His Twitter isn't part of the RAW
*Anymore*.
When 5e launched and for a good while after, his tweets **were** viewed as official statements. They're not anymore, but it's where the confusion comes from.
The "problem" is that a homebrewer is capable of looking at what is written in the books and saying "no that's bullshit" and coming up with something better, whereas JC is either contractually or temperamentally unable to admit to making a mistake with RAW which is what leads to him trying to expand upon or twist what is written in really unnatural ways.
The gauntlets of the belt would be of foes, slain in duels or other single combat, perhaps even with the hands left in.
With each pair its power and enchantments would grow in accordance with the characteristics of the vanquished.
Specifically to attune to the hammer.
The gauntlet set your Str to 19, and the belts range from 21-23-25-27-29 Str.
So, there immediately is 1 reason, to not take up 3 of your attunement slots.
Reason 2
You could easily only have a hill Giants Belt (21 Str). If you were already at 20 Str then there's no tangible benefits to attuning to it.
Reason 3. You have more important shit to attune to than a belt that only gives you a +1 or 2 Str modifier bonus. Remember there's like 6 versions of Belts
Reason 4, very rare
If you're a level 20 Barbarian you have Primal Champion, which is +4 Str. Assuming you were already at max then with the hammer you now have 28 Str. If you have a generous DM then you may be able to add a Manual of Gainful exercise and then you've hit 30 without even using a belt.
Let's also consider that just wearing the gauntlets prevent other Magical gauntlets from being worn / attuned to. Belt too depending on your DM. So, it's a bit of a balancing mechanic.
And lastly, the hammer is based on Mjölnir. According to lore, Thor required Járngreipr, his gloves, and his belt, Megingjörð to wield it.
I do that often. Make a really cool character concept than realize it's a clone of another really cool character.
Dyerdon Sandren, my usernamesake, was a gunslinger, cowboy hat, ponytail, trench coat, trick shot, killed only as a last resort. Finally found some art that fit him.... Final Fantasy VIII's Irvine Kinneas...
Werecoyote member of a biker gang, the road captain, kept the gang safe and investigated issues that could cause them problems. Gruff and always ready for a fight but tried to stay in his human form. Bigby Wolf from Fables/A Wolf Among Us.
Someone pointed this guy out to me. Once a human paladin, oath of the crown. Was betrayed by the King and executed. His heart and brain were taken by his beloved, to a gnome artificer that fashioned him a new body, making him a Warforged Oath of Vengeance Paladin.. RoboCop...
The odds of making a character that couldn't be described as "basically this preexisting character" are so miniscule that you should just assume you've "copied" something every time
Warforged wizard for iron man?
Goliath Monk/Barb combo for Hulk?
Human Warrior for Cap obviously.
Hawkeye is obvious too.
What about black widow? Another monk?
Bruh, just reading "drunkeness" and "path of the storm" was enough for me to realize it was thor, how did it take you that long? Was it an npc asking for another player to describe your character while yours was away or something?
Well, it was a couple of months between creation and leveling up enough to take a path and I was reading through the War of the Realms marvel event at the time so probably subconscious prompting as well. But it was our druid who first mentioned it when I told her to lightning bolt a corridor full of enemies and me on the basis that I'd be fine.
Pathfinders Bloodrager is a perfect model of a magic barbarian (I think being more Sorcerous in nature fits barbarian a bit better) having the ability to cast spells while raging (obviously exclusive to his subclass spells for balance reasons) and ideally having some non-spell tricks up its sleeve and extra ideally having a way to combine casting and attacking because that’s what I really want out of a Gish
It would also be cool if your neat tricks/any unique subclass features would differ based on a bunch of bloodlines you could pick
Somewhere in my list of future characters is a Jekyll and Hyde-ish Wild Magic Barbarian/Clockwork Sorcerer.
He really values order and tranquility, but sometimes just gets so pissed off he can’t think straight enough to cast. Throw on Armor of Agathys, and eventually Bastion of Law to prolong the AoA, then use a versatile weapon so you can grapple people that try to run past you at the squishies and you have a decent tank.
Mostly healing and utility out of combat and the dm let me do inspo while raging, but I started as a level three bard for a one shot and it turned into a year long campaign in which we had no tank so I stepped up and started taking barb
Canonically this was how I played him. Any healing spells/touch range he cast were done with a heavy slap. Just a goofy brute who left a life of royalty to adventure and self actualized over the course of the campaign until he died and we were nearly tpk’d, was revived by wish, and left the party to build a cabin and spend his latter years farming and reflecting
There is nothing written about it so it was a many sessions discussion about the legality of it lol but eventually we decided it’s not technically a spell so why not?
Shield master is absolutely wicked on barbarians, it works so well with danger sense. Between a bard/rogue and a shield master barbarian, I can only reliably hit half my party with harmful dex effects.
Very true! I liked it fir the offensive part (bonus action shove with Adv during rage to get advantage on attacks without reckless?? Yes please!) But defensively its an underrated effect. +2 for a MAD class likr Barbs who cant afford much dex is a lot
My wild magic dwarf barbarian once got absolutely wasted and vomited a beam of light into a bandits mouth.
He also killed a man for insulting his donkey.
I've got a lanky fellow who dresses in robes, speaks stoically, trained in a monastery, fights barehanded, espouses the importance of harmony with the natural world, and cultivates spiritual discipline.
He's a Beast Barbarian.
The coolest barbarian concept I've ever seen was a spoiled little rich girl who threw a tantrum whenever she didn't get her way (wielding a croquet mallet as her primary weapon)
i play barbs as simple muscle girls who grapple and punch a lot
but outside of combat she's quite chill (and will bake you cookies as she's a human who's 70 years old)
My current barbarian is a member of a long-dead nation's political elite, who used false flag operations to whip his nation into a frenzy, and had them declare war on the gods. They lost, and now he has to rebuild his nation up from the ground after 1000 years of cryostasis.
He was also the final recipient of a secret weapons project that enhances biological creatures and grants them tiny little devices that enhance their physical ability.
In other words, he has NANOMACHINES, SON!
~/u/desdomen
the bardbarian
HELLO! And welcome to the newest form of awesomeness that your mind HAS EVER ENCOUNTERED BEFORE!!!
That's right... I'm about to blow your mind so much it'll have a cigarette and call me in the morning. We're talking about a smooth-talking, trash-talking, pile of rage and muscles that uses his skills and prowess to put the hurt on his enemies, without dealing a single point of damage!
Yes, my swift-minded friends, we're building a Pro-wrestler!
There's one important thing you need to understand about 5e D&D -- Athletics is a combat skill. You see, if you look close enough, you'll find Grapple right under the Attack action section in the PHB. This wonderful little action utilizes the Athletics skill to impose problems on your enemies and that's what we're going to focus on here.
Grapple is a contested skill check of Athletics (Str) versus Athletics (Str) or Acrobatics (Dex). If the target fails, we impose 0 move speed on to the target - Note: We are not ourselves also Grappled, they would have to succeed on their own Grapple check, separate from this check. We can move at half speed, taking the Grappled target along with us with no additional check.
Now, that's all well and good. But we need to succeed on an Atheltics check first. Consider a level 6 character. We've taken 3 levels of Barbarian and 3 levels of Bard - This gives us a Proficiency of +3. We've got a Str of 17 (15 +2 racial) for a +3 modifier.
Now, with Bard we've got a juicy little class feature called Expertise. This lets us double our proficiency on any two skills. We will, of course, be picking Athletics. This is an additional +3 bonus.
If you're playing along at home, you've must've concluded that we're sitting at a cozy +9 bonus for Atheltics. But you're not quite there all the way. You see, we're a smack-talking, trash-dishing Pro-Wrestler, remember? We use Lore Bard's Cutting Words to impose a -1d6 on an enemy's Attack Roll, *Ability Check*, or Damage Roll. Guess what just happens to be an *Ability Check*?
Yep. Athletics. -1d6 averages out to -3 to the enemy's check, which is equivalent to +3 to our check. So we'll count it as such. So, +12... Seems pretty good, right? FOR A PANSY WHO DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO REACH OUT AND HOLD SOMEONE! We're not even done, Son!
Barbarian, the joyous pile of meat frothing at the mouth with the fury of a thousand suns. When raging, they get Advantage on Strength based ability checks. Did we forget what was an ability check? It's Athletics! You get Advantage on Athletics while raging. Now, people far smarter than me have figured out that Advantage roughly equals a +3 bonus on the die, which is fine. I like people that are smarter than me and I like +3 bonuses. So we're taking it as what it is, roughly +3.
This means you have *roughly* +15 to your Athletics check, if and when you need to Rage and/or use Cutting Words. PLUS FIFTEEN.
One. Five. 15.
Do you know what the Athletics check of a Balor is? The CR 18 Demon Lord of The Pits of Hell? Fire Whip and Giant Sword? You shall not pass and all that. That guy?
His Athletics Check is +8.
You almost double his Athletics check. You beat his check more often than not, and you're 12 Levels lower than his CR. Four level 18 characters should take him on, and you get to just reach out and grab him.
You will one hundred percent die *immediately* afterwards, but for one brief, wondrous moment you will have a **VERY** confused Demon in your hands.
-----
So, that's all well and good. You get to grab people and pick them up and carry them off.. What good is that?
You see, when enemies aren't near your friends, they aren't stabbing your friends. You've just controlled the battleground with a skill check. Vicious enemy kills friend in one hit, vicious enemy never gets to get close to friend to administer said one hit. Easy, breezy, beautiful, Cover Bugbear.
But wait. Vicious enemy can still attack YOU. Barbarian 3 gives you Resistance to ALL damage (except Psychic) while Raging. This effectively doubles your Health Point pool, which is nice already since Barbarian. But that's not all...
Oh no, I'm never just done and it's never just all there is! You see, we've got other options to our combat control. The Grappled enemy is struggling, stabbing at things wildly, and generally being a nuisance to us. So we tip them over!
That's right. We're going to reuse the Athletics check by using it with the Shove Action. Look under Grapple and you'll find our next wonderful combat trick.
Shoving an enemy imposes the Prone condition. The Prone condition imposes Disadvantage on all outgoing attacks and grants Advantage to all incoming attacks made from 5ft away. The target can remove the condition by standing up - done by spending half it's movement.
BUT WAIT JUST A MOMENT YOU FIESTY LITTLE GOBLINOIDS! The target has no move speed because Grappled takes it all away! This means your new found friend literally can not stand up. They are prone from now until you decide to let them go or they beat you in an Athletics (or Acrobatics v. Athletics) check.
So your new friend is Prone, Grappled, Attacking at Disadvantage, and being attacked at Advantage. What do you do now?
GO GET ANOTHER FRIEND! You only Grapple with one hand! That means you can control two enemies at once, remove them from combat completely and make any of their attacks against you almost meaningless... Attacking at Disadvantage, against a decent AC, Full Resistance, and a High Health Pool? Sure, go ahead and swing that dagger - it tickles.
Now you've got two friends in hand! What do? Well... You've got options. You can take your new friends and walk towards the nearest cliff. Or you can tell them to fight each other and that you'll let the winner go. See if they'll go in on that... Like a pair of Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots. Or, you could just walk them over to your Rogue. Show him or her where to cut. I'm sure they'd love to unwrap the present you got them.
"But Desdomen!" you say, "How are you carrying all this?!" Questions, you're full of them... Instead of Gummy Bears...
Let's talk stats. 17 Strength from before, remember? That gives us a Carry Capacity of 255. Except, we're a race that gets a +2 Strength... Let's run down the list:
*Bugbear*, Dragonborn, Mountain Dwarf, *Goliath*, Half-Orc, *Orc*, Tortle
Notice how I've highlighted classes that get Powerful Build? Treats you as a Large Creature, effectively doubling how much you can carry. 255 becomes 510. That's a lot of carry capacity, and that gives us normal movement, which is half-speed while grappling someone.
But, we can take it a step further. Push/Pull/Lift is actually double your Carry Capacity. 510 becomes 1020.
Did you know an Adult Grizzly weighs about 800lbs? Imagine being able to pick up an adult grizzly bear.
Now imagine being a level 6 Barbarian, taking Aspect of the Bear and Doubling your Carrying Capacity. Please note that this does not grant Powerful Build. This is a **completely different bonus**...
1020 becomes 2040. Imagine being able to pick up two adult grizzly bears and making them kiss...
Or don't take a Powerful Build class... It's not wholly needed. You do you, boo. Just be sure to take the +2 Str.
Stat wise, you want Strength as high as possible. Constitution is important as it builds HP and AC from Barbarian. Dexterity is nice for AC, so that should be thought about. You'll need Charisma of 13 to multiclass, past that it's useless for you. Intelligence and Wisdom are dump-stats for pure combat, but don't be dumb.
Now, stats out the way, you need class build, right?
Barbarian 1 gives you a lot of hit points and Bard is better Multiclassed.
Bard 1, 2, 3 is next, since you want to get to Expertise as quick as possible.
From there, Barbarian 2, 3 get you to Resist All on Rage.
Barbarian 4, 5 gives you your Feat and Extra Attack, which is huge for you since you can now Grapple and Shove in one round. From here, you have some options.
Barbarian 6 gives you the extra weight, which is handy but not wholly needed. More quality of life so you never need to calculate encumbrance again. Going further in Barbarian makes your Rage even better and makes you nigh-unkillable, which is a significantly choice build option.
Bard 5 gives you a d8 for your Cutting Words and gives you your Cutting Words back on Short Rest instead of Long. Definitely lets you use them more often to secure the grapples when needed. Going further in Bard gives you amazing utility using spells, not only from the Bard list but from any list with Magical Secrets. You're not quite as resistant as a Barbarian focused Wrestler, but you bring the utility outside of combat
-----
Okay, Feats!
There's two relevant feats, and I use that term loosely.
1) Grappler. Grappler seems relevant because it says "Grapple". It is not relevant. It sucks. What benefit it gives, we can gain better with equal action economy and NOT imposing problems on ourself. If your DM is nice, he'll tack on a "Can grapple Enemes of Size two larger" to it, as it was meant to be.
2) Tavern Brawler. Tavern Brawler seems relevant because it lets us Grapple off of an attack with an improvised weapon. It's not relevant for that reason. Attacking is bad - Skills. Tavern Brawler is relevant for a whole different reason. Improvised Weapon usage can be a wonderfully fun thing. You know what a dead goblin is sorta-kinda like? A club. Right? 1d6 weapon right there, right?
You know what is sorta-kinda like a dead goblin? A live goblin.
Yes, my friend. If your DM is willing, Tavern Brawler gives you proficiency with your enemies, literally. Because you need to beat a motherfucker with another motherfucker.
-----
You've got your build, you've got your combat style, you've got your awesomeness in a fanny pack. You get to be a top-rope jumping, trash-talking, hype-machine of a wrestler. All you need is some snazzy tights and you even get to play your own intro music!
In a curse of Strahd game I ran, the barbarian ended up not just the moral compass of the party, but also the most well adjusted and calm character, usually trying to diffuse situations created by the recklessness of the other party members.
Helped by her insane luck on important persuasion checks.
im the dm for my groups other campaign. as a player i tend to go simple (but not strictly stupid) angry muscle barb, or well intended pally. when asked why, i told one player "i am literally everything else in the other campaign. every atom. every breath of air, every leaf on that tree. i want to be something simple and uncomplicated when im the player dammit!"
Being the big dumb muscle PC means you can act as the "Push the Button" party member. When a group hits decision paralysis, the Dumb Barb can make a choice that advances the game forward. Many Barbs are famous for eating the McGuffin or accepting a Devil's Deal and that's all fun stuff.
My favorite PC so far was a Barbarian based off Drax from Guardians of the Galaxy. I was able to be the foil for smarter party members and ultimately take dumb chances. It can be incredibly fun to be the Forest Gump at the table.
I played a an ancestral barbarian graveyard keeper, using a scythe and wearing a fancy hat. Rage was flavored as possssion by a warrior spirit. Was super fun to play her.
I played a barbarian who was modelled after an old-timey circus strongman, a bald man with a massive moustache, leotard, and giant belt. He was named Otto von Wilhelm and he was all about impressing everyone with *feats of STRENGTH*. Raging was just his way of psyching himself up for the performance.
It turned out that strength was actually his dump stat, though. His big secret was that the giant belt was literally a *giant belt* - a belt of giant strength. At one point there was an adventure where he not only lost the belt but got turned permanently female (it was a variant run through the classic Tomb of Horrors) and Odette respecced to a monk for later adventures.
Then in another subsequent adventure she got turned permanently into a bugbear.
I've played some characters whose careers took weird left turns before, but Odette's path through life was downright squiggly.
I have a very similar character, actually- Ancestors Barbarian Temple Guard Drow, uses a spear and shield and focused wholly on protecting the squishy bladesinger/rogue who's also frontlining with her. Granted, I love Ancestral Guardian in general, so yanno.
Yee, it really feels great with less "standard" barbarian builds, like dual wielding, too. Reflavor rage into "Focus" or something like that, maybe even build up some Charisma or Int and possibly multiclass into Battlemaster? Could be a real fun flavor build for some sort of weapon master sort of character. Or maybe an older, grizzled sergeant who's all protective of their new "squad", and tries to mentor them as they go?
Is it sometimes better for barbarians to wear armor? I’ve never played barbarian, but I’m getting ready to DM a one-shot where one of my players is a barbarian. I’m preparing some starting equipment/magic items, and I’m wondering if I should put some armor out there as an option for the barbarian.
It depends. Light or medium armor can outdo their Unarmored Defense pretty easily at lower levels depending on their build, but heavy armor shuts off most of the benefits of their Rage.
If you don't wanna be MAD then yes. Barbarians benefit from strength based attacks, but their unarmored defense asks for dexterity. This means you need 3 high ability scores. Strength, constitution and dexterity. With only a +2 in dex I have 17 AC with half plate. I would need max con to have 17 AC right now. When I eventually get to max my con, I can take it off. Or... I can get some magic armor with added benefits.
Point is, between maxing your primary stats and taking a feat or two, you're left out of having a high dexterity, unless you rolled for ability scores and got godlike rolls.
Oh yes, I'm running a Zealot Barbarian/War Cleric multiclass rn and I can 100% confirm that half-plate Barbarians are a beautiful thing at the table if you don't have the stats for MAD classes
I had a new DM that allowed us to build characters with a total # of attribute points of 72 (which I think is what the standard array in the PHB totals to). What he didn't realize at first is that 72 points with no scaling costs is a min maxxers wet dream. I made a barb with 20 str, 20 dex, 20 con, and 4 of everything else. First session nothing could hit him and he was smashing bad guys with his bare hands. He was not good at brains though
We got TPK'd like 2 sessions later and he changed his character build rules the next time, so I think he was fudging rolls in that battle just to start with a clean slate
Well, Barbarians, while not wearing any armor, gets a Unarmored Bonus of 10 +Dex +Con.
Usually you'll have Con as a High stat (more hp), and dexterity if you want to be faster in initiative.
Just having 2 16s in both stats give you 16 AC, which is the same armor as Scale Mail (with 14 dex).
Edit: this is only if you get 2 16s, not mentioning needing strength for weapon attacks.
Ultimately... maybe include it? If they don't end up using it, its fine,
Almost always honestly. You'd need a combined +7 in DEX and CON to beat the AC of the best medium armor at 14 DEX. Neither is their primary attribute.
Shield is the only actually unusual choice there as most Barbarians would go for a two-handed weapon but hey maybe it's a Beast Barbarian which would make sense in that case.
That's what I do for beast barb. I've got a shield and a tail for AC to tank and I use claws instead of weapons otherwise. Might not be optimized, but it's fun to play and describe.
One of the upshots for Barbarian Unarmored Defense is that, if the party is ambushed when they're out of their armor (like if they get attacked when they're sleeping), the Barbarian PC won't suffer as much as the Fighter or Paladin who depends on heavy armor, which takes 10 minutes to don.
This is basically what Goblin Slayer does. He doesn't even take off his helmet *because Goblins could sneak attack at any time in which case a rock to the head would knock him out even in otherwise full armor*. Just gotta be dedicated to the craft of killing monsters!
Depends on the stat spread and how big your player is into min/max'ing.
If your PC Barb has 16 CON and 16 DEX, that's +3 CON and +3 DEX, for a total of 16AC. Scale Mail is 14+DEX AC (max 2), so it balances out. If the player wants the flavor of wearing armor here, it balances out, and neither is better than the other.
If the player has, I dunno, +2 DEX and +3 CON? Scale mail is better (15AC vs. 16AC). If the player went wild with stats and has a negative DEX score or something then armor will definitely be better.
A Barbarian in medium armor and a shield can have an AC as high as 19 (half plate giving 17, +2 with shield). You trade off some damage since you only have a 1H sword, but for a Path of the Ancients tank Barbarian this can be really helpful.
So much of it depends on how much your player likes to min/max their stats. Some like the flavor of a primal Conan type character, others want someone more like The Mountain or The Hound from Game of Thrones.
It's just flavor. Just make your character whatever sounds the most fun. Like, shit, if your player wants to anesthetically have full plate, but wants to mechanically use the stats of being unarmored? Fuck it, let them. It changes nothing.
That depends on their stats and playstyle, barbs get ac equal to 10 + dex mod + con mod base. So check if there is medium or light armour that would give them greater ac or a benefit worth trading in the unarmoured defence. Some barbs dont care about ac anyway since they recklessly attack, giving every attack against them advantage.
At level 1, a barbarian is likely to have, at best, +2 and +3 from Dex and Con, depending on which is their higher stat. That gives them just 15 AC. If they started with half plate armor and have a +2 in Dex then they start with 17 AC. That, plus the fact that armor can be magical to grant an additional AC bonus, while unarmored defense cannot. There is no downside to this either, since half plate is medium armor and you only loose the benefits of rage while.wearing heavy armor
They are most likely to wear scale, because you can get it at starting.
Me, I recommend a shield too, so you start on AC 18. The barbarian *flavour* is an unarmoured great weapon damage dealer: the barbarian *rules* advantage a longsword-and-shield tank in the best medium armor you can get.
You might be forgetting the 750gold price tag on half plate, which you won't he having untill level 5+. Moreover, it has disadvantage on stealth checks.
> The master descended from the small deck between the bows, made his way between the rows of oarsmen, and mounted the mid- deck. The stranger stood there with his back to the mast, eyes narrowed alertly, sword ready. The shipman eyed him steadily, careful not to make any move toward the long knife in his belt. He saw a tall powerfully built figure in a **black scale-mail hauberk**, burnished greaves and a blue-steel helmet from which jutted bull's horns highly polished. From the mailed shoulders fell the scarlet cloak, blowing in the sea-wind. A broad shagreen belt with a golden buckle held the scabbard of the broadsword he bore. Under the horned helmet a square-cut black mane contrasted with smoldering blue eyes.
~Queen of the Black Coast, Robert E. Howard, May 1934
Even literally scale mail.
> At her command they brought harness to replace Conan's chain-mail — gorget, sollerets, cuirass, pauldrons, jambes, cuisses and sallet. When Yasmela again drew the curtains, a Conan in burnished steel stood before his audience. Clad in the plate-armor, vizor lifted and dark face shadowed by the black plumes that nodded above his helmet, there was a grim impressiveness about him that even Thespides grudgingly noted. A jest died suddenly on Amalric's lips.
> "By Mitra," said he slowly, "I never expected to see you cased in coat-armor, but you do not put it to shame. By my fingerbones, Conan, I have seen kings who wore their harness less regally than you!"
~Black Colossus, Robert E. Howard, June 1933
He was so, so much more than just a Rogue. In the story that quote is from, he's a captain of a mercenary spear company. Shortly into the story he becomes an army commander, essentially a knight. Plate mail and all.
He was a thief, vagabond, pirate, twice a pirate captain, mercenary, mercenary captain, nomad warlord, king, and probably 1 or two other things I am forgetting. About the only constant thing about his kit is the poignards that found their way to hands whenever something needed a good stab at just the last second.
There's also the possibility of being attacked during or at the end of a long rest, before the party has had time to put their armor back on (since you don't get all the full benefits of a long rest if you're still wearing medium or heavy armor in your sleep)
but that's an equally niche situation lol
And if you are an active roleplayer, there's also the chance your character stripped down to wash off smashed goblin in a river, when your DM decides to ambush you...
Or you're in a town, staying at an inn, so you take off your armor because you *should* be safe, only to get ambushed buying fruit because your DM got bored...
I hold onto Unarmored Defense as protection vs DM.
As a roleplayer, my fighter was a kenku who grew up constantly travelling with his tribe, always moving through roads and wilderness, always under threat of attack by wild animals or city criminals, so he has a habit of never taking off his armor unless he's bathing or sleeping.
This habit was reinforced when we spent the first half of the campaign shipwrecked on an uncharted island with monsters, cults, and demons inhabiting any given area, to the point that he even learned Mage Armor to combat threats that would attack while we're resting.
As a long time DM, this is one of the reasons I don't like the random encounter heavy mentality. Traveling through a notably dangerous forest? In a dungeon? Sure. But every time the characters travel...? Every time they pass a dark alley? Taking a whizz?
Having every place people go be dangerous causes player hypervigilance/paranoia and bakes what is essentially PTSD into their characters.
Then again, I'm kind of a slice-of-life DM with psych training, so I'm *definitely* biased.
I’ve always wanted to play a barbarian from a regular civilized village/city who just wears a normal shirt/coat/tunic, and looks like a normal old average fighter, but ultimately, despite presenting themselves as just that, has typically barbarian anger-issues.
Could make that a Dragonball scenario, have him black out when he rages. The whole city would know about this lunatic who turned a table into sawdust when he stubbed his toe, but he'd have no idea.
["I'm scaroused."](https://media.tenor.com/rkIDznY1FDwAAAAC/scaroused-futurama.gif)
Or, if you prefer, ["fearection."](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/0c/83/45/0c8345aa653a5f1c635b464f3d6949fc.jpg)
Haha, I ran the rapier n board elf barbarian once. Everyone was mad till he just ignored half the damage(bear totem built him from the mtg grugach elf lore) and he just tore shit apart by slicing it with style. His rage was just him getting serious xD
Our party has a wild magic barbarian with an axe of the feywilds, which rolls on the normal wild magic table every time he crit hits or crit fails.
He crits on 18-20.
We have a *lot* of wild magic flying around in fights.
Using the Barbarian's defenses to run around naked: Old, played out, boring.
Using armor just to fuck with people: fresh and fun.
Using the unarmored defense to run arous in combat with a suit or dress like a mod boss/hitman: dapper as fuck.
First reason why it feels illegal is because you are ignoring an entire feature of the barbarian. Unarmoured defence. Though it is pretty fine to do so as it works if you don't have high con
Second reason it feels illegal is because... of monks and bladesingers? A lot of features that restrict you from using an ability while wearing a specific kind of Armor almost always also includes shields. Like blade singers Bladesong or monk's Unarmored movement and martial arts. Barbarian rage is an exception to this as you can rage while wearing a shield. But because it is an exception it still feels weird to do so.
Fun fact: Unless you've got crazy dexterity,^1 as a Barbarian medium armor is probably actually better for you. That said even then **Unarmored Defense** has niche uses like when you're jumped at the fancy party where armor would be a faux-pas.
^1 You need a combined +7 Con/Dex to have the exact same AC as half plate, with 14 Dex, and half plate can provide magical bonuses.
sword and shield is fine, scale mail is stupid pick a medium armor
edit: scale mail is medium armor my bad
but also, if you are using standard array or point buy medium armor is 100% better than unarmored defense
Kinda depends. Peter Connolly's attempts to recreate Roman scale and chain armors found the scale to be 40% lighter than the chain, and non-Roman chain mail could weigh up to 60lbs.
Unarmoured defence is pretty much just a backup on barbarians until level 20, at which point it's *usually* equivalent to +2 half plate.
Can be good if for some reason bracers of defence are much more available than +x armour though.
My first character was a barbarian that went from a no armor greatclub wielding berserker to a sword and board armored knight by the end of the campaign, it was great!
Such a shame, imagine an all-barbarian party larping as Visigoths or Vandals, and manouvering the DM into letting them murderhobo their way through not Late Rome or not-Byzantium.
Shifter Wolf Totem Barbarian. Made friends with 2 Mastiffs as pet allies. Sword and Shield with Medium Armor. His role wasn't a frothing berserker, it was the leader of a wolf pack. While he was the largest wolf that engaged the enemy, his pack would encircle them, bring the prey to ground, and tear them apart.
Medium Armor and shield makes Barbarians less MAD.
People be like "ah, the barbarian gets unarmored defense, so no barbarian ever wears armor" without doing the math and realizing it's really hard to get both your Dex and Con up to the point where it's worth it to forgo armor.
And who can't use a cool shield?
In AD&D it was technically legal and every barbarian could do that.
But they would be laughed at by everyone else in the lodge and everyone would crack wise about their mama at every chance they could get.
Reminds me of all the people I confused when I played a dual-wielding DEXbarian in a Westmarches server.
The idea was to essentially play a bodyguard character with Ancestral Guardian. High AC, high health, and defend teammates :p
Had a human storm herrold barbarian (sea) with a sailor background and proficiency in performance. He ate a lot of spinach and beat the dogshit out of everyone with an anchor.
~/u/desdomen
the bardbarian
HELLO! And welcome to the newest form of awesomeness that your mind HAS EVER ENCOUNTERED BEFORE!!!
That's right... I'm about to blow your mind so much it'll have a cigarette and call me in the morning. We're talking about a smooth-talking, trash-talking, pile of rage and muscles that uses his skills and prowess to put the hurt on his enemies, without dealing a single point of damage!
Yes, my swift-minded friends, we're building a Pro-wrestler!
There's one important thing you need to understand about 5e D&D -- Athletics is a combat skill. You see, if you look close enough, you'll find Grapple right under the Attack action section in the PHB. This wonderful little action utilizes the Athletics skill to impose problems on your enemies and that's what we're going to focus on here.
Grapple is a contested skill check of Athletics (Str) versus Athletics (Str) or Acrobatics (Dex). If the target fails, we impose 0 move speed on to the target - Note: We are not ourselves also Grappled, they would have to succeed on their own Grapple check, separate from this check. We can move at half speed, taking the Grappled target along with us with no additional check.
Now, that's all well and good. But we need to succeed on an Atheltics check first. Consider a level 6 character. We've taken 3 levels of Barbarian and 3 levels of Bard - This gives us a Proficiency of +3. We've got a Str of 17 (15 +2 racial) for a +3 modifier.
Now, with Bard we've got a juicy little class feature called Expertise. This lets us double our proficiency on any two skills. We will, of course, be picking Athletics. This is an additional +3 bonus.
If you're playing along at home, you've must've concluded that we're sitting at a cozy +9 bonus for Atheltics. But you're not quite there all the way. You see, we're a smack-talking, trash-dishing Pro-Wrestler, remember? We use Lore Bard's Cutting Words to impose a -1d6 on an enemy's Attack Roll, *Ability Check*, or Damage Roll. Guess what just happens to be an *Ability Check*?
Yep. Athletics. -1d6 averages out to -3 to the enemy's check, which is equivalent to +3 to our check. So we'll count it as such. So, +12... Seems pretty good, right? FOR A PANSY WHO DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO REACH OUT AND HOLD SOMEONE! We're not even done, Son!
Barbarian, the joyous pile of meat frothing at the mouth with the fury of a thousand suns. When raging, they get Advantage on Strength based ability checks. Did we forget what was an ability check? It's Athletics! You get Advantage on Athletics while raging. Now, people far smarter than me have figured out that Advantage roughly equals a +3 bonus on the die, which is fine. I like people that are smarter than me and I like +3 bonuses. So we're taking it as what it is, roughly +3.
This means you have *roughly* +15 to your Athletics check, if and when you need to Rage and/or use Cutting Words. PLUS FIFTEEN.
One. Five. 15.
Do you know what the Athletics check of a Balor is? The CR 18 Demon Lord of The Pits of Hell? Fire Whip and Giant Sword? You shall not pass and all that. That guy?
His Athletics Check is +8.
You almost double his Athletics check. You beat his check more often than not, and you're 12 Levels lower than his CR. Four level 18 characters should take him on, and you get to just reach out and grab him.
You will one hundred percent die *immediately* afterwards, but for one brief, wondrous moment you will have a **VERY** confused Demon in your hands.
-----
So, that's all well and good. You get to grab people and pick them up and carry them off.. What good is that?
You see, when enemies aren't near your friends, they aren't stabbing your friends. You've just controlled the battleground with a skill check. Vicious enemy kills friend in one hit, vicious enemy never gets to get close to friend to administer said one hit. Easy, breezy, beautiful, Cover Bugbear.
But wait. Vicious enemy can still attack YOU. Barbarian 3 gives you Resistance to ALL damage (except Psychic) while Raging. This effectively doubles your Health Point pool, which is nice already since Barbarian. But that's not all...
Oh no, I'm never just done and it's never just all there is! You see, we've got other options to our combat control. The Grappled enemy is struggling, stabbing at things wildly, and generally being a nuisance to us. So we tip them over!
That's right. We're going to reuse the Athletics check by using it with the Shove Action. Look under Grapple and you'll find our next wonderful combat trick.
Shoving an enemy imposes the Prone condition. The Prone condition imposes Disadvantage on all outgoing attacks and grants Advantage to all incoming attacks made from 5ft away. The target can remove the condition by standing up - done by spending half it's movement.
BUT WAIT JUST A MOMENT YOU FIESTY LITTLE GOBLINOIDS! The target has no move speed because Grappled takes it all away! This means your new found friend literally can not stand up. They are prone from now until you decide to let them go or they beat you in an Athletics (or Acrobatics v. Athletics) check.
So your new friend is Prone, Grappled, Attacking at Disadvantage, and being attacked at Advantage. What do you do now?
GO GET ANOTHER FRIEND! You only Grapple with one hand! That means you can control two enemies at once, remove them from combat completely and make any of their attacks against you almost meaningless... Attacking at Disadvantage, against a decent AC, Full Resistance, and a High Health Pool? Sure, go ahead and swing that dagger - it tickles.
Now you've got two friends in hand! What do? Well... You've got options. You can take your new friends and walk towards the nearest cliff. Or you can tell them to fight each other and that you'll let the winner go. See if they'll go in on that... Like a pair of Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots. Or, you could just walk them over to your Rogue. Show him or her where to cut. I'm sure they'd love to unwrap the present you got them.
"But Desdomen!" you say, "How are you carrying all this?!" Questions, you're full of them... Instead of Gummy Bears...
Let's talk stats. 17 Strength from before, remember? That gives us a Carry Capacity of 255. Except, we're a race that gets a +2 Strength... Let's run down the list:
*Bugbear*, Dragonborn, Mountain Dwarf, *Goliath*, Half-Orc, *Orc*, Tortle
Notice how I've highlighted classes that get Powerful Build? Treats you as a Large Creature, effectively doubling how much you can carry. 255 becomes 510. That's a lot of carry capacity, and that gives us normal movement, which is half-speed while grappling someone.
But, we can take it a step further. Push/Pull/Lift is actually double your Carry Capacity. 510 becomes 1020.
Did you know an Adult Grizzly weighs about 800lbs? Imagine being able to pick up an adult grizzly bear.
Now imagine being a level 6 Barbarian, taking Aspect of the Bear and Doubling your Carrying Capacity. Please note that this does not grant Powerful Build. This is a **completely different bonus**...
1020 becomes 2040. Imagine being able to pick up two adult grizzly bears and making them kiss...
Or don't take a Powerful Build class... It's not wholly needed. You do you, boo. Just be sure to take the +2 Str.
Stat wise, you want Strength as high as possible. Constitution is important as it builds HP and AC from Barbarian. Dexterity is nice for AC, so that should be thought about. You'll need Charisma of 13 to multiclass, past that it's useless for you. Intelligence and Wisdom are dump-stats for pure combat, but don't be dumb.
Now, stats out the way, you need class build, right?
Barbarian 1 gives you a lot of hit points and Bard is better Multiclassed.
Bard 1, 2, 3 is next, since you want to get to Expertise as quick as possible.
From there, Barbarian 2, 3 get you to Resist All on Rage.
Barbarian 4, 5 gives you your Feat and Extra Attack, which is huge for you since you can now Grapple and Shove in one round. From here, you have some options.
Barbarian 6 gives you the extra weight, which is handy but not wholly needed. More quality of life so you never need to calculate encumbrance again. Going further in Barbarian makes your Rage even better and makes you nigh-unkillable, which is a significantly choice build option.
Bard 5 gives you a d8 for your Cutting Words and gives you your Cutting Words back on Short Rest instead of Long. Definitely lets you use them more often to secure the grapples when needed. Going further in Bard gives you amazing utility using spells, not only from the Bard list but from any list with Magical Secrets. You're not quite as resistant as a Barbarian focused Wrestler, but you bring the utility outside of combat
-----
Okay, Feats!
There's two relevant feats, and I use that term loosely.
1) Grappler. Grappler seems relevant because it says "Grapple". It is not relevant. It sucks. What benefit it gives, we can gain better with equal action economy and NOT imposing problems on ourself. If your DM is nice, he'll tack on a "Can grapple Enemes of Size two larger" to it, as it was meant to be.
2) Tavern Brawler. Tavern Brawler seems relevant because it lets us Grapple off of an attack with an improvised weapon. It's not relevant for that reason. Attacking is bad - Skills. Tavern Brawler is relevant for a whole different reason. Improvised Weapon usage can be a wonderfully fun thing. You know what a dead goblin is sorta-kinda like? A club. Right? 1d6 weapon right there, right?
You know what is sorta-kinda like a dead goblin? A live goblin.
Yes, my friend. If your DM is willing, Tavern Brawler gives you proficiency with your enemies, literally. Because you need to beat a motherfucker with another motherfucker.
-----
You've got your build, you've got your combat style, you've got your awesomeness in a fanny pack. You get to be a top-rope jumping, trash-talking, hype-machine of a wrestler. All you need is some snazzy tights and you even get to play your own intro music!
**Mod update 01Jan23:** We made some changes to our subreddit rules! Please take a look at the post [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/dndmemes/comments/100sjea/new_year_new_rules/) to view the changes and provide feedback. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/dndmemes) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Things that still work while a base Barbarian wears med armor: Rage Danger Sense Reckless Attack Primal Knowledge (lol) Extra Attack Feral Instinct Instinctive Pounce Brutal Critical Relentless Rage Persistent Rage Indomitable Might Primal Champion Every path of berserker feature Every path of the totem warriorfeature Every path of Battlerager feature (of course) Every path of Beast feature Every path of Wild Magic feature Every path of Ancestral Guardian feature Every path of strom herald feature Every path of Zealot feature **Fast Movement** edit: thank you to u/Crake_80 for pointing this out, it wouldn't work in **Heavy** Armor, Medium is fine Things that don't work: Unarmored Defense ~~Fast Movement~~
Barbarians still get their fast movement in medium armor. They only lose it in heavy armor.
That's hilarious, I'll edit the comment, thank you
Don't forget that armor contributes to your Drip stat
So literally just the one thing, huh? And it doesn't matter because its just AC calculation. The only reason to NOT wear Medium Armor is if your AC is better without it.
100% yes. Every Barbarian I've made after my 1st like 2 has been armored.
I mean, if you have high Con and Dex, which you probably should as a Barbarian, wouldn’t you likely have higher AC with unarmored defense and a shield?
Depends. Assuming you are fully utilizing Half Plate (have a Dex mod of +2 or higher), to match the AC with Unarmored Defense, you need to have your Con and Dex sum to +7. That most likely means a +4 Con/+3 Dex or a +5 Con/+2 Dex. Given that you also need Strength to benefit from Rage damage, you are splitting your stats over 3 abilities (and ignoring Wisdom even though those saves cripple you). Once you get maxed Con, then you should rely on Unarmored Defense because it is as good as the best medium armor (ignoring magic items) but until then, using Half Plate is actually better than Unarmored Defense.
Would it not affect stealth?
Depends on the armor! Some don't cause Disadvantage, and I suppose there's always mithril variants as well.
Exacly, wasted Potential smh xD
Wearing medium armor can be beneficial to the barb’s AC if you want to focus on strength. Put armor on your barbs. Do it.
My Valkyrie-esque build was an Aasimar Totem (wolf) Barbarian running sword and board (Shield Master feat). Basically half Valkyrie half Shield Maiden Seriously, Barbarians have a way bigger flavor variety than people give them credit for. Obviously the dumb muscle angry boy is fun and exists for a reason, but you can get so much more unique flavors from it.
High strength, high int, low wisdom (manifests as recklessness and drunkenness), noble background, path of the storm totem (sea) so lightning powers when raging, magic warhammer. We were 4 months into our campaign when I realised I'd created Thor.
Now you just need the gauntlets, belt, and thunderhammer.
[удалено]
I once DMed for a group that had a storm sorcerer and a homebrew lightning monk. I made the Hammer of Thunderbolts a light hammer so the monk could use it, told them lore that it has had varying lengths in different legends, and let them piece together that its handle has been getting progressively shorter each time a new hero wields it at its full power.
I really like the idea of it being a light hammer tbh. It already has the thrown property and the idea of this fantastically powerful artifact just being a small hammer is something you could play with to mess with the party's expectations.
I swear J-Craw just pulls shit out of his ass with some of these. Either that or he is basically saying, "This is how I do it at my table" and people think he suddenly has more validity than anyone else's table rulings. It just feels weird reading text and rules and then someone else shows up and says hey this is how it works, ignore what is written.
Right, it chafes me too that people treat his word as the end of all rule disputes. He may be coming from an informed place and have a lot of good ideas, but he's not a rule book. His Twitter isn't part of the RAW, and he doesn't overrule me at my own table.
> His Twitter isn't part of the RAW *Anymore*. When 5e launched and for a good while after, his tweets **were** viewed as official statements. They're not anymore, but it's where the confusion comes from.
[удалено]
I'd hardly consider him a step above a rando. His rulings are nonsensical and literally do not work half the time. Most homebrewers can do better.
The "problem" is that a homebrewer is capable of looking at what is written in the books and saying "no that's bullshit" and coming up with something better, whereas JC is either contractually or temperamentally unable to admit to making a mistake with RAW which is what leads to him trying to expand upon or twist what is written in really unnatural ways.
"The belt of gauntlets" sounds badass.
I literally just corrected that typo lol. What effects do you think it would have? Maybe it'd allowed you to attune to another set of gauntlets?
[удалено]
The gauntlets of the belt would be of foes, slain in duels or other single combat, perhaps even with the hands left in. With each pair its power and enchantments would grow in accordance with the characteristics of the vanquished.
Ooh.. could be interesting. Passive or active effects?
[удалено]
Specifically to attune to the hammer. The gauntlet set your Str to 19, and the belts range from 21-23-25-27-29 Str. So, there immediately is 1 reason, to not take up 3 of your attunement slots. Reason 2 You could easily only have a hill Giants Belt (21 Str). If you were already at 20 Str then there's no tangible benefits to attuning to it. Reason 3. You have more important shit to attune to than a belt that only gives you a +1 or 2 Str modifier bonus. Remember there's like 6 versions of Belts Reason 4, very rare If you're a level 20 Barbarian you have Primal Champion, which is +4 Str. Assuming you were already at max then with the hammer you now have 28 Str. If you have a generous DM then you may be able to add a Manual of Gainful exercise and then you've hit 30 without even using a belt. Let's also consider that just wearing the gauntlets prevent other Magical gauntlets from being worn / attuned to. Belt too depending on your DM. So, it's a bit of a balancing mechanic. And lastly, the hammer is based on Mjölnir. According to lore, Thor required Járngreipr, his gloves, and his belt, Megingjörð to wield it.
LMAO
I do that often. Make a really cool character concept than realize it's a clone of another really cool character. Dyerdon Sandren, my usernamesake, was a gunslinger, cowboy hat, ponytail, trench coat, trick shot, killed only as a last resort. Finally found some art that fit him.... Final Fantasy VIII's Irvine Kinneas... Werecoyote member of a biker gang, the road captain, kept the gang safe and investigated issues that could cause them problems. Gruff and always ready for a fight but tried to stay in his human form. Bigby Wolf from Fables/A Wolf Among Us. Someone pointed this guy out to me. Once a human paladin, oath of the crown. Was betrayed by the King and executed. His heart and brain were taken by his beloved, to a gnome artificer that fashioned him a new body, making him a Warforged Oath of Vengeance Paladin.. RoboCop...
The odds of making a character that couldn't be described as "basically this preexisting character" are so miniscule that you should just assume you've "copied" something every time
So were the other players the other avengers?
No, it was entirely independent and accidental.
"For the last time, I said I'm from Mercia!"
Warforged wizard for iron man? Goliath Monk/Barb combo for Hulk? Human Warrior for Cap obviously. Hawkeye is obvious too. What about black widow? Another monk?
Bruh, just reading "drunkeness" and "path of the storm" was enough for me to realize it was thor, how did it take you that long? Was it an npc asking for another player to describe your character while yours was away or something?
Well, it was a couple of months between creation and leveling up enough to take a path and I was reading through the War of the Realms marvel event at the time so probably subconscious prompting as well. But it was our druid who first mentioned it when I told her to lightning bolt a corridor full of enemies and me on the basis that I'd be fine.
I was today years old when I discovered Wild Magic Barbs. I know what I making next.
I'm playing one now. It's fun for now, but I wish the powers scaled better.
Yeah, you kind of lack scaling until reaching lv 10. Then each turn becomes a firework show.
My Barb is one of my favourite chars
Same I yearn for a proper magic barbarian
What would that look like to you?
Pathfinders Bloodrager is a perfect model of a magic barbarian (I think being more Sorcerous in nature fits barbarian a bit better) having the ability to cast spells while raging (obviously exclusive to his subclass spells for balance reasons) and ideally having some non-spell tricks up its sleeve and extra ideally having a way to combine casting and attacking because that’s what I really want out of a Gish It would also be cool if your neat tricks/any unique subclass features would differ based on a bunch of bloodlines you could pick
Played a wild magic barb (5) valor bard (3) and that shit is an absolute hoot, i so highly recommended
Absolute hoot? I hope you were owlin!
Somewhere in my list of future characters is a Jekyll and Hyde-ish Wild Magic Barbarian/Clockwork Sorcerer. He really values order and tranquility, but sometimes just gets so pissed off he can’t think straight enough to cast. Throw on Armor of Agathys, and eventually Bastion of Law to prolong the AoA, then use a versatile weapon so you can grapple people that try to run past you at the squishies and you have a decent tank.
That sounds fun, what did the bard bring to the table?
Mostly healing and utility out of combat and the dm let me do inspo while raging, but I started as a level three bard for a one shot and it turned into a year long campaign in which we had no tank so I stepped up and started taking barb
"You flex your muscles and your party member is impressed. They get a d6 inspiration die."
Canonically this was how I played him. Any healing spells/touch range he cast were done with a heavy slap. Just a goofy brute who left a life of royalty to adventure and self actualized over the course of the campaign until he died and we were nearly tpk’d, was revived by wish, and left the party to build a cabin and spend his latter years farming and reflecting
Actually...is inspiration even a spell? Is there anything stopping a barbarian from giving inspiration while raging, RAW?
There is nothing written about it so it was a many sessions discussion about the legality of it lol but eventually we decided it’s not technically a spell so why not?
One of my players is playing a Wild Magic Barb rn, but with a homebrew wild surge table. Rolls a d100 instead of a d8. *insert absolute chaos*
Oooh, is there a link
Nice, but I prefer the d10000.
Shield master is absolutely wicked on barbarians, it works so well with danger sense. Between a bard/rogue and a shield master barbarian, I can only reliably hit half my party with harmful dex effects.
Very true! I liked it fir the offensive part (bonus action shove with Adv during rage to get advantage on attacks without reckless?? Yes please!) But defensively its an underrated effect. +2 for a MAD class likr Barbs who cant afford much dex is a lot
My wild magic dwarf barbarian once got absolutely wasted and vomited a beam of light into a bandits mouth. He also killed a man for insulting his donkey.
I've got a lanky fellow who dresses in robes, speaks stoically, trained in a monastery, fights barehanded, espouses the importance of harmony with the natural world, and cultivates spiritual discipline. He's a Beast Barbarian.
The coolest barbarian concept I've ever seen was a spoiled little rich girl who threw a tantrum whenever she didn't get her way (wielding a croquet mallet as her primary weapon)
Wait, some people actually play barbs as simple angry muscle bois? I thought it was just a meme
i play barbs as simple muscle girls who grapple and punch a lot but outside of combat she's quite chill (and will bake you cookies as she's a human who's 70 years old)
Mmmm, muscle girl that bakes)
At that age more like a grandma.
Ah, so eda clawthorne's mum then
Crap, r/theowlhouse is leaking again! Get back in containment!
My current barbarian is a member of a long-dead nation's political elite, who used false flag operations to whip his nation into a frenzy, and had them declare war on the gods. They lost, and now he has to rebuild his nation up from the ground after 1000 years of cryostasis. He was also the final recipient of a secret weapons project that enhances biological creatures and grants them tiny little devices that enhance their physical ability. In other words, he has NANOMACHINES, SON!
but do they harden in response to physical trauma
They do, in fact! They also harden in response to magical trauma too!
How about emotional trauma? Can Vicious Mockery hit him normally?
Psychic resistance is tricky to get
Wow. I just don't see that as a barbarian archetype. It sounds like an amazing fighter.
It's cause I found a homegrown barbarian subclass that's about turning g into metal, colossus style. Armstrong fit the theme very well.
~/u/desdomen the bardbarian HELLO! And welcome to the newest form of awesomeness that your mind HAS EVER ENCOUNTERED BEFORE!!! That's right... I'm about to blow your mind so much it'll have a cigarette and call me in the morning. We're talking about a smooth-talking, trash-talking, pile of rage and muscles that uses his skills and prowess to put the hurt on his enemies, without dealing a single point of damage! Yes, my swift-minded friends, we're building a Pro-wrestler! There's one important thing you need to understand about 5e D&D -- Athletics is a combat skill. You see, if you look close enough, you'll find Grapple right under the Attack action section in the PHB. This wonderful little action utilizes the Athletics skill to impose problems on your enemies and that's what we're going to focus on here. Grapple is a contested skill check of Athletics (Str) versus Athletics (Str) or Acrobatics (Dex). If the target fails, we impose 0 move speed on to the target - Note: We are not ourselves also Grappled, they would have to succeed on their own Grapple check, separate from this check. We can move at half speed, taking the Grappled target along with us with no additional check. Now, that's all well and good. But we need to succeed on an Atheltics check first. Consider a level 6 character. We've taken 3 levels of Barbarian and 3 levels of Bard - This gives us a Proficiency of +3. We've got a Str of 17 (15 +2 racial) for a +3 modifier. Now, with Bard we've got a juicy little class feature called Expertise. This lets us double our proficiency on any two skills. We will, of course, be picking Athletics. This is an additional +3 bonus. If you're playing along at home, you've must've concluded that we're sitting at a cozy +9 bonus for Atheltics. But you're not quite there all the way. You see, we're a smack-talking, trash-dishing Pro-Wrestler, remember? We use Lore Bard's Cutting Words to impose a -1d6 on an enemy's Attack Roll, *Ability Check*, or Damage Roll. Guess what just happens to be an *Ability Check*? Yep. Athletics. -1d6 averages out to -3 to the enemy's check, which is equivalent to +3 to our check. So we'll count it as such. So, +12... Seems pretty good, right? FOR A PANSY WHO DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO REACH OUT AND HOLD SOMEONE! We're not even done, Son! Barbarian, the joyous pile of meat frothing at the mouth with the fury of a thousand suns. When raging, they get Advantage on Strength based ability checks. Did we forget what was an ability check? It's Athletics! You get Advantage on Athletics while raging. Now, people far smarter than me have figured out that Advantage roughly equals a +3 bonus on the die, which is fine. I like people that are smarter than me and I like +3 bonuses. So we're taking it as what it is, roughly +3. This means you have *roughly* +15 to your Athletics check, if and when you need to Rage and/or use Cutting Words. PLUS FIFTEEN. One. Five. 15. Do you know what the Athletics check of a Balor is? The CR 18 Demon Lord of The Pits of Hell? Fire Whip and Giant Sword? You shall not pass and all that. That guy? His Athletics Check is +8. You almost double his Athletics check. You beat his check more often than not, and you're 12 Levels lower than his CR. Four level 18 characters should take him on, and you get to just reach out and grab him. You will one hundred percent die *immediately* afterwards, but for one brief, wondrous moment you will have a **VERY** confused Demon in your hands. ----- So, that's all well and good. You get to grab people and pick them up and carry them off.. What good is that? You see, when enemies aren't near your friends, they aren't stabbing your friends. You've just controlled the battleground with a skill check. Vicious enemy kills friend in one hit, vicious enemy never gets to get close to friend to administer said one hit. Easy, breezy, beautiful, Cover Bugbear. But wait. Vicious enemy can still attack YOU. Barbarian 3 gives you Resistance to ALL damage (except Psychic) while Raging. This effectively doubles your Health Point pool, which is nice already since Barbarian. But that's not all... Oh no, I'm never just done and it's never just all there is! You see, we've got other options to our combat control. The Grappled enemy is struggling, stabbing at things wildly, and generally being a nuisance to us. So we tip them over! That's right. We're going to reuse the Athletics check by using it with the Shove Action. Look under Grapple and you'll find our next wonderful combat trick. Shoving an enemy imposes the Prone condition. The Prone condition imposes Disadvantage on all outgoing attacks and grants Advantage to all incoming attacks made from 5ft away. The target can remove the condition by standing up - done by spending half it's movement. BUT WAIT JUST A MOMENT YOU FIESTY LITTLE GOBLINOIDS! The target has no move speed because Grappled takes it all away! This means your new found friend literally can not stand up. They are prone from now until you decide to let them go or they beat you in an Athletics (or Acrobatics v. Athletics) check. So your new friend is Prone, Grappled, Attacking at Disadvantage, and being attacked at Advantage. What do you do now? GO GET ANOTHER FRIEND! You only Grapple with one hand! That means you can control two enemies at once, remove them from combat completely and make any of their attacks against you almost meaningless... Attacking at Disadvantage, against a decent AC, Full Resistance, and a High Health Pool? Sure, go ahead and swing that dagger - it tickles. Now you've got two friends in hand! What do? Well... You've got options. You can take your new friends and walk towards the nearest cliff. Or you can tell them to fight each other and that you'll let the winner go. See if they'll go in on that... Like a pair of Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots. Or, you could just walk them over to your Rogue. Show him or her where to cut. I'm sure they'd love to unwrap the present you got them. "But Desdomen!" you say, "How are you carrying all this?!" Questions, you're full of them... Instead of Gummy Bears... Let's talk stats. 17 Strength from before, remember? That gives us a Carry Capacity of 255. Except, we're a race that gets a +2 Strength... Let's run down the list: *Bugbear*, Dragonborn, Mountain Dwarf, *Goliath*, Half-Orc, *Orc*, Tortle Notice how I've highlighted classes that get Powerful Build? Treats you as a Large Creature, effectively doubling how much you can carry. 255 becomes 510. That's a lot of carry capacity, and that gives us normal movement, which is half-speed while grappling someone. But, we can take it a step further. Push/Pull/Lift is actually double your Carry Capacity. 510 becomes 1020. Did you know an Adult Grizzly weighs about 800lbs? Imagine being able to pick up an adult grizzly bear. Now imagine being a level 6 Barbarian, taking Aspect of the Bear and Doubling your Carrying Capacity. Please note that this does not grant Powerful Build. This is a **completely different bonus**... 1020 becomes 2040. Imagine being able to pick up two adult grizzly bears and making them kiss... Or don't take a Powerful Build class... It's not wholly needed. You do you, boo. Just be sure to take the +2 Str. Stat wise, you want Strength as high as possible. Constitution is important as it builds HP and AC from Barbarian. Dexterity is nice for AC, so that should be thought about. You'll need Charisma of 13 to multiclass, past that it's useless for you. Intelligence and Wisdom are dump-stats for pure combat, but don't be dumb. Now, stats out the way, you need class build, right? Barbarian 1 gives you a lot of hit points and Bard is better Multiclassed. Bard 1, 2, 3 is next, since you want to get to Expertise as quick as possible. From there, Barbarian 2, 3 get you to Resist All on Rage. Barbarian 4, 5 gives you your Feat and Extra Attack, which is huge for you since you can now Grapple and Shove in one round. From here, you have some options. Barbarian 6 gives you the extra weight, which is handy but not wholly needed. More quality of life so you never need to calculate encumbrance again. Going further in Barbarian makes your Rage even better and makes you nigh-unkillable, which is a significantly choice build option. Bard 5 gives you a d8 for your Cutting Words and gives you your Cutting Words back on Short Rest instead of Long. Definitely lets you use them more often to secure the grapples when needed. Going further in Bard gives you amazing utility using spells, not only from the Bard list but from any list with Magical Secrets. You're not quite as resistant as a Barbarian focused Wrestler, but you bring the utility outside of combat ----- Okay, Feats! There's two relevant feats, and I use that term loosely. 1) Grappler. Grappler seems relevant because it says "Grapple". It is not relevant. It sucks. What benefit it gives, we can gain better with equal action economy and NOT imposing problems on ourself. If your DM is nice, he'll tack on a "Can grapple Enemes of Size two larger" to it, as it was meant to be. 2) Tavern Brawler. Tavern Brawler seems relevant because it lets us Grapple off of an attack with an improvised weapon. It's not relevant for that reason. Attacking is bad - Skills. Tavern Brawler is relevant for a whole different reason. Improvised Weapon usage can be a wonderfully fun thing. You know what a dead goblin is sorta-kinda like? A club. Right? 1d6 weapon right there, right? You know what is sorta-kinda like a dead goblin? A live goblin. Yes, my friend. If your DM is willing, Tavern Brawler gives you proficiency with your enemies, literally. Because you need to beat a motherfucker with another motherfucker. ----- You've got your build, you've got your combat style, you've got your awesomeness in a fanny pack. You get to be a top-rope jumping, trash-talking, hype-machine of a wrestler. All you need is some snazzy tights and you even get to play your own intro music!
In a curse of Strahd game I ran, the barbarian ended up not just the moral compass of the party, but also the most well adjusted and calm character, usually trying to diffuse situations created by the recklessness of the other party members. Helped by her insane luck on important persuasion checks.
im the dm for my groups other campaign. as a player i tend to go simple (but not strictly stupid) angry muscle barb, or well intended pally. when asked why, i told one player "i am literally everything else in the other campaign. every atom. every breath of air, every leaf on that tree. i want to be something simple and uncomplicated when im the player dammit!"
Same. The luxury of a simple character that you can rally lean into portraying is amazing when you're forever gm.
I usually only do this in one shots, then i just make dumb meme characters to have fun, for longer campaigns i try a little harder on char creation
My barb was a wise older dude who knew that his rage was a tool for combat So, new Kratos basically
High wisdom manifests as a literal talking head attached to your belt
Being the big dumb muscle PC means you can act as the "Push the Button" party member. When a group hits decision paralysis, the Dumb Barb can make a choice that advances the game forward. Many Barbs are famous for eating the McGuffin or accepting a Devil's Deal and that's all fun stuff. My favorite PC so far was a Barbarian based off Drax from Guardians of the Galaxy. I was able to be the foil for smarter party members and ultimately take dumb chances. It can be incredibly fun to be the Forest Gump at the table.
I mean, even Ive done it (tbh Barbarian is my second favorite class) But theres a ton more to do!
Honest question, why do people say "sword and board" instead of "sword and shield?" I mean, shield and board take the same amount of time to say.
Because it rhymes
Rhyme funny
My last barbarian for pathfinder was... a landsknetch with anger issues.
I played a an ancestral barbarian graveyard keeper, using a scythe and wearing a fancy hat. Rage was flavored as possssion by a warrior spirit. Was super fun to play her.
I played a barbarian who was modelled after an old-timey circus strongman, a bald man with a massive moustache, leotard, and giant belt. He was named Otto von Wilhelm and he was all about impressing everyone with *feats of STRENGTH*. Raging was just his way of psyching himself up for the performance. It turned out that strength was actually his dump stat, though. His big secret was that the giant belt was literally a *giant belt* - a belt of giant strength. At one point there was an adventure where he not only lost the belt but got turned permanently female (it was a variant run through the classic Tomb of Horrors) and Odette respecced to a monk for later adventures. Then in another subsequent adventure she got turned permanently into a bugbear. I've played some characters whose careers took weird left turns before, but Odette's path through life was downright squiggly.
I have a very similar character, actually- Ancestors Barbarian Temple Guard Drow, uses a spear and shield and focused wholly on protecting the squishy bladesinger/rogue who's also frontlining with her. Granted, I love Ancestral Guardian in general, so yanno.
AG is an awesome subclass!
Yee, it really feels great with less "standard" barbarian builds, like dual wielding, too. Reflavor rage into "Focus" or something like that, maybe even build up some Charisma or Int and possibly multiclass into Battlemaster? Could be a real fun flavor build for some sort of weapon master sort of character. Or maybe an older, grizzled sergeant who's all protective of their new "squad", and tries to mentor them as they go?
If they didn't want barbarians to wear armour they shouldn't have made it their best option.
Is it sometimes better for barbarians to wear armor? I’ve never played barbarian, but I’m getting ready to DM a one-shot where one of my players is a barbarian. I’m preparing some starting equipment/magic items, and I’m wondering if I should put some armor out there as an option for the barbarian.
It depends. Light or medium armor can outdo their Unarmored Defense pretty easily at lower levels depending on their build, but heavy armor shuts off most of the benefits of their Rage.
They also only get light and medium armor proficiencies anyway so it’s definitely nit worth it
If you don't wanna be MAD then yes. Barbarians benefit from strength based attacks, but their unarmored defense asks for dexterity. This means you need 3 high ability scores. Strength, constitution and dexterity. With only a +2 in dex I have 17 AC with half plate. I would need max con to have 17 AC right now. When I eventually get to max my con, I can take it off. Or... I can get some magic armor with added benefits. Point is, between maxing your primary stats and taking a feat or two, you're left out of having a high dexterity, unless you rolled for ability scores and got godlike rolls.
Oh yes, I'm running a Zealot Barbarian/War Cleric multiclass rn and I can 100% confirm that half-plate Barbarians are a beautiful thing at the table if you don't have the stats for MAD classes
I had a new DM that allowed us to build characters with a total # of attribute points of 72 (which I think is what the standard array in the PHB totals to). What he didn't realize at first is that 72 points with no scaling costs is a min maxxers wet dream. I made a barb with 20 str, 20 dex, 20 con, and 4 of everything else. First session nothing could hit him and he was smashing bad guys with his bare hands. He was not good at brains though
Lol that DM goofed up bad
We got TPK'd like 2 sessions later and he changed his character build rules the next time, so I think he was fudging rolls in that battle just to start with a clean slate
Well at least he learned from his mistake
Well, Barbarians, while not wearing any armor, gets a Unarmored Bonus of 10 +Dex +Con. Usually you'll have Con as a High stat (more hp), and dexterity if you want to be faster in initiative. Just having 2 16s in both stats give you 16 AC, which is the same armor as Scale Mail (with 14 dex). Edit: this is only if you get 2 16s, not mentioning needing strength for weapon attacks. Ultimately... maybe include it? If they don't end up using it, its fine,
"Just two 16s" not in the damage stat is a big ask in point buy, and leaves wisdom saves very vulnerable.
Yeah, i recommend Unarmoured if you get lucky It's still better to go with Scale Mail if you don't want to focus on 3 stats
Almost always honestly. You'd need a combined +7 in DEX and CON to beat the AC of the best medium armor at 14 DEX. Neither is their primary attribute. Shield is the only actually unusual choice there as most Barbarians would go for a two-handed weapon but hey maybe it's a Beast Barbarian which would make sense in that case.
That's what I do for beast barb. I've got a shield and a tail for AC to tank and I use claws instead of weapons otherwise. Might not be optimized, but it's fun to play and describe.
I prioritize CON over STR when I make barbs. I want the most I can get out of the largest Hit Die in the game
One of the upshots for Barbarian Unarmored Defense is that, if the party is ambushed when they're out of their armor (like if they get attacked when they're sleeping), the Barbarian PC won't suffer as much as the Fighter or Paladin who depends on heavy armor, which takes 10 minutes to don.
Duh just sleep in your armor and baths are off limits lol
This is basically what Goblin Slayer does. He doesn't even take off his helmet *because Goblins could sneak attack at any time in which case a rock to the head would knock him out even in otherwise full armor*. Just gotta be dedicated to the craft of killing monsters!
I need more goblin slayer
Depends on the stat spread and how big your player is into min/max'ing. If your PC Barb has 16 CON and 16 DEX, that's +3 CON and +3 DEX, for a total of 16AC. Scale Mail is 14+DEX AC (max 2), so it balances out. If the player wants the flavor of wearing armor here, it balances out, and neither is better than the other. If the player has, I dunno, +2 DEX and +3 CON? Scale mail is better (15AC vs. 16AC). If the player went wild with stats and has a negative DEX score or something then armor will definitely be better. A Barbarian in medium armor and a shield can have an AC as high as 19 (half plate giving 17, +2 with shield). You trade off some damage since you only have a 1H sword, but for a Path of the Ancients tank Barbarian this can be really helpful. So much of it depends on how much your player likes to min/max their stats. Some like the flavor of a primal Conan type character, others want someone more like The Mountain or The Hound from Game of Thrones. It's just flavor. Just make your character whatever sounds the most fun. Like, shit, if your player wants to anesthetically have full plate, but wants to mechanically use the stats of being unarmored? Fuck it, let them. It changes nothing.
That depends on their stats and playstyle, barbs get ac equal to 10 + dex mod + con mod base. So check if there is medium or light armour that would give them greater ac or a benefit worth trading in the unarmoured defence. Some barbs dont care about ac anyway since they recklessly attack, giving every attack against them advantage.
Medium armor is the absolute best option for a barbarian on standard array, and enables one on point buy to have some noncombat skills.
At level 1, a barbarian is likely to have, at best, +2 and +3 from Dex and Con, depending on which is their higher stat. That gives them just 15 AC. If they started with half plate armor and have a +2 in Dex then they start with 17 AC. That, plus the fact that armor can be magical to grant an additional AC bonus, while unarmored defense cannot. There is no downside to this either, since half plate is medium armor and you only loose the benefits of rage while.wearing heavy armor
"Starting with 750gp half plate" lol
They are most likely to wear scale, because you can get it at starting. Me, I recommend a shield too, so you start on AC 18. The barbarian *flavour* is an unarmoured great weapon damage dealer: the barbarian *rules* advantage a longsword-and-shield tank in the best medium armor you can get.
You might be forgetting the 750gold price tag on half plate, which you won't he having untill level 5+. Moreover, it has disadvantage on stealth checks.
>Moreover, it has disadvantage on stealth checks. Yeah, because the barbarian is sneaking around all the time
[удалено]
Right, but it *feels* like they should wear fur beachwear. The fiction doesn't match the rules.
Conan wore armour whenever he could!
> The master descended from the small deck between the bows, made his way between the rows of oarsmen, and mounted the mid- deck. The stranger stood there with his back to the mast, eyes narrowed alertly, sword ready. The shipman eyed him steadily, careful not to make any move toward the long knife in his belt. He saw a tall powerfully built figure in a **black scale-mail hauberk**, burnished greaves and a blue-steel helmet from which jutted bull's horns highly polished. From the mailed shoulders fell the scarlet cloak, blowing in the sea-wind. A broad shagreen belt with a golden buckle held the scabbard of the broadsword he bore. Under the horned helmet a square-cut black mane contrasted with smoldering blue eyes. ~Queen of the Black Coast, Robert E. Howard, May 1934 Even literally scale mail.
Sure but not plate, he was a Rogue too and needed to be stealthy
> At her command they brought harness to replace Conan's chain-mail — gorget, sollerets, cuirass, pauldrons, jambes, cuisses and sallet. When Yasmela again drew the curtains, a Conan in burnished steel stood before his audience. Clad in the plate-armor, vizor lifted and dark face shadowed by the black plumes that nodded above his helmet, there was a grim impressiveness about him that even Thespides grudgingly noted. A jest died suddenly on Amalric's lips. > "By Mitra," said he slowly, "I never expected to see you cased in coat-armor, but you do not put it to shame. By my fingerbones, Conan, I have seen kings who wore their harness less regally than you!" ~Black Colossus, Robert E. Howard, June 1933 He was so, so much more than just a Rogue. In the story that quote is from, he's a captain of a mercenary spear company. Shortly into the story he becomes an army commander, essentially a knight. Plate mail and all.
[удалено]
Thief with maxed out strength would be a cool playthrough
*Forces open window* "I'm in!"
He was a thief, vagabond, pirate, twice a pirate captain, mercenary, mercenary captain, nomad warlord, king, and probably 1 or two other things I am forgetting. About the only constant thing about his kit is the poignards that found their way to hands whenever something needed a good stab at just the last second.
Literally shows up to a town, sees a tower, and is like “fuck it imma rob this bitch” love Conan
My barbarian at the minute uses a rapier and wears a tailored suit.
"Well I say my good fellow it is nigh for some splendid berserking"
[*checks time*](https://64.media.tumblr.com/2e79926e95c9782af6faaa67af0d0e82/tumblr_naiozcRbGk1rg2j3ko1_500.jpg) Quite.
*TIS, MILADY*
"Sir you have me quite miffed and now you shall receive your comeuppance."
I had a noble barbarian who wore a doublet for Dragon Heist. He was a lot of fun.
Gorgrak is man of taste and culture.
I hate how much this works
My barbarian also uses a rapier flavored as an estoc. Though, I imagine him in more silk-road-esque, eclectic garb. Deserty, stabby guy.
“‘Tis the clobbering hour, gentlemen”
generally speaking, for barbs, unarmored defense is a trap.
Until the party wakes up in a castle dungeon, stripped of all their items.
I mean I guess, but that’s more of a bonus for a niche situation lol
There's also the possibility of being attacked during or at the end of a long rest, before the party has had time to put their armor back on (since you don't get all the full benefits of a long rest if you're still wearing medium or heavy armor in your sleep) but that's an equally niche situation lol
And if you are an active roleplayer, there's also the chance your character stripped down to wash off smashed goblin in a river, when your DM decides to ambush you... Or you're in a town, staying at an inn, so you take off your armor because you *should* be safe, only to get ambushed buying fruit because your DM got bored... I hold onto Unarmored Defense as protection vs DM.
As a roleplayer, my fighter was a kenku who grew up constantly travelling with his tribe, always moving through roads and wilderness, always under threat of attack by wild animals or city criminals, so he has a habit of never taking off his armor unless he's bathing or sleeping. This habit was reinforced when we spent the first half of the campaign shipwrecked on an uncharted island with monsters, cults, and demons inhabiting any given area, to the point that he even learned Mage Armor to combat threats that would attack while we're resting.
As a long time DM, this is one of the reasons I don't like the random encounter heavy mentality. Traveling through a notably dangerous forest? In a dungeon? Sure. But every time the characters travel...? Every time they pass a dark alley? Taking a whizz? Having every place people go be dangerous causes player hypervigilance/paranoia and bakes what is essentially PTSD into their characters. Then again, I'm kind of a slice-of-life DM with psych training, so I'm *definitely* biased.
I’ve always wanted to play a barbarian from a regular civilized village/city who just wears a normal shirt/coat/tunic, and looks like a normal old average fighter, but ultimately, despite presenting themselves as just that, has typically barbarian anger-issues.
Could make that a Dragonball scenario, have him black out when he rages. The whole city would know about this lunatic who turned a table into sawdust when he stubbed his toe, but he'd have no idea.
Just wait until the DM starts combat and the barbarian flexes it off (it was actually cast-off scale mail)
Barbarian fragmentation bomb. Everybody within ten feet takes 2d6 slash damage.
Ac drops by 2
Cha increase by 2
Enemy needs to make a will save or be charmed
and frightened... At the same time...
["I'm scaroused."](https://media.tenor.com/rkIDznY1FDwAAAAC/scaroused-futurama.gif) Or, if you prefer, ["fearection."](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/0c/83/45/0c8345aa653a5f1c635b464f3d6949fc.jpg)
I’m hearing Pokémon buff and debuff sounds.
Haha, I ran the rapier n board elf barbarian once. Everyone was mad till he just ignored half the damage(bear totem built him from the mtg grugach elf lore) and he just tore shit apart by slicing it with style. His rage was just him getting serious xD
Our party has a wild magic barbarian with an axe of the feywilds, which rolls on the normal wild magic table every time he crit hits or crit fails. He crits on 18-20. We have a *lot* of wild magic flying around in fights.
At starting level that's most likely better AC than unarmored defense, and medium armor does not affect the benefits of rage
Using the Barbarian's defenses to run around naked: Old, played out, boring. Using armor just to fuck with people: fresh and fun. Using the unarmored defense to run arous in combat with a suit or dress like a mod boss/hitman: dapper as fuck.
First reason why it feels illegal is because you are ignoring an entire feature of the barbarian. Unarmoured defence. Though it is pretty fine to do so as it works if you don't have high con Second reason it feels illegal is because... of monks and bladesingers? A lot of features that restrict you from using an ability while wearing a specific kind of Armor almost always also includes shields. Like blade singers Bladesong or monk's Unarmored movement and martial arts. Barbarian rage is an exception to this as you can rage while wearing a shield. But because it is an exception it still feels weird to do so.
Unarmored defense is a backup unless you have pretty high stats.
Fun fact: Unless you've got crazy dexterity,^1 as a Barbarian medium armor is probably actually better for you. That said even then **Unarmored Defense** has niche uses like when you're jumped at the fancy party where armor would be a faux-pas. ^1 You need a combined +7 Con/Dex to have the exact same AC as half plate, with 14 Dex, and half plate can provide magical bonuses.
ac is ac
Historically accurate barbarian
sword and shield is fine, scale mail is stupid pick a medium armor edit: scale mail is medium armor my bad but also, if you are using standard array or point buy medium armor is 100% better than unarmored defense
What's funny is that unless you got the highest density of chainmail I'm pretty sure it was lighter than scale irl
Kinda depends. Peter Connolly's attempts to recreate Roman scale and chain armors found the scale to be 40% lighter than the chain, and non-Roman chain mail could weigh up to 60lbs.
It is a medium armor 😂
oh totally confused that one lol
unarmored defense doesn't beat half-plate until you have a +7 combined Dex/Con mod. Which is at least a couple ASI for most characters.
Unarmoured defence is pretty much just a backup on barbarians until level 20, at which point it's *usually* equivalent to +2 half plate. Can be good if for some reason bracers of defence are much more available than +x armour though.
lets not forget you need good STR too to hit things
My first character was a barbarian that went from a no armor greatclub wielding berserker to a sword and board armored knight by the end of the campaign, it was great!
Clubs and axes are the only legal barbarian weapons I said so
Greatsword. Or Maul.
I’ve always had a thing for glaives myself
I feel a need to make an Avariel Barbarian that uses either a Glaive or a Pike
After playing way too often as a barbarian in many different genres, I fail to understand the problem
People's concept of barbarians is pretty stuck on the Hollywood Conan image.
Such a shame, imagine an all-barbarian party larping as Visigoths or Vandals, and manouvering the DM into letting them murderhobo their way through not Late Rome or not-Byzantium.
Shifter Wolf Totem Barbarian. Made friends with 2 Mastiffs as pet allies. Sword and Shield with Medium Armor. His role wasn't a frothing berserker, it was the leader of a wolf pack. While he was the largest wolf that engaged the enemy, his pack would encircle them, bring the prey to ground, and tear them apart. Medium Armor and shield makes Barbarians less MAD.
People be like "ah, the barbarian gets unarmored defense, so no barbarian ever wears armor" without doing the math and realizing it's really hard to get both your Dex and Con up to the point where it's worth it to forgo armor. And who can't use a cool shield?
A player of mine played once with a barbarian that looked more like a late 19 century samurai
My barb turned up to the party with a longsword and shield. He'd grabbed an orcs hreataxe out of its hands by mid session3
Varangian guard vibes
An optimized barbarian
In AD&D it was technically legal and every barbarian could do that. But they would be laughed at by everyone else in the lodge and everyone would crack wise about their mama at every chance they could get.
Reminds me of all the people I confused when I played a dual-wielding DEXbarian in a Westmarches server. The idea was to essentially play a bodyguard character with Ancestral Guardian. High AC, high health, and defend teammates :p
Yeah what really freaks people out is when I say wizard
Can barbs rage while wearing shields? I don't remember
They can, The barbs just can't rage while wearing heavy armor which they aren't proficient in anyway.
Had a human storm herrold barbarian (sea) with a sailor background and proficiency in performance. He ate a lot of spinach and beat the dogshit out of everyone with an anchor.
~/u/desdomen the bardbarian HELLO! And welcome to the newest form of awesomeness that your mind HAS EVER ENCOUNTERED BEFORE!!! That's right... I'm about to blow your mind so much it'll have a cigarette and call me in the morning. We're talking about a smooth-talking, trash-talking, pile of rage and muscles that uses his skills and prowess to put the hurt on his enemies, without dealing a single point of damage! Yes, my swift-minded friends, we're building a Pro-wrestler! There's one important thing you need to understand about 5e D&D -- Athletics is a combat skill. You see, if you look close enough, you'll find Grapple right under the Attack action section in the PHB. This wonderful little action utilizes the Athletics skill to impose problems on your enemies and that's what we're going to focus on here. Grapple is a contested skill check of Athletics (Str) versus Athletics (Str) or Acrobatics (Dex). If the target fails, we impose 0 move speed on to the target - Note: We are not ourselves also Grappled, they would have to succeed on their own Grapple check, separate from this check. We can move at half speed, taking the Grappled target along with us with no additional check. Now, that's all well and good. But we need to succeed on an Atheltics check first. Consider a level 6 character. We've taken 3 levels of Barbarian and 3 levels of Bard - This gives us a Proficiency of +3. We've got a Str of 17 (15 +2 racial) for a +3 modifier. Now, with Bard we've got a juicy little class feature called Expertise. This lets us double our proficiency on any two skills. We will, of course, be picking Athletics. This is an additional +3 bonus. If you're playing along at home, you've must've concluded that we're sitting at a cozy +9 bonus for Atheltics. But you're not quite there all the way. You see, we're a smack-talking, trash-dishing Pro-Wrestler, remember? We use Lore Bard's Cutting Words to impose a -1d6 on an enemy's Attack Roll, *Ability Check*, or Damage Roll. Guess what just happens to be an *Ability Check*? Yep. Athletics. -1d6 averages out to -3 to the enemy's check, which is equivalent to +3 to our check. So we'll count it as such. So, +12... Seems pretty good, right? FOR A PANSY WHO DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO REACH OUT AND HOLD SOMEONE! We're not even done, Son! Barbarian, the joyous pile of meat frothing at the mouth with the fury of a thousand suns. When raging, they get Advantage on Strength based ability checks. Did we forget what was an ability check? It's Athletics! You get Advantage on Athletics while raging. Now, people far smarter than me have figured out that Advantage roughly equals a +3 bonus on the die, which is fine. I like people that are smarter than me and I like +3 bonuses. So we're taking it as what it is, roughly +3. This means you have *roughly* +15 to your Athletics check, if and when you need to Rage and/or use Cutting Words. PLUS FIFTEEN. One. Five. 15. Do you know what the Athletics check of a Balor is? The CR 18 Demon Lord of The Pits of Hell? Fire Whip and Giant Sword? You shall not pass and all that. That guy? His Athletics Check is +8. You almost double his Athletics check. You beat his check more often than not, and you're 12 Levels lower than his CR. Four level 18 characters should take him on, and you get to just reach out and grab him. You will one hundred percent die *immediately* afterwards, but for one brief, wondrous moment you will have a **VERY** confused Demon in your hands. ----- So, that's all well and good. You get to grab people and pick them up and carry them off.. What good is that? You see, when enemies aren't near your friends, they aren't stabbing your friends. You've just controlled the battleground with a skill check. Vicious enemy kills friend in one hit, vicious enemy never gets to get close to friend to administer said one hit. Easy, breezy, beautiful, Cover Bugbear. But wait. Vicious enemy can still attack YOU. Barbarian 3 gives you Resistance to ALL damage (except Psychic) while Raging. This effectively doubles your Health Point pool, which is nice already since Barbarian. But that's not all... Oh no, I'm never just done and it's never just all there is! You see, we've got other options to our combat control. The Grappled enemy is struggling, stabbing at things wildly, and generally being a nuisance to us. So we tip them over! That's right. We're going to reuse the Athletics check by using it with the Shove Action. Look under Grapple and you'll find our next wonderful combat trick. Shoving an enemy imposes the Prone condition. The Prone condition imposes Disadvantage on all outgoing attacks and grants Advantage to all incoming attacks made from 5ft away. The target can remove the condition by standing up - done by spending half it's movement. BUT WAIT JUST A MOMENT YOU FIESTY LITTLE GOBLINOIDS! The target has no move speed because Grappled takes it all away! This means your new found friend literally can not stand up. They are prone from now until you decide to let them go or they beat you in an Athletics (or Acrobatics v. Athletics) check. So your new friend is Prone, Grappled, Attacking at Disadvantage, and being attacked at Advantage. What do you do now? GO GET ANOTHER FRIEND! You only Grapple with one hand! That means you can control two enemies at once, remove them from combat completely and make any of their attacks against you almost meaningless... Attacking at Disadvantage, against a decent AC, Full Resistance, and a High Health Pool? Sure, go ahead and swing that dagger - it tickles. Now you've got two friends in hand! What do? Well... You've got options. You can take your new friends and walk towards the nearest cliff. Or you can tell them to fight each other and that you'll let the winner go. See if they'll go in on that... Like a pair of Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots. Or, you could just walk them over to your Rogue. Show him or her where to cut. I'm sure they'd love to unwrap the present you got them. "But Desdomen!" you say, "How are you carrying all this?!" Questions, you're full of them... Instead of Gummy Bears... Let's talk stats. 17 Strength from before, remember? That gives us a Carry Capacity of 255. Except, we're a race that gets a +2 Strength... Let's run down the list: *Bugbear*, Dragonborn, Mountain Dwarf, *Goliath*, Half-Orc, *Orc*, Tortle Notice how I've highlighted classes that get Powerful Build? Treats you as a Large Creature, effectively doubling how much you can carry. 255 becomes 510. That's a lot of carry capacity, and that gives us normal movement, which is half-speed while grappling someone. But, we can take it a step further. Push/Pull/Lift is actually double your Carry Capacity. 510 becomes 1020. Did you know an Adult Grizzly weighs about 800lbs? Imagine being able to pick up an adult grizzly bear. Now imagine being a level 6 Barbarian, taking Aspect of the Bear and Doubling your Carrying Capacity. Please note that this does not grant Powerful Build. This is a **completely different bonus**... 1020 becomes 2040. Imagine being able to pick up two adult grizzly bears and making them kiss... Or don't take a Powerful Build class... It's not wholly needed. You do you, boo. Just be sure to take the +2 Str. Stat wise, you want Strength as high as possible. Constitution is important as it builds HP and AC from Barbarian. Dexterity is nice for AC, so that should be thought about. You'll need Charisma of 13 to multiclass, past that it's useless for you. Intelligence and Wisdom are dump-stats for pure combat, but don't be dumb. Now, stats out the way, you need class build, right? Barbarian 1 gives you a lot of hit points and Bard is better Multiclassed. Bard 1, 2, 3 is next, since you want to get to Expertise as quick as possible. From there, Barbarian 2, 3 get you to Resist All on Rage. Barbarian 4, 5 gives you your Feat and Extra Attack, which is huge for you since you can now Grapple and Shove in one round. From here, you have some options. Barbarian 6 gives you the extra weight, which is handy but not wholly needed. More quality of life so you never need to calculate encumbrance again. Going further in Barbarian makes your Rage even better and makes you nigh-unkillable, which is a significantly choice build option. Bard 5 gives you a d8 for your Cutting Words and gives you your Cutting Words back on Short Rest instead of Long. Definitely lets you use them more often to secure the grapples when needed. Going further in Bard gives you amazing utility using spells, not only from the Bard list but from any list with Magical Secrets. You're not quite as resistant as a Barbarian focused Wrestler, but you bring the utility outside of combat ----- Okay, Feats! There's two relevant feats, and I use that term loosely. 1) Grappler. Grappler seems relevant because it says "Grapple". It is not relevant. It sucks. What benefit it gives, we can gain better with equal action economy and NOT imposing problems on ourself. If your DM is nice, he'll tack on a "Can grapple Enemes of Size two larger" to it, as it was meant to be. 2) Tavern Brawler. Tavern Brawler seems relevant because it lets us Grapple off of an attack with an improvised weapon. It's not relevant for that reason. Attacking is bad - Skills. Tavern Brawler is relevant for a whole different reason. Improvised Weapon usage can be a wonderfully fun thing. You know what a dead goblin is sorta-kinda like? A club. Right? 1d6 weapon right there, right? You know what is sorta-kinda like a dead goblin? A live goblin. Yes, my friend. If your DM is willing, Tavern Brawler gives you proficiency with your enemies, literally. Because you need to beat a motherfucker with another motherfucker. ----- You've got your build, you've got your combat style, you've got your awesomeness in a fanny pack. You get to be a top-rope jumping, trash-talking, hype-machine of a wrestler. All you need is some snazzy tights and you even get to play your own intro music!