Best Feats for Barbarian 5e
by Prince Phantom
Despite common opinion, Barbarians are one of the weakest classes in the game. They are pretty good at dealing damage and great at taking it, and that’s pretty much all. That’s your whole character. For some people, that’s plenty, but not for me. I need spice, I need choices, I need combat to not just be “run up and attack” every turn. Feats help us a little bit here, but I want to preface this by stating that I really don’t recommend sticking with Barbarian past level 7 or 8.
Honestly I’d probably multiclass out at 5 if it was me. That means that we really want a feat at level 1, as depending on when we multiclass, our feat progression will be stalled. Therefore, the feats we do take must be selected very carefully. We really don’t have room for flavor feats here, especially at lower levels, and the power difference between a Barbarian who takes the right feats and one that doesn’t is staggering.
Best Feats for Barbarian 5e
Great Weapon Master/Polearm Master (ASAP): These two feats form the base of what most Barbarians will depend on during combat. Take Polearm Master first at level 1, then GWM at 4. Yes, even you Berserkers. You don’t want to be using Frenzy every combat. You will literally die. This gives you a bonus action attack every turn that can be boosted by GWM. Don’t leave home without these feats, you will literally feel like half a Barbarian.
Crossbow Expert/Sharpshooter (ASAP, Ancestral Guardian only): Now this might raise some eyebrows, but hear me out. The 3rd level feature of Ancestral Guardians makes your target have disadvantage on attacks against anyone but you, and only deal half damage if they do hit your friends. This works well when you are fighting in melee, incentivizing enemies to hit you instead of the Rogue behind you. However, it works so much better if your enemies can’t even hit you, forcing them to make near useless attacks and turning your whole party into tanks. Yes, you do not get to apply the bonus rage damage when attacking with Dexterity, but the slight drop in damage is worth it in my opinion. You can still gain all the other benefits of rage as well, so you really aren’t losing much, plus now we only have to focus on Dexterity and Constitution, so we might actually be able to make use of unarmored defense.
Sentinel (Lv 8): This is one of the only tank focused feats in the game, and it isn’t a bad one either. We can more reliably get an opportunity attack with this, and we can keep our allies slightly safer by keeping enemies closer to us. It also famously combos great with Polearm Master, but this isn’t nearly as overpowered as everyone says. You sadly only get one reaction per round, so multiple enemies or ranged attacks easily break through this defense.
Resilient (Lv 8): Please, for the love of all that is good and holy, do not be the stereotypical Barbarian that fails every Wisdom save and fights against the party more often than they fight for them. Take this for Wisdom saves, please. Also do not dump Wisdom. Please take at least a 10 in it, for everyone’s sake.
Ritual Caster (Lv 12): Once again, hear me out. You are probably really tired of playing a Barbarian at this point, but also don’t want to throw away the things that you’re good at. If you’ve got the Wisdom for it (and I really hope you do), rituals are a great way to improve your out of combat utility. Grab your Wizard’s spell book while they’re sleeping and copy down their rituals. You now have a purpose beyond picking up heavy things. You will also have a very befuddled Wizard as you suddenly learn to cast 5th level rituals overnight, and that’s hilarious.
Crusher/Slasher (Lv 12): I take Crusher slightly over Slasher, and both are easy to accommodate thanks to Polearm Master. Both give us something cool on a crit, but Crusher lets us actually reposition an enemy while Slasher just makes them slower. This pairs very well with area of effect spells from your party, and anything that can make a Barbarian actually contribute at these high levels is appreciated. Feel free to take Slasher if it fits your strategy better.
Tough/Lucky (Lv 16): It’s a shame that you’ve taken Barbarian all the way to this level and the best I can offer are some defensive feats, which you probably don’t need because that’s the one thing you’ve been consistently good at. Man, Barbarians get no good high level abilities until their capstone… Anyways take Lucky if you’re having trouble with saves (you probably are) and take Tough if somehow you’re mountain of hp isn’t tall enough (it probably is).
If you’d like to support this ongoing project, you can do so by buying my books, getting some sweet C&C merch, or joining my Patreon.
The text on this page is Open Game Content, and is licensed for public use under the terms of the Open Game License v1.0a.
‘d20 System’ and the ‘d20 System’ logo are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
and are used according to the terms of the d20 System License version 6.0.
A copy of this License can be found at www.wizards.com/d20.