By Johnathon Wilson
You feel it, don’t you? The red tinged thrumming that echoes from your very marrow, the sound of war drums beating a violent metronome, the RAGE. Well fortunately for you, and myself really, Gary Gygax provided an official solution in Dragon (magazine) #63 in July of 1982. The Barbarian was officially released as a sub-class of the Fighter, and bears almost no resemblance to the Class that we know and love today. Granted, a lot of older forms of D&D have stark contrasts to Fifth Edition (lookin’ at you THAC0), but some of the differences are...kind of strange. I’ll get into those in a bit, while I take you on a Magical Murdery Tour through the blood soaked pages of the Barbarian Class. We’re going to look into where the class came from, how it is supposed to work (or as supposed to as anything can be in this freeform game we play), and the things within the Class itself that make it all work.
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
While we first received The Barbarian to play as a Fighter sub-class in 1982, the bedrock of it was created by Robert E. Howard a full 50 years before Gary Gygax put out Dragon (magazine) #63. Howard’s short story “People of the dark”, published in June of 1932 as part of Clayton Publishings Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror, contains the very first reference to a black-haired Barbarian by the name of Conan. From that point we’ve had almost 90 years of nearly non-stop Conan content, from almost two dozen stories, to feature films and hundreds of comic books. While Conan may not be the first Barbarian in recorded history, he is one of the most memorable, and along with a few other candidates is credited as inspiring the Class we have today.
The introduction of the Barbarian was very different from how we currently think of them, both in flavor and mechanics, and honestly shared a lot more in common with a modern Ranger than modern Barbarian. They didn’t even Rage for Crom’s sake! Part of this is due to inherent differences between original D&D and 5E, but not all of it. Original Barbarians could climb trees and cliffs, administer first aid, hide in natural surroundings “...as a thief of three levels higher would hide in shadows”, tracking “...equal to that of a ranger of the same level, but a Barbarian may track only in the outdoors”, as well as a built in 25% chance to Detect Magic, among other bits and bobs. The flavor of the OG Barbarian was also different, with the flavor text specifically stating that they “...detest magic and distrust those who use it”, going so far as to destroy magic items they find if they aren’t stopped. Now, I can’t speak for your table, but I’ve never seen a 5E Barbarian turn down a magic axe, even when it specifically says it wants to eat their soul....GJORD you fucking idiot.
It wasn’t until 3rd edition that barbarians gained their classic ability to RAGE, which firmly cemented their flavorful and mechanical place in the pantheon of D&D classes. The current rendition of barbarians has distinct abilities that facilitate the flavor of the class, and are also largely good at what they do. If you know what you’re getting into with regards to playstyle and options, I believe that you’ll have a great time with nearly any kind of Barbarian you want to play in 5th edition. If you’re looking to play a Barbarian that excels in sustained long-range magical damage, I hate to have to break the news to you, but it’s time to learn about all the benefits of magical sugar-babying.
WHO IS YOUR DADDY AND WHAT DOES HE DO ?
Now that we’ve covered a bit of how we got here, we can finally look at where we are and ohhhhhmygodtheressomuchblood. Whether it’s your blood, or a menagerie of multi-colored life essence viscosity, you can all but guarantee that a Barbarian is going to be in the thick of it. RPG nomenclature would label barbarians as “Tanks”, basically individuals or characters who can withstand a lot of damage. Being able to hit and get hit is an extremely valuable skill set in many D&D games, especially when Birdbones McWizard needs to maintain concentration on fucking Witch Bolt and has like 30% of your effective hit points from all 10 points of their Constitution score.
This brings us to the first thing that separates the burly from the puny, the D12 Hit Dice. No other class in D&D currently has access to such a beefcake of a Hit Dice, which instantly helps make sure that you always feel that much sturdier than even your Fighter/Ranger/Paladin counterparts. Having a bigger hit dice is great for all sorts of reasons, you start with more hit points (level 1 hit point calculation is max Hit Dice + Constitution modifier), you gain more hit points when you level up, and you heal more when you spend those fatass hit dice on short rests. This already significant Level 1 beef is stretched even further through RAGE and Unarmored Defense, two iconic and foundational Barbarian abilities. Unarmored Defense is what allows a Barbarian to say a (debatably) polite no thank you to armor, and instead rely on MUSCLE POWER. Unless you’re playing a Warforged, then it’s more like DIESEL POWER. Power source aside, Unarmored defense is extremely thematic and really shines after a handful of Ability Score Improvements (ASI), once you can get your Dexterity and Constitution modifiers high enough to outweigh Medium Armor. The calculation for barbarians Unarmored Defense is 10 + Dex modifier + Con modifier, and Half-Plate is the best (most expensive) Medium Armor you can buy and provides an AC of up to 17 (15 + Dex mod (max of 2)). Maximizing Constitution should be a priority for almost every barbarian, since Hit Points are the only resource you have to spend, and you get more out of them than anybody else thanks to RAGE.
As I previously mentioned, barbarians have not always had the ability to Rage, but boy oh boy am I glad they do. Rage begins as a 2/day ability that provides a host of wonderful and violent benefits assuming you aren’t wearing heavy armor. While raging you hit harder, adding +2 to all melee attacks, take less damage, with resistance to Bludgeoning, Slashing, and Piercing damage, and have advantage (roll your d20 twice and take your pick) on Strength checks and saving throws. Resistance to B/S/P damage means you take half damage from a majority of weapon attacks, because unlike the meager resistances monsters have, a barbarians resistance does not specify non-magical B/S/P, and therefore resists all sources of the physical damage types. Most Barbarian subclasses further augment this ability either through adding resistance to new damage types, doing additional damage, or...weird AoE effects if you’re a Storm Herald. Regardless of your flavor of barbarian, your Rage is an extremely potent ability. The resistance from Rage combined with the aforementioned D12 Hit Dice, is what allows barbarians to have easily two times the effective Hit Points of an equally levelled Ranger, Fighter, or Paladin.
While Rage is absolutely wonderful, and is arguably your most potent weapon in combat, it does come with a couple of downsides. You can’t cast or concentrate on spells while Raging, or Rage in heavy armor. Your Rage will also end painfully prematurely if your turn ends, and you have not taken damage or attacked another creature since your last turn. Alright, so maybe the downsides aren’t so bad after all. Not being able to cast spells mostly only affects multiclassing, and not being able to Rage in heavy armor doesn’t matter all that much when you have SO MANY HIT POINTS. Now, some folks will tell you that the wording of the level 3 benefit of the Bear Totem within the Path of the Totem Warrior subclass, suggests that it can be used while wearing Heavy Armor. That’s wrong and dumb, and barbarians don’t need to resort to such weak cheese to stand over the shattered corpses of their enemies.
After all of that, we’re finally at level 2! Look at how far we’ve come together, isn’t that something? Level 2 brings us a couple of more Class Features that you will find constant use for. One of the things I love about barbarians is that from level 1 to 20 they are absolutely LOADED with class features. Class Features are essentially anything listed on your class table that has its own name. Stuff like Extra Attack, Spellcasting, Rage, Sneak Attack, the things that are the building blocks of classes. Since Barbarians do not get Spellcasting, and only get a single Extra Attack, they end up with a whole host of fantastic tools. How strong a Class Feature is largely comes down to how often it is used, and how often it is the “best” option for whatever resource it uses. Whether that is one of your actions, be it Action, Bonus Action, or Reaction, or something like a Spell Slot, it is important to consider the resource being spent when weighing the efficacy of a Class Feature. Level 2 is also the first place that we see an improvement in our Rage column, with daily Rages’ increasing from 2-3 for 50% more eye bulging Rage, fuck yeah.
Reckless Attack and Danger Sense are the two Class Features unlocked at the second level of Barbarian, and holy shit are they amazing. Reckless Attack allows you to,largely prior to making the first attack of your turn, roll with advantage for all Strength based melee weapon attacks for the rest of the turn. This is flat out amazing, free* advantage for your whole turn?? There isn’t a Paladin in Faerun that wouldn’t consider bending their oaths for that, even if the teensy little asterisk is that being so Reckless allows all attacks AGAINST you to also be at advantage, for the rest of the round. For any other class this would be a potentially crippling flaw. For you? The flesh and blood Avatar of the Nokia 3310? It’s a blessing. Free advantage is too enticing for nearly any DM to pass up, which helps shift attention from your significantly flimsier allies, and lets you get the most out of every Hit Point.
Danger Sense provides you with advantage on Dexterity Saving Throws against “...effects you can see, such as traps and spells”. It does require that you can actually perceived the effect, so you can’t be Blinded, Incapacitated, or Deafened (weird as that is). It’s like a mild Spider Sense that helps provide some additional damage reduction, while also reflecting the flavor of your hair-triggered Barbarian.
Level 3 is a significant spike in power for a majority of classes in Fifth Edition (5E), because it’s where most classes start their sub-class. Sub-classes in 5E come by a handful of names, whether it’s a Bardic College, Monastic Tradition, or Sacred Oath, they all provide additional flavor and power for your character. A Barbarian’s Primal Path is no different, with each path providing distinct and useful options for your fledgling Barbarian. Now, that isn’t to say that some choices aren’t more effective than others. My gaming circle considers the Path of the Totem Warrior to be the most…Barbariany of the Primal Path’s, because not many things scream BARBARIAN like being SO pissed off that you take half damage from everything except stupid dumb psychic damage. I am personally partial to the Path of the Beast, and not only because I’ve got a mild jumping fixation…it also offers a lot of great tools that any Barbarian would love to have. Whether you love to jump or not, your choice of Primal Path will have a significant impact on your character, and will provide more benefits as you grow in power.
Level 4 provides Barbarians with their first Ability Score Improvement (or ASI), and it’s always an important one. Barbarians largely depend on their Strength (Str), Constitution (Con), and Dexterity (Dex) for efficient evisceration, so you’ll need to be choosy with your ASI’s. Each ASI provides 2 points for a player to spend in either one Ability Score, or to split between 2 Ability Scores, or you can forgo any points and take a feat (if your DM is cool with that anyway). What you’ll want to do is largely going to depend on what method of Ability Score generation you used at character creation, and also for your goals for your character. Some character builds require a feat to function properly, and there are very few Barbarians that wouldn’t love to be Great Weapon Masters. Almost all Barbarians are going to want to be strong as hell, because the stronger you are, the harder you hit and the more likely you are to hit. Every +1 to your Strength modifier (Str mod) is going to increase your accuracy by 5%, which is great because missing attacks SUCKS. Not much else to say, other than don’t fuck up and take Ritual Caster or something, anywayyyyyyyyyyy..
FUCK YES LEVEL FIVE TWO ATTACKS BITCHES. You heard me right, Extra Attack means you can make TWO attacks per Attack Action. Fuck. Yes. Goddamn it feels so good to make two fucking attacks every goddamn turn. No more missing your attack and then waiting another fuuuuuuucking round to attack recklessly again, now you get to attack recklessly TWICE. FOUR DICE ROLLS, TWO ATTACKS, 100% MORE DAMAGE. Oh, and you also get Fast Movement if you aren’t wearing heavy armor, which is cool and useful.
Level 6 is a Primal Path feature level, which means it’s going to be different for each class. It’s honestly a pretty great assortment too, with stuff like Spirit Shield from the Path of the Ancestral Guardians being very cool and flavorful, allowing you to use your guardian spirits (and your reaction) to reduce damage taken by another creature within 30ft of you, by 2d6. The common theme is that all of the Level 6 abilities provide support or utility, and are often very flavorful to boot. While I may not be head over heels for the Path of the Battlerager, I can’t deny that Reckless Abandon is a cool fucking ability. Being able to gain Temporary Hit Points (THP) equal to your Con Mod, every time you use Reckless Attack (while Raging), is something that can potentially churn out a LOT of THP for someone that’s always taking damage. The amuse-bouche that polishes off Level 6 is a 4th use of Rage available every day, which is only a 33.3% increase in total Ragery, but not unwelcome. If nothing else, it means you probably have a Rage to waste on something frivolous, like an Over The Top arm wrestling contest!
Level 7 provides us with Feral Instinct, which is great, who wouldn’t want advantage on Initiative rolls? I also very much appreciate the flavor of a hair-triggered Barbarian, always ready to fly off the handle. This is further supported by the second clause of Feral Instinct, which allows you to essentially never be surprised, as long as you enter a Rage before you do anything else. Surprise is honestly not something that comes up THAT much, but it’s always good to know that Barbarians are genuinely too angry to be surprised.
Level 8 is another ASI, keep pumping Str and Con, but also be on the lookout for feats. They’re dependent on DM, of course, but there are plenty of “half-feats” that provide a single point into an Ability Score and also provide new things to do. Feats like Crusher, Slasher, and Tavern Brawler all provide an Ability Score point into either Str, Dex, or Con depending on the feat, and also provide fun and interesting combat options. Now, are these feats as optimal as maxing out your Strength Score, or picking up Great Weapon Master? Probably not, but I personally love having new options for melee focused characters. The forced movement of Crusher, the slow effect on Slasher, and the Bonus Action Grapple of Tavern Brawler, are all neat tools that can be leveraged well by a creative mind.
Ask any Elf north of Neverwinter, and they’ll be happy to tell you that all Barbarians have a little Orc in them, but Level 9 shows us that this is kiiiiiiiind of true. Brutal Critical is the means by which Barbarians can end up with fat, nasty, dirty critical hits. It allows you to add (1) additional weapon dice to a critical hit, which for a majority of Player Characters is when you roll a Natural 20 on your Attack Roll. Normally, rolling a Critical Hit allows you to double the amount of damage dice rolled when calculating weapon damage, and Brutal Critical simply adds 1 additional dice to the total count, not a dice that is then doubled. It’s a feature that is strictly better than the Half-Orc Savage Attacks trait, as it grows in power every 4 levels from this point forward. This feature is also why Barbarians love Greataxes, as that fatass D12 damage die can take your crits from impressive, to encounter ruining.
Not only do you get the spiciest crits this side of a Paladin, but Level 9 also fucking FINALLY increases Rage damage to +3. This really starts to feel like it’s adding up, especially since hopefully Level 8 brought Str up to 18, providing you with +7 damage to your melee weapon attacks while Raging. That’s enough to kill a whole ass Goblin, or a sickly Commoner, with your BONUS DAMAGE. Without a feat. At Level 9. Gross.
I’m gonna be real with you dear Reader, Level 10 is a bit of a Gachapon for Barbarians with another Sub-class feature. I say that because the features for this level are all over the place with regards to what they provide. Path of the Storm Herald extends the damage resistance you receive from your Storm Soul feature to each creature of your choice within your Storm Aura, which while being unbelievably fucking stormy, is also pretty neat even if a bit situational. Path of the Totem Warrior allows you to ritually cast Commune with Nature, which is….flavorful….alright it’s fucking lame, I don’t know what you want from me. Especially when Path of the Battlerager, a sub-class that I used to write off completely, gets to Dash as a Bonus Action while Raging, which is FAST AS FUCK BOI. Not every subclass follows the same formula with their power balance and power spikes, but goddamn that’s some variability right there.
For those of you that don’t know, Level 11 is generally a significant power spike for a lot of classes. Fighters get their second Extra Attack (which makes for a total of 3 attacks per Attach Action), Rogues unlock Reliable Talent and never have to fail another Ability Check, Paladins improve their Divine Smite so much that it becomes Improved Divine Smite and they constantly eek a little radiant damage, not unlike my bladder and Improved Prostate. ANYWAY. If you were hoping that we stopped with only a dollop of Half-Orc in your Barbarian, you can go fuck yourself because Relentless Rage is pristine in it’s glory. Relentless Endurance is a Half-Orc trait that allows them to, once per long rest, flex out of lethal damage that isn’t enough to liquefy you. I’m being a little loose with liquefy, but essentially if damage reduces them to 0 HP, they can drop to 1 HP instead, unless the damage is enough to kill them outright. Instant death only occurs if you are reduced to 0 HP, and “...the remaining damage equals or exceeds your hit point maximum”, or if you get fucking Disintegrate-d or something. Relentless Rage gives all Barbarians the same ability to drop to 1 HP instead, but it’s locked behind a DC 10 Constitution Saving Throw, which you should be VERY good at. Before you stress about the saving throw too much, consider that if you succeed and then get hurt again, you can make the Saving Throw attempt AGAIN to drop to 1 HP instead. The DC (Difficulty Class), increases by 5 for every success, meaning your second attempt will have a DC of 15 and so on, but who cares?? You’re proficient in Con saves and tougher than old fruit leather, you’ll be fine.
Level 12 is powerful, but boring. You get an Ability Score Improvement, which should follow the same rules of what we looked at around Level 8, and depending on your choices you may have more wiggle room for less optimized feat choices if that’s your bag. Your Rages/day also increases from 4-5, which is great! A touch bland, but still great! Like…. Melba toast.
Alright so I know that I said that level 12 was boring, but level 13 is actually even more boring. Like, at least 12 gives us TWO things. 13 just gives us another dice for our Brutal Critical, therefore making every Barbarian legally at least 2/17ths Orc. I should note that Proficiency Bonus also increases from 4 to 5, which hopefully means that your Attack Bonus is +10 now, and as a Player feels pretty awesome. This also does not count as one of the aforementioned “things”, since every class has their Proficiency Bonus increase and is therefore one standard deviation less exciting on the Bevan-Whetherell Index of Countable Excitement.
Level 14 really wanted to take the cake for “Most Boring Level” by only providing a Path Feature, but some of the level 14 Path Features are buck-fucking-wild to the point where it doesn’t even matter. I mean holy shit, Rage beyond Death from the Path of the Zealot allows you to just straight up not die if you are reduced to 0 hit points while raging. You still make death saving throws, BUT “...if you would die due to failing death saving throws, you don’t die until your rage ends, and you die then only if you still have 0 hit points”. That’s straight from the class description and is BONKERS. Since all damage actually can really do is push you through your death saving throws, you become essentially impervious to damage for the duration of that Rage. A Sleep spell, or something that could immobilize you for the duration of your rage, would work around said durability, but that also assumes that your friendly neighborhood Cleric doesn’t have a quick Healing Word for you before your rage ends. Compare that to Call of the Hunt, from the Path of the Beast, which allows you to basically howl at the moon to buff your allies and yourself for the duration of a Rage. Specifically, you gain 5 Temporary Hit Points for each willing creature, and in exchange they get a D6 that they can add to one damage roll every turn for the duration of your Rage. You’re looking at a current potential max of 25 THP, and 5D6 of increased group damage per round. I think it’s very flavorful, and potentially powerful, but definitely not as nuts as Rage beyond Death. All in all, Level 14 is a little swingy, but that’s kind of the way it goes at higher levels. It’s worth discussing in full, but the short of it is that only something like 1% of surveyed D&D campaigns make it to level 14!
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Level 15 brings a quality of life buff that’s so important, you may not have even realized that it was needed. Even I, the third most knowledgeable DM at my table, barely mentioned it back in our overview of Rage. Persistent Rage allows you to skirt those dumb restrictions you may or may not have been following, by removing them entirely. From here on out, your Rage only ends EARLY if you choose to, or if you are knocked unconscious. The emphasis is on early, because your Rage is still limited to 1 minute and is not infinitely persistent as someone definitely not named Danny definitely didn’t get wrong for like three years. Another minor clarification while we’re on the topic, due to the fact that entering and exiting a Rage both require a bonus action on your turn, it is not possible to chain your Rages together seamlessly. This is an important distinction for someone like our aforementioned Path of the Zealot friend, who can Rage beyond Death as long as they are in fact RAGING, which means their limited immortality is limited to the duration of that Rage.
Speaking of Rage, level 16 caps out our bonus Rage damage at +4 and provides another Ability Score Improvement. Good shit, but not earth shattering or anything. If you are playing a high enough level Barbarian, where you’re planning on hitting level 20 and all that fun shit, be sure to be mindful of your Str and Con scores. The level 20 “Capstone” of the Barbarian class greatly benefits those that have hit the juice good and hard.
Alright, level 17 is a little bit boring, but it’s also essentially just level 13 but better. We get another Brutal Critical dice and an increase to Rages/day AND the final increase to Proficiency bonus. I will say that 3 additional dice from Brutal Critical is pretty fucking gross, especially if you’re using a Greataxe! That averages an additional 19.5 damage on a critical hit with that D12 damage dice, and you don’t have to spend anything to get it, it just happens. I want to take a second to point out that it may seem like I’m being fairly critical of the later levels here, and I just want to say that it’s not my fault. You saw the graph! As far as Wizards of the Coast (WotC) is concerned, an extremely small portion of their player base gets to these levels, so why spend a lot of time and effort on them? It’s the same reason that there hasn’t been (at the present moment) a ton of official material released for high level play. WotC wants to bring as many people as possible to the hobby, and keep them playing, so they’re going to allocate their resources where they’ll have the biggest impact. Whether that’s good for the game and players or not is up for debate. I personally believe that the more beautiful minds we bring to our collective table, the better the game will be for everyone, as everyone has a unique perspective.
Alright fuck everything I just said in level 16, because Indomitable Might is so brick shittingly cool that I don’t even care about high level balance anymore. Hopefully you heeded my advice for your ASI choices back in level 16 because at 18th level “...if your total for a Strength check is less than your Strength score, you can use that score in place of the total”. I fucking LOVE this feature. It has outstanding flavor, and function, even if it’s on the lower end of the power curve. I love the way it encapsulates the STRENGTH of a Barbarian, and that even at your weakest you’re still really fucking strong. By this point if you don’t have 20 points in your Strength score, I’m going to assume it was on purpose. Starting with Standard Array, and the new +2/+1 rule from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, you would have enough points to push both Strength and Constitution exactly to 20 by 18th level. This would be assuming you didn’t shore up any other stats, or take a feat, but still, it’s possible. What this means for you is that you never have to worry about looking weak again! I mean, you also never have to worry about failing an important Athletics Check to like…jump across lava or some shit, so that’s cool. Something else to consider is that it turns all high level Barbarians into even better Grapplers and Shovers, both of which can be useful tools in the world of martial melee combat, just not against like Dragons and shit.
Level 19 is literally just an Ability Score Improvement and is therefore the MOST BORING LEVEL.
Level 20. The pinnacle, the endgame, the Primal Champion. You get a flat +4 to your Strength and Constitution, and your maximum caps for both scores increase from 20 to 24. If you maxed both stats out already, you’ll be very pleased with your effective +2 to hit and damage from the Strength buff, and +40 Hit Points from the Constitution buff. I personally love this as a capstone to the Barbarian class. It emulates an ascension bordering on godhood, a strength and durability beyond the realm of mere mortals, that I find wonderful. It’s not the flashiest thing, and will mostly pay dividends for campaigns that play for a while at 20th level, but fuck, it’s so cool. Another neat little part of 20th level is UNLIMITED RAGE. That’s right, we go straight from 6 per day to as many as you fucking want. Breakfast jerky too tough? Rage. Too many people in the shithouse with you? Rage. Too many people in line at the tavern? Rage. You get the point. It’s worth noting again that you can NOT chain rage in a way that allows you to permanently be raging, you will have at least 6 seconds of downtime every minute. Unless your DM thinks it’s cooler to ignore that, then go for broke!
So that’s it! That’s the whole ass Barbarian class, and even a little history at the beginning there. My goal was to provide you with a brief but thorough education of what Barbarians have historically been, and can be within the Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition framework, and I think we at least got most of the way there. Drew Hayes’ character Titan accidentally described the Barbarian class better than I ever could, when he referred to a Strongmans’ role as “...hit, and get hit”. That’s really what we do here, we hit, and get hit, and we do both of those things extremely fucking well. So go roll up a Barbarian, or offer to run a game for your friends and encourage them to play one. At this point you should know what you’re getting into, and hopefully be able to share that knowledge with someone at your table. Either way, go forth and enjoy almost always being the last ¼ Orc standing!
