Best Races for Barbarian 5e
by Prince Phantom
The Barbarian is one of the weakest classes in 5e, really only excelling at single target damage and physical defense. They offer basically no utility, only slight support through select subclass features, are terrible at the most important saving throws, and they are incredibly feat hungry while also demanding high stats to function as intended. That last part makes it really hard to build a Barbarian who doesn’t want to be one of the two races that grant a feat at level one. To be clear, those two are 100% the best races for your Barbarian, but that would make for a very boring article. I’ll exclude those two so maybe you can learn about some more interesting ideas for your build, and provide a resource for those whose tables already get a free feat at level one. No race is going to solve all of this class’ problems, so you’re probably better of selecting a race that fulfills one or two major aspects that you want your Barbarian to be better at. We will divide those aspects into damage, defense, and utility (basically any race that provides something a Barbarian would really want but doesn’t contribute to the math of combat).
Races for Damage
Bugbear: The typical Bugbear build doesn’t normally include Barbarian levels, but you could totally take advantage of the extra damage this race provides on turn one as this class. You will even want to delay your rage until round two if you have Polearm Master, as the bonus action attack boosted by this race will put damage rage damage on turn one. This race will shine even more brightly on a multiclassed Barbarian that takes levels in Fighter or Gloom Stalker, as both of those can find ways to make more attacks on turn one. Better yet, grab levels in all three classes.
Gem Dragonborn: There’s a lot to love here. For damage, we get a means of dealing AoE damage with our breath weapon. This lets us handle crowds of weaker enemies more easily, something that Barbarians typically struggle with. We also get limited flight, letting us engage flying enemies effectively. Those alone would be enough, but we also get utility in telepathy, and support through access to the Dragon Fear feat which we can use to frighten enemies in place of an attack. Also, Bear Totem Barbarians can be specifically an Amethyst Dragonborn to get resistance to psychic damage, granting them resistance to all damage while raging.
Centaur: This is THE race if you are making a grapple/drag build and plan to synergize with AoE spells cast by your friends. Barbarian gives advantage to grapple checks while raging, making it the best class for the job, and the Centaur’s boosted movement speed, combined with the speed boost Barbarians get naturally, allows us to drag enemies exactly where we want them on the map. We can even still attack with two enemies grappled at once thanks to our hooves!
Minotaur: Because Barbarians are prone to rage on the first turn of each combat, eating their bonus action, we can’t take advantage of Hammering Horns quite as much as something like a Fighter could, but it’s still an option worth considering. The basic combo is to hit with the Crusher feat, knocking a creature 5ft up into the air, then using Hammering Horns as a bonus action to push them an additional 10ft away from us. This puts them at least 10ft in the air, at which point they fall prone and take some damage. We can start using this combo on turn 2 in most combats, but I should note that this basically allows you to completely neutralize a single monster encounter by knocking them prone, then moving far enough away to where they cannot both get up and reach us on their turn. Just repeat this process until they are dead, and you didn’t even need to use rage, saving you a usage of it for later.
Best Races for Defense
Vedalkin: The race of exclusively perfectionist geeks may seem like an odd choice for a race that shores up our defenses, but hear me out. The Barbarian is plenty tough enough physically, where it needs help is it’s mental defenses. No race provides better mental defense than the Vedalkin’s advantage on all mental saves, period. This combined with our advantage on strength saves from rage, and advantage on dexterity saves from Danger Sense, and you’ll be making nearly every save with advantage for the entire game.
Yuan-Ti: A ton of physical attacks are accompanied by poison damage, and we don’t get resistance to that damage from rage (unless you’re a Bear Totem). That makes any race with resistance to poison damage a great choice for a Barbarian, but what makes the Yuan-Ti stand out is the advantage on saves versus spells. This isn’t quite as good as Vedalkin Dispassion, but it will still assist in protecting you from the most common Barbarian killers.
Locathah (Aquatic Campaign Only): The Locathah do a lot of the same things that those first two races accomplish, granting advantage against a ton of different status effects that Barbarians hate. Obviously, Barbarians have no great way to overcome this race’s water dependency, meaning if you want to venture outside the water you’ll need help from a probably magical friend.
Dhampir: If you want to make a build that is okay with dealing subpar damage in exchange for being nearly unkillable, here’s an option for you. Focusing in on the Bite allows us to make Constitution our highest stat, giving this already tanky class even more HP than usual. We also get the ability to heal from our bite occasionally, and all this alongside the other great benefits from this race like spider climbing.
Best Races for Utility
Eladrin: Melee martials love to have any form of extra movement, and the teleport provided here is one of the best forms of movement provided by any race and has tons of out of combat potential as well. Of course, we also get all the other great benefits of being an elf, including advantage on charm effects. I prefer the Eladrin over their cousins, the Shadar-Kai, since we really don’t need the resistance to damage after we use our teleport, as we’ll probably already have resistance to the damage types we need.
Kender: This is a tough recommendation as small races can’t wield heavy weapons well. I mostly recommend this for Ancestral Guardians who take the optimal route and attack at range with a hand crossbow as their main form of attack. This strategy allows the player to impose disadvantage on their target to hit anyone but themselves while also making yourself an impossible target by moving too far away for your marked target to attack you. The Kender provides another (albeit limited) method of imposing this status effect at range, and lets us do this to two targets in the same round occasionally.
Barbarians can work with a decent number of races, but their extremely narrow playstyle limits their options heavily. You’re probably best off taking a defense oriented race to shore up your mental saves, as that is easily a Barbarian’s biggest weakness. No matter what you select, it isn’t going to radically change your build or combat plans very much with very few exceptions, but you can add some cool flavor and extra options.
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