While fighters are martial experts who believe full-plate armor and complicated tactics to win battles, barbarians believe sheer toughness and rage to strike down their foes. this is often what makes barbarians unique as a category.
If you’ve made the choice to play a barbarian, you’ll want to understand how best to use barbarian abilities to guard your friends and ruthlessly exterminate your enemies.
Contents
Barbarian 5e Class
Hit Points
Hit Dice: 1d12 per Barbarian level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 12 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d12 (or 7) + your Constitution modifier per Barbarian level after 1st
Proficiencies
Armor: Light Armor, Medium Armor, Shields Weapons: Simple Weapons, Martial Weapons Tools: None
Saving Throws: Strength, Constitution
Skills: Choose two from Animal Handling, Athletics, Intimidation, Nature, Perception, and Survival
Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
(a) a Greataxe or (b) any martial melee weapon
(a) two handaxes or (b) any simple weapon
An explorer’s pack and four javelins
The Barbarian
| Level | Proficiency | Features | Rages | Rage Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bonus | ||||
| 1st | 2 | Rage, Unarmored Defense | 2 | 2 |
| 2nd | 2 | Reckless Attack, Danger Sense | 2 | 2 |
| 3rd | 2 | Primal Path | 3 | 2 |
| 4th | 2 | Ability Score Improvement | 3 | 2 |
| 5th | 3 | Extra Attack, Fast Movement | 3 | 2 |
| 6th | 3 | Path feature | 4 | 2 |
| 7th | 3 | Feral Instinct | 4 | 2 |
| 8th | 3 | Ability Score Improvement | 4 | 2 |
| 9th | 4 | Brutal Critical (1 die) | 4 | 3 |
| 10th | 4 | Path feature | 4 | 3 |
| 11th | 4 | Relentless Rage | 4 | 3 |
| 12th | 4 | Ability Score Improvement | 5 | 3 |
| 13th | 5 | Brutal Critical (2 dice) | 5 | 3 |
| 14th | 5 | Path feature | 5 | 3 |
| 15th | 5 | Persistent Rage | 5 | 3 |
| 16th | 5 | Ability Score Improvement | 5 | 4 |
| 17th | 6 | Brutal Critical (3 dice) | 6 | 4 |
| 18th | 6 | Indomitable Might | 6 | 4 |
| 19th | 6 | Ability Score Improvement | 6 | 4 |
| 20th | 6 | Primal Champion | Unlimited | 4 |
That’s where this D&D 5E barbarian class guide comes in. Keep reading to seek out out the simplest races for a barbarian, best feats, skills, primal path features, and more.
Barbarian Builds
For ability scores, there are two different paths you’ll take when building a barbarian. the primary is to require your highest roll and put it into Str. this may maximize your ability to hit and deal damage with melee weapons and together with your barbarian abilities. If you select this feature, put your second-highest roll into Con to urge as much HP as possible once you level, but without sacrificing Str.
The second path for a barbarian build is to place your highest roll into Con. this may maximize your HP as you level. Since barbarians don’t wear heavy armor, some players believe this to be the simplest build for the category. If you select this feature, put your second-highest roll into Str so as to not harm your ability to use barbarian features and melee attacks.
Regardless of which of those builds you select, put your third-highest roll into Dex. If you wear light armor or no armor, having a high Dex will help your AC. Dex saves also are quite common in D&D 5E, in order that is another benefit to having a high score during this ability.
Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma aren’t very useful to a barbarian. Put your bad rolls into these abilities.
Best Races for a Barbarian
Barbarians are often of any race. But there’s no doubt that some races are especially suited to be rage-filled berzerkers. Here are a couple of races that make great barbarians.
Dwarf
Dwarves get +2 Cons, in order that they are tough enough to fight without armor. Their Darkvision is useful to any class, as is that the resistance to poison granted by Dwarven Resilience. Mountain dwarves also get + 2 Str, making them even better as barbarians.
Half-Orc
Half-orcs get +2 Str and +1 Con, Darkvision, and learn to Intimidate for free of charge because of their Menacing racial feature. Both the additional crit from Savage Attacks and defensive help from Relentless Endurance also are helpful to a Barbarian.
Human (Variant)
Variant humans get +1 to 2 ability scores. This will be wont to get +1 to Str and Con, making humans an honest choice for barbarian characters. The additional feat is often used for nice Weapon Master, supplying you with an additional attack whenever you crit or kill an opponent.
Barbarians are unique therein they’re the sole class I ever recommend NOT taking your highest ability score and putting it into your main combat stat. Instead, Barbarians should take that highest attribute score and put it straight into Constitution. This high constitution will ramp your hit points up to pretty ridiculous extremes briefly order (you do have the very best hit die within the game at D12), but it also feeds into a Barbarian’s Unarmored Defense ability.
