Hey. I got a question you can probably answer. I’m thinking about playing my first game of D&D and I want to create a character that is both useful and hilarious. I was thinking something like a barbarian/thief gnome. Would that work? And if it does is there anything I could do to enhance it? Considering that it’s a gnome.
I did that once a couple years back, my barbarian/fighter was surrounded by 5-7 Spawn of Kyuss. (He was level 12 or 13 at that point.) He doused himself with Alchemist's Fire to keep the grubs from burrowing into his skin.
I’ve recently started playing a pit fiend themed tiefling barbarian, and I’ve already been lugging those around for a thematically fitting ranged attack. Definitely gonna use this in the next big fight
I would love to see a mini series on the role-playability of each class, their strengths and weaknesses as role playing characters and how best to play them, and some tips on how to get the most out of your abilities in a role playing scenario.
@@DnDShorts Yes please! I still struggle to figure out my level 8 circle of the moon druid's role within our party of a paladin, sorcerer, rogue, and fighter. I feel like a jack of all trades but a master of none.
The best rp class is fighter, you can be anything Others discourage players to branch out... Like monk, my monk is a thief who simply isn't the rogue class. He's a duelist and thief who's mechanics are monk, not the monk behavior.
@@elgatochurro yeah, flavor is free. I have a barbarian, but only mechanically. All the flavor is a very precise, focused gentleman. Rage is just a very focused state.
Piggybacking on the ‘always use reckless attack’, it is important to use armor, but not for AC, but for adamantine properties. Adamantine negates critical hits on you, which will be more often when every attack on you is at advantage.
On the bear-barian, remember that you can spend your spells to heal your wild shape, so don’t feel like you need to cast first then charge in if it doesn’t suit your style or the scenario
I would justify a rogue-barian flavor wise as an executioner, who knows exactly where to land his axe to get a quick and painless death. It’s works good enough in my opinion
@@spencervance8484 You could argue that the clan you were from did a type of trial by combat as a form of execution. The condemned faces the village champion/executioner in a fight that's unfair but offers a warriors death and small chance to survive should they win. The executioner would need to be very good to do his job.
@@Smite_Sion You don't need to use dex for sneak attack. Finesse weapons don't _force_ you to use dex for attack and damage rolls, you know. It just gives you the option. I know a roguebarian that's doing exactly this, in fact. He's using a rapier, activating reckless and swinging with strength and still getting sneak attack.
I'm glad to see there is easier ways to keep rage. When I played my Barbarian, my friend who was a wizard would just set me on fire and watch me rage. That way if an enemy gets too close, I could set them on fire too.
None of this makes sense to me. You only have to attack an enemy to keep it going, not damage an enemy. Just keep throwing shit if they are out of melee range. Or are you guys talking about maintaining rage between combat? Like setting the barb on fire while exploring? Shutting a barbs rage down in combat is actually really difficult.
@@negandavidson9600 Rage only lasts a minute. You can't explore while raging for very long. 2 rooms without combat and the minute is up, rage is done. Now you're just a normal guy on fire.
Always the final option, but man it sucks when you're used to doing 30+ damage a turn to go down to 8! If you find yourself caught at range a lot, I recommend checking out the Javelin of Lightning as well as a few potions of flight!
@@DnDShorts You could also throw a handaxe, and use your bonus action to throw another(which might not do extra STR damage but will add extra rage damage anyway). Either way you'd be out of range on your next turn.
I took Path of Beast on a simichybrid and a multiclass into rogue to get around this. Take acid spit attack as one of the mutations so you always have a ranged attack to continue proccing rage, and Path of the Beast gives you an extra 10 feet of movement speed per round plus half your total movement speed when you rage, and Cunning Action let's you dash as a bonus action so you don't waste a whole turn doing nothing when you could be smacking people around. Flying enemy? No problem just use your lvl 6 Beast barb ability to add an athletics check to your jump distance and make an insane jump to grapple the enemy, which you have advantage on thanks to Beast subclass. Enemy gets grappled 9 times our of ten and plummets to the ground. You both take damage but they always take more than you. Then proceed to slaughter. Rinse, repeat. Enjoy!
2:44 Unless the beholder just, you know, looks at you with its giant antimagic eye. And potions are magical items, so they won`t work in the antimagic field. That`s literally the whole point of a beholder.
@@goldencalf13 Of course beholder have a number of rays that would desimate barbarian, but they have two problems. 1) They are random. 2) They all allow saving throws and barbarians will be good at 7 of those (STR, DEX, CON). And a good thing about antimagic eye, this 150 ft CONE, most likely to touch most of the party anyways.
@@user-fd5nz5lo7m It's cone also affects its own eye rays, so a beholder will cripple himself by sheltering his most important targets. Learning how to place a beholder's cone is key.
3:36 you can disable the downside of reckless attack by playing as a Wildhunt Shifter because their shifting feature makes it so within 30ft of you enemies can't benefit from advantage to hit you
Or if you go roguebarian (or what I like to call the dervish) you could bonus action disengage to dance back out of melee if you're scared of taking it like a man.
@@Guille2033 *Wildhunt* -Ability Scores: Dex +1 Wis +2 -Natural tracker: You have proficiency in the survival skill. -Shifting feature: While shifted, you have advantage on Wisdom checks, and *no creature within 30 feet of you can make an attack roll with advantage against you, unless you're incapacitated.*
@@Guille2033Yeah they do and this combo is actuallynot that bad. Just because its not a powergamer race doesnt make it bad. It actually has great flavour.
A “DM” I have played with, gave my Barbarian boots of speed, and a cloak that casts blur, and a ring that allows him to regain hit points…. Now every encounter is either the Barbarian kills everything while the party watches, or a monster appears that just happens to undermine all the Barbarian’s strengths. I’ve actually started “forgetting” some of the strategies possible with this character, just to give the other players a chance to participate in a meaningful way.
I have a high elf barbarian with mage hand to carry their maul, since it is within the 10lbs limit. Also puts mage hand on throwing axes for a returning effect.
One of my favorite feats for Barbarians is the fell handed feat. What the fell handed feat does is give you a +1 to hit with axes and hammers, and if you attack with advantage and the lower of the two damage dice hit you knock enemies prone. The feat also does other stuff, but those are the parts which really matter.
I'm currently building a fighter, and the potions section here had some good stuff. I'm doing Polearm Master with variant human (and will get Sentinel asap), but I'm doing Battlemaster fighter for the superiority dice with tripping people when they enter the range and their speed drops to zero. So they stay on the ground for their turn. and then I get advantage.
Hats off for just starting the video and getting right into the topic of the video. No 2 min summary and explanation. No stupid in video ad. Just to the point. Love it.
Hop in the discord! People are making a lot of one shots to let forever DMs play! If I ever get enough from this YT to leave my job I'll also start running regular ones for the community too!
@@bastiondon How does this slow down combat significantly for you because i coud imagine that if you add multiple "DM Player Charekters" to the combat who are all quit complex. PS: I'm ary that my englisch is not the best, I'm not a nativ speaker.
@@Velatus5978 That's okay! The way I do it is, I don't use whole character sheets for NPCs I throw at the party. I instead make monster stat blocks for them using the abilities from the classes I want them to have. It's smaller, but you still get the details and power on one clean stat block!
Barbarian/Alchemist is a good combo too. Make your own magic items, make your own potions (using spell slots that you can't use while raging), make your Alchemist fire... And the best part is using magic tinkering to play the DOOM OST when you rage.
Not sure if you meant it that way but you can actually use spell slots when you rage, you just cant cast spells. Using a spellslot to make a quick potion during battle is totally viable but of course its better to make them beforehand. Thats also why Barb/Paladin works as you can smite while raging.
Simic Hybrid/Path of the Beast Barbarian. It's so much fun. You get so many options. Ray-like fins and grappling appendages fit so well with beast barb it's insane.
I have been watching your vids for a while and I’m starting my first D&D campaign EVER and I’m playing a barbarian. Perfect timing my man lol thank you!!
One great combo is the polearm master/sentinel build with a 10ft reach weapon while being a bugbear. On your turn you can step 5ft back and still hit them, then if they get closer they enter your reach again. It's best if they need to get past or to you and they can't get more than 10ft to your sides.
Here's an alternative solution to dealing with flying enemies, jumping. A path of the Beast barbarian with the Jumping option of their Bestial Soul feature, with advantage on strength checks you can get some huge athletics skill rolls and jump surprisingly high, you just need to get in close enough to make one of your attacks, but rather then attacking you use it to grapple. Again with advantage on your athletics checks and high strength there are very few things you won't be able to grapple. Grapple reduces a creature's movement speed to 0, a flying creature with 0 speed can't fly anymore and they begin to fall. Sure you might take some fall damage as well when you both hit the ground, but who cares, you're raging. Even if the creature can hover and doesn't fall, you're still grabbing on tight so you can stay in the grapple and keep hitting them with your claws. I also did this with a Rabbitfolk from the fey creatures UA (though that should soon become an official option) for that extra hop of jump distance. If you wanna get REALLY nasty take a few levels of rogue, like suggested here, and take expertise in athletics. At that point you can wrestle dragons to the floor.
Another good tip is to take the readied action outside of combat specifically for the dash action because barbarians need to be up close and personal with whatever their fighting, and taking the dash action before anyone even rolls initiative means that the barbarian can run right up to whatever he wants to stick his axe in then still have their movement on their own turn making it great for gap closing.
I played a tortle bear totem barb/ champion fighter/ moon druid with a cloak of displacement, and had the gwm,polearm master and sentinel feats(used charger as well to turtle slide into people) that man was disgustingly dangerous in an enclosed space
currently playing a level 18 barbarian, im so hyped for capstone. i do have a belt of storm giant strength, but a 24 strength to fall back on in antimagic situations is incredible
I used that great weapon/polearm/sentinel combo with a tortle fighter..i was an iron wall nothing on foot or low flying made it past me to the party. plus if it was something big and scary i would use my attacks then my movement speed to move back 5 ft
There's also subclasses like Path if the beast which is fun to use when raging with the tail, claws, and mandible which all have different abilities if you choose one of them during your rage. My favorite being tail since I could use my reaction to roll a 1d8 and add it to my a.c. which was always fun.
Awesome video! Definitely learned a lot that I'll be using! I multiclassed my barbarian with draconic sorcerer which so far has been fun! Got that extra free AC bonus, plus I'm able to now apply mage armor to myself with a couple range and speed spells.
You could go Scourge Aasimar, use Radiant Consumption and take 2 or 3 damage radiant damage on the end of your turn and do extra radiant damage per level.
I am mostly sure Halberds are applicable to each of the feats mentioned. There is also the tough feat which is +2 hp per level. If you rolled solid stats taking all of these could give your DM a healthy challenge for balancing future encounters, keep in mind it wouldn't be possible until 12 at the earliest and an average of 16
very good tips here! I'm playing a barb myself right now, who's whole stick is that he's a disgruntled town guard who really just wants to fing die but won't (he's a zelot because Ilmater thinks he'll find his way) and he's got a combination of polearm master (his trusty halberd is his main weapon) and tavern brawler (he's all about fighting dirty and going for nutshots and just smacking people with barstools, just last session i beat a wizard to death with his own spellbook) so what i like to do is rage, use great weapon master to be a threat to protect my squishies and then i smack with the halbard, move in, punch and do a bonus action grapple with advantage. alot of the time I have trouble keeping rage after that so fing lighting myself on fire is the perfect tip, depending on how the DM rules it it might even hurt whoever I'm grappling XD
I was playing with a half-orc 5th level Bear-Totem barbarian + 4th level Fighter battlemaster reckless attack every turn with -5 attack +10 dmg from Great Weapon Master possibly with action surge for 4 attacks in the same turn if by some reason I missed, I could use the "precision" maneuver and add a 1d8 to the attack and if I hit, I could use some other maneuver that added 1d8 dmg plus some other nice effect If something needed to die, it was not hard do 100+ dmg in one turn
Sneak attack needs a finesse weapon, while the barbarian's advantages from rage only work for strength based attacks. The most you'll get is a rapier if you wanna use both classes.
Sadly, Sneak attack only works with a finesse or ranged weapon, while Reckless attack only works on an attack that uses strength. Loved the rest of the video!
I'm playing a Bugbear (long arms racial feature gives him reach) barbarian in a friend's game, and his main weapon is a halberd and has both sentinel and Polearm master. With a 15 foot reach (20 foot when someone casts enlarge), he can stop people in their tracks from far away, spend all his attacks on them, then just take a 5 foot step back. Wash and repeat. One of our better tactics is for him to stand near the center of the group, while enlarged, and he can cover a MASSIVE area around him and hit anything within that 9x9 square. Plus being able to melee anything flying within 20 feet of you.
Played in a meatgrinder at a comic con with a druid barbarian multi class. The two clerics realized the because I was taking half damage from everything, if they just pored their spell into me, and sent me up the gut we'd be unstoppable. Jamed the game for the 4hr run time. Good memories
The Barbarian/Rogue multiclass showing up in this video really reaffirms the idea i came up with. Currently building a Little Red Riding Hood Axe weilding murderer character for a oneshot. Roleplaying her rage as bloodthirst manic. Thinking laughing psychotically while drunk on violence. Plus unarmored defense means i get to wear what ever "pretty dresses" I want. Was specking into barbarian but recognized that being level 9 only gets me an advantage on saving throws and initiative. Which is nice but its a one shot and Im not used to typically having that so why not search for something better. Then it occured to me that barbarians dont have a lot to do with their bonus action and that the reckless attack procs sneak attack. So for only 2 levels into rogue i can get extra damage, proficiencies, things to do with my bonus action, keep my advantage on saving throws/initiative, AND it feels thematic for a psychotic little girl in a cloak to be stealthier than most.
In our previous session last week, we got a new party member who’s playing an Ancestral Guardian Barbarian. After learning how her Ancestral Protectors trait worked, my Armorer Artificer immediately cheesed the enemy by making use of my thunder gauntlets in combo with her ghosts. My ability gave it disadvantage if it attacked anyone but me, and her ghosts did the same for her. So no matter who it attacked in the party, it had disadvantage. (Enemy’s best bet would still be to go for her since the protectors trait also gives any ally attacked aside from the barbarian resistance to the damage if the disadvantage attack manages to land)
One character I will never forget was my Glaive wielding Battlerager Barbarian, Multi Champion fighter. Polearm Master, Great weapon master, Sentinel, Great weapon fighting style, improved critical hit. Wearing the cloak of displacement and striking with a +1 Glaive. He was an absolute unit.
Barb is my most goodest smash. Is good smash overall, plus it has greatest longevity usefulness over averaging of levels, as opposed to peaking or slacking in late game. Always angry good.
Okay using Alchemist Fire to maintain rage is freaking Genius! Its also so, so very badass. Lets also not forget the fear factor... Like, Imagine seeing a man whose already built like a tank and ferocious and stuff; proceed to light himself in fire and charge toward you like a bull on crack, screaming his head off. I think that is a "DM have them make a Wisdom Saving Throw at disadvantage." Moment...
Not sure if you mention it but if you can get your hands on an adamantine breast plate it is medium armor so you still get the benefits of rage and you can always reckless attack without worrying about getting critical hits on you.
Fave barb multiclass I've tried was a BarbLock with armour of agathys, because after casting it and raging for resistances, it took the enemy a lot of hits (and a fair bit of cold damage) to actually break through the temporary hit points
one of my players, a cleric, wanted to multiclass into barbarian, which sounded freaking awesome... except for the rage downside of "no spells". Good thing this is a homebrew campaign and I am above the judgments of both God and Crawford: Primal Path: Path of Ecstatic Excess Primal Expression: At 3rd level, your emotions run with the strength of leylines, allowing you to cast some spells while raging. You learn the Cure Wounds and Inflict Wounds spells, and can cast them at first level using this feature a total number of times up to your proficiency modifier per long rest. Strength is your spellcasting ability for these spells when cast this way. You must be raging to cast using this feature. Spells are empowered by your emotions, allowing you to add your rage modifier to damage and healing done by spells while raging. Additionally, you may cast other spells you know that have a range of touch while raging, but cannot concentrate on spells. Impatient Cast: At 6th level, your emotions spur you to see results before others would be able to act. You learn the Guiding Bolt spell and can cast it at first level using this feature once per long rest. Strength is your spellcasting ability for this spell when cast this way. You must be raging to cast using this feature. When you cast Guiding Bolt using this feature against a creature within your movement range, you may immediately move next to that creature and use a melee weapon attack as a bonus action. Additionally, you can cast any spell you know while raging, but cannot concentrate on spells. Emotional Locus: By 10th level, not only are you experiencing the full spectrum of your emotions while raging, those emotions are experiencing and sharpening you. You can concentrate on spells while raging. Raise the Roof: By 14th level, your overflowing emotions are infectious, empowering your allies around you. When an allied creature casts a spell that deals damage or restores hit points, you may add your rage bonus multiplied by that spell's level to the amount dealt or healed. You may add this bonus once this way, or expend two rages to add it to a different spell, before completing a long rest. (yes i know Emotional Locus does nothing for a barbarian without a multiclass, but remember this was designed for a character who was already a cleric)
ooo this is great news. my current character is a rune knight fighter/barbarian. definitely going to put more levels into barbarian now that my fighter side is decent after seeing this. 👍🏼
RP-ing a barbarian is also so fun! I look down on puny civilized fools, I am here for glorious battle and my morality is centered around what's good for my clan 😊
you mentioned both PAM and GWM and mentioned the synergy between PAM and Sentinel, but PAM and GWM also work well together. They both offer substantion increases in average damage per round that not only stack, but synergize. Just like PAM offers an additional attack each round (after your initial rage) to apply Reckless Attack's advantage and Rage bonus damage, PAM's bonus action attack can also apply the -5/+10 "tradeoff" of GWM, as can opportunity attacks offered by PAM when an enemy enters your square. There's a little bit of overlap between the BNS action attack offered by PAM and the one conditionally offered by GWM but you can always opt into the stronger one when available and then default to the weaker one when not. I like getting both of these feats on my barbarians because, as you alluded to multiple times, barbarians are naturally super tanky, and have subclass options to get even moreso. So opting for two damage increasing feats and using a reach weapon for added threat range make you overall much more capable in combat, instead of just being a giant damage sponge
I played a Firbolg Moon Druid, Barbearian, Vengeance Paladin in a short, high level campaign once. Used the exact reference you did for the Druid Barbarian. He was rhe most busted PC I've ever made. Pike, polearm master, ring of freedom of movement. Cast plant growth or entangle, and move in for the kill.
Yes I love this I made a gauntlet specifically for that that was effectively a very simple weapon that had a glass vials at the end of the Gauntlets that would expose your knuckles to the fire but allow you to cause your target additional fire damage on the condition that you would take the one D4 damage every attack
The more complicated version had varying distances so that your first impact would cause one vile to break your second 3rd and 4th to break 1 respectively allowing you to attack multiple times while maintaining rage
Or have them detonate all at once for additional fire damage for effectively a flaming grenade punch and the gauntlet was ever so slightly angled in such a way that it would explosions towards the target adding to the damage you can do
For the multiclass options as Barb, there is one more: Champion Fighter 3/Barb X. Though granted, this is very much a late-game build that works best past Level 12. Barbarians get Brutal Crit which makes their crits extra deadly. Champion Fighter crits on 19. On reckless attack, your chance to crit normally is 9.75%. With the Champion's superior Crit though, you can get to 19% crit chance. If you're feeling spicy, you can do this in the other way with Barb 3/Champion X. At level 20, you'll have a 27.5% crit chance. That is slightly more than 1 in 4 chances of critting. You can stick with Great Axe but if you go Dual Wielder then you can make an extra attack with a Bonus Action using your off-hand Long Sword and so that's 4 attacks, 7 with action surge (Because one attack is with BA) and it is very likely that one of those 4 attacks you make every turn is going to crit because you're making all those attacks with advantage thanks to Reckless attack. Downside is that both of these are only good at high levels so unless the DM says, "We're doing a campaign starting at Level 12 (Or higher)" Consider using one of the other builds.
re: Fighter Multiclass, i'd argue 3 levels of fighter gives enough to make it worthwhile. Echo Knight, Rune Knight, or Champion all give some pretty nice bonuses as their 3rd level benefits. Echo Knight gives some mobility options, extends your Attack of Opportunity coverage and how far you can threaten in a fight, and your CON mod in extra attacks per long rest. Rune Knight lets you pick from a handful of neat bonus effects based on the Runes you scribe, several of which can be pretty strong if used correctly. Champion extends your Crit range to be 19-20. it's amazing. when you have two attacks each round, with advantage, you have an almost 20% chance to land a crit each round. be a Berzerker Barbarian in a Frenzied Rage (so potential 3 attacks in a round) and you are at a 27% chance to get a crit every round.
Also if you pick the race bugbear, you have gangly limbs for that extra 5' melee range, and if you're using a reach weapon you effectively threaten a 15' sphere around yourself. Or if you pick half-orc or tabaxi, you can outrun any enemy trying to flee without needing magical help, but if you do oh boy you can chase down even playing foes.
