How To Kill the Barbarian in My D&D Group| GM 911 

The proper marching order is: Fighters in the front, clerics in the back, the wizard in the middle, and you never let that damn thief out of sight!

It's a little fun to go from a video where you talk about bad GM:s and killer GM:s and then right to this one where you open up with "We have a GM 911 and it's about bring down the barbarian". :)

Insta-KO effects. Banshees come to mind. Intellect Devourer. Psychic damage (bypasses rage resistance). Mind Flayers. If he's str-based with low dex, a ranged battle can really mess with him; throw some ranged flyers out there.

Being hit also maintains a Barbarian rage.

He did mention killing the character, only the barbarian though. Character death should be for a reason, and you can't challenge a pc if you kill it off. For the dm in question, how would you like it if it was your character getting killed off because your dm didn't like it. If it's not the character but the player maybe talk to them about the situation instead of finding a game mechanic that lets you exact your passive aggressive vengeance.

Target their mental stats? I have two words for you: Gnome Barbarian. Advantage on Int, Wis, Cha saving throws. I almost want to play that character now. You could have him be like Joe Pesci in pretty much every mobster role he's played or go the Jekyll and Hyde route and have it be a potion the character cooked up in a lab. Either way, funny yet deadly.

Well, my GM had an intellect devourer jump onto my Dragonborn Barbarian's head. It turned into a big story arc where my character achieved the ultimate meditative trance and basically ascended to dragon Nirvana by accident due to being pretty vacant a lot of the time anyway.

How to kill a Barbarian is easy... Hold Person, Blindness/Deafness, Polymorph (toad). Also, Chill Touch stops the Barbarian from healing or being healed. Traps work wonders too.

If a Barbarians turns end and the Barbarian hasn't attacked a hostile creature since their last turn, or taken damage since then, the Barbarian's rage ends early.

Barbarians are so tough. I had a lvl 4 Totem Warrior (Bear), with 18 Con, and I got 9+ on all my hp rolls. By lvl 4, I functionally had 106 hp while raging. And I had 14 Wis (planned to multi into Druid at some point). So I could decently resist some spells as well.

on critical role there was a battle in the feywild, and this "creature" had what amounted to mobility and elevation. tree roots moved him around, sort of like flight. The barbarian spent the whole time running around. Can't maintain rage if you don't take damage or do damage. Barbarian seldom have range, nor can the usually fly.

Just make a bigger barbarian or some other fighter class and challenge him to a 1-on-1.

Whatever you decide to do make sure you don't use your DM knowledge to allow their enemies to metagame. Nothing worse than a DM who polices metagame knowledge and then uses it to set up a trap that the enemies would not know to set up. I see a lot of metagame solutions in the comments. Use forward scouts or casters who can scry but only use them if they have reason to, not just to give yourself carte blanche to metagame, and then if they succeed, allow for them to successfully set the traps. You can't expect your players to not metagame if you do it.

My intent wasn't to single out the barbarian and crush him with everything i had, for creatures of low intelligence i roll a dice based on the number of players and one or two sides determining that the creature will attack not a spcific player but the one thats closest or of most health, for higher intelligence monsters i put myself into the thought process of something trying to defend itself and its brethren so at that point the battle becomes more of who's the threat or who can sustain the party or just another dice roll. I find this system keeps things fair and unprejudiced and we all agree. Giving the barbarian a berserker axe where he has to make a saving throw or go berserk is also what ive done to enthuse the players and give battle another layer of depth..will he go with his nonmagical weapon and see things out or use the possessed axe and possibly turn on the party. It's not about singling out the player its about giving everyone equal challenge and more battle interaction, I like to make batlle something fresh everytime keeping my players on their toes but letting them breathe and enjoy the world as well. Thanks Nerdarchy Crew!

I’m currently playing a Goliath/Barb and my worst nightmare at the moment is a ranger with defensive dualist and multi attack defense. He slowly chips away at my health while i flail about trying to hit him. My only saving grace is if i succeed in hitting him i take a third of his health.

Yeah, I love my tanky halfling barbarian/druid. Brown Bear form, bear totem berserk from the Barbarian side, taking multiple rounds of attack from frost and fire giants, and not even dropping to zero.

I want to play DnD so bad.But my friends...they are just so uninterested. Btw great video! [sorry for the bad english]

One way that you didn't address the use of incorporeal creatures like Shadows or Allips. The Allip's Babble ability causes a fascinated effect, allowing it to get around the charm immunity that a Frenzy barbarian uses. They also drain Wisdom, making the resistances against other attacks on the barbarian's mental stats even more effective. As for something minor that wasn't addressed in the video, as the cloak of resistance requires attunement (although I don't understand why for the lack of a benefit it gives, but I digress) I'd probably remove the unarmored bonus, saying that the magic weighs heavy upon those not trained in its use.

Anything to slow down the barbarian and keep distance from his targets (difficult terrains, hazards that will explode on him charging in, flyers), hired thugs or a rival barbarian tribe that target the barbarian specifically as an act of vengeance etc., or switch the form of challenge: Social encounters, stealth missions requiring not going into an uncontrolled screaming rage, and so on. Barbarians tend to shine best in combat, so let him shine there. Unless he is seriously unbalancing things in a combat, then it seems fair to adjust accordingly.

A great way to put some wear and tear on the tankier frontliners is to use environmental hazards. Have the party fight in a swamp of bubbling acid pits, lava pools, or unstable mountainsides. Have a bunch of little guys attempt to cause damage via the hazards (pushing rocks off of high ledges, cutting down large icicles, pushing them into the pits, etc). With this whole scenario, the frontliners feel massive because they can easily toss aside and fling droves of the minions into the environmental hazards themselves, but with the power of numbers, the minions will eventually win and push the frontliners into the hazards. If you think the player will simply avoid combat if they see a small horde of minions, add things like large patches of tall grass, shrubs, etc that they can hide in and then jump out of in an attempt to surprise them.

Elevation gives advantage. Psychic damage. CC. Teleport him out of combat. AoE. Poison. Exhaustion. Intellect devourer. Don't give the party combat encounters. Fire wall to split the party.

Also Ranged Sneak Attacks and Touch Spells (ignores Armor) work well. Posion Dart trap and other traps as he runs into combat wildly.

The barbarian (or at least the 5e Barbarian) will only exist rage prematurely to the 1 min duration if they are; knocked unconscious, or hasn't attacked a hostile creature or taken damage since last turn.

Rage DOES continue when you are attacked, and it doesn't even have to hit. I've moved myself out into the open with ranged enemies to make myself the best target just so I can keep my rage going

to keep rage going you have to attack a creature or to have take'n damage in the round.

Hobgoblins, or better yet, hobgoblins with a brute that can grapple or distract the barbarian. Those longbows and longswords are brutal when you add on the martial advantage damage, which will help you cut through that barbarian HP and damage resistance.

Checking my books I found hold to be Paralysis as I thought but surprised to find sleep (which in my mind is a rather broken op low level spell) is charm.

Rage: the PHB just says that you need to TAKE damage or ATTEMPT an attack. there is no spelled out stipulation that the damage needs to come from a hostile creature, you need only TAKE damage or try to make an attack. for the attack there is no stipulation that you need to hit. he could theoretically just stick himself with a dagger while he waits for thing to be in his melee range.

This was pretty helpful ;) over the last couple sessionswe have actually had a litt;le more success with wrecking the party ;). I've designed special kobolds as part of the storyline (roided out kobolds,wizard kobolds, kobolds riding owlbears and the dreaded electrum kobold) along with focusin on story and upping the difficulty of our overall encounters have made every fight a challenging fight with consequence strategy and teamwork. gonna be making a vinyl mat to play on soon, small 4 pc party but we're having alot of fun. Thanks Nerdarchy!

Use kobolds as an excuse to put traps everywhere. They don't even have to deal any damage, just pit traps, nets, glue, etc... Run the barbarian out of rage duration, and pelt the party with crossbows from afar. Strictly within the rules, you can throw 43 kobolds at a 5th level party of 4 without going above a "Hard" difficulty. Meanwhile that pack tactics trait means they have advantage whenever one of them is in melee.

This can easily backfire if the player feels like the DM is singling him out / trying to kill him. I've had the DM target me and take me out every single encounter, or come up with random things preventing me from doing practically anything. It got to the point that I half expected to slip on a banana peel if I wanted to hit something. I stopped playing.

The simplest way to "deal" with an OP barbarian is simply to change the way you do encounters. Certain classes benefit or are hindered by encounter frequency. For example, if you only really worry about large encounters only once or twice a day then a barbarian is going shine. But if you also include small, relatively inconsequential ones (e.g. a single goblin scout is spotted by the party and they dump on him, unaware that he is alone) then classes like the worlock (who gets their abilities back after every short rest) will be much more powerful. So in short a few small encounters and red herrings thrown into the mix will change things quite a bit. They will force the barbarian player to actually have to weigh if they want to rage or not at every bump in the night. This also has the effect of more player involvement as they weigh their options and have to make meaningful decisions (as opposed to simply knee-jerk raging). Furthermore it can only be assumed that much as people in a D&D world understand that wizards cast spells they will also understand that berserker fighters can be worn down due to exhaustion and will not do as well in a long, protracted fight (e.g. several smaller fights spaced out with the specific intent to waste their rage). This is especially true of enemies such as orcs and their allies who themselves are basically barbarians and have first-hand knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of barbarians.

You could also blind him, or cast darkness. In a trap filled room. This way he does automatically fail ability checks and everything got advantage to hit him. The casting of darkness was how my GM dealt with my Fighter/Barb in halfplate.

There is always the option of a Sorcerer or Wizard (evocation) running the elemental adept feat. An easy way to overcome the resistance barBEARians have to fire/lightning and a way to deal a lot of damage to the health pool. Not only this but if you give it fly and other means to deal with the rest of the party, a lone caster can be a serious threat to the whole group and not just the melee guys. Outfitting it with shield and mage armor also makes the caster an extremely good avoidance tanking machine.... That is just the way I dealt with a full barbarian/fighter party to give them a challenge. Obviously just targeting the barbarian with that is crazy and its probably best to have this mad magician firing other spells at the rest of the party too :D

Ambushes were mentioned. In one of my encounters, the mage acolytes don't show up until the end of round one. That removes them from battle from the fast initiative characters. Let them beat up on the cannon fodder.... then, at the end of round one, bring up the archers and enemy wizards. (hey, they were slow so they enter the fray late --put that to good use) Like I mentioned before, a single mage firing off 4 Magic Missiles is nothing. But having ten of them there -- that's another situation altogether and there is no saving throw or dodge, they always hit. (PC's almost NEVER use the shield spell) You are guaranteed to hit the heavies and the pesky thieves with their fantastic dodge ability. :)

Barbarians are easy. - Hold Person. Done in one. Then have Unseen Servants play "dress-up" with him. - If you want randomness, Crown of Madness. When you cast it, run it like a midway barker. "Everybody Plays! Everybody WINS! Step right up little lady, and let's see if you've got the chops to...(rolls, then winces) OOOOHHH, looks like Grog doesn't like your bodywash! He's Scent-sitive!" - If you want to end the Rage, have his opponent move away for one full round. So long as the Barbarian does not take a point of damage or attacks a foe in melee, his Rage ends. Any monster or character that has a bonus Dash action is great for this, or those that can break combat without initiating an Attack of Opportunity. Do not over-use this tactic. You'll come off as a douche. - If you're dealing with a Bear Totem, use a Bard. Vicious Mockery, Dissonant Whispers, Tasha's Hideous Laughter.... Make the Bard super annoying with a really high charisma. They'll automatically hate anyone carrying a musical instrument after that. - Possession by a Ghost who's passive. It's a Charisma save. Now the bruiser wants to weave baskets. The intent as GM/DM or player is to create memorable moments, not "always beat the party". This isn't "How to win at D&D". That said, a Charmed Barbarian is an old tactic used since somone put the Charm in Person. It does create great facepalm memories moving forward, because the players will always ask "does that wizard have Charm Person?" So long as you only pull moments like these occassionally, you'll be fine. If you make the game un-fun for the Barbarian on a constant basis, then you're being unfair. Everyone in the party should have some sort of nemesis, as well as moments to shine. When they can all relate to "that one guy" that has their ticket, then you build unity within the group, and the Barbarian (in this case) doesn't suffer alone. Then when they rise and champion a cause together, it's that much sweeter. Some notes.... Ted & Dave- Ambush/Traps vs. Danger Sense. You'll start an argument there. An "ambush" might be argues as a "trap". If the Barbarian is "Alert"(feat), you're basically done there.

My one stop shop for messing with a barbarian has always been the good old intellect devourer. Put the hulking monster barbarian in a coma once and that fear sticks with a player

Umber Hulks. Confusion can make him either attack an ally or run away and it deals massive damage.

Aren't Mind Flayers and those brains with leggs extremely effective against the Barbarian? Like, a Behorlder throwing a desintegration ray wouldn't be healthy either.

Creatures like Orcs and Hobgoblins that have stacking harder hits and advantages can be fairly devastating and be organized enough to be naturally of a type to gang up on something like the Barbarian. The damage can be enough of a boost to still tax the damage reduction of the barbarian. Spell Barrages can also be effective, even against a Bear Totem Barbarian. At the level that we're talking about it's possible to have an enemy or two to have Elemental Adept of one element or another which actually removes their resistance. This is also useful against heavy elemental resistant characters or even some races elemental resistances to make things just a bit more challenging because they can never be quite sure if that spell caster they are facing is going to be generalized or pierce those protections. Enemies can always set up things to be more advantageous to their builds in the same ways that characters can.

If he is berserker path any magic damage and if he is Totem with bear go for psychic damage. You can also use anything that will keep them from being able to attack for a round but also as per Rage in the PHB they continue raging if they take damage as well. So Hold person, Entangle, or Web them to keep them attacking something then dont attack him.

A few enemy casters with magic missile and some meat shields to keep the barbarian busy. You will roll up enough damage to worry the barbarian character without just killing him/her outright.

Marching order in a campaign I'm in. Me (6th level human barbarian (lol) up front, Ranger (bow and arrow type) in the middle, then the Tabaxi Monk. Basically I'd spear head while the monk practically teleports around the battlefield while the ranger fills the mobs with arrows. Only fight we've ran from was trolls... we no have acid or fire.

phantasmal force save vs intelligence, and does up to d6 damage a round, and the barbarian will be busy fighting whatever nasty thing you thought of, a vary low level spell

Elemental damage can bypass the tankiness from rage, so its a nice way to get them a little more worried especially coupled with damage over time and/or proximity dmg (like ramoraz flame bodies). And like they said in the video, a mobile target (something w/ flyby for example or disengage as a Bonus Action) can work, but he would keep his rage from taking dmg. Barbs can be crazy raid bosses sometimes. I'd say be careful not to single him out too much so he doesn't feel like "o the DM wants to take me down today". GL tho

reminds me of a dwarven barbarian i had in 3.5.. gm didnt have to kill him though.. a player did.. story goes like this.. we encounter a grp of goblins.. my barbarian rages and charges into the goblins.. our grps mage then decides to cast fireball... both my barbarian and the goblins are in the aoe... well my barbarian is enraged and the goblins just got fried.. so knowing he was hit from the rear he charges the mage.. mage has to use every spell left to survive...and he almost didnt.. darn low dice rolls

Drop the rest heal and reintroduce Item Creation Feats then make them ration healing magic and potions like the old days, then if he goes nuts and screws the party over using up too much healing then they can decide not to heal him later saving it for more important members of the party. Our game did that and it fixed issues like players not using smart tactics to reduce the risk of taking damage.

im our game my pc is a battlerager lvl 5, with luckstone. i grapple and shove in my combat turns with +7 to the athletics, using my two attacks. my dm feels this tactic is to op and has removed my athletics proficientcy for such checks and has added the effects of prone onto my pc when he shoves his grappled opponent. to me this seems unfair, any ideas to balance what the DM feels is a dissadvantagous position monsters are put in?

Anything that hits heavy psychic. That's the only damage a Barbarian won't be able to half. We rolled our character stats and my barbarian isn't dumb at all. He has at least a +1 to each from the start. But if you throw something at the barbarian that's going to psych him out, it gives the ranged players a chance to be the hero & save the tank. Sometimes the party likes to hide behind the tank and that may be why this DM wants to inflict pain upon him.

many people forget that magic missile NEVER misses. I usually have a shaman with 2-3 acolytes and if they blast the toughest character they see in battle, that's a potential 9d4+1 damage or more. One of the deadliest encounters I managed was to bring the party to critical condition when they encountered 18 mage acolytes. all those magic missiles flying --it's like being hit with a machine gun. And they always hit. then, normal battle can commence afterwards.

All you have to do is send in a NPC of high enough level with strong enough equipment. There's always a bigger barbarian.

Has Gladius tried combining an enemy spellcaster with a pet umber hulk? That's the first thing I would try if I wanted to give the barbarian a wake up call

I mean the few games ive played the one thing dms find the most infuriating are grave clerics. Barbarians are hard to kill until you just have this guy just using spare the dying and healing nonstop.

You simply need to swarm him with shadows, their strength drain ability makes them surprisingly powerful while only being CR 1/2.

Unless they are bear totem, they don’t have resistance to most damage. Just physical

flying monsters with range or fly by attack

Homebrewed ingested poisons are always the answer.

Wait for the barbarian to nat 1, and they slice a hole through the dimensions, and 1 of tiamat's heads grabs only the barbarian and pulls them in.

Couldn't you sunder the weapon, or just disarm them? I don't know if they do the same amount of damage with unarmed attacks. I'm not familiar with 5E so I'm not too sure if that would work.

its actually, attack or take dmg XD

make the barbarian chase stuff around. I have a barbarian in my campaign and I'll throw stuff in the trees or on cliff sides or a bunch of something where head on fighting would be stupid then all the players have to work together and everyone gets involved

Unfortunately I am a bit late to the party but IMO you could give some cool Items to the other PC's to buff them to his level then just increase the CR of monsters. If there is a overpowered PC in a game I don't like nerfing him so much as giving the others some cool stuff too.

Giant Spiders. Webbing the Barbarian gives disadvantage to the Barbarian, Creatures have advantage attacking the barbarian. I have spiders be more of a threat to the party, because of Webbing.

i found hold person is a g8 way stopping a barbarian and its only a lv 2 spell. and i don't like the bear barbarian resistance to everything. it would of made more sense to give temp hit points instead based on the bards levels x there con.

Can the Calm Emotions spell end a rage? It doesn't mention rage in the spell description but it makes hostile creatures indifferent.

Take the cloak of protection away. Don't overthink this.

Barb player in my game wanted a new character, several shadows swarmed him

Can’t charm my barbarian, oath of devotion Paladin cancel’s out charmed…my barbs a super power gamer, in a group of casuals. Whether he realizes it or not, nobody is getting to do anything. He’s blending my monsters and nobody else gets a shot…he just essentially two shot a young green dragon our last session. 30 dollar mini, didn’t even get to use a breath attack…

Have an enemy caster vampiric touch at a high-level

I play a barbarian mountain dwarf at 4th lvl I managed to achieve 20 str and we came up against a lighting lizard a Behiler or something I know it's after a basalisk in the monster manual but I was able to use my rope and grappling hook to hold it down for 4 turns until the party was able to kill it......my DM hates me

I'm playing a minotaur bard and my group is in the underdark, searching for a magic item that is said to be able to summon the tarrasque. My character is secretly planning a war with the drow and summoning the tarrasque here would be wonderful but I'd want to be able to stop it from reaching the surface. Any thoughts on stop the tarrasque from leaving the underdark?

I prefer Pathfinder. Maybe some day you will get to know the Daughter of the Wolf...

8 kobolds works, till the sorcerer drops a fireball on the barbarian and saves him lol.

A few low-level spell-slingers, even if they don't have Charm or Hold, will put a dent in a barbarian. No resistance to magic missiles, fire bolts, eldritch blasts, etc.

My DM dealt with my Bear Totem Barbarian3/Moon Circle Druid2 (I called him my Bearbarian) by having a boss cast something like Plane Shift that kicked me into an alternate dimension for the entire duration of a flight. xD

Our party’s paladin was such a high dps tank with his mights our group that big numbers and large enemies weren’t really a fear with help for him. Our DM wanted to take him out so he made an encounter where when our Paladin killed the first bandit the rest reacted and used all their attacks on him. If you can make an inventive excuse having all your enemies targeting the Barbarian you should be good

Command -> "Undress".

My friend was DM'ing for us and we had something fairly similar pop up. We were playing in 3.5, we were all lvl 15s, and the BBEG is a badass sorcerer or wizard (can't remember which). I'm a paladin and my special mount is a smilodon (saber tooth tiger). Mount and i, thanks to feats and bonuses, both have 160+ max hp. (we aren't anywhere near optimized). BBEG uses power word: Stun on the group. I and my mount are unaffected. We begin to try to fight back. BBEG starts using Finger of death on party members, our warlock failing her save and dying to the ridiculous amount of damage our dm rolled. BBEG threatens to keep killing them unless he gets what he wants. Hit the BBEG in front of me. A fucking illusion. Meanwhile, charmed person walks right up to stunned party, takes what he came for, and TP's out. (i notice only too late). There's plenty of ways to deal with characters that "break your mold". Just gotta be creative. :)

If it is apperent that the barbarian is much more relevant in fights then his party members, and this is hurting their experience, perhaps consider letting the party encounter some magic items or other forms of buffs that are clearly meant to buff the other characters, allowing them all to take on bigger threats.

A barbarian alone is not hard to take apart. Many DM forget to play their fodder creatures as cunning foes. The trick is preventing the casters from supporting him. Have a pack of kobalds harass the party and disengage. have them return whenever the party wants a rest. The little buggers won't stand up for a fair fight (those are for stupid goblins and orcs). Preferring traps ambushes and harassing actions. How tough is that barbarian going to be on day 3 of no rest when his support is down dealing with exaustion.

I don't understand a DM trying to kill a PC. Why not bring in a few magic items to bring the rest of the party's ability to survive combat? How about setting up scenarios where the barbarian's strength become a weakness? Maybe take the party into the astral plane for a while. A good DM can keep things in line even when dealing with a tank character.

just put the barbarian against a paladin polearm build in oath of vengeance.....with Vow of Enmity you get advantage for one minute! and you can keep him out of reach and not moving. a human pally at 6th level could have Sentinel and Polearm mastery easily.

I'm confused. Why would you want to kill the Barbarian. He sounds pretty awesome.

Send him an army of bards

Since 5e started i have had a BArbarian. I took him through 20th level. i never dropped, and only came close to dropping like 4 times. There is just to much I ended with over 210 HP and forever rage. My biggest fear was that i would get charmed or dominated. cause i would destroy 1/2 the party quickly.

I miss the Venture Bros. That was a great show.

you could have him walk into a gelatinous cube

Attacked or attacking keeps rage active

Pack tactics* give it to everything

mind flayers or intelect devourers

It's not particularly singling out in Having this issue ATM a bear totem barbarian in my party who just doesn't respect the dangers of traps or anything because he's the biggest thing in the room he's impatient knows traps are abundant in a dungeon and still keeps walking and just goes meh I have advantage

Isn’t the object of the game to have fun as a cooperative gaming experience with the DM acting as a neutral storyteller? It sounds to me like the DM who asked this question feels like it’s him against the party and want to single out one specific class. I understand as a DM I don’t play my monsters stupid if they aren’t but this just sounds personal to me.

This is proof ,you should never talk rules,unless you have the books right in front of you.

Just put in Mindflayers and cone stun the barbarian with int saves

Don't kill the baby!!

I think you talk to your group. If he is so over powered the rest of the group is not having fun then you talk about scaling him back. If you know they are fine with it, then it is time for you to think about black oose on that cape. Chanced for your other party members to shine when he is helpless. So they can feel what is like when he is not getting all the glory. It's all up to you.

warlocks the answer is always warlocks

Tbh he didn't say if it is a Bear Totem Barbarian. If he isn't, magic damage magic damage and just more magic damage.

Feels like the game is innately broken if this is an actual problem. Even so, I suggest the GM learns how to stage proper encounters that challenge the Group as a whole, not specific individuals in that group.

The sad thing is.... We've designed a barbarian that's obsurdly reistent to direct damage.... Like 30 ac.... At lvl 2.... And he has enough Intel char and wisdom to at least resist the magical encounters....and although lacking in str. He's HORRIBLY BROKEN.... But then again this was a fun mental exercise with a bad premise of a halfling barbarian with bad str.