Is the BarBEARian any good? D&D 5e 

Came for a build guide, stayed for the photos of bears.

My friends and I always called this build the BearBarian, it rolls tongue just fine and distinguished it from Barbarian a bit better

I believe Moon Druids can still use an action to wild shape as a class feature. The subclass reads "you gain the ability to use wild shape as a bonus action", which I believe means that the original ability from the class wildshape feature ("you can use your action to magically assume the shape of a beast that you have seen before") is not replaced. So you could use your bonus action to rage and action to wildshape during your first turn. You're still not attacking until round 2, but you do gain the resistance immediately.

i love that the moondruid at lvl2 litterally gets to be a nontrivial encounter for its own party XD

I’m glad you’re doing a Wild Shape series. I’ve wanted to make a good character who fights in Wild Shape for ages and the best I’ve managed is “not deadweight.”

Very nice new series, looking forward to it! On the Moon Druid Wild Shape: you could also do it as an action since you don't loose this regular class feature. This means you could wildshape and rage in turn 1 - obviously for the cost of not doing any damageon turn 1.

Hrm I wanted to hear at least 20 seconds of advice on what you'd do after level 4 if someone decides they want to go forward with it anyway. I hope we hear that in the upcoming wildshape videos. Also, as a general comment for 2023, I know you don't focus on magic items because you can't assume them for a given game. That said, magic items remain a meaningful part of this game, I strongly suspect they will be more prominent with ONED&D, so it would be nice to hear some thoughts on the kinds of magic items a particular build should strive for sometimes. I know an awful lot of DMs ask their players "What would be your PC's wishlist for magic items" or have a way to craft magic items in their games. It would be nice if these optimization videos provided a bit of guidance on being able to answer that wishlist question.

If you go 6 lvls into Druid to get Elemental forms you can become immune to exhaustion which then allows you to frenzy without penalty for three attacks but I haven’t done the math on whether that is any good. Just an observation.

I would just like to say that the bearbarian has one hue benefit which is flavor. The ability to play as an actual tribal shaman is really cool

I'm hoping that 1DnD will fix wildshape and moon druid. That would also fix most barbearian issues. I'm thinking something like: - template based wildshape instead of using monster manual - use your mental stats in place of your physical stats - temporary hit points based on druid level. When those run out, you revert to your normal form. - form can be up to large size at certain level and up to huge later - natural attack damage scales with level (less for flying forms) - extra attack when wild shaped at level 5 - AC scales with level - starting at various levels, you can choose special abilities and speeds like spider climb, flying, reach, swimming/breathing under water, automatic grapple, pack tactics, poison, pounce and so on.

A build I’ve been considering is moon druid 2/astral monk x. Essentially you are a monk with 74 temporary hit points per short rest, and while you have the temps your speed gets better and you get pack tactics. You can also concentrate on spells, in case you want to.

I really love the breakdown, better than any I've seen. When you do your lvl 6 moon druid dmg report vs BearBarb early in the video, I dont think you're including that you could be concentrating on call lightning or spike growth for extra damage that you can't do while raging as a bearbarb. Also something people seem to overlook is that you can't communicate verbally with your party in wildshape. I'd argue it'd be pretty tough while raging too. Now you're raging and wild shaped?... Maybe this isn't an issue at your table, but it has been at mine. Having played a moon druid/goo warlock(telepathy) I've had multiple times where I've lost my concentration even with warcaster. This is the time Rage would be awesome. Start out doing as much dmg/healing/control as you'd like with a concentration spell. With your low armor you're going to get hit. If you lose concentration but still have lots of hp in wild shape, rage it up. Bonus action spell slot heals. Resistance, reckless attack. If you get invocations in warlock you can get mage armor, which I believe carries over to wild shape giving you a pretty solid consistent AC boost. I have Hellish Rebuke for when they knock me out of wild shape. Armor of Agathys and Longstrider are also great spells to stack up before you wild shape. You can be a little mad, or just sacrifice your chr if you don't want to pick up Eldritch Blast as a cantrip for when/if you run out of wild shape. I will also comment that just because it's called the "BarBearian" doesn't mean you have to feel restricted to being a bear. When you hit higher levels, there's no reason to not take a different, non-bear wild shape if it is the best for the situation and available to you. Great video, thanks again!

I think War Cleric would be a good way to transition between the martial and spellcaster sides of this build. Level 1 it gives you a way to attack with your bonus action with natural weapons that scales off your Wis, level 2 it gives you a limited use accuracy boost, and the whole time your continuing your spell progression. I really wish Barkskin wasn't concentration

I have a player in my game that plays this character. He sees himself as a druid that likes to fight. The barbarian levels are just for hp. He took 1 level of war cleric because his has high wisdom. This has significantly added to his number of attacks. He plays utility druid, scouting and such. It's a fun character that isn't necessarily optimised but he always has ways to contribute, both in and out of combat.

This is an exciting series. Wild shape is unequivocally cool, but seems more utility that actual combat effective.

I went Monk for an Unarmored Defense that's based on a stat that doesn't change with form and synergizes with Druid. Added Life Cleric for Lifeberries. I essentially tanked Str, Dex, Int, and Con as much as I could because they were worthless anyway and concentrated on Wisdom. (My Dex is 13 for multiclassing reasons.) All of my animal ACs are pretty good and my monk gives me extra movement on each of those forms. My second best stat is Charisma, which allows me a host of other multiclassing options. Because why not. Barbarian would be rough to add to the mix because it makes it just too MAD. It just doesn't match up very well on Ability Scores, but it'd be fun to try.

The one advantage I didn't hear you mention is unarmored defense. The brown bear's ac is only 11, but with unarmored defense, it's boosted to a 13. This isn't much, but since wildshape keeps all mental stats, monk/moon druid allows you to be a very tanky character. Since many spiders have high dex and we can keep wisdom, I suggest spider boxing as a replacement for bearbarian. Flurry of blows should still apply!

So one thing I think you missed is that while extra attack doesn't stack with multi attack, it does still work while in wild shape. This allows the character to take forms that don't have multi attack and still get a second hit in the round. The advantage here is that creatures without multi attack tend to have slightly better stats to compensate. So there's that

As always, great video. I might have missed it but one of the benefits of moon druid is being able to use your spell slots for recovery in wild shape which does seem to be compatible with rage, although this is a limited benefit and not great in comparison to third level spells, but an extra d8 per slot level is nice defensively especially if you can combine it with rage. I think for me the way to try and keep this build going is to focus on barbarian levels as no later level wildshapes really feel worth the change, and use wildshapes as a defensive ability occasionally. This really strays away from the idea that the playstyles is tied to your identity, but worked alright for a bear totem barbarian who just liked bears

So happy to see this vid! I'm currently playing a moon druid and have run into everything here plus more. I'd hope you address the lack of darkvision. I find myself using giant spider far more than brown bear simply because most dungeons are dark. Even when a light source is available as a brown bear, it's a hassle to stick so close to it. Also, the size can be tricky in a 10ft dungeon hallway. If I start in the front line, I'm quickly knocked out of wildshape due to the low ac. Our dwarven fighter will last just as long as me with his 20 ac even though I can triple his hp!

I used this BarBEARian build to play a Werebear in a Nouvelle-France Fantasy setting 7 or 8 years ago. It was awesome to roleplay and a very good tank for the party in combat. I played a human who wildshaped exclusively into a bear. Magic and all thing supernatural were highly shunned in our very-low magic homebrew setting. On level up, we kind of reskinned a better CR creature as a bear just to make the form improve mathematically. I went from level 1 to 9 with this character and it was one of my most satisfying character of all time.

I've been playing a similar build for the last few months in a level 1-12 campaign (currently level 8) and it's been working out pretty well but my progression has been a bit different: I started out taking Beast barbarian levels 1-6 and then switched to Moon druid 2, using the druid features for utility, out of combat spell casting, and the combat wild shape as a panic button if I need more health. The flavor of the two classes works really well together as a "druidic warrior shapeshifter" character and I've been able to stay competitive with damage compared to the rest of the party (not a highly-optimized campaign or party but still one where we're doing deadly encounters, etc). I think treating the build as a barbarian-tank first, druid second is the way to go, unless you're specifically playing at level 4/5. Usually in combat I use barbarian rage and beast rage forms to deal damage but the shapeshifting from wild shape has been useful every session out of combat for utility alone and has also saved my life from the health gain. I plan on finishing this campaign out with a barbarian 8 / druid 4 split but if we progressed further taking druid levels until 20 (B8/D12) just because there isn't much damage different between a barbarian at level 6 and one at level 20. Just figured I'd offer my experience since this is really close to the build I've been running and enjoying a lot the last ~7 months.

Great video Chris. I love to hear both the awesomeness and the downsides of builds.

A cool build I’ve been looking at is armorer artificer + moon druid. With a generous interpretation of the rules, you can wear your guardian armor while wildshaped into a dire wolf. This gives you magic plate mail AC (if druids can wear metal) and int based attacks that will scale as you level. You then take mobile and dual wielder to get a 60 foot evasive move speed and 3 attacks per turn with (probable) advantage, giving 2-3 opponents disadvantage to attack anyone but you, except that you’re going to run away so they can’t get to you. The damage really struggles at level 4 and 5, which isn’t great, but you’re back to respectability at 6+ in addition to providing a strong tank role.

If you know that you are going to be hit you can wildshape as an action and then rage as a BA since that resolves the BA clog sometimes.

I played a gestalt style homebrew for 5e once and I made a lv 20 Moon Druid/lv 17 Totem Warrior Barbarian/lv 2 Paladin/lv 1 Life Cleric. From lv 3 to 20 was very effective and fun.

I played this build many times but only in adventurers League. The ability to totally rebuild your character any time before level 5 means that you can optimize a straight barbarian at levels 1&2, then rebuild as a barBEARian for 3&4 and then into your real character for 5-20.

You can still Action to Wildshape as a Moon Druid, the feature just adds Bonus Action as an option. So you can Action Shape and Bonus Rage in the same turn no issues.

This is a good video, and you're absolutely right that this doesn't get talked about enough. The main thing I think you missed in the Pro column is the added versatility it gives you. Your assumption that you have to pick between a raging bear or a Concentration spell is correct, but not necessarily a weakness. Ot just means it's on you to decide, each battle what resources are required to win in the most efficient way. You have 2 LR resources in your spell slots and rages, and 2 SR resources in your wild shapes. It stands to reason that the LR resources need to be selected with the most care. Every battle is different. You might need to tank for your frontlines while they fall back, or you might just need to faerie fire or entangle and control with thorn whip. Either way, the best feat for a druid is resilient Con

So what’s your opinion on the barbarian’s unarmored defense being active in wild shape? If you keep your class features, but your physical stats are replaced then I’ve been allowing the Druid’s AC to shift.

AC is the same between the two bear forms. You keep your unarmored defence feature from barbarian and the CON for both is +3 so you get AC 13 for both so that extra 1CR is even worse.

What I like doing on Moon Druid, is taking 1 level of MONK at 7th. This allows you to use the Monk's Unarmored Defense calculation in your Wild Shape form. And since Wild Shape allows you to retain your mental stats, and class features, you can get much more respectable AC. Yea, you can't use martial arts by raw (which I think is stupid), but the AC bump is QUITE good, and it gives you enough extra defense that you can live, AND doesn't impede your spell casting. And if you can get your DM to allow you to have an Eldritch Claw Tattoo... it's pretty bonkers.

Two levels of fighter for action surge, so you can wild shape, rage and attack all on the first round of combat. Second wind can also gives a tiny bit of extra hp to help keep you in bear form. Take a third level of barbarian for bear totem and you'll at least have a huge pool of hit points that are reliably doubled by rage. I'm certain it's outperformed by straight martials and has the same shrug factor of what to do with later levels, but if someone has a campaign that stretches from tier 1 into tier 2 this is probably the path forward with this particular build.

In type, I call this build “Bar-bear-ian,” but in speech, I call it “Bear-barian.” Something of note is that Extra Attack does benefit the bear form slightly. You don’t have to use Multiattack, and can instead use your Claw attack in conjunction with your Extra Attack feature to make two Claw attacks. It only bumps up your average damage by 3, but it’s technically an improvement. I’ve seen others here make mention the barbarians Unarmored Defense improving the bears AC. Again, it’s not much, but it is something. To get more out of it, you could roll up a Wildhunt Shifter and use their shifting ability while in your bear form. Then, you could Reckless Attack without granting enemies within 30 feet advantage to hit you back. Makes a +2 AC improvement go a little further. Unfortunately, shifting is another bonus action, so it isn’t something that would come up too often, but having quick access to temp hp will make your rages go a little further if you’re saving wild shape uses.

Nice job Chris! I love this build! I have played this build to level 15 in Adventurers League. My char is the front line for the party. Lizardfolk barb 5/Druid 9. Started with druid as Chris suggests for Int/Wis saves. Took the tough feat. AC 15 w/shield 17. Use the CR 2 creature wildshape into giant constrictor snake with costricting strike to restrain enemies for the party until CR3 giant snapping turtle AC 17 HP 75 or giant scorpion (2 grappling attacks). I've had alot of fun being a damage sponge. AT lvl 15 with tough, char has 155 hp plus 2 wildshapes of giant snapping turtle 75 hp x2 (per short rest)= 305 hp w/rage (1/2 dmg) = 610 hp. My char picked up a belt of hill giant strength and a staff of striking. My char can do damage in humanoid form or tank in beast form and do damage control. Check out Min/Max Munchkin's build outline here that Chris references in some of this video. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fXyPEHAVBoA.html

I'm a fan of the Drunk. Or Dronk? Druonk? DruidX/Monk2. Maybe more monk, haven't dug into that too much, but AC 16+ for wildshapes, bonus action unarmed strikes, maintain concentration, and a variety of subclass options for Monk if you take more levels.

A video breaking down the strongest characters at each level would be cool

Hey Chris, what do you think about using animal forms that don’t have multi attack? If you were to use a giant hyena or a giant elk, they only can make one attack per turn normally, would you let them attack twice with the extra attack feature using their natural weapons? What if we took a third level of barbarian for berserker for 3 of those attacks? Overall would a better animal improve this build enough? Change into all kinds of rabid animals, the Berzooker! Also for Frankenstein builds you could always go with the Boomzerker. An armorer artificer/ ancestral? barbarian mix that brings the THUNDER!!! You can use strength instead of intelligence for the thunder gauntlets and it would give you a nice taunt like ability.

I feel like there is something extra satisfying about optimizing a flawed build, such as the Bearbearian or an elementalist (fire only or such.) Whether it gets played or not.

I've been toying with the idea of going spores druid 8 and wild magic barb 6, that way I could give myself a spell slot back or use gwm with an extra d3 to hit. Extra thp and damage from halo of spores/symbiotic entity seem fun too. The character I'm paying is a reborn so it would have some Last of Us mushroom zombie flavor.

I’m so pumped for this series on wild shape.

One thing that would not surprise me, and I think might be an improvement for the long-term strength and playability of Druid in general and Moon Druid in particular, is if WOTC redesigns Wild Shape to use a collection of specific stat blocks in the style of the Tasha summon spells or the revised Beast Master Ranger. Each form would come with its own set of physical stats and different abilities. For example, there might be one form called Prowler that gets bonuses to stealth, or a Hunter form that's more combat oriented, etc. There would be text about how each form takes the shape of an appropriate Beast, since flavor is free, and as the Druid levels up the forms scale with them, getting extra HP and/or armor, swimming or flying speeds, extra or modified attacks for combat-oriented forms, etc. Doing this would allow the designers to let the Wild Shape scale more strongly with the Druid's level without having to worry about the possibly of an unintended interaction with it and a beast stat block causing an overpowered combination. And it would also reduce the bookkeeping for the Druid player by allowing them to select the form they want without having to flip through the Monster Manual to find an appropriate beast that has the abilities they are looking for while fitting whatever restrictions they still have for their level.

My BarBearian only took one level of barbarian first... this gives me con saves natural armor and rage. The con saves and running around naked with high dex are what makes it good for my moon druid... the rages are rarely used but often save my life.

Just be a tundra storm heralds. The numbers look low but over a fight stack up. By level 5 It basically just gives barbarian inspiring leaders feat but it can easily negate 18-24 damage to you every fight and 9-12 to your Allies. It also opens up your feat choice since you don't got to use a feat to weaponize your bonus action. Just efficient

Great video, Chris! I’ve run into a similar problem with barbarian multiclassing trying to make a barbarian-rogue. I’m curious what you might say about it, considering the only real way it works is to be a strength based rogue

Potential build idea that I used to have great fun: "The Gummy Bearian" Plasmoid Moon Druid 2 then Barbarian 5 then the rest druid. Plasmoid has nice damage resistances and amorphous is great but most importantly your ability to turn into a humanoid form with regular limbs allows you to wear a shield and armor while wild shaped regardless of the form. After that the extra attack from Barbarian does amazing work with creatures that don't use Multiattack

there are some thing you did not look at. 1 a 3rd level in barbarian for bear totem. 2 the ably to **expend** spell slots to heal in wild shape. 3 you don't lose the option to use wild shape as a action. 4 unarmored defense is carried over like rage. and 5 there are other wild shapes that you could use like Giant Elk, Ice Spider Queen, Plesiosaurus, or Giant Constrictor Snake

Our Neverweakened campaign’s Tortle Barbearian Gryke just landed the deciding blow to defeat the Dragon of Icespire Peak last session! After our Phandalorian artificer disabled Isendraug’s Cloud Chill with his Shatter grenade, Gryke dove off the deck of their damselfly ship and did a front flip buzzsaw move wielding the Dragonslayer Greatsword to decapitate the terror of Phandalin ⚔️

Great video. I have heard of this build but always thought it would decline as you got past Fouth level. Idea for reworking the druid's wild shape ability: It should use similar mechanic as the new summon spells (Summon Beast). When you first get the ability you pick the animal form that fits within movement restrictions. You would get base hit points, AC, and Damage type but as you gained levels in druid these would improve just like if you were to upcast the spell. For every 2 levels of Druid AC goes up by 1, HP goes up by 10, Attack bonus would be level/2, and Damage bonus increased to level/2. Just something to think about.

@TreantmonksTemple Hey Chris! I have a question that's bothered me for a while and I'm hoping you can clear it up. Do you allow druids in general, but in this case, Moon Druids, to take the 'Multiattack' action? As stated by the PHB Multiattack is not an action that a player can take, and, looking at the description of wildshape: "Wild Shape -Starting at 2nd level, you can use your action to magically assume the shape of a beast that you have seen before." So you do not become the beast, you only assume it's form, and, It also goes on to say: "While you are transformed, the following rules apply: Your game statistics are replaced by the statistics of the beast, but you retain your alignment, personality, and Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. You also retain all of your skill and saving throw proficiencies, in addition to gaining those of the creature. If the creature has the same proficiency as you and the bonus in its stat block is higher than yours, use the creature's bonus instead of yours. If the creature has any legendary or lair actions, you can't use them." At no point do you become the beast like other effect grant, ie. Polymorph, you're assuming it's statistics, not replacing yourself with it. Much like we assume the game statistics for a weapon that we're wielding; Club(d6), Longsword(d8), Greatsword(2d6) these items transform our damage dice based on what we choose to wield. At no point are we the club or sword, it's a modifier to fill in the calculation of damage. I like to point this out because in the same subclass, the ability gained at 10th level has a much more direct approach to the effect: "Elemental Wild Shape - At 10th level, you can expend two uses of Wild Shape at the same time to transform into an air elemental, an earth elemental, a fire elemental, or a water elemental." By the writing, the PC transforms into the Creature, in this case - Polymorph. You're using both slots of the ability Wild Shape to create a different outcome. Or is my reading on that faulty? Sorry for the long question! It's created much debate and I'm curious for you to weigh in, if you'd like!

I have been playing this as 50:50 Bard:Druid and am currently at 8th level. It was saved by the fact that I asked my DM ahead of time if I would be able to use Giant Octopus when I reached that level druid (which was agreed-to, given the setting which was ice-wind dale and that I am a fisherman) The ability to restrain and that 15ft reach is amazing. You get Polar Bear later too. Take longstrider and cast it before combat if possible. Have some alchemist's fire on-hand and use it for your first attack as a melee weapon. Most DMs will rule that it smashes-open if it's a hit and you BOTH take fire damage. It's worth that damage at higher levels while raging to STAY raging if you don't take an attack action. Don't forget that your unarmoured defense counts during wildshape too, usually giving a bonus to AC. Take some feats to work with the build. War caster would give advantage on concentration checks. Sentinel is great for a tank which is what you are. Eldritch mind will do the same thing if you prefer it. But don't forget that unlike wildshape, you CAN'T concentrate on a spell while raging. I've been having fun with utilities too, I spun a bunch of spider silk and boiled it until non-sticky and had things made with it. I have collected ink from my octopus. This was and remains a great build for Icewind Dale. Treat it as a tank and let someone else be the damage-output guy/gal, put your effort into making it a more fun build than just wildhshape-bear and rage all the time. Definitely not one for every situation, but amazing for some.

This doesn't save the build, but something interesting I found is that the unarmored defence feature from barbarian would ALSO apply to wild shape, so the brown bear would have an AC of 13 rather than 11 thanks to 10 + con + dex. As well as this, I've looked at the druid 15/barbarian 5 multiclass to get extra attack on the brontosaurus. Extra attack doesn't stack with multi attack, but it would allow the brontosaurus to make 2 attacks since it normally only makes 1

I happen to be playing a BarBearian in our current campaign, however, my build is specifically a Werewolf. My build starts with a Changeling Wildspacer (to net Tough), and goes Druid with +1’s for Str, Dex, and Wis, and take Primal Savagery so the character is a Werewolf from level 1. Level 2 Druid to net Moon, and go Brown Bear to net the multi attack, and using the racial Shapechange ability to adjust the form to be more humanoid and wolf-like. For levels 3-4 go Barbarian and switch to Dire Wolf to take advantage of the Wolf’s higher Con and Dex to net a 16 AC. At level 5, go Beast Barbarian for the Claws, and use the weapon size rules in the DMG so that when you Wildshape into a Dire Wolf (size large) m, your Beast Claws now deal 2d6+Rage+Str (or 2d6+6), and you strike twice for every attack with these Claws. Now go Monk for 2 levels to net Unarmed Strike so that you get a third Claw attack, four if you flurry. My build goes another 3 levels in Barbarian to make my attacks magic and to bet the Beast Barb lvl 6 abilities, but then goes straight Monk as Long Death. You will be striking 6 times at 2d6+6 until you go 2d8+6 at level 19 (lvl 11 Monk). I am having a blast, we just got to level 3, so my Werewolf just added Rage to his attacks.

This honestly just inspires me to make that Druid/Barbarian/Paladin build and give it s test drive. Just from a RP standpoint, Moon Druid, Beast Barb and Ancients Paladin feel like a really cool combo. Just go like 3 Barb / 3 Pally / 14 Druid would still get you to 7th level spells as your capstone.

Literally perfect timing, I am currently planning to run a Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign w/ a BearBarian as one of the side villains. I agree with your review of this combo from a PC perspective, however, I feel when you consider this combo for a villain PC (where I prioritize high hp and defense tools, "Tanky") it becomes much more appealing. You essentially have a way to instantly heal a large amount of temp hp and also resistances to damage from Bear Totem. This is assuming the villain PC has a static level that is higher level than the PCs therefore the combo doesn't necessarily suffer from bad progression or drop off points. I'm curious if anyone else has thoughts or ideas on "Tanky" villain combos/builds and also what YOUR thoughts are from this different perspective. Much love from your Provincial Neighbor in S'toon SK!

Longtooth Shifter Beast Barbarian 6/Spores Druid X is my favourite Barb/Druid, flavoured as a vampire (Spires can be grave mould). The temp hp scale better because of rage, and the necrotic damage on hits is better with more attacks (4 when raging and shifted). Animate dead gives you a non-concentration spell to blow your slots on that can contribute to further tankiness and damage. It's not perfect either, but I like the imagery a lot, and Druid spells and abilities strangely for a Vampiric theme.

warlock gets you spell slots on short rest for healing, plus some utility. totem barb gives you resist all*. fighter gets everything fightery. i like barb 3/drd 2/ftr 3/lock the rest. armor of agathys doesn't require concentration, so worth casting up. has same duration as wild shape also. battle master maneuvers can be used while raging.

Would love to see some sort of Monk Paladin build, a real holy monk, a Honk! It would be tough to make work with all the necessary ability scores! Fighting while holding his hands, he could headbutt smite his foes with his shaved head.

There are niche uses. I took barb lvl 1 for unarmoured defense, increased hp, con saving throws and martial weapons. I took abberent dragonmark for green flame blade, and now my druid goes into battle with a much higher AC of 18 - 16 dex and con plus shield, a longsword, and GFB for the extra damage. We are lvl 6 so I took shepherd druid, as it is just superior. I summon 8 raptors and use the unicorn spirit. I attack with my GFB, use healing word to heal myself and all my raptors and then they attack (using simplified summoning rules like Chris used in Monty’s lvl15 one shot). Most level appropriate monsters are down in a single round, sometimes 2. I have a rare level dragons wrath rapier, so 1d8+4 magical piercing plus 1d8 fire (and 1d8+4 to a nearby foe) plus 1d6 lightning, the raptors average around 30-40 damage per round. Barbarian druid multiclass actually works better for non near totem. Assuming you don’t really bother with rage except for rp purposes. Rage otherwise reduces your damage.

Not exactly Moon Druid/Barbarian2, but I had a DM that ruled for a Moon Druid/Monk1 that because, Martial Arts says "When you use the Attack action with an unarmed strike" and he was playing a Lizardfolk which said "Bite. You have a fanged maw that you can use to make unarmed strikes.", that he if he wild shaped into a creature which could bite, the bite could be used for the Martial Arts' BA attack because Wild shape lets you keep the abilities. Made the build keep up with others after LvL 5 as he had the bonus action attack while still having the Monks extra movement and unarmored defense. The only catch is he had to get creatures with strong bites (and he also grabbed some Paladin for smite/healing hands and eventually extra attack; but that is neither here nor there)

This reminds me of a very odd build I came up with. Lizardfolk Monk 5 Moon Druid x utilizing the Lizardfolk Bite racial feature which begins with "Your fanged maw is a natural weapon, which you can use to make unarmed strikes", then describes the damage hitting with it does but combined with a wildshape form giving a Bite attack has some odd quirks. For one, this either means that Lizardfolk make terrible Moon Druids because their Bite feature overrides the damage of the Bite attack, OR it means they make really good Moon Druids if you can keep the damage of the new form because the rest of the Bite racial feature would apply and mean that your Bear or Crocodile Bite attack now counts as an unarmed strike which means you can do Monk stuff with it.

After Level 4, push to Barbarian 5 taking Path of the Bear Totem Warrior to basically get resistance to all damage (take Kalashtar race for psychic resistance and to be able to communicate in wild shape) and Extra Attack. Once you're at Druid 2 Barbarian 5, use Giant Spider form instead to get 2 Bite Attacks. Keep raising Druid levels the rest of the way for better Beast/Elemental forms.

Oh! I'm waiting for the video with Wild Shape optimization. I never used moon druid in a character build because it feels too strong in a low level party and weak in a high level party (not in a 20th level party, obviously, because the "infinite HP", but its a long long way to get there). I thought using Mark of Shadow elf in a 7th moon druid build, so we could use greater invisibility with Wild shape. This will enhance our damage output due advantage and virtually enhance the AC because everything will have disadvantage to hit you. Also it will free you to take Mobile feat, because AoO. But it's a setting specific race and not every DM will allow Mark of Shadow Elf in their Champaign. I'm curious and glad because you always do a great job, Chris, I love math and also love D&D! Thank you!

My reading of Unarmoured Defence makes this build seem even stronger at level four than presented here. I don't believe that natural armour counts as wearing armour, so you could use the bear's+0 DEX and +3 CON to give yourself an AC of 13, which still isn't good but is better than the base 11. That would also mean that it falls off even harder when you get to cave bear at druid 6, as your AC wouldn't increase at all relative to the brown bear form.

You even diphthonged Beorn! I'm impressed.

i think the play here if you wanna be more effective after level 4 is to continue more with barbarian instead of more druid

Now Moon Druid and Monk... That's a spicy meatball. The Monk-ki bear is a savage beast.

Dire wolf might be better for survivability and damage if you get extra attack from either barbarian levels or fighter levels as the bite is an attack option so can be done twice. It also has an AC of 14, pack tactics and better HP, meaning hit less frequently due to no reckless attacks and higher AC. Giant Boar is also good as an option if you’re only going a little way into Druid with its relentless ability being more enhanced by the Barbarian’s rage ability. I’d consider more lvls in barbarian, two levels in Druid and rage on the first turn without wildshaping and then turning into a beast on round two. It’s still potent, keeps rage up and makes you a tank. As with all wild shapes though it will not scale very well so you use wild shape at higher levels for different things than dealing damage in combat.

My non professional opinion has always been to go barbarian 5 after level 4 and pick creatures that only have one attack since fast movement and multi attack should carry over as well as unarmored defense giving you a lot of options and an additional rage. From level 7 it gets trickier. The Ankylosaurus is quite strong but it takes a while to unlock if it's even available. It's a decent power spike though.

I played a Harengon BarBearian but played off the rage element as him contracting rabies. By level 6 we had finally got around to curing him and he went to straight Druid and lost the barbarian levels because of it.

New patron here! I'm playing my first game in 10 years and had already rolled up a Gnome BearBarian for the Netherdeep campaign before you started these videos, so I'm glad to see you have them! Some people recommend doing 3 levels of Barbarian to get the Bear Totem. Do you recommend that? Or just stick with 1 level?

loving all of the awesome bear pictures in this video

so ive been running this build with bugbear for the 10 foot reach and powerful build. powerful build means in bear form i can lift 1200 lbs, wizard casts spider climb on me and we walked into a dungeon backwards lol. its amazing, at lvl 11 right now, and i did 3 barbarian (totem bear), 4 druid, and 3 fighter (battle master). My dps is ridiculous and having surprise attack from new bugbear means when you get lucky you can essentially one shot a massive creature w superiority dice with action surge, which i have done multiple times. having spells like spike growth an entangle help me contribute to some combat where dps isnt the best and control and better option. probably one of my most fun characters ive played, so versatile and fun. would recommend cause it can also double as a kung fu panda build.

I found it interesting how you pointed out the advantage of being able to cast a concentration spell before wildshaping, but during your analysis there was no mention of this in the analytics. Where's Moonbeam or Flaming Sphere during the 6th Level calculation? You can even included the analysis of how long concentration will be maintained based upon the average damage being received and barbarian proficiency with Constitution.

I think one option overlooked in this otherwise great video is wildshape options other than bear. I've played a fifth level barbarian/druid with wolf totem from the barbarian side and dire wolf as the preferred wildshape. Granted, that was more of a fun build rather than optimized, but there are beasts other than bear that are worth considering.

My friend has a homebrew campaign setting where the level cap is 5 and I was planning to go for this build and rounding it up with a 3rd level of Barbarian to get the bear totem on top of the bear form.

Have not finished video. Here is my guess before doing so. The bear barbarian is phenomenal, borderline overpowered, at low levels. Then falls behind hard in the midgame and barely keeps up with the monk in high level play. I would probably try to find some way to be able to cast Armor of Agathys if I was to take this long at all. The resistance doubles the hp, and it gives a use for spell slots for the full casting Druid. Though they could only cast it before combat.

I will mention the Elemental form for Druid is nice, but that's a long road to reach at a total level of 12. Appreciate the in-depth look, this build is clearly not without its flaws, and that's a good thing.

Having played a barbearian on a starter set/one-shot it is very very strong so if you know it’s finishing at lvl4 it is great. The 2 rages aren’t the problem you think. You rage in 2 big battles and in the third big battle you switch and cast lots of spells(more liberally than the casters because you have all your spells) or run round as a healer. This spell spurge can carry you though a bit of tier 2. After a battle if you have hp left you can run round as a bear triggering traps or finding the next fight. Cons as you say post lvl 4 it dips quickly and I found multiclassing and the choices more complex than I expected in play.

I think that if you would have a feat to give additional uses of Rage then this build could function as Druid2/Barbarian2/Druid16. It would have the diminishing returns of the Moon Druid but still get level 9 spells and CR6 Wild Shape. Just focus on spells that do not need concentration. Wild Shape with Rage will stay a potent enough option if you keep adding Moon Druid levels. But you will need more than 2x Rage per long rest somehow.

My favorite Wild Shape optimizations are the spells Mage Armor, Longstrider, and Darkvision. They all last for an hour or 8 hours and none of them require Concentration. Plus they’re all very effective buffs.

Of course, it's always worth noting that, while most build guides assume you will never get magic items, talking with your DM about it (especially one that knows the weaknesses of certain builds) can smooth over that transition. I don't see any reason why you couldn't just say "Hey! I will run into the issue of not ever getting a magic weapon, so if at some point I could find an Insignia of Claws (or just say 'magic item that boosts my natural weapons'), that'd be great!" There are plenty of magic items that take Druid wild shaping up a notch, and I feel like ignoring magic items in build guides altogether is maybe a step in the wrong direction. The base game may not assume magic items, but I've never played at a table that just didn't have any at all. I mean, the normally very mediocre Barrier Tattoo becomes FANTASTIC on a character like this. Same goes for the typically monk-only Bracers of Defense. I mean, sure, some issues just can't be fully resolved (Wild Shape attacks not scaling with proficiency is a HUGE issue), but I don't think we should leave out "talk with your DM about these possible magic items that could address some of the most glaring issues". After all, there seems to be this expectation that martial classes will eventually get a magic weapon.

I know this might get talked about in future video's perhaps, but just wanted to ask (mainly since I'm DMing my first game in 2 weeks and one of the players is going to roleplay Po, which is awesome). Would you say instead of going for the Barb, going monk would be a good alternative able to scale better, if I allow (if it isn't already working RAW) Flurry of Blows to work in Wild Shape, using the natural melee attack (so not any bite or claws from the bear itself)? For context, we play at level 8. Happy to hear, and i'll obviousy stay tuned for your next video's!

Rage says “if you can cast spells, you can’t concentrate on them while raging”. Wild Shape specifies “you can’t cast spells”. Therefore you can concentrate on a spell while raging *if* you are in Wild Shape first. Fully legal RAW, and I believe RAI as well or they would have left out the otherwise-unnecessary “if you can cast spells” clause from the Rage rules.

I'm curious on how you plan to optimize the wild shape. I don't know if you do this kind of thing but as a gestalt character would a barbarian druid stay good as it did at lv 4? Or since wildshape had inherently poor returns does even gestalt rules not help it?

> so what do you do after level 4? The answer to that and every other similar question is always 16 levels of Wild Magic Sorcerer.

These puns are so out of control I can't even BEAR it

Would love to see a Frankenstein build using an order cleric and glamour bard. Synergistic the abilities to get your team to move and strike. As for a pun....GLAM-OURDER CLERIC

Hey mate, just checking in after your last OGL video. Your concern on switching rule sets etc. I think it may be a really interesting opportunity to develop your own system with some other significant content creators. You would be an expert then as you helped build it. Just a suggestion. I know the community I'm a part of would move instantly especially if you collude with the dungeon dudes DND shorts etc. Either way I love your content and will continue to support you regardless of WOTC's poor decision making.

Once you get Elemental Wildshape at level 10, you can turn into an elemental that is immune to exhaustion. Frenzy Berserker synergy! You just have to get to level 13 first lol.

what is kind of funny is rage limitations imagine a real barbarian saying," Sorry guys I am no longer aloud to get really mad and hulk out I am fresh out of anger so now I can toss flowers"

Maybe a mirthful leaps satyr could help you take damage or deal damage for turn 1 rage and wildshape, guaranteed to that it will reach the 10ft required to take fall damage as long as your dm rules that mirthful leaps is usable in bear form. You can rage then wildshape, jump 9ft high and add mirthful leaps on top for a min of 10ft and 1d6 fall damage, so will have taken damage to maintain rage unless you roll a one.

I always ruled for martial arts that since your beast attacks are unarmed, they technically count as monk weapons for your bonus action attack. Combine that with the increase to AC by your wisdom modifier, you've got a decently augmented wild shape in tier 2 play. Once you add elemental wild shape multiclassing is irrelevant.

Wildshape says “you may wildshape as a bonus action” so you can set up completely in 1 turn then charge into the enemy lines where unless your DM is meta gaming you’ll get attacked or get an opportunity attack.

I know this video is older than the other ones in the wild shape videos, but this one is the only one about multiclass so far. Are you going to make a video with the monk/ moon druid build? they have unarmored defense which uses wisdom and the ki recovers by short rest. I was planning to create one but I haven't found any good guide or analysis on it

Will we see other builds analysed? Next: the BARDbarian?

One other thing that makes this build even more sad is the fact that neither version of Wild Shape doesn't let your proficiency bonus be used in those forms. The best you can do is use your bonus in a skill or saving throw you're proficient in, which is the only instance of using your bonus. If it were a case of allowing you to use your proficiency bonus for everything in that form, I don't think it would scale as badly. It will still be bad compared to a straight Barbarian and Druid, but at least it's better than how it is by default. Still, it's fun if you pull it off.

For the Druid/Barbarian/Paladin, you could sacrifice your starting feat (and extra skill) and go with a standard human build: S14 D14 C14 I11 W14 Ch14, or lower the Int to 9 and have one 15…

We have BarBEARian at our 8th level table that took over 300 damage and won us a hopeless fight with 2 dire wolf forms+rage. I helped with another 100+ damage of just fighter hp

I'm playing a moon druid... Can barely wait for your next video.