Bear Totem on the subtitles registers as Baritone. Now I'm just imagining some random musician getting eternally blasted by fireballs and being completely confused.
Gentle reminder that Artificers don't have to be tinkerers at all. They are simply spellcasters who draw magic from any kind of tool. That includes *woodcarvers tools,* which fit perfectly with a totem barbarian without any kind of fluff dissonance - you're literally channeling your magic from miniature totem carvings, whittlings or etched runes. A WoW Shaman could be represented by an Artificer if you wanted. Similarly, painters supplies (for tribal body paint) and herbalism/alchemy (for incense, poultices and potions) all work as "tribal" forms of artifice.
Yeah I can totally picture a shaman-like barbarian, who creates little magical totems for all his spells and effects, and strings carved trickets and tokens onto and into his armor, making it also come alive all of its own, it'd be a totally sick character concept.
this, so much this. Artificer can work with Barbarian if you don't try to claim then a tinkerer. Woodcarver Totem theme is spot on to work through this combo. Maybe the armor is actually wooden...
When I think of a roaming tribal barbarian clan I always think of decorations made of leather, bones and furs. So I think leatherworker tools would work great as well for flavor.
@@kevin414 Armor made of wood and bone is super common with tribal groups. I could totally see guardian armor working with a build like that. Maybe not *optimized* (it's hard to justify platemail status with wood and bone - without using parts from monstrous creatures) but definitely works for the cool factor/RP factor.
Personally I think the Barbarian really needs a subclass that does not rely upon the Barbarian to always be raging. Maybe have them utilize those rage resources by channeling it into a spell-like ability, or have some sort of a serenity or sated ability after ending/consuming/concluding a rage.
Bear Barb + Alchemist Artificer. That give you a HUGE amount of utility out of combat. For just three levels in Arti that nets you the ability to swap out spells for specific effects. You can make Healing Pots that are good for the whole day. You can make an elixir that is am mini Bless for one person. You can hand out an extra 10 feet of movement. But the absolute best... ... At level 3 you can hand out Non Concentration Flight at level 3. Yeah sure the flight you can give is only 10 feet per round (20 with a dash action). But that is either 1,000 feet or 2,000 feet (dashing every round) of travel over the 10 minute duration. Quaff a flight elixir and as a Barb just pick up each of you buddies and ferry each across that gorge one at a time. Give most everyone flight and high walls pose no problems. But if it is just sticking to Barb, the closest you'll get is either Beast or Wild Magic Barb. Beast's 6th level is really cool, it give you either a jumping, swimming + breathing underwater, or a Spiderman wall crawl. Wild Magic is a lower level spell battery of you buddies. Other then those not much out of combat utility. I don't that WotC would add much either just because the Barb frame work is combat focused.
This is the no.1 design flaw of the barbarian to me, a barbarian who isn't raging is in almost all cases a subclassless barbarian. They should really get more rage uses, and as you say more non rage linked features. most games ive played 3 combats per day is probably normal to max so they are usually fine, but i don't play a lot of dungeon crawls.
Yeah, like how a number of druids use their Wild shape form something similar but thematically different- Bard really should get something like that too
I wish there was either a Rage Monk or an Enlightened Barbarian - a subclass that married the power of rage and damage resistance with a monk’s hand-to-hand fighting and cool ki stuff. Sadly the two classes don’t multi class with each other well at all.
I don't think many new sub classes are coming out before the next edition. What they need is for a few classes to get a total overhaul far bigger than what weve seen in the playtest so far. Most the martials fall in that boat.
As the party's tank, I would highly suggest to use a race with Magic Resistance, like Satyr/ Yuen Ti/ Vedalken. Any cunning enemies would try to CC the tank with spells, such as phantasmal force and hold person, instead of beating down the resistant tank. No matter how many resistance you have, how good is your survivability, once you get CCed, then you can't do anything and the party become more vulnerable after losing the tank.
A good thing to do, but it wouldn't have made any difference for the spreadsheets here, since the only saving throws involved in the damage reports are Dexterity, for which the Barbarian already gets advantage.
I think taunts can be achieved by roleplay. Bards are the best example of that, they are usually really sharp with their words and they become the first target most enemies want to kill.
I'd agree if you're always fighting humans. But my slimes are going for whoever is closest. My manticores go for whoever looks easiest to pick up and carry off, my owlbears go for whoever looks like the easiest meal, etc. It's a role-playing game and not everything speaks common.
Roleplay taunt is definitely affected by player skill... There's only so much mileage a bard will get reciting rhymes about how the enemies mother smells of elderberries... 🤔
Roleplay taunt is cool, but smart enemies will still go after the highest priority target. But agree, one of my favorite moments was just being a barb, looking at the bad guy and saying “Come at me”
With artificer you can make your trinket and put it on the inside of your shield. You can then touch it and make it say an insult or just laugh when they can’t hit you. If you had a better intelligence you can could make several of them so you can change up your taunts.
Just a flavour thing, barbarians don't have to get angry to use their rage feature, my barbarian (bear totem) goes into an adrenalin rush focus, has become so focused on the thing she's fighting she has become unable to focus on anything else. Like a battlefield tunnel vision.
If you want to know more about my barbarian. Tranquility Humpadink, Gnome, Totem Warrior. I don't think I will multiclass with her, uses a specially crafted Greataxe that was gifted to her by her father. Both are alive. Her mothers a cleric, father is a wizard. Prefers to go by Tranquiliser, or Tranq' for short.
I've seen Barbarians rage used as different emotions before, it's pretty awesome to see, I had a Barbarian whose rage was just combat focus and tunnel vision
It's important to really lean into roleplay with the more "boring" classes. Often times, that is the point with them, as it is in general with the whole game. To that end, choosing how you interpret your barbarian's rage can be a great characterization tool. We had a player in our group playing a white dragonborne, and his version of "raging" was sort of leaning into the more feral hunting instinct common among white dragons. Less "I'm so angry MUST SMASH" and more a large cat's prey instinct being activated. I thought that was really rad, and a good way to take the standard barbarian rage element and give it a unique spin. You can also do small things to play with it visually, as well, which can help paint a better picture of a specific character concept you have in mind and help it to be better distinguished from standard barb rage. For example, a Zealot barbarian might take on certain aspects of their deity during a rage.
I have always fancied the idea of a barbarian that was a very civilized and respected warrior, but was also possessed by a demon, and the rage was the demon trying to come out.
Let's gooooooo! Totem Bear Barbarian was my first character build. Rezar was a half orc whose mother died at birth. He wielded a greataxe and wanted revenge on his father. I thought he was such a unique character back then 🤣. He later became a devout follower of Illmater and switched to a Zealot Barb. I so wish to play him again.
One thing to keep in mind with this build is that resistance to everything is not equivalent to just doubling your effective hitpoints. It also makes any healing twice as effective. This holds for spells, hit dice and temporary hitpoints. Catnap suddenly becomes very attractive with this property:)
My favorite thing about Mirror Image is that if an enemy “targets” them, they lose the advantage they would have against us due to Reckless Attack, AND they gain disadvantage on the attack against the duplicate due to the Thunder Gauntlets, assuming we hit them. It may be the greatest way to use Mirror Image!
Love this build. I love my precious inventor that keeps fighting for their dream of being an inventor even as the stumbles send them into a volatile tantrum. Quick note, at artificer 10 (or 11) I’d take the Headband Of Intellect as an infusion. Suddenly boost your intelligence to a +4 and allow you greater access to abilities like Flash Of Genius or spell storing item. I’ve always loved the idea of using the ability score items to help out a MAD character.
The Kodiak (which is a tank in the Mass effect series. The Polar Bear Express. The Bear in Shining Armor. The Aroara Bearealis. Couple of cold puns but the polar bear is the toughest bear plus you’ve got shiny magical armor. Add in a cold shield and you’ve got a polar bear build.
Y'know, I've been watching quite a lot of ur content lately (bingeing actually) and from jumping from your current (studio) room to your previous room after each video it really fits to say that the quality of your content has improved a lot. Great job on another fun build
Way, way back I used to main a Flame Tank in City of Heroes. It did not have the sheer survivability of the classes of tank but did do a lot with taunts and AOE that they didn't have access to. Fun times. Thanks for the reminder.
I'd probably use my spell storing item for a cure wound, and give it to my homonculus to cast it, so i would have more hit point, and that's mean more survivability😊 Love your video btw
I would actually go Wild Hunt Shifter, for a little bit extra HP and avoiding getting hit with advantage. While res to all dmg does scratch the old noggin just right, you'll encounter getting hit with advantage while reckless attacking, far more often than you'll encounter psych damage. Just feels like the more useful feature to have in your kit.
Remember listening to the first version, really sparked my imagination of character building. Was really nice to listen to, helped making mowing the lawn into an enjoyable task ❤️
From a RP perspective I really like the idea of a Jekyl and Hyde or Banner and Hulk thing with this build - maybe even going as far as to flip a coin after level 6 to see whether to take a level of artificer or barb.
With Magical Tinkering I generally go with a "Snorer" which makes the sound of someone snoring in their sleep (which I put in my empty tent when on watch) and "Rotter" which smells like a fresh carcass (which I put in whatever alarm/kill box the party has).
This might be literally ONLY me, but I love stacking the Bear Totem carrying capacity boost on a race with Powerful Build. There's just something about dumb gimmicks like this that makes me happy. Lifting a portcullis like it's nothing with no check is fun. It can annoy a DM though when you keep asking them the weight of various things you want to move ... I love Tritons and other swimming races for the same reason. There's something satisfying about trivializing water obstacles and looking back at the rest of the party like, "Oh, right. Landlubbers."
I built Vi from Arcane as a Bear totem Armorer artificer! it went very similar to this (though variant human of course). A Totem Barbarian Emerald Dragonborn has been on my to do list for a while too, I just might steal this all for that character whenever I get to it for the weekly game I play in (like all of us I have too many on my to do list...)
@ 12:04 thank god 😂 I was worried we wouldn't be nabbing a pyschic res somewhere, because while it IS cute, it's not particularly efficient or even necessarily that worthwhile. You're JUST taking it so you can smirk at your DM and say "yeah I'm resistant to all damage." and that's TOTALLY worth it for me! 🤣
This whole video I've been sitting here imagining a group of enemies thinking they've got the advantage suddenly coming face to face with five raging barbarians barreling down the battlefield at them. Depending on how your table roleplayed this you could argue the sudden appearance could cause the enemies to consider fleeing. Add enlarge/reduce and the intimidation and roleplay factor of this build can't be understated. Assuming you roleplay your combat.
The moment WotC released the "Artificer", they made a class so flavourful and busted, it's almost MAD in and of itself. I've had so much fun with PCs mixing and matching them. Eldritch (Called Arcane at my table) Knights + Artillerist; Arcane Trickster + Infiltrator Armourer (It's funny to see them walk around in Heavy Armour and still sneak effectively); Wizards are oft the prime users of Artificer Dips. I still have a concept in mind to have an Artificer that wants to be the best...well, Artificer. Best Artisan of the planet (or multiverse, should they get that far). Seeing it with Barbarian is also such a treat! 😇 Lovely Video yet again!
I am playing a Barbarian/Peace Cleric tank currently. And in my humble opinion, it is the perfect tank. Rage/reckless attack, Ancestral guardian for a taunt. Then you have the (very importantly non-concentration) Balm of Pease which buffs your and your party's saving throws. Then later on you can teleport around the battlefield tanking damage for your friends (giving incredible mobility). And to cap it all off, HES A GNOME!! Not only is it awesome having a teeny tiny little tank, but mechanically it's incredible. You have Proficiency in Strength and Con saves (starting with Barb), and then advantage in all other saves (as long as you can see the Dex save coming, and the mental saves are from magic which they all tend to be). Plus you get loads of out of combat healing/utility. This is THE most fun build I've ever played.
Anytime you make a video using Guardian, I'm totally here for it! I mean, I'm here for all of them.. but Guardian is one of my favorites (even though I've never played a 5e game).
One thing you can keep in mind is that you can keep your damage resistance from bear totem even while wearing heavy armor, you just won't keep your other rage bonuses like bonus rage damage and advantage on strength checks and saves. My current character uses this to their advantage and can balance having a low dexterity score but still a good AC. Other totems, like the first eagle one, states that you must not be wearing heavy armor to gain this ability but the bear totem barbarian does not have this caveat.
I’d love to see a video talking about how you develop your builds at some point! (Like from the concept, which books/sites do you use to build it and find inspiration & what’s your process for testing out different build options)
The dragonlance kender seems like the perfect fit for this sort of build. Infuriating collectors of gadgets and well placed insults. A taunt BA and auto success on a fear wisdom save are also solid with the low wis.
This characther backstory sorta reminds of me Shuri from black panther. The whole technological vibe but not aligned to her tribe's traditions aspect ties really well with the artificer, specially the armorer one (as she has demonstrated thorough the movies). And then the multiclassing to barbarian and accepting her roots (traditions) along with the *SPOILERE FOR BLACK PANTHER 2* permanent rage she had in the third act of the movie...
Fascinating theory crafting here. Don’t love the relatively low INT, but do enjoy seeing the spell choices aimed to mitigate that and the inability to cast/concentrate while raging. Having the Homunculus servant concentrate on Enlarge/Reduce is super cool.
I’d like to say that this is a character I would definitely play, either as the gem dragon or a kalishtar. I do like the thought of a near sighted draconic barbarian with glasses though. I think this is an excellent build, regardless of your spreadsheet score, and I think it has a lot more **RP** potential than a lot of your other lovely builds. Thank you.
FINALLY!!! I have been totally sold on Barb/Artificer build combo. Any Artificer would work but it is true if you want to focus on Tanking the Armorer is the best choice. But if it is just survivability then the Artillerist for the weaponized bonus action or the Protector Cannon. Temp HP every round? Yes thank you very much. If you want out of combat utility then Alchemist is the best. By Artificer 3 you can give out Healing Pots, 10 feet of movement, a mini Bless for one person, or NON CONCETRATION FLIGHT. Yes it is slow and not much use in combat but there are many other things non concentration flight would be useful for. That is a total of 2,000 feet (if you dash the full 10 minutes) that you can cover in the ten minutes that the flight would be active. Is there a gorge and the bridge is out? Quaff one of your own elixirs and carry everyone and every thing across. Need to scale that 60 foot wall? No problem.
Tried out on level 14 and I liked it. Changes: + 14 CON; 14 DEX; 14 INT; 9 WIS (later 10) + MoM Shifter (wildhunt) for obvious reasons (and Jekyll & Hyde theme). + Class: Start 1 level of rouge. 4 skills and expertise on athletics (shifter)(for grapple?) and stealth(because (Owl)bear spirit is natural hunter ;) ), Dex (& INT) saves. + Feats: Tough; Resilience (WIS); Shield Master (sooo many breath weapon dodges) - dpr still sh1tt, but you are a tank so live with it. If you need that psychic resistance, pick up the Resistant Armor infuse option.
I'm glad to see that you're sponsored by Established Titles. I think that you're doing an amazing job with your videos and I really wish the best for you and your channel, keep up the good work.
Good day sir. Thank you for all of the amazing insights to my new favorite game. I’m requesting, if your haven’t already, doing some builds for the OneDnd playtest? I’m having a blast testing but some more seasoned experience would be amazing.
For one of those PYF infusion momenta I'd take a Headband of Intellect. Makes your saves reliable gives you more better flashes of genius and more spells on the spell storing item
You could take the headband of intellect instead of the cloak of protection from the artificer 10 infusion, that way you have way more uses for the eventual spell storing item the next level and the save dc's of your spells go up by quite a bit
Fun bonus that I didn’t hear you mention! If you use heavy armor, all you lose as a bear totem is rage damage and advantage on checks and saves. You still get all the resistance, so you can really crank up the AC!
Also not to mentioned, the option to not Reckless attacking, means no disadvantage by getting attack, that will make us survive much longer, after all we have 23 AC lol (and in a lab we do not have allies to protect)
Obviously it's going to vary by a pretty large degree base upon what you have access to in your game, but HOLY SHIT is having another attunement slot absolutely incredible. The potential power boost you can get from that can literally be character altering. The possibilities for further boosting strengths of a character or SHORING UP defenses/resistances is a titanic boon to any character.
The shapeshifter from M.O.M. would solve the advantage against yourself problem a lot and then the resistant armor feature would a seal up the resistance problem
when you asked what subclass is the hardest to kill-- my immediate answer was zealot barbarian, which is actually fairly easily to kill as far as barbarians go but just super easy to bounce back up (until level 14 that is)
My first character was a bear totem barbarian, I rolled really well for stats so for the longest time I had 16 Str and kept bumping Dex and Con, I later got a belt of storm giant strength so his str was taken care of. Had a cloak of protection made for him and then got a ring of protection from the deck of many things so he was very hard to hit and had high hit points, add in the resistance to (almost) all damage, he rarely went below half health
The bear barb is also better than your other Tank builds because they can Just be that tanky and disruptive every round at no resource cost (not counting rages per LR), unlike any of your other builds. You said you look at them in a lab, but that is a big thing considering how much of a lab environment your way of calculating stuff is. Even more than your "best conditions" for damage. Love your Videos!
In place of brutal critical it would be dope to be able to expend hit die as damage die instead (perhaps limited to half the hit dice or proficiency bonus...). Sort of like their own smite. It taxes a resource and one has to weigh the moment to know when to spend it, but it could be a way that barbs could buff the slipping scalability.
I think taking the Headband of Intellect as your magic item at 10th is 100% worth it. 4 uses of flash of genius that each grant a +4, and your spell storing item stores 8 casts with a spells save DC of 17 at 14th level.
Have you considered a Moon Druid Paladin build? You could use normal human to get 12+1/13+1/13+1/8+1/15+1/12+1 stats, which gives you enough points in str/cha for paladin and other good stats across the board. You could also use any half-elf to get 13/13+1/13+1/8/14+2/13 stats plus racial bonuses, which would probably be better.
Not sure if it was said,, but another race idea could be shifter. The wildhunt gives advantage to wisdom saves and no one can melee attack with advantage. This benefits all barbarians but gives a lot more survivability to the bear totem as well and goes well thematically.
Yuan Ti is a nice choice for Bear Barb; resistance and advantage against poison means you're great outside of Rage, since you have Constitution Saves, you'll reliably take 1/4 damage against a large amount of enemies. Poison Spray at will is an odd choice, but honestly it can be kinda nice in the right places, especially if you do sword and board, and want reach. Speaking with snakes is an interesting thing to do outside of combat in the right places like ToA, fixing an issue with martial of having out of combat utility! Buried the lead but goddamn magic resistance holy shit omg this is godly you need it it's amazing The neat feature of being a snake barbarian is fun, you think of snake as agile and fast alot of the time, but you'd be more of a Boa Constrictor!
I like to imagine this as a tribesman who's tribe worships a bear wargod and channels his power in battle. He gets bloodied up really bad in battle. His tribe thinks him dead, so they leave him. He is found by a doctor/engineer and his life is saved by enhancing him using a bear shaped themed armor. Either ala Cyborg from DC, or alchemy ala Alphonse from Full Meta Alchemist, depending on style of the campaign and setting. The armor is powered using the magical energy of the bear totem spirit within the man. He's a bear cyborg. Cybear? Bearbot? CYBJORG!
Something that hit me immediately, which funny enough i was looking for this build after inspiration early in the night for a “smart barb”, *as part of their tinkering they developed something of a serum that they put into vials on baubles on the chest of their armor which when activated injects said serum into their body to increase their physical prowess and emotional… instability, shall we say* - in essence a Rage
Haven't watched the video yet. Just wanted to point out an interesting quirk. Bear totem barbs can benefit from Heavy Armor Master. Barbarians *can* rage in heavy armor; they just don't normally gain resistance. Your subclass isn't limited by heavy armor, only your class. So, since bear totem grants you resistance to ALL damage (except psychic), you can benefit from HAM. Unfortunately, damage reduction occurs before resistance, but it still helps against nonmagical BPS
