Actually sleep Rolling average with a sleep spell and a constitution of 16 will put you to sleep every time stopping at level 2 Level 1 hp 15 < sleep 22.5 Level 2 hp 25 > Sleep 22.5 Level 3 hp 35. > Level 2 sleep 31.5 Level 4 hp 45 > Level 2 sleep 31.5 Level 5 hp 55 > Level 3 sleep 40.5
the one Barbarian I every GMed for that didn't just hit things solved a combat encounter by getting out a magic refilling mug and proceeding to sing folk songs (horrifically) while trying to get the bandits camp the party had walked into to join in, surprisingly a half naked Elf in a loin cloth offering free booze instead of murder works well. It was a wonderful change from the norm for me as a GM.
I play a big Minotaur barbarian who, funnily, worships the god of peace and calm… he always tries to talk down a fight and if the fighting starts he just focuses on making sure he takes all the damage rather than his friends… he’s really fun to play!
@@0r4n ah yes, this specific instance that the commenter has no reason to lie about that reads exactly like an actual excerpt from a game never happened. Of course. r/nothingeverhappens
I started a game with my work friends. one of them is playing a vagrant barbarian so instead of starting with a war hammer and mace he started with a whip he fashioned out of trash and some javelins carved from branches. I told him to go mostly dex starting out because begging for scraps doesn't build muscle. it's really fun to play with his character because he has more creative tools to start our campaign. he could have said "I want to have 20 str a great-ax" and the roll playing would have been the same boring strong guy punch jokes everyone has heard a million times. the best part of D&D is getting to hear a new story that all your friends made together.
I think the sleep spell is a bad example of what would counter a barbarian since they'd need to roll pretty high or already have chewed into their hitpoints a bunch in order to even make the barbarian yawn considering they have the biggest hit die in the game.
You can't give enemies the sleep spell. At least, not as written. There's no attack roll and no saving throw. If you're low on hits, it's night-night. It just works. It instantly cancels concentration and a whole bunch of other ongoing abilities (eg rage). It takes a player's entire turn away - they don't even get to re-roll a save or anything. And it's a first level spell. Sure, it becomes less useful at higher tiers of play, but by then other stuff comes online. Sleep is a low-level party wiper with some really unsatisfying mechanics and practically no counterplay. You can't give it to an enemy.
@@TrojanManSCP There is counter play, its the same counter play you use against fireball and shatter. Spread out so theyre forced to target fewer players, but stay close enough that you can help. Also, someone can keep around a blowdart to wake people up with the 1 damage that it does. Git gud.
@@TrojanManSCP You can counter it by keeping a pet dog and a few party members close by so that the HP count drains before it hits you. Yeah, it's theoretically a great spell. In practice, it's really only effective at the lower levels where basically everything is effective.
With any other class is even easier, because is based off of HP, sooo...yeah, a spellcaster will waste e 3rd level counterspell to avoid a 1st level spell, while the Barbarian is the most likely of ANY other class to just laugh and causing the spell to be wasted
Once that barbarian hits some 40 ish hp (A barb with 14 con usually has this on average by 4th level), you're unlikely to even get put to sleep, especially if there happens to be other party members nearby with lesser HP that gets targeted down first (since sleep goes in ascending order, starting with the creature that has the lowest current hitpoints). Add in something like the tough feature at 4th level, and suddenly your spell casting enemies are left to upcast sleep at like 4th level and roll those d8's high to even bother getting that angry barb on hold. If anything, charm/dominate person is more likely to affect the barbarian overall, especially if they didn't invest too much into their wisdom score. Because a hulking angry barbarian running towards your party members and hitting them is FAR more terrifying than a barb sleeping on the job.
The BOULDER has been playing barb for a while and been GMing for even longer, and barbarian is still one of the Boulder’s favorite classes. It’s true that whenever you play one you have to work extra hard to overcome your weaknesses, but I think that it gives the barb a sort of savage discipline that the Boulder thinks is badass. Sometimes in life it feels like all you can do is go completely ape shit and try to power through. That’s the barbarian in my eyes.
Ironically my barbarian with a +3 in persuasion is one of the more socially adept people who tries to talk things out. And if that fails I rage, use my expertise in athletics to roll 1d20+10 with advantage to grapple a priority target and drag them as a hostage.
while yes most of your points stand barbarians do have a few point where they can excel as a good multiclass option specifically for grapplers since rage serves as a one level cost for a way to gain advantage on strength checks that cant be removed through dispel magic.
@@potest_nucis8012 though I'm saying with mostly the things the DMG and other source books provide. Grappling kind of falls off at the higher levels in my opinion
@Dimitri if the dragon has any sense on how to fight you, it'd not touch down to the ground and attack at range. Also it'd kill the casters and ranged attackers first before you.
@@fishyfishyfishy500akabs8 do consider that fast movement and the mobile feat can minimize that and that haste can be cast by other party members on you, the main problem with this argument is its an argument against grappling not the usefulness of the barbarian class to players who are already going into grappling
But if I don't play Barbarian, then how can I play as Prixie "the Hornet" Glittergale, the lance-wielding Path of the Berserker Fairy with the Noble background who uses the blood of her enemies in her homemade jam recipe that she puts on the shortcakes that she makes with the Chef feat?
2:16 "Oh wait, you can't, because raging makes you so angry that magic refuses to work." Storm Herald Barbarian: "What's that? I can't hear you over this lightning I'm shooting out of my FUCKING CHEST!!!"
@Nikuma that actually sounds clever and fun. I don’t think I would have considered that combo in any of my games. I bet it’s fun to be a tanky wizard with anger issues.
I'm currently playing a monk but I was thinking of multiclassing. At what level(s) do you think it would be worth it to take barbarian levels? For reference, I am currently level 5.
isnt like every class weak against the sleep spell? like "you wanna play wizard well as they have little to no health the sleep spell kills you even if it rolls average at level 1, therefore you shouldnt play it"
IF anything, BArbarians are the most resistant to sleep because they have the most hit points. Also, if that were really a concern you could just be an elf. Nobody's stopping you.
It's not only that. Considering Barb has one of the highest HP pools, Sleep is /less/ likely to actually likely to be effect, especially if they're front lining and surrounded by weaker enemies.
As a DM, the most fun you can possible have is just asking your barbarian to do wis and char saving throws for no apparent reason, and in combat ask for an int one, roll some dice and just continue it. I am going to the nine hells.
Meanwhile I'm out here with a smart barb that has no wisdom because my DM allowed me to fudge a few rolls so they weren't all 12-15 rolls. If that fucker doesn't possess my character later on I'll be the big sad because I know what I'm doing.
I'm playing a Barb at the moment, and we've basically concluded that my Wis saves work based on what is the most plot relevant result at the time. I have gone entire sessions failing Wis rolls, only to Nat 20 everytime the current big bad/boss enemy specifically targets me.
Unless you specifically build for it, it's more of a useful ribbon than a core piece. Still neat to have when you have to go infiltrate a fancy dinner and aren't *allowed* to roll up in half-plate, though.
@@somejerk5662 nay, I'm a warmongering cannibal whose just doing it for his religion, which worships pelor, but not as followers of palor, because they saw him and think he's strong.
I think everyone always forgets that barbarians actually do have magic. May I introduce the portable battering ram, available for a measly 4 gold? It adds +5 to your roll to smash through doors, but little do people realize that floors, walls, and just about anything within reach. TD;LR Barbarians can walk through walls and people.
Funny you should word it like that… I’m currently playing a Warforged Barbarian named Club that, at the beginning of the campaign, was too stupid to realize how doors worked and instead just walked through walls, leaving a perfect silhouette behind. My DM hates me
A couple of weeks ago, I used a barbarian that I'm playing as a suicide bomber with a gunpowder keg. I instakilled a 9th level boss as a 6th level barbarian. The best part, I survived, my DM made me roll on a permanent damage chart and I rolled a minor scar. Needless to say,, that was a wild fight.
I want to play a barbarian with the goal of setting my strength score so high that if we ever get captured by the BBEG I'll let him monologue about how he took all our weapons then go "I am the weapon!" and strength check breaking whatever restraints I am in.
I like how berserker turns you into a glass cannon. Surpass your own limits to keep yourself between danger and your allies only to collapse when it’s all over. Also it’s one of the only times you’ll actually encounter the exhaustion mechanic outside of survival campaigns
I unironically love playing barbarians. They’ve always been my most powerful characters. Once I fought our party wizard when I got suggested by the BBEG (we were both level 8 with con as my highest stat) and I obliterated the guy. He was a air genasi and flew across a cliff to escape me. I took a potion of flying and he started firing off spells. I was a bear totem barbarian and was passing all my saving throws so I just waited for his slots to burn while I beat him up with my greataxe. Fun time!
That is another thing, right? Having a barbarian in the party means every charming enemy is going to turn the barbarian on the party. And that barbarian player is going to have to like it.
I'm interested to see how this gets with the other classes. Surely the Paladin has no flaws right? Aside from having almost no ranged options besides thrown weapons. And being dependent on 3 ability scores.
@@fishyfishyfishy500akabs8 Meh, that’s no more of a con than the wizard using fireball or the warlock using eldritch blast. Everyone loves smite, it’s why you’re a Paladin.
Wizard will be easy, *dies of 1d4 damage* is one of the most common jokes in the community. (*cough cough I played a wizard once who got downed pretty much every session and it's a miracle he never died*)
@@JohnW-yv6yp hm... I guess it being used as an excuse to do bad things because: "IT'S WHAT MY CHARACTER WOULD DO" in the negative sense seems to be rather strong among horror story paladins in my opinion.
Ancestral guardians aren’t 1v1ers. They shield their allies from damage. It’s if they ARE in a 1v1 they might as well not have a subclass. And 1v1s are extremely rare in dnd. Oh no. Barbarians can’t cast spells? They have so many spells they want to cast. (Seriously. Do you think it’s a downside that fighter’s and rogues that don’t take a specific subclass don’t have spells? Barbarians can wear medium armor and a shield and still benefit from rage, so their dex just needs to be 14 to have optimal armor. Also, the barbarian is the character least likely to get defeated by a sleep spell because it checks hitpoints
@@sebastian-dp9vq have you seen the monk damage calculations? It’s not good. Especially when you consider how limited ki is. Also, fighters and barbarians arent reliant on magic weapons They GET to use magic weapons. The only good thing monk has that helps it compete is stunning strike, but that has 2 main issues. 1. If they invest their ki in it, they can’t use flurry of blows, meaning they will deal way less damage than a barbarian (even though they already do less but now it’s even more exaggerated) And 2: stunning strike is a con save. That’s the state that monsters usually have highest. And for the ones that don’t have high con saves, they tend to have low health so dealing more damage like fighters and barbarians do is a better way to deal with them.
@@ikejohnson5494 monk has insta kill lets make a 1v1 barbarian attacks does 12 damage lests asume 20 strenght thats 17 lets give it the benefit of the doubt and asume he rolled max with extra attack thats 34 thats at 20th level make it 42 damage if any subclass gives you extra damage wizard turn wish spell planeshift polymorph feeblemind mental prision all insta kills which a barbarian with low int or Charisma will lose at will miss a wizard at lvl 20 has on average of 120 which mean you can kill it on 5 turbs expect ing he didnt use some spell before hand so by probabilities he can eaisily destroy you or a fighter in the other hand a monk has a freaking insta kill in its hay of the hand and a paladin can deal way more damage than a barbarian and can add hes Charisma to saves and can heal and in lvl 20 he can also trasnform which means even more shit sorry to open your eyes but the only class more weak than barbarian is ranger
Cok n bols. Bro each class depends how you optimise it. As a dm I’ve see. People love monks and barbarians. But monks tend to be lacklustre in terms of abilities. I believe tashas monks are more interesting but none of my players have chosen them. So I can’t really tell. Barbs are a tad more simple and fun too.
Battlerager is built specifically around wearing medium armor. The "dwarf only" restriction is easily removed if the DM is nice, so any race can put on Shredder armor and have fun!
I mean, jokes aside, barbarians do get light armour, medium armour and shield proficiencies. So you actually can get a potential AC of 18-19 (depending if you care about disadvantage on stealth and if you have a 14 DEX) and have the gold to pay for a breastplate/half plate + a shield. When you ditch the reliance on unarmoured defences and strap on some proper armor you will realise that barbarians hit like a truck and damned near bullet proof.
I think you over-value AC. As a barbarian, you want to be recklessly attacking, and getting near priority targets, so your AC doesn't really matter that much because enemies have advantage on you (rage resistance helps with the damage). Having the extra movement boost from Unarmored movement can be really crucial at getting into melee range with a priority target and tanking.
Blaine, why didn’t you release this earlier!? I just started playing in a new campaign two days ago as Barbarian, why couldn’t you have warned me!? Now I’m stuck with dumb angry boy who’s weak to Magic!!!! This is all your fault!!!!
Shhhhh sweet child Take the ritual caster feat, Theme it however you like SmartBarian or Shaman stuff, be very Very useful and cool out of combat and have a cool ass phantom horse with 200ft speed to ride into combat on and use to attack when you aren't riding it (with no concentration) :D
Punching a Wizard to one-shot their 1d4 hit dice before they can cast a spell usually works. Even without being able to resist most spell damage types, each class gains abilities for specific situations tied to Rage. Also, nothing says that Barbarians can't have high INT, cause multi classing into Artificer actually grants some cool benefits that last during Rage.
With what damage?? No seriously, barbarian damage is awful and the actually methods of dishing it out are few and far between. And if you have to multiclass or take a feat to do damage, then are you really complimenting the damage of the barbarian or the damage the other class or feat can give you? Not being able to do damage ends up even making their ability to tank for the party worse as foes will see them as less and less of a threat (especially if someone else is a frontliner with you). I have never had fun or wanted to play Barb over literally anything else because all its good at doing is sustained melee damage. And against either one really big foe or many smaller foes you are really going to wear down that wall of flesh real fast.
I had extremely good results with a vhuman frenzied berzerker with power attack and a greatsword. Advantage on 3 big chonking attacks will absolutely wreck things well above your weight class. Get haste from a friendly caster and you have 8 d20s to roll for 4 hits. You can do this every round. If you have cohesive party that will help keep you swinging, the Barbarian is a great time.
Ok some advice for DMs with Barbarian players to try make them feel involved in things outside of combat such as obstacles or puzzles that requires the Barbarian's strength to remove/solve and lean into the troupes related to primal classes(druids,rangers and barbarians) such animal spirits,sentient forests and the civilization vs nature dynamic. Overall know your players if they are playing a Barbarian just to fight then you may involve them less in the story but if not make sure they're not just a beat stick with a name make them feel important like the rest of the players.
I actually did something other than attacking as a barbarian. Grappling then dragging the boss into a lava pool went perfectly. Although in fairness, that was the boss's fault being near lava.
Very few things can beat advantage and high strength athletics. At high enough level, it starts making sense to dip 2 levels into rogue and pick up expertise in athletics, you can out wrastle almost anything at that point.
Funny story about my groups barbarian. He took the gladiator background. The first session he was late to the game, and proceeded to start a dance party with his bagpipes, start a fire in the Elfsong Tavern, and avoided a bar fight altogether by picking everyone up and carrying them one by one out the window and back down to the ground (we were on the second story). And yes, I had him roll acrobatics and athletics each time he scrambled up and down to grab another person. Oh and let's not forget that before all this, he used his disguise kit to dress himself up as a cowboy, prompting insight checks from everyone in the party to know what the heck he was dressed up as. Nobody made their checks, of course lol
A barbarain was one of my favorite characters ever, but that was mostly despite him being a barbarian to be honest. I used a lot of intimidation and actually using the advantage with strength checks you get from rage to actually do some cool stuff, but the only cool habilities I had were from my sublcass. You talked about how the beast is bad, but the claws are an actually insanely strong option and the hability to adapt to other types of envirnoments is one of the few cool utility habilities I had, so it was nice doing stuff like outswimming a sea hag and wrestling her back to shore
The mug: "Intelligence is my dump stat." Me: *literally playing a Shifter Ranger who's intelligence modifier is -1* "I have become the embodiment of the joke."
I play a Shifter Barbarian named Ranger, but he's actually somewhat intelligent. It's a nice contrast to another barbarian I played who's just a giant dumb murder-lovin' brute.
I am glad to be apart of one of the most welcoming, helpful, and creative communities known to the internet, dnd. Truly, from players, to dm's, to content creators, everyone involved in dnd seems so nice and apt to share this common love for ttrpgs and I love it. Also, boosting the algorithm.
it annoys me that raging is limited by armors to an extend. VERY annoying for my Life cleric tiefling, who is a momma bear but relies HEAVILY on heavy armor due to her poor dex. She cant even go legit mamma bear mode when angry! btw, im a dude playing a gal, for some reason thats easier for me to RP.
@@firebladeentertainment5739 I mean you can play whatever character you like, probably a third of my PCs have been female, sometimes it just seems right for the character.
@@firebladeentertainment5739 You can still wear medium armour and use shields without suffering as a barbarian, if you've got a negative dex mod that might still be a bit rough but otherwise you can get at least an okay AC.
@@Nesto_ 2/3rds of my characters i played are female to be fair, i only ever played 3 characters, so thats still within the chance of probability. As a DM though, my chararacters are diverse and often a reference to other characters or just funny ideas. Heck, one NPC is actually an old character i made for a campaign but never got to use him, thats why i didnt count him earlier, a hobgoblin skeleton that is a friendly necromancer that is now the groundskeeper of a cities graveyard, protecting it with the bleak guard, former guardsmen that agreed to be reanimated as undead incase they die to continue their watch over the city. btw, all of them are fully sentient but also weak against anti magic, since it knocks them unconcious and innert.
@@mollymauktealeaf I have a -3 (!!!) as my dex modifier! we rolled it and i had to put my dumpstat SOMEWHERE that wouldnt cause major issues as the group healer/support (now healer/tank) IF the armor is affected by dex in any way, it WILL be bad on her!
Here's a tip to make the class enjoyable and stronger: add monk. It synergizes well with Barbarian so long as you hold off on rage until you run out of ki or want to stop playing spellcaster for a bit and return to monke. Once you do enter rage there's synergy there too with unarmed attack bonuses. If your DM lets you get some good brass knuckles and counts it as an unarmed attack instead of pulling some shenanigans you could potentially do some comically large numbers of damage.
To be clear, Rage doesn't effect any of the Monk's abilities. Ki points and the various things you can do with them aren't spells so they're perfectly fine to use while raging, although I'm not sure that adding a 4th ability score into the mix is the best idea
The sleep spell works based on how much HP you have left. Seeing how the barbarian has double the HP of some classes (I mean base HP not EHP with rage, in which case it's even more) it would be more beneficial to take out two different characters who may be casters/healers than to waste your sleep spell on a single barbarian. Not to mention the sleep spell is only really useful on early levels (since it scales like shit and even if it didn't you cannot catch up with the insane HP scaling of the barbarian) and there are some races that are immune to it anyway.
Every time I'm hearing him talk about how shity they are I keep remembering that one campaign were I killed my entire party for trying to kill me over a succubus who I counter seduced. :) Good times. Also solo a adult red dragon by impaling it on a mountain peak.
"The sleep spell ruins your day." Okay, but, here me out here... elf or half elf. no magical sleep. plus with the new tasha's rules, that +2 can go towards strength and make for a great barbarian.
I love barbarians. My dm has tried to sleep me a few times, and it doesn’t work. They might not have much flavor other than that they live in villages usually, but that makes them the perfect mold for anything along with fighter.
Barbarians can wear Medium armor and still get the defensive benefits of the class. Also Sleep literally counters every class, as a major point of the video it's mute since it applies to every class. Reality is that Barbarians can be absolute units that wreck house and if you have a clever player at the helm they can be a nightmare to deal with.
In regard to not attacking, I was the bane of my DM's existence last session by grappling the big bad indefinitely till the DM got frightened the big bad could actually die on the 2nd session so he plane shifted. It was hilarious.
Yeah, people always underestimate the barbarian grapple game. If you attack him, you're playing into his strength, if you try to break the grapple, you waste your action and get pummeled by the rest of the party, and god help you if he's smart enough to follow up by shoving you prone.
I mean, the 'one good sleep can take you out' is kind of a moot point. Because that's the case for most every class in the game. If anything, because of the way sleep works Barbarians are one of the HARDEST classes to put to sleep, since they have so much HP to chew through first.
Usually if I'm playing a barbarian we already have a good dps in the party. Such as a wizard. So I just put all of my points in the Constitution, then dexterity. And I normally end up being the most effective tank we have. Until we reach around like level 8 when the DM starts throwing enemies that deal magical damage on most basic attacks. But by then I already have a insanely massive helpful so I can still be quite an effective tank with a high AC. I also only run a shield
Funny video. I love how your criticism of Bear Totem Barbarian isn't, it's just an attack on the players that choose it because it's the most effective/busted Barbarian Subclass feature in the game, and didn't bring up that despite having a far smaller table than it's Wild Magic Sorcerer cousin, every single effect that a Wild Magic Barbarian can get is a boon in the Barbarian's flavor that can radically change how it can approach a combat scenario. Also love how you mention the sleep spell as an option to take a Barbarian out of rage, a spell that's prioritizes targets by ascending current hit points in an area of effect, when the Barbarian a) stacks Constitution to make the most out of its Unarmored Defense and b) has the biggest hit die in the game, making triple digit health pools fairly easy to achieve. Can't wait for you to get to Ranger or Monk, you'd be able to squeeze a fifteen minute essay out of either of those without having to grasp at straws (I say as a biased Monk main).
@@frungggg honestly? I disagree, Tasha's alternative Ranger is functional enough as a sort of alternative half-caster martial with a nature theme, but I feel like it circumvents the fantasy of being a Ranger more than embraces it, there's little in the way of shining a light on a Ranger's resourcefulness, cunning, preparedness, etc. except maybe expertise in Survival or Sleight of Hand as a blanket for all "dope Ranger stuff" checks, which one could get with a Scout Rogue. The climb and swim speed _is_ nice, though, as is the plus 5 to walking speed.
@@CappuccinoSquid ranger clearly outperforms most other martials thanks to its subclasses and being a half caster. rangers access to spells gives it plenty of utility itself i agree that the base class still could be better however. claiming that ranger is a weak class is in no way true.
@@frungggg not claiming it's weak, I'm saying it could be better realized in its fantasy, including streamlining some of its spells like Snare to be in pace with the rest of the game, for example. Its vanilla incarnation is also disjointed and awkward in general, just because Tasha's offers a viable alternative doesn't stop vanilla Ranger from existing and being legal, and to that end I feel it's useful to examine its shortcomings and inelegant solutions as to better refine them.
things barbarians can do that isn't damage -'lmao what's encumbrance' -be shockingly good at stealth with a monk and rogue -remember that they also have a brain (this one is terrifying) -travel with the ranger -work an honest living. -reflavor rage -remember that they too can have a personality -manipulate the environment to set up cover and such with their strength. -combine their movement with another character by picking them up and running. -pin people down -give the party cover by existing -be a zealot and have an abusive relationship with the cleric, who uses you as a test dummy due to ftee revive.
@@christianemerson4622 All classes get an ASI at Levels 4, 8, 12, 16, and 19, for a total of five(5) ASIs Rogues get an additional ASI at level 10, for a total of six(6) ASIs Fighters get additional ASIs at Level 6 and Level 14, for a total of seven(7) ASIs
@@ShankMugen I'm going off of the fact that I physically counted between fighter and another class I wanted to use to determine which class I wanted to main for my character. I counted 5 for each, but could have been off by one for Fighter.
Firebstorm herald is op tho, because you gain the ability of infinite arson. At will, as an action, you can touch a flammable object and set it on fire. All castles have wooden supports, trees are flammable, teiflings have fire resistance, most taverns are wooden, and mine supports are also wood. And concrete is technically flammable. Unless you're in a dwarven stronghold, your d.m. has no reason to NOT have a flammable object nearby. Like a door. DnD is greatly enhanced by creativity, and instant no-fail-chance arson is O.P.
In the case of strength for attacking, what’s wrong with using a rapier or something and using a finesse as a barbarian? You don’t get the extra what, 3 rage damage but whatever, extra AC is a good trade off.
Encumbrance, certqin features, jumping all rely on str but theyre not too major. The main thing is if you build DEX you dont get to take advantage of the lvl 20 feature. Like everything in Barb points towards STR, same as Paladin. Dont have too but also get ready to lose some power for sure. At least Paladin you can still wear light and medium armor if ur not beefy enough for heavy.
@@videonaterAD But, if you stack Dex, you can Multi with Rogue and get always online Sneak Attack, cos Reckless turns it on. My DM felt really bad about not reading the Zombie Beholder he just Thanos'ed my Paladin with and let me take an Elven, Dex-based, Greatsword since my new char is a Sea Elf Barbarian. Who needs Magic and Intelligence when you can speak to Fish?
@@GRSZiik You can't turn on sneak attack with reckless attack unless you build STR. Reckless attack only works with attacks using strength. (What you can do is use STR to attack with a finesse weapon, since sneak attack just requires using a finesse weapon, doesn't require attacking with DEX).
Enemy Wizard : “Haha, I cast sleep on the barbarian” Barbarian, which is an Elf: “Ok” *proceeds to rage* Also, Bland Simple: “Try anything else other than attacking and tell me how you do” Meanwhile the fighter, the monk, the rogue, the sorcerer (casting fire bolt is attacking), the warlock, the paladin, the dragon, the wolf, the bandit, the zombies, the mummy’s, Tiamat, the goblins, and the war cleric: “WHAT ELSE ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO! ITS CALLED COMBAT!”
Personally I like runing a grappler/ Escort Barb. Yeah being a bruiser is nice, but killing half a dungeons enemies by yeeting them into their own traps is my cup of tea. Sure you can shut down rage by putting them to sleep, but you can always negate that by lighting yourself on fire, which keeps rage up, and negates sleep with constant damage. This is assuming you dont have any teammates who could also OHKO the wizard. IMO, martial classes in general kinda feel limited.
I think the best part about playing Barbarien is your massive health pool and restinaces. I used to be attacked by 8 different entitties at once for almost 10 turns and survived with 40 health from 80 ( without restistance, it would have probably been 0)
My Barbarian Strig, Fevello, instead of hitting the house sized leech, rolled 2 nat 20's on a disadvantage and manged to grab a cliff with one hand and the leech with the other, holding it up so it doesn't escape as the party needed to harvest it for things needed for a ritual. He also then immediately proceeded to zipline down the cliff with a rope while being pummelled with water from a waterfall. Barbarians can do more than hit! We can LIFT. We can THROW. We can ALSO have polite conversations with priests in a nice church because bashful barbarians are cute. Love your videos!
I have chosen flavor over efficiency for every character that wasn’t made for a Battle Royale or out of spite. My home boy Gredorious Orn will remain my favorite character ever, because even if he was suboptimal, I haven’t been able to make a character half as fun to RP as he was. RIP Gredorious Orn
You've got me at "doesn't involve attacking something". I do technically have to make an attack as part of the 'Disarm' Action, and Grapple or Shove both are variants of your 'Attack' Action.
I played a Yuan-Ti Beast Barbarian for a one shot. The idea was that when he raged, his mutation spread and made him even more snakelike. So his head would become a snake’s for the fangs, his arms would become super scaly for the claws, and he’d grow a barbed snake tail for the tail, and he’d essentially go from Pureblood to Malison during his rage. He was super fun to play.
I love this video. I am in an epic level short campaign where I basically made Stitch (Beast Barbarian/Sword Bard/Fathomless Warlock(Eldritch blast guns and the tentacle bonus action reflavored as summoning other experiments)) and honestly I've had more fun just going rage for the buffing allies and actually used my character's weight, snagged a griffon rider's reins and jumped off of it forcing it to start flying wildly to the point that the rider had to abandon it. Then once my character (his name is Suture) got injured enough and his allies were away from him and the griffon, he jumped off, glided down with his glide feature from Simic Hybrid and started taking pot shots at the enemies while running using Eldritch Blast guns. It was a blast.
The video reminded me of my first dnd character. They were a totem warrior barbarian that was deaf and had the inability speak properly. He hated conflict and was honestly just a big himbo. And because of lore reasons he had went into barbarian rage when ever he saw people getting hurt. I miss my big dummy
My friend was a Barbarian named Ooga-Flooga, and he and his party were going to fight a boss rush in an ice tower. He broke it with his longsword, every enemy failed their saves except the final boss, an Ice Wizard who happened to be the tavern owner, and also was Blippiroth(Blippi+Sephiroth). He was floating down and he decided to shove his sword up the Wizard's ass. He rolled a 20. My campaign was absolutely wrecked.
I play barbarian like a gladiator, kicking dirt into people's eyes because why not. Now there blind and can't see the rogue who is about to put a sharp pointy foreign object in there spine.
My dear 4 int barbarian spent most of a campaign unable to speak common, and spent 20 sessions without getting below half hp. A trade I was happy to make
I played a tabaxi berserker. That feline agility dash often meant I was in the thick of it immedkately, and usually against the biggest threat, namely spell casters.
Awesome video. Have a grumdrop 🍬
Bru
Awww, I wanted one
"Barbarian approaching you with slurping noises"
May I please have one?
Give me one pls
"A single sleep spell can put you down."
Not with my d12 hit die, it can't.
"good thing I'm an elf"
Laughs in Warforged
The wizard: DAMN! I need a plan B.
*Casts calm emotions*
Actually sleep Rolling average with a sleep spell and a constitution of 16 will put you to sleep every time stopping at level 2
Level 1 hp 15 < sleep 22.5
Level 2 hp 25 > Sleep 22.5
Level 3 hp 35. > Level 2 sleep 31.5
Level 4 hp 45 > Level 2 sleep 31.5
Level 5 hp 55 > Level 3 sleep 40.5
@@dallindespain5082 where tf are you getting your hp averages my guy
the one Barbarian I every GMed for that didn't just hit things solved a combat encounter by getting out a magic refilling mug and proceeding to sing folk songs (horrifically) while trying to get the bandits camp the party had walked into to join in, surprisingly a half naked Elf in a loin cloth offering free booze instead of murder works well. It was a wonderful change from the norm for me as a GM.
R/thatHappened
I play a big Minotaur barbarian who, funnily, worships the god of peace and calm… he always tries to talk down a fight and if the fighting starts he just focuses on making sure he takes all the damage rather than his friends… he’s really fun to play!
@@0r4n go back to reddit
@@0r4n ah yes, this specific instance that the commenter has no reason to lie about that reads exactly like an actual excerpt from a game never happened. Of course.
r/nothingeverhappens
I started a game with my work friends. one of them is playing a vagrant barbarian so instead of starting with a war hammer and mace he started with a whip he fashioned out of trash and some javelins carved from branches. I told him to go mostly dex starting out because begging for scraps doesn't build muscle. it's really fun to play with his character because he has more creative tools to start our campaign. he could have said "I want to have 20 str a great-ax" and the roll playing would have been the same boring strong guy punch jokes everyone has heard a million times. the best part of D&D is getting to hear a new story that all your friends made together.
I think the sleep spell is a bad example of what would counter a barbarian since they'd need to roll pretty high or already have chewed into their hitpoints a bunch in order to even make the barbarian yawn considering they have the biggest hit die in the game.
You can't give enemies the sleep spell. At least, not as written. There's no attack roll and no saving throw. If you're low on hits, it's night-night. It just works. It instantly cancels concentration and a whole bunch of other ongoing abilities (eg rage). It takes a player's entire turn away - they don't even get to re-roll a save or anything. And it's a first level spell.
Sure, it becomes less useful at higher tiers of play, but by then other stuff comes online.
Sleep is a low-level party wiper with some really unsatisfying mechanics and practically no counterplay. You can't give it to an enemy.
@@TrojanManSCP There is counter play, its the same counter play you use against fireball and shatter. Spread out so theyre forced to target fewer players, but stay close enough that you can help. Also, someone can keep around a blowdart to wake people up with the 1 damage that it does.
Git gud.
@@RayPoreon Let's not forget, that elves are immune to sleep spells. And those ear-y - get it? - buggers are really popular.
@@TrojanManSCP You can counter it by keeping a pet dog and a few party members close by so that the HP count drains before it hits you.
Yeah, it's theoretically a great spell. In practice, it's really only effective at the lower levels where basically everything is effective.
Right? He used the worst example for that because literally every other class would be more susceptible to Sleeep than a Barbarian
JoCrap literally insults everything and he is peperment sticks... this is going to be fun
Didn’t he say cleric was op?…
In his second version of course.
@@Scout_from_deep_rock_galactic he also said SnS was better than greatsword and i belive he still insulted cleric at least a little.
@@Scout_from_deep_rock_galactic but yeah he did say cleric was kinda stupid op
@@Ratharaine which it is
@@diobrando9842 which is what he made fun if cleric and also said it was kinda stupid op?
"The sleep spell puts them to and ruins their rage" Yes, like they do to about any other class.
With any other class is even easier, because is based off of HP, sooo...yeah, a spellcaster will waste e 3rd level counterspell to avoid a 1st level spell, while the Barbarian is the most likely of ANY other class to just laugh and causing the spell to be wasted
I hope this becomes a running gag in the series. Just slepp speels all fucking day.
Once that barbarian hits some 40 ish hp (A barb with 14 con usually has this on average by 4th level), you're unlikely to even get put to sleep, especially if there happens to be other party members nearby with lesser HP that gets targeted down first (since sleep goes in ascending order, starting with the creature that has the lowest current hitpoints). Add in something like the tough feature at 4th level, and suddenly your spell casting enemies are left to upcast sleep at like 4th level and roll those d8's high to even bother getting that angry barb on hold. If anything, charm/dominate person is more likely to affect the barbarian overall, especially if they didn't invest too much into their wisdom score.
Because a hulking angry barbarian running towards your party members and hitting them is FAR more terrifying than a barb sleeping on the job.
I mean, barb is the most resistant to sleep out of every class in the game since it is based off health.
I mean barbarian loses the rage tho and they only get a few of them. Well at the stage they can get sleeped anyway-
The BOULDER has been playing barb for a while and been GMing for even longer, and barbarian is still one of the Boulder’s favorite classes. It’s true that whenever you play one you have to work extra hard to overcome your weaknesses, but I think that it gives the barb a sort of savage discipline that the Boulder thinks is badass.
Sometimes in life it feels like all you can do is go completely ape shit and try to power through. That’s the barbarian in my eyes.
I agree with, THE BOULDER
don't you mean in the boulder's eyes?
You beautiful man my gnoll barbarian thanks you
Beautiful comment
Of course THE BOULDER would love to play barbarian.
Ironically my barbarian with a +3 in persuasion is one of the more socially adept people who tries to talk things out.
And if that fails I rage, use my expertise in athletics to roll 1d20+10 with advantage to grapple a priority target and drag them as a hostage.
Wouldnt grappling someone THEN trying persuasion give you advantage on it?
I just wonder why the heck don't barbarians have expertise in athletics from the getgo.
That's a nice social aspect of a barbarian
Not to mention that since you are raging you should get adv on the althetics since it is strenght based check
while yes most of your points stand barbarians do have a few point where they can excel as a good multiclass option specifically for grapplers since rage serves as a one level cost for a way to gain advantage on strength checks that cant be removed through dispel magic.
And your grappling is useless the moment the enemies are either really, really far away or they are just immune to grapples.
@@fishyfishyfishy500akabs8 you could make up such case for any advantage a character can get
@@potest_nucis8012 though I'm saying with mostly the things the DMG and other source books provide. Grappling kind of falls off at the higher levels in my opinion
@Dimitri if the dragon has any sense on how to fight you, it'd not touch down to the ground and attack at range. Also it'd kill the casters and ranged attackers first before you.
@@fishyfishyfishy500akabs8 do consider that fast movement and the mobile feat can minimize that and that haste can be cast by other party members on you, the main problem with this argument is its an argument against grappling not the usefulness of the barbarian class to players who are already going into grappling
But if I don't play Barbarian, then how can I play as Prixie "the Hornet" Glittergale, the lance-wielding Path of the Berserker Fairy with the Noble background who uses the blood of her enemies in her homemade jam recipe that she puts on the shortcakes that she makes with the Chef feat?
WTF did I just read
@@fabiandurr6865 Art
you are awesome
@@enzoponce1881 No, not art. Perfection.
Btw, I totally plan on doing one of these for each class in this series, so look forward to that.
after going through each class this series it should end with "wait thats all of them, which class should I even play?"
And then rag on the DM the next video
It could probably be followed by someone else going "Just..pick which you think seems cool?" Then followed by. "Oh yeah. That makes sense."
Artificer, since he skipped it lmao
2:16 "Oh wait, you can't, because raging makes you so angry that magic refuses to work."
Storm Herald Barbarian: "What's that? I can't hear you over this lightning I'm shooting out of my FUCKING CHEST!!!"
My barbarian/monk is an absolute unit. Though it is a Tortle so i get to do a STR build with it
@Nikuma that actually sounds clever and fun. I don’t think I would have considered that combo in any of my games. I bet it’s fun to be a tanky wizard with anger issues.
I'm currently playing a monk but I was thinking of multiclassing. At what level(s) do you think it would be worth it to take barbarian levels? For reference, I am currently level 5.
Tortle for the win you won’t have to worry about defense for a decent chunk of the early game
So far I went the master oogway route and gone a tortle fighter/monk
Also if your a bear totem it dosent really matter since you basically invincible anyways. If your not well….you choose poorly
isnt like every class weak against the sleep spell? like "you wanna play wizard well as they have little to no health the sleep spell kills you even if it rolls average at level 1, therefore you shouldnt play it"
True but I think the point was more that big strong tough man isn’t so tough when a wizard goes pew.
I think the point was sleep burns one of your rages.
IF anything, BArbarians are the most resistant to sleep because they have the most hit points. Also, if that were really a concern you could just be an elf. Nobody's stopping you.
@@Nesto_ not if dipped in warmage
It's not only that. Considering Barb has one of the highest HP pools, Sleep is /less/ likely to actually likely to be effect, especially if they're front lining and surrounded by weaker enemies.
As a DM, the most fun you can possible have is just asking your barbarian to do wis and char saving throws for no apparent reason, and in combat ask for an int one, roll some dice and just continue it.
I am going to the nine hells.
My barbarian laughs In two level dip in warmage
Meanwhile I'm out here with a smart barb that has no wisdom because my DM allowed me to fudge a few rolls so they weren't all 12-15 rolls.
If that fucker doesn't possess my character later on I'll be the big sad because I know what I'm doing.
*laughs in kalashtar totem bear*
I'm playing a Barb at the moment, and we've basically concluded that my Wis saves work based on what is the most plot relevant result at the time. I have gone entire sessions failing Wis rolls, only to Nat 20 everytime the current big bad/boss enemy specifically targets me.
Me who always plays high charisma barbarians
Not wearing armor is a trap for real. It seems so cool but, most likely you're better off just wearing medium armor.
Nah, my ac is 21 with no armor. Unarmed defense is awesome
Unless you specifically build for it, it's more of a useful ribbon than a core piece. Still neat to have when you have to go infiltrate a fancy dinner and aren't *allowed* to roll up in half-plate, though.
@@somejerk5662 oh, yeah no that won't be happening lol. My character is an orc barbarian who is the most orc and the most barbarian he can be
@@averagemage6038 So you get to pretend to be the Bard's mute bodyguard in case shit goes down.
@@somejerk5662 nay, I'm a warmongering cannibal whose just doing it for his religion, which worships pelor, but not as followers of palor, because they saw him and think he's strong.
I think everyone always forgets that barbarians actually do have magic. May I introduce the portable battering ram, available for a measly 4 gold? It adds +5 to your roll to smash through doors, but little do people realize that floors, walls, and just about anything within reach. TD;LR Barbarians can walk through walls and people.
Funny you should word it like that…
I’m currently playing a Warforged Barbarian named Club that, at the beginning of the campaign, was too stupid to realize how doors worked and instead just walked through walls, leaving a perfect silhouette behind.
My DM hates me
I may be a barbarian with -2 intelligence, but Im pretty good at solving problems with my head.
A couple of weeks ago, I used a barbarian that I'm playing as a suicide bomber with a gunpowder keg. I instakilled a 9th level boss as a 6th level barbarian. The best part, I survived, my DM made me roll on a permanent damage chart and I rolled a minor scar. Needless to say,, that was a wild fight.
Grit and Glory moment
That's some anime shit lol
"Don't play barbarian"
*Me, who's played nothing but spellcasters, and wants to bash skulls with brute strength for a change:*
Same!! I'm so tired of being small and fragile, I just want to tank for a change.
Me want bonk
Cleric.
Just cast Tenser's Transformation. It's 6th level spell, and you literally become better than martial class at that level could ever be.
I want to play a barbarian with the goal of setting my strength score so high that if we ever get captured by the BBEG I'll let him monologue about how he took all our weapons then go "I am the weapon!" and strength check breaking whatever restraints I am in.
I like how berserker turns you into a glass cannon. Surpass your own limits to keep yourself between danger and your allies only to collapse when it’s all over. Also it’s one of the only times you’ll actually encounter the exhaustion mechanic outside of survival campaigns
I unironically love playing barbarians. They’ve always been my most powerful characters. Once I fought our party wizard when I got suggested by the BBEG (we were both level 8 with con as my highest stat) and I obliterated the guy. He was a air genasi and flew across a cliff to escape me. I took a potion of flying and he started firing off spells. I was a bear totem barbarian and was passing all my saving throws so I just waited for his slots to burn while I beat him up with my greataxe. Fun time!
Oh wow, a martial can destroy a caster pre lvl 10. Who would've known...
That is another thing, right? Having a barbarian in the party means every charming enemy is going to turn the barbarian on the party. And that barbarian player is going to have to like it.
Well duh. Why else would you pick Barb over fighter if you know the DM is more likely to charm, possess, or turn the barb than any other class?
@@somewhereelse1235 oh believe me, it happens to the fighter just as easily most of the time
@@DuskyPredator Curse of Strahd is going to suck when the barbarian gets controlled
I'm interested to see how this gets with the other classes. Surely the Paladin has no flaws right? Aside from having almost no ranged options besides thrown weapons. And being dependent on 3 ability scores.
Divine smite over reliance and it overshadowing almost any other thing it has.
@@fishyfishyfishy500akabs8 Meh, that’s no more of a con than the wizard using fireball or the warlock using eldritch blast. Everyone loves smite, it’s why you’re a Paladin.
Wizard will be easy, *dies of 1d4 damage* is one of the most common jokes in the community.
(*cough cough I played a wizard once who got downed pretty much every session and it's a miracle he never died*)
@@JohnW-yv6yp hm... I guess it being used as an excuse to do bad things because: "IT'S WHAT MY CHARACTER WOULD DO" in the negative sense seems to be rather strong among horror story paladins in my opinion.
@@maddie9602 There are no miracles, there is only the DMs mercy.
Ancestral guardians aren’t 1v1ers. They shield their allies from damage. It’s if they ARE in a 1v1 they might as well not have a subclass. And 1v1s are extremely rare in dnd.
Oh no. Barbarians can’t cast spells? They have so many spells they want to cast. (Seriously. Do you think it’s a downside that fighter’s and rogues that don’t take a specific subclass don’t have spells?
Barbarians can wear medium armor and a shield and still benefit from rage, so their dex just needs to be 14 to have optimal armor.
Also, the barbarian is the character least likely to get defeated by a sleep spell because it checks hitpoints
Dude i agree with you so much i do not understand blaine at all. Barbarian is great
Its good on a very early game but after that monk and paladin become the best on melee barbarian and fighter are the most dependant on magic items
@@sebastian-dp9vq have you seen the monk damage calculations? It’s not good. Especially when you consider how limited ki is. Also, fighters and barbarians arent reliant on magic weapons They GET to use magic weapons. The only good thing monk has that helps it compete is stunning strike, but that has 2 main issues. 1. If they invest their ki in it, they can’t use flurry of blows, meaning they will deal way less damage than a barbarian (even though they already do less but now it’s even more exaggerated)
And 2: stunning strike is a con save. That’s the state that monsters usually have highest. And for the ones that don’t have high con saves, they tend to have low health so dealing more damage like fighters and barbarians do is a better way to deal with them.
@@ikejohnson5494 monk has insta kill lets make a 1v1 barbarian attacks does 12 damage lests asume 20 strenght thats 17 lets give it the benefit of the doubt and asume he rolled max with extra attack thats 34 thats at 20th level make it 42 damage if any subclass gives you extra damage wizard turn wish spell planeshift polymorph feeblemind mental prision all insta kills which a barbarian with low int or Charisma will lose at will miss a wizard at lvl 20 has on average of 120 which mean you can kill it on 5 turbs expect ing he didnt use some spell before hand so by probabilities he can eaisily destroy you or a fighter in the other hand a monk has a freaking insta kill in its hay of the hand and a paladin can deal way more damage than a barbarian and can add hes Charisma to saves and can heal and in lvl 20 he can also trasnform which means even more shit sorry to open your eyes but the only class more weak than barbarian is ranger
Cok n bols. Bro each class depends how you optimise it. As a dm I’ve see. People love monks and barbarians. But monks tend to be lacklustre in terms of abilities. I believe tashas monks are more interesting but none of my players have chosen them. So I can’t really tell. Barbs are a tad more simple and fun too.
Hey, did you know that barbarians CAN wear armor? That's right, not every barbarian is a mountain of half-naked nordic muscles!
Yeah, barbarians can be from anywhere XD
But as a barb you get free ac when you DONT wear armor. Its like natural armor that doesnt have weight. Makes no sense to put on armor
Battlerager is built specifically around wearing medium armor. The "dwarf only" restriction is easily removed if the DM is nice, so any race can put on Shredder armor and have fun!
@@gamecavalier3230 at minimum 14 Dex for peak half-plate use which isn't that bad
@@gamecavalier3230 specifically 5% worst which isn't that bad.
I mean, jokes aside, barbarians do get light armour, medium armour and shield proficiencies. So you actually can get a potential AC of 18-19 (depending if you care about disadvantage on stealth and if you have a 14 DEX) and have the gold to pay for a breastplate/half plate + a shield. When you ditch the reliance on unarmoured defences and strap on some proper armor you will realise that barbarians hit like a truck and damned near bullet proof.
I think you over-value AC. As a barbarian, you want to be recklessly attacking, and getting near priority targets, so your AC doesn't really matter that much because enemies have advantage on you (rage resistance helps with the damage). Having the extra movement boost from Unarmored movement can be really crucial at getting into melee range with a priority target and tanking.
@@DvirPick in 5e you get fast movement as long as you aren't in HEAVY armor, you can still go fast in half-plate.
an efficient barbarian should never have an ac above 16 tho
Blaine, why didn’t you release this earlier!? I just started playing in a new campaign two days ago as Barbarian, why couldn’t you have warned me!? Now I’m stuck with dumb angry boy who’s weak to Magic!!!! This is all your fault!!!!
Shhhhh sweet child Take the ritual caster feat, Theme it however you like SmartBarian or Shaman stuff, be very Very useful and cool out of combat and have a cool ass phantom horse with 200ft speed to ride into combat on and use to attack when you aren't riding it (with no concentration) :D
I agree, definitely blaines fault for not uploaded according to YOUR specific needs
@@moldest EXACTLY! This guy gets it.
attack magic users at range with javelins or just rush them and cut them down in a couple hits
Try adding monk. You can be a real one punch man if you play your cards right.
0:33 Okay, JoCat does not throw you candy and tell you great advice.
He morphs into JoCrap and makes a terrible guide.
Punching a Wizard to one-shot their 1d4 hit dice before they can cast a spell usually works. Even without being able to resist most spell damage types, each class gains abilities for specific situations tied to Rage. Also, nothing says that Barbarians can't have high INT, cause multi classing into Artificer actually grants some cool benefits that last during Rage.
With what damage?? No seriously, barbarian damage is awful and the actually methods of dishing it out are few and far between. And if you have to multiclass or take a feat to do damage, then are you really complimenting the damage of the barbarian or the damage the other class or feat can give you? Not being able to do damage ends up even making their ability to tank for the party worse as foes will see them as less and less of a threat (especially if someone else is a frontliner with you). I have never had fun or wanted to play Barb over literally anything else because all its good at doing is sustained melee damage. And against either one really big foe or many smaller foes you are really going to wear down that wall of flesh real fast.
I had extremely good results with a vhuman frenzied berzerker with power attack and a greatsword.
Advantage on 3 big chonking attacks will absolutely wreck things well above your weight class.
Get haste from a friendly caster and you have 8 d20s to roll for 4 hits.
You can do this every round.
If you have cohesive party that will help keep you swinging, the Barbarian is a great time.
Ok some advice for DMs with Barbarian players to try make them feel involved in things outside of combat such as obstacles or puzzles that requires the Barbarian's strength to remove/solve and lean into the troupes related to primal classes(druids,rangers and barbarians) such animal spirits,sentient forests and the civilization vs nature dynamic.
Overall know your players if they are playing a Barbarian just to fight then you may involve them less in the story but if not make sure they're not just a beat stick with a name make them feel important like the rest of the players.
Thanks for all your videos Blaine I've watched you for a long time, and soon I'm gonna DM my first game with my family (Mines of Phandelver)
Good luck! I hope you guys enjoy :)
Family D&D groups are great fun. Good luck!
@@panda-tv5675 Thanks!
@@Fluffy-ys6rb Thanks! I'm gonna need it, I've only ever played some games of AL.
"Open wide and prepare to choke" will always be taken out of context and always the wrong way.
I actually did something other than attacking as a barbarian. Grappling then dragging the boss into a lava pool went perfectly. Although in fairness, that was the boss's fault being near lava.
I waterboarded a goblin into submission.
Very few things can beat advantage and high strength athletics.
At high enough level, it starts making sense to dip 2 levels into rogue and pick up expertise in athletics, you can out wrastle almost anything at that point.
Funny story about my groups barbarian. He took the gladiator background. The first session he was late to the game, and proceeded to start a dance party with his bagpipes, start a fire in the Elfsong Tavern, and avoided a bar fight altogether by picking everyone up and carrying them one by one out the window and back down to the ground (we were on the second story). And yes, I had him roll acrobatics and athletics each time he scrambled up and down to grab another person. Oh and let's not forget that before all this, he used his disguise kit to dress himself up as a cowboy, prompting insight checks from everyone in the party to know what the heck he was dressed up as. Nobody made their checks, of course lol
A barbarain was one of my favorite characters ever, but that was mostly despite him being a barbarian to be honest. I used a lot of intimidation and actually using the advantage with strength checks you get from rage to actually do some cool stuff, but the only cool habilities I had were from my sublcass. You talked about how the beast is bad, but the claws are an actually insanely strong option and the hability to adapt to other types of envirnoments is one of the few cool utility habilities I had, so it was nice doing stuff like outswimming a sea hag and wrestling her back to shore
I can imagine how savage the "Don't volunteer to be DM" episode will be
The mug: "Intelligence is my dump stat."
Me: *literally playing a Shifter Ranger who's intelligence modifier is -1* "I have become the embodiment of the joke."
I play a Shifter Barbarian named Ranger, but he's actually somewhat intelligent. It's a nice contrast to another barbarian I played who's just a giant dumb murder-lovin' brute.
I am glad to be apart of one of the most welcoming, helpful, and creative communities known to the internet, dnd. Truly, from players, to dm's, to content creators, everyone involved in dnd seems so nice and apt to share this common love for ttrpgs and I love it. Also, boosting the algorithm.
Multiclaasing as a barbarian:sleep
Multiclassing into barbarian: *real shit*
it annoys me that raging is limited by armors to an extend.
VERY annoying for my Life cleric tiefling, who is a momma bear but relies HEAVILY on heavy armor due to her poor dex. She cant even go legit mamma bear mode when angry!
btw, im a dude playing a gal, for some reason thats easier for me to RP.
@@firebladeentertainment5739 I mean you can play whatever character you like, probably a third of my PCs have been female, sometimes it just seems right for the character.
@@firebladeentertainment5739 You can still wear medium armour and use shields without suffering as a barbarian, if you've got a negative dex mod that might still be a bit rough but otherwise you can get at least an okay AC.
@@Nesto_ 2/3rds of my characters i played are female
to be fair, i only ever played 3 characters, so thats still within the chance of probability. As a DM though, my chararacters are diverse and often a reference to other characters or just funny ideas. Heck, one NPC is actually an old character i made for a campaign but never got to use him, thats why i didnt count him earlier, a hobgoblin skeleton that is a friendly necromancer that is now the groundskeeper of a cities graveyard, protecting it with the bleak guard, former guardsmen that agreed to be reanimated as undead incase they die to continue their watch over the city. btw, all of them are fully sentient but also weak against anti magic, since it knocks them unconcious and innert.
@@mollymauktealeaf I have a -3 (!!!) as my dex modifier! we rolled it and i had to put my dumpstat SOMEWHERE that wouldnt cause major issues as the group healer/support (now healer/tank)
IF the armor is affected by dex in any way, it WILL be bad on her!
With the sweetest voice on UA-cam he says, “I’m not here to sugar coat things.”
Here's a tip to make the class enjoyable and stronger: add monk. It synergizes well with Barbarian so long as you hold off on rage until you run out of ki or want to stop playing spellcaster for a bit and return to monke. Once you do enter rage there's synergy there too with unarmed attack bonuses. If your DM lets you get some good brass knuckles and counts it as an unarmed attack instead of pulling some shenanigans you could potentially do some comically large numbers of damage.
To be clear, Rage doesn't effect any of the Monk's abilities. Ki points and the various things you can do with them aren't spells so they're perfectly fine to use while raging, although I'm not sure that adding a 4th ability score into the mix is the best idea
Or take Way of the Astral Self and Rage. Plus, if you do Flurry of Blows while raging, that's some major damage.
This is a wonderful concept!
I look forward to the all of them!
"So open wide and prepare to choke" -slaine bimple 2021
The sleep spell works based on how much HP you have left. Seeing how the barbarian has double the HP of some classes (I mean base HP not EHP with rage, in which case it's even more) it would be more beneficial to take out two different characters who may be casters/healers than to waste your sleep spell on a single barbarian.
Not to mention the sleep spell is only really useful on early levels (since it scales like shit and even if it didn't you cannot catch up with the insane HP scaling of the barbarian) and there are some races that are immune to it anyway.
Make me
Oh shit how the tables have turned!
Like an actuall way to play as a crab?
@@specterarchives5943 Simic hybrid but in that way you would only be part crab.
Yee
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED
"you have a whole book to memorize"
The other expansion book things: **sad sobbing in a corner**
Every time I'm hearing him talk about how shity they are I keep remembering that one campaign were I killed my entire party for trying to kill me over a succubus who I counter seduced. :)
Good times.
Also solo a adult red dragon by impaling it on a mountain peak.
"The sleep spell ruins your day."
Okay, but, here me out here... elf or half elf.
no magical sleep.
plus with the new tasha's rules, that +2 can go towards strength and make for a great barbarian.
I love barbarians. My dm has tried to sleep me a few times, and it doesn’t work. They might not have much flavor other than that they live in villages usually, but that makes them the perfect mold for anything along with fighter.
“npcs… for your party to get busy with” You’d better believe it bucko
Barbarians can wear Medium armor and still get the defensive benefits of the class.
Also Sleep literally counters every class, as a major point of the video it's mute since it applies to every class.
Reality is that Barbarians can be absolute units that wreck house and if you have a clever player at the helm they can be a nightmare to deal with.
With those hit dice, it affects every class BUT the barbarian.
And anyone playing an elf. That’s a good old “fuck you” to sleep spells
Admittedly this sounds like “magic users are so utterly overpowered that literally anything else is not acceptable for your group.”
I am genuinely interested to see what downsides Blaine can find for the Paladin class.
How about their spells being utterly powercrept by smites
In regard to not attacking, I was the bane of my DM's existence last session by grappling the big bad indefinitely till the DM got frightened the big bad could actually die on the 2nd session so he plane shifted. It was hilarious.
Yeah, people always underestimate the barbarian grapple game. If you attack him, you're playing into his strength, if you try to break the grapple, you waste your action and get pummeled by the rest of the party, and god help you if he's smart enough to follow up by shoving you prone.
I mean, the 'one good sleep can take you out' is kind of a moot point.
Because that's the case for most every class in the game.
If anything, because of the way sleep works Barbarians are one of the HARDEST classes to put to sleep, since they have so much HP to chew through first.
The fact he skipped the Artificer means you SHOULD play the Artificer.
Usually if I'm playing a barbarian we already have a good dps in the party. Such as a wizard. So I just put all of my points in the Constitution, then dexterity. And I normally end up being the most effective tank we have. Until we reach around like level 8 when the DM starts throwing enemies that deal magical damage on most basic attacks. But by then I already have a insanely massive helpful so I can still be quite an effective tank with a high AC. I also only run a shield
I like the Rem posters. You are truly a man of superior and refined tastes.
Funny video. I love how your criticism of Bear Totem Barbarian isn't, it's just an attack on the players that choose it because it's the most effective/busted Barbarian Subclass feature in the game, and didn't bring up that despite having a far smaller table than it's Wild Magic Sorcerer cousin, every single effect that a Wild Magic Barbarian can get is a boon in the Barbarian's flavor that can radically change how it can approach a combat scenario. Also love how you mention the sleep spell as an option to take a Barbarian out of rage, a spell that's prioritizes targets by ascending current hit points in an area of effect, when the Barbarian a) stacks Constitution to make the most out of its Unarmored Defense and b) has the biggest hit die in the game, making triple digit health pools fairly easy to achieve. Can't wait for you to get to Ranger or Monk, you'd be able to squeeze a fifteen minute essay out of either of those without having to grasp at straws (I say as a biased Monk main).
ah yes most busted when spells exist
ranger is completely fine as of tashas, also totem is kinda a trap option
@@frungggg honestly? I disagree, Tasha's alternative Ranger is functional enough as a sort of alternative half-caster martial with a nature theme, but I feel like it circumvents the fantasy of being a Ranger more than embraces it, there's little in the way of shining a light on a Ranger's resourcefulness, cunning, preparedness, etc. except maybe expertise in Survival or Sleight of Hand as a blanket for all "dope Ranger stuff" checks, which one could get with a Scout Rogue. The climb and swim speed _is_ nice, though, as is the plus 5 to walking speed.
@@CappuccinoSquid ranger clearly outperforms most other martials thanks to its subclasses and being a half caster.
rangers access to spells gives it plenty of utility itself
i agree that the base class still could be better however.
claiming that ranger is a weak class is in no way true.
@@frungggg not claiming it's weak, I'm saying it could be better realized in its fantasy, including streamlining some of its spells like Snare to be in pace with the rest of the game, for example. Its vanilla incarnation is also disjointed and awkward in general, just because Tasha's offers a viable alternative doesn't stop vanilla Ranger from existing and being legal, and to that end I feel it's useful to examine its shortcomings and inelegant solutions as to better refine them.
things barbarians can do that isn't damage
-'lmao what's encumbrance'
-be shockingly good at stealth with a monk and rogue
-remember that they also have a brain (this one is terrifying)
-travel with the ranger
-work an honest living.
-reflavor rage
-remember that they too can have a personality
-manipulate the environment to set up cover and such with their strength.
-combine their movement with another character by picking them up and running.
-pin people down
-give the party cover by existing
-be a zealot and have an abusive relationship with the cleric, who uses you as a test dummy due to ftee revive.
Barabarians get the same amount of Ability Score Improvements as all other Classes except two, Rogues get one more, and Fighters get two more
I actually tested that out. Fighters maybe get one more than everyone else, but I could have miscounted and it's actually the same.
@@christianemerson4622 All classes get an ASI at Levels 4, 8, 12, 16, and 19, for a total of five(5) ASIs
Rogues get an additional ASI at level 10, for a total of six(6) ASIs
Fighters get additional ASIs at Level 6 and Level 14, for a total of seven(7) ASIs
@@ShankMugen I'm going off of the fact that I physically counted between fighter and another class I wanted to use to determine which class I wanted to main for my character. I counted 5 for each, but could have been off by one for Fighter.
Firebstorm herald is op tho, because you gain the ability of infinite arson. At will, as an action, you can touch a flammable object and set it on fire.
All castles have wooden supports, trees are flammable, teiflings have fire resistance, most taverns are wooden, and mine supports are also wood.
And concrete is technically flammable. Unless you're in a dwarven stronghold, your d.m. has no reason to NOT have a flammable object nearby.
Like a door.
DnD is greatly enhanced by creativity, and instant no-fail-chance arson is O.P.
In the case of strength for attacking, what’s wrong with using a rapier or something and using a finesse as a barbarian? You don’t get the extra what, 3 rage damage but whatever, extra AC is a good trade off.
Encumbrance, certqin features, jumping all rely on str but theyre not too major. The main thing is if you build DEX you dont get to take advantage of the lvl 20 feature. Like everything in Barb points towards STR, same as Paladin. Dont have too but also get ready to lose some power for sure. At least Paladin you can still wear light and medium armor if ur not beefy enough for heavy.
@@videonaterAD But, if you stack Dex, you can Multi with Rogue and get always online Sneak Attack, cos Reckless turns it on.
My DM felt really bad about not reading the Zombie Beholder he just Thanos'ed my Paladin with and let me take an Elven, Dex-based, Greatsword since my new char is a Sea Elf Barbarian. Who needs Magic and Intelligence when you can speak to Fish?
@@videonaterAD Who plays to level 20 anyway, Dexbarian ftw
I'm imagining a dexbarian who hits level 20 and suddenly starts wielding a greatsword like a rapier.
@@GRSZiik You can't turn on sneak attack with reckless attack unless you build STR. Reckless attack only works with attacks using strength.
(What you can do is use STR to attack with a finesse weapon, since sneak attack just requires using a finesse weapon, doesn't require attacking with DEX).
Im a barbarian and you cant stop me. *Barbarian Power*
I quite like this idea for a series!
Bird totem:
Get so angry that not even gravity can hold onto you
Enemy Wizard : “Haha, I cast sleep on the barbarian”
Barbarian, which is an Elf: “Ok” *proceeds to rage*
Also,
Bland Simple: “Try anything else other than attacking and tell me how you do”
Meanwhile the fighter, the monk, the rogue, the sorcerer (casting fire bolt is attacking), the warlock, the paladin, the dragon, the wolf, the bandit, the zombies, the mummy’s, Tiamat, the goblins, and the war cleric: “WHAT ELSE ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO! ITS CALLED COMBAT!”
Hey bud I liked how you glossed over bear totem barbarian without really explaining it. I saw what you did there. LOL awesome video!
Personally I like runing a grappler/ Escort Barb. Yeah being a bruiser is nice, but killing half a dungeons enemies by yeeting them into their own traps is my cup of tea. Sure you can shut down rage by putting them to sleep, but you can always negate that by lighting yourself on fire, which keeps rage up, and negates sleep with constant damage. This is assuming you dont have any teammates who could also OHKO the wizard. IMO, martial classes in general kinda feel limited.
“Becaus raging makes you so angry that magic refuses to work.”
*Laughs in Bloodrager*
I think the best part about playing Barbarien is your massive health pool and restinaces. I used to be attacked by 8 different entitties at once for almost 10 turns and survived with 40 health from 80 ( without restistance, it would have probably been 0)
"Don't play barbarian"
Me running around as a thicc naked lady body checking goblins: *"NEVERRRRR!"*
That's why I loved playing the rune-scarred berserker from 3.5 edition.
Magic tattoos are fun!
Goblin: *exists*
Barbarian: *ANGORY NOISES*
0:35 "feeding you gumdrops and peppermint"
Jocat: *proceeds to insult everything and everyone in his Jocrap persona*
At least he’s given up on the crabocaust, no doubt because he realized that he’d have Blibdoolpoolp to answer to.
Blaine: **makes a video for each of the class**
Us: "So what you're telling me is... _don't play d&d...?"_
And the zealot barbarian "the truly unkillible plus you make the clerics job a Lot easier thanks to your warrior of the gods feature"
I like that Pathfinder has a Barbarian subclass that can be played like a Monk, with Wisdom to AC and a full dex build.
My Barbarian Strig, Fevello, instead of hitting the house sized leech, rolled 2 nat 20's on a disadvantage and manged to grab a cliff with one hand and the leech with the other, holding it up so it doesn't escape as the party needed to harvest it for things needed for a ritual. He also then immediately proceeded to zipline down the cliff with a rope while being pummelled with water from a waterfall.
Barbarians can do more than hit! We can LIFT. We can THROW. We can ALSO have polite conversations with priests in a nice church because bashful barbarians are cute.
Love your videos!
I have chosen flavor over efficiency for every character that wasn’t made for a Battle Royale or out of spite.
My home boy Gredorious Orn will remain my favorite character ever, because even if he was suboptimal, I haven’t been able to make a character half as fun to RP as he was.
RIP Gredorious Orn
Wizard: I cast sleep!
Barbarian: *laughs in native elvish tongue*
Look at my boy, he’s grown so much. I remember when you were at like 30k
The barbarian is what you use as the intellect devourer that wants to murder the entire party when camping
I'm glad to hear all the faults. Knowledge is the best way to homebrew the selutions
You've got me at "doesn't involve attacking something". I do technically have to make an attack as part of the 'Disarm' Action, and Grapple or Shove both are variants of your 'Attack' Action.
Ok but like you actually summarized a lot of my issues with barbarian.
I played a Yuan-Ti Beast Barbarian for a one shot. The idea was that when he raged, his mutation spread and made him even more snakelike. So his head would become a snake’s for the fangs, his arms would become super scaly for the claws, and he’d grow a barbed snake tail for the tail, and he’d essentially go from Pureblood to Malison during his rage. He was super fun to play.
When the barbarian wants a pet. Looks at owl bear. Your my pet now. Suplexs owlbear and drags it back into camp.
Barbarian: counterpoint
*punches wizard once*
Wizard: *freaking explodes*
I love this video. I am in an epic level short campaign where I basically made Stitch (Beast Barbarian/Sword Bard/Fathomless Warlock(Eldritch blast guns and the tentacle bonus action reflavored as summoning other experiments)) and honestly I've had more fun just going rage for the buffing allies and actually used my character's weight, snagged a griffon rider's reins and jumped off of it forcing it to start flying wildly to the point that the rider had to abandon it. Then once my character (his name is Suture) got injured enough and his allies were away from him and the griffon, he jumped off, glided down with his glide feature from Simic Hybrid and started taking pot shots at the enemies while running using Eldritch Blast guns. It was a blast.
The video reminded me of my first dnd character. They were a totem warrior barbarian that was deaf and had the inability speak properly. He hated conflict and was honestly just a big himbo. And because of lore reasons he had went into barbarian rage when ever he saw people getting hurt. I miss my big dummy
Dont play Barbarian: *Laughs in level 15 barbarian*
I am NOT the type to get offended.
Though 2:55 is THE single most COMMON Truth I have seen so far here!
The dropping the campaign “joke” hit real hard
My friend was a Barbarian named Ooga-Flooga, and he and his party were going to fight a boss rush in an ice tower. He broke it with his longsword, every enemy failed their saves except the final boss, an Ice Wizard who happened to be the tavern owner, and also was Blippiroth(Blippi+Sephiroth). He was floating down and he decided to shove his sword up the Wizard's ass. He rolled a 20. My campaign was absolutely wrecked.
I play barbarian like a gladiator, kicking dirt into people's eyes because why not. Now there blind and can't see the rogue who is about to put a sharp pointy foreign object in there spine.
I enjoy the simplicity of the barbarian and spice it up by describing my many finishing moves as the brutal point blank meat blender of wrath.
My dear 4 int barbarian spent most of a campaign unable to speak common, and spent 20 sessions without getting below half hp. A trade I was happy to make
I played a tabaxi berserker. That feline agility dash often meant I was in the thick of it immedkately, and usually against the biggest threat, namely spell casters.