DnD 5e – Barbarian Subclass Breakdown (2024)

Last Updated: May 26, 2022

Introduction – Primal Path

Barbarian subclasses make a significant difference in how your barbarian works. Sure, every barbarian is going to get angry and hit stuff, but there’s much more to it than that and your choice of Primal Path will do a lot to define your barbarian.

Table of Contents

• Introduction – Primal Path
• Disclaimer
• Barbarian Subclasses

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.

• Red: Bad, useless options, or options whichare extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
• Orange: OK options, or useful optionsthat only apply in rare circ*mstances. Useful sometimes.
• Green: Good options. Useful often.
• Blue: Fantastic options, often essentialto the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

We will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, in handbooks for official content because we can’t assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. We also won’t cover Unearthed Arcana content because it’s not finalized, and we can’t guarantee that it will be available to you in your games.

The advice offered below is based on the current State of the Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated. Keep in mind that the state of the meta periodically changes as new source materials are released and this article will be updating accordingly as time allows.

RPGBOTis unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Barbarian Subclasses

Path of the Ancestral Guardian^XGtE

This archetype deemphasizes the Barbarian’s role as a Striker, but dramatically improves their capability as a Defender. If you have frail allies (and almost every party includes a few), they’ll benefit greatly from this archetype, especially if they’re also in melee where they’re likely to draw attacks from time to times. The only drawback is that the archetype provides no abilities which increase your damage output, which makes it important to have another Striker in the party to compensate.

The Ancestral Guardian’s biggest problems are that it doesn’t provide additional damage output except Vengeful Ancestors (which may be totally fine if your party already does plenty of damage) and doesn’t make you any more durable than the core barbarian class features already do. This is very much a subclass dedicated to protecting your allies at your own expense. Be sure to keep your AC and your hit point maximum as high as possible, and expect to lean heavily on healing resources (hit dice, etc.).

Path of the Ancestral Guardian also notably doesn’t have an ability to consume your Bonus Action once you have started Rage, which makes this archetype a viable choice for two-weapon fighting if you’re desperate for a TWF barbarian, but you might also look at other options like Great Weapon Master, Shield Master, etc. But if you find that tracking Ancestral Protectors and Spirit Shield is already enough complexity, don’t stress about not using your Bonus Action.

Path of the Ancestral Guardian Barbarian Handbook

• Ancestral Protectors: This is an amazing“taunt” mechanic. Sure, the target can attack other people, but they do sowith Disadvantage and do half damage. At that point, attacking anyone exceptyou seems pointless. You do need to hit something for this to trigger, soyou should absolutely use Reckless Attack to improve the likelihood that youhit as much as possible.
• Spirit Shield: There is no limitation onhow often you can use this except that it uses your Reaction. This is amassive increase to your party’s survivability, and even if thisnever scaled it would still be fantastic. The only problem is that you can’tuse it on yourself, but fortunately you get damage resistance from Rage.
• Consult the Spirits: Augury andClairvoyance are two of my favorite divinations because they’re simple, butextremely useful. Use Augury any time you make a major decision with unknownrisks. Use Clairvoyance to scout around corners, behind doors, etc. By thislevel actual spellcasters will be able to do this with ease, but you can usethis ability once per short rest without spending spell slots, so doing ityourself may be less costly for the party.
• Vengeful Ancestors: As a Reaction, reflectup to 4d6 damage directed at an ally back to the attacker. Amazing. Youmight encourage your allies to draw fire just so you can use this,especially when facing enemies with multiple low-damage attacks so that youcan reliably reflect all or most of the damage from a single attack.

Path of the Battlerager^SCAG

The Battlerager’s features center around the use of Spiked Armor. If you can’t get spiked armor for whatever reason, or if your armor is taken from you somehow (rust monsters, etc.), your Primal Path suddenly becomes worthless. Even if you can get spiked armor, your AC is fixed at 16 (unless you get magic spiked armor or use a shield) and even with d12 hit dice that’s still a huge problem. The class features give you some nice damage options but the features aren’t as useful or as exciting as other subclasses and since you’re stuck in Spiked Armor you don’t get to enjoy Unarmored Defense or half-plate like other barbarians. The racial restriction is also frustrating, but the dependency on Constitution means that a Dwarf would be a good choice anyway.

Perhaps the best way to build a battlerager is a mountain dwarf with a shield and a one-handed weapon. Use the Grapple+Shove combo to force foes prone, then eliminate one target at a time before moving on to the next. A level in fighter or the Fighting Initiate feat to get Fighting Style (Unarmed Fighting) may be a helpful improvement to this tactic, and encourages you to grapple multiple foes simultaneously, which is important since your primary role in the party is still to keep enemies away from your frail allies.

As a whole, the subclass is interesting but by barbarian standards it’s very vulnerable, especially if you’re not raging. If your DM is going to let you get magic Spiked Armor or if you have allies who can buff you with things like Shield of Faith, that will make a huge difference. Either way, strongly consider feats like Durable and Tough to make yourself more survivable.

Some minor numerical adjustments would do a lot to improve the Battlerager. If you want to play a battlerager, try some or all of these changes:

• Change Battlerage Armor’s grapple damage to apply whenever you succeed on a check to Grapple a creature and also whenever a creature successfully grapples you. Change the damage from 3 to damage equal to your Strength modifier.
• Increase the AC of Spiked Armor from 14 to 15. Consider adding this as improvement as a feature at level 10.

3. Battlerager Armor: A free attack as abonus action is great. Don’t forget that your rage bonus to damage stillapplies. The ability to deal damage when you grapple is also nice if youlike to grapple, but it’s only 3 damage, it doesn’t scale, and there’s noway for you to improve it further.

   However, spike armor’s stats are bad and the 16 AC will be a constantproblem for you, especially with Reckless Attack. Using the Bonus Actionattack can be hard, too, because many barbarian class features areactivated as a Bonus Action, including Rage.

6. Reckless Abandon: You’re likely going touse Reckless Attack every turn in combat, and the temporary hit points resetevery time you do so, dramatically improving your ability to endure damage.This will be crucial since your 16 AC is going to make you a huge target forany random kobold that’s getting Advantage to hit you thanks to RecklessAttack.
10. Battlerager Charge: Functionally similarto the Charger feat. Unfortunately, since you want to use the same BonusAction to attack with your armor it means that you give up damage output toget into position to attack.
14. Spiked Retribution: Not a lot of damageat this level, but by now many enemies will have multiple attacks so it willadd up over quickly.

Path of the Beast^TCoE

Path of the Beast is a perfect balance of durability and damage output, allowing the Barbarian to serve as a front-line Defender without falling into the “Tank Fallacy” which plagues many other barbarian subclasses. Like the Path of the Totem Warrior, the Path of the Beast includes several decision points to customize your build, but unlike totem barbarians the Path of the Beast can change these choices either every time they rage or every time they rest, allowing the Barbarian to rapidly adapt to situations rather than just gritting their teeth and raging through whatever comes their way.

Path of the Beast Barbarian

3. Form of the Beast: Every time you rage,you get to choose which of the three options to use. They are all good, butthey’re all good for different things at different times, so knowing whichone to use in any given situation is important.
   • Bite: Bite is technically the leastimportant of the three available options, but if anyone is going to hangout at less than half hit points it’s the Barbarian. You can use thiswhile both of your hands are full, which makes it easy to use with ashield. Still, if you’re not guaranteed to benefit from the healing inyour current fight, go for a different option. Remember that the healingonly works once on each of your turns, so if you want to switch to aweapon for your second attack (once you get Extra Attack), that may be agood idea if you have a cool magic weapon to use.
   • Claws: Your go-to option for damageoutput. The wording here is easy to miss, so let me spell it out: If youtake the Attack action and attack with the claws once, you get anadditional attack with the claws as part of the same action. You don’tneed to spend your Bonus Action to do it, so you can get the extraattack in the same turn that you rage. You can make all of your clawattacks with one hand, so there is no reason to forgo a shield.
   • Tail: Longsword damage, reach, andboost your AC as a Reaction. The AC bonus averages to 4.5, which isenough to negate a lot of attacks. Unfortunately attackers need to bewithin 10 ft. so you won’t be able to block ranged attacks typically.Like the other options you can use this with a shield.
6. Bestial Soul: If you’re going to rely onnatural weapons, you need them to count as magical or you’re going to have alot of trouble dealing damage.

   This level also lets you take on some animal traits that allow you tofunction in some unusual scenarios which typically require magic. Thesebenefits notably work outside of your rage, so you don’t need to get angryto breath water or climb on the ceiling.

   • Swim Speed: Situational, but thefact that you also get to breath water is really helpful. Take a nap anddream about weresharks, and you’ll wake up with gills and webbed toes(it doesn’t actually say that in the rules, but it feels like thatshould happen).
   • Climb Speed: Climb speeds are the nextbest thing to fly speeds, and this is basically Spider Climb, which isthe gold standard of climb speeds. Climb on the ceiling and hit peoplewith your tail or throw javelins at them.
   • Jump: Jumping is very rarely useful,and situations which require jumping can typically be handled better byclimbing or flying. Still, of all the jumping-related abilities in 5e,this one is among the best. It works both vertically and horizontally,so you can jump incredibly high. However, it notably doesn’t addressfalling, so if you leap 30 feet into the air you’re going to regret thatdecision unless you grab onto something before falling since 5e doesn’tnegate falling damage just because you jumped.
10. Infectious Fury: Tying the DC to yourConstitution is great. Even if you started at 16 Constitution and haven’tgotten a chance to increase it, your DC will be decent. Using this a numberof times per day equal to your Proficiency Bonus is enough that it can betactically impactful, but it’s not something that you can afford to useevery turn.
    • Forced Attack: Forcing enemies toattack their allies is great, but the benefits don’t stop there. Sincethis forces the target to use their Reaction, they can’t perform anOpportunity Attack and they can’t do annoying things like castCounterspell so if your target’s melee attacks are pitiful you couldforce them to attack you for whatever measly damage they might do inorder to prevent spellcasters from doing cast shenanigans.
    • Psychic Damage: 2d12 damage is enoughto match a single attack from many creatures, but as you reach higherlevels you’ll face many enemies which can do considerably more so you’llget more out of the forced attack. However, the forced attack doesn’thelp in single-enemy encounters, and even in multi-enemy encounters youwon’t always have another enemy nearby which you can target with theforced the attack. The damage is psychic, and very few creatures areresistant or immune to psychic damage, so this is a safe, reliabledamage boost, but remember that this has a daily usage limit so don’tburn through it too quickly. The damage is also from a separate sourcefrom your attack, so it’s not multiplied on a critical hit.
14. Call of the Hunt: The benefits to youscale based on the number of creatures that accept the benefit. There is nodownside to the effect, so assume that your party is going to accept. Themaximum number of creatures is your Constitution Modifier, which can get upto +7 at level 20, so you need to somehow get 7 creatures to accept theeffect. A typical party of 4 can’t do that unless you add familiars, pets,summons, or a bag full of angry rats. The pile of temporary hit points ontop of the damage resistances provided by Rage will make you incrediblydurable, and the d6 bonus damage for your allies will be a nice boost todamage output for anyone who relies on attack rolls (fighters, monks, andwarlocks are ideal).

    The wording on the damage bonus is strange, but the effect is actuallyreally simple. Affected creatures deal +1d6 damage when they hit with anattack. It doesn’t specify a type, so they add bonus damage of the sametype which their attack deals. If their attack deals multiple types, theattack can typically decide which type to add but the DM might choose tohave it divide evenly between the multiple damage types. The weird wordingof the damage bonus seems to mean that the d6 isn’t multiplied on acritical hit since they gain a bonus equal to a roll of the d6 rather thanadding 1d6 as “extra damage” like Hunter’s Mark or Divine Smite do.

    You can only use this a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonuseach day, but by the time you get this your Proficiency Bonus and yournumber of rages per day match, so you don’t need to worry about trackingthis unless you somehow gain additional rages per day.

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Path of the Berserker^PHB

The Berserker is a the iconic Barbarian. If you want to get mad and wreck people’s faces, the Berserker is a fine choice. However, its signature ability Frenzy has a complicated interaction with the Exhaustion rules which makes the subclass a difficult choice.

Fun fact: “Berserker” translates to “Bear Shirt”, but the Berserker has nothing to do with bears.

The biggest problem with the Berserker is Exhaustion. Frenzy is great, but it’s simply too costly. You can manage one level of Exhaustion without much trouble, especially since Rage grants Advantage on Strength checks which will mostly offset the effects of one level of Exhaustion. Two levels of Exhaustion makes it hard to function in combat. Fast Movement’s speed increase helps, but having a speed of 20 feet (less for some races like dwarves) makes it difficult to get around in melee, and being unable to close the distance to get into melee means that you’re borderline useless. 3 levels of exhaustion is basically a death sentence in combat.

On top of that, the only free way to resolve Exhaustion is to take a long rest, which means that using Frenzy can take several days to recover from if you use it repeatedly, so while wizards are getting back all of their spell slots overnight you need to spend several days resting to get back to your full capacity. You could use Greater Restoration at a cost of 100gp per use, but that’s a hard cost to pay repeatedly, not to mention the spell slot cost that your allies need to pay to cast it.

Fortunately, fixing Path of the Berserker is pretty simple. Literally the only thing that needs to change is the usage limitations on Frenzy. By changing the cost to use it, the Berserker immediately becomes both playable and exciting. Consider one of the following changes to Frenzy as a solution:

• Using Frenzy costs an additional Rage, so instead of spending 1 daily Rage usage the player can spend a total of 2 to also activate Frenzy. This makes Frenzy an occasional buff which yields rewards now but strains the player’s limited resources.
• Allow the Berserker to recover from one level of Exhaustion whenever they take a Short Rest. This deters the Berserker from using Frenzy in every encounter, but also curiously makes them immune to the need for food and water. Wizards of the Coast didn’t seem to mind that weird rules hiccup when they introduced Deft Explorer (Tireless) for the Ranger, so there’s some precedent in the official rules.
• Limit Frenzy to once per Short Rest. Nice an simple. This keeps Frenzy as an occasional buff rather than a constant improvement to Rage, but it’s accessible often enough that players won’t stress over using it.
• Remove the usage limitation entirely. Yes, Frenzy is a 50% damage boost for the Barbarian, but it’s still just an additional weapon attack. Many other barbarian subclasses have similar damage boosts (Zealot’s Divine Fury, Storm Herald’s Storm Aura, Battlerager’s spiked armor attack), and have no limitations beyond the Bonus Action to activate them.
• Add a Constitution saving throw at the end of a Frenzy with a DC of 10 + the number of rounds. On a failure, the Berserker suffers one level of Exhaustion. This adds a risk-reward mechanic to each Frenzy, and it encourages the Berserker to end fights quickly or potentially end their Rage early. However, as the Barbarian’s save bonus increases the risk diminishes, so at low levels Frenzy may be very risky, while at high levels it may be little risk at all.

3. Frenzy: When you absolutely, positivelyhave to kill every living thing in a room, and don’t care about the cost. Anextra attack as a bonus action gives you the action economy of two-weaponfighting with the damage output of a single two-handed weapon, effectivelyadding 50% to your damage output (100% until you get Extra Attack, but thatonly applies at levels 3 and 4 so 50% is a better explanation).

   However, Exhaustion can debilitate you for days at a time. Use thissparingly, and be sure to note what penalties you get for each level ofexhaustion (PHB pg. 291). Recovering from multiple levels of Exhaustionwill take several days, which makes this hard to use more than once in aday. And, as great as Frenzy’s benefitys are, Frenzy is nowhere near goodenough for its cost.

6. Mindless Rage: This makes you immune totwo ways to take you out of combat without wearing down your huge pile ofhit points.
10. Intimidating Presence: The effect onlylasts until the end of your next turn unless you spend your Action to extendit. Fortunately, extending the duration doesn’t allow the creature to makeadditional saves so you can use this to keep enemies frightened while yourallies kill them. Creatures can break the effect by moving far enough away,but that doesn’t make them immune so you’re free to chase them down andcontinue to intimidate them unless they pass a save and become temporarilyimmune.

    The big problem here is the Action cost to use it. Unles your partyoutnumbers your foes, spending your Action every turn is simple too costlybecause you’re essentially trading your entire turn for their entireturn.

14. Retaliation: More attacks are alwaysfantastic, so get into melee and try to draw fire. Remember that this onlyworks on enemies within 5 feet, so don’t bother trying to use a reachweapon, and it only works if they hit so be sure to run Reckless Attack atall times.

Path of the Storm Herald^XGtE

A reasonably easy subclass to play despite leaning heavily on the Bonus Action, Path of the Storm Herald is a great option for new players but still complex and interesting enough for veterans. It has a single decision point which you can change every time you gain a barbarian level, which is great for players who might have trouble deciding, and all three options are reasonably good.

The ability to change your Environment means that you can adapt your abilities to suit the needs of your party. However, you can only make this change once per level, and if your choice of Environment is problematic in an encounter you may be unable to make use of your subclass abilities. Storm Herald is also much more heavily dependant on your Bonus Action than most barbarian subclasses, so avoid two-weapon fighting and feats like Great Weapon Master and Polearm Master.

3. Environment Choices: Your choice of environment definesthe benefits of the subclass. You can only change your environment onceevery time you gain a level, so expect to be locked into your choice forseveral game sessions. Generally you’ll be happy with your choice for a longtime, but you might consider changing if your party composition changes, orif you get a new subclass ability that makes another option more appealing.
   • Desert: Excellent for raw damage andfor handling crowds of enemies.
   • Sea: The worst of the three options,though not necessarily bad. You definitely want this in an aquaticcampaign, but you might get better results from other options if youdon’t need to breath underwater.
   • Tundra: The best defensive option.Excellent if your party already does plenty of damage.
3. Storm Aura: Damage enemies or granttemporary hit points to yourself and your allies. Only functions whileraging, but it makes your rage super cool.
   • Desert: If you don’t have other meleeallies, or if your party has trouble handling crowds of enemies, this isa good option. However, the damage is small and still consumes yourBonus Action, so if you need to use your Bonus Action for something elseon a turn don’t feel like you’re giving up a whole bunch of damage.
   • Sea: Single-target damage, and theaverage damage isn’t much better than the damage from Desert but stillallows a saving throw. If you have another melee ally who might get hurtwhen you activate Desert but you still want more damage output, this isfine.
   • Tundra: This can affect you and anynumber of allies in the 10-foot aura. Start every encounter within 10feet of your allies and you’ll always go into combat with temporary hitpoints. The ability to renew them as a Bonus Action means that you canconsistently pad your own hit points while you’re up front takingdamage. On rounds where you’ve still got temporary hit points, you canuse your Bonus Action for something else, but don’t take that as a goodreason to consider two-weapon fighting or Polearm Master.
6. Storm Soul:
   • Desert: Fire damage is one of the mostcommon damage types.
   • Sea: Lightning damage isn’tespecially common. This will generally only be useful in aquaticcampaigns.
   • Tundra: Cold damage isn’t as commonas fire, and the weak version of Shape Water isn’t especiallyuseful.
10. Shielding Storm: This requires yourallies to stay within your aura, which in some cases might put them in theway of effects they’re trying to resist, like breath weapons or fireballs.Still, it’s an occasionally useful option.
14. Raging Storm:
    • Desert: A little bit of free damageon your Reaction.
    • Sea: Not your Bonus Action, but yourReaction. You won’t be able to make opportunity attacks for the round,but the rest of your attacks will be at Advantage against the pronetarget, and you can still use your Bonus Action for the active effect ofStorm Aura. Of course, you could already use Reckless Attack to getAdvantage easily, and if you need a creature to be Prone you can useShove and get Advantage on the Strength (Athletics) check from Rage.
    • Tundra: Keep an enemy from runningaway. If you use Shove to knock them prone, they can’t get back upbecause they don’t have enough speed.

Path of the Totem Warrior^PHB

Totem Warrior is more customizable than any other barbarian subclass, but it’s also complex to build because it has so many decision points, and your decisions can’t be changed once made.

While these are by no means the only viable ways to build the Totem Warrior, here are some go-to options for totem combinations:

• Bear, Any, Bear: Probably the most iconic version of the Totem Warrior Barbarian, this build makes you resistant to nearly all damage while raging, and Totemic Attunement (Bear) makes it hard for your enemies to attack anyone except you while you’re in melee with them, so as long as you can keep enemies adjacent to you you’ll do fine as a Defender. Unfortunately, until you get Totemic Attunement you may run into issues with the “Tank Falacy” since you don’t get any features to force enemies to focus their attacks on you. Consider grappling.
• Eagle, Any, Tiger: Built on hit-and-run tactics, you can easily move between targets at reduced risk, and once you get Totemic Attunement (Tiger) you’re encouraged to dart in and out of reach in order to get additional attacks. However, you may still need to be cautious about provoking Opportunity Attacks because Reckless Attack will offset the Disadvantage imposed by Totem Spirit (Eagle).
• Wolf, Any, Bear: More focused on supporting your allies than on dealing damage yourself, this is a great option if you have a large party which includes other allies who fight in melee.

Path of the Totem Warrior Barbarian Handbook

3. Spirit Seeker: Very situational.
3. Totem Spirit: Totem Spirit defines yourcombat tactics. Bear is for Defenders, Eagle is for Strikers, and Wolf isfor Barbarians with other Strikers in the party.
   • Bear: You are basically an unstoppablepile of damage resistance and hit points. This is the go-to option atthis level.
   • Eagle: Running around betweenenemies isn’t something the Barbarian does on a regular basis,especially if you’re the party’s only Defender.
   • Elk^SCAG: Barbarians already get Fast Movement, so your speed should be fine.If you really feel like you need this, talk to your DM about using theOptional Class Feature Instinctive Pounce.
   • Tiger^SCAG: Jumping almost never matters in a game where you can gain magicalflight. This is especially frustrating because it only applies whenyou’re raging.
   • Wolf: This is extremely helpful forcharacters in your party who are heavily-dependent on attacks likerangers and rogues. Rogues can get Sneak Attack for attacking enemiesthreatened by an ally, so Advantage isn’t strictly required, but givingthem Advantage makes them considerably more reliable and results in ahuge increase in average damage output. Unfortunately it doesn’t doanything directly helpful for you, but acting as a force multiplier foryour party may be more impactful, especially in a large party.

     The text of the feature specifies that it applies to your “friends”rather than your “allies”, which is a weird inconsistency. As far as Ican tell this was an error and you don’t actually need to be friendswith your allies for them to benefit.

6. Aspect of the Beast: Remember that youdon’t need to select the same animal which you selected for Totem Spirit.The PHB options are mostly for flavor, but the options introduced in theSword Coast Adventurer’s Guide are considerably better.
   • Bear: Carrying capacity is usuallyignored, and you can always buy a mule to carry your heavy stuff or youcan play a race like the Goliath which gets the same benefit to carryingcapacity. The advantage on Strength checks only affects objects, andbreaking objects isn’t a frequent activity in most campaigns.
   • Eagle: Dim light imposes Disadvantageon Perception checks, so even if you have Darkvision you’re susceptibleto ambushes if it’s dark. This solves that issue, so if you’re going tospend a lot of time fighting underground or at night (you know, likeeagles do) this can be a significant advantage.
   • Elk^SCAG: Overland travel generally happens in plot time, so in most campaignsthis will have no perceivable effect. But if your table does track travel time,this is very good.
   • Tiger^SCAG: Barbarians have very limited capabilities outside of combat, soadding two additional skills can do a lot to make you more useful to theparty. However, if you’re desperate for more skills you should firsttalk to your DM about the Optional Class Feature Primal Knowledge. Youmight even combine the two if you really want lots of skills.
   • Wolf: Only applies to you, and even then the benefits are both extremely situational and can be better handled by Elk. Doubling your travel pace with Elk, then halving it to move stealthily is the same thing as not halving your speed to move stealthily.
10. Spirit Walker: Commune With Nature isn’tvery powerful as far as divinations go, but it can be very useful whenexploring new terrain.
14. Totemic Attunement: Totemic attunement isan improvement to your combat tactics established by Totem Spirit.
    • Bear: Force nearby enemies to attackyou instead of your allies. They can still move away from you, but thatdraws an Opportunity Attack from a huge horrifying Barbarian.
    • Eagle: Fly over enemies. Fly into theair to hit a flying wizard, then land on something until your next turn.This might even look like Wushu fighting if you do it right.
    • Elk^SCAG: This is a cool trip mechanic which allows you to knock an enemy pronewithout cutting into your attacks. You need to use it on large orsmaller enemies, which covers most enemies, but at high level you’llfrequently encounter very large foes which won’t be affected by thisability and it really sucks to face big dangerous foes and not be ableto use your most unique tactic.
    • Tiger^SCAG: Basically the Charger feat but better. Not only can you still useExtra Attack, but you gain an additional attack as a Bonus Action.
    • Wolf: Knocking an enemy prone givesyou Advantage on attacks against them, including your second attack withthe Extra Attack feature. Allies threatening that enemy can already getAdvantage from you if you selected Wolf for your Totem Spirit, and youcan already get Advantage from Reckless Attack, so this may not be veryuseful.

Path of the Zealot^XGtE

A great choice for players who tend to die a lot, the Zealot makes surviving and recovering from death considerably easier. However, because many of its abilities are tied up in keeping you alive, it doesn’t have great offensive abilities.

A lot of people contact me about this one to contest my thoughts on the matter, so let me elaborate on why I haven’t given Path of the Zealot a better rating: In essence, the Zealot falls into a weird form the “tank falacy”. The Zealot’s biggest strength is that they are really good at combing back from death, which is a great thing for a front-line martial character.

Unfortunately, that makes them an unappealing target for enemy attacks. Why should a monster spend its time hitting your barbarian with a mountain of hit points, frustrating damage resistances, and the ability to reroll a saving throw (Fanatical Focus) when they could simply walk past you to go kill your allies who are doing considerably more damage than you are? If enemies are ever foolish enough to attack you, you can be raised at no cost and have a good laugh about it later (provided that your party has access to magic options to do so, which isn’t a guarantee), but none of that actually makes you more of a threat it a fight than a barbarian with no subclass at all. Divine Fury does offer a damage boost, but at best that just motivates creatures to stay away from you and focus on your allies.

3. Divine Fury: A whole bunch of bonusdamage, and the damage type options are really good. You only get to usethis once one each of your turns (you can’t use it outside of your ownturn), so if you’re using Reckless Attack you likely don’t need to scramblefor additional attack attempts to guarantee that you’ll deal this damagereliably.
3. Warrior of the Gods: Generally dying issomething that you work very hard to avoid, but if anyone’s going to die incombat it’s a barbarian. Spells which raise the dead have expensive materialcomponents, and this allows you to bypass them. So long as you’re friendswith a sufficiently high-level cleric, you don’t need to worry about anuntimely death. The lowest-level option is Revivify, but even at high levelsRevivify is going to be a better option than spending a higher-level spellslot on something like Raise Dead. Encourage your party members to getRevivify as soon as possible, and do whatever you need to do in order tomake them feel good about that choice. Consider buying them pizza orsomething.
6. Fanatical Focus: Excellent forsave-or-suck effects, and since it works once per rage you get to use itnumerous times in a single day.
10. Zealous Presence: Once per day, itdoesn’t affect you, and it only lasts for one round. It gets more useful thelarger your party is, so encourage your allies to summon creatures, usepets, etc., but unless you can guarantee that everyone will be making asaving throw in the next round this might be completely useless.
14. Rage beyond Death: Drink a Potion ofHealing right before your rage ends and you’re functionally unable to diedue to hit points loss while raging. You can’t go below 0 hit points, so aslong as you get above 0 (again, Potion of Healing) before your rage endsyou’re fine, so once you hit 0 hit points you no longer need to care abouttaking damage. There are effects like Disintegrate and Power Word Kill whichbecome very scary, but otherwise you’re fine.

Path of Wild Magic^TCoE

Much like the Wild Magic Sorcerer, the Path of Wild Magic Barbarian is a choice for players who enjoy some chaos and unpredictability in their game. Expect to roll on the Wild Magic table with increasing frequency as you gain levels, eventually getting to the point where you may roll every turn.

It’s important to note that Path of Wild Magic comes with its own Wild Magic table. Many of the original Wild Magic table’s effects were specific to the Sorcerer. Perhaps more important, all of the effects are beneficial, even if they’re unpredictable. Many of them provide ongoing benefits which last for the duration of your Rage, and many of those benefits are absolutely spectacular.

3. Magic Awareness: Basically Detect Magicin a circle. Ideally you’ll have a spellcaster in the party who can handlethis since you’re not really suited to do anything about whatever youlearn.
3. Wild Surge: Path of Wild Magic’s WildMagic table is universally beneficial. What you roll on the table mayrequire you to reconsider your tactics, but with some quick thinking you canturn any of the effects into a major advantange. Keep in mind that many ofthe activated effects use your Bonus Action, so avoid character options thatuse your Bonus Action such as two-weapon fighting.
6. Bolstering Magic: Adding a d3 to attackrolls sounds underwhelming, but it’s still an average of +2 to all of yourattacks, it lasts 10 minutes, and it doesn’t require Concentration likeeffects like Bless. Combined with Reckless Attack, you can make it all butcertain that your attacks will hit, even if you’re taking the penalty fromGreat Weapon Master.

   The option to restore spell slots is neat for allies who don’t rely onattacks, but the impact of another low-level spell slot will diminish asyou gain levels (though Warlocks will never complain), while +1d3 toattacks will literally always be helpful.

10. Unstable Backlash: Using this as yourReaction when you take damage or fail a save means that you can likely usethis every round. If your current Wild Magic effect doesn’t appeal to you,go looking for a better option.
14. Controlled Surge: While none of theeffects on Path of Wild Magic’s Wild Magic table are negative, the abilityto choose between two effects (or any of them if you’re lucky) means thatyou can pick whichever options suits your current needs best. This alsoworks with Unstable Backlash, so you can repeatedly choose to reroll yourresult until you finally get one that you’re happy with.