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

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 which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
  • Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
  • Green: Good options. Useful often.
  • Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to 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 the article will be updated accordingly as time allows.

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 so with Disadvantage and do half damage. At that point, attacking anyone except you seems pointless. You do need to hit something for this to trigger, so you should absolutely use Reckless Attack to improve the likelihood that you hit as much as possible.
  • Spirit Shield: There is no limitation on how often you can use this except that it uses your Reaction. This is a massive increase to your party’s survivability, and even if this never scaled it would still be fantastic. The only problem is that you can’t use it on yourself, but fortunately you get damage resistance from Rage.
  • Consult the Spirits: Augury and Clairvoyance are two of my favorite divinations because they’re simple, but extremely useful. Use Augury any time you make a major decision with unknown risks. Use Clairvoyance to scout around corners, behind doors, etc. By this level actual spellcasters will be able to do this with ease, but you can use this ability once per short rest without spending spell slots, so doing it yourself may be less costly for the party.
  • Vengeful Ancestors: As a Reaction, reflect up to 4d6 damage directed at an ally back to the attacker. Amazing. You might encourage your allies to draw fire just so you can use this, especially when facing enemies with multiple low-damage attacks so that you can reliably reflect all or most of the damage from a single attack.

Path of the Battlerager (SCAG)

The Battlerager’s subclass 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.
  1. Battlerager Armor: A free attack as a bonus action is great. Don’t forget that your rage bonus to damage still applies. The ability to deal damage when you grapple is also nice if you like to grapple, but it’s only 3 damage, it doesn’t scale, and there’s no way for you to improve it further.

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

  2. Reckless Abandon: You’re likely going to use Reckless Attack every turn in combat, and the temporary hit points reset every 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 for any random kobold that’s getting Advantage to hit you thanks to Reckless Attack.
  3. Battlerager Charge: Functionally similar to the Charger feat. Unfortunately, since you want to use the same Bonus Action to attack with your armor it means that you give up damage output to get into position to attack.
  4. Spiked Retribution: Not a lot of damage at this level, but by now many enemies will have multiple attacks so it will add 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

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

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

    • Swim Speed: Situational, but the fact that you also get to breath water is really helpful. Take a nap and dream 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 that should happen).
    • Climb Speed: Climb speeds are the next best thing to fly speeds, and this is basically Spider Climb, which is the gold standard of climb speeds. Climb on the ceiling and hit people with your tail or throw javelins at them.
    • Jump: Jumping is very rarely useful, and situations which require jumping can typically be handled better by climbing 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 address falling, so if you leap 30 feet into the air you’re going to regret that decision unless you grab onto something before falling since 5e doesn’t negate falling damage just because you jumped.
  3. Infectious Fury: Tying the DC to your Constitution is great. Even if you started at 16 Constitution and haven’t gotten a chance to increase it, your DC will be decent. Using this a number of times per day equal to your Proficiency Bonus is enough that it can be tactically impactful, but it’s not something that you can afford to use every turn.
    • Forced Attack: Forcing enemies to attack their allies is great, but the benefits don’t stop there. Since this forces the target to use their Reaction, they can’t perform an Opportunity Attack and they can’t do annoying things like cast Counterspell so if your target’s melee attacks are pitiful you could force them to attack you for whatever measly damage they might do in order to prevent spellcasters from doing cast shenanigans.
    • Psychic Damage: 2d12 damage is enough to match a single attack from many creatures, but as you reach higher levels you’ll face many enemies which can do considerably more so you’ll get more out of the forced attack. However, the forced attack doesn’t help in single-enemy encounters, and even in multi-enemy encounters you won’t always have another enemy nearby which you can target with the forced the attack. The damage is psychic, and very few creatures are resistant or immune to psychic damage, so this is a safe, reliable damage boost, but remember that this has a daily usage limit so don’t burn through it too quickly. The damage is also from a separate source from your attack, so it’s not multiplied on a critical hit.
  4. Call of the Hunt: The benefits to you scale based on the number of creatures that accept the benefit. There is no downside to the effect, so assume that your party is going to accept. The maximum number of creatures is your Constitution Modifier, which can get up to +7 at level 20, so you need to somehow get 7 creatures to accept the effect. 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 on top of the damage resistances provided by Rage will make you incredibly durable, and the d6 bonus damage for your allies will be a nice boost to damage output for anyone who relies on attack rolls (fighters, monks, and warlocks are ideal).

    The wording on the damage bonus is strange, but the effect is actually really simple. Affected creatures deal +1d6 damage when they hit with an attack. It doesn’t specify a type, so they add bonus damage of the same type which their attack deals. If their attack deals multiple types, the attack can typically decide which type to add but the DM might choose to have it divide evenly between the multiple damage types. The weird wording of the damage bonus seems to mean that the d6 isn’t multiplied on a critical hit since they gain a bonus equal to a roll of the d6 rather than adding 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 Bonus each day, but by the time you get this your Proficiency Bonus and your number of rages per day match, so you don’t need to worry about tracking this unless you somehow gain additional rages per day.

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.
  1. Frenzy: When you absolutely, positively have to kill every living thing in a room, and don’t care about the cost. An extra attack as a bonus action gives you the action economy of two-weapon fighting with the damage output of a single two-handed weapon, effectively adding 50% to your damage output (100% until you get Extra Attack, but that only applies at levels 3 and 4 so 50% is a better explanation).

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

  2. Mindless Rage: This makes you immune to two ways to take you out of combat without wearing down your huge pile of hit points.
  3. Intimidating Presence: The effect only lasts until the end of your next turn unless you spend your Action to extend it. Fortunately, extending the duration doesn’t allow the creature to make additional saves so you can use this to keep enemies frightened while your allies 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 and continue to intimidate them unless they pass a save and become temporarily immune.

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

  4. Retaliation: More attacks are always fantastic, so get into melee and try to draw fire. Remember that this only works on enemies within 5 feet, so don’t bother trying to use a reach weapon, and it only works if they hit so be sure to run Reckless Attack at all times.

Path of the Giant (GotG)

Path of the Giant offers numerous tactical options which expand the Barbarian’s capabilities beyond dealing and enduring damage: larger size imrpoves your ability to block space on the battlefield, Elemental Cleaver allows you to bypass resistance to weapon damage without a magic weapon as well as providing the Barbarian’s first meaningful ranged damage option, and Mighty Impel allows you to control the battlefield by throwing both friends and foes to wherever you want them to be, potentially while dealing a great deal of falling damage.

Path of the Giant Barbarian Handbook

  1. Giant’s Power: You learn Giant and get a minor utility cantrip. It doesn’t hurt us but it’s hard to find much use for this. It’s a ribbon feature for fun and not much else.
  2. Giant’s Havoc: This is great and a large part of the reason you are this subclass.
    • Crushing Throw: In isolation, this is green because not every barbarian will throw things. When we later get Elemental Cleaver, of course, that feature is very much standing on the shoulders of giants thanks to Crushing Throw but if you were just dipping in for large size, this may or may not be used but it’s not a bad option to play with.
    • Giant Stature: Get angry and become large. Same shenanigans as Rune Knight apply, you can go from small to large and you can be enlarged to huge after raging. And read the text very carefully: The increase to reach has nothing to do with the size change.
  3. Elemental Cleaver: This feature does multiple things. First and foremost it changes your weapon’s damage to an element, then it adds an additional 1d6 damage on top of that. Then it gives any weapon you add the Thrown property, which builds very nicely off of Crushing Throw. And, finally, if you do throw the weapon, it immediately returns to your hand in time for the rest of your extra attacks. A lot of people will take this subclass so they can be large, but this here is the real power behind the Path of the Giant: the first barbarian that’s fully functional at range.
  4. Mighty Impel: If throwing weapons isn’t enough for you, with Mighty Impel you can also throw creatures. Reposition willing allies or just start juggling your foes. As a bonus action. The 30-foot range is easily enough to put enemies into dangerous locations like an ongoing spell effect or into positions where they can’t fight back, such as in a pit, out a window, or on a high ledge where their melee weapons can’t reach anyone. It’s only green because occasionally you won’t fight something small enough for you to just throw into the sky for free falling damage and prone.

    Remember that you can do this before attacking, so you might choose to use this and forgo Reckless Attack for the round.

  5. Demiurgic Colossus: Get larger (if you choose), have more reach (independent of size changing), and do more damage with your Elemental Cleaver.

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.

  1. Environment Choices: Your choice of environment defines the benefits of the subclass. You can only change your environment once every time you gain a level, so expect to be locked into your choice for several game sessions. Generally you’ll be happy with your choice for a long time, but you might consider changing if your party composition changes, or if you get a new subclass ability that makes another option more appealing.
    • Desert: Excellent for raw damage and for handling crowds of enemies.
    • Sea: The worst of the three options, though not necessarily bad. You definitely want this in an aquatic campaign, but you might get better results from other options if you don’t need to breath underwater.
    • Tundra: The best defensive option. Excellent if your party already does plenty of damage.
  2. Storm Aura: Damage enemies or grant temporary hit points to yourself and your allies. Only functions while raging, but it makes your rage super cool.
    • Desert: If you don’t have other melee allies, or if your party has trouble handling crowds of enemies, this is a good option. However, the damage is small and still consumes your Bonus Action, so if you need to use your Bonus Action for something else on a turn don’t feel like you’re giving up a whole bunch of damage.
    • Sea: Single-target damage, and the average damage isn’t much better than the damage from Desert but still allows a saving throw. If you have another melee ally who might get hurt when you activate Desert but you still want more damage output, this is fine.
    • Tundra: This can affect you and any number of allies in the 10-foot aura. Start every encounter within 10 feet of your allies and you’ll always go into combat with temporary hit points. The ability to renew them as a Bonus Action means that you can consistently pad your own hit points while you’re up front taking damage. On rounds where you’ve still got temporary hit points, you can use your Bonus Action for something else, but don’t take that as a good reason to consider two-weapon fighting or Polearm Master.
  3. Storm Soul:
    • Desert: Fire damage is one of the most common damage types.
    • Sea: Lightning damage isn’t especially common. This will generally only be useful in aquatic campaigns.
    • Tundra: Cold damage isn’t as common as fire, and the weak version of Shape Water isn’t especially useful.
  4. Shielding Storm: This requires your allies to stay within your aura, which in some cases might put them in the way of effects they’re trying to resist, like breath weapons or fireballs. Still, it’s an occasionally useful option.
  5. Raging Storm:
    • Desert: A little bit of free damage on your Reaction.
    • Sea: Not your Bonus Action, but your Reaction. You won’t be able to make opportunity attacks for the round, but the rest of your attacks will be at Advantage against the prone target, and you can still use your Bonus Action for the active effect of Storm Aura. Of course, you could already use Reckless Attack to get Advantage easily, and if you need a creature to be Prone you can use Shove and get Advantage on the Strength (Athletics) check from Rage.
    • Tundra: Keep an enemy from running away. If you use Shove to knock them prone, they can’t get back up because 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

  1. Spirit Seeker: Very situational.
  2. Totem Spirit: Totem Spirit defines your combat tactics. Bear is for Defenders, Eagle is for Strikers, and Wolf is for Barbarians with other Strikers in the party.
    • Bear: You are basically an unstoppable pile of damage resistance and hit points. This is the go-to option at this level.
    • Eagle: Running around between enemies isn’t something the Barbarian does on a regular basis, especially if you’re the party’s only Defender.
    • ElkSCAG: 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 the Optional Class Feature Instinctive Pounce.
    • TigerSCAG: Jumping almost never matters in a game where you can gain magical flight. This is especially frustrating because it only applies when you’re raging.
    • Wolf: This is extremely helpful for characters in your party who are heavily-dependent on attacks like rangers and rogues. Rogues can get Sneak Attack for attacking enemies threatened by an ally, so Advantage isn’t strictly required, but giving them Advantage makes them considerably more reliable and results in a huge increase in average damage output. Unfortunately it doesn’t do anything directly helpful for you, but acting as a force multiplier for your 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 I can tell this was an error and you don’t actually need to be friends with your allies for them to benefit.

  3. Aspect of the Beast: Remember that you don’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 the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide are considerably better.
    • Bear: Carrying capacity is usually ignored, and you can always buy a mule to carry your heavy stuff or you can play a race like the Goliath which gets the same benefit to carrying capacity. The advantage on Strength checks only affects objects, and breaking objects isn’t a frequent activity in most campaigns.
    • Eagle: Dim light imposes Disadvantage on Perception checks, so even if you have Darkvision you’re susceptible to ambushes if it’s dark. This solves that issue, so if you’re going to spend a lot of time fighting underground or at night (you know, like eagles do) this can be a significant advantage.
    • ElkSCAG: Overland travel generally happens in plot time, so in most campaigns this will have no perceivable effect. But if your table does track travel time, this is very good.
    • TigerSCAG: Barbarians have very limited capabilities outside of combat, so adding two additional skills can do a lot to make you more useful to the party. However, if you’re desperate for more skills you should first talk to your DM about the Optional Class Feature Primal Knowledge. You might 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.
  4. Spirit Walker: Commune With Nature isn’t very powerful as far as divinations go, but it can be very useful when exploring new terrain.
  5. Totemic Attunement: Totemic attunement is an improvement to your combat tactics established by Totem Spirit.
    • Bear: Force nearby enemies to attack you instead of your allies. They can still move away from you, but that draws an Opportunity Attack from a huge horrifying Barbarian.
    • Eagle: Fly over enemies. Fly into the air 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.
    • ElkSCAG: This is a cool trip mechanic which allows you to knock an enemy prone without cutting into your attacks. You need to use it on large or smaller enemies, which covers most enemies, but at high level you’ll frequently encounter very large foes which won’t be affected by this ability and it really sucks to face big dangerous foes and not be able to use your most unique tactic.
    • TigerSCAG: Basically the Charger feat but better. Not only can you still use Extra Attack, but you gain an additional attack as a Bonus Action.
    • Wolf: Knocking an enemy prone gives you Advantage on attacks against them, including your second attack with the Extra Attack feature. Allies threatening that enemy can already get Advantage from you if you selected Wolf for your Totem Spirit, and you can already get Advantage from Reckless Attack, so this may not be very useful.

Path of the Zealot (XGtE)

A great choice for players who tend to die a lot or for players who want a mechanically simple build, the Zealot makes surviving and recovering from death considerably easier while still doing decent damage. However, because many of its abilities are tied up in keeping you alive, it doesn’t have great offensive abilities beyond dealing damage.

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 fallacy“. The Zealot’s biggest strength is that they are really good at coming 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 in 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.

Path of the Zealot Barbarian Handbook

  1. Divine Fury: A whole bunch of bonus damage, and the damage type options are really good. You only get to use this once one each of your turns (you can’t use it outside of your own turn), so if you’re using Reckless Attack you likely don’t need to scramble for additional attack attempts to guarantee that you’ll deal this damage reliably.
  2. Warrior of the Gods: Generally dying is something that you work very hard to avoid, but if anyone’s going to die in combat it’s a barbarian. Spells which raise the dead have expensive material components, and this allows you to bypass them. So long as you’re friends with a sufficiently high-level cleric, you don’t need to worry about an untimely death. The lowest-level option is Revivify, but even at high levels Revivify is going to be a better option than spending a higher-level spell slot on something like Raise Dead. Encourage your party members to get Revivify as soon as possible, and do whatever you need to do in order to make them feel good about that choice. Consider buying them pizza or something.
  3. Fanatical Focus: Excellent for save-or-suck effects, and since it works once per rage you get to use it numerous times in a single day.
  4. Zealous Presence: Once per day, it doesn’t affect you, and it only lasts for one round, but granting allies Advantage on all attacks for a round is still strong. It gets more useful the larger your party is, so encourage your allies to summon creatures, use pets, etc. If they happen to also need to make saves, we can consider that a bonus as the main purpose of this ability is the Advantage on attack rolls.
  5. Rage beyond Death: Drink a Potion of Healing right before your rage ends and you’re functionally unable to die due to hit points loss while raging. You can’t go below 0 hit points, so as long as you get above 0 (again, Potion of Healing) before your rage ends you’re fine, so once you hit 0 hit points you no longer need to care about taking damage. There are effects like Disintegrate and Power Word Kill which become 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.

Path of Wild Magic Barbarian Handbook

  1. Magic Awareness: Basically Detect Magic in a circle. Ideally you’ll have a spellcaster in the party who can handle this since you’re not really suited to do anything about whatever you find out, but it can be a load off of spellcasters who learn spells permanently if they’re the only casters in your party.
  2. Wild Surge: Path of Wild Magic’s Wild Magic table is universally beneficial. What you roll on the table may require you to reconsider your tactics, but with some quick thinking you can turn any of the effects into a major advantage. Keep in mind that many of the activated effects use your Bonus Action, so avoid character options that use your Bonus Action such as two-weapon fighting.
  3. Bolstering Magic: Adding a d3 to attack rolls sounds underwhelming, but it’s still an average of +2 to all of your attacks, it lasts 10 minutes, and it doesn’t require Concentration like effects like Bless. Combined with Reckless Attack, you can make it all but certain that your attacks will hit, even if you’re taking the penalty from Great Weapon Master.

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

  4. Unstable Backlash: Using this as your Reaction when you take damage or fail a save means that you can likely use this every round (especially if you intentionally cause damage to yourself). If your current Wild Magic effect doesn’t appeal to you, go looking for a better option.
  5. Controlled Surge: While none of the effects on Path of Wild Magic’s Wild Magic table are negative, the ability to choose between two effects (or any of them if you’re lucky) means that you can pick whichever option suits your current needs best. This also works with Unstable Backlash, so you can repeatedly choose to reroll your result until you finally get one that you’re happy with.

3rd-Party Publishers

RPGBOT has covered some 3rd-party content from our favorite creators. This content is published under the Open Gaming License, under Creative Commons, or through DMsGuild, and is not considered official content. As such, it is not available in Adventurer’s League organized play, and your group may not allow it in your game. If your group wants to explore 3rd-party content, we hope that these articles will help you make them work for you.