Barbarian Guide - Classes in Dungeons and Dragons 5e

We cover everything you need to know to create your Barbarian. We’ll help you choose the ability scores, skills, feats, and other build options which will make sure your barbarian is ready to take on the world. We’ll also look at famous examples of barbarians from myths, movies, novels, and more to inspire your next character, and as well as roleplaying ideas to help develop your barbarian’s background and personality.

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[crystaltydemagic]

Violence is never the answer.
Its the question.
The answer is always YES

[johntyler]

I once played a barbarian who absolutely loved animals for their 'honesty'. Humans and such frustrated him with their deceptions, and he had a really hard time not losing his sh*t in 'civilized' environments. He was of fairly average intelligence and wisdom, and in his element, he often behaved very peacefully. He did not like lying of any type and came to distrust and even dislike most of his allies. People disappointed him, and he always felt the outsider. This fuelled his rage, but when calm, he often felt regret over the scale of his violence. He was a tortured soul and so much fun to roleplay. He admired and was often envious of Druids, who, back in the day, were always neutrally aligned. They seemed to have everything he desired, particularly their supernatural connection to nature. He sometimes dabbled in herbalism and natural medicines, and my DM even home-brewed me a Recipe Book of natural components. This gave me something to do when avoiding social situations, and he found some peace in this pursuit. His moment of glory came when he found himself the only one standing following a brutal battle with a well-organized and armed band of gnolls. He used his concoctions to revive the cleric, who managed to revive 2 more of their companions. With half the party dead, we decided as a group to wrap it up for those characters, and we did a mini-session of aftermaths to close it out. He 'retired' to the deep woods, still in search of the peace which had always eluded him.
The tone of the Hulk TV show was very inspirational to my portrayal of him, and I even had my buddy play the end theme of the show on his keyboard as I described poor Nalag wandering off to be alone.
Your mention of the Hulk in this video brought his whole story back to me. Thanks so much for that, and as ever, thanks for the great vids.

[SinerAthin]

Violence solves every problem.

If violence doesn't solve your problem, you're simply not using enough of it!

[salsashark]

I don't know why, but when he said barbarian with a sailor background, my brain went to Donald Duck. Now i want to make a Kenku barbarian that no one can understand when he gets mad.

[BasicBraining]

“Do you want us to arrest you, Wrex?”

“I want you to TRY.”

Urdnot Wrex from Mass Effect is one of the greatest Barbarians. Grunt’s ok too.

[BertyBadass]

I played DnD for the first time tonight, I played a Goliath Barbarian, I rolled a natural 20 to pick up a tree that an ogre just threw at the group. I threw it 45 feet, over my rogues head, and up a cliff face knocking the ogre over. On it's next turn it tried to rip a rock out of the cliff and throw it at me, the DM rolled a 1 and the rock fell on it's head knocking it out. I think I'm hooked

[jaspermooren]

Now I want to make a barbarian sage. Seems awesome to play. Big bare chest dude with a massive axe suddenly saying to the Wizard: "Well, actually according to The Principles of Magic by professor William Johnathon, this is a magic teleportation circle. It just looks different because it is according to the Armetian tradition of magic".

[skynyrdjesus]

I was really surprised that Achilles wasn't mentioned when talking about inspirations. He's the oldest recorded example of the archetype and his legend and myth set a lot of the tropes about barbarians. He was a massive, unstoppable force of destruction in battle that dammed a river with the corpses of his victims, and even though he was wounded and bled in the Illiad, the myth that his skin was invincible is still told today. The opening stanza of the Illiad even declares it to be a 'song about the rage of Achilles.' I can't think of a better example lol

[Lobomaru]

I think another really good example of a barbarian would be Kratos from God of War.

[OscarGomez-hgcb]

I had a barbarian in a game i DMed a while ago that is awesome enough that he still shows up as an npc in some other campaigns (with the player’s permission of course):
He rolled really well for his stats, so he was not smart or dumb, but he put his highest rolls into strength, constitution, and charisma. He rolled up a dragonborn totem warrior of the bear with folk hero as his background and proficiency in brewers tools. Afterwards, he used all of his asi’s to increase str, con, and cha, except for gettin tavern brawler at the first chance in order to use improvised weapons. Now that you have a mechanical understanding of this guy...
First of all, anytime the party made camp at somewhere there might possibly be bears nearby, he used the speak with animals ritual, and went out to find new friends. He befriended and recruited bears who would not fight him but followed him around and eventually pulled his mobile brewery (later a movile, and later a MOBILE INN, in the form of a caravan train), that he built with a couple of other players with virtually all of their shares of the treasure. In small towns he acted a lot like a regular barbarian, but in bigger cities he dressed up in fine clothes, acted as a playboy, and went looking for pretty girls... some he just seduced (a girl in every port... and bar, and trading post, etc.), some he convinced to invest in the inn, and a couple he actually recruited to go with them in the caravan, and help him out in his kitchen. He loved his friends, including cooking and brewing for them, but eventually, he sort of “soft retired” and never went on actual dungeons with them... instead they travelled together from town to town on the caravan, and he watched over their base when they went of on missions. Many were the fools that tried to rob the caravan once all the big, scary adventurers had ridden out to the orc camp, or the dragon’s lair.... and found out that the chef was a high level barbarian who was just as handy with dual hand axes as he was with knife and spatula... or could just as easily use those to murder them

[UgyBoogie]

Just watched this together with my girlfriend, she actually just had her first session as a Half-Orc Barbarian in our new campaign :) Really great timing!

[captainthorrek]

27:58 at first, I thought you meant "rock", instead of "Roc". I almost died with the fun role-playing opportunities that would give!

King: *points at belt pouch full of gravel* What creature did you slay to earn that trophy? *scoffs*

Barbarian: A far more worthy opponent than you could ever hope to be...

[stevie_ily]

I can't say he fits perfectly, but I think it adds to the "might makes right" of the barbarian king trend. Beowulf.

He was a renowned Geat warrior who always achieved victory with unstoppable brutality. He killed Grendel without any weapons, he killed Grendel's mother in a fit of rage when his sword failed to harm her, he returned to Geatland and became king, and in his old age killed a dragon at the cost of his own life.

[Troommate]

I Would Like TO RAGE!!! - Grog Strongjaw

[RoboBoddicker]

Boudica didn't fight Julius Caesar. Her uprising was during Nero's reign, about a century after Caesar died. But good Barbarian history otherwise :D

[TheDachshundGaming]

I also like to think that Tormund Giantsbane is a great example of a barbarian-esque character that handles out of combat interactions with simplicity that isn't necessarily comedic all the time. He views the world simply but isn't a moron. He judges people by their goodness and treats them accordingly. He recognizes when things are beyond his scope and defers to other characters but always does his best to play a part of be a helpful hand even when something was out of his league.

[RovingTroll]

I had a Barbarian named Brute, a half-orc meatshield who just wanted to kill big monsters. He wasnt stupid, since I rolled and 12 on int and wis respectively. He loved his party, and would only rage when his friends would get threatened. One party member was a gnome wizard, which he allowed to ride on his back in order to ensure his safety(facetank). He once told the druid, a rather squishy party member to "Stay behind me. Always." in order to protect them.

In town, Brute would always try to bring the party to the pub, and loved a good barfight, since locals tended to pick fights with the foreign half-orc that bought drinks for anyone who chatted with him. He was a happy-go-lucky kinda guy, who understood people just didn't like him, and chose to stay quiet, because he knew his charisma sucked shit(6 cha, what is that -2 mod) He was literally the moral compass of the group, always advising NOT killing the people in front of him, even being distressed when the party decided to murderhobo guards and inconvenient townspeople.

His Dex and Con were lower than your recommended score, but he still did good as a naked meatshield/

[NachoBran_CandyCabbage]

I remember one of my friends once told me about a funny dwarven barbarian that he played that took the old phrase 'dumb as a bag of hammers' too literally and had a literal bag of smith's hammers (light hammers) that he would throw at his enemies. I asked him what it looked like in game, and he told me "think of that one scene from dodgeball where they were dodging wrenches. Basically that."

[nathanieljernigan]

If your axe swing doesn't solve the problem, then just keep swinging. It'll sort itself out after a while.

[DungeonDudes]

We continue our class guides with the Barbarian, we'd love to hear your feedback on how they are going! We're aiming to finish them ALL by the end of the summer. The Druid is coming next week! Please let us know if you have questions about the Cleric, Bard, Monk, Paladin, and Warlock!

PS Apologies in advance for any butchered pronunciations of Cú Chulainn and other historical figures in this video!