Barbarian Subclass Tier Rankings in Dungeons & Dragons 5e

greetings my name is monty martin and i'm kelly mclaughlin and we are the dungeon dudes welcome to our channel where we cover everything dungeons and dragons including advice for players and guides for dungeon masters we upload new videos on tuesdays and thursdays so please subscribe to our channel so that you never miss an episode today we are taking a look at the sub classes for the barbarian in dungeons and dragons 5th edition we're going to go through all the subclasses that have been published for the 5th edition rules and rank them from the s tier to the bottom tier talking about the reasons why we've ranked them this way so that you can help decide which is going to be the perfect one for your next character now up on the screen you're going to see the criteria we had for deciding the ranking of these subclasses we are leaving role playing out of this as we believe that any subclass can be role played really well so it's not an appropriate metric instead we're going to be looking at their features and abilities and how they augment the base class and of course well combat is one of the metrics which we are using to assess the subclasses that's particularly true of the barbarian as a combat driven class in general we are also looking at how the subclass offers new features for both social interaction exploration puzzle solving and all elements of the game as a whole although we are not necessarily um using multi-classing as a primary requisite for how strong the subclass is we want to look at the powers and abilities of the subclass all the way from first level all the way to 20th level to really assess which overall is the strongest and which ones you might want to reconsider taking you can check out the video right up over here for all the criteria we use for ranking these subclasses and as well we've also pulled the community to see what their opinions are so we will be comparing our opinions to the opinions of the community there's a lot to discuss today so let's get rolling first up we've got the ancestral guardian introduced in xanathar's guide to everything for me i give the ancestral guardian an a i think that this is a real really unique subclass that excels within its specific niche of being the front line protector the ancestral protectors and spirit shield abilities granted by the subclass are really unique in dungeons and dragons 5th edition there's really no other class in dnd 5e that has such a strong fourth edition style marking the target mechanic when you attack a target as an ancestral guardian barbarian that target now if it doesn't attack you is gonna have disadvantage on its attacks and deal half damage to whoever else in your party it attacks and you'll be you'll be able to use your reaction to further reduce this damage as a front line protector i think the ancestral guardian simply excels for the ancestral guardian i actually gave it a b tier rating and although i don't disagree with anything that you stated i do think that it is a little bit more niche in its implementation than some of the other options which are stronger i do really like the ancestral guardian i think that it does have a lot to offer if placed in the right campaign setting another really interesting thing that i came up with while reading through the ancestral guardian is if you were to use this in more of a focus on throw in weapons or any sort of ranged attacks you can actually make really interesting use of its abilities for battlefield control if you can huck a hand axe at an enemy who is already in close combat with a different character and now you're using your abilities to make it so that if they attack somebody other than you they have disadvantage this is a really interesting way to implement these ideas so i think although it's a very strong option there are other options that might be stronger also the best features of this class come in the first few levels of playing it if you actually are pulling an ancestral guardian all the way to the higher tier play you might find that some of the higher end abilities don't actually deliver that well on what you want your barbarian to be able to do on the community side our polling showed that 49 agree with me it's an eight-year subclass with 30 giving it the b that's fair i do think that i actually had a hard time deciding if it was going to be a tier or b tier the main reason is as you'll see later on uh there are ones that i chose as a tier that i think are just stronger options yeah a few people did give it the s tier as well and a few ranking it even lower than that but i think very solidly we can say that this is an a b tier type subclass and played well i think it will totally excel next up we have the battle rager which was introduced in the sword coast adventures guide and does have a little caveat that is only available for dwarf players now dms do have the option of raising this restriction which might immediately make it a better option in my opinion i did rank the battle rager as a c tier subclass the reason mostly being that first of all it is only limited to dwarves if you are playing it by the rules as written and next off it is a good option for dealing damage but it is not the best option for dealing damage and i do think that there are several other subclasses that the barbarian presents that are better at doing a lot of what this subclass has to offer using a bonus action to cause damage with your spiky armor can be really really fun and there are some cool ways that this does amplify the barbarian class but at the end of the day there are more options to choose from that i just think deliver on these concepts better i agree with your ranking kelly this is a solid c because it competes with feats and other options available quite widely to barbarians i think what's attractive about the battle rager is the ability to gain temporary hit points on your reckless attacks and be able to make attacks with your spiked armor as a bonus action unfortunately it's a pretty feeble amount of temporary hit points and the spike damage is not that impressive either there are much more effective ways to weaponize your bonus action as a barbarian namely taking polar master and then you can go to town with your two-handed halberd or glaive and apply great weapon master which i think most barbarians are going to be wanting to do anyways so if you have a specific thing in mind yeah you can throw your armor spikes at them it's just not that impressive in terms of the the overall damage output our community poll puts this at 39 for a c tier ranking which was the largest of the percentages there is about 27 in either a b or d tier ranking which i think does really make this land very safely as a sea tier the next one is from the player's handbook and that is the berserker barbarian perhaps one of the most iconic and strangely popular subclasses chosen for the barbarian because a lot of people are really really excited by the frenzy ability which like the battle rager's ability to let you attack as a bonus action frenzy lets you upgrade your rage so that when you attack on your turn you could also make an additional attack with your bonus action unfortunately once you go into a frenzy when your rage ends you gain one level of exhaustion which is a really really staggering drawback to have to have for this reason i personally give this a d i think that the exhaustion drawback is paralyzing unless you are playing in a campaign where you only ever have one combat encounter between your long rests one level of his of exhaustion isn't too bad it's just disadvantage on ability checks but two levels of exhaustion is gonna have your speed and three levels of exhaustion is going to give you disadvantage on attack rolls at which point you are using rage and reckless attack to compensate for the weaknesses that you've piled on your character so yeah one or two combat encounters worth of frenzy sounds pretty good but again you could just take polar master get your bonus extra action attack and not have to worry about this drawback at all i completely agree with your ranking this is a d class tier the exhaustion even at one level of exhaustion is already hampering the things that you want your barbarian to be good at and that's really the thing that we're looking for here is does the subclass improve upon what the class already offers at the end of the day adding exhaustion to the barbarian rage which is what all barbarians are here to do is really taking away from what this class is supposed to offer i have had many barbarian players at my table and they always love going into a rage for the multiple combat encounters that i run at a given game i have my barbarians blow through most of their rages in a game session and if you can imagine them ending up with three or four levels of exhaustion at the end of every game session this doesn't make it fun to play a barbarian so i'm putting this at a heavy d-tier ranking of course going into frenzy is optional but if you're not using your frenzy ability it's like you didn't get a core ability of your subclass at all mindless rage is pretty cool being immune to charm and fear is pretty sweet and also the retaliatory strike that you get 14th level is a pretty neat ability and a nice extra way to use your reaction but once again if you're going to take polar master as a barbarian you've already got a really cool way to attack with your reaction so i think that this whole subclass is kind of overwritten by taking polar master i think that you could get a better option here by choosing a different subclass and taking some awesome feats that would really give you all of the things that you like about this subclass anyway so looking at the community's response either we're wrong or everyone disagrees over the subclass because 24 percent of people gave the berserker an a 31 gave it a b 22 gave it a c and only 16 gave it a d so maybe we're just totally wrong and this ability is awesome and everybody's only playing in campaigns where you have one or two combat encounters before you take a rest and it's never a drawback i'm actually surprised i 100 thought that the community would agree with us on this and that this was well known as a bad subclass but maybe not maybe it's a favorite for some people and i think a lot of new players do gravitate towards the berserker but interesting results we literally have had a player character die of exhaustion from playing a berserker and going through too many combat encounters and raging and frenzying too much that they just outright die so there's that now granted the scenario did include elements that added at levels of exhaustion but they ended up with five levels of exhaustion and then that six months come in and they died next up we have the storm herald which was introduced in xanathar's guide to everything and adds a little bit of elemental to your barbarian which is is kind of a cool concept but i did give this one a c tier ranking although it is fun in context and when you read through it there are a lot of things that sound really awesome compared to the other subclasses it just doesn't add up to me if you're playing it in a campaign where playing a storm herald sounds like it fits the theme and you will be able to implement these abilities in the right way then yes it could be kind of neat but overall it just takes away from a lot of what the other subclasses actually add to the class as a whole this one just kind of feels stagnant to me i gave the storm herald a solid b the storm aura class feature of the storm herald is an ability first of all that you can change and shuffle around that your choice of abilities whenever you level up and i like that kind of flexibility because it lets you pick the one that works for your strategies your party and your campaign not only that the ability happens when you start your rage so it doesn't take away anything from anything else that you want to do it's just extra gravy poured on the amazing goodness that is the barbarians rage so if you want to combine this with polar master great weapon master with your choice of weapons and tactics and anything else it's just gonna make your rage a little bit better it's not jaw-droppingly awesome in the way that it improves the rage but i like it i think it's solid i do agree that this does add some nice gravy to the class that already exists but it is store-bought packet gravy and it isn't going to be the delicious homemade gravy that you can make using the other subclass options it is better than one or two of the other options presented but i still think that given the strength of some of the other ones that this one just fell further on the list for me but i do think that bc is a great place to put this subclass looking at our community poll 48 of respondents gave this one a b as well with the remaining respondents pretty much equally divided amongst giving it a's or c's so i think that that solidly places it in the b tier with the potential for it to be a little bit higher maybe in the right circumstances which is exactly where the b tier is remember when we give something the b tier that means that it is a subclass that has potential in the right campaign if it would have potential in the right campaign that's the b metric it's all campaigns that get you up in the higher there and i do think that this is one of those subclasses where you're kind of losing out on the opportunity cost of the better options you know i am moderately persuaded and at the end of the day i believe that having store packet gravy is still better than having no gravy at all which the berserker gives me no gravy so maybe the gravy is a b tear brace yourself because the true raging spirit is here in the form of the totem warrior which unequivocably is one of the best if not the best barbarian subclass and i very solidly give this one an s tier the bevy of options that you can choose as your animal totems from the third level bare totem granting you resistance to all damage which isn't psychic damage right away as long as you're raging to the higher level eagle totems which lets your barbarian fly the flexibility and raw power of the options presented by the totem warrior make it solidly the best pick in almost all cases for a barbarian i agree with your ranking it this is definitely the s tier option for barbarians and in my opinion it just doubles down on everything you want the barbarian to be i have literally seen a bear totem barbarian on a castle wall confronting an army of giants who decided this is taking too long jumped off the wall and charged them and came out on top and i just can't find a way to kill a bear totem barbarian they are unreal in their resilience and the other options if you aren't going for the bear totem give you the versatility to really play around with what you want your barbarian to be there is nothing in this subclass that takes away or is not exciting for the barbarian class as a whole if you don't like the bear totem you could take the amazing wolf totem instead which means that your allies have advantage on melee attacks they make against any hostile enemy that's within five feet of you as well which is the easiest way to generate advantage on melee attacks in the entire game but it even gives you some cool out of combat abilities and be able to cast commune with nature too so it's one of the few barbarian subclasses that actually gives you something that isn't just hitting things even harder not to mention you later on get the ability to fly as an option so what's scarier than a barbarian a flying barbarian i i can't imagine anything better for a subclass for a barbarian all of the sixth level features are all utility based and the 14th level ones are as well and you don't care because the third level ones are so good in battle that this subclass can just keep on that extra delicious gravy with your mashed potatoes it is incredibly difficult to not want to take the totem warrior as your subclass option for the barbarian the community response to this was an avalanche with 68 of respondents giving it the s tier and the remaining 26.7 giving it the a tier so yeah everybody agrees with us you all know it's the best we don't really have to argue about that all of the awesomeness of the totem warrior aside i personally think the zealot barbarian is also worthy of the s tier for many of the same reasons but also for a few different ones one of the things that the totem warrior does not give you is more damage but you do get that from the zealot which basically gives you an extra divine smite on the first attack that you land every turn while you're raging if you want a way to rack up the extra damage that just is layering and layering on top of whatever the barbarian is doing anyways the zealot gives you that and i think it's a really easy choice to make if you don't care about the defensive features or the bolstering features of the totem warrior the zealot might be your ticket i agree with everything you said but i actually gave it an a to your ranking and the reason for that is that i still think that the totem warrior delivers on better versatility and options than the zealot does however i love the flavor of the zealot i love the improved damage output adding some divine energy into your attacks is outstanding and for that reason a tier which for us means that it is a great choice in any campaign i just think that when i compare it to the totem warrior the totem warrior gives me better options and better versatility so it is the only one that i wanted to give an s tier to the zealot is such a strong choice and falls just short of the s tier for me and i think that it is easily the second best option of subclass and if you're excited about it by all means pick that over the totem warrior but i still think that's a hard choice to make i've seen more barbarians bite the dust in my dnd campaign than characters of any other class and the fact that you can get raised and resurrected at no cost is actually a pretty relevant benefit for a barbarian rage beyond death is incredible as well as a high level feature and i love that this is one of the only barbarian subclasses that has a real battle cry that inspires all your allies again you're right it doesn't really do anything else aside from getting back into battle and surviving battle and getting resurrected when you die in battle inevitably whereas the totem warrior actually gives you some extra sauce but i think if you really like your extra strong spicy gravy and you're very particular about your flavor options this the zealot is your ticket so i think the community response really captures our mixed feelings about the zealot because 32 percent of respondents gave it an s tier which is the second highest for s tiers amongst the barbarian subclasses and 43 gave it the a um with a good 18 actually only giving it a b which surprises me to be honest um so i think that that really solidly puts it in that borderline between the tiers and i think that if you are going for the all out damage dealing i think that that's what propels it into the s tier but the versatility and the diversity of the totem warrior means it pulls out slightly ahead within the tier so up on screen here you're going to see our final rankings for the subclasses of the barbarian these are our opinions and some of them do disagree with some of the community opinions but it is up to you to decide what you love about these subclasses and what really makes them speak to you we just hope that this guide has been useful for you to maybe make some decisions on which subclasses are going to be the best and most beneficial for the class as a whole overall the barbarian is a very very strong class with a strong focus on melee combat and its raw strength so we have to measure all the subclasses based on do the subclasses augment the rage ability and make the barbarian a more survivable and better frontline melee combatant the totem warrior and the zealot absolutely do this whereas the battle rager and the berserker have too many middling features and drawbacks to really propel them in comparison to the other ones and as a final note again if you have a great character concept in mind with beautiful role-playing ideas any of these subclasses can be an outstanding option for you we're strictly talking about the mechanics and that is something to look at and you have to decide for yourself if one is more important than the other at the end of the day these are just our opinions and our rankings and our community polling not super scientific no hard and fast metrics so don't let these get in the way of playing the character that you have in mind or make you feel bad about the choices that you've made for your character so this has been a look at the various types of gravy i mean so this has been a look at our rankings of the barbarian subclasses in dungeons and dragons 5th edition if you agreed or disagreed with us let us know in the comments below the videos that we create on our channel are made possible thanks to the amazing generosity of our patreon supporters and we thank them deeply if you enjoy the work that we do here on youtube please consider supporting us by following the links in the description below or by visiting patreon.com dungeon underscore dudes don't forget to check out our live plays in the worlds of drakenheim which airs tuesday nights at 6 pm eastern at twitch.tv slash dungeon underscored dudes you can find all the previous episodes of those shows right up over here and we've got plenty more class guides and rankings to the various classes in dungeons and dragons 5th edition right up over here please subscribe to our channel so that you never miss an episode thank you so much for watching and we'll see you next time in the dungeon

Channel: Dungeon Dudes

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Keywords: dungeons, dragons, tabletop, gaming, roleplaying, games, accessories, rules, rule, gameplay, play, game, rpg, d20, player, character, D&D, 5e, DM, PC, tips, advice, guide, guides, review, dice, books, book

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Length: 23min 42sec (1422 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 28 2020