Barbarian

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Overview & Creation

When creating a barbarian character, think about where your character comes from and his or her place in the world. Talk with your DM about an appropriate origin for your barbarian. Did you come from a distant land, making you a stranger in the area of the campaign? Or is the campaign set in a rough-and-tumble frontier where barbarians are common?   What led you to take up the adventuring life? Were you lured to settled lands by the promise of riches? Did you join forces with soldiers of those lands to face a shared threat? Did monsters or an invading horde drive you out of your homeland, making you a rootless refugee? Perhaps you were a prisoner of war, brought in chains to “civilized” lands and only now able to win your freedom. Or you might have been cast out from your people because of a crime you committed, a taboo you violated, or a coup that removed you from a position of authority.

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Class Features

Rage

In battle, you fight with primal ferocity. On your turn, you can enter a rage as a bonus action.   While raging, you gain the following benefits if you aren’t wearing heavy armor:   • You have advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws.   • When you make a melee weapon attack using Strength, you gain a bonus to the damage roll that increases as you gain levels as a barbarian, as shown in the Rage Damage column of the Barbarian table.   • You have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.   If you are able to cast spells, you can’t cast them or concentrate on them while raging.   Your rage lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if you are knocked unconscious or if your turn ends and you haven’t attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then. You can also end your rage on your turn as a bonus action.   Once you have raged the number of times shown for your barbarian level in the Rages column of the Barbarian table, you must finish a long rest before you can rage again.  

Unarmored Defense

While you are not wearing any armor, your Armor Class equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Constitution modifier. You can use a shield and still gain this benefit.  

Reckless Attack

Starting at 2nd level, you can throw aside all concern for defense to attack with fierce desperation. When you make your first attack on your turn, you can decide to attack recklessly. Doing so gives you advantage on melee weapon attack rolls using Strength during this turn, but attack rolls against you have advantage until your next turn.  

Danger Sense

At 2nd level, you gain an uncanny sense of when things nearby aren’t as they should be, giving you an edge when you dodge away from danger.   You have advantage on Dexterity saving throws against effects that you can see, such as traps and spells. To gain this benefit, you can’t be blinded, deafened, or incapacitated.  

Primal Path

At 3rd level, you choose a path that shapes the nature of your rage. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th, 10th, and 14th levels.  

Extra Attack

Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.  

Fast Movement

Starting at 5th level, your speed increases by 10 feet while you aren’t wearing heavy armor.  

Feral Instinct

By 7th level, your instincts are so honed that you have advantage on initiative rolls.   Additionally, if you are surprised at the beginning of combat and aren’t incapacitated, you can act normally on your first turn, but only if you enter your rage before doing anything else on that turn.  

Brutal Critical

Beginning at 9th level, you can roll one additional weapon damage die when determining the extra damage for a critical hit with a melee attack.   This increases to two additional dice at 13th level and three additional dice at 17th level.  

Relentless Rage

Starting at 11th level, your rage can keep you fighting despite grievous wounds. If you drop to 0 hit points while you’re raging and don’t die outright, you can make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw. If you succeed, you drop to 1 hit point instead.   Each time you use this feature after the first, the DC increases by 5. When you finish a short or long rest, the DC resets to 10.  

Brutal Critical

At 13th level, you can roll two additional weapon damage dice when determining the extra damage for a critical hit with a melee attack.   This increases to three additional dice at 17th level.  

Persistent Rage

Beginning at 15th level, your rage is so fierce that it ends early only if you fall unconscious or if you choose to end it.  

Brutal Critical

At 17th level, you can roll three additional weapon damage dice when determining the extra damage for a critical hit with a melee attack.  

Indomitable Might

Beginning at 18th level, if your total for a Strength check is less than your Strength score, you can use that score in place of the total.  

Primal Champion

At 20th level, you embody the power of the wilds. Your Strength and Constitution scores increase by 4. Your maximum for those scores is now 24.
 

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Starting Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• two handaxes OR any simple weapon
• a greataxe OR any martial melee weapon
• An explorer’s pack and four javelins

 

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Subclass Options

Path of the Ancestral Guardian

Some barbarians hail from cultures that revere their ancestors. These tribes teach that the warriors of the past linger in the world as mighty spirits, who can guide and protect the living. When a barbarian who follows this path rages, the barbarian contacts the spirit world and calls on these guardian spirits for aid.   Barbarians who draw on their ancestral guardians can better fight to protect their tribes and their allies. In order to cement ties to their ancestral guardians, barbarians who follow this path cover themselves in elaborate tattoos that celebrate their ancestors’ deeds. These tattoos tell sagas of victories against terrible monsters and other fearsome rivals.  

Ancestral Protectors

Starting when you choose this path at 3rd level, spectral warriors appear when you enter your rage. While you’re raging, the first creature you hit with an attack on your turn becomes the target of the warriors, which hinder its attacks. Until the start of your next turn, that target has disadvantage on any attack roll that isn't against you, and when the target hits a creature other than you with an attack, that creature has resistance to the damage of the target’s attacks.  

Spirit Shield

Beginning at 6th level, the guardian spirits that aid you can provide supernatural protection to those you defend. If you are raging and a creature you can see within 30 feet of you takes damage, you can use your reaction to reduce that damage by 2d6.   When you reach certain levels in this class, you can reduce the damage by more: by 3d6 at 10th level and by 4d6 at 14th level.  

Consult the Spirits

At 10th level, you gain the ability to consult with your ancestral spirits. When you do so, you cast the Augury or Clairvoyance spell, without using a spell slot or material components. Rather than creating a spherical sensor, this use of Clairvoyance invisibly summons one of your ancestral spirits to the chosen location. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these spells.   After you cast either spell in this way, you can’t use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest.  

Vengeful Ancestors

At 14th level, your ancestral spirits grow powerful enough to retaliate. When you use your Spirit Shield to reduce the damage of an attack, the attacker takes an amount of force damage that your Spirit Shield prevents.  

Path of the Totem Warrior

The Path of the Totem Warrior is a spiritual journey, as the barbarian accepts a spirit animal as guide, protector, and inspiration. In battle, your totem spirit fills you with supernatural might, adding magical fuel to your barbarian rage.   Most barbarian tribes consider a totem animal to be kin to a particular clan. In such cases, it is unusual for an individual to have more than one totem animal spirit, though exceptions exist.  

Spirit Seeker

Yours is a path that seeks attunement with the natural world, giving you a kinship with beasts. At 3rd level when you adopt this path, you gain the ability to cast the Beast Sense and Speak with Animals spells, but only as rituals.  

Totem Spirit

At 3rd level, when you adopt this path, you choose a totem spirit and gain its feature. You must make or acquire a physical totem object – an amulet or similar adornment – that incorporates fur or feathers, claws, teeth, or bones of the totem animal. At your option, you also gain minor physical attributes that are reminiscent of your totem spirit. For example, if you have a bear totem spirit, you might be unusually hairy and thick-skinned, or if your totem is the eagle, your eyes turn bright yellow.   Your totem animal might be an animal related to those listed here but more appropriate to your homeland. For example, you could choose a hawk or vulture in place of an eagle.   Bear. While raging, you have resistance to all damage except psychic damage. The spirit of the bear makes you tough enough to stand up to any punishment.   Eagle. While you're raging and aren't wearing heavy armor, other creatures have disadvantage on opportunity attack rolls against you, and you can use the Dash action as a bonus action on your turn. The spirit of the eagle makes you into a predator who can weave through the fray with ease.   Elk. While you're raging and aren't wearing heavy armor, your walking speed increases by 15 feet. The spirit of the elk makes you extraordinarily swift.   Tiger. While raging, after taking attack action you can make additional attack as a bonus action using your fists. You deal 1d4 + Strength modifier damage. The spirit of the tiger empowers your ferocity.   Wolf. While you're raging, your friends have advantage on melee attack rolls against any creature within 5 feet of you that is hostile to you. The spirit of the wolf makes you a leader of hunters.  

Aspect of the Beast

At 6th level, you gain a magical benefit based on the totem animal of your choice. You can choose the same animal you selected previously or a different one.   Bear. You gain the might of a bear. Your carrying capacity (including maximum load and maximum lift) is doubled, and you have advantage on Strength checks made to push, pull, lift, or break objects.   Eagle. You gain the eyesight of an eagle. You can see up to 1 mile away with no difficulty, able to discern even fine details as though looking at something no more than 100 feet away from you. Additionally, dim light doesn't impose disadvantage on your Wisdom (Perception) checks.   Elk. Whether mounted or on foot, your travel pace is doubled, as is the travel pace of up to ten companions while they're within 60 feet of you and you're not incapacitated. The elk spirit helps you roam far and fast.   Tiger. You gain proficiency in two skills from the following list: Athletics, Acrobatics, Stealth, and Survival. The cat spirit hones your survival instincts.   Wolf. You gain the hunting sensibilities of a wolf. You can track other creatures while traveling at a fast pace, and you can move stealthily while traveling at a normal pace.  

Spirit Walker

At 10th level, you can cast the Commune with Nature spell, but only as a ritual. When you do so, a spiritual version of one of the animals you chose for Totem Spirit or Aspect of the Beast appears to you to convey the information you seek.  

Totemic Attunement

At 14th level, you gain a magical benefit based on a totem animal of your choice. You can choose the same animal you selected previously or a different one.   Bear. While you're raging, any creature within 5 feet of you that's hostile to you has disadvantage on attack rolls against targets other than you or another character with this feature. An enemy is immune to this effect if it can't see or hear you or if it can't be frightened.   Eagle. While raging, you have a flying speed equal to your current walking speed. This benefit works only in short bursts; you fall if you end your turn in the air and nothing else is holding you aloft.   Elk. While raging, you can use a bonus action during your move to pass through the space of a Large or smaller creature. That creature must succeed on a Strength saving throw (DC 8 + your Strength bonus + your proficiency bonus) or be knocked prone and take bludgeoning damage equal to 1d12 + your Strength modifier.   Tiger. While you're raging, if you move at least 20 feet in a straight line toward a Large or smaller target right before making a melee weapon attack against it, you can use a bonus action to make an additional melee weapon attack against it.   Wolf. While you're raging, you can use a bonus action on your turn to knock a Large or smaller creature prone when you hit it with melee weapon attack.  

Path of the Zealot

Some deities inspire their followers to pitch themselves into a ferocious battle fury. These barbarians are zealots – warriors who channel their rage into powerful displays of divine power.   A variety of gods across the worlds of D&D inspire their followers to embrace this path. Tempus from the Forgotten Realms and Hextor and Erythnul of Greyhawk are all prime examples. In general, the gods who inspire zealots are deities of combat, destruction, and violence. Not all are evil, but few are good.  

Divine Fury

Starting when you choose this path at 3rd level, you can channel divine fury into your weapon strikes. While you're raging, the first creature you hit on each of your turns with a weapon attack takes extra damage equal to 1d6 + half your Barbarian level. The extra damage is necrotic or radiant; you choose the type of damage when you gain this feature.  

Warrior of the Gods

At 3rd level, your soul is marked for endless battle. If a spell, such as Raise Dead, has the sole effect of restoring you to life (but not undeath), the caster doesn't need material components to cast the spell on you.  

Fanatical Focus

Starting at 6th level, the divine power that fuels your rage can protect you. If you fail a saving throw while raging, you can reroll it, and you must use the new roll. You can use this ability only once per rage.  

Zealous Presence

At 10th level, you learn to channel divine power to inspire zealotry in others. As a bonus action, you unleash a battle cry infused with divine energy. Up to ten other creatures of your choice within 60 feet of you that can hear you gain advantage on attack rolls and saving throws until the start of your next turn.   Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.  

Rage Beyond Death

Beginning at 14th level, the divine power that fuels your rage allows you to shrug off fatal blows.   While you're raging, having 0 hit points doesn’t knock you unconscious. You still must make death saving throws, and you suffer the normal effects of taking damage while at 0 hit points. However, if you would die due to failing death saving throws, you don’t die until your rage ends, and you die then only if you still have 0 hit points.  

Path of the Juggernaut

Juggernaut barbarians are siege engines in their own right, able to stand their ground and move their foes into positions of weakness. While raging, they make any battlefield their domain, shoving foes over mountainsides and destroying even the strongest structures with their attacks.  

Thunderous Blows

Starting when you choose this path at 3rd level, your rage instills you with the strength to batter around your foes, making any battlefield your domain. Once per turn while raging, when you damage a creature with a melee attack, you can force the target to make a Strength saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier). On a failure, you push the target 5 feet away from you, and you can choose to immediately move 5 feet into the target’s previous position.  

Stance of the Mountain

You harness your fury to anchor your feet to the earth, shrugging off the blows of those who wish to topple you. Upon choosing this path at 3rd level, you cannot be knocked prone while raging unless you become unconscious.  

Demolishing Might

Beginning at 6th level, you can muster destructive force with your assault, shaking the core of even the strongest structures. All of your melee attacks gain the siege property (your attacks deal double damage to objects and structures). Your melee attacks against creatures of the construct type deal an additional 1d8 weapon damage.  

Overwhelming Cleave

Upon reaching 10th level, you wade into armies of foes, great swings of your weapon striking any who threaten you. When you make a weapon attack while raging, you can make another attack as a bonus action with the same weapon against a different creature that is within 5 feet of the original target and within range of your weapon.  

Unstoppable

Starting at 14th level, you can choose to become unstoppable when you enter a rage. If you do so, for the duration of the rage your speed cannot be reduced, and you are immune to the frightened, paralyzed, and stunned conditions. If you are frightened, paralyzed, or stunned, you can still take your bonus action to enter your rage and suspend the effects for the duration of the rage. When your rage ends, you suffer one level of exhaustion.  

Path of the Battlerager

Known as Kuldjargh (literally "axe idiot") in Dwarvish, battleragers are dwarf followers of the gods of war and take the Path of the Battlerager. They specialize in wearing bulky, spiked armor and throwing themselves into combat, striking with their body itself and giving themselves over to the fury of battle.  

Spiked Armor Training

  Starting when you choose this primal path at 3rd level, you gain proficiency in heavy armor and all forms of spiked armor. You also suffer no penalties for sleeping in armor.Starting when you choose this path at 3rd level, you gain proficiency in heavy armor and all forms of spiked armor. You also suffer no penalties for sleeping in armor.   In addition you can enter a Rage when wearing heavy armor.  

Bristling Fury

At 3rd level, while you are wearing spiked armor and raging creatures that hit you with a melee attack while within 5 feet suffer piercing damage equal to your rage damage bonus.  

Reckless Abandon

At 6th level, whenever you use the Reckless Attack feature, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Constitution modifier. If you are raging increase the number of temporary hit points gained by your proficiency bonus.  

Barbed Blitz

At 10th level, You have learned how to capatalize on your momentum. When you move at least 20 feet on your turn before making a melee weapon attack with your armor spikes, that attack deals an additional 2d10 piercing damage on a hit. If you reduce a medium or small creature to 0 hit points with this attack, they are impaled upon your spikes until the start of your next turn, providing you with cover. A medium creature grants 3/4 cover and a small creature grants 1/2 cover.   In addition you can Dash as a bonus action while raging.  

Keep Your Enemies Closer

Starting at 14th level, when you successfully grapple a creature, that creature suffers piercing damage equal to your Strength modifier. A creature you are grappling takes piercing damage equal to your Strength modifier whenever it attempts to escape your grapple.   If you choose to grapple a creature with both hands, you can use an action on your turn to hug the creature close and shake vigorously. The creature must make a Strength saving throw with a DC equal to 8 + you Strength modifier + your proficiency bonus. On a failed save the creature suffers 6d8 + your Strength modifier piercing damage. On a success they take half as much damage and can attempt to break the grapple as a reaction.   Add your rage damage bonus to all damage dealt by this feature while raging.  

Spiked Armor

When wearing Spiked Armor a proficient creature can use it to make a melee weapon attack dealing 1d8 piercing damage. All spiked armors give disadvantage on Stealth checks.   A creature that is not proficient in spiked armor who wears it suffers piercing damage for every 5 feet they move in the armor. This damage is 1 for light armor, 2 for medium armor, and 3 for heavy armor.   You can purchase or construct spiked variants of leather armor, hide armor, breastplate, half-plate, and plate. As well as shields. These versions of the items cost and weigh an additional 25% but have the same statistics and properties otherwise.

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