Barbarian
Hit Points
Hit Dice: d12 per Barbarian level
Hit Points at first Level: 12 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d12 (or 7) + your Constitution modifier per barbarian level after 1st
Proficiences
Armor: Light armor, medium armor, shields
Weapons: Simple weapons, martial weapons
Tools: None
Saving Throws: Strength, Constitution
Skills: Choose two from Animal Handling, Athletics, Intimidation, Nature, Perception, and Survival
Overview & Creation
Primal Instinct
People of towns and cities take pride in how their civilized ways set them apart from animals, as if denying one’s own nature was a mark of superiority. To a barbarian, though, civilization is no virtue, but a sign of weakness. The strong embrace their animal nature—keen instincts, primal physicality, and ferocious rage. Barbarians are uncomfortable when hedged in by walls and crowds. They thrive in the wilds of their homelands: the tundra, jungle, or grasslands where their tribes live and hunt.
Barbarians come alive in the chaos of combat. They can enter a berserk state where rage takes over, giving them superhuman strength and resilience. A barbarian can draw on this reservoir of fury only a few times without resting, but those few rages are usually sufficient to defeat whatever threats arise.
A Life of Danger
Not every member of the tribes deemed “barbarians” by scions of civilized society has the barbarian class. A true barbarian among these people is as uncommon as a skilled fighter in a town, and he or she plays a similar role as a protector of the people and a leader in times of war. Life in the wild places of the world is fraught with peril: rival tribes, deadly weather, and terrifying monsters. Barbarians charge headlong into that danger so that their people don’t have to.
Their courage in the face of danger makes barbarians perfectly suited for adventuring. Wandering is often a way of life for their native tribes, and the rootless life of the adventurer is little hardship for a barbarian. Some barbarians miss the close-knit family structures of the tribe, but eventually find them replaced by the bonds formed among the members of their adventuring parties.
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. Choose the Path of the Berserker or the Path of the Totem Warrior, both detailed at the end of the class description. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th, 10th, and 14th levels.
Ability Score Improvement
When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.
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.
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.
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.
Starting Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
- (a) a greataxe or (b) any martial melee weapon
- (a) two handaxes or (b) any simple weapon
- An explorer’s pack and four javelins
Subclass Options
Path of the Ancestral Guardian
Path of the Battlerager
Path of the Beast
Path of the Berserker
Path of the Storm Herald
Path of the Totem Warrior
Path of the Zealot
Path of the Wild Soul
Path of the Deep
| Level | Proficiency Bonus | Features | Rages | Rage Damage |
|---|
| 1st | +2 | Rage, Unarmored Defense | 2 | +2 |
| 2nd | +2 | Reckless Attack, Danger Sense | 2 | +2 |
| 3rd | +2 | Primal Path | 3 | +2 |
| 4th | +2 | Ability Score Improvement | 3 | +2 |
| 5th | +3 | Extra Attack, Fast Movement | 3 | +2 |
| 6th | +3 | Path Feature | 4 | +2 |
| 7th | +3 | Feral Instinct | 4 | +2 |
| 8th | +3 | Ability Score Improvement | 4 | +2 |
| 9th | +4 | Brutal Critical (1 die) | 4 | +3 |
| 10th | +4 | Path Feature | 4 | +3 |
| 11th | +4 | Relentless Rage | 4 | +3 |
| 12th | +4 | Ability Score Improvement | 5 | +3 |
| 13th | +5 | Brutal Critical (2 dice) | 5 | +3 |
| 14th | +5 | Path Feature | 5 | +3 |
| 15th | +5 | Persistent Rage | 5 | +3 |
| 16th | +5 | Ability Score Improvement | 5 | +4 |
| 17th | +6 | Brutal Critical (3 dice) | 6 | +4 |
| 18th | +6 | Indomitable Might | 6 | +4 |
| 19th | +6 | Ability Score Improvement | 6 | +4 |
| 20th | +6 | Primal Champion | Unlimited | +4 |
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