Editing Barbarian (section)

===5th Edition===
[[File:Barbarian PHB 5e.png|left|300px]]
Barbarians in 5th edition D&D are largely unchanged from 3.5 barbarians, except their rages are better. While raging they get resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage, damage bonuses and advantage on strength checks, including athletics for wrestling people down. Barbarians can add their Con bonus to AC if they don't wear armor, meaning that you can now be a truly manly berserker and charge into battle without a shirt on, all the while having the AC of a knight in full-plate as enemy blades bounce off your manly abs (just don't ask where this effect is actually coming from). Their rage only applies to melee attacks now, though, so bows are less viable than previous editions. Barbarians have the easiest advantage generators in the whole game with Reckless Attack, which makes them the best class for great weapon master feat, offsetting that -5 to hit for massive massive damage. As they level up Barbarians get simple but powerful abilities, like increased movement speed, stronger criticals and ability to ''[[Nasuverse| not die when they are killed]]''. Oh, and they are also the only class that gets to go over the hardcap of 20 for Strength and Constitution, gaining '''+4''' to both at level 20. 

The Class Feature Variants UA gave Barbarians two benefits: Survival Instincts gave them double proficiency in two skills out of the gate, but cost them Danger Sense, and Instinctive Pounce replaced the default speed boost with the power to immediately walk up to half their speed in response to an enemy moving closer. Come ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything'', both of these got reworked so as to not replace actually vital features, a major plus. They now gain proficiency in an additional skill (from what they could take at creation) at levels 3 and 10, and level 7 grants them the ability to immediately move the moment they rage. 

They also seem to be WotC's favorite target for weird subclass ideas, called "Primal Paths": 

* '''Path of the Berserker''' turns the Barbarian into a rage warrior of death. Compared to the other subclasses, it has more thematic similarities with early editions.
:* Their first subclass feature is Frenzy, which can be used when entering rage to gain a bonus attack each turn for the rest of the rage. Besides the boost in damage, it also ''doesn't need'' the Attack action to be taken (unlike other sources of bonus attacks like Two-Weapon Fighting or feats), letting you Dash, Dodge, chug potions, etc. and then attack in the same turn. Any Barbarian's rage will end early if a turn passes without attacking or taking damage, so Frenzy's bonus attack maintains rage while freeing up your main action. The other unique part of Frenzy is that instead of being limited to 1/long rest it's tied to levels of exhaustion (an obvious nod to how rage in previous editions ended with fatigue and possibly at negative HP). Exhaustion level 1 isn't a big deal for Barbarians so they'll usually Frenzy once per long rest, but if the situation gets really dire you can Frenzy multiple times and increasingly overtax yourself; just remember that you'll be feeling it for a few days.
:* They also gain immunity to charm/fright while raging (a nod to how rage in 3e gave a bonus to Will saves), Intimidating Presence (basically a single-target version of the ''fear'' spell), and Retaliation which lets them immediately strike back after being hit. Combined with Frenzy this adds up to a possible 4 attacks per round ''at level 14'', all with advantage and enhanced criticals, without taking feats. All in all, this Path is a single-minded killing machine with no regard for defense.
* '''Path of the Totem Warrior''' grants abilities based on the selected totem spirit. It also gives you ritual-only spells to communicate with animals and to summon one of the spirits for information about the area. You can pick from the different totem spirits 3 times total, and each totem gives a different benefit based on whether you selected it first, second, or last, as shown in order below:
:*''Wolf'' is the pack-hunter one, giving advantage to your friends when you are surrounding your enemy, better tracking and stealth during travels, and the ability to knock enemies prone instantly after hitting them.
:*''Bear'' is the hardy one, making you resistant to '''all''' damage (minus psychic, because [[meme|GET OUT OF MY HEAD, CHARLES]]), making you better at pushing and carrying stuff, and forcing enemies to focus fire on you while raging. Bear totem barbarian is pretty much the default barbarian ~~tank~~ meatshield. 
:*''Eagle'' has the best utility ones, giving you a bonus-action dash and making opportunity attacks less likely to hit you, eagle vision (you can literally see something a mile away without a problem) and eventually [[Sly Marbo|'''allowing the barbarian to fly while raging...''']] but not allowing him to stay in the air after his turn. So essentially, it's just the ability to jump your speed and change direction midair whilst raging.
:*''Elk'' is a weird set of mobility powers that makes you move faster while raging, makes your group faster when traveling distances together, and lets you run people over while raging.
:*''Tiger'' lets you jump better, skillmonkey a bit and eventually pounce on a target with an additional attack. Not great on its own, but if you're mix-and-matching, some of the powers aren't bad trades.  Getting a couple extra skills is never a bad investment, for instance.
*'''Path of the Battlerager''', named after a temp-HP-gaining [[Fighter]] subclass, actually borrows its lore from a special order of [[dwarf]] barbarians in the [[Drizzt]] novels, and so is a heavily armored barbarian who wears massively spiky armor and basically specializes in hurling himself blindly into the fray so he can use his armor to rip 'n' tear people whilst he rages. With an extra attack per round (admittedly an unarmed strike, but 1d4 plus modifiers is still a buncha damage when you're a barbarian) and bunches of temporary hitpoints to offset Reckless Attack whenever you use it, the main downside is that your powers only work when you're wearing a very-specific suit of very-mediocre armor. 
*'''Path of the Ancestral Guardian''' is able to commune with/summon its ancestral spirits while raging (meaning that if you are a dragonborn you can [[awesome|summon the ghost of a dead dragon]]), giving it overtones of the [[Shaman]] from 4e. Don't be fooled, though; this is the tanking subclass. At 3rd level, as the Ancestral Protectors, they can distract any enemy you hit while raging, imposing disadvantage and halved damage on attacks not targeting yourself. At 6th level, upgrading to Spirit Shield, the spirits can use your reaction in response to a nearby creature taking damage and reduce the damage. At 10th level, you can Consult the Spirits once per short/long rest to cast ''augury'' or ''clairvoyance'' without spell slots or materials. Finally, at 14th level, the Vengeful Ancestors can react to someone hitting an ally by beating the shit out of them, inflicting force damage equal to the amount of damage prevented by Spirit Shield.
*'''Path of the Storm Herald''', meanwhile, has a little in common with certain Rage Powers from the 4e Barbarian, in that it's a barbarian who taps into primal magic while raging to cloak itself in a shield of elemental energy. You need to pick whether your storm comes from the Desert, Sea, or Tundra at 3rd level, which determines what sort of benefits you get whilst raging. Your aura starts off by inflicting fire damage to everyone in your aura, zapping one target with lightning, or giving temp HP to nearby allies, respectively. These effects can be reactivated as a bonus action during rage. Later your choice gives you fire resistance, lightning resistance and water breathing, or cold resistance, at all times. At 10th level your aura extends that resistance to your allies, and finally it gains more powers to use against foes, dealing fire damage, knocking down a target, or freezing it in place. Two of the auras require saves every turn for middling damage, which means that this subclass can slow down a game something fierce.
*'''Path of the Zealot''' can be summed up as "holy berserker of the gods/Khorne Berserker", but can be refluffed into more of a necromantic [[Bloodrager]] type; the crunch can be summed up as the "MAN LITERALLY TOO ANGRY TO DIE" meme made manifest. It inflicts extra necrotic or radiant damage (chosen when you gain this feature) to the first target you hit on your turn, allows you to be resurrected without burning through those expensive diamonds (not that most DMs pay attention to that sort of thing anyway), can choose to re-roll a failed saving throw once per rage, can unleash an inspiring battle cry once per long rest, and can keep you fighting at 0 hit points so long as you're raging. It's recommended to yell about [[Vermintide|spending your blood willingly and your god blessing your ravaged body]] while you rage.
*'''Path of the Wild Soul''' is basically the first official 5e [[Bloodrager]]. These guys have access to a pool of wild magic when they rage, which results in them gaining overtly magical effects to their raging rather than being able to rage and cast spells. A Wild Soul Barbarian can Detect Magic Constitution modifier times per day and gains one of eight random wild magic auras when it rages, from 6th level can grant spellcasters a random spell slot or grant a small bonus to any rolls for everyone else, from 10th level can re-roll which wild magic aura they get whenever they get hurt, and from 14th level can roll their magic aura twice and pick the most favorable one.
*'''Path of the Beast''' is basically a shamanic simulation of lycanthropy - less potent but with no side effects like uncontrollable frenzy. Beast barbarians transform into half-animal monstrosities when raging, growing natural weapons, choosing each time for great flexibility:
:*Snapping jaws or giant mandibles to bite people with, which actually lets them heal a bit if they damage their target. The healing is rather small, but over the course of battle it adds up to quite a lot. Great meatshields at early levels, almost on par with Bear Totem, although later that healing drops off compared to the level of damage you take.
:*Claws on hands that grant one extra attack. Not extra attack as a bonus action, just extra attack. This is flat out better than Berserker with the only downside being rather mediocre d6 damage die of those claws. The obvious damage dealing option.
:*Long prehensile tail is a hard hitting reach weapon, pretty much a pike/lance that works at close range and don't take hands. For when you need to hit hard over hitting a lot. More importantly, if someone you can see within 10 feet of you hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to apply a d8 to your AC!
:The obvious downside is that their natural weapons don't get the same cool effects high-end magical weapons do. The less obvious downside is freaking out towns guard and attracting all the werewolf hunters around. Jaws and tail don't take hands, so the Beastbarb can wield two weapons and a shield for great versatility, have an empty hand for wrestling people down, or even wield two shields (+2 AC don't stacks, but if both shields are magical, their enchantments do stack). Later they could make their beast-weapons magical and gain beastly mobility, either swimming and breathing underwater, crawling on the walls and ceiling, or jumping insane distances. They get to infect enemies with frenzy when they attack them, forcing them to either attack their allies or suffer decent psychic damage, and finally get to give their allies extra damage during their rage while also healing for each ally they catch.

{{D&D5-Classes}}