D&D 5E Barbarian build at level 6

[Bennett]

Stating a bear totem barb at level 6(no multiclassing) so this changes the normal thought process of which feat or asi to choose as you progress. Looking for different build ideas involving gwm, polearm, lucky, half orc,human variant,mountain dwarf, or even a fun mobile build.

Thoughts?

 

[Blue]

You may get a bit more replies in the Character Build forum.

Half-Orc Barbarian with a Great Axe is both a classic and also a very effective buid both offensively and defensively. Reckless Attack will increate your crit chance which does 3d12 weapon damage instead of 2d12 due to half-orc. You take half damage from everything but psychic when raging, and half orc's Reckless Endurance can keep you up even if you are hit to zero. Darkvision is another bonus.

GWM also works nicely with barbarians. Reckless Attack both lands blows when you have -5 and gives you crits more often so you get a bonus action weapon attack. This can work with half-ocr (above) but doesn't need to. Barbarians don't have a lot competing for their bonus action.

Polearm Mastery is a bit of a different beast. It's a consistent bonus action attack, which works well with rage giving you a melee bonus. But it means that you get minimal advantage from the crit/slay boost of GWM, so I wouldn't recommend both (at least not early on in adventuring).

Dual Wielding is an odd duck - with extra attack at 5th you'll do more with big weapons, though rage bonus to melee is nice. Would have to use STR to get reckless attack. Some people talk about a dex barbarian and there's a guide for them, but they miss out on a number of barbarian class features so I would recommend avoiding that for your first barbarian.

Human(v) can give you a feat early. Since you're starting at 6th it depends on the other bonuses. For example, human(v) can give +1/+1 to two stats, a feat, and then +2 (or +1/+1) ASI at 4th, whcih is a bit above a half-orc with +2/+1 and then a feat - but the half-orc gets lots of other goodies.

With your strength and if trained in athletics, you'll be a pretty good grappler as well. Rage gives you advantage on these checks. Don't ignore this, it's a useful at odd times.

Take some thrown weapons - so that if you are raging and can't get next to someone you can still attack from range and maintain your rage.

By DMG encounter guidelines of 6-8 encounters per day, your 4 will cover 2/3 to 1/2 of them. However almost every DM I know runs less (sometimes harder) encounters in practice and rarely gets that many, so don't be shy about kicking off a rage.

With resistance, you take half damage - if a ally would have taken 40 and you only take 20, it's half the healing resources after the battle to bring you back. So you taking damage instead of your teammates is a good thing. Suck up all the aggro. Don't be afraid you'll go down with half damage and d12 HD. Don't neglect your CON. On the flip side, don't worry about a low AC overmuch - if you grant advantage they'll be hitting anyhow.

 

[FrogReaver]

Some other fears to consider than the ones you mentioned.

Alert. Going first let's you get rage off so you don't risk taking a big hit before raging.

Defensive duelist. Stay strength but use a short sword or rapier. Gives you a nice way to avoid damage many turns.

Inspiring leader. 6 temp hp per short rest assuming 10 charisma to the whole party is nice. Also might be fitting for the right kind of barbarian.

Martial adept. Take precision attack. Being able to turn 1 miss a short rest into a hit will feel pretty awesome.

Savage attacker. This feat doesn't get much love but if you use a great axe and have this baby you will enjoy turning the 1 into a 12. Yes it won't help every turn but when it works well you will be very happy and your table will be amazed.

Skulker. No one likes disadvantage on perception this fixes it. Also helps with stealth ad an added bonus for you.

toughness. Everyone likes the rocky balboa style barbarian especially when he's on there side..

Ritual caster. Adds a lot of flavor to the totem barbarian. Gives you some out of combat utility and while you don't use magic for battle you can easily flavor yourself as a shaman style barbarian with this single feat. It's pretty useful too. Detect magic, alarm, water breathing etc are all rituals.

 

[BookBarbarian]

GWM also works nicely with barbarians. Reckless Attack both lands blows when you have -5 and gives you crits more often so you get a bonus action weapon attack. This can work with half-ocr (above) but doesn't need to. Barbarians don't have a lot competing for their bonus action.

Polearm Mastery is a bit of a different beast. It's a consistent bonus action attack, which works well with rage giving you a melee bonus. But it means that you get minimal advantage from the crit/slay boost of GWM, so I wouldn't recommend both (at least not early on in adventuring).

I actually do recommend both for the following reason. That 1d4 damage bonus action attack becomes a lot better with the +10 from GWM which as you said combines well with reckless attack. PM (assuming using a reach weapon) also lets you get within 10 ft of a foe and attack them, then move 5ft beck without triggering an OA, then if the foe steps into your reach you get an attack. PM is such a solid way of getting 4 attacks in a round, and GWM lets you potentially at +10 damage to each of those attacks. I say get both early if you are trying for a Max damage.

That being said, I completely agree with the rest of your post.

Oh and a couple of things to add.

Dual wielding is great on a Barb until level 4-5 since it lets you potentially land more blows which equals more Rage damage, for example at level one assuming 16 Strength one Greatsword attack is 2d6+3+2 damage, but two handaxe attacks are 1d6+3+2 and 1d6+0+2. Once you have another source for more attacks this is less useful. I don't recommend it beyond level 5 especially if you pick up GWM or PM

Shield Master Barbarians can be great fun since Rage Adds advantage to shove checks and Danger Sense adds advantage to Dex saves.

My favorite Barbarians at level 6 would be.

Variant Human with GWM and PM.

Half Orc with either GWM or PM intending to pick up whichver one it doesn't have at level 8.

Goliath with Shield Master for a Tough Barb Stones Endurance adds a great use of a reaction on an already durable character.

Mountain Dwarf is also fine for any Barb build, Hill dwarf is Great for a defensive barb if you don't mind Starting a little behind in Strength.

I'm not up the races from Volo's guide, but I imagine bugbears work great, and Firbolg would be an interesting Bear Totem barb I think. It would start with a little lower Con, but a higher Wisdom and high Wis is great on any Character.

 

[BookBarbarian]

Some other fears to consider than the ones you mentioned.

Alert. Going first let's you get rage off so you don't risk taking a big hit before raging.

Defensive duelist. Stay strength but use a short sword or rapier. Gives you a nice way to avoid damage many turns.

Inspiring leader. 6 temp hp per short rest assuming 10 charisma to the whole party is nice. Also might be fitting for the right kind of barbarian.

Martial adept. Take precision attack. Being able to turn 1 miss a short rest into a hit will feel pretty awesome.

Savage attacker. This feat doesn't get much love but if you use a great axe and have this baby you will enjoy turning the 1 into a 12. Yes it won't help every turn but when it works well you will be very happy and your table will be amazed.

Skulker. No one likes disadvantage on perception this fixes it. Also helps with stealth ad an added bonus for you.

toughness. Everyone likes the rocky balboa style barbarian especially when he's on there side..

Ritual caster. Adds a lot of flavor to the totem barbarian. Gives you some out of combat utility and while you don't use magic for battle you can easily flavor yourself as a shaman style barbarian with this single feat. It's pretty useful too. Detect magic, alarm, water breathing etc are all rituals.

Defensive Duelist on a Rapier and Shield Barbarian is a great and often overlooked option. It call really mitigate the negative effect of Reckless Attack.

 

[Horwath]

If only one feat I would suggest Polearm mastery.

It is little lower on damage from GWM, but it gives 100% bonus action that gets rage bonus. Also 10ft reach is great as you can exploit movement better and pretty realiable way to use reaction via attack of opportunity.

 

[Horwath]

Defensive Duelist on a Rapier and Shield Barbarian is a great and often overlooked option. It call really mitigate the negative effect of Reckless Attack.

Defensive duelist -> reckless attack?

Rapier -> reckless attack?

Shield -> reckless attack?

goddamn, 3 oxymorons in single sentence.

Yes, it's by the rules. Yes, it's math viable. But, if a player camed to me with that idea, he would get that "under the eyebrow, you better frakking not do it look".

 

[BookBarbarian]

Defensive duelist -> reckless attack?

Rapier -> reckless attack?

Shield -> reckless attack?

goddamn, 3 oxymorons in single sentence.

Yes, it's by the rules. Yes, it's math viable. But, if a player camed to me with that idea, he would get that "under the eyebrow, you better frakking not do it look".

Hah I see your point. I also like the Rapier welding Defensive Duelist Grappler Barbarian with Tavern Brawler does that one also stretch suspension of disbelief?

I have seen many a fencer put it all on the line for one big lunge. Seems Reckless to me.

Also it sets up a great moment for that rapier wielding barbarian:

Barb: I leave myself wide open as I lunge with a Rapier
DM in best Admiral Akbar voice: It's a trap!

 

[Salamandyr]

Defensive duelist -> reckless attack?

Rapier -> reckless attack?

Shield -> reckless attack?

goddamn, 3 oxymorons in single sentence.

Yes, it's by the rules. Yes, it's math viable. But, if a player camed to me with that idea, he would get that "under the eyebrow, you better frakking not do it look".

I would just assume the barbarian studied under Meyer*.


(Juaquim Meyer wrote a rapier manual for "German" rapier, a very aggressive style, which involves lots of cutting, and the guards and blows share names with longsword, and the first cut is called the "brain blow")