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The Best Barbarian Subclasses - D&D 5e Primal Path Ratings 💪😤
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Oct 2, 2022
Follow along! If you want more information than what I've presented in this video, read my in-depth Barbarian subclass analysis here: https://www.flutesloot.com/barbarian-path-ratings/?utm_source=youtube The Barbarian may be the most well-designed class in D&D 5e. While some classes rely heavily on subclasses to remain interesting, a Barbarian without a subclass would still be a useful character. Keeping that in mind, I’ve reviewed each official-content Barbarian Primal Path to evaluate how they measure up to one another. My ratings use a five-star system based on Primal Path features, game design, fun, versatility, and lore/roleplaying for each subclass. The Paths are presented in alphabetical order. ⏰Time Stamps: 00:00 Intro 00:18 Check out FlutesLoot.com 00:32 Grading System 00:52 Ancestral Guardian (5/5) 01:39 Battlerager (2/5) 02:17 Beast (5/5) 03:42 Berserker (3/5) 04:22 Storm Herald (3/5) 05:06 Totem Warrior (5/5) 06:22 Wild Magic (3/5) 07:41 Zealot (5/5) 09:24 My Favorites 09:44 What Do You Think? 10:13 Recklessly Attack the Subscribe Button
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0:00
Hey, looters, flutes here. Today, I want to talk about barbarians, this time talking about their subclasses and which ones are the best and worst today on FlutesLute
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Before I get into the Barbarian rankings, I want to remind everyone that we have an article on FlutesLute.com that corresponds with this video and expounds on my ideas a lot more
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and we have over 100 articles on fluteslute.com. We'd love to have you read and comment there
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The way I've ranked Barbarian subclasses is from zero to five stars based on five judging points
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how cool its path features are, how well the design fits the game, how fun the subclass is, the subclass is versatility
0:47
and each path's lower slash role-playing factor. First up, going in alphabetical order, is the ancestral guardian barbarian
0:54
The only thing I really dock this path on is its versatility, as it's fairly straightforward
1:00
but man, is it good at what it does? I give it five out of five stars
1:05
The ancestral guardian is full of flavor. It plays into a lot of cool cultures from the real world
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I like to imagine Maori warriors who call upon their ancestors to fight as a barbarian in this way
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The ancestors protect them. They protect your allies. They help you to mix up what the barbarian is capable of
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because the Barbarian is probably one of the most simple and well-designed classes in D&D 5E
1:27
So every subclass, I think, should just make it more versatile. Having said that, like I said, I docked it on versatility because it's mostly based on defensive abilities
1:36
And those abilities will mostly be used the same way every time. The next path is the Battle Rager from the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide
1:43
This one got mixed reviews. It's for dwarves only, and you have to wear a certain kind of armor that's very spiky in order to use it
1:51
A lot of the features have potential, and I can see where they were going
1:55
But overall, this subclass gets a two out of five. It just feels out of place for a barbarian for what this subclass does
2:03
It's cool that they can do a bonus action to, like, attack with their armor, and they can still add rage and strength damage to that
2:08
So it's not abysmal, but I don't know anyone who's played this. It just doesn't jive with people
2:14
It just seems like you can do better things with other subclasses. Next is the Path of the Beast from Tosh's Caldron of Everything
2:20
I have to give this one five out of five stars. I love this subclass
2:25
I think it is so cool, so versatile. It's great for multi-classing
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It's great for just focusing on being a barbarian. It so unique and I really want to play this class I appreciate when classes are gifted by their subclasses with passive abilities that make them better at what they already do
2:44
And this subclass allows you to climb as if you are concentrating on a spider climb spell
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Super valuable, but you're not concentrating. You can swim, you can choose different kind of weapons to mutate your body to have claws to deal more attacks
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or you can have a tail that it can be used defensively. You can get a bit of mind control where you can make an ability
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opponent rabid and use their reaction to attack someone. You can make a wizard, like, burn their
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counterspell reaction so they can't counter spell because their reaction is used attacking someone
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as you inject them with being rabid or some kind of mind control poison, toxin, that sort of thing
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Then they can't opportunity attack you as well. You can really do a lot other than just like get them
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to attack someone. Using up their reaction will make them sad. Path of the Beast also seems to have
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really strong game design and that the way that they word certain things I can tell that they've learned
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from past mistakes with subclasses where there's been too much that you can exploit and they
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have to like errata it seems like they've learned from their mistakes and i think they worded things
3:40
very carefully with this one the path of the berserker from the player's handbook i give it three out of
3:45
five stars because it really has too much of a downside for the benefits it offers you can do a lot
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of what the berserker can do with other barbarian subclasses its ability to intimidate people is
3:56
based on its charisma and that's not great for a barbarian and you have to use your action every round
4:01
when you really probably want to be raging and attacking as a barbarian. Frenzy takes until the third round of combat to set up
4:07
because first you have to rage as a bonus action, then you frenzy as a bonus action. And then on the third round
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that's when you can actually start using your bonus action to attack in your frenzy. I wrote an article about how to fix this subclass
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I revised it, and I think if you read that over, you'll be really happy with what you read
4:22
The path of the Storm Herald from Xanathar's Guide to Everything is lackluster to me
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A lot of the effects there just don't jive well with what a barbarian is doing
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It has some cool lore to it, and I like the background and what I can visualize with it
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But in practice, the abilities are just not very strong and seem like a waste of time
4:42
Sure, it's versatile for the different options you can have and whatnot, whether you're causing someone to burn away in a drought
4:48
or freeze up in an ice storm or take lightning damage as if they're in the heart of some sort of lightning storm
4:55
That's all cool. But those abilities don't do much damage and the way that they trigger and everything, it's just, I don't find them intriguing or mechanically useful
5:04
This is a three out of five for me. Path of the Totem Warrior. Five out of five stars is the barbarian
5:09
I usually see people play They just want to pick bear at level three and resist everything except psychic damage I seen a lot of posts on Reda of people being like I can challenge this type of barbarian because it just is so hard to take down
5:23
I don't think that's necessarily a challenge. It's something to relish in that you can easily make your player enjoy playing this class because they picked it to do one thing basically and they just want to absorb damage like crazy
5:35
So let them. You don't have to pick Bear. There are other options. Wolf, Eagle, I think elk and Ty
5:41
We're the ones that were added in the Sword Coast Adventurers guide. And as you level up, bear might not always be the best one to choose
5:47
You can vary which ones you're choosing. That versatility is a big plus for me that you can build different totem warriors in ways that
5:54
adapt to the party they're in. It's also cool to play into the barbarian nature aspect and be able to like commune with
6:00
animals and spirits, that sort of stuff. I'd like to see more players play into the whole like totem theme instead of just being like
6:07
I'm a barbarian and I resist damage and they just like forget about the totem part
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role play it or describe what they're carrying or anything. It's cool that one of my players
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she had a bear skin that was like a trophy. And so that was kind of like a totem for her
6:20
I thought that was really great. I'd like to see more players do that. Next up is Path of Wild
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Magic from Tosh's. I am not a fan of Wild Magic anything. Ever since the 5E came out with
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the Wild Magic Sorcer, it doesn't jive with me. And it still doesn't even with this Wild Magic
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Barbarian. I think the way they did this is better than the Wild Magic Sorcer
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Most of the random effects are useful and it does start to mitigate the chances that you get the wild magic effect that you would like
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But this subclass, its abilities are all built around making it so you can make your wild magic less wild
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I would just rather play most other things. All power to the people who love wild magic
7:03
I often hear about people who play them on Reddit and in different YouTube videos
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But the people I play with, they've never really played with it except in like one-offs, and that was enough for them
7:14
I also don't love that the wild magic barbarian has an ability that's basically like detect magic, but a little different
7:22
I don't really love detect magic, to be honest. I know that's not a popular opinion, so an ability that is like it, I'm like, yeah, yeah, like it can be useful
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Don't get me wrong. I just think it's an overhyped spell, and this ability feeds into my need to neglect to detect
7:38
magic. Three out of five from me with the wild magic. Last of all, from Xanathar's Guide to Everything
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is the Path of the Zealot. This is my kind of barbarian. I really like this one. I give it five out of five
7:49
I love that you can fight wall unconscious technically because your rage just doesn end that you can keep being brought back to life in some never war as the gods have a purpose for you
7:59
You can deal more damage, you save your cleric a lot of money every time you die
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Keep in mind that you might have other problems from coming back to life a lot
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especially if your DM's running lingering injuries or even madness. I wrote an article all about lingering injuries, so be careful
8:14
The whole fighting while unconscious thing just reminds me of Garrow versus
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Super Allied Dark Shine from One Punch Man in the manga, where they're fighting and then Garo, like, is revealed to have been, like
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asleep the whole time and unconscious. The Zella kind of, like, reminds me of that concept, just very anime, shonen stuff
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I really like subclasses, like the Path of the Zealot, that kind of buff and enrich other parts of the game that already existed
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that maybe don't come up as often. Like, Revivify is a spell that you always want to, like, keep on hand if it's available
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just in case someone dies. But in this way, you actually enhance that spell because it won't cost anything to revive you
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And you can kind of make yourself the sacrifice for the party and really play into that aspect
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So I love that it encourages a different way of playing. Subclasses that do that are just the best to me
9:04
The zealot also feels more like a berserker than the berserker. To me, this is the type of berserker
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Like, you just won't go down. You won't stop fighting. And when you do, like, you're just brought back because you're just so rabid for war that death cannot keep you away
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from it. If I want to play a berserker based on rules as written, I'd probably play the
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zealot more than the actual berserker subclass. So those are my thoughts on the barbarian
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subclasses. Each path is unique, but some are better than others and add more to the game
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than others. Aside from my ratings, my favorites are the ancestral guardian, the zealot, and the
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beast barbarians. I really want to try out this beast barbarian. I think there's just so many
9:41
possibilities that I can get behind there. Which barbarian paths are your favorites or your least
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favorites. Have you had good experiences or bad experiences with any of them? Do you disagree with me in
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any way? I put a lot of thought into these videos and articles and I'm always open to having my mind
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changed. I've often updated articles based on suggestions in the comments. If you have anything to
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discuss, I would love to hear it. To do so, just cast message down in the comments below or go to
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flutsuit.com and leave me a comment on my barbarian ranking article. That'll do it for today. Check out
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Flutesa.com, bookmark it. Subscribe to our channel and like this video. Really helps us out a lot
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This is Flutes, saying, happy adventuring. Have a nice day
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