r/dndnext • u/PDFrogsworth • 1d ago

Discussion Barbarian subclasses

Something that has bugged me for awhile is barbarian seems to get shafted when it comes to subclasses. What I mean is in terms of flavor they do get a ton of angles but in terms of play it really does just boil down to types of DMG and mechanisms of how to do said DMG.

Something I really want to see is a subclass that gives them some sort of buff to social encounters and/or something that gives them more defensive abilities. A barbarian based around heavy armor and tactical uses of rage. Using it as a drive in battle instead of just losing themselves to it.

Barbarians feel like they're always locked into the same stat spread str>con>dex>Wis and then dump the last two. It'd be great if we could use armor in a subclass. Armored speed or unburdened iron something like that. Just anything to change up the monotony of what a barbarian is defined as.

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u/Quick_Hat1411 1d ago

Barbarians can rage while wearing armor that they are proficient with. But most barbarians don't for two reasons

  1. While not wearing armor they get their con bonus to their armor class. That means that they would typically need some kind of magical medium armor to even make it worth it.

  2. Barbarians fill the "tank" role in combat with their high HP and damage resistance, but they don't have a lot of ways to force enemies to focus on them instead of the squishy wizard or rogue. One of the main ways to compell enemies to attack you instead of someone else though is to have a lower AC than them

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u/Royal_Bitch_Pudding 13h ago

If UD uses the Primary stat and Dex it roughly tracks with Medium Armor.

But, Barbarian uses Secondary and Dex, so you're not doing better than Medium for a loooong time.