D&D Barbarian 5e Guide

Best Feats for Barbarians

• Actor: Nothing here for a barbarian, who would rather smash their way in.
• Alert: Barbarians already have Feral Instinct to aid during Initiative rolls. Additional initiative improvements offer diminishing returns but can be effective for barbarians as they can activate their Rage as soon as possible into the encounter to reduce any damage taken and boost their damage ouput.
• Athlete: You get an ASI to Strength and some minor movement buffs, but nothing amazing for a barbarian.
• Chef: While I don't think most barbarians can rage out in the kitchen like Gordon Ramsey, this feat isn't all bad. CON is a good boost. Temporary hit points are always nice in the heat of the moment as they are typically doubled thanks to the barbs Rage.
• Crossbow Expert: Most barbarians won’t stay out of melee range for long, so they can skip this feat. They’re much better off with feats like Slasher or Sentinel.
• Crusher: It's not a terrible choice for a barbarian, especially compared to the other damage-type feats from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. It offers them a chance to have a little battlefield manipulation, plus a possible damage boost.
• Defensive Duelist: Almost all barbarian subclasses don’t offer any defensive reactions, so this isn’t a terrible choice. However, DEX barbarians aren’t particularly potent, so it's not worth it in the end.
• Dual Wielder: Barbarians can make good use of the Dual Wielder feat, particularly if they aren't utilizing a two-handed weapon or shield. The added AC can be a good substitute for a shield, and the additional attack can take advantage of their Rage damage bonus.
• Durable: A barbarian with a +5 Constitution and the Durable feat will recover at minimum 15 hit points with a single Hit Dice roll. This is a solid amount of healing, especially if you can find a way to roll Hit Dice mid-combat (like with the Dwarven Fortitude feat or a caster buddy with wither and bloom).
• Eldritch Adept: Barbarians can’t pick up this feat without multiclassing, so there’s no point worrying about it.
• Elemental Adept: Skip this entirely. This does nothing for barbarians, as you rarely will be dealing elemental damage. You’re better off with Slasher or Great Weapon Fighting.
• Elven Accuracy: You won’t be able to benefit from this at all since barbarians don’t typically use any of the stats associated with this feat. Dex barbarians are not worth the effort at all.
• Ember of the Fire Giant: You can pump Strength or Constitution while also getting a reliable AoE damage and debuff ability, this is perfect for barbarians.
• Fade Away: Not only is the gnome race not good for barbarians, the ASIs from this feat don't match your priorities. Plus, barbarians usually want to be visible so they can soak damage.
• Fey Teleportation: Neither of these stats benefits you, but a free misty step isn’t awful. However, in the grand scheme of things, you’re better off with an offensive feat like Great Weapon Master.
• Fey Touched: A free casting of misty step will help mobility but unfortunately, all the best spells in the Divination and Enchantment schools require concentration so they can't be used when raging.
• Fighting Initiate: There are a few styles here that are worth considering, mainly Blind Fighting and Great Weapon Fighting.
• Fury of the Frost Giant: You can pump Strength or Constitution while also getting a reliable reaction and preventing your prey from escaping. Plus, another resistance is always helpful. This is a solid choice for barbarians that want more action economy and range.
• Gift of the Chromatic Dragon: Extra damage resistances and boosted attacks are always a good thing. Unfortunately, you won't be able to pop this and Rage on your first turn, so your barbarian won't usually be fully online till the second round of combat.
• Gift of the Gem Dragon: While the reaction would be awesome, your barbarian's Charisma, Intelligence, or Wisdom likely won't be high enough to make this worthwhile.
• Gift of the Metallic Dragon: The AC boosts will be huge to help you avoid hits. Unfortunately, you won't be able to cast cure wounds while raging, but it could be useful for a spot of out-of-combat healing.
• Grappler: A great option for a barbarian, especially if you're going for a grappling build. The advantage on attack rolls and the ability to restrain creatures can be very beneficial in combat. Plus, your Rage gives you advantage on Strength checks, which will make sure your grapple attempts land more frequently.
• Great Weapon Master: Probably the best feat for a barbarian using a two-handed weapon, regardless of build. Extra attacks from this feat will occur often when you're in the thick of things. The bonus damage at the cost of an attack roll penalty is risky and should be used sparingly until your attack roll bonus is quite high. That said, if you really want something dead you can Reckless Attack and take the -5 penalty. This is useful in situations where an enemy is looking hurt and you want to drop them to get an extra bonus action attack.
• Guile of the Cloud Giant: You already have resistance to mundane damage while you Rage, so this is likely unnecessary.
• Gunner: Ranged combat doesn’t work with barbarians. Your kit is wholly based around melee damage and maintaining rage, which you can’t do with firearms. You are much better off with Great Weapon Master.
• Healer: Barbarians might make a decent frontline medic for how tanky they are. That said, there are plenty more combat-oriented feats that will be more potent.
• Heavily Armored: You have Unarmored Defense and can't get the benefits of Rage while wearing heavy armor, so this is a skip.
• Heavy Armor Master: Barbarians can't wear heavy armor and Rage, as much as they would love the extra damage reductions.
• Inspiring Leader: Barbarians don't normally stack into Charisma, so this is a skip. Hopefully you have a bard in your party who can inspire you, cause those temp hit points will go nice with Rage.
• Keen Mind: Nothing here for a barbarian.
• Keenness of the Stone Giant: While the ASIs are great and you'd love to knock enemies prone, this ability won't be useful while you're within melee range of enemies, which most barbarians plan to be.
• Lightly Armored: Already has access to light armor at the start, plus Unarmored Defense is better in most cases.
• Linguist: Skip this feat
• Lucky: Lucky is a feat that is useful to any character but barbarians can make especially good use of it because of all the attack rolls they'll be making.
• Mage Slayer: If you're facing spellcasters in most combats, barbarians will enjoy what this feat has to offer. Barbarians offer some of the most mobility and durability in the game, and they love to output more damage. Otherwise, this spell falls behind feats that will be useful in every combat, like Great Weapon Master.
• Magic Initiate: Barbarians are probably the only class where this feat has a negligible impact, mainly because most barbarians want to be raging and smashing every turn (you can’t cast spells while in a rage).
• Martial Adept: Some of the Battle Master maneuvers would be great for a barbarian, but only getting one superiority dice per short/long rest drastically limits the effectiveness of this feat.
• Medium Armor Master: This could be a decent option for barbarians who want to focus into maxing their Strength while still having a decent AC. If you get your Dexterity to +3 and pick up half plate armor, you'll have an AC of 18 (20 with a shield). In order to match this with Unarmored Defense, you'd need to have a +5 in Constitution while still maintaining the +3 in Dexterity. While this isn't necessarily out of the question, it will take more resources and won't be available until the 12th level, even if you're devoting all your ASIs to getting there.
• Metamagic Adept: Because they can’t cast spells, barbarians cannot take this feat without multiclassing.
• Mobile: Barbarians can always use the extra movement to close in. Ignoring difficult terrain isn't a particularly exciting feature but will be useful occasionally. The best feature gained from this feat is being able to attack recklessly then run away so your opponent doesn't get to swing back at you.
• Mounted Combatant: This option is decent for barbarians who want to ride into battle on a steed. That said, barbarians already get abilities to improve their movement and get advantage on their attacks, so Mounted Combatant isn't giving them anything particularly new.
• Observant: This is a waste since barbarians don’t care about either of these stats. Plus, with your Danger Sense, you already have good insurance against traps without needing a feat.
• Orcish Fury: Half-Orcs are a very synergistic race for barbarians and this feat adds additional utility to martial builds. It's a half-feat so it provides an STR or CON bonus, provides additional damage once per rest, and provides an extra attack when you use your Relentless Endurance feature.
• Piercer: If you want to use a melee weapon with piercing, this feat works incredibly well. However, you’ll usually get better damage with two-handed weapons and Great Weapon Master, so stick to a spear if you want the most out of this.
• Poisoner: Once raging, barbarians don't have much use for their bonus action outside of two-weapon fighting. Having access to an extra 2d8 poison damage on your attacks is a great way to stretch your damage and the poisoned condition is an excellent debuff. Unfortunately, the low DC for the save makes this less impactful the higher level you get.
• Polearm Master: Polearm users are usually defensive, patient, and precise. This doesn’t scream “barbarian,” but barbarians can still make great use of this feat. Their Rage ability gives them additional damage to each strike, so more attacks will always be better.
• Resilient: This can be a good pickup if you have an odd DEX score after character creation. +1 DEX to an uneven score could net you an AC increase, while also offering the increased survivability a bonus to DEX saving throws provides.
• Revanent Blade: While this is a solid weapon, you're probably still better off with a heavy weapon + Great Weapon Master.
• Ritual Caster: Barbarians don't want to invest the resources necessary to take this feat, even if find familiar might be useful.
• Rune Shaper: This feat could be worth it for armor of Agathys on its own. The 5 temporary hit points turn into 10 because of your Rage resistances and it punishes creatures for swinging at you. Plus, it has an hour duration and no concentration requirements.
• Savage Attacker: Even though this feat is best with heavy weapons, which fits the barbarian's playstyle, it's much more worth it to go with Great Weapon Master or one of the Tasha's weapon feats.
• Second Chance: Barbarians usually aren't overly concerned with an attack landing. They're better off using their reaction for offense, like with the Sentinel or Polearm Master feats.
• Sentinel: Sentinel really shines on a barbarian. It reduces the options of enemies that are in your vicinity by restricting their movement and punishing them for trying to move away or attack someone else. Remember, you actually want to be attacked as a barbarian (as opposed to those attacks hitting your squishier teammates).
• Shadow Touched: It’s rare to see barbarians favoring a stealthy option, so this feels a little lackluster. Most first-level spells in these two schools don’t mesh well with the barbarian’s skill set, making this a pass.
• Sharpshooter: Barbarians aren’t one for ranged attacks, so they won’t gain anything from this.
• Shield Master: While the bonus action from raging might interfere with using this on the first round of combat, having a consistent bonus action to push enemies prone can be a solid boost to action economy. Also, they get advantage on the Strength (Athletics) checks required to succeed in the attempt to push enemies prone. This is a solid option for tankier barbarians who aren't focused on pure damage output.
• Skill Expert: Barbarians usually aren’t the most useful class outside of combat, so many skills won’t be useful to have boosted. There are also better feats for barbarians to improve their combat prowess like Sentinel or Great Weapon Master.
• Skulker: There’s rarely a situation where a barbarian would be sneaking around with ranged weapons for very long, making this feat useless in most cases.
• Slasher: Barbarians want to pick this up, as it keeps their enemies close and makes it harder for them to hit back after a Reckless Attack (as the disadvantage cancels out the advantage).
• Soul of the Storm Giant: More damage resistances, disadvantage on attacks against you, you can prevent enemies from running away, and a +1 to Strength or Constitution as the cherry on top. Barbarians will love jumping into a group of bad guys, then popping this ability and swinging recklessly.
• Spell Sniper: Barbarians can't cast spells.
• Squat Nimbleness: Mountain dwarves make awesome barbarians because of their +2 to Strength and Constitution. The extra speed is welcome here to get you to the front lines quicker, as is the ASI to Strength and proficiency in Athletics.
• Strike of the Giants: Not only are some of these effects amazing for barbarians, you'll have the perfect ability scores to make the save effects hurt. The Hill Strike is likely your best bet so you can use subsequent attacks to get advantage on prone enemies. This also paves the way to the 4th-level giant feats, most of which are stellar for barbarians.
• Tavern Brawler: Not a terrible half-feat to choose. If you're going for a grappler barbarian build it might be worth multiclassing into fighter or choose the Fighting Initiate feat to pick up Unarmed Fighting. It's also worthwhile to pick up Grappler so you can restrain your grappled targets.
• Telekinetic: Barbarians won’t find any use for this feat as they can push enemies with brute force much more effectively than with their CHA, WIS, or INT. They also won't have any use for the ASI.
• Telepathic: Subtlety isn't a barbarian's strong suit. Skip this feat.
• Tough: Tough makes you even tankier, and effectively provides 4hp per level instead of 2hp because of your Rage mechanics.
• Vigor of the Hill Giant: If this feat works for one class it's the barbarian class. Your Constitution will be sky high and you'll be in the middle of the fray which makes effects that try to move you more common. If you took the Strike of the Giants (Hill Strike) feat and wanted to continue down your path of channeling your inner hill giant, this isn't a terrible pickup.
• War Caster: Barbarians don’t gain anything from War Caster, as they aren’t casters.
• Weapon Master: Barbarians get access to all weapon types they need.

Other Barbarian Guides

• Path of the Giant

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Mike Bernier

Mike Bernier is the lead content writer and founder of Arcane Eye. He is a Mithral best-selling author of Strixhaven: A Syllabus of Sorcery on DMs Guild and is a contributing author at D&D Beyond. Follow Mike on Twitter.