Barbarian Subclasses 5e
Published on December 10, 2024, Last modified on December 12th, 2024
Explore the best Barbarian subclasses in D&D 5e. Discover how each archetype fuels your Barbarian’s reckless Rage!
Dmitry Burmak - Wizards of the Coast - Garruk, Cursed Huntsman (Alternate)
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Learn more.Your Guide to DnD 5e Barbarian Subclasses
The Barbarian’s subclass doesn’t overhaul the core mechanics of reckless Rage, but it’s the lens through which your character channels their fury. Whether it’s primal spirits, totemic guides, or zealous conviction, your subclass shapes the flavor of your rage and how you carve your path through the battlefield.
What is this guide?
This guide is meant as a deep dive into the 5e barbarians subclasses. For the full overview of the barbarian class, check out our barbarian class guide.
To allow you to scan through the options quickly, we use the following color rating scheme:
- Red : Isn’t going to contribute to the effectiveness of your character build at all
- Orange : Situationally good, but a below-average option otherwise
- Green : A good option
- Blue : A great option, you should strongly consider this option for your character
- Sky Blue: An amazing option. If you do not take this option your character would not be optimized
Path of the Ancestral Guardian
As the name implies, the Path of the Ancestral Guardian excels at tanking and protecting your party. For that purpose, this build is one of the best in all of D&D 5e, but if you're looking to maximize damage you won't find that here.
3rd level
- Ancestral Protectors: Ancestral Protectors strongly discourages your enemies from attacking anyone but you when they are affected by it, which is exactly what you want as a Path of the Ancestral Guardian Barbarian.
6th level
- Spirit Shield: An amazing use of your reaction that scales decently well. There’s absolutely no reason not to use this every round of combat unless your Rage wore off. Your party members will be delighted!
10th level
- Consult the Spirits: Augury and Clairvoyance are both powerful utility spells that you can cast without any magical prowess. You can only cast one of them every short rest but that doesn’t detract from how good this feature is. Don’t underestimate the usefulness of Augury, especially when playing with indecisive people.
14th level
- Vengeful Ancestors: Increases the usefulness of your Spirit Shield for free! Redirecting damage from your party members to whatever you’re fighting every single round is really strong.
Path of the Battlerager
Path of the Battlerager is a strange subclass. The most important thing to know is that it is restricted to dwarves, but luckily dwarves are one of the best races for barbarians. Secondly, to even consider playing this subclass you need to make sure that you can get spiked armor. It is probably a good idea to talk to your DM about this and make sure they are willing to let you acquire it relatively early on. Aside from these oddities, the Path of the Battlerager is not particularly strong compared to the other subclass options. It can be fun, however, especially when played as a grappler build.
3rd level
- Battlerager Armor: This is what encourages you to grapple. Not great damage, but it does give an extra attack as a bonus action.
6th level
- Reckless Abandon: Temporary hit points add survivability. They come at the cost of using a Reckless Attack so the mediocre AC of the spiked armor may be problematic.
10th level
- Battlerager Charge: Dashing as a bonus action helps you close distance and get your attacks or grapples in effectively.
14th level
- Spiked Retribution: The damage on its own is quite low but it will add up if you get attacked a lot, which is very probable.
Path of the Berserker
The Path of the Berserker is what most people would associate with the barbarian archetype. If you just want to hit things, and be really good at hitting things, this is the subclass for you. While none of the features are overly exciting or unique, this build is straightforward and effective.
3rd level
- Frenzy: Frenzy makes your damage go through the roof. One level of exhaustion isn’t too backbreaking, but by three levels of exhaustion your character will start having a really tough time doing anything in a fight.
6th level
- Mindless Rage: Smart enemies will try to stop you from participating in the fight if they notice how much damage you can deal. Charmed and frightened are annoying conditions that can be hard to get out of, so Mindless Rage really comes in clutch.
10th level
- Intimidating Presence: Not the best since it uses your action, especially if you are one of the main damage dealers of the group. If for some reason you can’t attack (enemies are out of reach of melee, for example) this is a pretty good way to spend your turn. If you plan on using Intimidating Presence regularly, you probably shouldn’t be dumping your CHA stat.
14th level
- Retaliation: Great way to get in more damage and make use of your reaction when toe to toe with a baddie.
Path of the Giant
Check out our
Path of the Giant 5e guide for a more in-depth breakdown of the Path of the Giant subclass, including build recommendations, playstyle breakdowns, and an example build.
Path of the Storm Herald
The Path of the Storm Herald adapts well to change. Starting at 3rd level, every time you level up you may choose an environment from desert, sea or tundra, and that affects what abilities you have access to. Unfortunately, you don't always level up when it would be ideal and you usually don't know what dangers lie ahead. Still, it's mechanically interesting and will keep things fresh, all while being useful to whatever party makeup you run with.
3rd level
- Storm Aura: Auras are great passive abilities. To keep it going after the turn you start raging you do need to use your bonus action though.
- Desert: The damage isn’t great and it does indiscriminately affect all creatures in the aura. If you want some small AoE damage the Desert aura works well.
- Sea: Only single target, but at least it won’t hurt your allies like the Desert aura. The damage is still pretty low though.
- Tundra: Temporary hit points for everyone in your party! If they are within the aura, that is. Plus you can do this every turn, topping up as you see fit.
6th level
- Storm Soul: If you know that you will come across a lot of fire, lightning, or cold damage, the choice here will be obvious. Nothing here is essential to the subclass so the usefulness really depends on what you will be dealing with in the campaign.
- Desert: Probably the safest bet since there are many sources of devastating fire damage (fireball, anyone?).
- Sea: Unless you care about the lightning damage coming your way, water breathing and swimming speed is very situational.
- Tundra: Not sure what you would use a giant ice cube for, but I’m sure people have found a purpose. Resistance to cold is about as useful as lightning.
10th level
- Shielding Storm: Looks good on paper, but your aura’s radius is quite small and if you know you will be hit with some powerful AoE elemental damage, sticking that close together is a terrible idea.
14th level
- Raging Storm: Makes your aura more useful, so all three options will be quite good.
- Desert: The damage here will never be huge, and there is a DEX save involved. Still, it’s a potential option for your reaction.
- Sea: If you manage to knock your enemy prone, the rest of your attacks will have advantage (this is used as a reaction!). If your rogue friend is higher up in the Initiative order than that enemy, free Sneak Attacks!
- Tundra: Great at preventing a fleeing opponent from doing so.
Path of the Totem Warrior
The Path of the Totem Warrior is the complete package. There are options for tanking, dealing damage, movement capabilities, and aiding your party. On top of that, the gameplay with this subclass is less clear-cut and requires more thinking, making it very fun to play.
The expanded options for the Totem Spirit are the elk and tiger, found in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide.
3rd level
- Spirit Seeker: Not useful most of the time, but a good reason to choose the Animal Handling proficiency when you roll the character.
- Totem Spirit: This is an important choice. While there are five options, only three are worth considering.
- Bear: The bear Totem Spirit feels outright overpowered. Resistance to ALL damage while raging (save for psychic) is insane.
- Eagle: Great if you need some extra mobility on the battlefield.
- Elk: You don’t really need even more movement speed and the eagle is typically better for that purpose.
- Tiger: Jumping is rarely, if ever, beneficial.
- Wolf: If you have other melee party members that can deal loads of damage on attack rolls, the wolf excels. If you have a party full of casters, this does nothing.
6th level
- Aspect of the Beast: You may choose the same animal as at 3rd level or one of the other options.
- Bear: Many people don’t enjoy playing with restrictive carrying capacity or just beg their DM for a Bag of Holding. However, advantage on STR checks comes in handy when trying to force your way through a locked door or other obstacles. Sadly it only works on objects.
- Eagle: Nice for scouting, although Barbarians aren’t typically the choice for the party’s scout. If your race doesn’t have Darkvision then negating disadvantage on Perception checks is great.
- Elk: If you play with travel time between locations and include random encounters, this is pretty useful. If you tend to just skip travel in favor of playing at predetermined locations, avoid the elk here.
- Tiger: Proficiency in two more skills is pretty great, unfortunately two of the four options are already available as class-based skills.
- Wolf: Similar to the elk’s Aspect of the Beast.
10th level
- Spirit Walker: Commune with Nature as a ritual is often useful. If you’re struggling to survive in a new location, you can easily find food and water. It also helps if you’re looking for something in particular, like a building or a magical creature.
14th level
- Totemic Attunement: You may again choose the same animal as at 3rd level or something else.
- Bear: Draws fire from your weaker allies onto yourself. If you chose the bear at 3rd level, you will have resistance to the damage they throw your way anyways.
- Eagle: Flying is endlessly useful, even if it only functions in short bursts. Make sure you have a plan before you launch yourself into the air! Or don’t, you’re a Barbarian after all.
- Elk: Knock enemies prone and deal some damage at the same time as a bonus action. Really annoying to any opponent if you can pull it off regularly.
- Tiger: Bonus action weapon attacks are always great, but you’ll have to fulfill the movement requirement to do so. In tight spaces or places with obstacles you may not be able to use this ability at all.
- Wolf: Another way to knock enemies prone as a bonus action. No added damage but you only have to connect with an attack to use it, so your next attack can be with advantage. Choosing between this or the elk is a personal preference.
Path of the Zealot
Cool for roleplay. Dying becomes more of an inconvenience than a game ending problem. Coupled with a bit of extra damage, the Path of the Zealot is a fine subclass but lacks any serious direction.
3rd level
- Divine Fury: Straightforward added damage on your attack. A portion of creatures do have necrotic damage immunity, but radiant damage less so.
- Warrior of the Gods: Barbarians aren’t afraid of dying, and Warrior of the Gods makes coming back way more convenient. Spells like Raise Dead become practically free to use on you.
6th level
- Fanatical Focus: Outright saves you from dying from powerful effects with a saving throw.
10th level
- Zealous Presence: In a huge battle this ability gives your party a sort of “super” turn with advantage on attack rolls and saving throws. Would be a lot nicer if it worked on you as well though.
14th level
- Rage beyond Death: You basically can’t die while raging. If you have a way to heal yourself for a small amount of hit points (magic item, potion of healing, etc.) then do so before ending rage so you don’t die.
Sources Used in This Guide
- : 2014 Player's Handbook
- 2024 PHB: 2024 Player's Handbook
- BR: Basic Rules
- GotG: Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants
- SotDQ: Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen
- ERLW: Eberron: Rising from the Last War
- EEPC: Elemental Evil Player’s Companion
- EGtW: Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount
- FToD: Fizban's Treasury of Dragon
- GGtR: Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica
- MotM: Monsters of the Multiverse
- MToF: Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes
- MOoT: Mythic Odyessys of Theros
- PAitM: Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse
- PHB: Player's Handbook
- SAiS: Spelljammer: Adventures in Space
- SCoC: Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos
- SCAG: Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide
- TCoE: Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
- TTP: The Tortle Package
- WBtW: The Wild Beyond The Witchlight
- : Unearthed Arcana
- VRGtR: Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft
- VGtM: Volo's Guide to Monsters
- XGtE: Xanathar’s Guide to Everything
Other Barbarian Guides
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