I'm kind of obsessed with damage, at least with martial classes, so I'm always crunching numbers with builds. Long story short, a forum member suggested I even-out my odd strength score with the Skill Expert feat, and put expertise into athletics. It would take advantage of my rages, which already gives advantage on strength checks - and this is something I have always neglected.
So this got me thinking about all the ways I can exploit this. I rolled for stats, so at level 5 I will have +11 to Athletics checks! If you're fighting in a dynamic environment there are so many ways you can take advantage of this. But we don't always get to roll, so if point buy I would say get your strength to 17, take Skill Master, then at level 8 Shield Master comes online.
As for the race and build, there are many ways to skin this cat. You can also easily build something effective while taking Shield Master at level 4. With a high strength and advantage on STR checks, expertise is just taking it to a ridiculous level. So, to the point:
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Shield Master
You use shields not just for protection but also for offense. You gain the following benefits while you are wielding a shield:
If you take the Attack action on your turn, you can use a bonus action to try to shove a creature within 5 feet of you with your shield.
If you aren’t incapacitated, you can add your shield’s AC bonus to any Dexterity saving throw you make against a spell or other harmful effect that targets only you.
If you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you can use your reaction to take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, interposing your shield between yourself and the source of the effect.
- Advantage on Strength Checks: This is alone is a HUGE boon to a shield master. You're going to be knocking people all over the battlefield at will.
- With no heavy armor, a player should at least have a 14 Dex to maximize medium armor. Possibly more, especially if you're using unarmored defense.
- Advantage on Dex Saving throws. Good for fireballs, dragon breath, and more. Make your save and you take zero damage. Proficiency in Dex saves as well would be lovely, but just having advantage makes a big difference.
The downside with sword and board, of course, is damage. Polearm master + GWM and all that can put up big numbers, especially combined with reckless attack. But the thing is some Barbarian subclasses compensate for that to a large degree. The Zealot gives you 1d6 plus half your level damage per turn. You can carry a shield and spear, and still get your polearm master bonus attack. You go Path of the Beast and at level 5 hold a shield and still have 3 attacks: Claw - Claw - Claw - bonus action shove.
All of this an the benefit of +2 to your AC. It's a great balance of big damage, big defense, and battlefield control. And it's a nice way to mix things up instead of, "I attack. I attack" every turn.
For anyone interested, we're level 4 now (Beast Barbarian) so I've had 2 sessions play testing it. It's amazing! Bonus action shove is one more action to break an enemy spell caster's concentration. While raging it is SUPER reliable.
A mage hit us with Fireball. Because of Danger Sense I got to roll my Dex Save with advantage and take ZERO damage.
Level 5 shat gets real. Grow a tail: Grapple - Tail Attack - Bonus Action Shove Prone. Next Round: Enemy must contest a raging Barbarian's Athletics check just to stand up. Enemy more likely to fail than not. If it succeeds it wastes its action doing so. If it fails, oops better luck next turn - here's two tail attacks.
I love Shield Master feat, but it was nerfed big time. However, even if you play the non-nerfed version (doing the bonus action shove before attack), you can accomplish exactly the same with PAM by level 5.
Take the attack action; replace your first attack for a shove attempt and follow-up with one regular attack and the BA attack from PAM. It’s precisely the same effect Shield Master causes. You can still do that holding a Shield & Spear if you want to leverage the +2 AC.
I love Shield Master feat, but it was nerfed big time. However, even if you play the non-nerfed version (doing the bonus action shove before attack), you can accomplish exactly the same with PAM by level 5.
Take the attack action; replace your first attack for a shove attempt and follow-up with one regular attack and the BA attack from PAM. It’s precisely the same effect Shield Master causes. You can still do that holding a Shield & Spear if you want to leverage the +2 AC.
You have to have a free hand to grapple or to attack. With my tail + shield:
Anything that misty steps or teleports can get out of grapple and prone very easily. And there are a fair few things that can do things like this or your DM can choose to add this to. So it is something to be aware of. Also Freedom of movement will break it as well. Grapple and prone is some of the first attempts at cheese people came up with for 5e and a lot of DM's have found a lot of creative ways to break it.
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I'm kind of obsessed with damage, at least with martial classes, so I'm always crunching numbers with builds. Long story short, a forum member suggested I even-out my odd strength score with the Skill Expert feat, and put expertise into athletics. It would take advantage of my rages, which already gives advantage on strength checks - and this is something I have always neglected.
So this got me thinking about all the ways I can exploit this. I rolled for stats, so at level 5 I will have +11 to Athletics checks! If you're fighting in a dynamic environment there are so many ways you can take advantage of this. But we don't always get to roll, so if point buy I would say get your strength to 17, take Skill Master, then at level 8 Shield Master comes online.
As for the race and build, there are many ways to skin this cat. You can also easily build something effective while taking Shield Master at level 4. With a high strength and advantage on STR checks, expertise is just taking it to a ridiculous level. So, to the point:
______________________________________________
Shield Master
You use shields not just for protection but also for offense. You gain the following benefits while you are wielding a shield:
_________________________________________________________
The Barbarian gets
- Advantage on Strength Checks: This is alone is a HUGE boon to a shield master. You're going to be knocking people all over the battlefield at will.
- With no heavy armor, a player should at least have a 14 Dex to maximize medium armor. Possibly more, especially if you're using unarmored defense.
- Advantage on Dex Saving throws. Good for fireballs, dragon breath, and more. Make your save and you take zero damage. Proficiency in Dex saves as well would be lovely, but just having advantage makes a big difference.
The downside with sword and board, of course, is damage. Polearm master + GWM and all that can put up big numbers, especially combined with reckless attack. But the thing is some Barbarian subclasses compensate for that to a large degree. The Zealot gives you 1d6 plus half your level damage per turn. You can carry a shield and spear, and still get your polearm master bonus attack. You go Path of the Beast and at level 5 hold a shield and still have 3 attacks: Claw - Claw - Claw - bonus action shove.
All of this an the benefit of +2 to your AC. It's a great balance of big damage, big defense, and battlefield control. And it's a nice way to mix things up instead of, "I attack. I attack" every turn.
For anyone interested, we're level 4 now (Beast Barbarian) so I've had 2 sessions play testing it. It's amazing! Bonus action shove is one more action to break an enemy spell caster's concentration. While raging it is SUPER reliable.
A mage hit us with Fireball. Because of Danger Sense I got to roll my Dex Save with advantage and take ZERO damage.
Level 5 shat gets real. Grow a tail: Grapple - Tail Attack - Bonus Action Shove Prone. Next Round: Enemy must contest a raging Barbarian's Athletics check just to stand up. Enemy more likely to fail than not. If it succeeds it wastes its action doing so. If it fails, oops better luck next turn - here's two tail attacks.
I love Shield Master feat, but it was nerfed big time. However, even if you play the non-nerfed version (doing the bonus action shove before attack), you can accomplish exactly the same with PAM by level 5.
Take the attack action; replace your first attack for a shove attempt and follow-up with one regular attack and the BA attack from PAM. It’s precisely the same effect Shield Master causes. You can still do that holding a Shield & Spear if you want to leverage the +2 AC.
You have to have a free hand to grapple or to attack. With my tail + shield:
First Round: 1: Attack 2: Grapple 3: Bonus Action Shove Prone
(The enemy must attack with disadvantage or waste its action trying to escape my grapple)
Second Round: 1: Attack 2: Attack - both with advantage without having to use reckless attack.
There's no other way to use this tactic, that I'm aware of.
We're at level 5 now. So far Shield Master has saved me from 1 Fireball, and 2 unspecified spells that have a Dex save. 0 damage.
Anything that misty steps or teleports can get out of grapple and prone very easily. And there are a fair few things that can do things like this or your DM can choose to add this to. So it is something to be aware of. Also Freedom of movement will break it as well. Grapple and prone is some of the first attempts at cheese people came up with for 5e and a lot of DM's have found a lot of creative ways to break it.