Hi, my first character in 5e is a half-orc barbarian and I'm looking for some input into possible paths to level him into.
I plan on taking the first 5 levels in barbarian, probably bear totem. Then I'm undecided which way to go.
I'm leaning towards the next 3 levels in champion fighter, but not committed.
My main question is what to do for level 9. My DM says this campaign should wrap up sometime in the early teens level wise so the end game skills aren't on the table. The main options I'm weighing are the 2-3 ASI if I stick with fighter vs 1 if I go back to barb. Barb also gets advantage to initiative and brutal crit but the 6th level totem is meh. Or maybe I should just go straight barb all the way?
RP wise I'm fine playing it whichever way it goes. I'm just looking for some input from some more experienced players.
If you're planning to be the tank, Relentless Rage at 11th level is nice but if the campaign will end between level 14 and 15 you might not get much use out of it if your multiclass early. You don't need to multiclass at all but Fighter does have some nice stuff at 1st and 2nd level. If you're not really concerned with Relentless Rage I would go Barbarian to 5, then Fighter to 3, then back to Barbarian until the campaign is done.
I understand your concern about ASIs, but if you take 5 or more levels of Fighter after taking 5 levels of Barbarian the only thing you'll get at level 10 is some extra HP as Extra Attack from multiple classes doesn't stack.
If you are new, I’d recommend not multi-classing. It’s hard to make a sub-par character in this edition, but poor multi classing is really the way. And barbs get cool stuff every level. ASIs are nice, but your class abilities are going to be just as good.
Hi, my first character in 5e is a half-orc barbarian and I'm looking for some input into possible paths to level him into.
I plan on taking the first 5 levels in barbarian, probably bear totem. Then I'm undecided which way to go.
I'm leaning towards the next 3 levels in champion fighter, but not committed.
My main question is what to do for level 9. My DM says this campaign should wrap up sometime in the early teens level wise so the end game skills aren't on the table. The main options I'm weighing are the 2-3 ASI if I stick with fighter vs 1 if I go back to barb. Barb also gets advantage to initiative and brutal crit but the 6th level totem is meh. Or maybe I should just go straight barb all the way?
RP wise I'm fine playing it whichever way it goes. I'm just looking for some input from some more experienced players.
Definitely don't mix Barb 5 with Fighter 5, the overlap is tragic. If you're going with this plan, plan to stop at Fighter 4. Champion is pretty ok for crit-fishing with Reckless Attack and Brutal Critical - are you a half-orc, perchance? Half-Orc Champion Barbarians are a sight to behold. Don't underestimate the utility of the L6 Eagle totem - it stops you from having disadvantage on perception when you're using darkvision to see, which, if you have darkvision, should generally be Plan A.
You'd go to fighter 5 if you were planning the opposite build - Barb 3-4/Fighter X. But you already said you want Barb 5, so embrace it.
How about the benefit of a 4th rage per day? If that extra one per day at barb 6 adds something that might sway me a bit one way or the other.
Have you played long enough with this DM/in this campaign to know what their style is? Extra rages are always nice, but much more significant if your DM likes to have a lot of encounters in between long rests. Of you're generally just doing 1 big encounters per day then the extra rage doesn't matter quite as much. That being said, a barbarian with no rages left and a serious fight on their hands is a sad barbarian.
Thanks for everyone's input. I forgot to mention that its a 4 person party and I'm the only really tanky character.
I'm kind of thinking that dipping into champion mostly helps damage and looking again at later barb levels the initiative advantage and relentless rage are probably better for my party role. So I'm leaning towards straight barb now.
Also, how about this thought, my wisdom is 13 and as the encounters get harder taking resilient wisdom at 8 would help shore up that weakness?
Thanks for everyone's input. I forgot to mention that its a 4 person party and I'm the only really tanky character.
I'm kind of thinking that dipping into champion mostly helps damage and looking again at later barb levels the initiative advantage and relentless rage are probably better for my party role. So I'm leaning towards straight barb now.
Also, how about this thought, my wisdom is 13 and as the encounters get harder taking resilient wisdom at 8 would help shore up that weakness?
Any more suggestions are very much welcome.
If you want to tank, Totem and Ancestral Guardian are the bee's knees, so to speak. If you're interested in Wisdom, Totem gets even better, as at L6 Eagle is even more tempting.
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Hi, my first character in 5e is a half-orc barbarian and I'm looking for some input into possible paths to level him into.
I plan on taking the first 5 levels in barbarian, probably bear totem. Then I'm undecided which way to go.
I'm leaning towards the next 3 levels in champion fighter, but not committed.
My main question is what to do for level 9. My DM says this campaign should wrap up sometime in the early teens level wise so the end game skills aren't on the table. The main options I'm weighing are the 2-3 ASI if I stick with fighter vs 1 if I go back to barb. Barb also gets advantage to initiative and brutal crit but the 6th level totem is meh. Or maybe I should just go straight barb all the way?
RP wise I'm fine playing it whichever way it goes. I'm just looking for some input from some more experienced players.
If you're planning to be the tank, Relentless Rage at 11th level is nice but if the campaign will end between level 14 and 15 you might not get much use out of it if your multiclass early. You don't need to multiclass at all but Fighter does have some nice stuff at 1st and 2nd level. If you're not really concerned with Relentless Rage I would go Barbarian to 5, then Fighter to 3, then back to Barbarian until the campaign is done.
What do you think about the ASI difference? We are using standard array so stats aren't especially high and I'd like to take GWM at some point.
Personally I prefer Feats early ASI later. So I would take GWM at Barbarian 4 and then ASIs.
I understand your concern about ASIs, but if you take 5 or more levels of Fighter after taking 5 levels of Barbarian the only thing you'll get at level 10 is some extra HP as Extra Attack from multiple classes doesn't stack.
How about the benefit of a 4th rage per day? If that extra one per day at barb 6 adds something that might sway me a bit one way or the other.
If you are new, I’d recommend not multi-classing. It’s hard to make a sub-par character in this edition, but poor multi classing is really the way. And barbs get cool stuff every level. ASIs are nice, but your class abilities are going to be just as good.
Definitely don't mix Barb 5 with Fighter 5, the overlap is tragic. If you're going with this plan, plan to stop at Fighter 4. Champion is pretty ok for crit-fishing with Reckless Attack and Brutal Critical - are you a half-orc, perchance? Half-Orc Champion Barbarians are a sight to behold. Don't underestimate the utility of the L6 Eagle totem - it stops you from having disadvantage on perception when you're using darkvision to see, which, if you have darkvision, should generally be Plan A.
You'd go to fighter 5 if you were planning the opposite build - Barb 3-4/Fighter X. But you already said you want Barb 5, so embrace it.
Have you played long enough with this DM/in this campaign to know what their style is? Extra rages are always nice, but much more significant if your DM likes to have a lot of encounters in between long rests. Of you're generally just doing 1 big encounters per day then the extra rage doesn't matter quite as much. That being said, a barbarian with no rages left and a serious fight on their hands is a sad barbarian.
Thanks for everyone's input. I forgot to mention that its a 4 person party and I'm the only really tanky character.
I'm kind of thinking that dipping into champion mostly helps damage and looking again at later barb levels the initiative advantage and relentless rage are probably better for my party role. So I'm leaning towards straight barb now.
Also, how about this thought, my wisdom is 13 and as the encounters get harder taking resilient wisdom at 8 would help shore up that weakness?
Any more suggestions are very much welcome.
If you want to tank, Totem and Ancestral Guardian are the bee's knees, so to speak. If you're interested in Wisdom, Totem gets even better, as at L6 Eagle is even more tempting.