So I am just wondering if a Wizarian would be a possibility. Like what levels of each would start making things more viable for each other. Which would be the start class and possibly what race would work best.
it depends on what you're trying to do. Very little of Wizard and Barbarian actually work together. How do you envision the character playing? Whats' the goal of the multi-class?
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Wizarian really starts to shine at Barb 3/Wizard 0 and fully comes into its own at Barb 20/Wizard 0
But seriously, there's no apparent synergy here. Barbarians are almost entirely built around Rage, and Rage shuts down all spellcasting and concentration. They were designed to be incompatible. You can look at spells that you can cast ahead of time that don't require concentration and see if any of those would help a barbarian do barbarian things. Certainly nothing from barbarian helps a wizard do wizard things, aside from I guess CON save proficiency and Danger Sense.
If you want to mix with a caster, there may be better fits. Warlock's Armor of Agathys stands out, and they have some handy invocations. Bard's college of swords might not be terrible. Moon Druid is a classic MC with barbarian for Rage + Wild Shape, and you can cast spells outside of combat if that's what you're looking for.
As other have said, the primary feature of a Barb is Rage, and that shuts down spellcasting. In addition, INT is often a dump stat for a Barb, whereas it is the primary stat for Wizards.
What you would end up with is a one-or-the-other situation: You're either acting as a Barbarian, or as a Wizard. They don't really work together at all. You'd be able to choose which you were playing at any one time, but each would be much worse than one on their own. It would be possible for the RP to be fun, as a Jekyl and Hyde or Banner and Hulk character, but I expect they would be very weak mechanically, which would dilute that enjoyment at best.
There is 1 Wizard subclass that is compatible with a Barb Multiclass. A 2 level War Magic Wizard Dip is surprisingly good with a Barb. Tactical Wit gives you a little bonus to initiative rolls, while Arcane Deflection is usable while you are Raging. Going this route I would suggest filling your spellbook with Rituals that are effective outside of combat, spells like Detect Magic and Find Familiar. While your non Ritual spells can include Absorb Elements and Shield. Yes I know you can't cast these spells while raging BUT you can cast them if somebody attacks you before your first turn to mitigate that damage. If you are crazy enough to go 3 levels wizard you can even pick up Mirror Image which you cast on your 1st turn before you Rage if your enemies are too far to reach on that turn.
I always envisioned roleplaying this character as being exiled from his tribe for being too smart because he was rocking 13 Intelligence lol.
Sure its possible. Feasible, though? That's a completely different question.
Rage Shuts down concentration and spellcasting, meaning there are not many spells you could cast before a rage anyway.
But If you really want to do something like this for more utility out of combat, then bard or druid may be better.
One amazing idea would be to Cast Forcecage before raging, locking yourself in an inescapable cube/cage. Scream "Welcome to the thunderdome" before going ham on them to get some more wwe effect. Then again, Wall of force is available to bards at lv 14 through magical secrets.
And Lastly, if you want a barbarian with spellcasting to enhance their combat, paladin is certainly better in terms of multiclassing. Feel free to take two levels of paladin and then take levels in bard to get some more utility spells and get better spellcasting quicker.
You could just take utility spells for out of combat. Alternatively, some spell that can be used to initiate combat like invis or that can be used to escape encounters could work
There are quite some useful spells. Whether those are worth the dip is up to you and probably depends on the rest of the party:
e.g. message, mending, mage hand, invisibility, find familiar, disguise self, feather fall, rope trick, suggestion, sending, dimention door
In a friends campaign I play an Eladrin Bladesinger Wizard/ Barbarian multiclass, a dodge tank. ( We rolled for stats *3d6 reroll 1s once* and didn't use point buy and I rolled very good STR 14, DEX19*17+2 Racial mod*, CON 16, INT 18*17+1 Racial mod* ,WIS 15, CHA 13).
He's an explorer/researcher but when he gets mad watch out.
My first two levels were Wizard, my starting AC with mage armor was 17 +shield spell 22 AC. 2nd level was also Wizard to get Bladesong, to add INT mod to AC to get to 21 (26 SHIELD SPELL). Then at 3rd level Barbarian for unarmored defense for a base 17 AC and an option to Rage after spell slots and Bladesongs are gone.
4th and 5th level wizard for spellslots and an Ability Score Improvement, Feat, Resilient, +1 DEX (20) AND proficiency in DEX saves. Maxing out my AC at 18 base and 27 max. Later on in Bladesinger, you can expend spell slots to reduce damage when you are hit. That Class Feature as far as I can tell can still be used while raging "If you are able to cast spells, you can’t cast them or concentrate on them while raging." From the Barbarian Rage description.
FRONTLINE WIZARD FTW!
But really, this build probably isn't very good or even possible unless you roll for stats and get lucky though. Wizarians as stated by others don't really work in standard DND.
Wizard is super flexible. I don't know if it's optimal, but with a 1 level dip you can tailor your spell list to enhance what a barbarian already does.
Shield and absorb elements are great to have when you don't win initiative and get hit before you can activate rage, keeps you tanky. Help actions from a familiar can replace reckless attack altogether and keep you tankier while striking with advantage. Jump and longstrider make any martial character better and help to close the gap between you and your enemies. Then there's endless out of combat utility to be had...
With more than one level dip, abjuration, war magic and bladesinging are your most complimentary options, but again wizard is super flexible, any subclass can work, and a dip can be useful even on a character with 13 int.
See, in a one on one fight a barbarian has a fifty-fifty shot at winning but YOU, you got a 75% chance at winning AT LEAST because the other guy, well he's just not gonna try because he KNOWS you're gonna win. So in a two-on-one against you, you take your 50% and add the 75% which gives you 125% at beating two enemies or a 62.5% chance at beating one of them. But then you add your 75% to your 62.5% because one of them already knows they've lost and you get a 137.5% chance at winning against the other guy. The numbers don't lie, and they spell disaster for your enemies.
Introducing Hott Steamer (Scott Steiner... okay it's not great but neither was his maths!) the Fire Genasi Gladiator DivWiz-3/TotemBarb-17. It actually turned out better than expected. You want to finish on 18/12/20/16/08/10 with your start being 13/12/14/15/08/10 before racials and taking Tavern Brawl (+1 Str) somewhere down the track after you've hit 20 in Con. Go crazy with spells but look at a Hands & Mouths theme (magic mouth, shocking grasp, mage hand...) and tailor your Totems as you like.
High level wizard mid to low level barbarian. Cast simulacrum and have your clone (clones if done right) beast mode as you cast from back ground. When out of slots change up and go beast mode and have clones cast in back ground. Perfect synergy and Mashup.
The post above about War Magic and Barbarian is the best combo I know of. The War wizard provides a spell free way to improve AC and Saves which is great. Two levels means you have 8 spells in your book along with 3 cantrips. I recommend one ranged cantrip (chill touch or firebolt), booming blade, and mage hand. Booming blade is extremely useful against flying swooping animals or hit and run tactic enemies where you need to ready an action to strike when something is in range, now it can't move away if you hit. Spell wise I agree with the above that you want shield/abs elements/feather fall (a lot of AoE's tend to hit round one and you might not be raging yet). You also want non concentration long duration spells: charm person, disguise self, false life, longstrider. Finally rituals for out of combat play: Find familiar, detect magic, identify, floating disc, alarm, unseen servant, comprehend languages. I would go 2 reactions, 3 long durations, 3 rituals for your 8 spells. With an Int of 14 you will be prepping 4 spells at 2nd level. As you level you can add more 1st level spells and if you don't have a ritual caster in the party I recommend adding more of the rituals to your spellbook. The main purpose of going to level 3 wizard is to double your slots and grab mirror image, maybe air bubble, darkvision if you don't have it, maybe some of the rituals. Outside of level 3 nothing is really going to boost your martil prowess much.
Ability scores via point buy: Str 15, Dex 13, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 8, Cha 8 with 2 points to put around where you want. Use your species points to pull up str and dex to at least 16,14.
You are going to be stuck in medium armor with this build. The warlock version of this can multi class earlier and grab EB+AB+Hex to offset extra attack delays, but for the wizard you don't really have that option so go straight to Barb 5 before adding wizard. If you get a first level feat ala Spelljammer/Dragonlance/One D&D grabbing Hex is nice to add for when you aren't raging. On my barbarian Warlock I grabbed tough to offset the lower con for more HP.
Mage armor, fire shield and mirror image could work well.
Mirror Image is useful if you do not mind the 3 level dip but the other 2 options are a little dubious. Chances are your Unarmored Defense or just wearing medium armor is superior to Mage Armor and getting 7 levels of Wizard with a Barb multiclass to get access to Fire Shield seems a like a bit of a waste.
Ive tried a Wild Magic Barbarian / War Magic wizard multiclass (just a few levels in wizard for the utility spells and Arcane Deflection) as well as a Battlerager Barbarian / Armorer Artificer multiclass (just a few levels in Barbarian for Rage and initial subclass features). Between the two, I think I enjoyed the Barb/Artificer multiclass more than the Barb Wizard. With Artificer, you still get utility spells to use outside of combat, the ability to ritual cast to make up for less spell slots, and infusions that can be applied to your gear to enhance your melee presence.
That being said, if you are dead set on Barbarian + Wizard, I think the subclasses with the best synergy would be either Bladesigner (since Bladesong can be active during Rage) or War Magic (since Arcane Deflection can be used during Rage). There is actually a big thread someone made that outlines possible spellcaster synergy for Barbarians pretty well. I will link it here if I manage to find it.
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So I am just wondering if a Wizarian would be a possibility. Like what levels of each would start making things more viable for each other. Which would be the start class and possibly what race would work best.
Barbarian's unarmored featured + Bladesong
MAD but a 20 AC is possible and if things get dicey you can jump up to 25 AC. All you need is two levels of barbarian and 20 in three stats Dex, Con, Int. Bladesong works while raging. Go a little farther into barbarian and pick bear totem, now you take half damage (unless it's psychic) if you ever get hit. Mirror Image and Blink are your best friends, cast before raging for maximum efficiency. I like a little Artificer at the end to give you the Armorer's distracting gauntlets. Play around with the levels if you want to be more martial or more caster, or for whatever fits your backstory. I had a Shadar-kai Elf "shaman" with this build. Used a rock for a spellbook, as he was illiterate. Tons of fun and pretty powerful.
Mark of the Ward Dwarf, Totem barbarian+ abjuration wizard.
Mark of the Ward Dwarf -Armor of agathys
Totem barbarian - Rage for all resistances
abjuration wizard- arcane ward for infinite health.
First feat - Eldritch addept so you can get armor of shadows that you can spam Mage armor abjuration even in rage as it is an invocation so it can be cast.
If you want you can also get 2 lw in paladin if the stats permit it so you gave divine smite for the rest of the slots.
Mark of the Ward Dwarf, Totem barbarian+ abjuration wizard.
Mark of the Ward Dwarf -Armor of agathys
Totem barbarian - Rage for all resistances
abjuration wizard- arcane ward for infinite health.
First feat - Eldritch addept so you can get armor of shadows that you can spam Mage armor abjuration even in rage as it is an invocation so it can be cast.
If you want you can also get 2 lw in paladin if the stats permit it so you gave divine smite for the rest of the slots.
While cool on paper I would like to point out that the Arcane Ward hp is capped by Wizard level + INT modifier so it is not "infinite" and unless you invest in a fair amount of Wizard levels it will not absorb very much damage before needing to be recharged.
Also you cannot cast Mage Armor while Raging even if you get it from Eldritch Adept.
So I am just wondering if a Wizarian would be a possibility. Like what levels of each would start making things more viable for each other. Which would be the start class and possibly what race would work best.
it depends on what you're trying to do. Very little of Wizard and Barbarian actually work together. How do you envision the character playing? Whats' the goal of the multi-class?
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Wizarian really starts to shine at Barb 3/Wizard 0 and fully comes into its own at Barb 20/Wizard 0
But seriously, there's no apparent synergy here. Barbarians are almost entirely built around Rage, and Rage shuts down all spellcasting and concentration. They were designed to be incompatible. You can look at spells that you can cast ahead of time that don't require concentration and see if any of those would help a barbarian do barbarian things. Certainly nothing from barbarian helps a wizard do wizard things, aside from I guess CON save proficiency and Danger Sense.
If you want to mix with a caster, there may be better fits. Warlock's Armor of Agathys stands out, and they have some handy invocations. Bard's college of swords might not be terrible. Moon Druid is a classic MC with barbarian for Rage + Wild Shape, and you can cast spells outside of combat if that's what you're looking for.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
As other have said, the primary feature of a Barb is Rage, and that shuts down spellcasting. In addition, INT is often a dump stat for a Barb, whereas it is the primary stat for Wizards.
What you would end up with is a one-or-the-other situation: You're either acting as a Barbarian, or as a Wizard. They don't really work together at all. You'd be able to choose which you were playing at any one time, but each would be much worse than one on their own. It would be possible for the RP to be fun, as a Jekyl and Hyde or Banner and Hulk character, but I expect they would be very weak mechanically, which would dilute that enjoyment at best.
There is 1 Wizard subclass that is compatible with a Barb Multiclass. A 2 level War Magic Wizard Dip is surprisingly good with a Barb. Tactical Wit gives you a little bonus to initiative rolls, while Arcane Deflection is usable while you are Raging. Going this route I would suggest filling your spellbook with Rituals that are effective outside of combat, spells like Detect Magic and Find Familiar. While your non Ritual spells can include Absorb Elements and Shield. Yes I know you can't cast these spells while raging BUT you can cast them if somebody attacks you before your first turn to mitigate that damage. If you are crazy enough to go 3 levels wizard you can even pick up Mirror Image which you cast on your 1st turn before you Rage if your enemies are too far to reach on that turn.
I always envisioned roleplaying this character as being exiled from his tribe for being too smart because he was rocking 13 Intelligence lol.
Sure its possible. Feasible, though? That's a completely different question.
Rage Shuts down concentration and spellcasting, meaning there are not many spells you could cast before a rage anyway.
But If you really want to do something like this for more utility out of combat, then bard or druid may be better.
One amazing idea would be to Cast Forcecage before raging, locking yourself in an inescapable cube/cage. Scream "Welcome to the thunderdome" before going ham on them to get some more wwe effect. Then again, Wall of force is available to bards at lv 14 through magical secrets.
And Lastly, if you want a barbarian with spellcasting to enhance their combat, paladin is certainly better in terms of multiclassing. Feel free to take two levels of paladin and then take levels in bard to get some more utility spells and get better spellcasting quicker.
You could just take utility spells for out of combat. Alternatively, some spell that can be used to initiate combat like invis or that can be used to escape encounters could work
There are quite some useful spells. Whether those are worth the dip is up to you and probably depends on the rest of the party:
e.g. message, mending, mage hand, invisibility, find familiar, disguise self, feather fall, rope trick, suggestion, sending, dimention door
This is nice thematically though. I like the RP options here.
Chilling kinda vibe.
In a friends campaign I play an Eladrin Bladesinger Wizard/ Barbarian multiclass, a dodge tank. ( We rolled for stats *3d6 reroll 1s once* and didn't use point buy and I rolled very good STR 14, DEX19*17+2 Racial mod*, CON 16, INT 18*17+1 Racial mod* ,WIS 15, CHA 13).
He's an explorer/researcher but when he gets mad watch out.
My first two levels were Wizard, my starting AC with mage armor was 17 +shield spell 22 AC. 2nd level was also Wizard to get Bladesong, to add INT mod to AC to get to 21 (26 SHIELD SPELL). Then at 3rd level Barbarian for unarmored defense for a base 17 AC and an option to Rage after spell slots and Bladesongs are gone.
4th and 5th level wizard for spellslots and an Ability Score Improvement, Feat, Resilient, +1 DEX (20) AND proficiency in DEX saves. Maxing out my AC at 18 base and 27 max. Later on in Bladesinger, you can expend spell slots to reduce damage when you are hit. That Class Feature as far as I can tell can still be used while raging "If you are able to cast spells, you can’t cast them or concentrate on them while raging." From the Barbarian Rage description.
FRONTLINE WIZARD FTW!
But really, this build probably isn't very good or even possible unless you roll for stats and get lucky though. Wizarians as stated by others don't really work in standard DND.
Wizard is super flexible. I don't know if it's optimal, but with a 1 level dip you can tailor your spell list to enhance what a barbarian already does.
Shield and absorb elements are great to have when you don't win initiative and get hit before you can activate rage, keeps you tanky. Help actions from a familiar can replace reckless attack altogether and keep you tankier while striking with advantage. Jump and longstrider make any martial character better and help to close the gap between you and your enemies. Then there's endless out of combat utility to be had...
With more than one level dip, abjuration, war magic and bladesinging are your most complimentary options, but again wizard is super flexible, any subclass can work, and a dip can be useful even on a character with 13 int.
If you're serious about a Barb/Wiz multi...
See, in a one on one fight a barbarian has a fifty-fifty shot at winning but YOU, you got a 75% chance at winning AT LEAST because the other guy, well he's just not gonna try because he KNOWS you're gonna win. So in a two-on-one against you, you take your 50% and add the 75% which gives you 125% at beating two enemies or a 62.5% chance at beating one of them. But then you add your 75% to your 62.5% because one of them already knows they've lost and you get a 137.5% chance at winning against the other guy. The numbers don't lie, and they spell disaster for your enemies.
Introducing Hott Steamer (Scott Steiner... okay it's not great but neither was his maths!) the Fire Genasi Gladiator DivWiz-3/TotemBarb-17. It actually turned out better than expected. You want to finish on 18/12/20/16/08/10 with your start being 13/12/14/15/08/10 before racials and taking Tavern Brawl (+1 Str) somewhere down the track after you've hit 20 in Con. Go crazy with spells but look at a Hands & Mouths theme (magic mouth, shocking grasp, mage hand...) and tailor your Totems as you like.
High level wizard mid to low level barbarian. Cast simulacrum and have your clone (clones if done right) beast mode as you cast from back ground. When out of slots change up and go beast mode and have clones cast in back ground. Perfect synergy and Mashup.
The post above about War Magic and Barbarian is the best combo I know of. The War wizard provides a spell free way to improve AC and Saves which is great. Two levels means you have 8 spells in your book along with 3 cantrips. I recommend one ranged cantrip (chill touch or firebolt), booming blade, and mage hand. Booming blade is extremely useful against flying swooping animals or hit and run tactic enemies where you need to ready an action to strike when something is in range, now it can't move away if you hit.
Spell wise I agree with the above that you want shield/abs elements/feather fall (a lot of AoE's tend to hit round one and you might not be raging yet). You also want non concentration long duration spells: charm person, disguise self, false life, longstrider. Finally rituals for out of combat play: Find familiar, detect magic, identify, floating disc, alarm, unseen servant, comprehend languages. I would go 2 reactions, 3 long durations, 3 rituals for your 8 spells. With an Int of 14 you will be prepping 4 spells at 2nd level. As you level you can add more 1st level spells and if you don't have a ritual caster in the party I recommend adding more of the rituals to your spellbook. The main purpose of going to level 3 wizard is to double your slots and grab mirror image, maybe air bubble, darkvision if you don't have it, maybe some of the rituals. Outside of level 3 nothing is really going to boost your martil prowess much.
Ability scores via point buy: Str 15, Dex 13, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 8, Cha 8 with 2 points to put around where you want. Use your species points to pull up str and dex to at least 16,14.
You are going to be stuck in medium armor with this build. The warlock version of this can multi class earlier and grab EB+AB+Hex to offset extra attack delays, but for the wizard you don't really have that option so go straight to Barb 5 before adding wizard. If you get a first level feat ala Spelljammer/Dragonlance/One D&D grabbing Hex is nice to add for when you aren't raging. On my barbarian Warlock I grabbed tough to offset the lower con for more HP.
Mage armor, fire shield and mirror image could work well.
Mirror Image is useful if you do not mind the 3 level dip but the other 2 options are a little dubious. Chances are your Unarmored Defense or just wearing medium armor is superior to Mage Armor and getting 7 levels of Wizard with a Barb multiclass to get access to Fire Shield seems a like a bit of a waste.
Ive tried a Wild Magic Barbarian / War Magic wizard multiclass (just a few levels in wizard for the utility spells and Arcane Deflection) as well as a Battlerager Barbarian / Armorer Artificer multiclass (just a few levels in Barbarian for Rage and initial subclass features). Between the two, I think I enjoyed the Barb/Artificer multiclass more than the Barb Wizard. With Artificer, you still get utility spells to use outside of combat, the ability to ritual cast to make up for less spell slots, and infusions that can be applied to your gear to enhance your melee presence.
That being said, if you are dead set on Barbarian + Wizard, I think the subclasses with the best synergy would be either Bladesigner (since Bladesong can be active during Rage) or War Magic (since Arcane Deflection can be used during Rage). There is actually a big thread someone made that outlines possible spellcaster synergy for Barbarians pretty well. I will link it here if I manage to find it.
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
I'd recommend picking up tavern brawler so you can use an iron skillet as your weapon. Then you just yell out "I cast IRON" whenever you attack.
Barbarian's unarmored featured + Bladesong
MAD but a 20 AC is possible and if things get dicey you can jump up to 25 AC. All you need is two levels of barbarian and 20 in three stats Dex, Con, Int. Bladesong works while raging. Go a little farther into barbarian and pick bear totem, now you take half damage (unless it's psychic) if you ever get hit. Mirror Image and Blink are your best friends, cast before raging for maximum efficiency. I like a little Artificer at the end to give you the Armorer's distracting gauntlets. Play around with the levels if you want to be more martial or more caster, or for whatever fits your backstory. I had a Shadar-kai Elf "shaman" with this build. Used a rock for a spellbook, as he was illiterate. Tons of fun and pretty powerful.
Mark of the Ward Dwarf, Totem barbarian+ abjuration wizard.
Mark of the Ward Dwarf -Armor of agathys
Totem barbarian - Rage for all resistances
abjuration wizard- arcane ward for infinite health.
First feat - Eldritch addept so you can get armor of shadows that you can spam Mage armor abjuration even in rage as it is an invocation so it can be cast.
If you want you can also get 2 lw in paladin if the stats permit it so you gave divine smite for the rest of the slots.
While cool on paper I would like to point out that the Arcane Ward hp is capped by Wizard level + INT modifier so it is not "infinite" and unless you invest in a fair amount of Wizard levels it will not absorb very much damage before needing to be recharged.
Also you cannot cast Mage Armor while Raging even if you get it from Eldritch Adept.