I'm playing my first game of D&D, and I play a basic Goliath Barbarian, with the stats of 17/13/14/10/12/10 I am the "brawn and muscle" of the group, and am nearing Level 4 What should I choose for Feats, or should I choose Points?
Bear Totem Barbarian Goliath is the basics of my character.
I mean, I'd put the ASI into your strength and dexterity to increase both those modifiers. Strength is essential as a barbarian and you should be looking to max it out as quickly as possible to increase your chance to hit and damage, and increasing your Dex mod from +1 to +2 will increase your AC by 1 whether you're wearing light or medium armor or depending on your unarmored defense, and Dex saves are common for AOE damage so increasing that save is helpful. Increasing AC by 1 isn't huge, but it is really nice to be able to do that on top of increasing your strength mod.
If you're interested in increasing the strength mod with a half feet you should look at Crusher and Slasher from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. They both can give you a +1 to strength and provide other benefits that can make you a more effective defender. Just make sure you're using the right kind of weapon.
If you're ok with your strength where it is there are a lot of feats that are good on Barbarians. Great Weapon Master is the most common and is good on Barbarians since Advantage from Reckless Attacks basically cancels out the -5 to hit from the Great Weapon Master attack, and it helps with your action economy if you get a kill or a crit. Polearm Master is great for action economy, giving you a bonus action attack and making you more likely to use your reaction since you can take opportunity attacks when enemies enter your melee range, and both of those attacks get your rage damage bonus. If you're interested in dual wielding as a Barbarian (not a bad idea for a bear Totem barbarian since your bonus action won't get anything from class/subclass features) consider taking Dual Wielder or Fighting Initiate, they both make that path more effective. If you're your party's primary defender Sentinel is an excellent choice, allowing you to lock enemies into melee combat with you and punishing them for attacking someone else if you're right next to them. The additional HP from Tough is essentially doubled on a Bear Totem Barbarian, but you're probably better off maxing out your Constitution before picking Tough up. If your party has other melee strikers in it and you're ok with using a shield (I know, weird choice on a barb) then Shield Master can improve your survivability against Dex save AoE and help you set up your melee allies for Advantage on their attacks (especially nice if you have a melee Rogue).
You have lots of options, I hope you find one that fits your vision for your character and you like mechanically.
Given your stats, I second using an Ability Score Increase to boost Strength and Dex by 1 point each. That's really better than a feat at this point. Or else point 2 points into Constitution- 14 is a little low for a barbarian since it buffs both their HP and their AC (when not wearing armor).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I'd agree that, with 2 "important" scores being odd, you'll get more benefit from a +1 to Str and Dex. You'll hit more, do more damage on every hit, take your turn sooner (so be able to rage sooner, getting your damage resistance earlier), have better AC, do better on checks & saving throws for both... If you didn't have 2 odd physical stats a feat might be worth it, but with the increased modifier on both I would jump on the ASI and grab it with both hands.
I'd leave a feat till level 8 at the earliest. At that level, I'd be very tempted by +2 Con, but other than that there are all the classic feats to look at which work really well for a barb (GWM, PAM and Sentinel, for a start).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I'm playing my first game of D&D, and I play a basic Goliath Barbarian, with the stats of 17/13/14/10/12/10
I am the "brawn and muscle" of the group, and am nearing Level 4
What should I choose for Feats, or should I choose Points?
Bear Totem Barbarian Goliath is the basics of my character.
I mean, I'd put the ASI into your strength and dexterity to increase both those modifiers. Strength is essential as a barbarian and you should be looking to max it out as quickly as possible to increase your chance to hit and damage, and increasing your Dex mod from +1 to +2 will increase your AC by 1 whether you're wearing light or medium armor or depending on your unarmored defense, and Dex saves are common for AOE damage so increasing that save is helpful. Increasing AC by 1 isn't huge, but it is really nice to be able to do that on top of increasing your strength mod.
If you're interested in increasing the strength mod with a half feet you should look at Crusher and Slasher from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. They both can give you a +1 to strength and provide other benefits that can make you a more effective defender. Just make sure you're using the right kind of weapon.
If you're ok with your strength where it is there are a lot of feats that are good on Barbarians. Great Weapon Master is the most common and is good on Barbarians since Advantage from Reckless Attacks basically cancels out the -5 to hit from the Great Weapon Master attack, and it helps with your action economy if you get a kill or a crit. Polearm Master is great for action economy, giving you a bonus action attack and making you more likely to use your reaction since you can take opportunity attacks when enemies enter your melee range, and both of those attacks get your rage damage bonus. If you're interested in dual wielding as a Barbarian (not a bad idea for a bear Totem barbarian since your bonus action won't get anything from class/subclass features) consider taking Dual Wielder or Fighting Initiate, they both make that path more effective. If you're your party's primary defender Sentinel is an excellent choice, allowing you to lock enemies into melee combat with you and punishing them for attacking someone else if you're right next to them. The additional HP from Tough is essentially doubled on a Bear Totem Barbarian, but you're probably better off maxing out your Constitution before picking Tough up. If your party has other melee strikers in it and you're ok with using a shield (I know, weird choice on a barb) then Shield Master can improve your survivability against Dex save AoE and help you set up your melee allies for Advantage on their attacks (especially nice if you have a melee Rogue).
You have lots of options, I hope you find one that fits your vision for your character and you like mechanically.
Given your stats, I second using an Ability Score Increase to boost Strength and Dex by 1 point each. That's really better than a feat at this point. Or else point 2 points into Constitution- 14 is a little low for a barbarian since it buffs both their HP and their AC (when not wearing armor).
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I'd agree that, with 2 "important" scores being odd, you'll get more benefit from a +1 to Str and Dex. You'll hit more, do more damage on every hit, take your turn sooner (so be able to rage sooner, getting your damage resistance earlier), have better AC, do better on checks & saving throws for both... If you didn't have 2 odd physical stats a feat might be worth it, but with the increased modifier on both I would jump on the ASI and grab it with both hands.
I'd leave a feat till level 8 at the earliest. At that level, I'd be very tempted by +2 Con, but other than that there are all the classic feats to look at which work really well for a barb (GWM, PAM and Sentinel, for a start).