Hi all, I know that a Barbarian spell caster is odd but that one was tempting.
Story: One night, desperate for post-traumatic stress disorder nightmares to stop and wishing for peace, appeared the holy symbol, which gave calmness and inner peace. Let us face it. Barbarians can deliver peace best: Go to monsters, whack until all is quiet and what do we have? Right, peace.
Let me hear your thoughts please! Very interested on the action economy.
Cheers Analragorn
Motivation for the build
- Our Cleric and Paladin are not playing anymore and our Ranger has other prios than healing. - I only have WIS high enough to select a spell caster class because I favored perception. - I do not want to be a Ranger because we have one and Fighter 4 BattleMaster (or better MonsterHunter (UA)) comes the following levels. I took already PAM lvl0, TotemWarrior / BearTotem in lvl3, GWM lvl4, Fighter 1 Defense lvl6 and a 2h halberd. In order to save the dead level Figher 5, I'll progress in Barbarian or Cleric maybe. Let me hear your thoughts. - At lvl5 I deal 41 DPR (expected damage per round) against 65% hit. Only pretty optimized character in the party and there is some room for "slacking off". https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/characters/fundamental_math/
Abbreviations
- BA: Bonus action - A: Action - PC: Player character other than you - Target: Monster etc.
Remain to be the party's front line striker. Only cast in urgent need of dying PCs, but that ends rage! That being said, Druid CircleOfDreams lvl2 BalmOfTheSummerCourt or Warlock TheCelestrial lvl1 HealingLight require a BA and hence, work very well with rage.
Rage must end as a BA if you need to help a dying PC with a spell HealingWord, CureWounds, SpareTheDying. While raging, it is not possible to cast or to concentrate on a spell.
- Barbarian's proficiency in CON saving throws supports concentration check. - Casting with components S, M and attacking in the same turn works fine with 2h weapon (hold weapon with one hand and visibly wear the holy symbol). 1h weapon & shield: sheath 1h weapon & draw it in the next turn. https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/sac/sage-advice-compendium#Components - You cannot use an A for something that requires a BA, which makes some action economy with rage a challenge of this build. https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/sac/sage-advice-compendium#Combat
Spells, Class feature - Very useful
- EmboldeningBond (class feature, action) to support in saving throws (e.g., WIS: charm person, fear both dangerous to Barbarian; CON: spell concentration; death), hitting high ACed monsters, initiative in combat etc. Less powerful buff than Bless but much longer duration, requires no concentration and scales with the proficiency bonus. Stacks with Bless and Guidance. Note that saving throw buff applies in all turns of the round. Consider activation before combat because the action time of one action reduces damage output. In combat, you loose rage if you don’t take damage! Difficult to trigger before combat and the math for DPR increase doesn’t compensate for all lost attacks if you activate it just on the Barbarian. - Guidance (cantrip) to increase own initiative for combat (i.e., cast on yourself before entering / leaving a room) and to help PCs during ability checks outside combat as often as desired. Stacks with EmboldeningBond. Difficult to trigger before combat! - DetectMagic to cast as often as desired as a ritual. If another PC is able to cast it as a ritual, prepare another spell. - HealingWord or CureWounds to heal a dying PC and to end the unconsciousness condition if no potion / goodberry is available. CureWounds has higher expected healed HP and better action economy with rage (HealingWord BA whereas CureWounds A) but you deal much less damage in your turn, risk opportunity attacks when you move to close to targets in order to get to the dying PC. Only HealingWord can prevent PC’s death if PC is unreachable (e.g., surrounded, blocked path) and we cannot administer a potion / goodberry, use a healers kit or touch for CureWounds or SpareTheDying. Since ending rage and HealingWord require a BA each, the PC must make one death saving throw before getting healed but this shouldn‘t be a problem because you can fail two. Consider to not prepare these spells if party has a Cleric or a Ranger. - Heroism (domain spell) to end and to gain immunity against the frightened condition. If Barbarian has had that condition, rage probably ended already and hence, the spell is useful to be able to attack the target again. If you rage, the spell and therefore, the immunity ends. The temporary HP cannot bring back a dying PC from unconsciousness. - Bless to access a powerful buff (cf. EmboldeningBond) and an option if all rage is spent. Consider stacking with EmboldeningBond for high ACed targets or spell casters causing saving throws, unfortunately it requires concentration but provides a buff for the saving throw. Casting it in an A reduces the damage output but this might pay off in a longer combat since hitting with GWM becomes easier. Regarding ProtectionFromEvilAndGood, consider stacking Bless with EmboldeningBond instead. The math for DPR pretty much of +2STR ASI which is more reliable and doesn’t cost the damage of all lost attacks if you activate it just on the Barbarian. - ShieldOfFaith to help with RecklessAttack if all rage is spent. Requires BA just as rage but unfortunately needs concentration. Better is to spend Barbarian lvl 6 to get one more rage.
Spells - Situationally useful
- SpareTheDying (cantrip) to prevent the death of a dying but reachable PC if neither potion / goodberry nor healer‘s kit is available and all spell slots are expended. However, the same effect can be obtained with the healer’s kit while raging. Very useful if party has no healer and no healer's kit. - SacredFlame (cantrip) or TollTheDead (cantrip) if target (i) has very high AC but comparably low DEX / WIS or (ii) is not reachable (e.g., flying) and has resistance against non-magical weapons or piercing damage (i.e., throw dart twice lvl5 with target‘s resistance damage: 2*(1d4+4) / 2 worse than SacredFlame lvl5 damage: 2d8). Damage scales with total level not just with Cleric level. TollTheDead has higher damage but more monsters (i) have resistance/immunity against necrotic damage than against radiant damage and (ii) have a better WIS than DEX saving throw. https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/characters/srd-monster-stats-analysis/, https://tomedunn.github.io/the-finished-book/monsters/monster-saving-throws/ (figure 4) I couldn't find in the rules-as-written how to buy a stock of +1 / moon-touched darts. Am I missing something? - Light (cantrip) to walk in a dim lit / dark dungeon and to tag an invisible creature. It'll be invisible but will glow, which makes it a good target. The Darkness spell dispells it. https://www.dndlounge.com/light-5e/ - Sanctuary (domain spell) to protect a PC against targets (e.g., incapacitated, unconscious, 1HP PC unable to flee). Requires BA just as rage. Not useful if you want to attack because the spell ends.
But overall, I am trying to piece together what this character's role will be. If you are pulling away from the front of the combat then what party character is leading the attacks or the primary shield for the rest of the party. Also ending your rage early to cast low level spells is not an efficient use of resources. I am not sure about the reasoning for the spells being contingencies when Rage is not available; I feel it will end up as competing resources and slow down the character's power growth (I understand the trade off for healing). In the end, is the character supposed to soak damage and/or smack around the oppositions; or is their goal to be battlefield control and buff allies?
But overall, I am trying to piece together what this character's role will be. If you are pulling away from the front of the combat then what party character is leading the attacks or the primary shield for the rest of the party. Also ending your rage early to cast low level spells is not an efficient use of resources. I am not sure about the reasoning for the spells being contingencies when Rage is not available; I feel it will end up as competing resources and slow down the character's power growth (I understand the trade off for healing). In the end, is the character supposed to soak damage and/or smack around the oppositions; or is their goal to be battlefield control and buff allies?
If you really want some easy healing that won't interfere with Rage, I would say dip 2 levels into Dreams Druid. This gets you two d6 dice you can spend to heal as a BA to any creature within 120 ft. CD: BoP has the potential to heal more creatures, but they have to be within movement speed of you and each other, it cost your entire action (potentially losing your rage if you don't take damage), and is a one shot. BotSC gets you two chances to use as a BA.
Druid is more thematically appropriate for a Barbarian, and this gets you some out of combat utility (something Barbarians sorely lack). This will get you wild shape, which is incredibly useful for scouting and you can take utility spells as well. You could even distribute some Goodberrys to your party so they could revive a downed ally with their action.
The build remains to be the front line striker and only ends rage in urgent need to help a dying PC. Druid is nice option. Need to think about it again because I really liked that EmboldeningBond buffs against high ACed targets & saving throws and boosts my allies which don't have optimized characters. The Cleric spells above offer some options when all rages are spend.
BalmOfTheSummerCourt is indeed excellent! No need to end rage, can be activated as a BA. It fits the theme of the build very well but requires a two lvl dip.
Goodberries is also excellent and rage does not need to be ended.
- assuming you can cast guidance repeatedly preempting initiative (and emboldening bond as well) is naive. If a player kept trying to do this it would really slow down a game. - ending rage early for any reason is awful decision for a barbarian, as it’s a very limited resource. You’d be better off either not playing barbarian, choosing one of the subclasses that can reduce ally damage, or taking the healer feat and utilising healing kits instead of spells.
- assuming you can cast guidance repeatedly preempting initiative (and emboldening bond as well) is naive. If a player kept trying to do this it would really slow down a game. - ending rage early for any reason is awful decision for a barbarian, as it’s a very limited resource. You’d be better off either not playing barbarian, choosing one of the subclasses that can reduce ally damage, or taking the healer feat and utilising healing kits instead of spells.
I was going to recommend the Healer Feat, but you run into the same problem: if you spend your action using the healer's kit and don't take damage, you lose your rage.
Thanks ArntltheBeast. That can be avoided. If you use the BA with the PAM attack, you maintain rage.
- assuming you can cast guidance repeatedly preempting initiative (and emboldening bond as well) is naive. If a player kept trying to do this it would really slow down a game. - ending rage early for any reason is awful decision for a barbarian, as it’s a very limited resource. You’d be better off either not playing barbarian, choosing one of the subclasses that can reduce ally damage, or taking the healer feat and utilising healing kits instead of spells.
Hi SwiftSign.
You are right that rage is a scarce and valuable ressource. Therefore, (as I wrote above in the post) I would only end rage, if a player was down to 0HP and all potions / goodberries / healer's kit are spent. In this scenario, preferrably cast (i) HealingWord or (ii) if all spell slots are spend SpareTheDying.
I am curious what you mean with slowing down the game if you cast Guidance or EmboldeningBond because each requires one A. Can you explain that please?
You can only BA with PAM if you take the attack action on your turn.
I’d also suggest healer, but then just use it out of combat, and tell everyone to get good at death saves. Or if you’re just looking for guidance and goodberry, take magic initiate. Or, most realistically, tell someone else in the party they need to step up.
You can only BA with PAM if you take the attack action on your turn.
I’d also suggest healer, but then just use it out of combat, and tell everyone to get good at death saves. Or if you’re just looking for guidance and goodberry, take magic initiate. Or, most realistically, tell someone else in the party they need to step up.
- assuming you can cast guidance repeatedly preempting initiative (and emboldening bond as well) is naive. If a player kept trying to do this it would really slow down a game. - ending rage early for any reason is awful decision for a barbarian, as it’s a very limited resource. You’d be better off either not playing barbarian, choosing one of the subclasses that can reduce ally damage, or taking the healer feat and utilising healing kits instead of spells.
I was going to recommend the Healer Feat, but you run into the same problem: if you spend your action using the healer's kit and don't take damage, you lose your rage.
Thanks ArntltheBeast. That can be avoided. If you use the BA with the PAM attack, you maintain rage.
We should confirm a ruling on this. Polearm Master Feat states the following:
You gain the following benefits:
When you take the Attack action and attack with only a glaive, halberd, quarterstaff, or spear, you can use a bonus action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon. This attack uses the same ability modifier as the primary attack. The weapon’s damage die for this attack is a d4, and it deals bludgeoning damage.
Reading the above, the character must "take the Attackaction and attack with only a glaive, halberd, quarterstaff, or spear" and then "can use a bonus action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon." That would suggest a character cannot perform another Action and be eligible to use their bonus action to attack with the opposite end of the weapon. Taking the Attack action is a requirement to use the BA.
- assuming you can cast guidance repeatedly preempting initiative (and emboldening bond as well) is naive. If a player kept trying to do this it would really slow down a game. - ending rage early for any reason is awful decision for a barbarian, as it’s a very limited resource. You’d be better off either not playing barbarian, choosing one of the subclasses that can reduce ally damage, or taking the healer feat and utilising healing kits instead of spells.
I was going to recommend the Healer Feat, but you run into the same problem: if you spend your action using the healer's kit and don't take damage, you lose your rage.
Thanks ArntltheBeast. That can be avoided. If you use the BA with the PAM attack, you maintain rage.
We should confirm a ruling on this. Polearm Master Feat states the following:
You gain the following benefits:
When you take the Attack action and attack with only a glaive, halberd, quarterstaff, or spear, you can use a bonus action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon. This attack uses the same ability modifier as the primary attack. The weapon’s damage die for this attack is a d4, and it deals bludgeoning damage.
Reading the above, the character must "take the Attackaction and attack with only a glaive, halberd, quarterstaff, or spear" and then "can use a bonus action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon." That would suggest a character cannot perform another Action and be eligible to use their bonus action to attack with the opposite end of the weapon. Taking the Attack action is a requirement to use the BA.
Thanks for pointing that out again. My bad. Another PC should help an dying PC with potion / Goodberries / Healer's kit while the Barbarian stays in combat with rage.
- assuming you can cast guidance repeatedly preempting initiative (and emboldening bond as well) is naive. If a player kept trying to do this it would really slow down a game. - ending rage early for any reason is awful decision for a barbarian, as it’s a very limited resource. You’d be better off either not playing barbarian, choosing one of the subclasses that can reduce ally damage, or taking the healer feat and utilising healing kits instead of spells.
Hi SwiftSign.
You are right that rage is a scarce and valuable ressource. Therefore, (as I wrote above in the post) I would only end rage, if a player was down to 0HP and all potions / goodberries / healer's kit are spent. In this scenario, preferrably cast (i) HealingWord or (ii) if all spell slots are spend SpareTheDying.
I am curious what you mean with slowing down the game if you cast Guidance or EmboldeningBond because each requires one A. Can you explain that please?
You don't know when combat is about to take place. There isn't a turn before combat, therefore for Guidance (1 minute) to be useful for initiative you'd have to be constantly interrupting flow to pre-empt combat constantly. In some cases, the act of wanting to cast guidance might even start combat, as it has verbal and somatic components.
- assuming you can cast guidance repeatedly preempting initiative (and emboldening bond as well) is naive. If a player kept trying to do this it would really slow down a game. - ending rage early for any reason is awful decision for a barbarian, as it’s a very limited resource. You’d be better off either not playing barbarian, choosing one of the subclasses that can reduce ally damage, or taking the healer feat and utilising healing kits instead of spells.
I was going to recommend the Healer Feat, but you run into the same problem: if you spend your action using the healer's kit and don't take damage, you lose your rage.
If you need to use the Healer Feat healing then you are going to be taking damage because it means one of your party is down and there is still many enemies on the ground meaning you won't finish the combat before they bleed out. If you aren't taking damage even when not attacking then why would you bother using the Healer feat? Just use your massive DPR to end the combat then run over and heal your fallen ally.
You'll need a two level dip regardless to get any actions worth sacrificing Rage for -> CD:Balm of Peace for multi-target healing that really does change the tide of combat and can save the day by getting the rest of the party back up. CD:Twilight Sanctuary from Twilight Cleric to almost make your whole party immune from fear/charm and having that thp every round that bear barbarian doubles which can be used while raging. Or the Dreams Druid feature that gives you BA healing without losing Rage.
Thank you all for the posts! Very much appreciated. I came to the conclusion that it is a very suboptimal build.
I forgot that PAM BA attack is only triggered when you attack at least once with the weapon during the action. :-( So you cannot maintain rage using CD, potion, goodberry, healer’s kit that require an action.
I saw really no scenario where any Barbaleric is effective in combat…
The maths do not look well. EmboldenedBond +2.5 hitting on one attack adds few to the damage output (my barb. +2-3 DPR 65% hit, maximum of GWM & normal attack) and the DPR increase from Bless is quite the same as +2STR ASI but the ASI is obviously better and more reliable. However, I think both cannot compensate the damage of all lost PAM attacks. I didn‘t take other allies into account for the math.
Guidance all the time is technically possible and doesn’t disrupt the flow if you play with Fantasy Grounds but it is… a bit much of power playing. A bit unrealistic to mumble each time you enter a new room in a dungeon. Like looking at the mobile phone all the time. Weirdo barb. For an initiative buff, simply invest that level in Barb and go for lvl 7.
Two lvl in Dreams CD: BoP would be awesome but is expensive. I have already Fighter 1 and the trade of two levels is the super nova attack of ActionSurge + BattleMasterPrecisionStrike. Warlock Celestrial HealingLight does almost the same with just one level dip, but I cannot multiclass there.
ShieldOfFaith would be nice if you ran out of rages. But simply go Barb lvl 6, get one rage extra and be more effective with reckless attack and GWM.
Hi all, I know that a Barbarian spell caster is odd but that one was tempting.
Story: One night, desperate for post-traumatic stress disorder nightmares to stop and wishing for peace, appeared the holy symbol, which gave calmness and inner peace. Let us face it. Barbarians can deliver peace best: Go to monsters, whack until all is quiet and what do we have? Right, peace.
Let me hear your thoughts please! Very interested on the action economy.
Cheers
Analragorn
Motivation for the build
- Our Cleric and Paladin are not playing anymore and our Ranger has other prios than healing.
- I only have WIS high enough to select a spell caster class because I favored perception.
- I do not want to be a Ranger because we have one and Fighter 4 BattleMaster (or better MonsterHunter (UA)) comes the following levels. I took already PAM lvl0, TotemWarrior / BearTotem in lvl3, GWM lvl4, Fighter 1 Defense lvl6 and a 2h halberd. In order to save the dead level Figher 5, I'll progress in Barbarian or Cleric maybe. Let me hear your thoughts.
- At lvl5 I deal 41 DPR (expected damage per round) against 65% hit. Only pretty optimized character in the party and there is some room for "slacking off". https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/characters/fundamental_math/
Abbreviations
- BA: Bonus action
- A: Action
- PC: Player character other than you
- Target: Monster etc.
Suboptimal build: Barbarian 5 / Cleric 1 Peace Domain
Remain to be the party's front line striker. Only cast in urgent need of dying PCs, but that ends rage!
That being said, Druid CircleOfDreams lvl2 BalmOfTheSummerCourt or Warlock TheCelestrial lvl1 HealingLight require a BA and hence, work very well with rage.
- Barbarian's proficiency in CON saving throws supports concentration check.
- Casting with components S, M and attacking in the same turn works fine with 2h weapon (hold weapon with one hand and visibly wear the holy symbol). 1h weapon & shield: sheath 1h weapon & draw it in the next turn. https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/sac/sage-advice-compendium#Components
- You cannot use an A for something that requires a BA, which makes some action economy with rage a challenge of this build. https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/sac/sage-advice-compendium#Combat
Spells, Class feature - Very useful
- EmboldeningBond (class feature, action) to support in saving throws (e.g., WIS: charm person, fear both dangerous to Barbarian; CON: spell concentration; death), hitting high ACed monsters, initiative in combat etc. Less powerful buff than Bless but much longer duration, requires no concentration and scales with the proficiency bonus. Stacks with Bless and Guidance. Note that saving throw buff applies in all turns of the round. Consider activation before combat because the action time of one action reduces damage output. In combat, you loose rage if you don’t take damage! Difficult to trigger before combat and the math for DPR increase doesn’t compensate for all lost attacks if you activate it just on the Barbarian.
- Guidance (cantrip) to increase own initiative for combat (i.e., cast on yourself before entering / leaving a room) and to help PCs during ability checks outside combat as often as desired. Stacks with EmboldeningBond. Difficult to trigger before combat!
- DetectMagic to cast as often as desired as a ritual. If another PC is able to cast it as a ritual, prepare another spell.
- HealingWord or CureWounds to heal a dying PC and to end the unconsciousness condition if no potion / goodberry is available. CureWounds has higher expected healed HP and better action economy with rage (HealingWord BA whereas CureWounds A) but you deal much less damage in your turn, risk opportunity attacks when you move to close to targets in order to get to the dying PC. Only HealingWord can prevent PC’s death if PC is unreachable (e.g., surrounded, blocked path) and we cannot administer a potion / goodberry, use a healers kit or touch for CureWounds or SpareTheDying. Since ending rage and HealingWord require a BA each, the PC must make one death saving throw before getting healed but this shouldn‘t be a problem because you can fail two. Consider to not prepare these spells if party has a Cleric or a Ranger.
- Heroism (domain spell) to end and to gain immunity against the frightened condition. If Barbarian has had that condition, rage probably ended already and hence, the spell is useful to be able to attack the target again. If you rage, the spell and therefore, the immunity ends. The temporary HP cannot bring back a dying PC from unconsciousness.
- Bless to access a powerful buff (cf. EmboldeningBond) and an option if all rage is spent. Consider stacking with EmboldeningBond for high ACed targets or spell casters causing saving throws, unfortunately it requires concentration but provides a buff for the saving throw. Casting it in an A reduces the damage output but this might pay off in a longer combat since hitting with GWM becomes easier. Regarding ProtectionFromEvilAndGood, consider stacking Bless with EmboldeningBond instead. The math for DPR pretty much of +2STR ASI which is more reliable and doesn’t cost the damage of all lost attacks if you activate it just on the Barbarian.
- ShieldOfFaith to help with RecklessAttack if all rage is spent. Requires BA just as rage but unfortunately needs concentration. Better is to spend Barbarian lvl 6 to get one more rage.
Spells - Situationally useful
- SpareTheDying (cantrip) to prevent the death of a dying but reachable PC if neither potion / goodberry nor healer‘s kit is available and all spell slots are expended. However, the same effect can be obtained with the healer’s kit while raging. Very useful if party has no healer and no healer's kit.
- SacredFlame (cantrip) or TollTheDead (cantrip) if target (i) has very high AC but comparably low DEX / WIS or (ii) is not reachable (e.g., flying) and has resistance against non-magical weapons or piercing damage (i.e., throw dart twice lvl5 with target‘s resistance damage: 2*(1d4+4) / 2 worse than SacredFlame lvl5 damage: 2d8). Damage scales with total level not just with Cleric level. TollTheDead has higher damage but more monsters (i) have resistance/immunity against necrotic damage than against radiant damage and (ii) have a better WIS than DEX saving throw. https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/characters/srd-monster-stats-analysis/, https://tomedunn.github.io/the-finished-book/monsters/monster-saving-throws/ (figure 4)
I couldn't find in the rules-as-written how to buy a stock of +1 / moon-touched darts. Am I missing something?
- Light (cantrip) to walk in a dim lit / dark dungeon and to tag an invisible creature. It'll be invisible but will glow, which makes it a good target. The Darkness spell dispells it. https://www.dndlounge.com/light-5e/
- Sanctuary (domain spell) to protect a PC against targets (e.g., incapacitated, unconscious, 1HP PC unable to flee). Requires BA just as rage. Not useful if you want to attack because the spell ends.
Any reason you are not considering Druid?
But overall, I am trying to piece together what this character's role will be. If you are pulling away from the front of the combat then what party character is leading the attacks or the primary shield for the rest of the party. Also ending your rage early to cast low level spells is not an efficient use of resources. I am not sure about the reasoning for the spells being contingencies when Rage is not available; I feel it will end up as competing resources and slow down the character's power growth (I understand the trade off for healing). In the end, is the character supposed to soak damage and/or smack around the oppositions; or is their goal to be battlefield control and buff allies?
Hi petepan3 and ArntltheBest. Thanks for your reply.
The build remains to be the front line striker and only ends rage in urgent need to help a dying PC.
Druid is nice option. Need to think about it again because I really liked that EmboldeningBond buffs against high ACed targets & saving throws and boosts my allies which don't have optimized characters. The Cleric spells above offer some options when all rages are spend.
A few things I want to point out:
- assuming you can cast guidance repeatedly preempting initiative (and emboldening bond as well) is naive. If a player kept trying to do this it would really slow down a game.
- ending rage early for any reason is awful decision for a barbarian, as it’s a very limited resource. You’d be better off either not playing barbarian, choosing one of the subclasses that can reduce ally damage, or taking the healer feat and utilising healing kits instead of spells.
Thanks ArntltheBeast. That can be avoided. If you use the BA with the PAM attack, you maintain rage.
Hi SwiftSign.
You are right that rage is a scarce and valuable ressource. Therefore, (as I wrote above in the post) I would only end rage, if a player was down to 0HP and all potions / goodberries / healer's kit are spent. In this scenario, preferrably cast (i) HealingWord or (ii) if all spell slots are spend SpareTheDying.
I am curious what you mean with slowing down the game if you cast Guidance or EmboldeningBond because each requires one A. Can you explain that please?
You can only BA with PAM if you take the attack action on your turn.
I’d also suggest healer, but then just use it out of combat, and tell everyone to get good at death saves. Or if you’re just looking for guidance and goodberry, take magic initiate. Or, most realistically, tell someone else in the party they need to step up.
Right. My bad! Thanks Xalthu.
We should confirm a ruling on this. Polearm Master Feat states the following:
Reading the above, the character must "take the Attack action and attack with only a glaive, halberd, quarterstaff, or spear" and then "can use a bonus action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon." That would suggest a character cannot perform another Action and be eligible to use their bonus action to attack with the opposite end of the weapon. Taking the Attack action is a requirement to use the BA.
Thanks for pointing that out again. My bad. Another PC should help an dying PC with potion / Goodberries / Healer's kit while the Barbarian stays in combat with rage.
You don't know when combat is about to take place. There isn't a turn before combat, therefore for Guidance (1 minute) to be useful for initiative you'd have to be constantly interrupting flow to pre-empt combat constantly. In some cases, the act of wanting to cast guidance might even start combat, as it has verbal and somatic components.
If you need to use the Healer Feat healing then you are going to be taking damage because it means one of your party is down and there is still many enemies on the ground meaning you won't finish the combat before they bleed out. If you aren't taking damage even when not attacking then why would you bother using the Healer feat? Just use your massive DPR to end the combat then run over and heal your fallen ally.
You'll need a two level dip regardless to get any actions worth sacrificing Rage for -> CD:Balm of Peace for multi-target healing that really does change the tide of combat and can save the day by getting the rest of the party back up. CD:Twilight Sanctuary from Twilight Cleric to almost make your whole party immune from fear/charm and having that thp every round that bear barbarian doubles which can be used while raging. Or the Dreams Druid feature that gives you BA healing without losing Rage.
Hi all.
Thank you all for the posts! Very much appreciated. I came to the conclusion that it is a very suboptimal build.
I forgot that PAM BA attack is only triggered when you attack at least once with the weapon during the action. :-( So you cannot maintain rage using CD, potion, goodberry, healer’s kit that require an action.
I saw really no scenario where any Barbaleric is effective in combat…
The maths do not look well. EmboldenedBond +2.5 hitting on one attack adds few to the damage output (my barb. +2-3 DPR 65% hit, maximum of GWM & normal attack) and the DPR increase from Bless is quite the same as +2STR ASI but the ASI is obviously better and more reliable. However, I think both cannot compensate the damage of all lost PAM attacks. I didn‘t take other allies into account for the math.
Guidance all the time is technically possible and doesn’t disrupt the flow if you play with Fantasy Grounds but it is… a bit much of power playing. A bit unrealistic to mumble each time you enter a new room in a dungeon. Like looking at the mobile phone all the time. Weirdo barb. For an initiative buff, simply invest that level in Barb and go for lvl 7.
Two lvl in Dreams CD: BoP would be awesome but is expensive. I have already Fighter 1 and the trade of two levels is the super nova attack of ActionSurge + BattleMasterPrecisionStrike. Warlock Celestrial HealingLight does almost the same with just one level dip, but I cannot multiclass there.
ShieldOfFaith would be nice if you ran out of rages. But simply go Barb lvl 6, get one rage extra and be more effective with reckless attack and GWM.
Thanks again all of you!