I want to make a character who is a ranger/barbarian multi-class. However, I am unsure how to combine the ranger and barbarian character classes to create a viable, playable character. The type of character that I had in mind has the tracking, hunting and survival capabilities of the ranger, combined with the fighting abilities of a barbarian.
As a child, the character lived with their parents in a secretive order of druids. A nomadic barbarian tribe found them frozen half to death on a lonely moor and took them in, nursed them back to health, taught them and raised them as one of their own. So, I want the character to reference or call back to their early years, living amongst druids with a skill or ability that they learned as a young child but still fits their ranger/barbarian multi-class.
I will be using V. Human as my race and point buy for my ability scores. We will also be playing Curse of Strahd, as a group of adventurers who travel to Ravenloft to earn fame, fortune and glory by defeating the monstrous vampire, Count Strahd von Zarovich.
Do you guys have any suggestions on how I might make this character?
Thanks,
Forge XD
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
My advice would be to not multiclass just for flavor, only multiclass if you accualy want the mechanics you are getting.
You can get all the typical ranger proficiencies from barbarian+background (nature, survival, perception maybe), and you could take a feat for some of the druidic magic: Magic Initiate(Druid), if you want a bit of cantrips and a 1/day spell (for example goodberry), Ritual Caster (Druid) for out of combat spell utility, maybe Fey Touched?. If you are not after Magic but rather expert tracking/surcical, take Skill Expert to get expertise in Survival.
The problem of the multiclass is that rage and spellcasting doesnt mix well at all in combat, so if you are mostly barbarian with a bit of ranger, then the ranger magic wont really do much in combat, it will just we out of combat utility + maybe healing.
Id say VHuman with either Ritual Caster (Druid) or Skill Expert (Survival) does pretty much what you want and lets you stay as a full barbarian. Totem Warrior subclass has a nice druidic flavor to it, maybe beast barbarian if your druid friends are more on the WIld Moon Druid side.
If you really want to go barbarian/ranger, then the first level or ranger gives you the survival expertise you want. And i would leave it at that, get 5 levels of barbarian for extra attack, and then maybe come back for ranger for levels 2 and 3 for a fighting style and a subclass (probably hunter). Not getting extra attack when everybody else gets it at level 5 ist the big "cost" to multiclassing early, the more ranger you take before commiting 5 levels to barbarian the longer you will be stuck at one attack
Hmm, well you're going to want a STR/melee build, obviously. Melee rangers tend to be DEX-optimized, but STR is doable.
Ranger options that will serve you well:
-For fighting style, dueling is the best option for a STR/melee build, but if you were planning on using two-handed weapons or for the druid flavor, Tasha's gives you Druidic Warrior, which is also a nice way to get cantrips (your other option for cantrips + druid flavor being using VHuman to get magic initiate: druid).
-Use OG Favored Enemy instead of the TCoE Favored Foe, since the latter uses concentration, which you can't use while raging, so would be a bust for you.
-Good subclass options: Gloom Stalker, Hunter, or Monster Slayer
I know less about Barbs, they're not one of my preferred classes, but I'd say Ancestral Guardian, Beast, or Totem Warrior would be good paths to choose.
As a child, the character lived with their parents in a secretive order of druids. A nomadic barbarian tribe found them frozen half to death on a lonely moor and took them in, nursed them back to health, taught them and raised them as one of their own.
This could arguably more easily be realised by creating a Barbarian with the Outlander background (and even the background doesn't matter too much) than a Barbarian/Ranger multiclass per se, though nomadic barbarian tribes almost certainly have rangery types among them as well. Most of the tracking/hunting/survival abilities are covered by the Survival skill, which a Barbarian can be proficient with from the get-go too.
If you want the actual Ranger exploration abilities, by all means pick up some Ranger levels too. Just consider that a good tracker will want decent Wis, the Barbarian will want high Con and preferably decent Dex and high Str to make the most of that Rage damage. You'll need all three of Wis/Dex/Str to be 13+ just to be allowed to multiclass anyway, but even as a single class Barbarian going for this concept you'll probably want at least a 12 in Wis so the stat demands remain essentially the same.
Alternatively, just go straight Ranger. The character will still fit in great with a nomadic tribe and you'll be able to build more strictly towards a Ranger's qualities. Lots of Dex, lots of Wis, as much Con as you can afford/want to have after that with Str not necessarily being any consideration at all.
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Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
To "to create a viable, playable character" for "Curse of Strahd", gloomstalker stands out to me with a potential for beating creatures of the night at their own game. Having said that and without specific knowledge of CoS, other approaches might favour applying as much light as possible which would render some abilities useless. Perhaps talk to your group about approaches. Ranger requires wisdom which I'm guessing might also be good for saving throws and also for the undead related survival (tracking checks) for which favoured enemy would give you advantage.
I don't know strahd monsters but, if damage types often go far from physical, I'm not sure how valuable raging would be in comparison to straight wearing armour. From third level totem bear barbarians get while raging resistance to all damage types except psychic.
I presume others in your party are taking clerics and, perhaps, paladins.
As a slight variantion on the idea, have you thought about going Barbarian with a Rogue/Scout Multiclass? Use throwing daggers, bow or croassbow for ranged and hand axes, scrimitar or shortsword up close, grab the fighting inititate feat for whatever fighting style you want, magic inititate for some druidic powers and get in some cheeky sneak attacks with reckless attack.
Note that skill-wise, a PC's role is basically set at level 1. Starting a character as a rogue or ranger for a single level will grant them the vast bulk of the skill proficiencies of that class, so a one-level dip would get you a lot there (this goes double for Ranger since you can get Favored Enemy and Natural Explorer or Canny right off the bat). Barbarian is kind of cool in that you can get more proficiencies as you level if you're using Tasha's class feature variants, so you can keep up the feel of a skilled naturalist.
I'd do one level of Ranger, switch to Barbarian to at least level 5 so you can keep with with the rest of the party via Extra Attack, then decide from there whether you want to invest more into Ranger. Barbarian + spellcaster usually isn't great, but Rangers have a lot of spells that are useful outside of combat as well as a few like Goodberry or Longstrider that have lasting effects without concentration.
I am so sorry to read this thread that late, I recently build a pretty good Ranger-Barbarian multiclass THE GLOOMY ZEALOT - You make a Barbarian with a Variant Human: Feat -> Polearm Master - You level 5 Levels into the barbarian - Subclass: Path of the Zealot |_ feat: Great Weapon Master - You level 3 Levels into the Ranger - Subclass: Gloom Stalker - The Rest of you Levels into Barbarian
At the 8th Level (5 Barb, 3 Ranger) you can make 4 Attacks (2 Attacks from Barb, 1 Attack from Gloom Stalker: Dread Ambusher, 1 from Bonus action: Polearm Master) - Max damage 110 (at lvl 8): Weapon damage 1W10+3, Rage damage +2 (to all attacks, Divine Fury 1W6+2 (first attack), Greatweapon Master+10 (to all attacks), Dread Ambusher 1W8 (second attack), Bonus action - Polearm Master 1W4+3 - Attack all 4 Attacks with advantage - Reckless attack - out of range for opportunity attacks with the Helbarde (Reach) - 50 feet speed (30 ft + 10 ft Fast Movement + 10 ft Dread Ambusher) - You have Darkvision, darkvision. While in darkness, you are invisible to any creature that relies on darkvision to see you in that darkness. - You have 10 ft Blindsight and see invisible creatures in that range (no advantage for invisivble creatures) - Ranger Fighting style: Blind fighting - When you Crit or kill a monster you have another Attack - Great Weapon Master (instead of Bonus attack Polearm Master) - When a Creature COME into you range (10 ft) you can make an opportunity Attack - Polearm Master - You have the Spells: disguise Self - Gloomstalker & Speak with animals - Primal Awareness - You have 3 Ranger LVL 1 Spells - I recommend out of combat spells because of rage... like Goodberrys, Detect Poison and Disease, Detect Magic - 82 Hit Points - Armor Class 15 - resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, slashing damage while raging
I want to make a character who is a ranger/barbarian multi-class. However, I am unsure how to combine the ranger and barbarian character classes to create a viable, playable character. The type of character that I had in mind has the tracking, hunting and survival capabilities of the ranger, combined with the fighting abilities of a barbarian.
As a child, the character lived with their parents in a secretive order of druids. A nomadic barbarian tribe found them frozen half to death on a lonely moor and took them in, nursed them back to health, taught them and raised them as one of their own. So, I want the character to reference or call back to their early years, living amongst druids with a skill or ability that they learned as a young child but still fits their ranger/barbarian multi-class.
I will be using V. Human as my race and point buy for my ability scores. We will also be playing Curse of Strahd, as a group of adventurers who travel to Ravenloft to earn fame, fortune and glory by defeating the monstrous vampire, Count Strahd von Zarovich.
Do you guys have any suggestions on how I might make this character?
Thanks,
Forge XD
Tricky... I would flavor it as a "Ranger" and go Fighter Barbarian instead. Unless you want a sidekick animal companion... but as you are not mentioning a pet companion (no green tiger mounts) I would take 2 levels fighter at some point for extra actions, and archery. Then use your background and roleplay for the rest. -- Edit: I got hit by another master Necromancer.
Hi, guys
I want to make a character who is a ranger/barbarian multi-class. However, I am unsure how to combine the ranger and barbarian character classes to create a viable, playable character. The type of character that I had in mind has the tracking, hunting and survival capabilities of the ranger, combined with the fighting abilities of a barbarian.
As a child, the character lived with their parents in a secretive order of druids. A nomadic barbarian tribe found them frozen half to death on a lonely moor and took them in, nursed them back to health, taught them and raised them as one of their own. So, I want the character to reference or call back to their early years, living amongst druids with a skill or ability that they learned as a young child but still fits their ranger/barbarian multi-class.
I will be using V. Human as my race and point buy for my ability scores. We will also be playing Curse of Strahd, as a group of adventurers who travel to Ravenloft to earn fame, fortune and glory by defeating the monstrous vampire, Count Strahd von Zarovich.
Do you guys have any suggestions on how I might make this character?
Thanks,
Forge XD
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
My advice would be to not multiclass just for flavor, only multiclass if you accualy want the mechanics you are getting.
You can get all the typical ranger proficiencies from barbarian+background (nature, survival, perception maybe), and you could take a feat for some of the druidic magic: Magic Initiate(Druid), if you want a bit of cantrips and a 1/day spell (for example goodberry), Ritual Caster (Druid) for out of combat spell utility, maybe Fey Touched?. If you are not after Magic but rather expert tracking/surcical, take Skill Expert to get expertise in Survival.
The problem of the multiclass is that rage and spellcasting doesnt mix well at all in combat, so if you are mostly barbarian with a bit of ranger, then the ranger magic wont really do much in combat, it will just we out of combat utility + maybe healing.
Id say VHuman with either Ritual Caster (Druid) or Skill Expert (Survival) does pretty much what you want and lets you stay as a full barbarian. Totem Warrior subclass has a nice druidic flavor to it, maybe beast barbarian if your druid friends are more on the WIld Moon Druid side.
If you really want to go barbarian/ranger, then the first level or ranger gives you the survival expertise you want. And i would leave it at that, get 5 levels of barbarian for extra attack, and then maybe come back for ranger for levels 2 and 3 for a fighting style and a subclass (probably hunter). Not getting extra attack when everybody else gets it at level 5 ist the big "cost" to multiclassing early, the more ranger you take before commiting 5 levels to barbarian the longer you will be stuck at one attack
Hmm, well you're going to want a STR/melee build, obviously. Melee rangers tend to be DEX-optimized, but STR is doable.
Ranger options that will serve you well:
-For fighting style, dueling is the best option for a STR/melee build, but if you were planning on using two-handed weapons or for the druid flavor, Tasha's gives you Druidic Warrior, which is also a nice way to get cantrips (your other option for cantrips + druid flavor being using VHuman to get magic initiate: druid).
-Use OG Favored Enemy instead of the TCoE Favored Foe, since the latter uses concentration, which you can't use while raging, so would be a bust for you.
-Good subclass options: Gloom Stalker, Hunter, or Monster Slayer
I know less about Barbs, they're not one of my preferred classes, but I'd say Ancestral Guardian, Beast, or Totem Warrior would be good paths to choose.
Birgit | Shifter | Sorcerer | Dragonlords
Shayone | Hobgoblin | Sorcerer | Netherdeep
If you don't want any damage definitely pick a ranger.
This could arguably more easily be realised by creating a Barbarian with the Outlander background (and even the background doesn't matter too much) than a Barbarian/Ranger multiclass per se, though nomadic barbarian tribes almost certainly have rangery types among them as well. Most of the tracking/hunting/survival abilities are covered by the Survival skill, which a Barbarian can be proficient with from the get-go too.
If you want the actual Ranger exploration abilities, by all means pick up some Ranger levels too. Just consider that a good tracker will want decent Wis, the Barbarian will want high Con and preferably decent Dex and high Str to make the most of that Rage damage. You'll need all three of Wis/Dex/Str to be 13+ just to be allowed to multiclass anyway, but even as a single class Barbarian going for this concept you'll probably want at least a 12 in Wis so the stat demands remain essentially the same.
Alternatively, just go straight Ranger. The character will still fit in great with a nomadic tribe and you'll be able to build more strictly towards a Ranger's qualities. Lots of Dex, lots of Wis, as much Con as you can afford/want to have after that with Str not necessarily being any consideration at all.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
To "to create a viable, playable character" for "Curse of Strahd", gloomstalker stands out to me with a potential for beating creatures of the night at their own game. Having said that and without specific knowledge of CoS, other approaches might favour applying as much light as possible which would render some abilities useless. Perhaps talk to your group about approaches. Ranger requires wisdom which I'm guessing might also be good for saving throws and also for the undead related survival (tracking checks) for which favoured enemy would give you advantage.
I don't know strahd monsters but, if damage types often go far from physical, I'm not sure how valuable raging would be in comparison to straight wearing armour. From third level totem bear barbarians get while raging resistance to all damage types except psychic.
I presume others in your party are taking clerics and, perhaps, paladins.
As a slight variantion on the idea, have you thought about going Barbarian with a Rogue/Scout Multiclass? Use throwing daggers, bow or croassbow for ranged and hand axes, scrimitar or shortsword up close, grab the fighting inititate feat for whatever fighting style you want, magic inititate for some druidic powers and get in some cheeky sneak attacks with reckless attack.
Note that skill-wise, a PC's role is basically set at level 1. Starting a character as a rogue or ranger for a single level will grant them the vast bulk of the skill proficiencies of that class, so a one-level dip would get you a lot there (this goes double for Ranger since you can get Favored Enemy and Natural Explorer or Canny right off the bat). Barbarian is kind of cool in that you can get more proficiencies as you level if you're using Tasha's class feature variants, so you can keep up the feel of a skilled naturalist.
I'd do one level of Ranger, switch to Barbarian to at least level 5 so you can keep with with the rest of the party via Extra Attack, then decide from there whether you want to invest more into Ranger. Barbarian + spellcaster usually isn't great, but Rangers have a lot of spells that are useful outside of combat as well as a few like Goodberry or Longstrider that have lasting effects without concentration.
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
I am so sorry to read this thread that late, I recently build a pretty good Ranger-Barbarian multiclass THE GLOOMY ZEALOT
- You make a Barbarian with a Variant Human: Feat -> Polearm Master
- You level 5 Levels into the barbarian - Subclass: Path of the Zealot
|_ feat: Great Weapon Master
- You level 3 Levels into the Ranger - Subclass: Gloom Stalker
- The Rest of you Levels into Barbarian
At the 8th Level (5 Barb, 3 Ranger) you can make 4 Attacks (2 Attacks from Barb, 1 Attack from Gloom Stalker: Dread Ambusher, 1 from Bonus action: Polearm Master)
- Max damage 110 (at lvl 8): Weapon damage 1W10+3, Rage damage +2 (to all attacks, Divine Fury 1W6+2 (first attack), Greatweapon Master+10 (to all attacks), Dread Ambusher 1W8 (second attack), Bonus action - Polearm Master 1W4+3
- Attack all 4 Attacks with advantage - Reckless attack
- out of range for opportunity attacks with the Helbarde (Reach)
- 50 feet speed (30 ft + 10 ft Fast Movement + 10 ft Dread Ambusher)
- You have Darkvision, darkvision. While in darkness, you are invisible to any creature that relies on darkvision to see you in that darkness.
- You have 10 ft Blindsight and see invisible creatures in that range (no advantage for invisivble creatures) - Ranger Fighting style: Blind fighting
- When you Crit or kill a monster you have another Attack - Great Weapon Master (instead of Bonus attack Polearm Master)
- When a Creature COME into you range (10 ft) you can make an opportunity Attack - Polearm Master
- You have the Spells: disguise Self - Gloomstalker & Speak with animals - Primal Awareness
- You have 3 Ranger LVL 1 Spells - I recommend out of combat spells because of rage... like Goodberrys, Detect Poison and Disease, Detect Magic
- 82 Hit Points
- Armor Class 15
- resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, slashing damage while raging
Tricky... I would flavor it as a "Ranger" and go Fighter Barbarian instead. Unless you want a sidekick animal companion... but as you are not mentioning a pet companion (no green tiger mounts) I would take 2 levels fighter at some point for extra actions, and archery. Then use your background and roleplay for the rest.
--
Edit: I got hit by another master Necromancer.