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I played a lvl 14 Barbar that failed the save and had his brain eaten by an intellect devourer. I miss you Bric Bronson.

This is my new Netflixshow to binge watch. Love it.

It's both amazing and sad that this is no longer a tier 1 build.

Kalashtar as the race. Will make you resist physic too.

Really enjoyed this man. Nice work. And refreshingly informative.

I haven't played DnD in over a decade, but dude you explained this so incredibly well for me. I feel confident to play as a bear barb jumping into my new group now! Thanks bro!

I've played a Bear Totem Moon Druid and it was Tanky, currently playing a Peace Cleric bear totem combination and it is super effective!

VERY underrated channel, this is fuckin EASY LISTENING MIN MAXING BABY (i love min maxing so i can roleplay into helping newer players have their moment)

Woah, coming back to these older vids and the old intro music always catches me off guard since ive gotten so used to the chill intro lol

I love the barbs. Even tho I'm wanting for a few more mechanical options, but the survivability+crit damage output is too tempting.

When did homelander start playing d&d?

Glad I found your channel! Speaking of tanky builds: I’m currently playing a Fighter/Wizard who can be pretty tanking when he wants. 10/10 level split eldritch knight and war magic. (My first campaign to reach level 20 too!) but with the defense fighting style, an enchanted shield and armor set, and a staff of power, I have crazy high resting AC and saves.

Played a bear totem barb for a couple years - up to level 10 (not super optimized - he was a goliath with a great axe and GWM). Never wore armor or got my AC above 15. Still one of the most fun characters I've played. The DM beats the hell out of you but you just keep swinging. The 1/4 damage on fireballs irritates them so much. :D My RP decisions were very simple too. If I couldn't hit it, eat or drink it or screw it, I'd usually just sit down and have a snack.

Hey dude, great video. Came and had a look at your stuff after seeing something you posted on reddit. Have subscribed and look forward to seeing your channel grow :) Not sure if you take requests or suggestions for builds but I have been having a great time playing a half orc bear totem barbarian 5/ scout rogue 3. Planning to take rogue the rest of the way with maybe 1 more barbarian level at some point for a 4th rage. Damage, tanking and utility all in one build. Great at grappling too, with advantage, expertise, high strength and bonus action dash for dragging enemies about. I also reckless attack every round for sneak attack. Uncanny dodge and evasion will really help for damage reduction too.

Love the video! Quick FYI: Reckless attack doesn't apply to opportunity attacks that aren't on your turn. RAW: "Doing so gives you advantage on melee weapon attack rolls using Strength during this turn, but attack rolls against you have advantage until your next turn." Emphasis "using Strength during this turn." Edit: Also, on your 6th level choice, you can choose a different animal for aspect of the beast. Doesn't really affect the total effectiveness of the character, but it is implied in your video that you have to take the bear aspect of the beast at 6th level

My tank method was hill dwarf for the +1 to health. Then take one level of sorcerer for draconic blood line and +1 to health. I know it doesn't stack with unarmored defense. Then get the toughness feat for +2 per level. Then level up you barb and enjoy. It's like taking toughness twice. +4 to health every level before constitution bonus or dice.

Just wanted to mention that Emerald Dragonborn and Kalashtar ate probably much better race options fpr this than variant human. Yes, you end up having to wait longer for your feat, but you gain psychic resistance to patch up the one weakness of Bear Totem resistance. On top of that: Kalashtar also gives advantage on Wis Saves, which is awesome for a tank. Dragonborn gives extra damage through its breath and a 1 minute fly speed which can potentially force flying enemies to target you if you can fly up and destroy them but the rest of the party can't

I don’t think reckless attack would count for your reaction. The wording is “this turn” not “this round.”

For DMs needing to counter the BearBard: Having played one for nearly 2 years, my worst encounters were those in which I was restrained or immobilized in some way. I couldn't get to the enemy for melee attacks. Once my javelins were gone, I was effectively useless.

Wouldnt bugbear be another viable option for this character given the +5 reach?

"I want to be reaaally angry and hit things! Unfortunately I am wearing this heavy armor which had a natural calming effect....."

Bearbarians are fun! Quick Moon Druid dip to turn into a literal bear

OMG!!! The Second Breakfast Club!! You rock!!!

How about a metric "effective hit points" measured across various +hit rates. IE a lv 3 bear barb with 15 AC and 32 HP would have an effective HP of 213 (32×2×20/6) vs an enemy with +0 to hit, or 182 EHP (33×2×20/7) vs +1 to hit

Bear totem 4, fighter 6, rogue 10. Enjoy

Great vid!

Nice video man!!!

favorite one!

Could've been called Bearbarian for a better sounding name.

Just an idea, but what about splicing in three levels of artificer to get the Eldricht cannon (defensive), put it in your backpack, inside your breastplate or wherever and simple use it for your bonus action to give you and allies within 10 feet 1d8+2 temporary hit points each round. With resistance to most damage these temporary hit points will help negate a lot of damage over time. In addition you get two infusions which is pretty nice to get +1 AC and a +1 weapon. Or if you are kind, give your concentration spellcaster the infusion that lets you pass a failed concentration check. It does delay some nice things the barbarian get but give you a more tanky role and function, but it also means you will get less milage out of pole arm master. But sentinel and GWM will make you a formidable threat and able to control a big area while being difficult to whittle down as well.

Forest Gnome as the race. Advantage of savings throws in Int, Wis, and Cha against magical effects.

First, it is not common to see such a handsome man be so humble and quiet in his ways. Good to se. scond a 3 lvl bearbarb and then battlemaster for the rest is a combine harvester. i prefer greatsword or even a dex-based one with two short swords and later a shortsword and a longsword. the defensive duelist fat 'can' boost your high ac. I play one for roleplaying reasons, but though the gratsword wielder does more damage, the dual-wielder is VERY hard to hit. You should try it.

I am playing a ancestral guardian/ gloom stalker ranger (only 4 levels) get many great aspects from gloom stalker and the spells i just use for roleplay

Technically, you can rage and use Heavy Armor and get your bear totem resistances as it's not stated (while not wearing heavy armor) but you will not get any of your other rage buffs.

Great video. What are you thoughts on bugbear vs variant human. With innate reach you make that reach 15 feet, plus sneaky and surprise attack, paired with brutal crit this can be nasty on a surprise round. they can bring the pain and lockdown most battlefields.

Made an NPC for my DM the other day. Kalashtar 5 bear totem barb/ 1 fighter/ 9 soul knife rogue, with dueling and throwing weapon fighting styles. Allowed a home brew magic item that allows Your psychic blades to count as magical and uses half your proficient bonus rounded down to attack and damage rolls (to keep with tier 3-4 magic weapon users). Should be a fun build To use!

I also like the Ancestral Guardian as a tank barbarian. You took the Bear features all the way - you don't have actually have to do that as a Totem Warrior - I think the 14th level Eagle feature would actually suit your intention better as you could then fly, to consistently place yourself between the bad guys and your squishy friends.

I kinda wanted to see the kalashtar here to cover for that psychic resistance

I like beast hide shifter for the race. Bonus temp hp also!

I have a question for this, mostly for any of the future tank videos. With these evaluations, are you taking into consideration the relentless rage?

Unarmored defense is good for when you get attacked while sleeping. Armor takes a minimum of 1 minute to equip (for light). In gaming, a tank is graded on something called EHP or Effective HP. It's how much damage a tank would have to take to kill it, factoring in all mitigation.

The 5e errata allows spears to work with polearm master so a spear + shield build should be tankier if I'm understanding correctly.

One of your arguments for always using Reckless attack was, that you might get advantage on opportunity attacks, so just to clarify: Reckless Attack does not give you advantage on opportunity attacks, because it says "during this turn". I think you should still use Reckless attack almost always. Your idea of using sample encounters to calculate survivability is really interesting, but it might be problematic when you have an odd build that has 4 or 5 damage resistances, but otherwise should work. Alternatively you could take a look at the quick monster stats table in the DMG. (page 274 in my copy) There you also have the average of a monster, as well as to hit bonus and so on of a monster based on the challenge rating. (Just the AC in that table at high levels is weird, because it stays at 19.) The Damage/Round in the table is calculated by saying that all attack hit and do average damage and that AOE effects effect to targets that both fail their saving throws. Btw. really like your videos! Finding these small things and ideas is just part of my fun in watching them. Edit: The Feat is called Tough (not Toughness). Edit 2: One of the worst things I can think of against this character is Dominate Person (or Dominate Monster). It is bad against other characters, but this one probably doesn't have a good Wis Saving throw and can hurt the party a lot. A Mind Flayer seems to be the bane of this character. : )

Would love to see a crit fisher Zealot Barbarian Paladin build, where you can just burn all your spellslots on Smites

I was thinking of doing a mountain dwarf bear barbarian, what would you do differently? Also fancy using slasher, sential, and great weapon master. Didn't do point buy, did standard array so Str 16, Dex 13, Con 18, Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 10

14:35 compelled duel. It's a paladin thing.

I have been thinking about Barbarin Bear totem / Celestial warlock Pact of the Chain and using the Gift of the Ever-Living Ones to get full hp from healing spells. what do you think?

I think a cavalier can mark a target so that's similar to taunt.

There’s always a small chance that someone at the table is going to be upset about how much damage you’re doing. But there’s almost a zero chance that someone is upset at you defending well!

Goading attack is a Taunt like ability.

Nice build! Bearbarb or Bladesinger for a campaign start lvl 1 at lvl 12 or maybe at 20? Thanks a lot!! Cheers from Brazil and sorry for my bad english haha

Hey Colby i'm aware this is an older video of yours, but i wanted to share my current character idea here. i'm creating a back up character for one of my games. he is a Yuan Ti Pureblood (already approved by the dm) totem barbarian. The group has access to Stone giants belt, ring of protection and an amulett of health. He'd be the only melee character of the group (peace cleric, clockwork soul sorcerer and evocation wizard) Would you still recommend the same Feats in that Case, since your video came out a lot of new official content was released. would be quiet nice to see some build updates from you by the way. :) thanks for your work mate.

I’m playing a gnome bear barbarian that I plan to dip into the phantom rogue to end up with taking 1/2 damage on all but psychic damage,with a reaction to take 1/4 damage on select hits taken,or 1/2 damage on psychic damage,along with advantage & proficiency on all saves(including death saves)on all saves(no damage on successful saves from AOE stuff),& recklessly attacking for advantage on sneak attack with a finesse weapon using strength that does 1/2 sneak attack die damage to an extra enemy within 30ft of original target,spend AIS’s on resilience to get the proficiency in all saves. Interested in your thoughts on this attempt at not dying lol

If your rage is about to end and there are no enemies within range, tell your DM that you want to punch yourself in the face, or some other manner of minor self inflicted harm (which you will resist anyway)

What are your thoughts about Kalashtar Circle of the Moon Druid with the Bear Totem Barbarian?

I'd personally give some more damage dealing capabilities to this build, investment in strength instead of constitution and GWM feat asap. Still would be very tanky but also very dangerous, Tank + Damage Dealer in one. I'm not a fan of pure tank builds, DM has so many ways to skip tank character and make enemies focused on other characters, that a pure tank will be left unoccupied with limited tools to do anything other than tanking. But if this tank is a hard hitter at the same time, well, this gives DM a reason to actually focus attacks on him. But it's only my opinion.

It continues, commenting on all your builds. How about a build focusing on Tiny Servant?

Would Spear + Shield and Pole-arm Master be a better starting setup for the shield AC?

I personally would go with the shifter race due to temp hp

the last time i optimized a barbarian the DM had to balance everything against me and just wiped the rest of the party

I think I might make a nerdrage reskined version of this. Not a 'cultural barbarian' but maybe a cowardly noble trained well and equipped with magical gear that is the source of the defenses. His battle cry could be "Just leave us alone!!". Flailing around wildly with the polearm while he tries not to cry.

I've just made a bear totem barbarian, moon druid tortle. 17ac to start 😎

👍

Using visuals, like an on screen charaxter card would be dope. Learning how to do all this along side a visual would be great for noobs

What about a Rougbarian, adding sneak attack & uncanny dodge... RAW can the Half damage stack?

Kalashtar Bear Barbarian resistant to all damage

Compeled duel can be a taunt

What if you took the the wildspacer backgroun? Then you'd have the "tough" feat at level one, doubled hp and 2 hp per level after. :)

Why not choose eagle at 6? Seems kinda dope

If I wanted to use half orc for my race, how would you adjust this build? I was also thinking 5 levels bear totem barb and 5 levels echo knight fighter.

I think the Battlemaster maneuver "Goading Attack" is is DnD equivalent of taunting in an RPG video game.

Comment for the youtube algorithm god.

So, there was time, when You liked Brutal Critical :D

I don't think Reckless attack applies to your sentinel and polearm master reactions. Reckless attack specifically states that it gives you advantage on "attack rolls using Strength DURING THIS TURN" therefore it doesn't apply to reactions as these aren't on your turn.

Why are the typical enemies sometimes 4 and sometimes 5?

pft... me with a level 1 barb with a str, dex & con of 16 for an unarmoured defence ac of 16

Yo my dm says barbarians even bear totem ones never take half damage, I’ve tried looking into the 5e book and I couldn’t find it, does anyone have a source so I can show it to my dm to confirm cuz I’m taking lots of damage now lmao

about that DTPR and RTD. I know you are not optimizing for damage, but killing stuff DOES "reduce" the DTPR. So fighitng those 10 kobold at level 6 you probably kill 4 per turn (2 attack with your action 1 attack with your bonus action and 1 attack with your reaction) So roudn one, sure all 10 kobolt attack you, but then 4 of them die and only 6 remain attacking you on 2nd round then all 6 attack (dealing 2/3 of what 10 kobolds would have dealt) and you kill and other 4 finally the remaining 2 kobold attacks (dealing 1/5 of what the 10 kobolds would have dealt) and you kill the last 2 kobold easily So your RTD is actually infinite, since by yourself (assuming average rolls and some bad strategy from the kobolds) you can kil those 10 hobold in 3 rounds, and they would have required 4 roudn to kill you. Same math can be used with the berserker, each time you manage to kill a berserker you reduce the incoming damage and same thing with the dragon, if you manage to kill that dragon before it kills you... you did your job as a tank. The job of the tank is to reduce the damage the rest of the party take, by encouraging the enemy to target himself, by giving protection to ally, by controling the battlefield to prevent the ennemy from attacking allies or simply by killing the ennemy. so yes you are not optimizing for DPR, but your DPR is one of your tanking tool. Like I often say to those "cooky cutter bear barbarian/moon druid build" sure you got so much "effective HP" that you are unkillable, but what do you have to encourage the ennemy from attacking you. why shoudl the ennemy target the HP sponge that deal half the damage then the rogue or 1/3 the vengeance paladin? Instead of toughness, have you tought about resilience wisdom, so he can add his profiency on wisdom saving throws, and maybe manage to resists those hold person and other pesky wisdom spell that would take the tank out of the fight or even worste, turn him against the party with dominate person for exemple

Our DM just keeps throwing necrotic damage, lowering everyone's max HP and then big spells like fireball to hit as many as possible, for as much as possible. Just lost our ranger and druid to this during our CoS encounter.

Why is this man not multi classing into druid for 3 more healthbars?

Your write up is numbered #13.

Let's go one step further...play this as an ursine 🤣

Bear totem/monk of the long death with dwarven fortitude and periapt of wound closure 🤣

Me beeing a Kalashtar Totem bear babarian on lvl 14 now XD

Him- "Barbarians don't have high AC." Me- *looks at my 20AC at level one using unarmored defense* "hmmm"

At this point I feel like a ban on picking variant human with pole arm master would help your build variety. Why not go with spear and shield? Spears qualify for pole arm master.

I picked 5 level bear barbarian and was gonna follow moon druid but my dm banned me from following this path Because he is finding it hard to kill me 😆

It's not just non magical

For a totem barb control tank, I still think Wolf Totem is better, you lack the all damage resistance BUT you provide all your allies that is near you with advantage to their attacks. Bear totem is stronger in a none melee heavy party but in a melee heavy party, wolf totem will be stronger for overall team utility. But Wolf totem does NOT work with pole arm as its counter productive so if you want to run pole arm mastery then Bear, if you want to be an attractive overall target and rest of your group have 2 or more melee classes, I believe Wolf totem is better as it will increase the overall group damage by a lot. Add in a party member with elven accuracy and it will always be active while near you. You take more damage but you provide the group with an overall damage increase which means the encounters will be shorter. Again, will not work with polearm mastery as Wolf totem is within 5 feet of you, so reach weapons is counter productive.

Bar*bear*ian

You are saying that this build is focused on the tank side, according to this fact why don't you play a shield and spear to let your character reach +2 higher AC? I know that 2handed weapon is more appealing for a barb but for the pursuit of tankiness i don't agree with this initial setting

I have done this but with bugbear due to custom lineage from tashas to get longer reach

Should I feel guilty for choosing this build? It's completely legal but I'm afraid the dm might hate me 😂

Excuse me, barbarians can have the highest ac in the game tyvm XD

Why didn't you simply use a monster of proper challenge rating but one that does not have breath attacks etc? This dragon tests are pure bs.