A dm could certainly read otherwise, but arcane ward takes the damage instead of you, meaning it can't benefit from your resistances. The text of the feature itself is unclear, but according to Crawford, "If an abjurer has resistance, it is applied after the ward takes any damage."

Important rule check: your Abjuration ward doesn’t get your resistances; it’s a separate pool of HP

I actually play a similar character, but it's a Barbarian/Warlock multiclass. While it doesn't have as many spell slots, the various Invocations help a lot. The spells are mainly for utility, opportunism, or emergency. Having the ability to use Eldritch Blast to force enemies back into a Sickening Radiance or something an ally has going is nice for when getting close isn't advised. Having a Thunder Wave or Thunder Step in your back pocket is incredibly nice for a Barbarian, even if you have to end Rage to use it. Eldritch Smite adds a lot of extra damage, especially because Reckless Attack increases the chance of a critical hit. I almost forgot that I play as a Celestial Warlock, so the fact that you can use the Healing Light feature while Raging adds a lot of survivability. I was also able to get ahold of some Winged Boots, so that just adds to possibilities for both in and out of combat. The character seems strange to most people, but we're currently at level 16, started at level 5, and my character is the only one that hasn't needed resurrection at least once and my DM has mentioned that she just can't seem to kill me no matter how hard she's tried. It can't be that bad of an idea if that's the case.

Great build! Good job turning a "worst multiclas" into something id really like to try out. An extra upside you didnt mention: when does a barbarian take the most damage? On the frst turn before he got the chance to rage. Well gues who has all the first level slots he could need for shiled and absorb elements :)

Ngl this is super cool!! I love this series of making ridiculous multiclasses work. I think you found the most synergistic Wiz subclass, but a ton of other ones would work too: Bladesinger, Chronurgy, hell even Necromancy for Animate Dead, how badass would that be

"I may be outta slots but I'm not outta options"

Like this build, and I LOVE that you mentioned the runecarver background. Most people don’t know that dnd now only puts out backgrounds with feats since strixhaven. My personal favorite combo is satyr race, lorehold strixhaven background or pyf i also really like giant foundling, or runeshaper for AoA. barb pyf and bladesinger. Your ac is so high, advantage against spells, bladesong works with rage, and you are useful in and out of combat. You really only need 1-3 levels of barbarian. Plus you can play the buff wizard that loses their shit sometimes. If you add some moon or wildfire druid you basically will never die. Alternatively barb 2-3/moon druid 2/bladesinger x. Cast cloud of daggers and wildshape, grapple an enemy and drag them in and out of the daggers, on following turns you can multiattack then drag them out then back in. Insane amounts of damage.

I played a barbarian/sorcerer multiclass who thought he was a wizard. To be honest it worked out pretty well, maybe not mechanically the most optimised but I could hold my own in combat without letting down my party members. (admittedly, we didn't play past level nine (3 sorc/6 barb, both Wild Magic))

If they're going to make Backgrounds that give spells and feats, might as well just errata Magic Initiate to simply make the extra spell castable with slots. Why make the PHB obsolete when you can just tweak it a little?

This is pretty good! I know you had to choose wizard, but I also think a clockwork would sorcerer could work though if they take Resilient Wis. Also, this parks an interesting saving throw idea: though generally considered suboptimal for barbarians gnomes get Advantage to all Wis, Int and Cha saves vs magic ( Not spells, Magic!) so at level 2 you could have Prof in Str and con saves and Adv on all the other saves... If you even just went Wizard after that it would be good. -- I think this general concept also works with Ranger 1 if you take Resilient con later. Of course 2 levels of fighter with 16 in Dex as agnome and then go caster is also strong, with a fighting style and action surge and good saves

this is such a dope idea it is so different and it actually works !

Great build. Another MC along the same idea is Spores Druid. Instead of the AC/saves boost, you just get stacks of thp. But 4x Druid level twice per SR is nothing to sneeze at. Druid offers a similar list of rituals too, for that side of the utility.

With barbarian's unarmored defense, A dex based ancestral barbarian (3 or 4) + bladesinger wizard (x) could be good. You won't always want to be AoA tanking, so having a high ac has value. Having 16+ constitution is free mage armor. You would want to dump strength at 13 [miss out on reckless attack and bonus rage dmg]. You're a wizard and can add Int mod to AC and conc saves, so prioritize that stat followed by dex and con. Use AoA before raging and use bladesong when the THP is gone or when you need to concentrate on something important. Variant half elf could get the shadar kai's teleport and start with 13 str, 16 dex, 14 con, 16 int, 9 wis, 8 cha. Since bladesong benefits your con saves, I would actually recommend starting wizard [for wisdom save prof] and take resilient dex on the way to increasing your dex since you will have a good dex mod and advantage on the saves

i've got a cool idea for a new serie after this one for you, try making a multiclass character with all classes that need a specific stat. so for strenght you would need barbarian, paladin and fighter for dexterity you'd need fighter, monk, ranger and rogue for constitution you would need every class (which you already did so you could ignore this one) or go with all melee classes (barb, fighter, monk, paladin, ranger and rogue) for intelligence you would need to take levels in artificer and wizard for wisdom would require cleric, druid, monk and ranger and finally charisma would be a character with levels in bard, paladin, sorcerer and warlock to make it more fun you could require the build to have a subclass in all classes and limit you to only those classes and none of the other classes.

Very fun build as always

I’m not a D&D player myself, but it sounds like the game, for all its customization options, doesn’t have any exclusive perks or abilities or whatever to multi-class players (correct me if I’m wrong)? If so, I had an idea for a new toy for, say, a Barbarian Necromancer that would only be available for a Barbarian that multiclassed into a more magically inclined class: *_UNDYING RAGE!_* _While you Rage, you start radiate an aura of Necromantic energies that work to raise the dead around you. The undead that are risen while in this state will rabidly rush off to maul either your current target or any of their allies (or potentially your own allies if you lack sufficient control over your undead). The more damage is taken or inflicted in this state (by any in-range party, not just yourself or your undead), the longer your Rage lasts, the wider the area of effect becomes and the more feral your risen undead become in battle. At lower levels, the risen undead are handicapped by the injuries and decay they had suffered beforehand. Higher level instances of Undying Rage partially or fully heal any relevant physical damages that existed prior to their revival. You are partially healed and re-energized by any surrounding moments of bodily harm and/or death. Higher level instances of Undying Rage can power through anti-Magic’s for some context-determined period of time. Anyone within your general vicinity who dies during your Rage automatically raises as another undead, including yourself should you be slain in this state. At maximum output, even microbial life begins to turn, causing your general vicinity to become anathema to most forms of life, while also raising and mending undead from prior states of destruction that are anything less than cellularly absolute, even if it means merging their remains into gestalt abominations._

You should have taken Mark of Warding Dwarf to get Armor of Agythys. Then take the Wildspacer Background to get the Tough Feat to catch your HP up from the lowered CON, to increase INT to Multiclass into Wizard.

White robes feat from Dragonlance makes any barbarian/ caster combo viable because you can just use your spell slots on pretty decent damage reduction. Played a ancestral guardians barb combo with twilight domain cleric with white robes fest and it was absolutely disgusting the amount of damage i was saving my allies from. And even without twilight domain it would have been such a good tank.

New character idea for next home game

I just played this today in a one shot against some permafrost elementals. This character was a lot of fun, switching from rage machine to gish at a whim. I want to play this character in a campaign at some point

A holy archer build: Gloom5/Star2/Order1/lore12: access to holy weapon, a summon mord hound, inspire. Assume applied prior combat, holy hound teeth, delay turn to after hound. He attacks (4d6+2d6R+wis) end turn, hound attacks creature start of your turn(4d6+2d6R+wis), bless hound trigger attack(4d6+2d6R+wis) , bonus action star form shot (1d6R+2d6R+2wis). If this thought experiment, 8d6P+7d6+4wis, turn 1. This doesn't include out of combat buffs, such as aid and hero's feast, and you could replace hound for an archer ally as well, theoretically doing spotter/buffer for a sniper build that can also shoot well.

Glad you built this. Rage Mage was a thing in 3rd edition.

Holy Moly you Cooked! 👨‍🍳

Pulled right out my rear (will post a 2nd in a different comment) but: Wildspacer background for Tough, running standard human point buy TLWR: Cast Fire Shield & other non-concentration spells then rage. Strength & Constitution for the Barbarian, Inteligence +4 & Resiliance: Wisdom for the Barbarian Bear Totem Barbarian with Abjuration Wizard 15+1(1)+2(B4) 13+1 13+1+2(B8) 13+1+2(W4)+2(W8) 12+1+1(W12) 9+1 You end with 229 HP, a 28 Arcane Ward, 17+ AC (not great) & lots of out of combat utility Also, using your Arcane Ward as a reaction to protect an ally isn't a spell so you can use your level 6 feature while Raging.

tempted just to be able to take shield master and get mage to level 11 for a mid-rage 5th-level fireball centred on myself.

I think I would go wizard level 1 to further sure up the low wisdom saving throw over CON and STR But it’s a great build

Man you missed at the start: "Can the Macho Man Vibe with the scrawny little scribe"?

Can’t get MAD at this build lol MY PUN WORKS IN MORE THAN ONE WAY!! I’ll see myself out

Definitely not high power but I like a gnome barbarian 5 / warlock. Doesn’t need a feat from a background (which I wouldn’t allow at my table so I don’t expect others to) and gets advantage to magic saves against Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma. Can’t have Longstrider, which I would have liked, but someone else can cast that on me, but can have Armor of Agathys and Mirror Image. Pick up ritual caster (by having 13 wisdom as well as charisma) and can get all the great wizard rituals. The character has shaman/rager vibes for me, which I like.

Everybody says that Wizard and Barbarian are impossible to mix because they are so different in playstyles but honestly, I've never found it to be a big deal. The only problem i find with Barbarian and Multiclassing is that, even though you only need Strength to multiclass into/out of Barb, its a deceptively costly Class, as you Need Constitution to be a Good Tank, Dexterity for Armor and having a good use of Danger Sense and Wisdom to just not be dominated a lot, Charisma for Intimidation. Literally every Stat can be useful for a Barbarian EXCEPT Intelligence. But honestly, as long as you manage a way to support the Weaknesses of Each Class, i think this is not a bad combination, and this video proves it!

"medium armor" With bladesinger wizard this could have an AC of 10+dexmod+conmod+intmod Also have you considered substituting shadar-kai with that race from acquisitions incorporated?

I would consider earth genasi a good candidate for this class as well. Ignore difficult terrain on the ground or floor, pass without a trace, and bonus action blade ward which lasts until the end of your *next* turn, so that's like a mini rage where you can maintain concentration or preserve your rage uses for more important combats. You can't cast a leveled spell on the turn you cast it, but on the second protected turn you can. Another interesting consideration is Tiefling. With the Flame of Phlegethos(?) half feat it would be good for this recoil style build, especially with the hellish rebuke reaction that some tiefling origins receive, as well as with casting Fire Shield. One correction, Arcane Ward would be applied before your resistances unfortunately. "Resistance and then vulnerability are applied after all other modifiers to damage. For example, a creature has resistance to bludgeoning damage and is hit by an attack that deals 25 bludgeoning damage. The creature is also within a magical aura that reduces all damage by 5. The 25 damage is first reduced by 5 and then halved, so the creature takes 10 damage." -So it would make the THP last longer, but not quite as long. For this, I would probably go with the war magic subclass with this in mind. The war wizard's reaction and durable magic* feature [* when outside of rage] might be similarly effective in preserving the AoA THP, and a avoiding a lot of other bad effects, and the initiative bonus is nice too. Also their power surge damage could be applied to the damage from your AoA or Fire Shield Edit: another good feat would be Gift of the Chromatic Dragon, the elemental + poison resistance reaction could help prolong your Armor of Agathy's THP while you are raging and unable to cast Absorb Elements against non-magical damage instances. And the bonus weapon damage isn't terrible if you have the bonus action available to set it up

barb1/wiz19 is just an armor dipped wizard

What Do you think about a Barbarian Warlock?

My Mage Tank is a Mark of Warding Dwarf Armorer Artificer Abjuration Wizard specifically so I can stack Arcane Ward with Armor of Agathys, and have a high AC with access to Dwarven Fortitude and Durable. Best tank in 5e.

Now if we could homebrew, it would be easy. Path of the M.A.D. rager (Magic. Adrenaline. Driven), being a barbarian that has an artifact in it's chest is magically driven by the pain and adrenaline from the barbarian. Who had its body experimented on and altered so that every time he/she/etc experiences pain or adrenaline some magic power is added into the bloodstream. Mechanically this barbarian is a 1/3 caster (add lore that normal people would have much more powerful magic, but can't withstand the price) with the magic save DC based on the STR stat and each time they cast a spell they lose a little bit of HP. 1HP for cantrips, 1d8 for first level spells and each level higher adds an additional d8 of taken damage. At lvl 3 when you enter your rage as part of your bonus action you can cast any of your action based cantrips and whenever you take the attack action, you can cast any of your action based cantrips as a bonus action. For the higher lvl features, I have some Ideas, but you could also easily think of some yourself.

The synergy between Barbarian and Wizard is Armor of Agathys? Now, that feels like cheating! Also, how are you going to feed your Arcane Ward when raging? I would go Bladesinger, cast Fire Shield and False life, let my Familiar give me advantage and then use my spell slots when raging for song of defense. Of course, try to somehow get AoA, whatsoever. But that's no proof that Wizbarb works.

*Almost ANYTHING* is better than single-classing barbarian. Except maybe single-classing monk ... 😉

This works if your DM gives you Ability Score freedom on the old races like they are with the newer ones but run an ASF Tortle, once again with the Wildspacer feat. Dump Dexterity for Intelligence to maintain 17AC. 15+1(1)+2(B4) 8 13+1(1)+2(B8)+2(W12) 15+1(1)+2(W4)+2(W8) 10 8 Late game build BUT Totem Bear Barbarian & Necromancer Wizard for extra zombies to just use all of your zombies for damage, flanking advantage & taking hits so you don't have to. A level 12 Wizard can create 38 zombies with all of their spell slots. Alternatively, they can use their 6th level slot for Create Undead for a total of 30 zombies & 4 ghouls

i thought you were going with divination for portent. But abjuration is indeed the strongest option. I didn't consider AOA with arcane ward. Lmao that's powerful.

Subbed.

Do you know of Conan the barbarian and Tarzan can make a d&d build on it as one

When you say rage mage did you have to do wizard or could you have picked a different spellcasting class. Warlock and paladin can actually do similar and synergistic a little better

Well, .... while it's not worse than the next video (I'm presuming paladin/monk) I do think that paladin/ranger also deserves a video.

Rage Mage: Me want diss. Preese? Artificer: A mind sharpener? R.M.: Ya! (Big cheesy grin) Artificer: Sure bud. But why? R.M.: [cough cough] because good sir, it's so I can still hold concentration on spells even when I give into my rage. Even if it is for a short time. Artificer: ]jaw drop[ R.M.: Sir. You should never judge a book by its cover. Lmao In theory this should work. All you need is for it to work once. Then itemize your wearable items. And have them all enchanted with the mind sharpener. Can't stack it on one item. So you spread it out and your pulling from multiple sources. Lol loopholes!! (looks hard at Tenser's Transformation and giggles a little) ☕️ ☕️

First