Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Help Tips & Tricks Barbarian options & details

Good Day ALL & Happy Gaming to YOU!! Thanks for any & all Advice in Advance!!


My old PC needs to be replaced and I've been forced to start a 2nd character/campaign with my OG one only about 5.5 level due to constant crashing...
Merry Christmas New PC to me soon-ish!

Anywho, I went with Barbarian 1 to start & then added 2 levels of Storm Sorcerer. The fly after casting ability is Sweet since so often there are Goblins above or to get out of reach when needed!!
Since I'm running with LZ & Wyll in the first group I decided to just switch up to Karlach & Gale this run. I mean, Cleric, duh? Am I Right?!? Guess I'll have to play one to leave Shadowheart behind...


Got to say, and it is certainly NOT the first time, that Larian missed the mark on not having Karlach's Soul Coin empowered Infernal Fire apply to her Elk-Heart Barbarian Primal Stampede!
It specifically says it applies to both unarmed & weapon attacks...How would the Stampede Damage not be done with knees, stomps, elbows and or Shield & Weapon on her Run-By??!?
If I was playing table top, I have to think that this would be ruled to apply by 99% of DMs.


Last ??? I am still considering 2 more levels of barbarian for my Storm Sorcerer too; but pondering the SubClass options...
I like the Bear Heart for her as the additional resistance could certainly come in handy in upper levels and MOAR Healing is always good!!
But I have to wonder IF you use your action on Unrelenting Ferocity to Heal, and don't make an attack...your Rage ends, NO??!?? This would kinda break that subclass IMHO

Berzerker for an extra attack when we really want to just whack something down would be great; but only for a few rounds with those -1 to attack stacking quickly.
Also, due to needing balanced bonuses across my abilities, I only have 14 str...will that be enough to use the Enraged Throw on enemies?? Or will most of them be too heavy?

Eagle Heart looks cool too for the increased movement; and Diving Strike looks fun, specially for this Gith girl who can already jump far & fly!!?!!


Picture If You Will - a tall, lithe Gith with the Everburn Lightsaber bouncing around the battle like Yoda vs. Count Doku
Who can also throw Thunder & Lightning around!!

Not necessarily. Rage only ends if you both don't attack AND don't take any damage. Presumably, if you're using the heal, it's because you took damage no?


They will mostly be too heavy. You will be able to throw Goblins and that's about it. Regular humanoid sized enemies require 20 Str to be thrown.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions!! Good point on taking damage but obviously something you're trying to avoid. And extra attack does not fix the issue either since you have to use an action to attack to get that additional attack.

Now I'm looking at Wild Magic Barbarian too. Some Random FUN that Fits the sorcerer story profile & provides a pretty big bonus of +3 prof at 5th level to saves vs. spells for all party members within 10'!?!!
Oh wait, What?? Its a bonus action?? I was guessing it was just active all the time. Shoot. Any idea if it triggers like a reaction when a spell comes at your party???

Really only 1 in 8 chance of anything harmful to your party, But I guess you'd want to be careful with your proximity to friends & innocent bystanders when entering your Rage just in case Dark Tendrils comes up...
Says "every creature around you" so you would do Necrotic damage to your friends within 30' too, eh?!??

Don't suppose you can trigger MetaMagic Careful Spell on that, eh?

Aye, but if you want to use a heal skill, it's likely you just took damage in the first place, ergo fulfilling the criteria of having taken damage to maintain Rage.


Wild Magic Barbarian is pretty cool and can be a nice thematic fit for Sorcerer multiclass (Especially as all the Wild Magic from Barbarian utilize their casting stat of CHR which is shared by Sorcerer)

One thing I should note is that NONE of the effects scale at all.

Unlike things like Cantrips that will get extra dice on character levels 5 and 11. Barbarian's Wild Magic effects remain the same forever. Meaning later in the game they will be weak when things like a single 1d12 or 1d6 are pitiful (Also, CON saves get high making them less likely to even land, even with good CHR and spell DC modifiers)

Teleport and Vine Growth can remain useful all game though, bonus action teleport and difficult terrain aura don't require scaling to be good.


Sadly, no. You have to use it premptively.

Also note, it's not "All party members" it's "All characters" meaning enemies also benefit from it. Making it even more awkward to utilize (Even more so with it's once per short rest restriction)

It can still be very useful, as there are several encounters where there are dangerous spells being thrown at the party where something like this can act as a quasi Counterspell. It's just not as great as it looks on first glance...


Aye. It hits everything, including allies (Provided they don't succeed on the CON save)


Sadly no. Wild Magic is considered too Wild to be manipulated by metamagics.

Thanks Again for the Insight!! How many play throughs have you done?


I can imagine the Dark Tendrils being a problem in the big city with possibly innocents w poor saves & low hp around...probably not having many battles in the streets tho anyway.
Yeah, I see what you're saying about some of the effects being rather worthless at higher levels. Def the ones that require your Bonus Action to use!
But those top 3 all look like they'd also still help; d6 force damage for no action w no save is something, and extra AC is always good!

I realized that since I'm leaning towards an end goal of 9 Sorcerer/3 Brbn; that I mainly will use the Rage/Brbn levels to finish things off for a few rounds, after casting spells & flying around the battlefield.
So tho pretty cool, the Wild Heart skills would only be so useful for a few rounds here & there anyway and well, Wild Magic just sounds FUN. Surprise!?!!

Funny thing is while I was doing my studying for this character build I totally dug the idea of the Elk-Heart's Primal Stampede and then Karlach was defaulted in that direction.
I was also looking at Clerics and liked the Tempest Domain almost as much as I do the Sorcerer path. I even wrote up a villain for an adventure as a lightning resistant Dragonborn Elk-Brbn3/3 Tempest Priest...
Now I'm thinking I am going to eventually give Karlach aboot 3 levels of Storm Priest. I gave Lae'zel 1 lvl of Warpriest in my other party & loved it; 3 extra attacks/day & MOAR Healing is always good!
I just like the bonus spells better for Tempest and figure the Wrath of the Storm is like a free attack too...

Played any Clerics yet? I'm not seeing what the limits are on those retribution attacks...1/day? 1 each/day? Or potentially multiple per round!?!???


Thanks & Cheers!!
If you're ever up in Ski Country Colorado, I'd be happy to buy you a beer

One one hand a 9/3 split gives you the goodies - the 3rd level subclasses for the Barbarian and 5th lvl spells for the Sorcerer, on the other hand you lose a Feat.

Oh my, like 100's.

I've played every class, every subclass and dozens upon dozens of multiclass options.


Aye, it's pretty fun.

So long as you aren't relying on them too much, they generally will just be nice goodies on occasion.


Wrath of the Storm is usable once per turn. It has no limit besides it requiring your Reaction.

Tempest Cleric is pretty good overall and can be very strong with certain set ups.

For example, a level 6 Tempest Cleric can do the rather amusing set up of having The Sparkswall ring (Cannot be Electrocuted + Resistance to Lightning) and The Watersparkers boots (If standing in water, electrify it) and then creating a pool of water (Either using the Create Water spell or using Sleet Storm and cancelling concentration) and then simply standing in the water to electrify it. Whereby any enemies that touch water, will take damage and get knocked back by Tempest Cleric's level 6 ability Thunderous Strike. Making it a massive and powerful control tool.

Even better is if you can get enemies trapped against a wall, they won't be able to move anywhere as if they try they get hit by the elecric and knocked back into the wall. This has no limit and can permanently lock enemies down, unable to move as they constantly get electrocuted.

The only downside to such a thing, is your other party members won't be immune to electrocution and will also take damage if they stand in electrified water (But if your other party members use ranged attacks, they can be fine standing outside of the water)