Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Let’s Talk Barbarian

My personal inspirations for a Barbarian that I could roleplay as the head of the party are Ragnar Lothbrok and Uhtred son of Uhtred. They both have enough intelligence/wisdom/charisma to talk their way into and out of any situation.

A barbarian with high Str for damage, Dex & Con for survivability, and "enough Int/Wis/Cha to talk their way into and out of any situation"?!? That's going to take a lot of ability score points; better hope Larian allows unlimited rerolling for stats! xD

Attack is just fine ... even ranged attack is just fine.

Nice. Love the Bernard Cornwell reference.

That's absolutely true.
The fighter is now ashamed because his action surge is so weak compared to the berzerker's rage.
1 more action / combat for him while the barbarian can do it during the whole combat.

In my opinion, they suceed once again to create a really fun class to play (I'm fan of the druid, the sorcerer and the barbarian) but once again, it comes with a lot of balance issues.
I still can't talk about throwing creatures or imrovised weapons because I didn't tried a lot yet but about the rage and throwing regular weapons...

What is different with the rules as written (feel free to correct / add something) :
- In BG3 you can use your frenzy bonus action to make a ranged attack, which gives you a lot more flexibility. In the PnP it's only for an additionnal melee attack.
- In BG3, you also have the +2 rage damage with ranged attacls. In the PnP, it only apply to melee attack.
- In BG3, you also have the +2 rage damage with dexterity weapons. In the PnP it's only with strenght weapons.
- In BG3, there are no exhaustion when your rage end.

I think I'm fine with the rage damage applying to dexterity weapons. It should allow interresting barbarian dext based build.
The only point that makes the class "more fun" to play is the first one.

In my opinion, to balance the class a bit more they should at least :
- Remove the damage bonus due to your rage (+2) when you're throwing an item.
- Create a tradeoff when your rage ends or when you're enraged.

With the actual resting system (which is an issue for all classes) an exhaustion mechanic would not make any sense.
We doon't have any clue about an update of the short/long rest system so I guess we'll have to think about other trade off than the exhaustion.

Edit : well... it looks like there are bugs too... I just throwed a dagger to a goblin. Damage 11. 3 (1D4) + 3 (strenght mod) + 3 (strenght mod) + 2 (rage).
Why is there 2 strenght modifier added ?

Even if they dont allow it, within a few hours there will be a mod that will make it possible.

I doubt if it is worth worrying about as the game does not have to be well-balanced.
Another thing is that you probably forgot what battle master can do in the game with all your cc.

It looks like they nerfed the "frightened" condition, so if I'm not wrong the battlemaster is not as powerfull as it was before but back on the thread...

It's not about being absolutely well balanced. Not sure DnD is completely balanced too if I listen to the fans... But a good tactical TB game can't have regular mechanics and classes that are so much more powerfull than others.

Overpowered is not a synonym for fun.

Just as shove is not fun because it's a bonus action, the barbarian is not fun to play because (in exemple) you have the +2 rage damage when you throw your weapon as a bonus action...
But shove is OP because it's a bonus action (among other things) and the barbarian is OP because he has the +2 damage whateber the attack (among other things).

I just did a bit of reading and the exhaustion after Berserker's Frenzy is a significant setback to balance out a VERY powerful ability that more than doubles your damage output at low levels, with other perks like resisting the asinine Shove spam with Str check Advantage.

D&D Berserkers get one level of exhaustion after every Frenzy:


So while still powerful, you have to consider when to use it and proper rest restrictions would keep the Frenzy spam in check.

Fighter is not only completely lackluster and boring but also mechanically WEAK after this take on Barbarian. 50% damage resistance, +2 damage and extra attack every turn, ok then. And I'm not a rules lawyer or a balance fanatic. I hate how Pillars of Eternity is balanced to death. But Larian doesn't seem to have a clue.

Wait what!??! When?!? Please elaborate.

Does the "frightened" condition now work as it should: giving disadvantage on attacks and ability checks while in line of sight and unable to move closer, but NOT forcing your character to use their turn to run away???

I just checked for you and yes : now the tooltip just say "disadvantage on attacks and ability checks".
I can confirm that they don't (always?) run away anymore, which is good.

But there aren't anything written about line of sight or moving closer and I haven't tried enough to say.

I've been doing some further mucking around with Barbarian, seeing how it's been implemented and any other quirks. I got a Barbarian to level 4 and picked up the Heavily Armoured feat: this gives you heavy armour proficiency and +1 STR. Which was good for me! At 8 Strength my rather-unusual Barbarian wouldn't have been able to pick up a Chain Mail (it'd be 'too heavy'). They can pick it up at 9 Strength, though, which in turn means I can actually equip it.

So, how were heavy armour restrictions implemented? First, Barbarians can activate Rage while in heavy armour. However, doing so gives you the Rage Impeded condition:


This is moreorless in line with a Rules-as-Written reading of the PHB.

However, there was something I was curious about, so at level 4 I also switched myself to a Bear Barbarian. I started a fight while armoured up, Raged, then had Shadowheart punch me.

Shadowheart would do 1 damage to me while Raging, instead of the usual 2 damage of a 12 Strength character. This would imply that the Bear Totem's damage resistance against (almost) everything still works, even in heavy armour. (Against a raging Wolf Barbarian, meanwhile, Shadowheart would continue to do 2 damage.)

This is also in line with a certain RAW reading of the PHB, albeit one that's usually considered to be against the Rules-as-Intended. It does make the Rage Impeded description misleading, though. I'm curious if this is fully intended.


Other findings:

• Reckless Attack requires a melee weapon to activate, which means you can't use it when unarmed. Similarly, unarmed strikes don't get any extra Rage damage. Although this is a difference from the PHB, this is in line with the in-game description of Rage: the damage works "with melee and improvised weapons" and "when throwing objects".
• Unarmoured Defense still applies if you're wearing gloves, helmets, etc. that require armour proficiencies (which I think is probably for the best). It's just a matter of whether you're wearing any armor in the body slot, the slot that usually determines your base AC.
• Reckless Attack will work with quarterstaff enchanted with Shillelagh. After some testing, Rage bonus damage didn't seem to be applying, but I also noticed the same lack of damage applied to my Rapier +1 and dagger. They did appear to work with my handaxes. I'm left with a conundrum: I don't know why I was able to get the Rage damage in my last post. Are the rules for "Rage: Wolf's Heart" different to the rules for "Rage", was there some error on my part, or is there something I'm overlooking? (As an aside, if a Barbarian grabs it through Magic Initiate, Shillelagh uses Intelligence as the weapon's modifier.)
• Wolf Totem works by applying the "Rage: Wolf's Heart Prety" condition to enemies, which is said to grant advantage to any melee attack by Barbarian's allies. As far as I can tell, "Barbarian's allies" includes the Barbarian themself.

I have been doing some weapon throwing with barbarian, and unless I am missing something, throwing a weapon designed to be thrown rolls weapon attack damage (in my case 1d6+ modifiers) PLUS old weight based damage. I have been doing on average more damage with my handaxes then a battleaxe

I need to re-check it, but I think they are adding STR modifier to the thrown damage in this case.

Weapons with the thrown properties make the weapon damages + modifiers.
The other weapons makes 1 damage.

"Improvised weapons" seems to have their own damage range depending the items.

Does the combat log not show the exact damage calculation??

I suppose it might not distinguish between numerical bonuses from STR vs rage vs other, but also don't improvised weapon deal die rolls' worth of damage instead of a flat damage (1d4 and 2d4 depending on weight according to the patch notes)? A die roll would hopefully show up as a distinct source in the combat log...

Ah! That's correct. After additional testing I can confirm that the additional bludgoning damage was coming from rage, however the discription was pretty vague. First time I discovered it was on skeletons who where volnourable to bludgoning damage, so inflated and variable numbers confused.

Unless i understand Swen incorectly ...
Their damage should depend on weight ... i believe he mentioned its suppose to be 1d4 per 10kg ? Or something like that.

Can rip open Shadowhearts pod with his Barbarian Might...10/10

I look forward to all the options to ram my fist through other puzzles.

I saw you can smash the mirror guarding the lab, but 7 years bad luck man.

I've noticed a lot of Barbarian Intimidation rolls in conversations so far. I didn't realize I could rip open the pod though. I'm sad I missed it