Sub-Classes: Alternative ‘Barbarian’ Builds
Combining different species, classes, and backgrounds with proficiency and feat selection allows most people to make characters close to their original vision. But, sometimes, a character concept is original, or complex, and requires a unique look at character options to build it. There are often many ways to build characters with similar abilities, and finding the best option(s) to choose can be challenging, but challenging can be fun and rewarding. In the substitute classes (Sub-Classes) features we will look at ways to make different classes work in similar ways through combinations of backgrounds and class and subclass selections along with class feature and spell selection. These explorations won’t be to optimize them, but to develop interesting and unique characters with the abilities you want them to have. We will only provide example paths of up to 3rd level when you can get a subclass and recommendations of your first Feat you might get at 4 or 5 depending on multiclassing.
This time we will look at how to build characters similar to the barbarian class, a melee weapon fighter that can increase their damage. We won’t try to be no magic or anti-magic, since that may be our path to mimicking abilities.
Rage is the primary feature of the barbarian class. It primarily provides two things: damage resistance, and increased melee attack damage. By 2nd level they get Advantage on their first attack roll every turn. They also have the highest potential hit points. One feature that is up to you if you think its important is being unarmored or lightly armored and still have a decent AC. Can we find other ways, other classes, to attain similar abilities? Let’s find out.
Builds
Here are a few recommendations for alternative barbarian builds.
Backgrounds & Origin Feats
Depending on your table and group, you may or may not be able to create Custom Backgrounds. First are recommendations of Origin Feats that are useful and relevant Backgrounds.
Lucky. Provides Advantage on a few attacks, not anywhere near as regular as Reckless Attack but its still a good option. Get it from Merchant or Wayfarer.
Magic Initiate. Can provide spells to mimic some features.
Cleric (from Acolyre): cantrips aren’t helpful but Shield of Faith giving a higher AC can provide reduced damage.
Wizard (from Sage) provides Blade Ward which gives the same resistances to damage, True Strike for enhanced weapon attack damage at 5th level, False Life bolsters your hit points, Mage Armor gives you a higher AC while unarmored, Shield is a damage reduction tool.Savage Attacker. Basically gives you Advantage on weapon damage rolls. Get it from Soldier.
Tough. Gives +2 hp per level being able to equal or even exceed a Barbarian’s hit points when looking at average hp. Get it from Farmer.
If you are not looking for a specific Origin Feat, these Backgrounds can help with flavor, or even the best Ability score selection (STR or CON):
Artisan for STR
Criminal for CON
Guard for STR
Hermit for CON
Sailor for STR
Classes
These are suggestions on routes to take for your class and subclass, including multi-class options which can really open up combination possibilities to achieve your goal.
These first ones are the most straightforward paths to build a non-paladin magical melee:
Cleric: A holy barbarian? Yes, indeed. (See also: Paladin.) The Protector Divine Order can wiled martial weapons (and wear Heavy Armor if being unarmored or lightly armored isn’t one of your qualifiers to be barbarian-like). As mentioned before, at first (and 2nd) level, the only spell that really helps is Shield of Faithfor +2 AC. BUt at 3rd-level we can take War Domain as our subclass and really come close. Guided Strike gives you a +10 to attack with a use of Channel Divinity. You get the Magical Weapon spell, and WIS-modifier times per rest (Long or Short) you can get an extra attack. At even a +3 modifier you can almost do this every turn (since most combat encounters are 4 rounds and most groups can fit in short rests between each battle). This may seem useless if you dual wield, but you could wield a two-handed weapon for the highest damage dice and still get an extra attack.
(Multi-class Fighter even just one level to get Weapon Masteries and Second Wind. Maybe Paladin, see below, except they use CHA instead of WIS)
This may seem like the front-runner, but there may be one yet which can equal or exceed Cleric as an alternative paladin build.Fighter: This is the most straightforward other than most likely wearing armor. You get good HP, Weapon Masteries and Fighting Styles (probably take Great Weapon Fighting for a low damage ceiling with rerolls), Second Wind, Action Surge and at 5th level Extra Attack. Battlemaster can give a lot of options for bonus damage such as Lunging Attack and Menacing Attack both of which flavor-wise seem good for a savage warrior. Psi-Warrior with damage mitigation and bonus damage could be an interesting possibility.
(Multi-class Monk for Unarmored Defense if you want, but you will likely be making a STR-based, not DEX-based build or Rogue for Sneak Attack bonus damage, though again this is DEX-based (Sneak Attack only works with Finesse melee weapons. Paladins get spells that can help—see below.)Paladin: Like Fighters, they get martial weapons, weapon masteries, fighting styles, and extra attack with the second best HP, but they might be a better, possibly the best, option. Their spells, now available right at 1st-level including Divine Favor to get Extra damage on every attack, or the class-defining Divine Smite for burst damage, Heroism and Shield of Faith to soak damage. And at 3rd level, the Oath of Vengeance subclass provides Vow of Enmity to have advantage on all attacks against one creature and they get Hunter’s Mark spell for another damage bonus option.
Ranger: This is a decent option, similar to Fighter and Paladin, but other than Hunter’s Mark their spells aren’t as helpful as Paladin’s. While Fey Wanderer and Gloom Stalker get bonus attack damage, their flavor just doesn’t quite mesh. Hunter would probably be the best option dur to Hunter’s Prey damage bonus options.
Warlock: As we are seeing with many of these alternative builds, Warlock is very flexible. Start with Pact of the Blade Invocation to gain a martial weapon proficiency with your CHA modifier added to attack and damage rolls or Pact of the Tome and get Shillelagh to mimic a martial weapon’s damage. Take Agonizing Blast with a melee spell like True Strike, Green-Flame Blade or Booming Blade for extra damage. Armor of Shadows provides higher AC without wearing armor. Fiendish Vigor gives more HP. Lessons of the First ones can give you one of the recommended Origin Feats (like Tough) that you don’t have. By 5th level you can smite and get Extra Attack. For spells they get Blade Ward and True Strike, as well as Armor of Agathys for bonus HP. The Fiend Patron gives you more HP.
(Multi-class Fighter for Heavy Armor,Weapon Master with your Pact Weapon, and Fighting Style)
These are ways to mold other classes into savage martial characters that may not be as straightforward or effective as the ones above:
Bard: An Entertainer barbarian? Sure, why not. Especially the Valor Bard. Other subclasses don’t work especially well other than some spells, but a Valor Bard gets Martial weapons (and Medium armor and shields) and only one level delayed to get Extra Attack at 6th level. Plus they get spells and could get Blade Ward, True Strike, and Heroism. If only they could give themselves Bardic Inspiration, but even their Valor bard features don’t allow that they would be closer to being viable.
Druid: Is really only a viable option if you consider Wild Shape as an acceptable alternative versus weapon use. It’s still melee and then the beats forms of Circle of the Moon are a great alternative.
Monk: Monks are good in melee, including with weapons (which can be overlooked because of their Unarmed Strikes, which they can enhance with Focus. They get Unarmored Defense, and at 3rd with Deflect Attacks they can mitigate damage. And at 5th level they get Extra Attack. But they are DEX-based and won’t be able to wield marital weapons.
Sorcerer and Wizard (with the Free/PHB 2024 options) do not have viable options as a primary class (in the core rules) being the hardest to get martial abilities and would essentially require multiclassing with a martial class other than the spells you can already get from Magic Initiate. Abjurer Wizard might work due to its high damage mitigation with one level dip in Fighter. Arcane Vigor, a level 2 spell, requiring 3 levels in either class, is an interesting spell but probably too much to consider.
Feats
Many Feats are pretty obvious and straightforward for a barbarian-like character to choose from the same as fighters or other martial classes. Here are a few possibly less obvious ones:
Chef can give Temporary Hit Points
Inspiring Leader for Temporary Hit Points.
Speedy to charge into battle.
War Caster if your primary class is a spellcaster.
Weapon Mastery for a class that doesn’t get them without multi-classing.
Sluak: A Thunderous Melee Spellcaster
Though our recommendations above state that Wizard and Druid aren’t good options, but to me the good options are almost too easy and we want a challenge. I usually only do one, and was going to do Wizard, but Druid also has Circle of the Sea which is perfect for his theme and also features a high damage melee bonus damage feature. So I thought this would be interesting to compare the two as they will essentially swap the Origin Feat and Class to get similar spells. So I am going to work up a frenzied melee wizard and druid.
Meet Sluak, an orc sailor cartographer spellcaster who likes to fight alongside his orc warrior brethren. In the land of Taluma, he comes from the orcs of Ijis island, where they were granted land to settle and being on the sea, devoted themselves to becoming as feared on the waves as on land. He was the cartographer and navigator of his ship until the captain perished and he was promoted to take his place on the Serpent’s Scourge.
Sluak will use magic to bolster his abilities in combat, still fighting in melee right next to his shipmate whether it be raiding a ship or the coast. He will have to be able to use magic in melee, either with a weapon or spell, and be able to take a lot of damage. He will call on the power of thunder for some of his damage output in melee.
Species
Sluak is an orc. His species will help with some of the things wizard will lack compared to barbarian and other martial classes. Adrenaline Rush gives him temporary Hit Points when he charges into battle. Relentless Endurance allows him to keep fighting when he would go unconscious.
The Wizard Build
Origin Background/Feat
Guide. Though there is the Sailor background, and Merchant could work very well, this build will really benefit from access to Shillelagh from Magic Initiate( Druid). It also gives Cartographer’s Tools While we will miss out on Intelligence modifier, he will get Constitution and Dexterity for Hit Points and AC. He gets Stealth and Survival proficiencies. From Magic Initiate we choose the druid cantrips Shillelagh and Resistance and 1st-level Absorb Elements to soak magical damage and be able to use it as bonus damage on his next attack.
Class: Wizard 1
Proficiencies: History and Medicine.
Ritual Adept and Arcane recovery will help with spells, not immediately obvious to help with his attacks but as a wizard any magic bonus will help as we build out what spells he uses to attack with.
He gets three cantrips and starts with six 1st-level spells. We take:
Canrtrips: Blade Ward, Booming Blade, Thunderclap
1st-level: Cause Fear, Earth Tremor, False Life, Mage Armor, Shield, Thunderwave
Ability Scores
Using our house rule array I chose this setup:
STR 12, DEX 14 (+2 Background), CON 13 (+1 Background), INT 16, WIS 10, CHA 8
for these final scores
STR 12, DEX 16, CON 13, INT 16, WIS 10, CHA 8
At first level he can use Mage Armor for a higher AC and cast Shield as extra defense. Charging in as an orc he gets Temp HP and if need be he can cast False Life. He would use Shillelagh to get a melee attack using his INT modifier doing 1d8 force damage. with Booming Blade to add 1d8 thunder damage if his opponent moves. He can cast Thunderclap and Thunderwave for AOE melee damage.
Level 2: Wizard 2
He gets more spell slots.
Level 3: Wizard 3
He gets 2nd level spells and his sub-class of which we are choosing Abjurer. Abjurer gives him two abjuration (protection) spells. More importantly he gets Arcane Ward which, when casts an abjuration spell like Mage Armor, creates a protective shield with HP equal to 9 at this point and increases as he levels. This is separate from temporary HP so he can stack his Adrenaline Rush or False Life temp HP with these 9. Casting False Life as a 2nd level spell he could get on average 13 so a total of 22 extra hit points.
For 2nd-level spells he adds: Abjuration spells: Arcane Vigor (for self-healing) and Protection from Evil and Good. He also adds Mirror Image (for more defense) and Shadow Blade (which he can use in place of Shillelagh+Booming Blade if in Dim light or darkness to do high, likely unresisted, psychic damage and get Advantage on his attacks)
He has AC 16 (Mage Armor + DEX) and 29 HP (20+9 from his Arcane Wars) and can add Temp HP to give him on average 42 or up to 46! A wizard at 3rd level with 38-46 possible hit points to start a battle.
A barbarian with a 17 CON and the Tough feat at 3rd level would have 41 HP.
At 3rd level in melee combat wizard Sluak has these abilities:
The AC and HP already listed above, plus Blade Ward and Absorb Elements and Shield to further mitigate damage. And Arcane Vigor to heal himself for 1d6+3 or 2d6+3. And he could cast Mirror Image to be even harder to hit, without concentration.
His basic melee attacks using Shillelagh plus Booming Blade would be +5 to attack and do 1d8+3 with a possible additional 1d8. But he can also cast Shadow Blade to do 2d8 psychic damage and get Advantage on attack rolls if in Dim light or Darkness.
If he is surrounded he can use Thunderclap or Thunderwave to hit multiple enemies. With the latter, he could do 3d8 damage with a 2nd-level spell slot to all enemies within a 15’ cube.
Level 4+
There are some feats that could help, but it might be better just to get his INT up to 18 so I would stick with Wizard and add +2 to INT to get it to 18 and increase modifiers to +4.
Wizards have great 3rd level spells so I would stick with Wizard at 5. For his new 3rd-level spells I would add Haste and Tidal Wave to his spellbook. With Haste he can get an extra Action every turn, which would mean an extra attack available.
The Druid Build
Origin Background/Feat
Sage. Like the Wizard build, the Sailor and Merchant backgrounds could make sense, but we need to pick up some Wizard spells and will go with Sage. It gives Calligrapher’s Tools (vs. Navigator’s or Cartogpraher’s.) On the plus side we get both Wisdom (for Druid) and Constitution (for HP). He gets Arcana and History proficiencies. From Magic Initiate we choose the Wizard cantrips Blade Ward and Booming Blade and 1st-level Shield to avoid damage
Class: Druid 1
Proficiencies: History and Medicine.
Ritual Adept and Arcane recovery will help with spells, not immediately obvious to help with his attacks but as a wizard any magic bonus will help as we build out what spells he uses to attack with.
He gets three cantrips and starts with six 1st-level spells. We take:
Canrtrips: Shillelagh, Thunderclap
1st-level: Absorb Elements, Fog Cloud, Healing Word, Thunderwave
Ability Scores
Using our house rule array I chose this setup:
STR 12, DEX 13, CON 14 (+2 Background), INT 10, WIS 16 (+1 Background), CHA 8
for these final scores
STR 12, DEX 13, CON 16, INT 10, WIS 17, CHA 8
At first level he can will wear light armor for an Okay AC but can cast Shield and Absorb Elements as extra defense. Charging in as an orc he gets Temp HP and he can Bonus Action cast Healing Word on himself. He would use Shillelagh to get a melee attack using his WIS modifier doing 1d8 force damage. with Booming Blade to add 1d8 thunder damage if his opponent moves. He can cast Thunderclap and Thunderwave for AOE melee damage.
Level 2: Druid 2
He gets Wild Shape and Wild Companion. He might use Wild Shape for utility, but with Wild Companion he can summon a familiar which can use the Help Action to give him Advantage on attack rolls just as barbarians can get with Relentless Attack. He also gets one more prepared spell and I select Jump.
Level 3: Druid 3
He gets 2nd level spells and his sub-class of which we are choosing Circle of the Sea. His circle gives him automatically prepared spells: Fog Cloud, Gust of Wind, Ray of Frost, Shatter, Thunderwave. Since he gets Fog Cloud and Thunderwave we can swap those out for Earth Tremor and Protection from Evil and Good. More importantly he gets Wrath of the Sea which he can use his Wild Shape uses to manifest a 5’ emanation of ocean spray for 10 minutes, As a Bonus Action he can target someone within 5’ to make a Save or take Cold damage equal to a number of d6s equal to his WIS modifier (3) and push them up to 15’ away. 3d6 as a bonus Action every round for 10 minutes, possibly more than one battle, is pretty impressive.
With his additional prepared spells slots and 2nd-level spells available I add: Aid, Enlarge/Reduce, and Healing Spirit.
He has AC 16 (Studded Leather + DEX), and he can wield a shield to get 18 AC; and 27 HP base with Aid he can increase his max to 32 and can add 2 Temp HP when he charges to give him 34.
At 3rd level in melee combat druid Sluak has these abilities:
The AC and HP already listed above, plus Blade Ward and Absorb Elements and Shield to further mitigate damage. He can heal himself with a Bonus Action with Healing Word for 2d4+3 or 4d4+3. He can also use his Healing Spirit to heal him for 1d6 up to 4 times.
His basic melee attacks using Shillelagh plus Booming Blade would be +5 to attack and do 1d8+3 with a possible additional 1d8. And he can get Advantage on attack rolls from his familiar. He could enlarge himself to Size Large and get +1d4 to his attacks.
If he is surrounded he can use Thunderclap or Thunderwave to hit multiple enemies. With the latter, he could do 3d8 damage with a 2nd-level spell slot to all enemies within a 15’ cube.
Finally, his Wrath of the Sea can add Bonus Action damage of 3d6 and push them up to 15’ away which lasts for 10 minutes.
Level 4+
Since druid Sluak has a 17 Wisdom, it pays to get the +1 from a Feat to get it to 18. So we will continue with Druid and take the War Caster Feat to get his WIS to 18 (and +4 vs/+3) which will increase attacks, damage, and number of uses of some abilities. Most importantly he will get 4d6 damage from Wrath of the Sea. He also gets the Concentration and Reaction bonuses, plus he can now use his shield and still cast so his AC can always be 18.
At 5th level, he could get 3rd level Druid spells, but that can probably wait a level, so we will take a Fighter dip of 1 level. This gives him Second Wind for some self healing. He gets martial weapon and heavy armor proficiency and he could upgrade both weapons and armor. Using Shillelagh he will not need to upgrade his melee weapon but he could pick up a better ranged weapon for emergencies and I would give him a Heavy Crossbow. He also gets a Fighting Style and we would take Defense to give him another +1 to AC for 19. Finally he gets three Weapon Masteries and we select Club (Slow) and Quarterstaff (Topple) to use with either Shillelagh option depending which Mastery he wants to use. Topple may be better to make an opponent prone, but Slow can keep them in his Wrath of the Sea. Since he has picked up a Heavy Crossbow we will give him that Mastery of Push.
Summary
On the surface, the wizard build is pretty impressive with its sheer number of Hit Points available. At 5th Level the wizard build getting Haste and thus extra attacks (which can both be Booming Blade since it is a Cantrip not a levelled spell) helps his damage output a lot. But druid still has a lot of HP and adds more healing and eventually with Fighter multi-classing better armor options, weapon masteries. (Of course the wizard could do this as well after 3rd level at 4th or 5th). The Wrath of the Sea feature gives him much higher damage output. Circle of the Sea also works really well thematically with a sailor so I would probably go that route if I played him.
