The barbarian class in Baldur’s Gate 3 are explosive damage dealers, exclusively working to deal physical damage to the enemies. They are a strong melee-focused class that simply charges into the thick of things and swings around big weapons to deal tremendous damage. They can also be fantastic party scouts as they have a feature that lets them avoid traps.
The essential ability of the Barbarians is their Rage. It enables them to deal extra melee damage and provides them resistance to physical damage. They have three subclasses, among which the Berserkers favor fury, Wildhearts attune to nature, and Wild Magic barbarians get random magical effects when they rage.
Barbarian Hit Points
Hit Points in RPGs translates into how much difficult it is to kill your character. The barbarian class has one of the highest hit points as compared to other classes in Bg3. Meaning you have a better chance to survive in critical fight scenarios owing to higher HP.
The Hit Dice for Barbarian is 1d12. At level 1, you will get 12 Hit Points plus your Constitution modifier. After the first level, you will get 7 Hit Points at higher levels plus your Constitution modifier every time you level up.
Class Actions
The Barbarian class gets to enjoy only one special action in Baldur’s Gate 3, named Rage. This increases the overall damage that your weapons do to your enemies. It also makes you resistant to physical damage and provides a bonus to Strength checks and Saving Throws.
Increased Saving Throws help you defend yourself against various threats. An important thing to remember is that Rage ends early if you have not attacked a target or endured damage since your last turn. Utilizing this action demands you literally to be active throughout the fight without resting.
Fighting Style
Playing as a Barbarian means you’ll be harnessing your Rage ability in Bg3 to take out your enemies. Since the basic idea of this class is to attack with reckless abandon, they don’t get access to different fighting styles like a few other classes. Since raging and attacking anything in sight IS their fighting style. Wearing armor impedes your ability to Rage so you don’t get benefits from styles such as Defense or Protection.
And since you get bonuses to attacks from Rage anyway, you won’t need anything else.
Proficiencies
Proficiencies in Baldur’s Gate 3 simply mean equipment, skills, and saving throws your character is good at using. For the Barbarian, there are a few options.
Weapon: This class is proficient in using all simple and martial weapons. This pretty much gives them the ability to wield just about any weapon.
Armor: Barbarians can equip light armor, medium armor, and shields. They cannot wear heavy armor as it impedes their ability to Rage.
Skill Proficiencies: You will choose skill proficiencies from the following list
- Athletics
- Nature
- Animal Handling
- Perception
- Survival
- Intimidation
Saving Throws: As a Barbarian in Bg3, you will get Saving Throws in Strength and Constitution.
Barbarian Subclasses
As soon as you hit level 3 as a Barbarian, you will unlock three subclasses. These subclasses are areas where your barbarian can specialize. This will determine how your build will look in the future.
Berserker
The Berserker subclass basically makes you more of a Barbarian in literal terms. Instead of providing distinct abilities, it gets you Frenzy, which grants you two amazing abilities. The first one is Frenzied Strike, and the second one, Enraged Throw. These are simply the enhancements of your regular rage.
While using your Frenzy version of Rage, you get to make an extra Frenzied attack or throw something as a bonus action. This means that in addition to potentially making two attacks at level 5, you can make another melee attack simply as a bonus action in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Apart from the two base-level abilities, Mindless Rage kicks in at the 6th level. With this ability, you can’t be affected by the Frighten or Charm conditions as long as you are raging. It will also cancel them when you rage if you were affected by them.
Lastly, you will get Intimidating Presence after reaching level 10, making a nearby target Frightened until your turn tends to end. This is simply the best way to scare weak enemies and get an advantage in single-target fights.
Wildheart
Wildheart puts you more in tune with your Animalistic Fury. This allows you to take the heart of one of the few different types of animals. At the base level, anyone with a Wildheart subclass is free to Speak with Animals. From there, depending on the heart you choose, it will modify your Rage. It will give you an extra effect and potentially an extra ability while you’re Raging.
Bear Heart: This will give you Unrelenting Ferocity, which allows you to heal while Raging.
Eagle Heart: This one gives you Diving Strike, which enables you to utilize your anger to attack enemies from the sky.
Elk Heart: This one gives you increased movement speed and Primal Stampede, which allows you to charge at enemies using your elk-like anger.
Tiger Heart: This heart gives you an increased jump distance of 15 ft. and provides Tiger’s Bloodlust, allowing you to attack multiple enemies in one hit.
Wolf Heart: This one gives you Inciting Howl, which allows you to increase your allies’ movement speed.
Wild Magic
The Wild Magic subclass wasn’t available in early access and is a new addition to the previous two subclasses. It is quite similar to the Wild Magic subclass of a Sorcerer but in Barbarian form in Baldur’s Gate 3. Wild Magic barbarians are able to sense magic in the world around them.
Wild Magic also provides you with Wild Surge ability. When a Wild Magic Barbarian enters his Rage, they will experience a Wild Surge. A random effect can happen which you will roll on the wild surge chart.
For instance, one of the magic abilities on this chart says that you’ll get teleported up to 30 feet in an unoccupied area. Similarly, you can have your weapons infused with magic or even damage an enemy while taking hit points from it.
