Barbarian Subclass Design

Compared to other classes, the barbarian’s design is relatively narrow. The class’s Rage feature is its central mechanic. Everything else in the design orbits around it, either complementing it or trying to fill the niches it avoids.

For example, Reckless Attack is a nice complement to Rage. It grants you advantage on attacks, at the cost of giving your opponents advantage against you. It’s a great trade off while using Rage, because that feature provides a significant damage bonus and defensive buff. Your enemies hit you, but only half their damage (typically) gets through.

Fast Movement tries to expand the barbarian’s kit beyond Rage. Superior speed is better in almost any exploration or combat encounter, and even social ones. Getting to a spot first is simply better than being slow.

What Flavor of Angry Are You?

It’s best to think of a barbarian subclass as a modifier to the class’s Rage feature. While no rule in the game mandates this approach, most of the existing subclasses provide expansions or benefits to rage that match the subclass’s flavor.

The barbarian takes this approach for two reasons. Since a barbarian’s subclass doesn’t kick in until 3rd level, the player already has established the basics of their character identity. A subclass that introduces a radical shift in how a character plays risks forcing the player to wait a few sessions until they get to play the character they signed up for.

Rage is also the central, star-making mechanic of the class. When a barbarian rages, the game has likely hit a dramatic moment. Saving the subclass’s nifty mechanics for that moment means that the barbarian shines thanks to their subclass.

I don’t think you need to follow this approach as a rigid commandment, but you do need to be aware of it. Players might expect it, so in playtesting it might be worth pointing out that you meant to vary from expected design.

Features and Structure

Here is how the barbarian subclass structure breaks down by level and typical features.

3rd Level: Angry Utility

At 3rd level, the barbarian subclass usually gives an added benefit while raging and a flavorful, non-combat feature. This approach allows you to give the barbarian an added element of flavor both in and out of combat, making the subclass stand out regardless of the style of campaign or adventure.

In terms of balance, the rage benefit is roughly +1d6 damage per round spent raging. You can go above this by providing a drawback.

The non-combat feature is worth a 1st or 2nd level spell, either cast once per day or used as a ritual.

6th Level: Plugging the Gap

At 6th level, the barbarian receives a non-combat benefit that speaks to the subclass’s flavor. You can opt for a combat benefit, but it should be narrow. Compare the Path of the Berserker’s condition immunity to the Path of the Totem Warrior’s added utility for a good example.

Ideally, the 6th-level benefit is something that provides a constant buff to the barbarian or an option they can use whenever they want. While this limit forces you to rein in the feature’s power, it allows the subclass’s benefit to pop up more frequently.

The barbarian already suffers from a focus on Rage, a limited-use combat feature. Look at the class’s core features and you’ll see that they mostly apply to combat. Finding ways to give the barbarian constant access to non-combat utility allows a subclass to occupy space that the barbarian’s core features don’t cover.

By filling this gap with the subclass, you give the subclass a chance to shine as the barbarian’s primary non-combat tool set.

10th Level: A New Option

At 10th level, barbarian subclasses typically give out a new action the barbarian can use. For in-combat abilities, this new option usually allows the barbarian to give a creature a condition, buff their allies, or otherwise affect the battle outside of pure damage.

When adding a wholly new attack, you can compare it to the barbarian’s typical damage output and balance accordingly. The subclass offers better combat ability by giving out a broader suite of abilities. The new option should use the barbarian’s action so that it competes with their normal options, rather than adding on top of them.

You should also consider giving the barbarian a once per day effect that uses an action. This approach allows you to use an ability about equal to a 3rd or 4rd level spell. Otherwise, an at-will effect should be equal to about a 2nd level spell.

14th Level: Augment the Cool

The 14th-level barbarian subclass feature usually takes the subclass’s core, defining feature and further improves it. Ideally, this benefit is always available to the barbarian. At this level of the game, spellcasters warp reality with ease. This ability should feel a little broken because at this level you need a significant boost to stand out.

The trick with this level is to make sure that the ability you give out would feel broken at lower levels, but remains manageable in play. Auto damage, new movement modes, or repeated chances to add conditions to creatures can work well, if you put enough restrictions on them that they don’t overwhelm every encounter. I like combat benefits that the barbarian can throw against creatures that attack them. That keeps the effect relatively controlled, while still making it useful in a boss battle or other important encounter.

Bonus Topic: Subclasses After 1st Level

Patreon backer Marshall Miller asks, “What reasons would you have to put off obtaining a subclass until after level 1?”

In designing 5th edition, we decided to err on the side of accessibility. Making a character takes a long time. That investment can be invisible to expert players, but for newbies it was clear that the road between imagining a character and building it from scratch was far too long.

Subclasses coming in after 1st level saved a player from making one more character-defining choice. It also meant that the conventional wisdom on building classes would be easier to grasp for a new player. An online tutorial would have much less ground to cover if it didn’t need to address every possible subclass.

1st and 2nd level in 5e are meant to be a training ground where a player learns how their class functions. The subclass is then meant to modify that core suite.

Only three classes, the cleric, sorcerer, and warlock, feature 1st-level subclass choices. In these cases, we felt that the subclass choice was too important to a character’s identity to push it back to a higher level. The classes that gain theirs at 2nd level, such as the wizard, typically lacked iconic class features and needed something new to help fill out their progression.

3rd level felt like a sweet spot. Experienced players tended to start the game at 3rd level, allowing them to skip a class’s training levels and get straight to playing a fully functional character. That also meant that a newbie had two or three sessions to play a class, understand it, and then decide how they wanted to customize their character.

Next Time

In my next post, coming early next week, I'll share a barbarian subclass and provide some insight into the process behind creating it.