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In the wild world ofBaldur’s Gate 3, the Barbarian class offers one of the most straightforward and powerful roles on the battlefield. Tailor-made for those who enjoy a direct and forceful approach to combat, the Barbarian are unparalleled juggernauts that excel as sturdy frontline strikers.
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The core feature of the Barbarian is their Rage, a formidable ability that imbues the Barbarian with amplified damage output and potent resistance to physical damage. If the complexity of spells and convoluted strategies aren’t your style, the simple and robust Barbarian class might provide the perfect experience for you.
Updated June 16, 2025:We’ve gone ahead and updated this guide to fill in all the information we were missing during the Early Access period. Happy raging!
Barbarian: An Overview
The strong embrace the wild that hides inside - keen instincts, primal physicality, and most of all, an unbridled, unquenchable rage.
The Barbarian is an extremelyresilient frontline striker, excelling in takingmassive amounts of damageanddealing it back in turn. Bolstered by theirwide range in martial proficiencies, the Barbarian isunrivaled in its simplicityandbrute force.Barbarians, if built correctly and given the right supports, can become one of thebest melee brawlersof the game.
Though few can hold a candle to the Barbarian’s ability tohold their groundandsoak up damage, the Barbarian’s scope is considerably lower when it comes toversatility—with the class largely focusing on being anunyielding force on the battlefield. If you’re planning on running a Barbarian, it could be helpful to keep around a party member withproficiencies that can make up forthe Barbarian’ssocial and utility shortcomings.
The Barbarian subclasses can greatly vary, and several canchange their whole playstyle!
Ability Scores
Strength
The Barbarian’s most important score isStrength—this is what yourweapon attacks will scale with, and should be thefirst one that you max out.
Constitution
Close behind in importance isConstitution, which willbolster your durability. It’s hard to brutally tear through your foes when you’re bleeding out on the ground, after all!
Dexterity
Dexterityinfluences your Armor Class throughUnarmored Defense, which in turn directlyinfluences your durability. It is also possible to build aDexterity—instead ofStrength—Barbarian, but it’s much more unconventional and may not be as effective.
Intelligence, Wisdom & Charisma
ThoughIntelligence,Wisdom, andCharismahave less influence onmechanical benefits, they still impactskill checks, making themworth considering, depending on the type of character you are trying to build.
Skills Proficiencies
Barbarians start out with the standardtwo skill proficiencies,available in skills related tothe natural worldandphysical strength.
StrengthandConstitution
Skill Proficiencies
Choose two from the following:Animal Handling, Athletics, Intimidation, Nature, Perception, andSurvival
1d12
Starting Equipment
Barbarian Clothes(10 AC),Simple Boots, 1xGreataxe, 2xHandaxe, 2xPotion of Healing, 1xScroll of Revivify, 1xSupply Pack
Class Features
In this section, we’ll go overeach Barbarian class feature,what they mean, and how touse them effectively.
Unarmored Defense
This feature essentially allows you toadd your Constitution modifierto the standard10 + DEXmod Armor Class of other classes. In the early game, this gives youroughly the equivalent of Medium armor,making it a solid, but not outstanding, feature.
Furtherinvestment in Constitutionwill, of course, boost the usefulness of Unarmored Defense.
Rage is thebread and butterof the Barbarian class.
Though it locks the Barbarian entirely out of spellcasting, it offers the Barbarian a ton of features thatperfectly complement its roleon the battlefield—extra damage,extra durability, and the ability tofling enemies around like ragdolls.
No, really—with theabundant verticality of combatin Baldur’s Gate 3, shoving goblins off of cliffs with thathuge boost to Strength checkscan be a very effective strategy.
Although the Barbarian’s resistances during Rageonly apply to physical damage(bludgeoning, slashing and piercing), those are by far themost common damage typesof the early game and among humanoids, monstrosities, beasts, and other common enemies.
Unlike in tabletop, the extra damage from Ragedoeswork with Dexterity-based attacks, making a Dexterity-based Barbarian feasible, though unconventional.
Danger Sense
Known as the “Big Three” Saves, the threemost commonSaving Throwsby far among spellcasters and traps areDexterity, Constitution and Wisdom.
Danger Sense, combined with the Barbarian’sinnate proficiency in Constitution saves, gives the Barbariansignificant coverageagainst all traps and spellcasters, further enhancing their durability.
Reckless Attack
Casting Time: 1 Action
Until your next turn, you have Advantage on Attack Rolls, but enemies also have Advantage against you.
Use thiswhenever you can. Though it might seem like arisky and even trade of damage, it’s important to consider that the Barbarianhas the highest hit dice in the game, is probably capable of doingmore damage due to Rage and Extra Attacks, gainsresistancetophysical (or more) damageswhen raging, and also likely hasaccess to healingthat the computer-controlled enemies might not.
More likely than not, you’llcome out on topwhen trading blows with advantage.
Extra Attack
This is anothersimplebutstaggeringly effectivepassive ability that’ll effectivelydouble your damageas soon as you hit level 5.
Fast Movement
Since you haveUnarmored Defense, it’s unlikely that your Barbarian would bewearing Heavy Armor—or any form of armor at all, really.
This is an especially helpful feature as the base Barbarian class lacks range, and this will help youposition yourself better in combat.
Feral Instincts
Yet anothergreat passive abilitythat’ll automatically work for all rolls going forward—hey, we said the Barbarian was astraightforwardclass, didn’t we?
BecauseInitiative rollsin Baldur’s Gate 3 work off asmaller scalethan the tabletop—a1d4 instead of 1d20—aflat increaseto Initiative is a massive boost.
Brutal Critical
Though this is asolid damage boost—especially if you’re using atwo-handed weapon—critical hits arenot guaranteed, so this ability may get less use than the other generally very reliable Barbarian features.
Note that you roll asingleextra damage die. This meansgreataxes (with their 1d12 damage die)are better than nearly any other weapon in terms ofutilizing Brutal Critical.
Cooldown: Short Rest
Once again, this is a rathersituational featurefor such ahigh level—and if your Barbarian frontliner is dropping to 0 HP, you might be in more trouble than one additional hit point can salvage.
Still, this could mean thedifference between life and deathin certain fights.
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Barbarian Subclasses
As you reach yourthird level in Barbarian, it’s time for you to choose what aspects of battle you’d like tospecialize in.
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Summons, Mobility (Random)
Berserker (Subclass)
Violence is both a means and an end. You follow a path of untrammeled fury, slick with blood, as you thrill in the chaos of battle, heedless of your own well-being.
Frenzied Throw
The Berserker subclass capitalizes on the Barbarian’s brute strength by giving them anadditional Bonus Action attack.
When used in combination with Reckless Attack and future core Barbarian features, this featureskyrockets the Barbarian’s damage output—to almost unrivaled levels among the other martials, especially if combined with a feat such asGreat Weapons Master.
Mindless Rage
Though situational, this feature comes into play much more inlater parts of the game, where enemies begin to usecrowd-control debuffssuch asCharmedandFrightenedmuch more liberally.
WISSave
Because it costs an action to use, this feature ispretty lackluster, especially for such a high-level feature. An action spentmulti-attackingwill almost always besignificantlymore effectivein a fight when you’re alevel 10 Berserker.
Wildheart (Subclass)
Your attunement with nature and its beasts inspires your rage, empowering you with supernatural might.
Speak With Animals
This is a pretty straightforward feature—though it adds little to combat ability, it’s a nice boost to thevery lacking roleplay capabilitiesof the Barbarian.
Inciting Howl
Each animal totem that the Wildheart Barbarian receives grants them apassive and active ability, ranging fromincreased mobility, damage, healing, jump distance, utility supportandarea-of-effect damage. Naturally, which of these you pick depends on your preferred playstyle and party composition—and they all greatly increase the Barbarian’s versatility.
The Wolf Heart is especially excellent for a party with lots ofmelee martials, such as Fighters, Rangers, Paladins and Rogues.
Wolverine
These are allrelatively small additionsto the class, but you’ll get two of them—at level 6 and 10. We’ll always recommend picking features thatfit your playstyle and roleplay goals more, rather than mechanically strong ones, as Baldur’s Gate 3 is awell-balanced gamethat you can get through without optimizing.
That said,consider your party compositionwhile picking your Animal Aspects! Several of these work well with certainfeatures and spells from other classes, or can be used tofill ingaps in your party composition.
Land’s Stride: Difficult Terrain
Though situational, this feature can come in handy during fights—especially in thewilderness of Act 2and thesewers of Act 3, as the Barbarian generally lacksthe mobilityandinstant-displacementof high-level casters.
Wild Magic (Subclass)
The wild influence of magic has transformed you, suffusing you with an arcane power that churns within you, waiting to be released.
Wild Magic: Dark Tendrils
Unlike theWild Magic Sorcerer, all of these features arelargely positive, andnone areespecially disruptiveto gameplay.
That said,several of the Area of Effecteffects can damage teammates (such asIntangible Spirit,Bolt of Light, andDark Tendrils) so be careful of your positioning.
This is a really fun feature, especially if you like a bit ofrandomness in your gameplay. The effects of your Wild Magic Surges are also very useful and largelyBonus-Action oriented,which is good for action economy.
However, it’s worth noting that this also makesyour features very situational. Only you can decide if the usefulness of these features are worth the inconsistency!
Cost: Bonus Action
This adds a nice bit ofsupportive capabilityto the Barbarian, which otherwise gets little to none.
At higher levels, Proficiency Bonuses grow, making this a feature thatscales well into the late game.
Duration: 10 turns
Though the Ability Check boost can be outclassed by the Cleric cantrip, Guidance, a1d4 boost to Attack Rollsis significant.
Due to its sizable duration, you’re able to alsocast this before a fightto ensure your valuableActionsare freed up during the heat of battle.
This is, again, anexcellent supportive abilityfor your caster party members.
Anextra spell slotcan go a long way in combat or dire situations, especially in areas where you are unable to long rest or teleport, such as theNecrotic Laboratoryof Act 2orCazador’s Dungeonof Act 3.
Considering that:
This is anabsolutely fantastic feature that should be getting lots of use in the late game.
Barbarian Companions
Areluctant soldiertrying desperately to escape her past, Karlach is a feisty Barbarianwhom you can meetearly on in the game, shortly after the Nautiloid crash.
You can find her by theRisen Road(X:111, Y:503), where you’ll be able toask her to join you on your travels.
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