Baldur's Gate 3 Best Beginner Barbarian Builds
Sep. 25, 2023Baldur’s Gate 3 Best Beginner Barbarian Builds
In thisBaldur’s Gate 3 Barbarian Build Guide, I’m going to be showing you the 3 Best BeginnerBarbarianBuilds that you can use to put together an effective Barbarian early on in the game. I wanted to give some early-gameBuildsfor those of you who are near the beginning of the game. This is going to reach up to Level 6 and then for late-game Builds, it’s going to be from Levels 7 to 12.
We’re going to have 1 Build for eachSubclassto best utilize the BarbarianClass. A couple of these areMulticlassedand one of them is not.
So the firstBaldur’s Gate 3Build that I want to show you is 6 levels of theWildheart Barbarian, and I like this for a couple of reasons. First, is that you gainExtra Attackat Level 5. All of the Barbarian Builds here have at least 5 levels because of this. It’s the best way to go before multiclassing with another Martial Class.
Second, when you take 6 levels of the Wildheart Barbarian, you’ll gain anAnimal Aspectfrom a list of 10 and some of these are quite strong. For instance, I really likeStallionbecause it allows you to gain temporary hit points when youDashand you’ll even gain 2 hit points per character level. This means that at Level 12, it would be 24 but at this point in the game, you’ll have 12 temporary HP.
For theBestial Heart, we’ve taken theEagle Heartbecause it gives enemies aDisadvantageonOpportunity Attacks, which is okay but more importantly, it makes Dash aBonus Actionor gives us the option to Dash as a Bonus Action so when used inCombat, you’ll gain those temporary HP and still be able to attack 2x on the same turn.
Now keep in mind that on the first turn, you’re going to have to decide what you want to do becauseRageis also a Bonus Action so you can’t Dash and use Rage at the same time. However, you could use Dash as anActionif you want and then Rage as a Bonus Action depending on what your setup is. Or you could Dash on the second turn to gain the temporary HP. Barbarians tend to get hit very often so this is a great way to give them a health bubble that they can continuously use and it doesn’t cost any resources to do so.
At Level 4, I take theGreat Weapon Masterin order to useReckless Attackto kind of offset some of the hit chance you’re going to lose from thisFeat. We’re using aTwo-Handed Weaponto get that extra damage in exchange for the hit change penalty. You absolutely hit like a truck with this Build and that also gives you the option to make a bonus attack with your Bonus Action if you kill an enemy or critically hit so you’ve got a lot of things you can do.
By the time you hit Level 6, you’ll be able to perform 3 attacks, gain extra HP for a lot of survivability, and while you’re Raging too, you have damage resistance to physical damage.
Next, we’ll look at 5 levels ofBerserkerand 1 level ofMonk. The reason that I decided to multiclass here is that Berserkers basically get their best Class or Subclass Feature at Level 3 when they gainFrenzied StrikeandEnraged Throw. After these, what they gain won’t be as great in my opinion so typically, if you’re talking about a Level 12 Build, you would probably take 3 levels of Berserker and then 9 levels of something else unless it’s not a Martial Class.
If the other Class isn’t a Martial one, which gives you an Extra Attack, then you might take 5 levels of Berserker and 7 levels instead. Why I like Monk is it makes it so that when you attack with a non-Two-Handed Weapon that you’reProficientwith, you’ll be able to use your Bonus Action for an unarmed attack.
You also gainFlurry of Blows, allowing you to use your Ki to attack with an unarmed attack, hitting 2x so that’s really nice.
As you level this Build up, I would suggest taking more levels of Monk in order to gain moreKi Energyand use Flurry of Blows more. You also want to definitely takeTavern Brawlerif you’re setting up for this Build for your first Feat and that’s because it’ll give you 1Strengthor 1Constitution, which is good. It’ll make it so that when you execute an unarmed attack, use anImprovised Melee Weapon, or throw something, your Strength Modifier will be added 2x to yourAttackandDamage Rolls.
Keep in mind that whenever you’re using Flurry of Blows, you hit 2x so then the damage is going to be added even more, which is really nice. You have a really good synergy here and you hit like an absolute truck. Plus, you have a very low chance of missing at this point.
As you take this Build higher, if you chooseWay of the Open Hand, you eventually gainManifestation of Body,Mind, andSoulto be able to add even more damage to your unarmed attacks so the Build just gets stronger and stronger.
Remember too that there’s a lot of gear that buffs your unarmed attacks in this game. Stat-wise, you’ll want to focus on Strength, Constitution for Tavern Brawler, and someDexterityin order to boost yourArmor Class.
However, you won’t get as muchAdvantageout of some of the things that Monk would gain from their Dexterity likeDeflect Missiles. Although, there areGloves of Dexteritythat really work well for this Build to give you 18 Dexterity, giving you a lot of Armor Class if you’re unarmored.
For the last BG3 Barbarian Build, I’m doing 5 levels of theWild Magic Barbarianand 1 level ofDruid. What I love about this Subclass is that at Level 3, every time you Rage, you’ll gain a positive effect from Wild Magic, which you’ll want to take advantage of. There are 8 effects and you won’t experience the same thing with theWild MagicSorcererwhere the effect you get may be good or bad.
Now, I do recommend moving up to enemies before using Rage because sometimes, you get hostile AOES that deal damage around you.
You do gain some good things at Wild Magic Level 6, which you’ll want eventually but what I love about those is they give youSpell Slotsso you probably want to multiclass with a Spellcaster or just use those for the other casters in your group.
I looked through it and chose the Druid because it allows you to useShillelaghon yourCluborStaffin order to make your Attack and Damage Rolls use Wisdom. So you can dump Strength with this Build, pumpWisdom, and then as you increase your Druid levels, which you should do as you move forward, you’ll be able to castSpellseffectively because of your high Wisdom. You also have Extra Attack, Rage, and Reckless Attack from the Barbarian. Doing so will let you deal decent damage even in melee combat.
But one thing that I want to mention is that I highly recommend taking Spells that don’t haveConcentrationbecause while you’re Raging, remember that you won’t be able to Concentrate on them. So if you throw it in, and then Rage, the effect will end. You also can’t cast Spells so you need to manage your character well.
I like to take Spells such asThunderwave,Ice Knife, orHealing Wordfor this Baldur’s Gate 3 Build that you can use before Raging so you can use these as a setup in combat before Raging. And then go to town to attack.
Moving forward, I would highly suggest going for either theCircle of Sporesto further boost your melee damage and give you some Spells orCircle of the Landin order to pick up special Spells that don’t require Concentration and hit hard. Examples includeLightning BoltorMelf’s Acid Arrow. It’s really up to you if you want more martial damage with Circle of Spores or if you want to cast better Spells with Circle of the Land.
So that wraps up our 3 Best Beginner Barbarian Builds. I hope you guys enjoyed it and I hope I gave you an idea of how you can play your Barbarian in the early game. We’ll have some more Endgame Builds later. So the way you would play Builds in this game at the beginning is not necessarily the same later on because you only have limited levels now. I hope you guys can see why I made these decisions, particularly taking the Barbarian up to Level 5 in order to gain Extra Attack.
As always, if you have more tips or questions, please leave them in the comments below. I will try and answer them.
Stay tuned for more Baldur’s Gate 3 content.
Auberon
Writer at Fextralife. I really like vanilla ice cream.
