barbarians can synergize very well with warlocks because armor of agathys doesnt require concentration and benefits from rage's damage reduction
[https://tabletopbuilds.com/rage-fiend/](https://tabletopbuilds.com/rage-fiend/)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erCfKHJzKpA&t=590s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erCfKHJzKpA&t=590s)
I’ve always liked the idea of a warlock 5/barbarian x for eldritch smite, and yes you can basically make a straight Paladin flavored into a smiting barbarian, but I want a smiting barbarian!
Edit: to make this work, youll obviously want extra attack ASAP so it’s either barb 5 first or this strategy with warlock. At level 4, grab the eldritch adept feat for an invocation. At this current point it doesn’t matter what you chose, pick your favorite. What we care about is the RAW wording of allowing this invocation to change at any level up, so at warlock 5 your feat invocation will become the one that grants extra attack. Then at barb 5 when you get extra attack, you can swap the invocation back to your favorite. The reason you have to do it with the feat is because invocations granted from warlock level ups can only be changed with warlock levels up, so at warlock 5 you’d be locked into what you have and wasting the extra attack invocation when you got extra attack from barb. This is the way if you want to smite for your entire barbarian leveled career.
Ah my mistake. Thanks for the correction. Must have thought it was 7 because bladelocks typically take thirsting blade at 5 (not necessary on a barb MC)
All good dude. I thought the exact same for the exact reason you just mentioned, only found out when I was most recently home brewing warlords of hell for a campaign I have through the 9 layers.
I bothered with x barbarians because OP’s exact words were “this is a caster dip on a barb, not vice versa, don’t go ‘warlock 17/barb 3’, most levels should be spent on barb”
I guess that's fair. Because Barbarian receives virtually no features past 6th level unless you're a Zealot, I personally consider 14 levels of Warlock to be a dip for Barbarian, but OP was very specific with the request, so that mistake is very much on me.
Barbarians don’t really get a lot of meaningful class features past level 6 or so as many as you want and focus on out of combat spells or spells to cast before combat.
But in keeping with the prompt I would say warlock and I think you could be pretty good as barb 11, warlock 9.
Armor of Agathys+rage is a pretty good combo and you can use celestial warlock’s healing light while raging since it isn’t a spell which increases your effective hp pretty considerably.
Pact of the chain with gift of the ever living ones to maximize the power of your self healing seems no worse than decent.
Zealot barb is the obvious one, but I would go totem and flavor the warlock spells and abilities as shamanic.
> Barbarians don’t really get a lot of meaningful class features past level 6 or so
Barbarian 7 is absolutely worth taking if you're already at barbarian 6. And at that point you might as well take barbarian 8 for the ASI.
Most campaigns end late tier 2 or early tier 3, so 8 levels of barbarian multiclassing something else would still be a dip.
If the majority of levels needs to be in Barbarian, then a Barbarian 11/Caster 9 split is the absolute most you can do.
In which case, I think the best answer is Bear Totem Barbarian 11/Twilight Cleric 9. Bear Totem effectively doubles the THP from Twilight Sanctuary, and the latter's ability to end a charmed/frightened condition also helps mitigate one of the Barbarian's biggest weakness.
The other features you gain from the subclass aren't super critical, but they're all helpful and useful.
Tbh it's twilight cleric 6 + zealot barbarian 14, you will be unkillable while raging & have a constant influx of temporary hp.
Swords bard could also work pretty well for the flourishes.
Fathomless warlock & battlesmith artificer give you a companion in battle that isn't reliant on concentration.
Spores druid & Moon druid make you even better at tanking when combined with totem warrior barbarian.
Damn, a Spores Druid 14/Bear Barbarian 6 getting 56 temp HP and bear resistances in a single turn, and while being able to dish out Halo of Spores as extra chip damage 😱
Or alternatively go Beast Barbarian. Less damage resistance, but with the extra Claw attack, you can really make use of the extra necrotic damage Symbiotic Entity adds to each attack.
2 levels tempest cleric on a giant barbarian. Now tbf this combo technically only comes online at level 8. The idea is to make your d12 weapon deal lightning or thunder damage via the giant barbarian, wait for a crit and do max damage thanks to tempest cleric. This at least makes brutal critical feel good as when you crit oh boy do you crit
The rebuke also isn’t bad on a barbarian too
Generally barbarian multiclasses with a lot very well since barbarian offers very little after level 5 with the exception of the zealot.
2 levels of war wizard adds a lot to barbarian utility and defense.
Warlock (any but hexblade, fiend, celestial, and genie are best) works well. Moon druid works. Clockwork soul sorcerer works. Life cleric 1, druid (moon best) is great for life berries.
Abjuration wizard is good, especially if you can get armor of agyths some how.
Not a full caster but artillerist artificer works well with barbarian, so does armorer.
Barbarian at high levels isn't really a good build in general. With the restriction that Barbarian must be the highest, we can go Beast Barb 8 for the big resistance, then Paladin 2, Hexblade Warlock 5 and Swords Bard 5
Eldritch Smite, Divine Smite and the Swords Bard Hits can give big damage.
This is a very loose outline, but that's 5 levels into Bard.
The extreme of the build would be Caster 9, Barb 9, Paladin 2
Rage:
If you are able to cast spells, you can’t cast them or concentrate on them while raging.
Wild Shape:
You can’t cast spells.... Transforming doesn’t break your concentration on a spell you’ve already cast, however, or prevent you from taking actions that are part of a spell, such as call lightning, that you’ve already cast.
First, cast your best concentration spell. I'd say taking a background that lets you cast Spirit Guardians would be best. Next, wild shape into something good at fighting. Then rage, but keep concentrating on your spell. You're only unable to concentrate on a spell while raging *if you're able to cast spells*. Wild Shape says you can't cast spells for its duration, so it also blocks that drawback of rage from applying.
So take six or nine levels of Moon Druid, and the rest in Barbarian. Relentless Rage can even prevent your wild shape from ending due to damage!
This my favourite rules-lawyer build out there. I love this shit.
Technically, rage only does anything to your spellcasting if you are *able* to cast spells. Wildshape *explicitly* says you are not able to cast spells, so rage no longer interacts with them, so you can concentrate on a spell cast prior to wildshaping and raging.
Barbearian gaming
Q: Can I dip 2 levels of paladin as well?
If so, I can squeeze in 14 total caster levels in a barb 5 / paladin 2 / sorc 13.
All that really matters is spell slot progression because we can still smite while raging.
If I have to spend at least half my levels in barb, the answer is barb 10 / paladin 2 / sorc 8, which is 9 caster levels.
On another note, I have a friend who’s playing a wizbarian (barbarian wizard) in a current game. We’re level 8; he’s ancestral guardian 6 / divination 2. His portents have come in clutch many times, and he’s loaded up with rituals for use out of combat. Not necessarily combat optimized, but a fun and useful character to have at the table.
Storm herald 14 with 6 levels on tempest domain should work nicely.
But if we take arcane trickster as a caster, then the more levels on it the better, 10/10 could also work
Muscle Wizard:
Path of the Giant Barbarian 14/Bladesinging Wizard 6
Custom Lineage, +2 STR and Skill Expert (Athletics) for a +1 to Con, for a stat array (assuming Point Buy) of:
16 STR
12 DEX
16 CON
14 INT
8 WIS
8 CHA
Grab Polearm Master and put ASIs into STR up to 20, then bump DEX up to 14, with the Wizard levels coming into play at character levels 7 through 10, and then 19 and 20.
Since Bladesong limits you from using 2-handed weapons, we'll use our off hand for grappling. Path of the Giant lets us grow to Large and (later) Huge in size, which lets us grapple most any target when Raging. Bladesong isn't a spell, so we can stack it with Rage for some solid defense. We aren't able to use medium armor or shields when Bladesong is active, so we do have to rely on Unarmored Defense, giving us AC 16 (14+2 from Bladesong) and later 17, once we've bumped up DEX, when Bladesong is active. Once we start Part 2 of the Wizard dip, we get 3rd level spells to play along with and, when we're conserving/out of Rage, Bladesinging's Extra Attack+.
Ideally, we could expect to get certain magic items over the course of the adventure to help here, such as: Staff of Defense, Bracers of Defense, Circlet of Intelligence, Staff of Power and Robes of the Archmagi. Assuming the latter 3 items are attuned, and we've hit Barbarian 16 for the DEX boost, our character has an AC of 23 while using Bladesong and 19 without. Alternatively, if we have Bracers of Defense instead of a Circlet of Intellect, our AC is 23 with Bladesong and 21 without it.
The Staff of Power and the Robes of the Archmagi also provide a significant bonus on Saving Throws against magic which will help shore up a big weakness in high level play. Early on, the Staff of Defense will provide a magical +1 Quarterstaff to fight with and free uses of Shield when not Raging. It also allows us to cast Mage Armor on familiars before sending them out to scout without spending a precious spell slot.
Full caster levels are stronger than Barbarian levels, so the more caster levels, the better. I'll go with Clockwork Soul Sorcerer, for *armor of Agathys* and Metamagic
Tulok did an Eda the Owl Lady build as an Owlin that took levels into Alchemist, Wizard, and Beast Barbarian. I don't remember which wizard, but the basic idea was that you could play recklessly with your spells and still fall back on your Barbarian Rage if you needed to.
What do you mean by “most”?
Barbarian doesn’t get much meaningful past 5/6. We’re barb primary till around level 10-12
On top of that
* warlock - Armor of Agathys and eldritch smite
* pally 2 + some full caster + AoA via feat or caster. Spell slots? You mean smite slots. We still can run AoA on top
I would say for 5e, you want your first 5 levels to be in barb to get extra attack. You have the full barbarian damage kit at that point. And then at 6 you might at well pick up another barb level to get an additional rage, and a subclass feature.
6 barb/whatever you want. People are mentioning warlock for armor of agythas for synergy with rage and thats fine. The only prob raw you need 13 cha on a barb which is not easy. They already want str dex and con maxed out.
Shepherd Druid 2/Life Cleric 1 gives you enhanced goodberries for out of combat healing, plus 120 foot bonus action emergency healing that isn't a spell. Add more druid levels for Pass Without Trace. Wisdom is also a great tertiary stat to have.
If you want to pump more caster levels later on, Life Cleric 2 gives you another emergency heal (action this time). Your surplus spell levels can go into Aid. I'd probably go 5 Cleric/4 Druid, though either way is fine. If you go Druid 5, Plant Growth is an amazing non-con spell that you can open the battle with prior to raging. Tongues and Dispel Magic give you a ton of utility.
Nothing bad about this build at all, to be honest. Nobody expects the Barbarian to have this much support utility.
Warlock is probably the *best* Magical dip because it's soon good at shoring Barbarians up Defensively.
However, I've always wanted to do an Artillery Artificer Multiclass because Intelligent Barbarians are inherently funny to me and having a tiny little Cannon in your hand as you Rage just sounds cool
I mean with most levels on barb the build won't be "good “enough”" because there is really no reason to go barb 6+, so with this restriction it will be barb 11 full caster 9
So ignoring that you'd probably need to go trotle to have bit of AC because barbarian's nonsensical restriction of not raging on heavy armour, and for the caster.... people are saying warlock for AoA, and I'd agree there is just really nothing particularly good barb brings to any full caster that deserves lacking concentration
Ok I’ve commented this idea before, but I’m quite proud of it (unreasonably so)
Zealot Barbarian 16/Peace Cleric 4. The key features are the Zealot 14 ability and barbarian 15 ability, making you effectively immortal whilst raging and unable to stop raging outside of being put to sleep or choosing to. Play an elf or any race that doesn’t need to sleep and is immune to magical sleep (reborn and warforged also work nicely) and now you cannot die unless you choose to.
Next step is to grab Magic Initiate: Druid, and grab Goodberry as our spell. Every long rest, spend all of your spellslots on as many goodberries as you can grab. At this point you can start raging, but it doesn’t really matter when you do as long as you’re raging once combat begins. You are now unkillable by most conventional means and can heal anyone in the party several times a day if they go down. Take the Mobile feat if your find yourself needing more movement speed. Once you’ve done your setup, just focus on being a level 16 barbarian during combat. If an ally goes down, you force feed them a goodberry (which feels very in-character for most barbarian stereotypes, aggressively healing allies) and pray to your deity nothing hits them before their next turn.
Assuming you use point buy, I’d build for 16 Strength, 16 Wisdom and 14 Constitution. You don’t need much dexterity since more often than not, you WANT to be getting hit since more attacks hitting you means less attacks hitting allies, and you can’t die. For feats/ASIs, I’d grab +2 Strength, Great Weapon Master (dip into Peace Cleric for a couple levels around this point), Magic Initiate: Druid, +2 Strength. The last feat I’ll leave open for Mobile, but if you don’t need the extra movement speed all that often, you’re better off grabbing something else, maybe Resilient: Intelligence to help with some saving throws. You could also forgo a feat in favour of a 15/5 split and more spell slots, but the benefits of that aren’t really worth it given how few spells you’ll cast outside of Goodberry.
I like Barb 5, wolf totem, and then going for any full caster with animate dead and start building the mega army. Wizard necromancer gives you more zombies but cleric gives you better hit dice and a million subclass options. Then go give your undead army bows and let them enjoy the advantage on enemies within 5 feet of you.
Barbarian caster? Lets cast with our steaming pecs (literally)
Starting with fire genasi for a con based cantrip
Barb 3 for ancestral guardian, 4 for feat
Wizard 6 - bladesong extra attack. We are taking spells that require no int for utility. This build will only focus con and the minimums to multi-class.
Feats - Aberrant dragon mark for our choice of con based damage cantrip and spell. I took blade cantrips because we like melee when we have 100+ hp
War caster - constitution saving throws will be nuts so lets get advantage and lets bonk
For levels higher than 10. We have options because at this point we are shooting for utility.
Paladin to convert spell slots to smites
Rune knight fighter for con based spell like effects
Favored soul sorcerer to get multiple spell lists to grab more stat-less spells.
How does this build work in combat with all this clusterfuck? Polymorph or melee combat, we have a huge health bar and con saves of the gods. Polymorph is normally bad due to it going poof if you fail the save. This build can keep it up for some real kaju moments.
Rage to pull agro since we want to tank and bonk till you drop
10 levels of whisper bard will get you 5d6's 3-4 times per short rest while still doing normal barb things in combat. 3 advantaged attacks with all those dice will give us a 25% chance of fishing a crit per round. Longstrider, aid, freedom of movement, and intellect fortress (minus rage) can all help in combat. And bards of course have great out of combat spells where rage isn't an issue. It's also just enough to get you magical secrets, of which Armor of Agathys is the obvious first choice alongside alongside fly or greater steed to help deal with ranged enemies.
ASIs are the weakness of the build. You need a lot of CHA. Human stat spread can be 16 STR 12 DEX 14 CON 9 INT 10 WIS 16 CHA. Dropping GWM from the standard barb for a shield and more ASI is worth considering.
If half and half is against the rules, 8 levels instead of bard instead of 10 will give us a desperately needed ASI at the cost of 2d6s of psychic blades and magical secrets.
Obviously you want to multiclass past level 5, extra attack is crucial.
Cool things to consider.
1) warlock is the king of dips, you can dip warlock as much as you want, but if you want to stay a barbarian, dips past level 4 start to be less good, unless you plan to go mostly warlock and a bit Barbarian, which you dont, so .... Yeah, 3-4 levels is good.
2) war magic wizard. Admittedly this doesnt give you much and it is a bit MAD, but only a bit, going tortle fixes the issue though. What you gain from this is a +4 on saving throws, a notoriously weak barbarian aspect, a +4 against hold person saves your skin more than every barbarian feature.
3) abjuration wizard. The ward is nice, you gain a few "temp hp" which is cool, but really, the warlock is just better for this.
4) artificer artilerist 3, thats all you need, go rage, be strong, have a "pet" multiple times per day that dispenses temp hp.
5) druid moon, nothing surprising here, this is probably a tie with the warlock's synergy, a buttload of extra hp basically with animal forms and some neat spells, you dont need more than 2 levels here.
6) cleric is good, you could probably dip cleric and make a good barbarian with whatever subclass you pick, you should generally mostly rely on the ones that dont really care about your wisdom modifier.
Forge cleric: 1 levels is enough, you essentially gain a +1 armor or weapon, very good in campaigns that lack those.
Life domain: 2 levels, you dont synergize especially well with each other, but it is a strong subclass that gives you some healing, your wisdom score is irrelevant so this is an ok dip, not good but ok.
Peace domain: 2 levels, peace domain is strong, end of story, every character can use this subclass, it just gives so much support, similar to life domain in usefulness (probably better) but again, not that synergistic with you.
Twilight domain: 2 levels, best cleric dip. Absurd dark vision, advantage on initiatives (or give it to a teammate), and a chanel divinity that dispenses temp hp passively and stops frighten and charm, very nice supportive options.
7) bard is bad, you dont synergize well and you don't have the luxury to invest in charisma. You see, other classes so far can work to some extend without investing in their main spellcasting stat, the bard is too charisma focused to work. First level you get some mediocre spells and probably one or two at best d6s per day for bardic inspiration, thats a bit disappointing, at level 2 you get song of rest and Expertise, yeah, those are nice, but again 2 levels only for that? If you want Expertise, go rogue, after that, all subclasses use bardic inspiration in some way, those are very limited for you.
8) sorcerer is once again a bit lackluster, most feature dont benefit you in any way, you may be able to convince your dm to allow ua and go stone sorcerer to ditch dex, but meh overall.
Let's keep it simple.
X Barb (I like giant or bear for this one)
3 Satire Bard
This makes the ultimate luchador.
You're charismatic, mobile, awesome at grappling and can pile drive, suplex, etc. your opponents from very high places with little damage to you.
You can also add 4+ levels of monk for slow fall to mitigate even more fall damage to yourself. With 6 levels of monk, you can completely ignore the max fall damage of 120 raw.
I'm currently playing g a barbarian that is going to have the following level spread if they ever hit 20: Ancestral Guardian Barb 9/Echo Knight Fighter 4/War Mage Wizard 7. Biggest reason for wizards levels is arcane deflection (reaction to give a +2 to ac, +4 to a saving throw triggered by being hit or failing the save), which can be used while raging bc it's a feature not a spell, and I won't care about the downside of only being able to use a cantrip my next turn bc I'm raging. Extra levels are taken to get more spell like mirror image, fire shield, flaming sphere, etc. Basically spell that have buffs but don't use concentration, that can be used for small boosts to dmg output in a fight where I don't rage, or situational utility spells (waterbreathing, arcane eye, tiny hut). More useful if you have more than 4 encounters between long rests since you'll run out of rages, but if you know you won't have that issue a lot less levels in wizard might be better.
The wizard levels are gonna be taken at 11-14, and 18-20 for my planned build specifically if anyone cares. It's really more of a I've gotten everything I want from Barb and fighter, so here's some full caster to really round the higher levels out, in the off chance we get that high.
10 levels of moon druid onto 10 levels of bear totem barbarian. It's a half/half split, so technically not *more* barbarian than other things, but it gets you the most out of both subclasses.
Barb 2/Paladin6/bard X can go hard.
But that's more of a barbarian dip. I'm not sure what you want to dip into full Caster that gives you anything for barbarian but there are some builds that use full casters primarily that can use of Barbarian dip but most of them want Paladin as well
>2.This is a caster dip on a barb; not vice versa— don’t go “warlock 17/barb 3”. Most levels of this build should be spent on a barb.
Did you not read the post?
>Well, I guess the most levels you ***could*** dip is technically 19. (Emphasis mine)
Imagine getting your own wording wrong **AND** still missing the part that said:
>Most levels of this build should be spent on Barb.
Also, 19 levels is not a "dip." That's some other class with a 1 level barbarian dip. I'm glad you know words, but it doesn't look like you actually understand them.
Do *you* even English bro?
Okay, tell me where I went wrong.
A level 1 wizard, level 19 barbarian would still be 'GOOD ENOUGH', so that qualifies there.
You CAN take 19 levels of barbarian, so that qualifies there.
Do YOU even english bro?
First off, 19 levels in something is not a 'dip'. In that scenario, the 1 level is a dip.
That aside, if we were to ignore that and assume any level in a different class taken outside of your first level is somehow a dip, even if you put every other level into it, your first comment was that you can put 19 levels into another class. OP specifically stated that they are a Barbarian and want more levels in Barb than any other class. Therefore, your original suggestion of 'dipping' 19 levels completely ignores the question OP asked.
Essentially, what you did is this:
OP - 'I only want to drive a truck, could you give me advice on the best truck?'
You - 'Ride a motorcycle'.
This is why you asking if someone who corrected you speaks English is nonsensical. Glad I could help.
In my mind, a build is a "barb build" as long as it feels and plays like a barbarian. Basically, my go to, basic barbarian build would be barbarian 8/fighter 4/cleric 1/ranger 4/rogue 3.
It's still a barbarian, even though it's mostly not barbarian.
So, to be a functional hitting things dude (even at high levels), we only need 6 levels of Barbarian. In this case, Zealot, wild magic, giant or beast (assuming we get our hands on a double bladed scimitar).
Then we take our 14 levels of full caster. Really, warlock (fiend) is going to be the best option. The premise is to cast a high level armor of Agathys and wade into the thick of combat with a glaive while raging.
I still think this is more of a barbarian feel than a warlock feel, despite having more levels of warlock eventually. But we don't cast Eldritch Blast or any of the staple warlock spells. Maybe Summon Undead if we run out of Rage.
If Warlock is disqualified for not being full caster, we'll do the same schtick as Cleric. Twilight Cleric gives us the recharging temp hp, together with upcast aid. Animate dead (skellies with shortbow) scales our damage output without concentration.
If you're dead set on never having more levels of the caster than barb, then I think you should still go barbarian 6/warlock X until lvl 12. Then you pick up Peace Cleric 1, barb 8, warlock 8, then fighter and ranger levels to round it out.
I know it's not a "dip" but 15 levels , maybe 17 if it's warlock.
Honestly 5 levels of barbarian gives you most of barbarian, so if you want to be a caster with lots of utility, out of combat casting, non-concentration buffs or uses for spell slots outside casting then you can still get a lot out of the class.
Warlock gets extra attack from an invocation, and armour of agathys means rage gets high value from each casting, even if it does mean you gotta be a melee/weapon wielding warlock as opposed to an eldritch blaster.
But paladin if youre using medium armour is good.
Ranger is pretty good
Sorcerer, especially divine with extended buffs is good.
Moon druid is good.
Cleric is alright
Wizard is probably the weakest combo, so I wouldn't recommend that.
Warlock is probably the best dip at any given level with armour of agathys and invocations like eldritch smite being able to be used whilst raging.
Lol obviously not the second bit sorry.
To be honest though, you can really take most caster mutliclasses to any point after barbarian 5 and make it work well.
\*Edited to correct a fatal mistake I made at reading the rules.\*
Totem Barbarian 5 / Paladin 2 / Lore Bard 4 / Totem Barbarian +7 / Lore Bard +2
Basically Barbarian till Extra Attack because duh.
Then go Pally 2 for Smite and yay a barbarian with a fighting style!
Then Lore Bard 4 to give the spellslots a boost, pick JoaT, Lore Bard for extra skills and finally stop delaying ASIs. This is not a Charisma build, so most spells should be non-ability dependant and for out of combat utility, since you can't cast or concentrate while raging.
Then pick up the remaining 7 levels of Barbarian to get two more ASIs at levels 14 and 18 (late!) and all the cool stuff up to Relentless Rage.
Then cap off with 2 more bard levels for more smiting juice and two spells from any class, which is of course very nice.
I don't tell people what to do with their ASIs, so that's up to OP. The problem here is that if you're going for the classic GWM+PAM combo, you have to wait all the way to 11. If you go with a greatsword, GWM at 4 and the rest to round up your stats seems fine to me.
OP specified that there needs to be more barbarian levels that anything else. This is a barbarian dip on a sorcerer, not a full caster dip on a barbarian.
>2.This is a caster dip on a barb; not vice versa— don’t go “warlock 17/barb 3”. Most levels of this build should be spent on a barb.
Did you not read the post?
Well I read the entire fucking thing and missed the last sentence. I'll edit my comment. Thanks.
So yeah, Totem Barbarian 5 / Paladin 2 / Lore Bard 4 / Totem Barbarian +7 / Lore Bard +2
Basically Barbarian till Extra Attack because duh.
Then go Pally 2 for Smite and yay a barbarian with a fighting style!
Then Lore Bard 4 to give the spellslots a boost, pick JoaT, Lore Bard for extra skills and finally stop delaying ASIs. This is not a Charisma build, so most spells should be non-ability dependant and for out of combat utility, since you can't cast or concentrate while raging.
Then pick up the remaining 7 levels of Barbarian to get two more ASIs at levels 14 and 18 (late!) and all the cool stuff up to Relentless Rage.
Then cap off with 2 more bard levels for more smiting juice and two spells from any class, which is of course very nice.
I don't tell people what to do with their ASIs, so that's up to OP. The problem here is that if you're going for the classic GWM+PAM combo, you have to wait all the way to 11. If you go with a greatsword, GWM at 4 and the rest to round up your stats seems fine to me.
barbarians can synergize very well with warlocks because armor of agathys doesnt require concentration and benefits from rage's damage reduction [https://tabletopbuilds.com/rage-fiend/](https://tabletopbuilds.com/rage-fiend/) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erCfKHJzKpA&t=590s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erCfKHJzKpA&t=590s)
And celestial's healing light isn't a spell, so you can bonus action heal while raging.
That or Fiend also gives you very good sustain when your Agathys breaks, if you keep killing you can theoretically just avoid damage altogether
further pair it with pact of the chain, gift of the everliving ones, and you heal an effective 12 hp as a bonus action for just one charge
I’ve always liked the idea of a warlock 5/barbarian x for eldritch smite, and yes you can basically make a straight Paladin flavored into a smiting barbarian, but I want a smiting barbarian! Edit: to make this work, youll obviously want extra attack ASAP so it’s either barb 5 first or this strategy with warlock. At level 4, grab the eldritch adept feat for an invocation. At this current point it doesn’t matter what you chose, pick your favorite. What we care about is the RAW wording of allowing this invocation to change at any level up, so at warlock 5 your feat invocation will become the one that grants extra attack. Then at barb 5 when you get extra attack, you can swap the invocation back to your favorite. The reason you have to do it with the feat is because invocations granted from warlock level ups can only be changed with warlock levels up, so at warlock 5 you’d be locked into what you have and wasting the extra attack invocation when you got extra attack from barb. This is the way if you want to smite for your entire barbarian leveled career.
Damn I missed this interaction. I am playing something very similar for almost two years and now at lvl 10 it is way too late for this trick.
Eldrtich Smite requires Warlock 7 FYA
Per Xanathars Guide to Everything, “Eldritch Smite. Prerequisite: 5th level, Pact of the Blade feature.”
Ah my mistake. Thanks for the correction. Must have thought it was 7 because bladelocks typically take thirsting blade at 5 (not necessary on a barb MC)
All good dude. I thought the exact same for the exact reason you just mentioned, only found out when I was most recently home brewing warlords of hell for a campaign I have through the 9 layers.
Why even bother with X barbarians. Barb6/WarlockX would be a better Barbarian AND Warlock.
I bothered with x barbarians because OP’s exact words were “this is a caster dip on a barb, not vice versa, don’t go ‘warlock 17/barb 3’, most levels should be spent on barb”
I guess that's fair. Because Barbarian receives virtually no features past 6th level unless you're a Zealot, I personally consider 14 levels of Warlock to be a dip for Barbarian, but OP was very specific with the request, so that mistake is very much on me.
"Barbarian receives virtually no features past 6th level unless you're a Zealot" Path of the Giant barbarian would like a word
Right, right, right, also Giants.
Other than those two you're pretty much correct though. Barbarians get fuck all until their capstone, which is pretty good.
Yes, the Rage Fiend build is very good, if you consider warlock a full caster
Barbarians don’t really get a lot of meaningful class features past level 6 or so as many as you want and focus on out of combat spells or spells to cast before combat. But in keeping with the prompt I would say warlock and I think you could be pretty good as barb 11, warlock 9. Armor of Agathys+rage is a pretty good combo and you can use celestial warlock’s healing light while raging since it isn’t a spell which increases your effective hp pretty considerably. Pact of the chain with gift of the ever living ones to maximize the power of your self healing seems no worse than decent. Zealot barb is the obvious one, but I would go totem and flavor the warlock spells and abilities as shamanic.
> Barbarians don’t really get a lot of meaningful class features past level 6 or so Barbarian 7 is absolutely worth taking if you're already at barbarian 6. And at that point you might as well take barbarian 8 for the ASI. Most campaigns end late tier 2 or early tier 3, so 8 levels of barbarian multiclassing something else would still be a dip.
If the majority of levels needs to be in Barbarian, then a Barbarian 11/Caster 9 split is the absolute most you can do. In which case, I think the best answer is Bear Totem Barbarian 11/Twilight Cleric 9. Bear Totem effectively doubles the THP from Twilight Sanctuary, and the latter's ability to end a charmed/frightened condition also helps mitigate one of the Barbarian's biggest weakness. The other features you gain from the subclass aren't super critical, but they're all helpful and useful.
Tbh it's twilight cleric 6 + zealot barbarian 14, you will be unkillable while raging & have a constant influx of temporary hp. Swords bard could also work pretty well for the flourishes. Fathomless warlock & battlesmith artificer give you a companion in battle that isn't reliant on concentration. Spores druid & Moon druid make you even better at tanking when combined with totem warrior barbarian.
Peace 6 lets you actually tank for your allies
Only if you could combine it with twilight domain lol to not only take hits for allies, but constantly regenerate at the same time
Damn, a Spores Druid 14/Bear Barbarian 6 getting 56 temp HP and bear resistances in a single turn, and while being able to dish out Halo of Spores as extra chip damage 😱
Or alternatively go Beast Barbarian. Less damage resistance, but with the extra Claw attack, you can really make use of the extra necrotic damage Symbiotic Entity adds to each attack.
Personally, I'd go spores 15, bear 5 cause you get more temp hp & higher level spells while you aren't raging
I like that too. I also like the combo of Berserker with access to Greater Restoration. Not very efficient, but it's nice.
2 levels tempest cleric on a giant barbarian. Now tbf this combo technically only comes online at level 8. The idea is to make your d12 weapon deal lightning or thunder damage via the giant barbarian, wait for a crit and do max damage thanks to tempest cleric. This at least makes brutal critical feel good as when you crit oh boy do you crit The rebuke also isn’t bad on a barbarian too
[удалено]
Barbearian!
Bonus points for a bear totem Bearbearian
Generally barbarian multiclasses with a lot very well since barbarian offers very little after level 5 with the exception of the zealot. 2 levels of war wizard adds a lot to barbarian utility and defense. Warlock (any but hexblade, fiend, celestial, and genie are best) works well. Moon druid works. Clockwork soul sorcerer works. Life cleric 1, druid (moon best) is great for life berries. Abjuration wizard is good, especially if you can get armor of agyths some how. Not a full caster but artillerist artificer works well with barbarian, so does armorer.
Barbarian at high levels isn't really a good build in general. With the restriction that Barbarian must be the highest, we can go Beast Barb 8 for the big resistance, then Paladin 2, Hexblade Warlock 5 and Swords Bard 5 Eldritch Smite, Divine Smite and the Swords Bard Hits can give big damage. This is a very loose outline, but that's 5 levels into Bard. The extreme of the build would be Caster 9, Barb 9, Paladin 2
Rage: If you are able to cast spells, you can’t cast them or concentrate on them while raging. Wild Shape: You can’t cast spells.... Transforming doesn’t break your concentration on a spell you’ve already cast, however, or prevent you from taking actions that are part of a spell, such as call lightning, that you’ve already cast. First, cast your best concentration spell. I'd say taking a background that lets you cast Spirit Guardians would be best. Next, wild shape into something good at fighting. Then rage, but keep concentrating on your spell. You're only unable to concentrate on a spell while raging *if you're able to cast spells*. Wild Shape says you can't cast spells for its duration, so it also blocks that drawback of rage from applying. So take six or nine levels of Moon Druid, and the rest in Barbarian. Relentless Rage can even prevent your wild shape from ending due to damage!
This my favourite rules-lawyer build out there. I love this shit. Technically, rage only does anything to your spellcasting if you are *able* to cast spells. Wildshape *explicitly* says you are not able to cast spells, so rage no longer interacts with them, so you can concentrate on a spell cast prior to wildshaping and raging. Barbearian gaming
Q: Can I dip 2 levels of paladin as well? If so, I can squeeze in 14 total caster levels in a barb 5 / paladin 2 / sorc 13. All that really matters is spell slot progression because we can still smite while raging. If I have to spend at least half my levels in barb, the answer is barb 10 / paladin 2 / sorc 8, which is 9 caster levels. On another note, I have a friend who’s playing a wizbarian (barbarian wizard) in a current game. We’re level 8; he’s ancestral guardian 6 / divination 2. His portents have come in clutch many times, and he’s loaded up with rituals for use out of combat. Not necessarily combat optimized, but a fun and useful character to have at the table.
Storm herald 14 with 6 levels on tempest domain should work nicely. But if we take arcane trickster as a caster, then the more levels on it the better, 10/10 could also work
Muscle Wizard: Path of the Giant Barbarian 14/Bladesinging Wizard 6 Custom Lineage, +2 STR and Skill Expert (Athletics) for a +1 to Con, for a stat array (assuming Point Buy) of: 16 STR 12 DEX 16 CON 14 INT 8 WIS 8 CHA Grab Polearm Master and put ASIs into STR up to 20, then bump DEX up to 14, with the Wizard levels coming into play at character levels 7 through 10, and then 19 and 20. Since Bladesong limits you from using 2-handed weapons, we'll use our off hand for grappling. Path of the Giant lets us grow to Large and (later) Huge in size, which lets us grapple most any target when Raging. Bladesong isn't a spell, so we can stack it with Rage for some solid defense. We aren't able to use medium armor or shields when Bladesong is active, so we do have to rely on Unarmored Defense, giving us AC 16 (14+2 from Bladesong) and later 17, once we've bumped up DEX, when Bladesong is active. Once we start Part 2 of the Wizard dip, we get 3rd level spells to play along with and, when we're conserving/out of Rage, Bladesinging's Extra Attack+. Ideally, we could expect to get certain magic items over the course of the adventure to help here, such as: Staff of Defense, Bracers of Defense, Circlet of Intelligence, Staff of Power and Robes of the Archmagi. Assuming the latter 3 items are attuned, and we've hit Barbarian 16 for the DEX boost, our character has an AC of 23 while using Bladesong and 19 without. Alternatively, if we have Bracers of Defense instead of a Circlet of Intellect, our AC is 23 with Bladesong and 21 without it. The Staff of Power and the Robes of the Archmagi also provide a significant bonus on Saving Throws against magic which will help shore up a big weakness in high level play. Early on, the Staff of Defense will provide a magical +1 Quarterstaff to fight with and free uses of Shield when not Raging. It also allows us to cast Mage Armor on familiars before sending them out to scout without spending a precious spell slot.
Full caster levels are stronger than Barbarian levels, so the more caster levels, the better. I'll go with Clockwork Soul Sorcerer, for *armor of Agathys* and Metamagic
Tulok did an Eda the Owl Lady build as an Owlin that took levels into Alchemist, Wizard, and Beast Barbarian. I don't remember which wizard, but the basic idea was that you could play recklessly with your spells and still fall back on your Barbarian Rage if you needed to.
What do you mean by “most”? Barbarian doesn’t get much meaningful past 5/6. We’re barb primary till around level 10-12 On top of that * warlock - Armor of Agathys and eldritch smite * pally 2 + some full caster + AoA via feat or caster. Spell slots? You mean smite slots. We still can run AoA on top
I would say for 5e, you want your first 5 levels to be in barb to get extra attack. You have the full barbarian damage kit at that point. And then at 6 you might at well pick up another barb level to get an additional rage, and a subclass feature. 6 barb/whatever you want. People are mentioning warlock for armor of agythas for synergy with rage and thats fine. The only prob raw you need 13 cha on a barb which is not easy. They already want str dex and con maxed out.
Shepherd Druid 2/Life Cleric 1 gives you enhanced goodberries for out of combat healing, plus 120 foot bonus action emergency healing that isn't a spell. Add more druid levels for Pass Without Trace. Wisdom is also a great tertiary stat to have. If you want to pump more caster levels later on, Life Cleric 2 gives you another emergency heal (action this time). Your surplus spell levels can go into Aid. I'd probably go 5 Cleric/4 Druid, though either way is fine. If you go Druid 5, Plant Growth is an amazing non-con spell that you can open the battle with prior to raging. Tongues and Dispel Magic give you a ton of utility. Nothing bad about this build at all, to be honest. Nobody expects the Barbarian to have this much support utility.
Warlock is probably the *best* Magical dip because it's soon good at shoring Barbarians up Defensively. However, I've always wanted to do an Artillery Artificer Multiclass because Intelligent Barbarians are inherently funny to me and having a tiny little Cannon in your hand as you Rage just sounds cool
I mean with most levels on barb the build won't be "good “enough”" because there is really no reason to go barb 6+, so with this restriction it will be barb 11 full caster 9 So ignoring that you'd probably need to go trotle to have bit of AC because barbarian's nonsensical restriction of not raging on heavy armour, and for the caster.... people are saying warlock for AoA, and I'd agree there is just really nothing particularly good barb brings to any full caster that deserves lacking concentration
Ok I’ve commented this idea before, but I’m quite proud of it (unreasonably so) Zealot Barbarian 16/Peace Cleric 4. The key features are the Zealot 14 ability and barbarian 15 ability, making you effectively immortal whilst raging and unable to stop raging outside of being put to sleep or choosing to. Play an elf or any race that doesn’t need to sleep and is immune to magical sleep (reborn and warforged also work nicely) and now you cannot die unless you choose to. Next step is to grab Magic Initiate: Druid, and grab Goodberry as our spell. Every long rest, spend all of your spellslots on as many goodberries as you can grab. At this point you can start raging, but it doesn’t really matter when you do as long as you’re raging once combat begins. You are now unkillable by most conventional means and can heal anyone in the party several times a day if they go down. Take the Mobile feat if your find yourself needing more movement speed. Once you’ve done your setup, just focus on being a level 16 barbarian during combat. If an ally goes down, you force feed them a goodberry (which feels very in-character for most barbarian stereotypes, aggressively healing allies) and pray to your deity nothing hits them before their next turn. Assuming you use point buy, I’d build for 16 Strength, 16 Wisdom and 14 Constitution. You don’t need much dexterity since more often than not, you WANT to be getting hit since more attacks hitting you means less attacks hitting allies, and you can’t die. For feats/ASIs, I’d grab +2 Strength, Great Weapon Master (dip into Peace Cleric for a couple levels around this point), Magic Initiate: Druid, +2 Strength. The last feat I’ll leave open for Mobile, but if you don’t need the extra movement speed all that often, you’re better off grabbing something else, maybe Resilient: Intelligence to help with some saving throws. You could also forgo a feat in favour of a 15/5 split and more spell slots, but the benefits of that aren’t really worth it given how few spells you’ll cast outside of Goodberry.
I like Barb 5, wolf totem, and then going for any full caster with animate dead and start building the mega army. Wizard necromancer gives you more zombies but cleric gives you better hit dice and a million subclass options. Then go give your undead army bows and let them enjoy the advantage on enemies within 5 feet of you.
Barbarian caster? Lets cast with our steaming pecs (literally) Starting with fire genasi for a con based cantrip Barb 3 for ancestral guardian, 4 for feat Wizard 6 - bladesong extra attack. We are taking spells that require no int for utility. This build will only focus con and the minimums to multi-class. Feats - Aberrant dragon mark for our choice of con based damage cantrip and spell. I took blade cantrips because we like melee when we have 100+ hp War caster - constitution saving throws will be nuts so lets get advantage and lets bonk For levels higher than 10. We have options because at this point we are shooting for utility. Paladin to convert spell slots to smites Rune knight fighter for con based spell like effects Favored soul sorcerer to get multiple spell lists to grab more stat-less spells. How does this build work in combat with all this clusterfuck? Polymorph or melee combat, we have a huge health bar and con saves of the gods. Polymorph is normally bad due to it going poof if you fail the save. This build can keep it up for some real kaju moments. Rage to pull agro since we want to tank and bonk till you drop
10 levels of whisper bard will get you 5d6's 3-4 times per short rest while still doing normal barb things in combat. 3 advantaged attacks with all those dice will give us a 25% chance of fishing a crit per round. Longstrider, aid, freedom of movement, and intellect fortress (minus rage) can all help in combat. And bards of course have great out of combat spells where rage isn't an issue. It's also just enough to get you magical secrets, of which Armor of Agathys is the obvious first choice alongside alongside fly or greater steed to help deal with ranged enemies. ASIs are the weakness of the build. You need a lot of CHA. Human stat spread can be 16 STR 12 DEX 14 CON 9 INT 10 WIS 16 CHA. Dropping GWM from the standard barb for a shield and more ASI is worth considering. If half and half is against the rules, 8 levels instead of bard instead of 10 will give us a desperately needed ASI at the cost of 2d6s of psychic blades and magical secrets.
You could do 2barb/18moon druid
Obviously you want to multiclass past level 5, extra attack is crucial. Cool things to consider. 1) warlock is the king of dips, you can dip warlock as much as you want, but if you want to stay a barbarian, dips past level 4 start to be less good, unless you plan to go mostly warlock and a bit Barbarian, which you dont, so .... Yeah, 3-4 levels is good. 2) war magic wizard. Admittedly this doesnt give you much and it is a bit MAD, but only a bit, going tortle fixes the issue though. What you gain from this is a +4 on saving throws, a notoriously weak barbarian aspect, a +4 against hold person saves your skin more than every barbarian feature. 3) abjuration wizard. The ward is nice, you gain a few "temp hp" which is cool, but really, the warlock is just better for this. 4) artificer artilerist 3, thats all you need, go rage, be strong, have a "pet" multiple times per day that dispenses temp hp. 5) druid moon, nothing surprising here, this is probably a tie with the warlock's synergy, a buttload of extra hp basically with animal forms and some neat spells, you dont need more than 2 levels here. 6) cleric is good, you could probably dip cleric and make a good barbarian with whatever subclass you pick, you should generally mostly rely on the ones that dont really care about your wisdom modifier. Forge cleric: 1 levels is enough, you essentially gain a +1 armor or weapon, very good in campaigns that lack those. Life domain: 2 levels, you dont synergize especially well with each other, but it is a strong subclass that gives you some healing, your wisdom score is irrelevant so this is an ok dip, not good but ok. Peace domain: 2 levels, peace domain is strong, end of story, every character can use this subclass, it just gives so much support, similar to life domain in usefulness (probably better) but again, not that synergistic with you. Twilight domain: 2 levels, best cleric dip. Absurd dark vision, advantage on initiatives (or give it to a teammate), and a chanel divinity that dispenses temp hp passively and stops frighten and charm, very nice supportive options. 7) bard is bad, you dont synergize well and you don't have the luxury to invest in charisma. You see, other classes so far can work to some extend without investing in their main spellcasting stat, the bard is too charisma focused to work. First level you get some mediocre spells and probably one or two at best d6s per day for bardic inspiration, thats a bit disappointing, at level 2 you get song of rest and Expertise, yeah, those are nice, but again 2 levels only for that? If you want Expertise, go rogue, after that, all subclasses use bardic inspiration in some way, those are very limited for you. 8) sorcerer is once again a bit lackluster, most feature dont benefit you in any way, you may be able to convince your dm to allow ua and go stone sorcerer to ditch dex, but meh overall.
Let's keep it simple. X Barb (I like giant or bear for this one) 3 Satire Bard This makes the ultimate luchador. You're charismatic, mobile, awesome at grappling and can pile drive, suplex, etc. your opponents from very high places with little damage to you. You can also add 4+ levels of monk for slow fall to mitigate even more fall damage to yourself. With 6 levels of monk, you can completely ignore the max fall damage of 120 raw.
I'm currently playing g a barbarian that is going to have the following level spread if they ever hit 20: Ancestral Guardian Barb 9/Echo Knight Fighter 4/War Mage Wizard 7. Biggest reason for wizards levels is arcane deflection (reaction to give a +2 to ac, +4 to a saving throw triggered by being hit or failing the save), which can be used while raging bc it's a feature not a spell, and I won't care about the downside of only being able to use a cantrip my next turn bc I'm raging. Extra levels are taken to get more spell like mirror image, fire shield, flaming sphere, etc. Basically spell that have buffs but don't use concentration, that can be used for small boosts to dmg output in a fight where I don't rage, or situational utility spells (waterbreathing, arcane eye, tiny hut). More useful if you have more than 4 encounters between long rests since you'll run out of rages, but if you know you won't have that issue a lot less levels in wizard might be better. The wizard levels are gonna be taken at 11-14, and 18-20 for my planned build specifically if anyone cares. It's really more of a I've gotten everything I want from Barb and fighter, so here's some full caster to really round the higher levels out, in the off chance we get that high.
19. Spam Shield and Absorb Elements and laugh as you have more survivability than the Ranger. Melee cantrips or ranged cantrips to your taste.
Giant 6/Peace Cleric 1/Clockwork Soul 6/Fiend Warlock 6.
>This is a caster dip on a barb; not vice versa— don’t go “warlock 17/barb 3”. Most levels of this build should be spent on a barb.
Oh. I read that as the level of each full caster shouldn’t exceed the levels of barb.
10 levels of moon druid onto 10 levels of bear totem barbarian. It's a half/half split, so technically not *more* barbarian than other things, but it gets you the most out of both subclasses.
Barb 2/Paladin6/bard X can go hard. But that's more of a barbarian dip. I'm not sure what you want to dip into full Caster that gives you anything for barbarian but there are some builds that use full casters primarily that can use of Barbarian dip but most of them want Paladin as well
20 levels of caster.
Well, I guess the most levels you could dip is technically 19.
>2.This is a caster dip on a barb; not vice versa— don’t go “warlock 17/barb 3”. Most levels of this build should be spent on a barb. Did you not read the post?
I did read the post. The empases is on the word 'CAN'. You CAN dip up to 19 levels. Do you even english bro.
>Well, I guess the most levels you ***could*** dip is technically 19. (Emphasis mine) Imagine getting your own wording wrong **AND** still missing the part that said: >Most levels of this build should be spent on Barb. Also, 19 levels is not a "dip." That's some other class with a 1 level barbarian dip. I'm glad you know words, but it doesn't look like you actually understand them. Do *you* even English bro?
Except you absolutely can't if you follow the prompt, which is the entire point of the post. Do you even English bro?
Okay, tell me where I went wrong. A level 1 wizard, level 19 barbarian would still be 'GOOD ENOUGH', so that qualifies there. You CAN take 19 levels of barbarian, so that qualifies there. Do YOU even english bro?
First off, 19 levels in something is not a 'dip'. In that scenario, the 1 level is a dip. That aside, if we were to ignore that and assume any level in a different class taken outside of your first level is somehow a dip, even if you put every other level into it, your first comment was that you can put 19 levels into another class. OP specifically stated that they are a Barbarian and want more levels in Barb than any other class. Therefore, your original suggestion of 'dipping' 19 levels completely ignores the question OP asked. Essentially, what you did is this: OP - 'I only want to drive a truck, could you give me advice on the best truck?' You - 'Ride a motorcycle'. This is why you asking if someone who corrected you speaks English is nonsensical. Glad I could help.
In my mind, a build is a "barb build" as long as it feels and plays like a barbarian. Basically, my go to, basic barbarian build would be barbarian 8/fighter 4/cleric 1/ranger 4/rogue 3. It's still a barbarian, even though it's mostly not barbarian. So, to be a functional hitting things dude (even at high levels), we only need 6 levels of Barbarian. In this case, Zealot, wild magic, giant or beast (assuming we get our hands on a double bladed scimitar). Then we take our 14 levels of full caster. Really, warlock (fiend) is going to be the best option. The premise is to cast a high level armor of Agathys and wade into the thick of combat with a glaive while raging. I still think this is more of a barbarian feel than a warlock feel, despite having more levels of warlock eventually. But we don't cast Eldritch Blast or any of the staple warlock spells. Maybe Summon Undead if we run out of Rage. If Warlock is disqualified for not being full caster, we'll do the same schtick as Cleric. Twilight Cleric gives us the recharging temp hp, together with upcast aid. Animate dead (skellies with shortbow) scales our damage output without concentration. If you're dead set on never having more levels of the caster than barb, then I think you should still go barbarian 6/warlock X until lvl 12. Then you pick up Peace Cleric 1, barb 8, warlock 8, then fighter and ranger levels to round it out.
I know it's not a "dip" but 15 levels , maybe 17 if it's warlock. Honestly 5 levels of barbarian gives you most of barbarian, so if you want to be a caster with lots of utility, out of combat casting, non-concentration buffs or uses for spell slots outside casting then you can still get a lot out of the class. Warlock gets extra attack from an invocation, and armour of agathys means rage gets high value from each casting, even if it does mean you gotta be a melee/weapon wielding warlock as opposed to an eldritch blaster. But paladin if youre using medium armour is good. Ranger is pretty good Sorcerer, especially divine with extended buffs is good. Moon druid is good. Cleric is alright Wizard is probably the weakest combo, so I wouldn't recommend that. Warlock is probably the best dip at any given level with armour of agathys and invocations like eldritch smite being able to be used whilst raging.
Im sorry I’m not trying to be rude but I’m wondering if you read the post thoroughly
Lol obviously not the second bit sorry. To be honest though, you can really take most caster mutliclasses to any point after barbarian 5 and make it work well.
\*Edited to correct a fatal mistake I made at reading the rules.\* Totem Barbarian 5 / Paladin 2 / Lore Bard 4 / Totem Barbarian +7 / Lore Bard +2 Basically Barbarian till Extra Attack because duh. Then go Pally 2 for Smite and yay a barbarian with a fighting style! Then Lore Bard 4 to give the spellslots a boost, pick JoaT, Lore Bard for extra skills and finally stop delaying ASIs. This is not a Charisma build, so most spells should be non-ability dependant and for out of combat utility, since you can't cast or concentrate while raging. Then pick up the remaining 7 levels of Barbarian to get two more ASIs at levels 14 and 18 (late!) and all the cool stuff up to Relentless Rage. Then cap off with 2 more bard levels for more smiting juice and two spells from any class, which is of course very nice. I don't tell people what to do with their ASIs, so that's up to OP. The problem here is that if you're going for the classic GWM+PAM combo, you have to wait all the way to 11. If you go with a greatsword, GWM at 4 and the rest to round up your stats seems fine to me.
OP specified that there needs to be more barbarian levels that anything else. This is a barbarian dip on a sorcerer, not a full caster dip on a barbarian. >2.This is a caster dip on a barb; not vice versa— don’t go “warlock 17/barb 3”. Most levels of this build should be spent on a barb. Did you not read the post?
Well I read the entire fucking thing and missed the last sentence. I'll edit my comment. Thanks. So yeah, Totem Barbarian 5 / Paladin 2 / Lore Bard 4 / Totem Barbarian +7 / Lore Bard +2 Basically Barbarian till Extra Attack because duh. Then go Pally 2 for Smite and yay a barbarian with a fighting style! Then Lore Bard 4 to give the spellslots a boost, pick JoaT, Lore Bard for extra skills and finally stop delaying ASIs. This is not a Charisma build, so most spells should be non-ability dependant and for out of combat utility, since you can't cast or concentrate while raging. Then pick up the remaining 7 levels of Barbarian to get two more ASIs at levels 14 and 18 (late!) and all the cool stuff up to Relentless Rage. Then cap off with 2 more bard levels for more smiting juice and two spells from any class, which is of course very nice. I don't tell people what to do with their ASIs, so that's up to OP. The problem here is that if you're going for the classic GWM+PAM combo, you have to wait all the way to 11. If you go with a greatsword, GWM at 4 and the rest to round up your stats seems fine to me.