Barbarian is a popular option forBaldur’s Gate 3players making custom characters, partially because it is the default choice during character creation. But it also appeals to players with its high damage output and fun dialogue options. Despite the fact that the class focuses almost entirely on combat, and its features do little for it in terms of exploration and communication, the developers managed to make a barbarian protagonist interesting and exciting in all aspects of gameplay.
At level three,barbarians choose from among three subclass options, going down the path of the Wildheart, Berserker, or Wild Magic warrior. Each brings several powerful abilities to the table, sometimes enhancing the barbarian’s own damage, other times buffing their allies. But can any option be considered the strongest? By comparing the features each subclass offers, players can determine which meshes the best with the barbarian’s existing strengths while offering exciting new choices.
Barbarian Paths In Baldur’s Gate 3 Enhance The Class’s Rage Ability
Three Options For Improving The Barbarian’s Main Feature
Each of the three subclass paths provides a boost to the barbarian’s Rage at level three.Rage is the most important feature of the barbarian subclassoverall; it’s what gives them their trademark high damage and durability. Two of the options here have set ways that they modify the Rage, while one offers a bit more choice to the player.
The Berserker is the most straightforward, changing Rage into a feature called Frenzy. Frenzy works the same as the traditional barbarian Rage, with the added bonus of giving the character a bonus action attack. Berserkers can use their bonus action to attack with their equipped melee weapon, or with an improvised or thrown weapon. A thrown attack is the better option here, since a hit can knock enemies prone, andtaking a melee attack inflicts a level of Frenzied Strain, giving the barbarian a –1 penalty to attack rolls for one turn.
While most of the Wild Magic effects are positive for the player, they can harm other party members, and their unpredictability makes the ability unreliable.
The Wild Magic barbarian is a bit more complicated. It infuses the barbarian’s Rage with Wild Magic, meaning that each time it is used, it triggers a surge similar to that of the Wild Magicsorcerer subclass inBG3. A random magical effect occurs around the barbarian, and while most of the Wild Magic effects are positive for the player, they can harm other party members, and their unpredictability makes the ability unreliable. The Wild Magic subclass also gives players Magic Awareness, letting them give nearby creatures a bonus to saving throws against spells as an action.
The Wildheart Barbarian Affords Players More Choice
This Subclass Gives Greater Freedom For Modification
The Wildheart subclass gives players a wide range of choices at level three for how they wish to modify their Rage. Each is based on the abilities of a certain animal, such as a bear, eagle, or wolf. This choice comes with a cosmetic change with certain piercing and bone jewelry available depending on the player’s choice, as well as an aesthetic change to their Rage that makes it appear as though the outline of the chosen animal burns into the ground beneath the barbarian’s feet.
More importantly, the five animal options grant mechanical improvements to the Rage, ranging from a movement speed increase to advantage on attacks against creatures close to one’s allies. Each choice has a passive feature like this and an active one, which can be used as an action while Raging. These include a jump attack that knocks enemies prone and a howl that buffs allies.The standout choice here is the bear, since it grants resistance to all damage except psychic while Raging.
But any of these options can be great, and this subclass stands above the others at level three for the versatility it offers the barbarian. The Wildheart subclass also offers access to the spellspeak with animals, giving it the only feature from any of these options that can and should be used outside of combat. With that, the Wildheart barbarian has an early lead on the Berserker and Wild Magic subclasses.
Level Six Barbarian Subclass Features Level The Playing Field
Good Options For Players All Around
Each subclass gets some good powers here in the mid-game.The Berserker gets immunity to the charmed and frightened conditions while Raging, and given how debilitating frightened can be inBaldur’s Gate 3, that is very useful. It’s a little plain in comparison with the others, but the Berserker is undeniably good at being a party tank and damage dealer.
Notably, the Berserker’s abilities overlap with those granted by the monk, which also takes bonus action attacks and gets an ability to remove conditions like frightened. The monk is a popular multiclass choice for barbarians, given how the tavern brawler feat works in the game to their shared benefit, but the Berserker is not the ideal subclass to combine in this way.
The Wild Magic subclass gets some more unique features here, with bolstering magic.This feature allows barbarians to restore a first and second-level spell slotto their allies or themselves, in a rare moment when the barbarian can act as a support character. This is fine, if a little unnecessary given theability to craft potions inBaldur’s Gate 3that restore spell slots, but Wild Magic barbarians can also use their bolstering ability to give themselves or someone else a 1d4 bonus to attack rolls and ability checks for one minute, which can be quite good.
The Wildheart barbarian once again has more choices than other options, allowing players to choose from among ten animal aspects that provide an additional buff. Some are fairly niche, like the aspect of the wolverine, which lets barbarians maim creatures if they attack them while they are bleeding or poisoned. Others are more generally useful by providing a small movement buff to nearby creatures. This ability is perhaps hard to optimize, but it is fun how players can build their characters and equipment around triggering certain effects.
High-Level Subclass Features Range In Quality
An Enraging Power Imbalance Between Barbarian Choices
Hereat higher levels, the Berserker barbarian really falls off the tracks, just due to how little it gets. At 10th level, the Berserker can use an action to force an enemy to make a saving throw or become frightened. Frightened is a powerful condition, but the action cost of this ability means that the barbarian won’t be attacking as much. It also conflicts with a certain item, the Bonespike Helmet, which can be found in Act 3 and does the same thing, only better.
7 Best Helmets In Baldur’s Gate 3
In addition to weapons and body armor, helmets play an important role in Baldur’s Gate 3. Here are the best ones you may find while exploring.
In contrast, the Wild Magic barbarian gets multiple fairly useful features. At level nine, it can restore a third-level spell slot in addition to a first and second. And at level 10, it can use a reaction when taking damage to activate anotherWild Magic surge. This is nice, because it means thatif the initial surge is not helpful in a given situation, barbarians can choose to replace itwith another. This gives a bit more control to the powerful but unwieldy subclass.
Finally, at level 10, the Wildheart barbarian gets to choose another of the initial Rage-improving features it got at level three. This means thatthese barbarians can combine powerful buffs in many different waysto create their own unique warriors. They also get a feature at level eight which makes the barbarian unaffected by difficult terrain. This makes the class more mobile, and overall more effective.
Which Barbarian Is The Strongest?
The Subclass That Beats The Rest Into Submission
Ultimately,the Wildheart barbarian stands out as the strongest subclass, for multiple reasons. At each turn, it provides more options and versatility for the barbarian than the other subclasses do. And it just gives players more to do with their barbarian, with features that can be used more often, especially in the early game.
It is undeniable thatcertain Berserker builds can be maximized to deal more damage. Especially with weapons likeNyrulnaand feats like tavern brawler that lean into their thrown weapon attacks. But outside of damage, the Berserker simply doesn’t have much to offer.
The Wild Magic barbarian can use its features to help its allies at least. This gives it more support abilities than any of the other barbarian options inBaldur’s Gate 3, butthe Wild Magic barbarian’s own features can also get in the party’s way. Ultimately, the Wildheart barbarian has the most utility and the highest consistent performance, and the fact that it can work well withbarbarian multiclass buildsis the cherry on top of this superior subclass.
Source:Larian Studios/YouTube
Baldur’s Gate 3
Developed and published by Larian Studios, Baldur’s Gate 3 is an upcoming role-playing game set to release in August of 2023. Players will create a character to embark on a large-scale journey and can do so solo or cooperatively with a friend. Combat is a turn-based style this time around.
