Today I’m going to walk you through building a barbarian character for your Dungeons & Dragons game. Barbarians are powerful brutes that are such an asset to their party. Believe me when I say it’s pretty nice to roll that D12 when you hit an enemy with the greataxe you’re totally proficient in…
First and foremost, we will go over proficiencies and starter equipment.
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First, Choose Two Skills You Want Your Character to be Proficient in:
Remember that your proficiencies are like extra points in a set area. It simply boosts your variety of skills a bit. (I always try to find a way to increase my Perception I’m where able to.)
Perception
Animal Handling
Intimidation
Perception
Nature
Survival
Then, Understand Your Pre-Determined Proficiencies.
It might help you choose the most effective starter gear to know that, as a barbarian, you’re automatically proficient in the following:
Equipment
- Light Armor
- Medium Armor
- Shields
Savings Throws
- Strength
- Constitution
Weapons
- All Simple Weapons
- All Martial Weapons
Now, You Can Choose Your Starter Equipment!
By now you’ve finished marking down your proficiencies on your character sheet. Now it’s time to get your complimentary starter equipment ready.
Choose One From These Two Choices:
One Greataxe
Any Martial Melee
+Martial Melee weapons include: battleaxe, flail, glaive, greataxe, greatsword, halberd, lance, longsword, maul, morningstar, pike, rapier, scimitar, shortsword, trident, war pick, warhammer, whip, blowgun, hand crossbow, heavy crossbow, longbow, and nets.
Choose One From These Two Choices:
Two Handaxes
Any Simple Weapon
+ Simple weapons include clubs, daggers, great-clubs, hand-axes, javelins, light hammers, maces, quarter staffs, sickles, spears, light crossbows, darts, short-bows, and slings.
You Also Get These Two Items:
Explorer's Pack
4 Javelins
What’s in the Explorer’s Pack?
An explorer’s pack holds the following: a backpack, 50 feet of hemp rope, 10 torches, 10 days of rations, a tinderbox, a mess kit, a bedroll, and a waterskin. If you’re into meta-gaming, you can use this printable backpack page to keep track of your items as well as their size and weight.
Level One Stats:
Your level one proficiency bonus for a druid is +2.
You have the ability to RAGE. During your turn in battle, you can choose to rage as a bonus action! During rage, as long as you’re not wearing heavy armor, you can:
- Have advantage on strength checks and strength savings throws.
- If you attack with a melee weapon (using strength) in rage, you get a damage bonus. The damage bonus is +2 for levels 1-8. It goes up at level 9.
- In rage, you’re resistant to resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damages!
You have Unarmored Defense! Even if you’re wearing NO armor, your Armor Class (AC) equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Constitution modifier. AND you can still have this defense if you choose to use a shield.
