2014 DnD 5e BARBARIANS Levels 5 - 20 (Remastered): Woohoo! Smash, smash, smashy smash!

At level 5, the Barbarian unlocks a revolutionary new combat technique: hitting the problem twice. From there, things escalate exactly as responsible game design intended. Randall gambles his way through Wild Magic, Tyler perfects the ancient martial art of being an unbearable pain in the ass, and Ash becomes a house-sized fairy with tiny butterfly wings, a returning elemental pike, and enough reach to poke somebody from the next county. Then Brutal Critical shows up and somehow the math becomes angrier than the Barbarian. Grab your greataxe, start screaming, and remember: if smashing something once didn't work, the rules now officially support smashing it again.

Show Notes

We're back with the second half of our 2014 D&D 5e Barbarian builds, taking Randall's Path of Wild Magic, Ash's Path of the Giant, and Tyler's Path of the Ancestral Guardian from level 5 all the way to 20.

Extra Attack immediately delivers exactly what everyone came for: more smash. From there, the builds start developing very different personalities. Randall embraces the chaos of Wild Magic and Great Weapon Master, Tyler becomes increasingly obnoxious to anything trying to hurt his friends, and Ash discovers that being a flying, increasingly enormous fairy with a throwable elemental pike is every bit as ridiculous as it sounds.

We dig into Instinctive Pounce, subclass features, feat choices, Relentless Rage, Persistent Rage, and the glorious absurdity of Primal Champion. We also spend a healthy amount of time asking why Brutal Critical is supposed to be exciting when critical hits refuse to happen on command.

By the end, we have battlefield control, flying giants, magical gambling, angry ancestors, Polearm Master shenanigans, and Barbarians who are extremely difficult to kill. Basically, the class gets tougher, weirder, and significantly better at solving problems with repeated applications of a large weapon.

Key Takeaways

• Level 5 is huge. Extra Attack effectively doubles the Barbarian's basic offense, while Fast Movement helps get the angry person into smashing distance faster.
• Instinctive Pounce is an excellent quality-of-life feature, letting you Rage and immediately move toward whatever has made the poor decision to exist nearby.
• Ash's Giant Barbarian becomes increasingly ridiculous. Elemental Cleaver turns his pike into a returning elemental weapon, and later features let his flying fairy become enormous, extend his reach, and attack enemies from extremely inconvenient places.
• Randall's Wild Magic Barbarian is built around controlled chaos. Bolstering Magic helps attacks and ability checks, while later features let him reroll Wild Magic effects and improve his odds of getting something useful.
• Tyler's Ancestral Guardian becomes an excellent defender. Spirit Shield reduces damage to allies, and Vengeful Ancestors eventually makes enemies regret hurting anyone except Tyler.
• Brutal Critical is the problem child. The crew likes the fantasy of gigantic Barbarian crits but argues that the feature arrives too rarely and scales too poorly to carry high-level damage.
• Polearm Master, Great Weapon Master, and eventually Sentinel turn the builds into increasingly nasty melee threats, particularly when combined with Reckless Attack and extended reach.
• Relentless Rage keeps Barbarians standing after hitting zero hit points, Persistent Rage finally makes Rage easier to maintain, and Primal Champion delivers a genuinely satisfying capstone with massive Strength and Constitution boosts.
• The overall verdict: Barbarians remain wonderfully straightforward at their core, but the subclasses are doing a lot of the heavy lifting at higher levels. Fortunately, sometimes all you really need is Rage, Reckless Attack, and another opportunity to smash something.

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Meet the Hosts

• Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix.

• Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme.

• Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy.

Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos.

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Ash Ely

• Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games
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Randall Jamesd

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