Heavy armor barbarian

[Mechaviking]

Anybody else thought about being a heavy armor barbarian?

Using human variant and the feat at fourth level(using point buy) you could be str 18 con 16. Meaning more points for wisdom and charisma(or int) since you can safely dump dex.

reduce non magic damage from physical attacks by 3 and you have resistance while raging(in that order I checked :D).

Since money doesn´t do anything anyways you can spend it on thicker armor and be a badass armored raging hulk that still has very bad but not as bad as a fighter bad AC out of armor.

Viable or non viable?

[Tvtyrant]

I don't know that it will actually help you in the long run. Unarmored defense will eventually get you more armor (since your con cap will move up) and you will lose rage features.

[VeliciaL]

Anybody else thought about being a heavy armor barbarian?

Using human variant and the feat at fourth level(using point buy) you could be str 18 con 16. Meaning more points for wisdom and charisma(or int) since you can safely dump dex.

reduce non magic damage from physical attacks by 3 and you have resistance while raging(in that order I checked :D).

Since money doesn´t do anything anyways you can spend it on thicker armor and be a badass armored raging hulk that still has very bad but not as bad as a fighter bad AC out of armor.

Viable or non viable?

Not viable, sadly:


While raging, you gain the following benefits if you aren't wearing heavy armor:

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

I don't agree with TvTyrant's issues. For one, if you're forgoing a benefit because maybe you'd be better off at level 20, you're either incredibly patient and have a long-lasting group or you're fooling yourself.

For another, the main rage feature you lose with heavy armor is (ironically) damage resistance, which can be fixed with Bearbearian. Fast movement, damage bonus, and advantage on STR checks *are* nice though.

The real problem with this strategy isn't that, some day when you reach level 20 it will be worse. It's that you're giving up a better feat at level 1. Since you do already resist physical damage (assuming you go bear) while raging, Heavy Armor Master is only effectively reducing 1.5 damage per hit, at least in the major fights. It's actually a better feat for a bog standard fighter or paladin.

You can make it work, obviously, but my money's on the unarmored Polearm Master being more effective overall.

[Mechaviking]

Well ****, and here I thought I could dump dexterity on a barbarian Guess its AC 15 for the rest of a barbarians life(in point buy).

[VeliciaL]

Well ****, and here I thought I could dump dexterity on a barbarian Guess its AC 15 for the rest of a barbarians life(in point buy).

Only if you never bump Con, which I think you should.

Alternatively, you could go medium armor. It saves you from having to invest in Con/Dex at every opportunity, although you can't really dump them.

[silveralen]

Well ****, and here I thought I could dump dexterity on a barbarian Guess its AC 15 for the rest of a barbarians life(in point buy).

You can, just not much point in going barbarian over fighter or paladin. You basically lose access to the better barbarian features.