When do you think I should swap to two handed? (More of a Barbarian AC question)

[Ralanr]

So I played 5th edition for the first time last night. Short single player quest, nothing too big. I noticed when making my character (Barbarian) I was only able to get a max AC of 15 with no shield. Since it was a single player campaign I decided to add a shield to my AC making it 17. Damage wise I did pretty good (I got some lucky rolls on a polar bear. I'm level 1 if this needs to be said) but I know I can probably do more damage if I switched my battleaxe out for my maul. The next session should be with two other players, one wizard and one rogue, so I won't be fighting alone anymore.

My stats are as follows
Str: 18
Dex: 15
Con: 17
Int: 12
Wis: 14
Cha: 16

I rolled for my stats. I'm playing a frost breath/resistance dragonborn barbarian.

[Alucard2099]

So I played 5th edition for the first time last night. Short single player quest, nothing too big. I noticed when making my character (Barbarian) I was only able to get a max AC of 15 with no shield. Since it was a single player campaign I decided to add a shield to my AC making it 17. Damage wise I did pretty good (I got some lucky rolls on a polar bear. I'm level 1 if this needs to be said) but I know I can probably do more damage if I switched my battleaxe out for my maul. The next session should be with two other players, one wizard and one rogue, so I won't be fighting alone anymore.

My stats are as follows
Str: 18
Dex: 15
Con: 17
Int: 12
Wis: 14
Cha: 16

I rolled for my stats. I'm playing a frost breath/resistance dragonborn barbarian.


I wouldn't worry about AC too much at this point, just remember that when you are raging you have resistance to slashing, piercing and bludgeoning. This makes up for the low AC in the earlier levels. So I say go all out attack!

[Lonely Tylenol]

Those are amazing stats, and with those, you can get away with a lot (relative to survival).

With those two odd stats in DEX and CON, for instance, you could put +1 into both (for an effective AC increase of 2, +1 hp/lvl, and so on, and abandon your shield then (for a net equal AC, but much better damage with a two-handed weapon)... Or, you could keep the shield and have an early AC of 19, which is nothing to sneeze at in this edition.

In most situations, though, when you have Reckless Attack available (starting at 2nd level, which you should be now - congratulations!), your best defense is actually a strong offense: you want to trim out as many of the enemy numbers as you can before they attack, and suffer fewer hits as a consequence of that. In a solo adventure, however, Reckless Attack is actually a detriment (you have no contingency for an individual death or KO), so I would absolutely keep the shield until you have a party around you, probably relegate it to secondary equipment after you have the party, and probably at around level 4 once those ability increases come in.

EDIT: By the way, a Polar Bear is a Challenge 2 creature... Which means it's considered a Deadly encounter for four level 1 characters. For just one of them? For your sake, I hope your DM knows what he's doing... Because that Polar Bear could have killed you in the first round of contact with initiative, easily (averaging 21 damage per round), and would still be crazy difficult if you were in rage throughout.

In any case, it's worth 450 XP, which is enough for you to hit level 2 off that alone, since you're not dividing the XP among anyone else... :smalltongue:

[Ralanr]

I wouldn't worry about AC too much at this point, just remember that when you are raging you have resistance to slashing, piercing and bludgeoning. This makes up for the low AC in the earlier levels. So I say go all out attack!

Surprisingly I didn't use my rage much in my session, only once near the end when I lost my weapon (did seven straight damage to a chieftains face!) mainly cause I wanted to save it since I only have two rages. But maybe I'll go a little easy on how much I wanna save my rages.

[Ralanr]

EDIT: By the way, a Polar Bear is a Challenge 2 creature... Which means it's considered a Deadly encounter for four level 1 characters. For just one of them? For your sake, I hope your DM knows what he's doing... Because that Polar Bear could have killed you in the first round of contact with initiative, easily (averaging 21 damage per round), and would still be crazy difficult if you were in rage throughout.

In any case, it's worth 450 XP, which is enough for you to hit level 2 off that alone, since you're not dividing the XP among anyone else... :smalltongue:

I was...extremely lucky with that encounter. It missed it's first hit, it's second hit brought me down to 3 out of 15 health. I pretty much blasted it and smacked it upside the head with pretty high damage hit (I can't remember the full damage). It's possible that some orders were messed up (and she probably wanted me to run, like how she wanted me to not fight the frost wyrm. Which I didn't fight, cause screw that).