How to make a Barbarian hard to kill

[SociopathFriend]

Given how large our group is in my current campaign, it seems like vast numbers of dangerous enemies are going to be sent at us repeatedly.

We won't reach level 20 so the Barbarian capstone is gone. I'm currently a lvl 2 Lizardfolk Ranger/Barbarian (Lots of environment dangers) with 16, 14, 20, 14, 14, 14 for my scores and we take max hp per level.

How do I go about being as hard to kill as possible while still engaging in melee combat? Don't assume I'll get magical items.

[zinycor]

Honestly, as a barbarian, you shouldn't have any problems surviving. Or at the very least, less problems than most.

Having said that, if what you want is a defensive juggernaut, bear barbarian, with shield master. It doesn't get much better than that.

[djreynolds]

Grab some adamantine medium armor or a cloak of displacement, this could help out with critical hits.

Grab resilient wisdom, lucky, or mage slayer for saves.

[CTurbo]

Res(Wis) will cover your greatest weakness. It's too bad you already have an even score there. Honestly, with a 14, you could skip this in order to bump Str instead.

Your unarmored AC already equals Half-Plate so there is no reason to wear armor unless you find some magic armor.

Bear Totem is the obvious choice. You couldn't go wrong just alternating between +2 Str and +2 Dex at each ASI

Barbarians are already hard to kill so I wouldn't worry too much and just have fun with it.

[the secret fire]

A Rogue 5/Barbarian X can be incredibly hard to kill.
- Danger Sense works with Shield Master.
- Uncanny Dodge stacks with damage resistance from rage.

You wear an Adamantine Breastplate, ideally, and focus on eating damage and negating it as much as possible.

Having good mobility greatly increases the survivability of melee characters. The Barbarian's added movement, plus Cunning Action allows you to get out of a lot of trouble.

Something like vhuman Barbarian Rogue 1 (Expertise - Stealth and Athletics)/Barbarian (Bear Totem) 5/Rogue 5 (Assassin)/Barbarian X

...is one of my favorite martial builds in the game, very Conanesque. You only use Reckless Attack when you can't get advantage with a shield bash (many monsters). You can get away with having no Con save proficiency because of your good HP and damage resistance. It leaves a small weakness, but that's ok. My feat progression for such a character would be: Shield Master, Resilient: Wis, and Luck. You probably want to start with 16 Str, 14 Dex, 14 Con, 13 Wis, punt. Mobility can add a lot to this, as well. Cunning Action + Mobility + Fast Movement can get you out of a lot of tough spots.

[Kaliayev]

I would take the rogue up to at least 7, so you get evasion. Shield master's negation maneuver and uncanny dodge eat your reaction when used. Evasion does not. You may want to save your reaction for an additional sneak attack from an opportunity attack or an ally giving you a free reactionary attack.

I also prefer mastermind over assassin for barbarian/rogue builds. You get some very useful proficiencies and you have a 30 foot help action as a bonus action. The assassin's surprise crit effects are four times per combat, at best, with only one of those being a sneak attack (max two with above reactionary attack combo). All of that assumes you have the leeway to attack three times by wielding a second weapon over a shield, by no one in your party ruining your surprise (coughclericcough), and by you beating them in initiative (ally giving you reactionary attack also has to beat them for two sneak attacks). Some of these conditions are easy, some are hard, and some disrupt your defensive focus. The above can be further improved with haste, but that's another party complication, assuming you don't get a potion of speed.

If you're primarily concerned with defense, monk is also worth looking at, though from an rping perspective, barb/monk is kinda bastardization of each class. At level two, you can spend one ki as a bonus action to take the dodge action. At level five, you can spend ki on stunning strikes. Like rogue, you get evasion at level seven. At level seven, you can also use an action to end the charmed or frightened condition on yourself. As a barbarian, you would likely want way of the long death or way of tranquility (LOL). Way of tranquility's path of tranquility lets you cast sanctuary on yourself and lasts up to 8 hours, healing hands gives you a significant amount of self healing as an action, and emissary of peace helps you avoid fights altogether. Way of the long death's touch of death gives you temp hit points when you kill something and hour of reaping lets you frighten everything around you. You can even take monk up to 14 for diamond soul, which gives you proficiency in all saving throws.

p.s. If allowed at your table, check out mystic. While you can't concentrate and rage, there are a number of defensive benefits available for a tanky barbarian. I also imagine there's a sweet spot to be had between barbarian/rogue/mystic/ranger, but I don't feel like figuring that one out anytime soon.

[Cespenar]

How do I go about being as hard to kill as possible while still engaging in melee combat? Don't assume I'll get magical items.

This problem has a solution of Moon Druid written all over it.

Go Ranger 1/Barb 1/Moon Druid 2. Then you could either:

a) Barb 3 for Bear Totem,

or b) Druid 5 for Conjure Animals. Summoning 8 wolves or dire badgers or whatnot might be the best tanking you can do with a level 3 spell slot and a standard action.

[MrWesson22]

If you get max hp each level and have 20 con, just go straight barbarian. Use a shield and take shield master. You'll be good to go.

[GlenSmash!]

plenty of good suggestions in the thread already.

I'll offer a more off the wall take.

If you have a Cleric in the Party, you could go Zealot, and then just not care about dying since the cleric could resurrect you without costly spell components.

[Laserlight]

"How to make a Barbarian hard to kill"....

The main thing is, don't put yourself in situations where you're going to get killed.
I've seen barbs who thought they could rush into the midst of eight or ten enemies while the rest of the party is 100 feet away. That's likely to earn you a lot of damage, whether from the enemies who have nothing else to do but pile on you, or from your own caster who says "You know, I did warn you that if you stand in a spot marked Fireball Goes Here, I'd cast it anyway."
I've seen a barb charge four enemies when he started the fight with 4hp and hadn't bothered healing up from the previous fight.

TL;DR: 1. Make a barbarian 2. Don't use stupid tactics