Making Martial Characters More Interesting?

[tmjr6]

Hello,

I played my first game of Adventurer's League today, and being dropped as a level 1 in the middle of a level 4 Curse of Strahd encounter my life cleric quickly died. I ended up failing my death saves and had to roll up a new character, thank you D&D Beyond. I ended up playing a Half-Orc Barbarian since the party was a Drow Eldritch Knight, Drow Forge Cleric, and a Tabaxi Rogue/GOO Tomelock. When all was said and done, we ended up facing the Bonegrinder Coven. Somehow my new level 1 Half-Orc Barbarian managed to live after the fight, thank the gods for grappling, and I made it to level 3 after the fight, although the Eldritch Knight was lost to the Hag's Soul Bag. All in all, it was definitely an INTERESTING first time playing an AL game. I like playing the tank, but I find combat as a barbarian to be rather dull, any fun ways to make it more of an interesting playstyle? Or any ideas for something to rebuild into? I tend to prefer gishes when it comes to tanks, since I like the versatility that spellcasting offers. I do like the idea of keeping my character as a half-orc, since it's a different race to what I usually play. So any ideas for my Half-Orc, whether it's making barb combat more interesting or making him into a Gish?

[Fuzzy Logic]

I haven't played one, but the ancestral guardian barbarian adds some options in the form of marking opponents and defending allies if you want to stick with barb. Otherwise my go to for fighting with extra options is battle master, paladin, or monk

[Vessyra]

Shield master could be useful if you wield a shield, as you would have the option of, as a bonus action, knocking people over or moving them away. The ancestral guardian, as mentioned already, is pretty cool both because of the mechanical bonuses but also because, if you have a DM that likes descriptions, it can be an awesome picture in your mind's eye.

If you're looking for tactics, however, beyond the simple rage-stab-stab some more, then the reckless attack feature that barbarians get at level two is nice, because it makes you wonder whether you should get advantage and give everyone else advantage against you, or you should play it safe and make a normal attack. The great weapon master feat also makes you think tactically, as it can give you a massive damage bonus at the expense of a massive to-hit penalty.

[Protato]

I don't know if it's allowed in Adventure's League, but I'd suggest grappling, throwing things, breaking walls and doors with heavy weapons, or slamming people against walls. There's more things but these are some interesting ways to make martial combat more interesting.

[Quoxis]

There’s multiclassing... rogue to make a grappling skillmonkey with bonus damage, fighter to add battlemaster maneuvers etc., or something unconventional - moon druid for wildshape (rabid direwolf should fit just right into barovia) or even some cleric subclass that provides non-magical features (light, knowledge, tempest, war...), plus you get some (out of combat) magic.
Other than that: feats. If those are allowed in AL, which i don’t know a lot about.

[Jamesps]

Barbarians probably have the least amount of options as a martial unfortunately. You'll be good at anything that requires an athletics check, so best abuse that as well as you can. Climb, jump, grapple and shove. One good technique for barbarians that goes outside the standard Rage/Bash is to grapple something and run off a cliff. You'll take half damage, they'll take full damage. And it only takes one athletics check to pull off which may leave you an extra attack if you're 5th level.

I'd recommend multiclassing after 5th level. Barbarians are really light on tricks after that, and even two levels of rogue or monk will open up a world of possibilities. Battlemaster might be a good option too, though you'll tend to run out of ammo for your tricks.

[GlenSmash!]

I don't know if I will ever tire of Raging, Recklessly Attacking, Grappling, Shoving, Throwing my enemies at each other, or deciding when to use -5/+10 from GWM.

It just makes me so happy.

So I guess I'm not much help here. Carry on.