Party Ancestral Barbarian

[Ganryu]

Well, simple thread, but I have no clue how to deal with an Ancestral Barbarian in our party as GM. If its physical, he completely overpowers it, and then it becomes useless due to this ability:

"Ancestral Protectors

Starting when you choose this path at 3rd level, spectral warriors appear when you enter your rage. While you’re raging, the first creature you hit with an attack on your turn becomes the target of the warriors, which hinder its attacks. Until the start of your next turn, that target has disadvantage on any attack roll that isn't against you, and when the target hits a creature other than you with an attack, that creature has resistance to the damage of the target’s attacks."

EVERYTHING is suddenly resisted and at disadvantage if I throw it against anyone else in the party, and with a Divine Soul Sorcerer in the party, he can't go down, so its always funneled at him, then getting back up. It feels cheap to build encounters just to counter him, but I threw a Purple worm at a lvl 6 party, and they murdered the crap out of it. (4 people.) No one else ruins the encounter like he does. Its not even intentional.

Do I just move on to doing saves against the party?

I'm completely and utterly clueless what to do against him. Advice?

[Mith]

Mix up between physical damage (Ogres and the like) with some spell casters/ranged attacks. This gives a mix of physical damage and saves that spread out over the rest of the party.

Keep in mind that Reckless attack gives you advantage on attacks against the barbarian, so you are likely hitting them every round.

[Papa_Hewi]

Is it a single target being effected like it reads? Use multiple enemies, or start the fight where he can't hit the enemy on the first turn of his rage. Or you just charm him and laugh as the party scrambles to deal with their own meat shield.

[Quietus]

Use more foes, and use things that do more than just damage. Charm or dominate him and set him against his friends.

[Quoz]

It sounds like he's doing a good job as the party tank then. This isn't a problem, but you will want to have a variety of challenges so other party members can also have time to shine.

There's no disad to saves, so most casters are good options. Charm or dominate the Barbarian for a real role reversal.

He can't lock down more than a few enemies each round. A swarm of low CR monsters could overwhelm the party. My favorite is the goblin dogpile: take a dozen or more small creatures, all running up and making grapple and shove attacks. If they fail, keep running to make room for the next. He will only get one reaction for the opportunity attack. Even if he makes 90% of the checks he can still be knocked down and held in place until a caster has to drop an AoE on his head to save him. If you want to be really mean add a caster to use Hex and cancel his advantage on Str checks, and give the squad proficiency in Athletics.

[sithlordnergal]

Barbarians are very difficult to deal with if you're using normal attacks. I'm really not surprised a purple worm died so easily, outside of poison they have no way to deal with that. So here are a few tricks:

- Use different damage types. By RAW, an Ancestral Barbarian only resists Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage. They take full damage from every other damage type, unless they have a race that gives them resistance to something. Necrotic, Acid, Fire, ect. will all do normal damage. A Fire Elemental would be an excellent enemy to counter the Barbarian, since they take full fire damage. And the Fire elemental does a lot of Fire Damage

- Force them out of Rage. Spells like Calm Emotion, Fear, Hold Person, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, and Sleep can all auto-knock a barbarian out of their Rage. Their spirits are only effective while their Rage is on. And without Rage the Barbarian is easy to deal with.

- If healing is a big concern, have I got a spell for you. Let me introduce you to Chill Touch. Its a 120ft ranged attack cantrip that deals d8 Necrotic damage. Which means it will automatically get past the Barbarian's resistances. But that's the boring bit. The important part is the rider. When you're hit by this, the target "can't regain Hit Points until the start of your next turn. Until then, the hand clings to the target." Doesn't matter if you're a commoner, adventurer, grand vampire, or a Demon Lord, you cannot regain HP for an entire round. And the best part? It is not concentration. You can shut down any healing you want with it.

Basically, your best bet to deal with the barbarian will be a caster or something that does an uncommon damage type. Also, Mind Flayers. Mind Flayers are the bane of Barbarians.

[Aett_Thorn]

Use more foes, and use things that do more than just damage. Charm or dominate him and set him against his friends.

I think that this is the answer. It seems like you’re dealing with a character that makes single targets very easy to deal with...by throwing harder single targets at them. The answer is to have multiple, easier enemies. He can only deal with one at a time, and the rest are free to move about and hit the rest of the party. The occasional single enemy is fine, but it shouldn’t be the norm.

[Wildarm]

Well, simple thread, but I have no clue how to deal with an Ancestral Barbarian in our party as GM. If its physical, he completely overpowers it, and then it becomes useless due to this ability:

"Ancestral Protectors

Starting when you choose this path at 3rd level, spectral warriors appear when you enter your rage. While you’re raging, the first creature you hit with an attack on your turn becomes the target of the warriors, which hinder its attacks. Until the start of your next turn, that target has disadvantage on any attack roll that isn't against you, and when the target hits a creature other than you with an attack, that creature has resistance to the damage of the target’s attacks."

EVERYTHING is suddenly resisted and at disadvantage if I throw it against anyone else in the party, and with a Divine Soul Sorcerer in the party, he can't go down, so its always funneled at him, then getting back up. It feels cheap to build encounters just to counter him, but I threw a Purple worm at a lvl 6 party, and they murdered the crap out of it. (4 people.) No one else ruins the encounter like he does. Its not even intentional.

Do I just move on to doing saves against the party?

I'm completely and utterly clueless what to do against him. Advice?

Single enemies are notoriously easy to deal with in 5e. Action economy is king. The Boss can be strong enough one shot someone each round but a player brought back to 1HP is just as effective as at full HP(with a higher chance of dying from massive damage). All it takes is a bonus action healing word to bring them back. No matter how much damage a solo monster does, even with legendary actions, they may not be able to deal with a proper tank like an ancestral barbarian effectively. That is the tanks job BTW. CR appropriate solo monsters usually need minions or lair effects to really be a deadly threat to any Tier2+ party.

Now, I'm still surprised you could not TPK a 6th level party with a purple worm. Were you not using it's burrowing ability or even it's regular move speed? Easiest way to break a barbarians rage is to just not let him attack you. Worm can easily dash 50' away and burrow 30' down. Barbarian will likely not be able to follow and make an attack. Without line of sight, the worm will likely not take any damage. Fleeing from strange spectral harassment seems a pretty natural thing for a 1 Int creature to do.

The group could ready actions to attack the worm as it appears again but this will drop the DPS of the group significantly. Burrow up, take the hits, sting then swallow the slowest/tastiest enemy and burrow down again. A melee unit inside the worm is restrained(attacks at disadvantage) and a caster is blinded(no line of sight). That means pretty much dead is 2 rounds for a level 6 character due to acid damage. Repeat till everyone or the worm is dead.

[Man_Over_Game]

Ancestral Guardians' only benefit is that they force a single enemy to attack him. That doesn't do anything if the enemy already wants to attack the Barbarian.

So make enemies that want to attack the Barbarian. For example, I use something like my homebrew "'Zerker Kobolds", which have a low accuracy attack with massive damage and Pack Tactics. They ideally surround and swarm a Barbarian to deal lots of damage against their low AC. Barbarians have high HP and low AC, so focus on that.

You could also throw in more encounters. Barbarians are limited in their number of Rages.

[LudicSavant]

Some of the exploitable weaknesses of the AG are as follows:

- Protectors only works on a single target at a time.
- Protectors only affects attack rolls (damage from other sources are not resisted).
- Rage is a limited (and interruptible) resource.
- They don't get protections against status effects and the like.
- Spirit Shield will only work against a single hit per turn.

[Corpus]

Well, simple thread, but I have no clue how to deal with an Ancestral Barbarian in our party as GM. If its physical, he completely overpowers it, and then it becomes useless due to this ability:

"Ancestral Protectors

Starting when you choose this path at 3rd level, spectral warriors appear when you enter your rage. While you’re raging, the first creature you hit with an attack on your turn becomes the target of the warriors, which hinder its attacks. Until the start of your next turn, that target has disadvantage on any attack roll that isn't against you, and when the target hits a creature other than you with an attack, that creature has resistance to the damage of the target’s attacks."

It's a good "help the party" ability but it shouldn't be breaking your game.
While it can be frustrating used over and over again there are a number of limitations built right in. Here are a few ideas, some already mentioned.

"While you are raging ..."
Limited use and only lasts 1 min. (10 rnds)
1) Increase the number of encounters they face
2) End his rage (hold, sleep, stun, even isolation)
3) Have enemies run
4) Short "distraction" encounters. 2 guards at the door.

"... the first creature ..."
Only one enemy
1) Add more creatures with lower CR rather than one big one.
2) Split the party up (doors, halls/corners, narrow bridge)

" ... you hit with an attack on your turn ..."
Has to hit
1) High AC
2) Disadvantage
3) At range
4) On a different level/flying
5) Difficult terrain

" ... disadvantage on any attack roll ..."
Some enemies unaffected
1) Does not affect save DC's
2) Does not reduce conditions

Long story short, he has to rage, he has to hit, it only works on one creature a round, it only disrupts attack rolls and damage.