Tips for a Dex barbarian?

[Finback]

hey all

So, if you check my prior posts, I was discussing different character builds; well, the other players in my team came up with their wanted roles, and I decided to run tank again and built myself a tabaxi barbarian. I'm just wondering if anyone has any tips for combat, etc? The fun part is, I had him ready in case my warforged got totalled in a boss fight we were in - and both I and the tiefling rogue/monk got taken out, so I got to spend my evening helping the tiefling player make up their idea for a bugbear ranger. The other fun thing was, as the rest of the party killed the BBEG, we got to ding! up to level 9.

So now I have a level 9 tabaxi Ancestral Guardian barbarian. I can give you some of his basics, but is there anything I'm not considering in my build, or tips for how to play him efficiently?

Seven Mountains Burning
Str 19 (magic gear) Dex 15 Con 16 Int 8 Wis 12 Cha 9; AC18 (with magic bonuses), HP 95
Prof in Athletics, Intimidation, Nature, Perception, Stealth, Survival; Wanderer background, and swapped out the musical instrument for a herbalism kit.
Feats: Dual Wielder, Savage Attacker
weapons: aside from natural claws, he can alternate from two scimitars, or a maul, greatsword, spears or a sling.

Magical gear: +1 Greatsword; Gauntlets of Ogre Power; Bracers of Defense; Walloping Ammunition (for sling); Horn of Silent Alarm. I've discussed my story, and he's on the hunt for an ancient clan weapon, which is a Nine Lives Stealer greatsword (because c'mon, CAT and NINE LIVES?)

I'm thinking of mostly using his speed boost to get toe-to-toe with larger foes or magic-users in the back, to keep the rest of my party out of the engagement. I decided to give him a range of weapons to accomodate the higher racial dex bonus, and to allow him to switch up damage types. I also chose Ancestral Guardians mostly for a thematic - imagine this guy surrounded by the ghosts of his cat ancestors, all eyes glowing in the dark and flashes of ghostly claws.

should I consider some sort of light armour? Getting an 18 from Unarmoured Defense, and 17 if I'm not using Dual Wielder at the time, seems like I'm in a pretty sweet spot. My two prior tank roles had ACs of 20 with heavy armour, so 18 isn't bad for a guy not wearing any at all.

Thoughts?

[Yunru]

The only tip for a Dex based Barbarian with Gauntlets of Ogre Power is the same one (I believe) I gave in my guide: Enjoy.

Go strength with your attacks, get all the nice offensive goodies and still be able to pump your defenses and initiative.

At some point also consider multiclassing Rogue, but that's advice not really specific to the Dexbarian.

[da newt]

I'm no expert but I thought the most important thing for a tank to be truly effective was to be able to keep an enemy stuck to you - sentinel / pole-arm master or brawler / tunnel fighter being the 'norms'?

I think your build sounds fun (I'm playing a bugbear barbarian rogue - "rogue rage"), but I'm not sure your build would be very good at forcing others to stay in melee with you.

Why not DEX 16?

I'd also look at Barb 5 Rogue 4 as an option (you'd miss ADV on initiative, but gain SA, cunning action, expertise and all the other goodies and get a subclass with stuff). Then rogue 5 gives you uncanny dodge and one more d6 per SA.

A one lvl dip in fighter might be nice for a fighting style and second wind (then 2 lvl = action surge, ...) And without the 2wf style your offhand attack lacks the ability modifier damage bump (+4 w/19 ST).

With dual wield feat you can two hand fight any two one-handed weapons, right? Why limit yourself to scimitars (d6) if you can use any one handed weapons (d8 - battleaxe, flail, longsword, morningstar, rapier (finesse if you SA rogue), war pick, war hammer)?

I'd also try to decide to 2wf or 2 handed - building for both makes it really hard to do either very well.

Lastly, I think savage attacker is one of the weaker feats out there. It may be smarter to trade it for great weapon master, sentinel, tough, or an ASI.

[Expected]

With 15 Dex, half-plate is ideal.

[Damon_Tor]

Feats: Dual Wielder, Savage Attacker

I basically always caution people against taking feats before they've maxed out their main stats unless those feats are really build defining. I get that your strength is hard locked to 19, and I guess that changes things a bit, but it's my opinion the very minor benefits you get from the feats you've chosen aren't worth being able to max out your con and/or dex.

[stoutstien]

AG barbarian is built for kiting tanking. The lv 3 feature works with ranged attacks and has no range limit so you can apply it and run off to do whatever else and still give the biggest threat disadvantage and 1/2 damage.

[Yunru]

Oof, I didn't even notice Savage Attacker.
Unless it's been houseruled at your table, drop it like the hot garbage it is.

[Damon_Tor]

AG barbarian is built for kiting tanking. The lv 3 feature works with ranged attacks and has no range limit so you can apply it and run off to do whatever else and still give the biggest threat disadvantage and 1/2 damage.

Right, and you can combine with Sentinel to be "sticky" if you feel the need to take feats instead of stats.
1. Punch a guy in the face, throw something at him, or shoot him, giving him your ancestral penalty.
2. Move AWAY from him, and close to melee with someone else. Do your second attack on that guy, so he knows you mean business I guess.

You're now incentivizing your first target to come over to you to attack (if he's already in melee with someone else, this is a catch 22) while the second guy is under threat from Sentinel.

[bid]

2. Move AWAY from him, and close to melee with someone else. Do your second attack on that guy, so he knows you mean business I guess.
So, mobile is the best feat. Dump savage attacker.

[bid]

should I consider some sort of light armour? Getting an 18 from Unarmoured Defense, and 17 if I'm not using Dual Wielder at the time, seems like I'm in a pretty sweet spot. My two prior tank roles had ACs of 20 with heavy armour, so 18 isn't bad for a guy not wearing any at all.
Naked 13+Dex from Con is better than 12+dex from light armor.
OTOH, half-plate gives you 15+Dex(2).

But yeah, either Dex16 or Dex14 / Wis13 / Cha10 if you are point-buy. Or dump savage attacker for an ASI if you aren't.

[GlenSmash!]

Well Magical strength score lets you have your cake and eat it too.

As others have said AG abilities work remarkably well with attacking form Range and being mobile. And as others have said Savage attacker is of marginal usefulness, especially on what is meant to be a Tanky Barbarian.

[Reevh]

I definitely initially read this topic as "Tips for a Sex barbarian." Clearly I need more sleep.

Interestingly, a lot of the commentary still works in that context.

[Damon_Tor]

I definitely initially read this topic as "Tips for a Sex barbarian." Clearly I need more sleep.

Interestingly, a lot of the commentary still works in that context.

Right, mobile is more important than savage attacker either way.

[Reevh]

Right, mobile is more important than savage attacker either way.

Naked 13+Dex from Con is better than 12+dex from light armor.

[bid]

Naked 13+Dex from Con is better than 12+dex from light armor.
Who needs protection when you're a barbarian.

[Expected]

Until you get more Dex or Con, you should don half-plate--it gives 15AC +Dex (Max 2).

[da newt]

OP stated his AC is 17 unarmored / 18 when dual wielding. I don't think 1/2 plate will improve that any (bracers don't work with armor, right?).

Bumping dex to 16 would improve AC by 1 as would bumping CON to 18 (and add 9 hp), and allow him to stealth. I'd ditch savage attacker for +2 CON ASI and also look at 10 WIS & 16 DEX as a possible change - this would result in 19/20 AC (right?).

[Finback]

Thank you all for the input. I've done some revisions:

* dropped the Savage Attacker and put +1 on both Dex and Con. I realise this doesn't give me the full Con tick-up bonus, but if I get another ASI later, I can use it there. I'm not going to concentrate on upping my Str, with the Ogre Strength buff. I'll deal with any potential loss of gear when/if it happens.
* by taking that +1 Dex, I got my AC up to 19 while Dual Wielding, without needing any armour. AC 18 while using a two-handed weapon is still pretty good for a naked guy. I'm also still on 95HP which is still pretty decent. And on top of that, I still have a speed of 40 baseline, befre using my tabaxi double-move trait. I figure I'm either double-moving into combat, where I'll either 1) stay in melee 2) they move away, so maybe getting an OA, and then I can toss a spear; or I'm using a normal move into combat, and can easily keep chase of them if they try to evade me. otherwise, I'll convince the team artificer to make some boots of elvenkind ;)
* I'm taking note of the point about scimitars - I was mostly thinking of trying to make use of my higher Dex to have some finesse weapons, but this was before I had considered the Ogre Strength, which kind of makes damage bonuses moot. I'm going to swap him to a battle-axe/war pick combo. That's in addition to his greatsword and maul (my plan is to swap out based on the enemies if I'm two-handing it[1]), and spears/sling for ranged.

So thank you all for the advice! I think I'm good at conceptualising a character and how I imagine them to function, versus the nuts and bolts of picking effective choices that complement that notion.

[1] storyline, he's on a quest to recover a fabled clan artifact, which will be a Nine Lives Stealer greatsword. So I'm "pre-loading" in a way for a plot element my DM likes.