Optimizing the Beast Barbarian

[Yakmala]

I've played a lot of different Barbarians over the years and enjoy the class. So of course, I'm interested in playing the new Beast Barbarian when the opportunity arises. What I'm still debating is the best way to optimize one.

Note: I've got no interest in feedback about how GWM or PAM would be better. I've already played those types of builds multiple times. I want to focus on the Beast Barbarian's unique weapons.

There are two directions that really stand out for me.

1: Claws: As the Beast Barb's weapons are considered simple weapons, they should work with the Dual Wielder feat. Mind you, I've not seen an official ruling on this, and some DM's might say you need a "weapon in hand". Personally, I'd count your claws as a weapon in your hand. Assuming this is allowed, I'd also take the Fighting Initiate feat for Two-Weapon fighting. The goal would be four claw attacks by level 5, each with the strength bonus added to the damage. Because of the nature of claws, you should be able to easily swap in a grapple for one of these attacks without having to stow a weapon.

2: Tail: Weapon and Shield (probably Spear + PAM) combined with the tail's ability to grant a D8 to AC as a reaction could make for an even tankier Barbarian than usual. If you have a DM willing to allow a little home brew, see if you can get the tail to count for PAM so you can make better use of the reach. The character would eventually pick up Sentinel as well and likely use reckless attack very sparingly to maintain a high AC.

Magic items are one of the larger issues with the Beast Barbarian. Similar to a Monk, there are very few items that will boost the Beast Barb's natural weapon attacks. Insignia of Claws and the new Eldritch Claw Tattoo are the only non-homebrew ones that come to mind. So a Beast Barbarian is going to be hurting for ways to increase their attack and damage rolls on their own.

Thoughts? Has anyone starting playing the Tasha's Beast Barbarian yet?

[bendking]

I've played a lot of different Barbarians over the years and enjoy the class. So of course, I'm interested in playing the new Beast Barbarian when the opportunity arises. What I'm still debating is the best way to optimize one.

Note: I've got no interest in feedback about how GWM or PAM would be better. I've already played those types of builds multiple times. I want to focus on the Beast Barbarian's unique weapons.

There are two directions that really stand out for me.

1: Claws: As the Beast Barb's weapons are considered simple weapons, they should work with the Dual Wielder feat. Mind you, I've not seen an official ruling on this, and some DM's might say you need a "weapon in hand". Personally, I'd count your claws as a weapon in your hand. Assuming this is allowed, I'd also take the Fighting Initiate feat for Two-Weapon fighting. The goal would be four claw attacks by level 5, each with the strength bonus added to the damage. Because of the nature of claws, you should be able to easily swap in a grapple for one of these attacks without having to stow a weapon.

2: Tail: Weapon and Shield (probably Spear + PAM) combined with the tail's ability to grant a D8 to AC as a reaction could make for an even tankier Barbarian than usual. If you have a DM willing to allow a little home brew, see if you can get the tail to count for PAM so you can make better use of the reach. The character would eventually pick up Sentinel as well and likely use reckless attack very sparingly to maintain a high AC.

Magic items are one of the larger issues with the Beast Barbarian. Similar to a Monk, there are very few items that will boost the Beast Barb's natural weapon attacks. Insignia of Claws and the new Eldritch Claw Tattoo are the only non-homebrew ones that come to mind. So a Beast Barbarian is going to be hurting for ways to increase their attack and damage rolls on their own.

Thoughts? Has anyone starting playing the Tasha's Beast Barbarian yet?

Personally, I think Claws is the better plan for a couple of reasons:
1. It lets you do something more effectively than other Barbarian subclasses can: grappling. Other subclasses have a higher reliance on GWM + PAM, while Beast can do pretty well without it using Dual Wielder and Two-weapon Fighting (though he still loses out on a bit of DPR), and keep a hand free for grappling, which other dual-wielding Barbarian builds cannot do.
2. The Tail strategy is definitely going to make you beefier, and Sentinel is good. However, if I had wanted to make a tank Barbarian I would have simply chosen Ancestral Guardian. It seems to me this strategy would not be as effective and thus not what I would pursue when trying to optimize what is unique about the Beast.

Oh, and I would personally simply MC with Fighter to get Two-weapon Fighting. I mean, Barbarian doesn't scale well anyway. I would level Barbarian to either 5 or 6, then take 4 levels of Fighter (probably Battlemaster).

[Zhorn]

Another part of Beast Barbarian I'm looking forwards to in an up upcoming game is our lv6 ability and adding athletics rolls to jump distance (swapping out for climb speed or swim speed with underwater breathing as needed is also awesome). At lv8 I'm going to take Skilled Expert for expertise in Athletics because I just love the idea of kicking that jump distance to the limit. If our DM is letting up target magic items to pursue, Rings of Jumping and Feather Fall are on my wish list (no concentration, so they're rage friendly).
Oh that flying creature thought it was safe from my unarmed barbarian, thinking I have no range attack? Fool! I AM a ranged attack! 10 ft. run up then reliably launch 30 ft. into the air as standard movement, grappling onto the target with a raging advantage expertise roll.
Either dropping their speed to 0 and forcing a fall to the ground, or climbing onto them and treating them as terrain. :smallbiggrin:

Then there's jumping outside of combat without the movement per turn distance limit, high jumping for [3 + 2xProf + 2xSTR mod +1d20]x3 ft with the ring of jumping :smallcool:

[Dork_Forge]

You can also throw in a Lizardfolk biting beast for fun, Hungry Jaws and the regen bite would be a fun way to keep a Barbarian up in combat.

For the damage I don't think it's really a concern to be honest, if you nab DW and TWF then your damage is going to be pretty great regardless (and every +1 bump to your Rage damage matters even more), especially since when you get to 10th level (where the damage might start to feel like it's petering out) you get access to a Barbarian smite for 2d12 psychic on a Wis save.

Some other ways to up your damage in a day (particularly if you use the customising origin rules):

-Goblin's Fury of the Small
-Aasimar's racial (not very desireable given the action cost mixed with Rage BA)

[stoutstien]

I would grab the skill expert and the slasher feat just prone and claw everything. Keep a few hand axes on hand to keep this up in-between rages.
Simple and effective

[Ir0ns0ul]

Is it possible to attack three times (two claws + one unarmed strike bonus action from Martial Arts) by leveraging Beast Barbarian 3+ / Monk 1?

I know all the indications specifies that claws are “simple melee weapons”, therefore they wouldn’t be considered unarmed attacks — so I get little confuse if DW/TWF or Monk Martial Arts would be legal.

[Zhorn]

Current leanings are 'yes' for claws with Martial Arts

With the first line of Martial Arts defining:
"At 1st level, your practice of martial arts gives you mastery of combat styles that use unarmed strikes and monk weapons, which are shortswords and any simple melee weapons that don’t have the two-handed or heavy property."
and all of the Form of the Beast weapons
"Until the rage ends, you manifest a natural weapon. It counts as a simple melee weapon for you"

TWF/DW is in a little bit of a grey area with the 'wielding in hand' vs "hands transforms into" part, but a large portion of people I've heard from it are lenient since it is a 2 feat investment AND is a departure from the 'all barbarians are GWM builds'.

[werescythe]

Personally I'm working on a Tabaxi Beast Barbarian that uses their tail (or tailmaw) for attacks and I think the Piercer feat is probably a good feat to have. I would probably follow that up with Sentinel, maybe Martial Adept and take Grappling Strike to make it that I can grapple as a bonus action from time to time.

I'm not too sure what other feats or multiclassing options would be good (maybe fighter as either a Champion or a Battlemaster).

[sophontteks]

I was looking at full grappler werewolf: Tail/Bite attack, Athletics expertise, Athletics (feat), mobility, level 6 jump ability.

Both tail and bite are superior tools when you plan to grapple multiple opponents. At level 6 the grappler werewolf can jump high enough to inflict 2d6 damage to both grappled targets using just their movement, and doing so puts them both prone. Athletics feat so you can get back up and rinse/repeat. The 5 foot requirement allows you to get the running jump without your movement being halved. The idea is, if you are dragging your opponent behind you, then doubling back 5 feet wouldn't be dragging the target at all.

It does require 50 feet of movement to pull it off, but you aren't in any way hindered waiting for your build to come online. I'm still on the fence if this is superior to a Totem barbarian who can take eagle for 80 feet of movement. A totem barb with athletics can climb twice as fast and drop them, but can't do the jump unless the DM is lenient.

[suplee215]

I like either the grapple (through tavern brawler) or shield master build with any of the weapons. You can pick the weapon every time so pick what you need, but those feats allow you to use bonus actions to good effect which is the biggest benefit of this subclass.