Advice on a Wild Magic Barbarian in family game

[CTurbo]

So me and my brother in law have been planning on running a game with our kids, and I thought it would be fun to play an old character of mine that I enjoyed playing years ago which is a big dumb Goliath Barbarian. I am planning on making a few small changes to him this time around. He'll be nicer for starters, but whereas last time I went bear totem, this time I'm thinking about taking a different subclass, and I got an idea of choosing Wild Magic. Furthermore, I'm thinking about taking a single level of Wild Magic Sorcerer at some point for even more wacky magical randomness. I think the kids would love it.

The advice I'm looking for, is how to handle spells. This is a big dumb Barbarian that happens to have some innate magical abilities. I don't really want him to be a master of it. I don't want him to be "good" at casting any particular spell. I'm not concerned about him taking the best or most useful spells. He doesn't need to be optimized. I'm having a hard time choosing spells that would be thematic for his character. Side note: Sorcerers do not need material components to cast spells here.

Goliath Barbarian 1. Outlander background

20 Str, 14 Dex, 18 Con, 6 Int, 10 Wis, 14 Cha

This guy carries no weapons or armor or anything really. His attacks will be punches and kicks for 1+5+rage damage when applicable. I don't want to overshadow the kids on DPR. My job is to tank damage and use grappling to help control the battlefield.

My 12yr old is playing an 8yr old Pyro Sorcerer choosing all the fire spells. She wants to blast all the things.
My 11yr old is playing an 11yr old Bard. Subclass is up for debate, but I'm thinking Lore Bard for her.
My 9yr old nephew was going to play a Monk, but has changed to a S&B Fighter. Subclass undetermined.

So 1 level of Wild Sorcerer gets me 4 cantrips and 2 first level spells. What should I take? What spells would a big goofy bumbling barb want to try to use? Again, I don't care about usefulness and of course I know I can't cast spells while raging. I thought about him maybe trying to copy some of the Pyro Sorc's fire spells. I like the idea of him potentially casting spells on accident too.

If this campaign is successful with the kids, we'll play it for a long time. We'll play the first level or 2 with training wheels on and are expected to reach level 3 quickly. I would take the Sorc level after Barb 3 at the earliest and Barb 6 at the latest. I'm not overly concerned about putting off extra attack for 1 level, but I do like the Wild Magic Barb's 6th level feature.

[FirstAgeMagic]

I'm playing a Cleric/Sorcerer in a game right now where the idea is a twisted dark version of a "chosen one" he doesn't like his powers so the god that picked him occasionally takes control.

How I play this is I, the player, cast all the spells, but my character doesn't always intend these things to happen.

I think you could do a similar thing with your barbarian. Maybe he's just a Goliath SOAKED in magic. He doesn't always (or maybe even ever) intend to actually cast a spell, it just happens in wild arcs and surges. But you the player can choose when or how this happens and as it goes on maybe he wants to learn a little control or maybe he just leans into the wild power of it all.

That's my 2 cents.

[KorvinStarmast]

{snip} Goliath Barbarian 1. Outlander background
20 Str, 14 Dex, 18 Con, 6 Int, 10 Wis, 14 Cha
{Snip}
So 1 level of Wild Sorcerer gets me 4 cantrips and 2 first level spells. What should I take? What spells would a big goofy bumbling barb want to try to use?
a. Advice: always have a dagger. (Handy for stuff in and out of combat if your outlander is an outdoorsman).
And a hand axe. (Again, handy for outdoor/camping activities).
Carry a long bow and arrows . Hunter. Outdoorsman. Outlander. Some game is too fast to chase down.
b. Cantrips suggested
Light (Useful to see things)
Mending (Useful to fix things between battles)
Prestidigitation Make food taste better, start campfire, clean up
Green Flame (or Booming) Blade: useful for hitting things immune to physical damage, even using a dagger.
c. Level 1 spells suggested:
Shield - Sometimes, you just want the crowd of mooks to not hit you
Feather Fall - avoid falling damage

Sounds like a fun game.

[Psyren]

Firebolt, because everyone loves fire. Also gives you a ranged attack.

Control Flames, see above.

Prestidigitation, so you can amuse your kids by magically farting ten feet away or putting a kick-me sign on the enemy's clothing and other shenanigans.

Minor Illusion, same thing but with pictures. Can also create light obscurement for someone.

Message, so you can keep asking your party what they want you to do while you're out in front, without alerting the enemy.

GFB / BB - combos with War Caster to give you a souped-up OA or a way to deal with physical resistant enemies.

[stoutstien]

Roll for your spells. Go all in on the randomness. Could even see if you could reroll every time you enter rage or each day to make it even more whacky

[KorvinStarmast]

Message, so you can keep asking your party what they want you to do while you're out in front, without alerting the enemy. Better than my idea of Mending. :smallsmile:

[ender241]

Here are some ideas off the top of my head. Some of the spells can be reflavored to not even seem like magic, too.

Cantrips:
Control flames - trying to mimic the pyro
Dancing lights - maybe you don't always send them where you mean to
Friends - the target is enamored by you for a bit before becoming annoyed
Gust - you take a big breath in and then exhale for the gust
Mage hand - maybe you struggle to control the hand, always dropping/breaking things, etc.
Mold earth - you dig really fast?

Level 1:
Disguise self - you don a silly disguise
Earth Tremor - you pound the ground with your fists
Expeditious retreat - just a funny image, seeing a goliath barb running around really fast
Fog cloud - oops, now no one can see
Silent image - you try to make an illusion of one thing, but it turns out looking like something else
Sleep - you start telling a story, e.g. "back in my day..." putting the enemies to sleep instantly

[Psyren]

Better than my idea of Mending. :smallsmile:

Your idea of Light was valuable too. I forget that Goliaths don't have Darkvision.

[CTurbo]

Thanks for the answers. There's some good stuff in there.

I actually forgot that Goliath's didn't have darkvision too. Light is a good one and also an easy one that I can see him being able to do on his own and on purpose.

I still don't ever see him being "good" at casting though. It just doesn't fit the vision I see of him. At least not any time soon. Who knows how he ends up many levels later.

I don't really like the idea of him having a competent ranged spell attack. I'd prefer to focus on spells that could go hilariously wrong. ender241 mentioned several good ones.

Friends is a good one he could "accidentally" cast.
Charm Person is same as above.
Disguise Self is an easy one that he could always get wrong.
Accidental Fog Cloud is a great idea!
Jump was one I was thinking about before I made the thread.
If I was to take a ranged attack spell, it'd have to be Chaos Bolt for more randomness.

I really didn't want him carrying any weapons or anything, but yeah I guess logically, he'd at least have a knife. As far as ranged attacks go, I spoke to the DM about it already and he said there would always be a rock, stick, bone, or halfling around to throw at the enemy if needed haha

I had not considered the fact that without a weapon, I'd always be stuck dealing non-magical damage. That could be an issue. Of course he'd be too dumb to realize his punches were ineffective. I bet the DM would let me cast Booming Blade with my fist. Booming Fist! haha. Some magical gauntlets or bracers could be a possibility as well I guess. But Booming Blade would require him to be able to do it on purpose which I'm trying to avoid.

I had already considered him trying to mimic the Pyro. She could even possibly help him learn how to use some of those fire spells.

I also like the idea of reflavoring some of the spells so they're barely seem magical. Thunderclap and Earth Tremor mimic what the Hulk does. Seems fitting.


As far as feats at Barb 4, I'm thinking either Tavern Brawler or Inspiring Leader. It'd be fun to give big dumb speeches before battle haha

[Steven K]

If you're planning on multiclassing into a wild magic sorcerer for a game involving under 10s, it might be a good idea to shave a couple of options off the wild surge table - you know, the screw your character and everyone in fireball distance, options.

In fact, in general, I'd suggest playing around with the wild surge table for the barbarian as well, see if you can't stack the deck in favour of funny or 'awesome' stuff happening.

Like, in the sorcerer wild surge table, you can just summon 1d6 frightened flumphs or a single modron controlled by the DM. The flumph in 5e has the following amusing traits: prone deficiency, which means that if it gets knocked prone it has a 1 in 2 chance of flipping upside down and landing on its head, and stench spray, which is a 15 ft cone of stink. It's also a floating telepathic jellyfish with a funny name.

As for the modron, it pops up, clipboard in hand, and just starts asking random questions of everyone in the area and trying to measure everything, preferably with measuring tape and a set of various other readily understandable but absurd measuring tools. Say it wants to know your foot size, so it whips out one of those sizing mats you have at shoe stores and asks you to step on it. That sort of thing.

I'd definitely add some of the more interesting wild surge options from the sorcerer's table to the barbarian table even before you multiclass.

[Steven K]

As for spells, how do you feel about homebrewing some? Like, absurdist homebrew. Summon lesser duck, which drops a squeaky bath toy on your enemies' head for 1d4 bath damage, or whatever?

Or go ring of grammarian style, and get the names of your catnips mixed up for random effects. Fire boat? Shocking Grass?

[Psyren]

It'd be fun to give big dumb speeches before battle haha

I would throw in Message so he can whisper to the party when he (inevitably) gets stuck for the next line.

So Light, Message, Friends and Booming Blade sound ideal.

Since you plan on punching everything, are you taking Unarmed Fighting Style? Otherwise you'll be doing 1+STR+Rage damage. Or will you be relying on Tavern Brawler? Either way, what's your plan for the first 4 levels?

[KorvinStarmast]

My updated suggestions:

feats I'd suggest Tavern Brawler. (Based on your response).
a. Advice: always have a dagger and a hand axe. These are standard tools for being an outdoorsman and camping out. Don't need to use for combat, but if you get mad at flying critters you can throw it at them (Raaage! :smallbiggrin: ) Or throw that halfling ... :smallbiggrin:
b. Cantrips suggested
Light (Useful to see things)
Message (Tell your friends things ... sometimes interrupting them when it's not appropriate (like when the bard is trying to seduce the daughter of the local land baron ... :smalleek: )
Mold Earth (camping; dig latrines, bury bones, etc). Lean into the outlander background, and have holes to fall into ... slap stick comedy potential here. :smallsmile:
Booming Blade (as noted above) or Thunderclap (don't need a weapon, and things can go wrong); TC is probably the better recommendation.
c. Level 1 spells suggested:
Shield - Sometimes, you just want the crowd of mooks to not hit you (reflexive action, tied to rage)
And either Fog Cloud (one of my favorite lvl 1 spells) (cf below)
or
Chaos Bolt - your point on "it did what?" as an objective informs this update.

I still don't ever see him being "good" at casting though. It just doesn't fit the vision I see of him. At least not any time soon. Who knows how he ends up many levels later. My experience with barbs is that even with rage, sometimes not getting hit at all is the better choice.
Save it for later, but I'll still suggest this as a good idea.

I don't really like the idea of him having a competent ranged spell attack. I'd prefer to focus on spells that could go hilariously wrong. In the interest of brain storming: Color Spray.
It's a cone. Might hit some unintended targets but does no actual damage. All flash, no boom. :smallwink:

Accidental Fog Cloud is a great idea! heh. Fog Cloud is one of my favorite level 1 spells, it's never a bad choice. Never.

Sounds like fun regardless of what you end up picking. :smallsmile:

[CTurbo]

Color Spray is a good one I hadn't considered.

I had dismissed Message, but I guess it could work.


I'm wanting to keep damage a bit on the low side for the first few levels so I don't overshadow the kids. 1+5+rage is plenty to start. Tavern Brawler ups the DPR a bit, and yeah if I ever make it to Barb 8, Fighting Initiate for Unarmed Fighting Style would probably be the pick if I felt like I needed to do more damage. I see him doing a fair amount of grappling and Tavern Brawler is a good boost to that being able to do it with my Bonus Action. Unarmed Fighting provides another small boost to grappling as well. I did kind of want Inspiring Leader, but that's also a feat that the Bard or Sorcerer could take. I'll have to see what my girls think about it.


Altering the Wild Surge table isn't a bad idea. The main reason I was going to wait until character level 4 at the earliest to take the Sorc level was to avoid the possibility of the dreaded TPK. Quick math says that the Sorcerer would still only have 26hp at level 4 and the average damage of Fireball is 28 so maybe I should wait another level or two. By the time I'm sitting at Barb 4, I may want the extra damage of the 2nd attack anyway without sacrificing his playstyle. I'm not going to just suddenly start using a Greataxe or anything.

I want my character to be goofy and lovable, but I don't see him as a prankster or being too silly. Me and my brother-in-law are already afraid that things are going to be a little too silly with the kids. I could end up having to play him much more straight laced than I'd like if they can't stay on task.

[da newt]

I'm imagining a PC version of 'the Tick'

I'd consider reflavoring all of your PC's magics to be innate abilities - the guy doesn't know spells or cast on purpose, sometimes when he wants something to happen it just does. Sometimes it goes right, sometimes it doesn't.

Then I'd backstory some explanation for his strange magical abilities, or at least his personal belief of why he can do stuff, or maybe he doesn't realize he's the one making things happen ...