Ancestral Guardian Barbarian Build Guide – 2024 Update

For all D&D guides on Nat1gaming, they only use the main sourcebooks (2024 Player’s Handbook, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything) as well as Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos (mostly for Silvery Barbs) as those tend to be the most commonly used books at tables. Always be sure that if you’re following a guide that you’re adhering to your tables rules about what sourcebooks you are allowed to follow. Furthermore, be sure that you’re using the most current edition of the rules, especially as some 2024 Player’s Handbook rules are updates on Tasha’s or Xanathar’s rulings.

Any spell, class, feature, or other game item that is linkable on this website is covered by the 5th edition Open Games License and will be in the Player’s Handbook, but not everything in the Player’s Handbook will be linked to. All other materials that aren’t linked to are from other sourcebooks or aren’t allowed to be linked to per the 5th Edition Open Games License, so please refer to the appropriate sourcebooks for that information.

For the purposes of this guide, it will be assumed that you would not be multiclassing. While multiclassing can be excellent for many of these, this is for those who want to play the build all the way through in the same class. Guides that use multiclassing will be separate from these.

Most of the time when you’re picking Barbarian, you’re doing it to be a heavy damage dealer and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. However, this subclass flips that concept onto its head. Rather than focusing on damage, this subclass and build are all about protecting your allies instead and letting them shine while you take the beatings in their place. There are extremely few classes and builds that can effectively tank for your team, but if you like that play style, this is one of the best!

Ancestral Protectors (Level 3) – B+ Tier – This ability lets you truly be the tank of the party as enemies are really incentivized to hit you when this is active.

Spirit Shield (Level 6)– C- Tier – Using your reaction to prevent a smidgen of damage isn’t necessarily awful, but not great.

Consult the Spirits (Level 10) – B Tier – Free spells are nice, and these are solid spells that can keep refreshing!

Vengeful Ancestors (Level 14) – B Tier – Reflecting damage is neat, and while you aren’t preventing or dealing that much damage, healing an ally an average of 14 health and dealing that much is solid.

Not seeing the build you would want from this guide? This article can help!

Species: Goliath (Hill Giant)

Attributes:

Class: Barbarian

Class Features: Rage, Unarmored Defense

Skill Proficiencies: Athletics and Perception

Background: Farmer (Tough)

Starting Equipment: Greataxe, 4 Handaxes, Explorer’s Pack, and 15gp + 50gp from background

Species: Goliath (Hill Giant)

For any martial character, it’s hard to justify not going for Goliath as the Hill Giant topple is so incredibly good to get advantage on attacks. There are other solid options for species as well like Human for an additional origin feat or Aasimar as they are just generally strong, but Goliath is generally going to be my choice.

Attributes

Barbarians are always going to prioritize Strength and Constitution so they are the ones who get the buff. Barbarians also only need 14 DEX as, as tempting as it is to stick with unarmored defense, Medium Armor is going to be better most of the time.

Proficiencies – Athletics and Perception

The classic proficiency choices for Barbarians.

Background – Farmer

While I would’ve preferred getting a background with Alert, but getting additional Strength and Constitution is very important for Barbarians. That being said, Tough is still an excellent feat for Barbarians and will help you stay alive in the face of your lower average AC compared to other martial characters.

Starting Equipment – Greataxe, 4 Handaxes, Explorer’s Pack, and 15gp + 50gp from background

Super standard Barbarian equipment, truly nothing novel here.

Starting Class – Barbarian

Barbarians come with three inherent features that is emblematic of Barbarians in general – Rage, Unarmored Defense, and Weapon Mastery.

Rage is a bonus action activated ability that gives you a big boon in combat a few times a day (that will incrementally climb as you level up). While Raging, you have advantage on all Strength checks and saving throws, you gain bonuses to your Weapon damage, and you have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. You can maintain this powerful state for 10 minutes as long as you keep attacking, force an enemy to make a saving throw, or you use your bonus action to actively maintain it. You start with 2 Rage charges per day, but once per day after a short rest, you get one charge back which is a nice change from 5e. An absolutely excellent ability overall.

Unarmored Defense is easy, your AC is 10 + CON modifier + DEX modifier. So for level 1, your AC will be 15 which is solid, but nothing special.

Weapon Masteries are the new feature coming in One D&D that gives you a weapon’s mastery property when you select it. I would pick Greataxe and Javelin initially, but you should change them as you find new weapons.

Level 2

Class Features: Danger Sense, Reckless Attack

Equipment: Try to pick up some Medium Armor at this point or sometime soon, Scale Mail being your cheapest option.

Now you have access to Danger Sense and Reckless Attack!

It’s hard to know how often Danger Sense will come into play, but it is an excellent class feature as traps can be very dangerous in lower levels.

Reckless Attack is a mixed bag as giving yourself advantage on attacks for a turn at the cost of everyone having advantage on attacks against you can be a scary tradeoff. While this is definitely risky when there’s a lot of enemies or you aren’t raging, this is a strong feature when you just care about maximizing your damage, especially after you get your Extra Attack!

Level 3

Subclass: Ancestral Guardian

Class Features: Ancestral Protectors, Primal Knowledge

Ancestral Protectors is a really unique ability that’s going to draw a lot of attacks away from your allies which is great. At this point, I would highly recommend having Medium Armor (Scale Mail, Breastplate, or Half Plate) as those out-scale what you’d get from Unarmored Defense, a Shield, and a one handed weapon. Drawing attacks is awesome, but if you’re constantly getting hit and downed, you’re not going to be a very effective tank.

With 18 or 19 AC, you’ll be reasonably hard to hit which makes this feature much more potent, although you do have to give up a bit of damage. That said, if you wanted to be the main damage dealer, you shouldn’t have picked the tank subclass!

For your base class feature, Primal Knowledge gives you more proficiencies from the base Barbarian class, and this is a solid time to pick up Intimidation, but it’s really up to you what you want at this point.

Level 4

Feat: Sentinel (STR)

While the average Barbarian would be interested in taking Great Weapon Master as their first feat, you are not the average Barbarian! Picking up Sentinel is really nice as the tank wants to keep enemy attention on him, and there are few better ways of doing that than not letting them walk away from you. Locking an enemy down next to you will go a long way to keeping your allies alive longer! The only issue you’re going to come across in a few levels is deciding between whether to take opportunity attacks or use Spirit Shield, and while it is unfortunate you have to pick, having the option to do either means you’ll never waste your reaction!

Level 5

Class Features: Extra Attack, Fast Movement

Extra Attack and Fast Movement are huge for this class!

Extra Attack literally doubles your potential damage and is the best feature that any martial class could pick up.

Fast Movement is a nice movement boost to help you navigate the battlefield, something martial characters would always be happy to have.

Level 6

Class Feature: Spirit Shield

You get your second subclass feature in Spirit Shield. Being able to use your reaction to reduce damage is obviously good, but less good than it may seem. You can only use your reaction once per turn cycle, it isn’t preventing that much damage, and you may lose out on an opportunity attack if you use this too early. All that said, this is still an incredible feature as this is functionally small amounts of healing with no resource cost and can sometimes be the difference between someone staying up or going down.

Level 7

Class Features: Feral Instinct, Instinctive Pounce

Advantage on Initiative rolls!? Unreal! Being able to go earlier in the turn order is naturally incredible, but it’s even better on this subclass than normal! Getting to go before an opponent who may attack one of your squishier party members to intercept them and potentially lock them down is incredibly strong.

If you use the Instinctive Pounce optional ruling, you get a nice movement speed buff on turns you Rage. Not super important for this class, but it’s good to have!

Level 8

Feat: Shield Master (STR)

You now have the very difficult decision on whether you want to push your Strength to 20 immediately or look to take two feats to get 20 Strength by level 12. While there are really good arguments for either, I think getting two feats is a better, especially when your other attributes aren’t in a hurry to get increased.

That said, you’re going to pick up the excellent Shield Master at this level. Being able to reposition enemies is really good for getting your allies out of harm’s way, especially when you get to do it for free! Furthermore, being able to potentially avoid damage when you’re forced to make a DEX saving throw really puts this feat over the top!

Level 9

Class Features: Brutal Strike

Reworked from Brutal Critical, Brutal Strike is a nice ability that lets you trade advantage on an attack (perfect for your Reckless Attack or when you knock your enemy prone with your species ability) for extra damage, the ability to push an enemy 15 feet and follow them, or to reduce their speed by 15 feet for the turn. This gives the Barbarian surprisingly decent CC options on top of just getting extra damage by sacrificing accuracy, which is reminiscent of the old Great Weapon Master. Overall, this is a great ability that you’ll use often, especially on enemies with a lower AC.

Level 10

Class Features: Consult the Spirits, Spirit Shield Upgrade

You get one of the most unique subclass abilities at this level with Consult the Spirits! Having a surveillance spell every short rest is much more powerful than it may seem and can provide truly invaluable information.

On top of a new ability, Spirit Shield also gets a boost which makes it an even more appealing option than it already was.

You also get your second round of Primal Knowledge, and if you don’t have a strong opinion, I would just pick Survival.

Level 11

Class Features: Relentless Rage

One of the strongest abilities not just for Barbarians, but just in general, Relentless Rage lets you keep fighting even when you were supposed to go unconscious by passing an ever increasing Constitution saving throw. While you used to just stay at 1 health, you now heal twice your Barbarian level instead making it less likely that everything that hits you just forces this save again making what was one of the strongest Barbarian abilities even better!

Level 12

Feat: Mage Slayer (STR)

As mentioned in level 8, you now want to get your Strength score to 20 so you’re taking the best STR feat you don’t already have, Mage Slayer. At this level, enemies that use magic are going to become more common so having a feat specifically to counter them is definitely welcome. Make it tough to concentrate on their casting, and if they happen to catch you in a nasty spell, you’re allowed to say no once per day!

Level 13

Class Features: Improved Brutal Strike

You get new options to use on your Brutal Strike – Stagger and Sunder. Stagger gives enemies disadvantage on their next saving throw as well as robbing them of opportunity attacks for the turn which can be absolutely devastating when you have an ally ready to blast them with some potent CC. Sunder, on the other hand, gives an attack against that enemy +5 until the beginning of your next turn. While you could use this to set up your next attack (that you just gave up your Advantage to do which is a little counterintuitive), this is good to help an ally connect if they have a strong attack you really want them to connect with.

Level 14

Class Features: Vengeful Ancestors, Spirit Shield Upgrade

You get your final subclass feature with Vengeful Ancestors that now reflects the damage you’re preventing with Spirit Shield. This is unreasonably powerful as now your reaction is functionally healing a good amount and dealing damage. There’s no reason to ever consider using your reaction for something besides this at this point (but that was likely true starting at level 10 anyway).

Level 15

Class Features: Persistent Rage

Do you find yourself running out of Rage charges often? Now with Persistent Rage, that’s less of a problem! Once per day when you enter a combat, you get all instances of Rage back. This is really good as it sucks having to fight without your Rage and also lets you use your Intimidating Presence more as you’re less afraid of accidentally running out of Rage!

Level 16

Feat: Constitution to 18

Since this is your final feat, it’s best to just bump up your Constitution for extra health. Make it that much harder to kill you and make your Relentless Rage checks a bit easier to pass!

Level 17

Class Features: Improved Brutal Strike

Your final improvement to Brutal Strike – the extra damage is now doubled and you can use two Brutal Strike effects simultaneously. Obviously, this is very strong as doubling the output of an already strong ability will be good.

Level 18

Class Features: Indomitable Might

Indomitable Might is a weird class ability as Strength checks and saving throws are pretty rare, but not being able to roll less than a 20 on them is nice for what it’s worth.

Level 19

Epic Boon: Boon of Combat Prowess (STR)

Especially since you may be giving up accuracy for more damage, being able to turn a missed attack into a hit is extremely powerful and will let you get all those additional effects that your Brutal Strike affords you. This Boon is an absolute necessity for Barbarians if not just for every martial class.

Level 20

Class Features: Primal Champion

While it’s tempting to multiclass into Fighter for a few levels to get a Fighting Style and Action Surge, Primal Champion is a compelling reason not to. This is equivalent to FOUR ability score improvements which is a tremendous boost. Get that incredible strength and constitution.