The Ancestral Knight – Barbarian/Fighter Multiclass Build Guide

For all D&D guides on Nat1gaming, they only use the main sourcebooks (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.

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 spellcasters, you may notice substantial overlap between the spell lists of builds with the same base class. This is due to each guide utilizing a generically good spell list and not considering extenuating factors that will influence how you particularly sculpt your spell list. When creating your own spell list, you should take into account the campaign setting, what spells any other party members are capable of casting, potential overlap (ritual spells tend to overlap so it’s rare you need multiple people capable of casting them), or potential shortcomings in the parties total spell list. While this guide can definitely help point you in the right direction for crafting a spell list, you should use your judgement and preferences to figure out what spells make the most sense for your character.

To that end, please refer to the Spell List and Spell Tier list for any substitutions you’d want to make to the build.

Combining two unique subclasses in Ancestral Guardian Barbarian and Echo Knight Fighter, this build looks to create a really annoying yet extremely effective tank. With the Echo Knight’s ability to produce an echo that you can attack from, you can spawn an echo near an enemy, hit them, mark them with Ancestral Protectors from Ancestral Guardian, and stay far away from them so they have disadvantage attacking anyone that isn’t you (which they likely won’t be able to attack). This simple hit and run tactic will make you a far more effective tank than you’d expect as you can actually protect your allies unlike the more typical tanks who just get beat up and then ignored when it’s convenient.

Not every inherent interaction here is going to be mentioned in the guide, so check out the multiclassing guide to help answer any additional questions you may have!

The plan for this build is to be the most annoying tank/CC applier that you can possibly be. Since you can attack through your Echo and/or switch places with your Echo, your whole plan is to hit the enemy personally or through your Echo while raging, and then stay far away from them. Because of your Ancestral Protectors ability, that’ll give the enemy disadvantage on all attacks not against you and any target that isn’t you resistance to the damage they deal. Your whole plan from here is to play this frustrating game of hit and run where the toughest enemy is ideally always attacking at disadvantage and having half damage on all of those attacks while you flit away to do whatever else you need to do whether that’s reposition, getting in front of a squishy, etc.

• Your Manifest Echo ability allows you to attack through your Echo, not have your echo attack. That’s the interaction that lets you mark an enemy with your Ancestral Protectors without actually being near them
• Ancestral Protectors only triggers on your turn, so opportunity attacks will not let you mark an enemy
• You can split your attacks between your space and the echo’s space which can be relevant if both you and your echo have a high priority target near you

Species: Goliath (Hill Giant)

Attributes:

Class: Fighter

Class Features: Fighting Style, Second Wind, Weapon Mastery

Skill Proficiencies: Insight and Perception

Background: Farmer (Tough)

Starting Equipment: Warhammer, 10 Javelins, Scale Mail, Shield, Dungeoneer’s Pack, and 38 gp + 50 gp 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

The common stat distribution for Strength based martials who want to wear medium armor.

Proficiencies: Insight and Perception

Just excellent skill proficiencies for any character.

Background: Farmer

The best attributes with the best feat for martial characters that care about Strength.

Starting Equipment – Warhammer, 10 Javelins, Scale Mail, Shield, Dungeoneer’s Pack, and 63 gp + 50 gp from background

You want to pick the starting gold to get this equipment.

Class – Fighter

Fighters get three abilities to start off with in Fighting Style, Second Wind, and Weapon Mastery.

The Fighting Style you’re going to pick is Defense! A flat +1 to your AC is hardly ever a bad thing!

Second Wind is a cool feature where, for a bonus action, you can heal yourself a bit. This is obviously great for tough fights when you are running low on health and this not only scales with level, but also gets additional features later on.

Weapon Mastery gives you the Mastery property of three weapons and I would recommend taking the properties of your three starting weapons. To that end, make sure you are always using your Scimitar in your main hand to properly access the mastery property.

Level 2

Class: 2 Fighter

Class Features: Action Surge, Tactical Mind

Level 2 brings two new features with Action Surge and Tactical Mind.

The Fighter is one of the most popular multiclass options in D&D, and Action Surge is a huge reason why. While you can only use this once every short or long rest (twice at 17), getting an additional action almost always means a whole new slew of attacks. Even at level 2, this is a powerful ability, but once you get multiple Extra Attacks, this becomes an extremely powerful feature that can dole out an obscene amount of damage. In a pinch, this can be used for other actions such as Dash as well which adds to the power and utility of this ability.

Tactical Mind is a neat new feature that allows you to use a Second Wind charge to reroll a failed ability check with a bit of a bonus. While this won’t come up too often, this is a nice feature to have for particularly important ability checks.

Level 3

Class: 3 Fighter (Echo Knight)

Class Features: Manifest Echo, Unleash Incarnation

Manifest Echo is an ability with a lot packed into it, but here are the basics.

You can use your bonus action to manifest an “echo” within 15 feet of you which has an AC of 14+PB, 1 health, and immunity to all status conditions. It has your stats for saving throws and it has to stay within 30 feet of you or it’ll be destroyed, and as a free action, can move up to 30 feet on your turn. While not stated by the ability implicitly, this echo counts as an object rather than a creature, so spells and abilities that affect creatures do not affect this echo.

In terms of what this echo can do: you can use your bonus action and 15 feet of your movement to swap places with your echo, you can make an attack from your space or the echo’s, and you can use your echo for opportunity attacks.

This is definitely a lot to keep in mind, but the moral is you have a lot of options once you have this ability as you have strong movement options and greater versatility in combat.

The second ability you get is Unleash Incarnation which lets your echo get an attack in when you use your attack action (limited to your CON modifier). Obviously additional attacks are really powerful at this point, and this doesn’t use any additional resources, but this doesn’t scale the best as this build isn’t going to have a maxed out Constitution score for awhile, and by that point, a few extra attacks per day isn’t going to be that impactful. That being said, this is still a solid ability that you should try and save for tough fights.

Level 4

Class: 4 Fighter

Feat: Great Weapon Master (STR)

Class Features: None

You’re going to be using a two-handed weapon, so may as well make it as strong as possible! With getting extra damage and extra attacks, it’s hard to go wrong with picking this feat up.

Level 5

Class: 5 Fighter

Class Features: Extra Attack, Tactical Shift

Easily the most exciting feature for martial characters, level 5 brings your Extra Attack! Being able to double your damage output is obviously really strong, but since you’re a Fighter, you’ll eventually get even more attacks on top of this!

Level 5 also brings a new feature with Tactical Shift. Now when you use Second Wind, you can move up to half your speed without provoking an opportunity attack. A heal, disengage, and extra movement? Sign me up!

Level 6

Class: 1 Barbarian 5 Fighter

Class Features: Rage, Unarmored Defense, Weapon Mastery

We are now moving over into Barbarians! This build relies on getting 3 levels of Barbarian for most of the game and this is the best time to pick the first level up.

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 7

Class: 2 Barbarian 5 Fighter

Class Features: Danger Sense, Reckless Attack

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 8

Class: 3 Barbarian (Ancestral Guardian) 5 Fighter

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. This is also when the specialty of this build comes online. Since you’re also an Echo Knight, any attack you make can originate from you or your echo meaning that you can have your echo attack an enemy, activate Ancestral Protectors, and now the enemy has terrible options for their turn as all of their attacks will have disadvantage against targets that aren’t you, but you may be across the map from them! This is a really fun synergy for you and a real headache for your enemies!

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 9

Class: 3 Barbarian 6 Fighter

Feat: Slasher (STR)

Class Features: None

Fighter brings an additional feat this level, and I like picking up Slasher for this build. As you’ll be using a Halberd, you can attack enemies from a small distance, slow them down, trigger your Ancestral Protector ability, and move far enough away where the enemy can’t retaliate. This is already a good feat and is improved upon with this build!

Level 10

Class: 3 Barbarian 7 Fighter

Class Features: Echo Avatar

Rather than a combat skill, this is a cool scouting ability that can let you see and hear through your echo and it can travel up to 1000 feet a way without getting destroyed. This isn’t bad as far as scouting abilities go as the echo can fly, but this doesn’t work well if you’re trying to be stealthy as your echo may stick out like a sore thumb. Never the less, I’m never going to be mad at having a free scouting ability.

Level 11

Class: 3 Barbarian 8 Fighter

Class Features: Mage Slayer (STR)

You get another feat this level, and you can finally get 20 Strength with Mage Slayer. Being able to really mess with casters is nice as a martial character, and getting a functional charge of Legendary Resistance? Incredible! A really strong feat that I have most of my martial characters taking.

Level 12

Class: 3 Barbarian 9 Fighter

Class Feature: Indomitable (x1), Tactical Master

This level brings a base Fighter feature – Indomitable! You can reroll a saving throw that you fail and add your Fighter level on top of it which is extremely powerful. As you climb in levels, this will almost be like a player’s version of Legendary Resistance which is super cool.

Tactical Master is a new ability lets you replace a weapon mastery property when you attack with Push, Sap, or Slow. This is yet another great feature as you may not always want the mastery property on the weapon you happen to be using, so having options is always welcome.

Level 13

Class: 3 Barbarian 10 Fighter

Class Features: Shadow Martyr

10 levels in Fighter gives you Shadow Martyr!

Shadow Martyr is a decent ability that lets your Echo tank an attack rather than you or an ally only at the cost of your reaction (no range on this ability is pretty strange, it simply stipulates a creature you can see). Unfortunately at this level and beyond, most enemies will be hitting you with multiattacks, but if you really need to protect an ally from a specific attack, this is a great way to do it that doesn’t consume a finite resource. If nothing else, you can yell “Get down Mr. President” every time you use it which should be pretty fun in itself.

Level 14

Class: 3 Barbarian 11 Fighter

Class Features: Extra Attack (x2)

11 levels in Fighter means an additional attack which is obviously extremely good.

Level 15

Class: 3 Barbarian 12 Fighter

Feat: Constitution to 18

Class Features: None

You get another feat and it’s time to start buffing your Constitution! More health and better saving throws is a really good investment for your feat.

Level 16

Class: 3 Barbarian 13 Fighter

Class Feature: Indomitable (x2), Studied Attack

Level 13 brings another charge of Indomitable and a powerful new feature, Studied Attack!

Studied Attack is a super cool feature that, if you miss with one of your attacks against one enemy, you have advantage on your next attack against that same target! Anything that helps you connect with your enemy is always exciting!

Level 17

Class: 3 Barbarian 14 Fighter

Feat: Constitution to 20

Class Features: None

Maximizing your Constitution score to get the highest possible health and saving throws is awesome!

Level 18

Class: 3 Barbarian 15 Fighter

Class Features: Reclaim Potential

Since your Echo is going to be destroyed constantly, you may as well profit off of it! As long as you don’t have temporary health already, this lets you gain some every time an echo is destroyed (capped at your Con modifier like Unleash Incarnation). While the temporary health isn’t very high, you’ll likely get it over and over making it a pretty reliable source of extra health.

Level 19

Class: 3 Barbarian 16 Fighter

Epic Boon: Boon of Combat Prowess

Class Features: None

You now get another feat, and since you’re total level 19, you can pick up an Epic Boon! The Epic Boon choice, as I will pick for every martial character, is the Boon of Combat Prowess. Converting a miss into a hit is functionally getting an Extra Attack, but better, and I will take an additional attack every day of the week.

Level 20

Class: 3 Barbarian 17 Fighter

Class Feature: Action Surge (x2), Indomitable (x3)

Level 20 is actually an extremely interesting choice between an additional level in Fighter or an additional level in Barbarian. If you go a level in Fighter, you have two Action Surge and 3 Indomitable per short rest which is extremely powerful. However, if you pick up your fourth Barbarian level, you get to get an additional Epic Boon (I would take Irresistible Offense for even more brutal critical hits and 22 Strength). This is a really tough choice, but I think getting the additional Action Surge and Indomitable charges is just a bit too good to pass up.