One D&D Battlerager Barbarian Build Guide
Learn the best build for the Battlerager Barbarian with full leveling guides and easy to navigate sections to only read what you need!
This Battlerager Barbarian One D&D guide covers everything you need to build your character from level 1 to 20. We rank each subclass feature, provide a quick level-up guide for easy reference, suggest the best feats and species, and highlight top magic weapons to enhance your build. Whether you’re new to Dungeons & Dragons or optimizing for high-level play, this guide has you covered.
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Build Summary
- Class: Battlerager Barbarian
- Role: Aggro Tank, Melee Disruptor
- Best Species: Dwarf (Only Choice)
- Best Feats: Grappler, Mage Slayer, Charger
- Primary Stats: STR > CON > DEX
- Loadout: Spiked Armor + One-Handed Weapon
- Playstyle: Charge in, Rage, grapple priority targets, and shred enemies with spiked-armor bonus attacks while locking them down for your team.
Table of Contents
- Why Battlerager Barbarian?
- Quick Level Up Guide
- Battlerager Barbarian Build (Level 1)
- Abilities Ranked
- Species Ranked
- Backgrounds Ranked
- Skills Ranked
- Feats Ranked
- Best Magic Items
- Multiclassing for Battlerager Barbarian
- Frequently Asked Questions
Why Battlerager Barbarian?
The truth of the matter is that this subclass is not very good, most of the abilities are very weak which was pretty endemic to all classes designed in the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide. The main advantage of this class, though, is that it’s interesting! This is pretty different from other Barbarian subclasses as you are limited to Dwarves and pretty much forced to wear Spike Armor, so if that appeals to you for whatever reason, feel free to pick this!
Quick Level Up Guide
| Level | Class Features/Feat | Notes |
| 1 | Rage, Unarmored Defense, Weapon Mastery | Rages Per Day: 2 Rage Damage Bonus: +2 |
| 2 | Danger Sense, Reckless Attack | Rages Per Day: 2 Rage Damage Bonus: +2 |
| 3 | Battlerager Battlerager Armor Primal Knowledge – Intimidation | Rages Per Day: 3 Rage Damage Bonus: +2 |
| 4 | Feat: Grappler (STR) | Rages Per Day: 3 Rage Damage Bonus: +2 |
| 5 | Extra Attack, Fast Movement | Rages Per Day: 3 Rage Damage Bonus: +2 |
| 6 | Reckless Abandon | Rages Per Day: 4 Rage Damage Bonus: +2 |
| 7 | Feral Instinct, Instinctive Pounce | Rages Per Day: 4 Rage Damage Bonus: +2 |
| 8 | Feat: Mage Slayer (STR) | Rages Per Day: 4 Rage Damage Bonus: +2 |
| 9 | Brutal Strike | Rages Per Day: 4 Rage Damage Bonus: +3 |
| 10 | Battlerager Charge Primal Knowledge – Survival | Rages Per Day: 4 Rage Damage Bonus: +3 |
| 11 | Relentless Rage | Rages Per Day: 4 Rage Damage Bonus: +3 |
| 12 | Feat: Charger (STR) | Rages Per Day: 5 Rage Damage Bonus: +3 |
| 13 | Improved Brutal Strike | Rages Per Day: 5 Rage Damage Bonus: +3 |
| 14 | Spiked Retribution | Rages Per Day: 5 Rage Damage Bonus: +3 |
| 15 | Persistent Rage | Rages Per Day: 5 Rage Damage Bonus: +3 |
| 16 | Feat: Constitution to 18 | Rages Per Day: 5 Rage Damage Bonus: +4 |
| 17 | Improved Brutal Strike | Rages Per Day: 6 Rage Damage Bonus: +4 |
| 18 | Indomitable Might | Rages Per Day: 6 Rage Damage Bonus: +4 |
| 19 | Epic Boon: Boon of Combat Prowess | Rages Per Day: 6 Rage Damage Bonus: +4 |
| 20 | Primal Champion | Rages Per Day: Unlimited Rage Damage Bonus: +4 |
Battlerager Barbarian Build
Level 1 Build
Species: Dwarf
Attributes:
| POINT BUY | |
| STRENGTH | 15 (+2 background) = 17 |
| DEXTERITY | 14 |
| CONSTITUTION | 15 (+1 background) = 16 |
| INTELLIGENCE | 8 |
| WISDOM | 10 |
| CHARISMA | 8 |
This is the standard stat array for any Barbarian, not need to overthink it!
Class: Barbarian
Class Features: Rage, Unarmored Defense, Weapon Mastery (Start with Greataxe and Handaxes, change as needed)
For your abilities you get Rage, Unarmored Defense, and Weapon Mastery!
Rage is your bread and butter skill that gives you damage resistance and extra damage which is just what a Barbarian is interested in doing! Furthermore in One D&D, Rage now has out of combat utility once you get Primal Knowledge giving you even more options!
Unarmored Defense is as it sounds, better defense if you’re not wearing armor! Realistically though, I would look for Medium Armor as fast as possible as you’re never going to outscale the AC bonus you get from even middling medium armor.
Finally, you get Weapon Mastery which is a skill which is pretty common amongst martial classes. Pick the weapon masteries of weapons you realistically use and you get some extra effects!
Skill Proficiencies: Athletics and Perception
You can pick any skills you want, but these are the two I want the most for my Barbarians.
Background: Farmer (Tough)
You definitely have good background choices between Farmer, Entertainer, and Guard so you can’t go too wrong, I think Farmer just gives you the most with a good feat (Tough) on top of perfect ability scores and good skill proficiencies.
Starting Equipment: Greataxe, 4 Handaxes, Explorer’s Pack, and 15gp + 50gp from background
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!
Danger Sense is really nice to pick up early as getting advantage on Dexterity saving throws is no joke. While you probably aren’t facing many spells that are going to force Dexterity throws quite yet, having a greater chance of avoiding traps is huge as they can be extra dangerous at this level.
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: Battlerager
Class Features: Battlerager Armor, Primal Knowledge
Now that you get your subclass, you get a new subclass ability to work with as well as a base class ability.
Battlerager Armor is the main feature of the Battlerager as you get Spiked Armor to utilize. This earns you a bonus action attack which is useful, but also gives you extra damage when you succeed on a grapple check which is a little bonus.
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: Grappler (STR)
Since this class incentivizes grappling, even if it’s slight, you may as well go for broke! Grappler makes grappling much stronger by giving you advantage against creatures grappled by you and lets you drag enemies around easier. This is a very strong feat in general and just works nicely with your general plan.
Level 5
Class Features: Extra Attack, Fast Movement
Level 5 brings two great features with Extra Attack and Fast Movement!
Extra Attack literally doubles your potential damage and is the best feature that any martial class could pick up, especially since it gives you two opportunities to activate Ancestral Protectors.
Fast Movement is a nice movement boost to help you navigate the battlefield, something martial characters would always be happy to have even if it’s only 10 more feet.
Level 6
Class Feature: Reckless Abandon
You get your next ability with Reckless Abandon.
You get a smidgen of temporary health when you use your Reckless Attack. Extra health is nice, but you get so little that this isn’t going to make an impact very often.
Level 7
Class Features: Feral Instinct, Instinctive Pounce
Level 7 brings Feral Instinct for better initiative rolls and Instinctive Pounce for even more movement!
Feral Instinct is awesome as advantage on initiative rolls is no joke and is functionally like having the Alert feat as a class feature. Being able to go earlier in the turn order is naturally awesome! Getting to go before an opponent who may attack one of your squishier party members to intercept them and potentially lock them down between Ancestral Protectors and/or Sentinel is obviously great.
Instinctive Pounce can give you a nice movement speed buff on turns you Rage. It’s hard to tell how often that’s going to be relevant, but there’s nothing more embarrassing than being too far away from your enemy to attack them!
Level 8
Feat: Mage Slayer (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 bit better, especially when your other attributes aren’t in a hurry to get increased.
That said, the next feat you’re interested in taking is 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 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 away and follow them, or to reduce their speed 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.
All that said, this subclass is probably going to use this ability the least amongst all Barbarians as you really don’t want to miss your enemies as when you do, Ancestral Protectors doesn’t activate .
Level 10
Class Features: Battlerager Charge, Primal Knowledge – Survival
You get your next ability, Battlerager Charge, which lets you Dash as a bonus action. Simple yet effective.
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 the whole game is Relentless Rage!
Relentless Rage lets you keep fighting even when you were supposed to go down from hitting 0 health by passing an initial DC 10 Constitution saving throw that grows by 5 each time. Obviously the first saving throw will be easy to hit, but each one is going to be harder than harder. While you used to just stay at 1 health, you now heal twice your Barbarian level instead making it less likely for this to trigger again immediately making what was one of the strongest Barbarian abilities even better!
Level 12
Feat: Charger (STR)
As mentioned in level 8, you now want to get your Strength score to 20 so you’re taking one of the best STR feats you don’t already have – Charger. Simply get a bit of a distance between you and the enemy you’re looking to bonk and you can get some extra damage or push them when you connect. Simple and effective.
Level 13
Class Features: Improved Brutal Strike
You get new options to use on your Brutal Strike – Stagger and Sunder.
Stagger makes an enemy have a tougher time passing their next saving throw which can be absolutely devastating when you have an ally ready to blast them with some potent CC.
Sunder, on the other hand, gives a bonus to the next attack against that enemy 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: Spiked Retribution
Level 14 brings your subclass capstone ability – Spiked Retribution.
Now when you get hit with a melee attack, if you’re still wearing your Spiked Armor (which you may not be at this point), the attacker takes an absolute pittance of damage which will unlikely have any bearing on the fight. What can you do?
Level 15
Class Features: Persistent Rage
Level 15 brings Persistent Rage which just means you have a base of 10 Rages per day rather than 5! Realistically, you probably weren’t going to be running out of Rage often unless you’re using them liberally for Primal Knowledge or you’ve been in a lot of fights in a row, but ensuring you can functionally never run out is quite nice!
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, but again, this is probably not an ability you’re going to be using particularly often if you’re interested in guaranteeing that you connect for Ancestral Protectors.
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)
Level 19 brings your Epic Boon, and as any martial should, you’re taking Boon of Combat Prowess!
Being able to turn a miss into a hit is obviously great for any character getting into melee as going for a big Brutal Strike to deal good damage and apply CC to an enemy!
Level 20
Class Features: Primal Champion
While it’s always tempting to multiclass into Fighter at some point 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.
Battlerager Abilities Ranked
Battlerager Armor (Level 3) – D Tier – While this is the main feature of Battleragers, it is not the most exciting ability in the world. Spiked Armor is just slightly better Scale Mail which means you won’t be able to easily upgrade from this. While that’s not ideal, you do get a free bonus action attack and a bit of an extra boost when grappling which is alright.
Reckless Abandon (Level 6) – D Tier – Some free temporary health is always nice, but you get so little that this is not going to do that much for you realistically.
Battlerager Charge (Level 10) – C Tier – Being able to trade your bonus action for a Dash is not at its best on Barbarians for the most part, but still a very solid ability.
Spiked Retribution (Level 14) – F Tier – How is this a capstone? it isn’t useless, but it is close.
Click here for more Tier List Rankings or the Tier List Breakdown.
Battlerager Barbarian Species Ranked
Dwarf – C+ Tier – This is normally where I weigh the species you could pick for this class, but as a Battlerager, you have to be a Dwarf! Nonetheless, long range Darkvision, Tremorsense for scouting, and extra health is definitely nice. Resistance to poison damage and advantage to save against the poisoned condition is alright, but pretty rare so it’s not going to come up that often.
Battlerager Barbarian Backgrounds Ranked
Acolyte – D Tier – While you do get a solid feat and proficiency in Insight, the rest of what Acolyte gives doesn’t really mesh well with what Barbarians are typically looking to do.
Artisan – B- Tier – Good ability scores, solid proficiencies, but a really weak Origin feat. Not a bad option, but the feat definitely hurts.
Charlatan – D+ Tier – The feat is solid and being able to bump both Dexterity and Constitution is solid, but everything else is pretty mediocre and not being able to boost Strength is really rough.
Criminal – C+ Tier – An excellent feat and decent ability scores, but the proficiencies aren’t great and not being able to boost Strength hurts.
Entertainer – A- Tier – The best Origin feat and nearly ideal ability scores (you’d prefer Constitution over Dexterity, but not the end of the world) are obviously great, but the proficiencies aren’t the best. Still an excellent option for Barbarians.
Farmer – A Tier – Excellent Origin feat, excellent ability scores, and decent proficiencies. This is my general go to choice for Barbarians.
Guard – A- Tier – This is an excellent feat, excellent skill proficiencies, and solid ability scores. Not being able to bolster Dexterity nor Constitution does hurt a bit, but it’s not a huge deal.
Guide – B+ Tier – Good ability scores, the Feat is great and the skill proficiencies are also great. The only issue is not being able to boost Strength is really rough.
Hermit – C- Tier – Medium ability scores, medium feat, and not great proficiencies culminate to not so great of a choice.
Merchant – C- Tier – Constitution is the only reasonable ability score, and while the Feat is solid, the rest of the package is not great for Barbarians.
Noble – C Tier – Being able to boost Strength is great and the feat is decent, but the proficiencies in general aren’t ideal.
Sage – C- Tier – Not ideal ability scores (Constitution is great, Wisdom is not so great) and the skill proficiencies aren’t good for Barbarians, but the Feat is great.
Sailor – B- Tier – Good ability scores and good proficiencies, but the Origin feat is pretty bad which is awkward.
Scribe – D Tier – Not great abilities, mediocre feat, but solid skill proficiencies.
Soldier – B Tier – The best possible ability scores and proficiencies, but the worst Origin feat which is awkward.
Wayfarer – D+ Tier – You only get Dexterity as an ability score, the feat is solid, and the skill proficiencies are alright, but not getting Strength nor Constitution as ability scores is super rough.
Battlerager Barbarian Skills Ranked
Animal Handling – C Tier – Your Wisdom should be decent inherently, and if you don’t have a Druid or Ranger on your team, you may be the one who has to do these checks. That said, Animal Handling isn’t a common check in general so it’s not that important to have.
Athletics – A- Tier – While not a common skill check in general, this is nearly mandatory on every Barbarian for the times you do need to use it as you want to be excellent at it.
Intimidation – A- Tier – Now that Barbarians can use Strength for Intimidation starting at level 3, this is a great proficiency to have as your Charisma caster may not have this specifically (I in particular like Deception and Persuasion more personally).
Nature – B- Tier – A solid proficiency if you don’t have someone who has proficiency in this as Barbarians are like the tertiary nature class.
Perception – A Tier – Simply one of the best proficiencies around if you can get it and have decent Wisdom.
Survival – B Tier – I think this generally a bit better than Nature, but what I said for Nature makes sense for this as well.
Battlerager Barbarian Feats Ranked
While not every feat can be mentioned as that would be an oppressively long list, the ones I would at all consider would be here (all the Origin feats included as any of the backgrounds could be potential choices). Feats left off the list are not ones I would normally not consider for any Barbarian build, but a full reference on the all the feats in the Player’s Handbook and their associated rankings, check the link below.
General Feats
Charger – B- Tier – While you’ll only get to use this so many times per fight, Barbarians are definitely used to charging headlong into battle so this is very reasonable.
Fey-Touched – C Tier – Don’t get me wrong, I love having access to Misty Step (and Silvery Barbs presumably), but this feat isn’t amazing on non-casters as you’re limited to once per day and Barbarians are pretty mobile in general. Not a bad feat, but not one I’m usually looking to take.
Grappler – A- Tier – While I would usually have Monks be the grappler for the team, Barbarians can do it really well too. The main downsides of taking this is you can’t use a Greataxe (you’d go for Battleaxe instead which has the Versatile property so you can swing with one or two hands) and you have to go for an Unarmed Strike rather than weapon attack, but beyond that, this is an excellent direction to take your Barbarian if that’s what you want.
Great Weapon Master – A+ Tier – A staple for any Barbarian using a two handed, heavy weapon. Not as strong as the 2014 iteration for Barbarians, but not much weaker either. If you’re not looking to go for the Grappler feat, then this is the direction I’d go which is very typical Barbarian.
Inspiring Leader – C Tier – This is an excellent feat, I would just hope that the Barbarian wouldn’t need to take it. If you have to, there are worse options since every team should probably have one person with Inspiring Leader, but hopefully a Wisdom caster can grab this instead.
Mage Slayer – A+ Tier – Getting a functional charge of Legendary Resistance is awesome and especially good for Barbarians who can lose their Rage to many spells or abilities.
Piercer – C+ Tier – If you’re using a Piercing weapon, this is a reasonable pickup as it will increase your damage potential, but not to any substantial degree. Still a fine choice.
Resilient – C+ Tier – Resilient (WIS) is always a fine pick up on any character, Barbarians get a little more out of it as you don’t want to lose your Rage.
Skill Expert – C- Tier – A fine feat for most classes, I would be surprised if the Barbarian is being relegated to the skills guy though (barring you’re the only one who’s good at a particular skill and it comes up often).
Slasher – B- Tier – Increasing Strength, two fine abilities, and working with Barbarian’s most common damage type makes this a solid option.
Speedy – C Tier – If you want to increase your Constitution and need even more speed than you already had, this is a reasonable option. If you have the Grappler feat though, I would put this more in B Tier as being able to cart enemies or even allies further in combat is definitely appealing.
Best Magic Items For Battlerager Barbarian
Here’s a list of magic items you may want to look for/ask your DM about specifically for this subclass – magic items that literally anybody would want (like the Bag of Holding) won’t be mentioned. For a full tier list ranking of the available magic items, check out the link below!
For Battleragers in particular, you can hope that the DM will allow you to find upgraded Spiked Armor so I’m going to operate under the assumption that they’ll do that for you.
Common
Silvered Weapon – C Tier – Far from a necessity on this build, it’s just a no opportunity cost add on to your weapon.
Uncommon
Boots of Striding and Springing – A Tier – Additional movement speed to ensure you get to your chosen opponent on turn one is definitely useful.
+1 Weapon – A Tier – If you’re using a weapon, getting an upgraded one is a pretty big priority.
Weapon of Warning – A Tier – Arguably better than a +1 weapon if you value having a higher initiative compared to better attacks.
Gauntlets of Ogre Power – B Tier* – This can be useful pre-level 4, but will be unnecessary once you hit level 4.
Javelin of Lightning – C Tier – While it likely won’t happen often, it is good to have a decent ranged option just in case you can’t get up close and personal with an enemy.
Rare
+1 Armor – A Tier – An obviously good pickup for any character that can wear armor.
Boots of Speed – A Tier – Likely an upgrade to Boots of Striding and Springing for you, but not a necessity if you already have those.
+2 Weapon – A Tier – You’re always looking for your best possible weapon as a martial character!
Sun Blade – A Tier – If you were planning on using a Longsword and can find this, you may as well use this instead.
Belt of Giant Strength (Hill) – B Tier – Even for a minor boost to Strength, you’d still be happy to have this.
Mantle of Spell Resistance – B Tier – Losing your Rage because you failed your saving throw against a Hypnotic Pattern or something similar is always a feel bad.
Very Rare
+2 Armor – A Tier – The more AC, the better.
Belt of Giant Strength (Fire) – A Tier – This is a solid boost to your Strength making you hit harder and more accurately.
+3 Weapon – A Tier – The best possible weapon beyond some dope magic weapon!
Manual of Gainful Exercise – A Tier – Anything that can increase your Strength is going to be good!
Legendary
+3 Armor – A Tier – As much AC as possible!
Vorpal Sword – B Tier – No harm in having a better sword.
Multiclassing For Battlerager Barbarian
Not every potential multiclass is going to be mentioned as most don’t synergize well with Barbarians, just the ones I would consider. For a more thorough breakdown on multiclassing, check out the link below.
Fighter – A+ Tier – Getting a Fighting Style at level one is definitely appealing, but you’d go for two levels to get Action Surge as well. Great for any class, but Barbarians in particular would always be happy to pick Action Surge up. If you were looking to grab a few levels of Fighter, I would probably pick up Shield Master at level 4, go to level 5 as usual, then multiclass out level 6 and 7 jumping back into Barbarian at level 8.
Rogue – C- Tier – Barbarians can get Sneak Attack really easily with Reckless Attack, but it’s such a minor damage boost unless you’re willing to go at least 3 levels into Rogue to at least get a 2d6 Sneak Attack bonus and a subclass. Maybe more reasonable for you damage oriented Barbarian, but as a defensive Barbarian, I’m not nearly as interested.
Battlerager Barbarian FAQs
Is the Battlerager subclass restricted to dwarves only?
Unfortunately yes, which is strange as there’s no super compelling reason for it to be Dwarves only.
How does the spiked armor bonus-action attack work, and what exactly does it do?
It’s a bonus action melee attack that, if it connects, deals 1d4 damage. While this doesn’t seem like much (you’d be right), it is free!
Does spiked armor count as a weapon, and can magic armor increase its damage?
It does count as a weapon attack, but magic armor does not implicitly make the attack better. Of course, your DM may adjudicate differently.
How does the grapple damage from spiked armor work, and when is it applied?
The 3 damage is applied when you make a successful Grapple attack, but it only is applied when you successfully make that grapple.
