Wild Magic Barbarian Build Guide – Wield Chaos – 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.

Do you enjoy the thrill of gambling without the risk? Then this may be a class for you! Like Wild Magic Sorcerer before it, Wild Magic Barbarian gives you some randomness with every fight, but since all the abilities are beneficial ones, you’ll never have a scenario where the ability messes you up. This can add a lot of variety to the character without having to actively work towards that.

To that end, the unfortunate downside is that RNG makes this build unoptimizable, but if you’re concerned with just a solid character rather than the best one possible, this isn’t a downside at all.

Magical Awareness (Level 3) – D+ Tier – Detect Magic is a great spell, but it would be shocking to me if you didn’t have a party member that could already cast this without a hard limit. The only advantage this has over the casters is this takes an action versus the 10 minutes needed for a ritual.

Wild Surge (Level 3) – B Tier – All the effects you could get are good, but not being able to control it does hurt how strong this can be.

Bolstering Magic (Level 6) – B- Tier – This is a really unique ability as it’s either a slightly different Guidance or a way to refresh some spell slots.

Unstable Backlash (Level 10) – C- Tier – If this gave you an additional effect from your Surge without replacing your current effect, this ability would be really strong, but just replacing it isn’t that helpful considering all the effects are relatively the same power level. Still, this isn’t terrible as sometimes you’ll roll an effect that’s generically good, but just not what you want for that encounter.

Controlled Surge (Level 14) – B- Tier – Choosing which effect you get is all well and good, but again, most of these effects are pretty much the same power level so it’s hard to be super excited by this.

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: Wild Magic

Class Features: Magic Awareness, Wild Surge, Primal Knowledge

Now that you get your subclass, you get two new subclass abilities to work with as well as a base class ability.

Your first ability is Magic Awareness which is a somewhat better, somewhat worse Detect Magic. Not the most exciting feature, but I would argue it is better than it looks.

The second feature, which is really why you chose this class, is Wild Surge. With every Rage, you get a random effect to trigger which will always make for high pressure moments where you want a certain effect. The bad news, like all RNG, is that this makes the class functionally impossible to optimize. Since you can’t count on particular abilities to be there when you need it, there’s no way to build in such a way to maximize them. This sounds like I’m completely admonishing the subclass, but the good news is that all the abilities are relatively good! It is unfortunate that this can’t be an upper tier subclass with the randomness, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad subclass either.

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: Great Weapon Master (STR)

For your first Feat choice, there’s no better option for the average Barbarian than Great Weapon Master. While this feat isn’t as strong as it used to be, this is still an excellent feat that will tack on a lot of extra damage over the course of your Barbarian career between the implicit extra damage and the relatively common bonus action attack that Great Weapon Master affords you.

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: Bolstering Magic

You get your third subclass feature and it is a weird one with Bolstering Magic.

Bolstering Magic is split into two effects: you either can get a bad Bardic Inspiration die or you can help recover spell slots. Since the first ability is quite weak, you’d likely want to help an ally recover spell slots, and unless you’re in a magic-less party, there will be utility there. Is this ability great? Definitely not, but it has its use.

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: 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 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: Unstable Backlash, Primal Knowledge – Survival

If you didn’t like what you rolled for Wild Surge in the beginning of a fight, Unstable Backlash can help! Being able to roll the table again when you get hurt or fail a saving throw and get the effect immediately is quite nice, especially as this doesn’t have an inherent limit on how many times this can be activated to find the one you want. This still doesn’t make the class much more consistent, but it does help!

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: 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 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: Controlled Surge

Level 14 brings your subclass capstone ability – Controlled Surge!

For a class that’s all about randomness, Controlled Surge is here to try and make it more predictable! While getting more options is nice, I think this subclass feature is a pretty huge miss. The build is all about randomness where most of the abilities should be fine depending on the situation, getting a little more choice is not a real power boost. If you were able to get two at the same time, I would be way more interested in this ability, but as it stands, this doesn’t really do much.

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.