Best Baldur's Gate 3 Barbarian build

A Baldur's Gate 3 Barbarian build is crucial for anyone looking to power through the game as a big, burly frontline threat. When constructed correctly with appropriate equipment, and skill use, the class is absolutely one of the best tanks and melee brawlers in the game.

To help you find your way, we've written up this Barbarian build that'll take you through the basics, point you towards a recommended subclass, what gear you should use, and the best skills to use in combat.

Best BG3 barbarian build

The Barbarian in Baldur's Gate 3 is all about standing in the front line, swinging around a big weapon and dealing a lot of damage while soaking up a lot of the incoming blows as your squishier, ranged party members do their thing in the back. It's all about strength, and sticking upright and dangerous for as long as possible.

• Best Barbarian race
• Barbarian ability score priority
• Barbarian proficiencies and background
• Best Barbarian subclass
• Best Barbarian equipment
• Best Barbarian skills

Best Barbarian race

The best race for Barbarian players in Baldur's Gate 3 is the Half-Orc.

They have a selection of powerful racial abilities that work well with the Barbarian class. First up is relentless endurance, that'll keep you at one HP when you'd be otherwise knocked to zero, available once per long rest.

Half-Orcs also get savage attacks. With this, your critical strikes with melee weapons deal additional damage. It's not something you can rely on often, but it means every once in a while you're absolute wreck enemies you're swinging against. And finally, there's their built-in intimidation proficiency. Not necessarily important, but nice nonetheless!

If you don't fancy playing as a Half-Orc, an alternative best race for Barbarians is the Shield Dwarf.

Shield Dwarves have innate +2 bonuses to Strength and Constitution, which are the most important attributes for the Barbarian class. They also get extra HP every time they level up, which is obviously a valuable attribute for a tank build. They're proficient with a variety of melee weapons and, as a nice bonus, can resist poison damage.

Barbarian ability score priority

Your ability score priority should be Strength, Constitution, Charisma, then everything else.

When first creating your character, we recommend the following initial stats:

• Strength - 17
• Dexterity - 13
• Constitution - 15
• Intelligence - 8
• Wisdom - 12
• Charisma - 10

As you level up, you'll gain ability score increases at level 4, 8, and 12.

You should invest your points into Strength until you get it to 20, then the rest into constitution.

Barbarian proficiencies and background

The best background for a Barbarian is the Soldier, which grants proficiency bonuses in Athletics and Intimidation. These are the skills that you want to focus on when choosing your initial proficiencies for a strong Barbarian tank in Baldur's Gate 3. So, while the Soldier might not be the most exciting (or pleasant-sounding) background to pick, it's definitely the one to go for if you want to optimise this build.

Best Barbarian subclass

For our build, we recommend taking the Berserker subclass. This is an all-in, hyper aggressive subclass that'll have you swinging wildly in rage, and improves your damage output significantly. This comes via Frenzy, which allows you to make improvised attacks as bonus actions each turn. You also gain access to Frenzied Strike which is a bonus attack with your equipped weapon, as well as Enraged Throw, which allows you to throw an item or creature at something to deal damage and knock it prone.

What makes this better than its equivalent in Dungeons and Dragons is that you gain no exhaustion debuff after combat. This usually significantly hampered your future performance in combat, so its absence in Baldur's Gate 3 makes the subclass especially good.

However, if you're looking for a more versatile yet specialised alternative build, the Wildheart subclass might be the one for you. Upon aligning with Wildheart, you can choose one of five animal archetypes whose powers you can take on as a special ability. All have plenty going for them, but Elk Heart is a personal favourite: it increases your movement speed (especially useful if you're a Shield Dwarf) and grants the use of Primal Stampede, allowing you to charge 9m in one direction while knocking prone and bludgeoning nearby enemies, rendering them vulnerable to your allies' follow-up attacks.

Best Barbarian equipment

Barbarians have Unarmoured Defence, which means you actually don't want to be wearing any armour. Without armour, you naturally add your constitution modifier to your armour class, which should result in you being fairly tanky thanks to our investment in constitution during character creation.

For weapons, two-handed simple or martial weapons are recommended as you have a proficiency in them: things like greatclubs, greataxes, greatswords, and so on. Using these, combined with your enraged/frenzied bonus attacks, should provide ample damage output.

Any additional gear you equip should provide constitution or strength where possible, or tankiness. If you find a necklace that provides a spell which lets you close the distance to enemies in combat, slap that on for an easier time in battle.

Best Barbarian skills

Rage - later replaced by Frenzy if you choose the Berseker subclass - is incredibly important and is something you should be using in every combat encounter where possible. it increases your damage output, and opens up the door to additional useful skills.

Improvised throw is useful, granted you have something good to throw. We recommend stocking up on a selection of items you're fine with yeeting at enemies like books and other objects a true barbarian has little use for. Alternatively, keep an eye out for chairs, barrels, and other bits of the environment you can lob at folks. Knocking enemies prone is super great.

Finally, weapon skills are worth using often. They'll change depending on what you're using, but skills like Cleave and Prepare are super handy and should not be disregarded.

If you're looking for more help smashin' stuff in BG3, don't forget to check-out our guides for the best Fighter build and best Paladin build.