Best Baldur's Gate 3 Barbarian class build

Baldur's Gate 3 Barbarian class in character creation — (Image credit: Larian Studios)

The best Baldur’s Gate 3 Barbarian build doesn’t need to be complicated – it’s a class for those who want to get right up to the face of the enemy, soak up damage, and dispatch foes with ease, smacking the ever-loving bejesus out of them. If Karlach doesn’t feature in your Baldur’s Gate 3 party, then it might be a good idea for you to take on the tanky brawler role yourself. To help you out, we’ve laid out how you can be your party’s first line of defense and offense with the best BG3 Barbarian build.

Best Barbarian build and choices in Baldur's Gate 3

The best barbarians in Baldur's Gate 3 focus on the following elements:

Two-handed weapon fighting
Durability and resilience
Complimentary skills and secondary powers

As a barbarian, you're probably going to struggle to do very much outside of combat, as they tend not to have many skills or non-violent abilities to rely on, usually just bellowing intimidation in dialogue in the hope that whoever they're yelling at backs down. Effectively, you're an attack dog - or, perhaps, somebody tough enough to set off all the traps in the dungeon without getting killed, making you a respectable scout. Still, barbarians are so good at being attack dogs that when it comes to fighting, you can withstand damage like no other class can, and crash through opponents without even slowing down.

If you're making a barbarian in BG3, you should pick the following at character creation and the levels to follow:

Race: Half-Orc
Highest attributes: Strength, Constitution
Subclass: Berserker
Background: Outlander
Class Skills: Animal Handling, Perception
Equipment: Two-handed heavy weapons, handaxes/javelins for throwing, no armor or shields

The Half-Orc is the natural choice here - their increased durability and melee weapon power just makes them a very obvious selection, but a solid second option would also be the Gold Dwarf, for their increased health - you are a tank, after all. At that point you want to boost your Strength and Constitution, while keeping a little back for Dexterity and Wisdom, which are your more important secondary stats. We're also going to grab the Outlander background for the useful Survival and Athletics skills, the second of which is very important for Barbarians, as it allows for better shoves, throws and combat wrestling. Then pick Animal Handling and Perception as your class skills - you'll also have Intimidation for being a burly, scary half-orc, so you have five respectable skills to fall back on.

More Baldur's Gate 3 builds

Baldur's Gate 3 Sorcerer
Baldur's Gate 3 Monk
Baldur's Gate 3 Druid
Baldur's Gate 3 Wizard

As you level up, you'll want to pick the Berserker subclass, because… it's just the best one. Wildheart isn't bad and can work for tanky builds, but the Wild Magic subclass is a bit of a gimmick and too chaotic to be dependable, with random effects that can work against you just as much as they work for you. The Berserker is a powerhouse though, able to get extra attacks, throw things as bonus actions, and just generally enhancing the already-potent power of your rage. A great trick is to beat on enemies, then pick them and throw them at other enemies or battlefield perils, giving the barbarian more crowd control than normal.

In terms of equipment, grab a two-handed weapon - a greataxe, a greatsword, a halberd, something like that - for maximum damage output. Don't dual-wield, you're only wasting your bonus action, and don't wear armor unless you find a really good medium armor set that's better than your unarmoured defense provides. Then stack up on a few throwable weapons and items for some ranged combat options, and you're ready to take on basically anything.

Later level Barbarian builds: There are a few viable ways to go as a barbarian depending on what takes your fancy - multiclassing into the Baldur's Gate 3 Paladin class for access to powerful smites is an excellent option. You'll also want to keep ramping up your strength and constitution where possible, but also picking any of the best Baldur's Gate 3 Feats: Durable, Great Weapon Master, Mobile and Savage Attacker are all definitely worth considering, with Great Weapon Master in particular being something of a game-changer.