July 23, 2024 • 16 mins
Ninja Viking?!? Rogues are masters of disguise and subtlety, who lurk in the shadows waiting for the perfect time to make their lethal strike. Barbarians are an unsubtle slab of mindless rage and feral instinct able to shrug off lethal blows while screaming and charging down their enemies at full tilt. Put them together and we get a bit of a thematic mismatch, but a mechanical synergy wonder. And while you may not exactly elude detection, your enemies will definitely be surprised when their heads get chopped off. Grab your burglar’s tools and your battle ax as we go through everything you need to know Read the full blog post here: https://www.skullsplitterdice.com/blogs/dnd/barbarian-rogue-5e-multiclass-guide Like our content? Check out our metal and sharped edge dice subscriptions: https://www.skullsplitterdice.com/collections/subscription-sets
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Yeah, I had the rogues forthe rogue, but I didn't exactly have
a costume element to make a barbarianwith it. So this is what we're
going to just roll with. Iguess Rogues are masters of disguise and subtlety
who lurk in the shadows, waitingfor the perfect time to make their lethal
strike. Barbarians are unsubtle slabs ofmindless rage and feral instinct, able to
(00:20):
shrug off lethal blows while screaming andcharging down their enemies at full tilt.
Relatable. Put them together and weget a bit of a thematic mismatch,
but a mechanical synergy wonder And whileyou may not exactly elude detection, your
enemies will definitely be surprised when theirheads get chopped off, which I suppose
is one way to describe such agrim emotion. Anyway, let's get into
(00:46):
this multi class video. Fundamentally,barbarian and rogue may normally go about in
very different ways, but they're stillboth DPS classes. Their goal in combat
is to dish out as much meleedamage as possible while avoiding clapback through either
(01:07):
meat shield tanking or nimble evasion.But The reason why you might want to
try and combine these strategies rather thantake the classes straight is a simple handy
interaction between the Barbarian Savage attacks andthe rogues sneak attack. Sneak attack is
a powerful damage dealing ability, butthat requires advantage or nearby allies to trigger
it, and the Barbarian Savage attackscan guarantee us advantage on every turn.
(01:30):
With a little bit of effort,we can combine these classes into a frothing
mad sword blender, landing Savage sneakattacks, able to both tank and dodge
with the best of them. Thereare, of course, some downsides,
perhaps obviously sneak attack damage for Roguesis tied to their own class levels,
which means dipping or splitting levels willturn the ludicrous amounts of rogue damage into
(01:51):
merely decent damage. We're also spreadingourselves across all three of the physical ability
scores. We've also got a fewweird limitations on our weapon choices in order
to meet the requirements of both classabilities, so we can't take our big
battle axes or throw daggers with us. Finally, just like with any other
multi class build, we have togive up on some of the best Barbarian
(02:12):
and Rogue abilities, like the twentiethlevel capstones, and we'll get to our
mid game and late game features significantlyslower than the rest of our party.
As for when this starts to kickin, the core of our build is
relatively simple and quick. We onlyreally need two Barbarian levels in one level
of Rogue to put together our coresynergy, so we kick in at around
third level. There are some furtherfun potential builds past that, but three
(02:35):
levels will feel solid enough. Generally, plan on treating Rogue as your core
class, with one to five leveldips into Barbarian as a secondary class.
Our Rogue Barbarian multi class and coresynergy is simple, but some of our
build variants care about different features fromboth classes. The following class abilities either
factor into our build or are justsolid bonuses you should be aware of when
(02:57):
constructing the Rogue Barbarian multi classes.Starting with significant Barbarian features, we have
hit points, and normally I don'ttalk much about hit points, but the
Barbarian's massive D twelve hit die isworth mentioning as a powerful class bonus.
Every level you take of Barbarians shouldbe granting significantly more hit points than levels
in anything else, and it's worthtaking into consideration when figuring out your final
(03:19):
level split. And then next wehave rage, which is the iconic feature
of the Barbarian class. You flipout as a bonus action essentially, and
while you're angry, you get aslew of rage abilities. You do a
little extra damage on every melee attack, you have advantage on strength, saves
and checks, and you gain resistanceto all the physical damage types, which
is amazing. The fact that ituses up our bonus action is a little
(03:42):
unfortunate, but that's only on thefirst turn and you should be able to
fit in entire combats within rages oneminute timer. Also keep in mind that
being in rage shuts down spells,both casting spells and concentrating on spells.
And then we have unarmoured Defense.Rogues get light armor and medium armor,
but will be best off using thissince we can't wear armor while raging.
Unarmoured Defense gives us an alternate ACequal to ten plus our constitution modifier plus
(04:06):
our dexterity modifier. We'll need toput some points into dexterity to keep our
AC somewhat reasonable and then we havedanger sense and advantage on deck. Saving
throws is a fantastic way to keepus healthy, and when combined with a
rogues evasionability, we'll be able tojust laugh off fireballs. And then we
have reckless Attack, which allows usto gain advantage on all of our attacks
(04:27):
in exchange for granting advantage on attacksagainst us for a turn. This is
the core toy that we plan onplaying with, since advantages what we need
to trigger sneak attacks. Keep inmind though, that using this every turn
will likely mean a lot of incomingdamage if we don't take efforts to protect
ourselves. And then with primal path, we'll get more into each relevant Barbarian
subclass later, but in most builds, we'll care about our Barbarian archetype,
(04:49):
especially the features gained at third level. Just like a fighter in most other
martial classes, Barbarians gain the extraattack feature at fifth level that very simply
grants an addition attack. Who knewthis is especially relevant here since the rogue
is a rare martial class that doesn'tgain extra attack. And then we have
fast Movement. Barbarians get ten feetworth of extra movement at fifth level,
(05:11):
giving us a bit of incentive topush this far up the barbarian path to
become a speedier demon. Now movingon to significant rogue features, we of
course have sneak attack, truly massiveamounts of damage on the condition that you
either have advantage or your ally iswithin five feet of the target, and
the weapon must either have finesse orbe ranged. Our barbarian half normally wouldn't
give finesse weapons a second look,but finesse doesn't mean it has to use
(05:35):
dexterity, and we'll be able tosmash faces with rapiers and short swords all
day. Also, remember that sneakattack damage is also doubled on a critical
hit and then gained at second level. We have cunning Action, which lets
you use your bonus action to hide, disengage, or dash. All this
together means you'll be able to easilyzip in and out of melee, usually
(05:56):
avoiding repercussions. And then we havearchetypes. We'll need to go into the
subclass choices in more detail, butseveral of the rogue archetypes offer powerful features
for the multi class, even asearly as their initial third level feature.
And then we have uncanny Dodge andwhile it's not super important for our bill,
the ability to have damage from anasty hit is worth considering and may
be a pretty good upside if you'rejust trying to maximize sneak attack anyway,
(06:19):
and then with steady aim. Thisis a new optional feature gained at third
level at the cost of our bonusaction and not moving. We grant advantage
on our next attack, and thenwe have evasion at seventh level. This
is a later game consideration, butessentially having the damage threat of fireballs and
other dexterity save effects is a powerfultool for preventing incoming damage, especially if
(06:41):
we combine it with the advantage todexterity saves that danger sense grants us from
Barbarian. When it comes to abilityscores, we're a purely physical class combination
and can thankfully make the build workfocusing on just the three physical ability scores.
Despite the plan to use finesse weaponsso that we can trigger sneak attack,
we still have to use strength forour bonus, which means we want
our highest ability score to be strengthnext since we'll be using unarmoured defense and
(07:05):
trying to tank a lot of hitsin rage constitutions, should be our second
highest ability score for AC and hitpoints. And finally, while we aren't
going to be attacking with it,dexterity also factors into our AC and it
should be our third highest ability score. Also keep in mind that due to
the multi classing requirements, you'll needto make sure your dexterity is at least
(07:26):
thirteen. As for the three mentalscores of intelligence, wisdom, and charisma,
we can use all of these asdump stats as needed. I'd recommend
putting at least some points into wisdom, though, just so that we aren't
oblivious when it comes to perception checks. When it comes to our equipment here,
it's sadly pretty limited, but atleast it's simple to start with.
We'll be relying on unarmoured defense,so the answer to what armor to wear
(07:48):
is nothing. As for weapons,we have access to all sorts of martial
weapons and even unarmored attacks and naturalweapons, but we need to specifically use
finesse weapons to trigger sneak attack,and we want a pair of one handed
weapons to maximize the rage damage.Bonus, our options are really down to
just scimitars and short swords. Theweapons are basically identical except one does piercing
(08:11):
damage and the other does slashing damage. There is technically an argument to be
made for rape years, but I'dstrongly argue that a pair of short swords
or scimitars is the way to go, unless you take the dual wielder feet,
which we'll discuss in a moment.When it comes to what class you
should start with, Rogues gain aton of proficiencies if we start out with
them, and we don't get muchextra by starting out as a barbarian,
(08:33):
meaning your best bet is to takeyour first level as rogue. However,
starting with barbarian does get us maximizedstarting hit points using the D twelve hit
die. I still think the extraproficiencies make the rogue the better starting option,
but consider starting as a barbarian ifyour first level adventuring promises to be
particularly punishing. And then when itcomes to feats as a pure martial build,
there are several feats we could utilizeto eke out a bit of extra
(08:56):
damage or utility. One feat sticksout the and that's the dual wielder feet.
This feet is the de facto fortwo handed weapon fighters, and it's
split between three bonuses. You geta plus one to AC when you're dual
wielding, we ignore the light limitationfor our primary weapon, and we can
draw and stow two weapons at thesame time that it would normally take for
(09:18):
one. That last feature rarely mattersunless your GM is a rules stickler,
or if there's a situation that wouldreally hone in on this kind of thing,
But the first two are quite powerfulfor us. Plus one AC is
pretty fantastic, and losing the lightlimitation means we can upgrade one of our
short swords into a rape year,taking us from D six weapons all the
way up to D eight weapons.Is that feet necessary for the build?
(09:41):
Not exactly, but it is auseful pickup if you find yourself thinking about
a feat. Now let's discuss ourcore Barbarian rogue build. The core of
the build is refreshingly simple and easyto apply. At our first rogue level,
we gain the sneak attack feature thatdeals an additional one D six damage
more by p levels into rogue onone of our attacks. Now, sneak
(10:03):
attack has quite a few requirements totrigger. Firstly, the attack must be
with a ranged or finesse weapon.Next, the attack must either have advantage
or one of our allies needs tobe standing next to them as a distraction.
Thankfully, with a second level ofBarbarian, we get the feature Savage
Attacks. Savage Attacks lets us chooseto get advantage on all of our attacks
for the turn. In exchange,attacks against us have advantage as well.
(10:26):
Rage also gets us some rage bonusdamage so long as we're making melee weapon
attacks that use strength. Thankfully,sneak attack tells us that the weapon has
to be finess, but it doesn'tsay that it has to use the dexterity
option. That means, so longas we use strength for our finest weapons,
we'll be meeting all the requirements forboth Rage and sneak Attack. Putting
this together at a third level characterto Barbarian in one rogue gives us a
(10:50):
pretty substantial damage profile for such alow level character. Using a pair of
short swords in Rage with sixteen strength, we'll be getting additional melee attacks using
our bonus action for an offense attackthat both have advantage. With plus two
damage per hit from Rage and oneD six extra damage on the first attack
with sneak Attack, this gets usa total damage of eighteen three d six
plus four plus three per round,all with advantage thanks to reckless attack.
(11:15):
As you advance in levels, considertaking a few more levels in Barbarian,
either up to three for just thearchetype or up to five for extra attack,
but afterwards prioritize rogue levels. Sneakattack damage will scale up faster than
rage damage, and rogue levels willget you a better DPS bang for your
buck. Now that we have thecore of our build, we can push
it forward and take advantage of itin a few different ways. First,
(11:37):
we have the bear Buckler. Forthis version of the build, we basically
go all in on defense and hopeto be both unkillable and elusive. First,
we need one more level of Barbarian, taking the path of the Totem
Warrior and selecting the Bear Totem.Next, we take two more levels of
rogue and pick up the Swashbuckler archetype. Those of you who have min max
builds before will know the Bear Totemall too well. Bear Totem Barbariarians gain
(12:00):
one of the best defensive abilities inthe game that grants resistance not only to
physical damage, but all damage typesexcept psychic. While in rage Swashbuckler is
a bit of an odd duck toadd to this, since the main draw
Swashbuckler is getting sneak attack easier andwe're already doing that, but the Swashbuckler's
fancy footwork lets us ignore any andall opportunity attacks, which will add a
(12:22):
huge amount of mobility to our alreadynearly indestructible bear Barbarian Barbarian. As a
side note, it is worth spendinga few points on Charisma for this build
to take advantage of the bonus toinitiative checks and for a few later game
features. And then we have theghost Fanatic. For this build, we're
going to double up on spooky ghostthemes for a bit of annoying hit and
(12:43):
run gameplay. We'll need to startwith our core build, take one additional
level in Barbarian taking the Path ofthe Ancestral Guardian, and two additional levels
in Rogue taking the Phantom archetype.While we're taking the Phantom archetype mostly to
keep the ghost theme, the Pathof the Ancestral Guardian gets gives us access
to a nasty keepaway strategy. AncestralGuardians third level feature lets us tag a
(13:05):
creature with an attack role that swarmsthem with ghosts until the start of your
next turn. While they're sworn withghosts, all of their attacks against anything,
but you have disadvantage and your allieshave resistance to damage they deal normally.
This is just sort of a tauntfeature that forces the enemy to attack
the tank. But what if youwere on the other side of the battlefield.
Because of cunning action, we candash as a bonus action. This
(13:28):
means we can slap somebody, tagthem with ghosts, and then dash behind
the rest of our party for theirturn. The enemy now has to choose
between rushing past all of our alliesand taking their attacks of opportunity, or
making terrible resistant attacks with disadvantage againstthem. Your ghost trip can be rinsed
and repeated as many times as necessary, or until your DM just fills the
fights with ranged enemies, which keepin mind DMS is kind of a cure
(13:52):
for most annoying things players throw atyour enemies. And then we have the
Wolf Scout, And this is anodd one in a list full of odd
ones, but our goal is tobe incredibly mobile and provide the archetype abilities
bonus of the Wolf Totem barbarian asoften as possible, and also to essentially
take the role of our party's rangerin the most roundabout way possible. To
(14:13):
do this, we'll need to takeone more level of barbarian and select the
path of the totem warrior, choosingthe wolf totem. Next, we take
two more levels in row, gettingus to a third level rogue and selecting
the scout archetype. The wolf Totemgrants our allies advantage on foes so long
as we're within five feet of them, and so long as we're raging.
Being a rogue with access to cunningactions already goes a long way towards keeping
(14:35):
our allies swinging through good repositions.The scout just adds one more layer of
mobility Scout rogues getting the Skirmisher feature, which lets us move up to fifteen
feet as a reaction without provoking attacksof opportunity when something ends their turn next
to us. One of the waysa wolf Totem play can fall is getting
locked into a fight while your alliesare fighting something else. Skirmisher allows us
(14:56):
to slip away and get back toour wolf pack where we belong. Scouts
also gain survivalists, which gets usthe nature and survival skills along with double
our proficiency on them. This isactually a very strong utility, and i'd
recommend giving your wisdom score a littlelove to take advantage of this and to
solidify your ranger role. I've actuallynever come across this multi class in traditional
(15:22):
D and D five E, butin a fallout conversion that a friend of
mine put together of five e,there was somebody that played a sort of
supermutant that had delusions of being asneaky rogue type of character. So they
did indeed mix barbarian and rogue.However, they were very purposefully trying to
do a character at odds with whothey are type thing. I think their
(15:46):
backstory was they were a supermutant thathad brief memories of being somebody that worked
in espionage or something along those lines. The point is thematically and mechanically,
I think this is pretty solid.Thank you guys so much, thanks for
watching. I really appreciate it.Be sure to like and subscribe because we're
putting out new content all the time, and if you plan on playing this
very weird multi class or a versionof it, I would love to hear
(16:08):
about your characters down in the comments. Thanks again for watching. My name's
Patrick Ferguson from Scarll, Splitter Dice, and until next time, farewell
Yeah, I had the rogues forthe rogue, but I didn't exactly have
a costume element to make a barbarianwith it. So this is what we're
going to just roll with. Iguess Rogues are masters of disguise and subtlety
who lurk in the shadows, waitingfor the perfect time to make their lethal
strike. Barbarians are unsubtle slabs ofmindless rage and feral instinct, able to
(00:20):
shrug off lethal blows while screaming andcharging down their enemies at full tilt.
Relatable. Put them together and weget a bit of a thematic mismatch,
but a mechanical synergy wonder And whileyou may not exactly elude detection, your
enemies will definitely be surprised when theirheads get chopped off, which I suppose
is one way to describe such agrim emotion. Anyway, let's get into
(00:46):
this multi class video. Fundamentally,barbarian and rogue may normally go about in
very different ways, but they're stillboth DPS classes. Their goal in combat
is to dish out as much meleedamage as possible while avoiding clapback through either
(01:07):
meat shield tanking or nimble evasion.But The reason why you might want to
try and combine these strategies rather thantake the classes straight is a simple handy
interaction between the Barbarian Savage attacks andthe rogues sneak attack. Sneak attack is
a powerful damage dealing ability, butthat requires advantage or nearby allies to trigger
it, and the Barbarian Savage attackscan guarantee us advantage on every turn.
(01:30):
With a little bit of effort,we can combine these classes into a frothing
mad sword blender, landing Savage sneakattacks, able to both tank and dodge
with the best of them. Thereare, of course, some downsides,
perhaps obviously sneak attack damage for Roguesis tied to their own class levels,
which means dipping or splitting levels willturn the ludicrous amounts of rogue damage into
(01:51):
merely decent damage. We're also spreadingourselves across all three of the physical ability
scores. We've also got a fewweird limitations on our weapon choices in order
to meet the requirements of both classabilities, so we can't take our big
battle axes or throw daggers with us. Finally, just like with any other
multi class build, we have togive up on some of the best Barbarian
(02:12):
and Rogue abilities, like the twentiethlevel capstones, and we'll get to our
mid game and late game features significantlyslower than the rest of our party.
As for when this starts to kickin, the core of our build is
relatively simple and quick. We onlyreally need two Barbarian levels in one level
of Rogue to put together our coresynergy, so we kick in at around
third level. There are some furtherfun potential builds past that, but three
(02:35):
levels will feel solid enough. Generally, plan on treating Rogue as your core
class, with one to five leveldips into Barbarian as a secondary class.
Our Rogue Barbarian multi class and coresynergy is simple, but some of our
build variants care about different features fromboth classes. The following class abilities either
factor into our build or are justsolid bonuses you should be aware of when
(02:57):
constructing the Rogue Barbarian multi classes.Starting with significant Barbarian features, we have
hit points, and normally I don'ttalk much about hit points, but the
Barbarian's massive D twelve hit die isworth mentioning as a powerful class bonus.
Every level you take of Barbarians shouldbe granting significantly more hit points than levels
in anything else, and it's worthtaking into consideration when figuring out your final
(03:19):
level split. And then next wehave rage, which is the iconic feature
of the Barbarian class. You flipout as a bonus action essentially, and
while you're angry, you get aslew of rage abilities. You do a
little extra damage on every melee attack, you have advantage on strength, saves
and checks, and you gain resistanceto all the physical damage types, which
is amazing. The fact that ituses up our bonus action is a little
(03:42):
unfortunate, but that's only on thefirst turn and you should be able to
fit in entire combats within rages oneminute timer. Also keep in mind that
being in rage shuts down spells,both casting spells and concentrating on spells.
And then we have unarmoured Defense.Rogues get light armor and medium armor,
but will be best off using thissince we can't wear armor while raging.
Unarmoured Defense gives us an alternate ACequal to ten plus our constitution modifier plus
(04:06):
our dexterity modifier. We'll need toput some points into dexterity to keep our
AC somewhat reasonable and then we havedanger sense and advantage on deck. Saving
throws is a fantastic way to keepus healthy, and when combined with a
rogues evasionability, we'll be able tojust laugh off fireballs. And then we
have reckless Attack, which allows usto gain advantage on all of our attacks
(04:27):
in exchange for granting advantage on attacksagainst us for a turn. This is
the core toy that we plan onplaying with, since advantages what we need
to trigger sneak attacks. Keep inmind though, that using this every turn
will likely mean a lot of incomingdamage if we don't take efforts to protect
ourselves. And then with primal path, we'll get more into each relevant Barbarian
subclass later, but in most builds, we'll care about our Barbarian archetype,
(04:49):
especially the features gained at third level. Just like a fighter in most other
martial classes, Barbarians gain the extraattack feature at fifth level that very simply
grants an addition attack. Who knewthis is especially relevant here since the rogue
is a rare martial class that doesn'tgain extra attack. And then we have
fast Movement. Barbarians get ten feetworth of extra movement at fifth level,
(05:11):
giving us a bit of incentive topush this far up the barbarian path to
become a speedier demon. Now movingon to significant rogue features, we of
course have sneak attack, truly massiveamounts of damage on the condition that you
either have advantage or your ally iswithin five feet of the target, and
the weapon must either have finesse orbe ranged. Our barbarian half normally wouldn't
give finesse weapons a second look,but finesse doesn't mean it has to use
(05:35):
dexterity, and we'll be able tosmash faces with rapiers and short swords all
day. Also, remember that sneakattack damage is also doubled on a critical
hit and then gained at second level. We have cunning Action, which lets
you use your bonus action to hide, disengage, or dash. All this
together means you'll be able to easilyzip in and out of melee, usually
(05:56):
avoiding repercussions. And then we havearchetypes. We'll need to go into the
subclass choices in more detail, butseveral of the rogue archetypes offer powerful features
for the multi class, even asearly as their initial third level feature.
And then we have uncanny Dodge andwhile it's not super important for our bill,
the ability to have damage from anasty hit is worth considering and may
be a pretty good upside if you'rejust trying to maximize sneak attack anyway,
(06:19):
and then with steady aim. Thisis a new optional feature gained at third
level at the cost of our bonusaction and not moving. We grant advantage
on our next attack, and thenwe have evasion at seventh level. This
is a later game consideration, butessentially having the damage threat of fireballs and
other dexterity save effects is a powerfultool for preventing incoming damage, especially if
(06:41):
we combine it with the advantage todexterity saves that danger sense grants us from
Barbarian. When it comes to abilityscores, we're a purely physical class combination
and can thankfully make the build workfocusing on just the three physical ability scores.
Despite the plan to use finesse weaponsso that we can trigger sneak attack,
we still have to use strength forour bonus, which means we want
our highest ability score to be strengthnext since we'll be using unarmoured defense and
(07:05):
trying to tank a lot of hitsin rage constitutions, should be our second
highest ability score for AC and hitpoints. And finally, while we aren't
going to be attacking with it,dexterity also factors into our AC and it
should be our third highest ability score. Also keep in mind that due to
the multi classing requirements, you'll needto make sure your dexterity is at least
(07:26):
thirteen. As for the three mentalscores of intelligence, wisdom, and charisma,
we can use all of these asdump stats as needed. I'd recommend
putting at least some points into wisdom, though, just so that we aren't
oblivious when it comes to perception checks. When it comes to our equipment here,
it's sadly pretty limited, but atleast it's simple to start with.
We'll be relying on unarmoured defense,so the answer to what armor to wear
(07:48):
is nothing. As for weapons,we have access to all sorts of martial
weapons and even unarmored attacks and naturalweapons, but we need to specifically use
finesse weapons to trigger sneak attack,and we want a pair of one handed
weapons to maximize the rage damage.Bonus, our options are really down to
just scimitars and short swords. Theweapons are basically identical except one does piercing
(08:11):
damage and the other does slashing damage. There is technically an argument to be
made for rape years, but I'dstrongly argue that a pair of short swords
or scimitars is the way to go, unless you take the dual wielder feet,
which we'll discuss in a moment.When it comes to what class you
should start with, Rogues gain aton of proficiencies if we start out with
them, and we don't get muchextra by starting out as a barbarian,
(08:33):
meaning your best bet is to takeyour first level as rogue. However,
starting with barbarian does get us maximizedstarting hit points using the D twelve hit
die. I still think the extraproficiencies make the rogue the better starting option,
but consider starting as a barbarian ifyour first level adventuring promises to be
particularly punishing. And then when itcomes to feats as a pure martial build,
there are several feats we could utilizeto eke out a bit of extra
(08:56):
damage or utility. One feat sticksout the and that's the dual wielder feet.
This feet is the de facto fortwo handed weapon fighters, and it's
split between three bonuses. You geta plus one to AC when you're dual
wielding, we ignore the light limitationfor our primary weapon, and we can
draw and stow two weapons at thesame time that it would normally take for
(09:18):
one. That last feature rarely mattersunless your GM is a rules stickler,
or if there's a situation that wouldreally hone in on this kind of thing,
But the first two are quite powerfulfor us. Plus one AC is
pretty fantastic, and losing the lightlimitation means we can upgrade one of our
short swords into a rape year,taking us from D six weapons all the
way up to D eight weapons.Is that feet necessary for the build?
(09:41):
Not exactly, but it is auseful pickup if you find yourself thinking about
a feat. Now let's discuss ourcore Barbarian rogue build. The core of
the build is refreshingly simple and easyto apply. At our first rogue level,
we gain the sneak attack feature thatdeals an additional one D six damage
more by p levels into rogue onone of our attacks. Now, sneak
(10:03):
attack has quite a few requirements totrigger. Firstly, the attack must be
with a ranged or finesse weapon.Next, the attack must either have advantage
or one of our allies needs tobe standing next to them as a distraction.
Thankfully, with a second level ofBarbarian, we get the feature Savage
Attacks. Savage Attacks lets us chooseto get advantage on all of our attacks
for the turn. In exchange,attacks against us have advantage as well.
(10:26):
Rage also gets us some rage bonusdamage so long as we're making melee weapon
attacks that use strength. Thankfully,sneak attack tells us that the weapon has
to be finess, but it doesn'tsay that it has to use the dexterity
option. That means, so longas we use strength for our finest weapons,
we'll be meeting all the requirements forboth Rage and sneak Attack. Putting
this together at a third level characterto Barbarian in one rogue gives us a
(10:50):
pretty substantial damage profile for such alow level character. Using a pair of
short swords in Rage with sixteen strength, we'll be getting additional melee attacks using
our bonus action for an offense attackthat both have advantage. With plus two
damage per hit from Rage and oneD six extra damage on the first attack
with sneak Attack, this gets usa total damage of eighteen three d six
plus four plus three per round,all with advantage thanks to reckless attack.
(11:15):
As you advance in levels, considertaking a few more levels in Barbarian,
either up to three for just thearchetype or up to five for extra attack,
but afterwards prioritize rogue levels. Sneakattack damage will scale up faster than
rage damage, and rogue levels willget you a better DPS bang for your
buck. Now that we have thecore of our build, we can push
it forward and take advantage of itin a few different ways. First,
(11:37):
we have the bear Buckler. Forthis version of the build, we basically
go all in on defense and hopeto be both unkillable and elusive. First,
we need one more level of Barbarian, taking the path of the Totem
Warrior and selecting the Bear Totem.Next, we take two more levels of
rogue and pick up the Swashbuckler archetype. Those of you who have min max
builds before will know the Bear Totemall too well. Bear Totem Barbariarians gain
(12:00):
one of the best defensive abilities inthe game that grants resistance not only to
physical damage, but all damage typesexcept psychic. While in rage Swashbuckler is
a bit of an odd duck toadd to this, since the main draw
Swashbuckler is getting sneak attack easier andwe're already doing that, but the Swashbuckler's
fancy footwork lets us ignore any andall opportunity attacks, which will add a
(12:22):
huge amount of mobility to our alreadynearly indestructible bear Barbarian Barbarian. As a
side note, it is worth spendinga few points on Charisma for this build
to take advantage of the bonus toinitiative checks and for a few later game
features. And then we have theghost Fanatic. For this build, we're
going to double up on spooky ghostthemes for a bit of annoying hit and
(12:43):
run gameplay. We'll need to startwith our core build, take one additional
level in Barbarian taking the Path ofthe Ancestral Guardian, and two additional levels
in Rogue taking the Phantom archetype.While we're taking the Phantom archetype mostly to
keep the ghost theme, the Pathof the Ancestral Guardian gets gives us access
to a nasty keepaway strategy. AncestralGuardians third level feature lets us tag a
(13:05):
creature with an attack role that swarmsthem with ghosts until the start of your
next turn. While they're sworn withghosts, all of their attacks against anything,
but you have disadvantage and your allieshave resistance to damage they deal normally.
This is just sort of a tauntfeature that forces the enemy to attack
the tank. But what if youwere on the other side of the battlefield.
Because of cunning action, we candash as a bonus action. This
(13:28):
means we can slap somebody, tagthem with ghosts, and then dash behind
the rest of our party for theirturn. The enemy now has to choose
between rushing past all of our alliesand taking their attacks of opportunity, or
making terrible resistant attacks with disadvantage againstthem. Your ghost trip can be rinsed
and repeated as many times as necessary, or until your DM just fills the
fights with ranged enemies, which keepin mind DMS is kind of a cure
(13:52):
for most annoying things players throw atyour enemies. And then we have the
Wolf Scout, And this is anodd one in a list full of odd
ones, but our goal is tobe incredibly mobile and provide the archetype abilities
bonus of the Wolf Totem barbarian asoften as possible, and also to essentially
take the role of our party's rangerin the most roundabout way possible. To
(14:13):
do this, we'll need to takeone more level of barbarian and select the
path of the totem warrior, choosingthe wolf totem. Next, we take
two more levels in row, gettingus to a third level rogue and selecting
the scout archetype. The wolf Totemgrants our allies advantage on foes so long
as we're within five feet of them, and so long as we're raging.
Being a rogue with access to cunningactions already goes a long way towards keeping
(14:35):
our allies swinging through good repositions.The scout just adds one more layer of
mobility Scout rogues getting the Skirmisher feature, which lets us move up to fifteen
feet as a reaction without provoking attacksof opportunity when something ends their turn next
to us. One of the waysa wolf Totem play can fall is getting
locked into a fight while your alliesare fighting something else. Skirmisher allows us
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to slip away and get back toour wolf pack where we belong. Scouts
also gain survivalists, which gets usthe nature and survival skills along with double
our proficiency on them. This isactually a very strong utility, and i'd
recommend giving your wisdom score a littlelove to take advantage of this and to
solidify your ranger role. I've actuallynever come across this multi class in traditional
(15:22):
D and D five E, butin a fallout conversion that a friend of
mine put together of five e,there was somebody that played a sort of
supermutant that had delusions of being asneaky rogue type of character. So they
did indeed mix barbarian and rogue.However, they were very purposefully trying to
do a character at odds with whothey are type thing. I think their
(15:46):
backstory was they were a supermutant thathad brief memories of being somebody that worked
in espionage or something along those lines. The point is thematically and mechanically,
I think this is pretty solid.Thank you guys so much, thanks for
watching. I really appreciate it.Be sure to like and subscribe because we're
putting out new content all the time, and if you plan on playing this
very weird multi class or a versionof it, I would love to hear
(16:08):
about your characters down in the comments. Thanks again for watching. My name's
Patrick Ferguson from Scarll, Splitter Dice, and until next time, farewell
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