The raging typhoons of Baldur’s Gate 3, Barbarians can bring chaos or calm to every fight. A huge part of a Barbarian’s toolset is the feats they bring, and BG3 has some incredible feats for Barbarians. This article will explore the five best choices.
Barbarians serve a BG3 party as a Strength-based bruiser that holds the frontline and deals devastating damage. Of all the frontliners in BG3, Barbarians are hyper-resourceful, relying on their Rage to turn a fight on its head. Thankfully, feats go a long way toward making your Barbarian a force of nature that doesn’t need Rage to be hugely impactful.
The best Barbarian feat options in BG3, ranked
The best Barbarian feats in BG3 are the ones that massively improve the Barbarian’s damage, especially outside of Rage. Barbarians have solid damage-dealing potential, but suffer from losing out on the late-game power-spikes that the Fighter and Paladin excel at. Feats are useful for smoothing out the damage gap, utilizing the Barbarian’s fantastic Reckless Attack feature to decimate enemy groups.
We recommend using Ability Score Improvements to improve the Barbarian’s Strength and Constitution whenever possible. Getting to 20 Strength should be on every Barbarian’s checklist, whether through Ability Score Improvements or the various secret methods throughout BG3.
5. Dual Wielder
The Dual Wielder feat is a fascinating option that allows the Barbarian to wield any two one-handed weapons for two-weapon fighting. It also grants plus-one to AC while dual-wielding. Barbarians can use this feat to dual-wield some of the strongest one-handed weapons in late-game content, such as The Blood of Lathander and the Dwarven Thrower, without needing to stoop to lower-damage or Finesse options.
Dual Wielder is excellent for slightly boosting the damage of a two-weapon fighting Barbarian. This is far from the optimal Barbarian build, but Dual Wielder is a step in the right direction. This feat offers, on average, plus-one to damage rolls and Armor Class. That’s good for a Barbarian, but not the best thing you can get from a feat.
What Dual Wielder does give Barbarians is access to a wider array of weapon groups. You can use dangerous off-hand weapons like Bloodthirst while wielding big-damage weapons like Dwarven Thrower in your main hand. Or, you can just wield two big, chunky weapons at once.
You’ll want to take this feat alongside multiclassing, such as in Ranger or Fighter. That’s because Barbarians don’t get a Fighting Style, so you’d be losing the plus-five damage to your offhand swings. Dual Wielder takes the stress off a two-weapon-fighting Barbarian’s shoulders.
4. Tavern Brawler
Tavern Brawler is a very fun feat, though it’s hard to use for all Barbarian builds. It grants plus-one to Strength or Constitution then adds twice your Strength modifier to attack and damage rolls with unarmed attacks and thrown, improvised weapons. This means your Barbarian can swing their fists with +14 to attack, or throw vases and deal 11 damage per throw.
While the Unarmed Barbarian should be reserved for unusual Monk multiclassing, Tavern Brawler unlocks a strange Barbarian that focuses on thrown weapons. There are a few options that support a thrown weapon playstyle, such as the Nyrulna Trident, which can legitimately deal good damage. Alongside the Berserker’s Frenzy, this can lead to surprisingly high-damage thrown weapon turns. If you’ve ever wanted to play a midrange Barbarian, this is legitimately good.
And that’s not to mention Tavern Brawler’s flexible plus-one. Strength and Constitution are both great for a growing Barbarian. Try to set your Strength to 17 at character creation if you want to try out this feat. This will let you rock Tavern Brawler by level four without sacrificing any major damage milestones.
A fun feat, but far from optimal. It basically requires your Barbarian to be a Berserker to be halfway effective, and most magical thrown weapons don’t start showing up until Act III. Let’s start looking at a few options that let the Barbarian skyrocket in damage without needing very specific builds.
3. Polearm Master
Polearm Master locks your Barbarian into Glaives, Quarterstaves, Pikes, Spears, or Halberds. But while wielding these weapons, you make attacks of opportunity when a foe walks into your range. In addition, you gain access to the spear-butt bonus action that deals reduced damage.
For non-Berserker Barbarians, Polearm Master boosts damage substantially. A Wildheart Barbarian doesn’t have much use for bonus actions once they reach melee range outside of specific Hearts, so giving them another bump of damage on each bonus action sounds like a great idea. Don’t even get us started on Wild Magic Barbarians—they don’t even get the chance to gain another bonus action.
Polearm Master is also great for nearly guaranteeing use of your reaction. Enemies will absolutely wander right into a Polearm Master’s spear without question, giving the Barbarian an extra swing per round to hurt people with. In the perfect scenario, Polearm Master basically gives the Barbarian four attacks in a round without needing Haste, dealing a minimum of 3d10+1d4+20 damage. That’s not bad at all, and all of that comes without damaging the Barbarian’s accuracy.
Still, we can do better. When it comes to tearing through foes, there’s another feat we value a bit more.
2. Sentinel
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Sentinel is a powerful support feat that allows the Barbarian to stop enemies from moving when landing an opportunity attack, while also granting advantage on said attacks. It also allows the Barbarian to attack a foe who attacks a nearby ally. For many Barbarians, Sentinel is the final nail in the coffin for preventing enemies from meaningfully harming their backline, while also giving them a method to deal additional damage every round.
Sentinel’s strength comes from the interesting pathing used by the AI to attack multiple allies in a round. Enemies often run right out of your Barbarian’s range to swing at their companions, especially if your Barbarian is hard to hurt. This means you’ll often get an extra swing when the enemy’s AI starts sprinting around.
The reaction to attack when an enemy attacks an ally is a bit difficult for a Barbarian to use well. The AI will often swing at targets with lower AC, which is usually your Recklessly Attacking bruiser. Try to pair this with a Monk or melee Rogue who can draw enemy ire more effectively, and watch as your Barbarian gets bonking.
The Duelist’s Prerogative is an interesting weapon choice for this build, since you get an extra reaction to hit your foes while utilizing Sentinel. This is a lower damage build, but can disrupt the AI a lot and lead to surprisingly effective turns.
Sentinel is also the best option for a two-weapon fighting Barbarian. Since you make opportunity attacks with both wielded weapons, getting more opportunities to swing them can lead to much higher damage than a feat like Dual Wielder.
1. Great Weapon Master
Great Weapon Master is the strongest Barbarian feat in BG3—for most builds. That’s because it grants plus-10 to damage rolls, but minus-five to attack rolls, while wielding a melee weapon in two hands. It also gives you the ability to make another attack as a bonus action if you critically hit or kill an enemy.
Barbarians are even better at using this feat than Paladins are, since Barbarians have access to Reckless Attack to more readily land those inaccurate attacks. This can lead to hugely damaging turns without sacrificing your hit chances too much.
A plus-10 to damage rolls is a lot of damage to slap on every single weapon attack. The Berserker makes especially good use of this feat, since you can guarantee another weapon swing as a bonus action. Three attacks is a plus-30 to damage from this feat alone, which is fantastic.
Even if you aren’t a Berserker, though, you can still use the extra bonus action effect if you critically hit or kill a target. Barbarians are great at critically hitting, thanks to their innate ability to add advantage to most attacks. So, a Wildheart or Wild Magic Barbarian can still get a bonus action weapon swing quite regularly, if they land the killing blow or just get a bit lucky.
This feat is a must-have for any Barbarian hoping to crack some skulls in BG3. If you think Karlach is suffering in the damage department, respec her to have this feat and watch her turns become much more impactful.
