You have decided to play a savage, and you have decided its subclass. Now, you’ve reached Level 4. You are about to increase your Ability Score. Then your DM tells you that you don’t have to if you choose a feat. You ask him what that is. He says it is a way to further customize your character aside from your choice of subclass. You like the idea, except there are more than 30 available feats (your DM bought all the books because he’s that rich). You sit there. Considering the options.

This list helps you make that consideration into a decision. 

The Barbarian is, first and foremost, a frontline damage-dealer. He may have the highest health in the game but he’s no defender. He is the human version of a literal tank: big, tough, and explosive.

Let’s get to the list!

10. Alert

Why You Should Consider This

Your goal is to be the first in action. You are a damage-dealer and you have something that the Monk doesn’t: HEALTH. LARGE AMOUNTS OF HEALTH. So you have room to be reckless with your actions. The Alert feat adds a massive +5 to your initiative roll. And since you rarely have any points to Dexterity, this is a huge advantage for you. The reason you need to go first during combat is that your job is to dispatch any artillery the enemies have: archers or mages. Your goal is to penetrate the backline.

What Alert Is Useful For:

• Going first in order to penetrate the backline
• Going first to kill the low-health, high-damage enemies

9. Charger

Why You Should Consider This

The fact that you have a whopping +5 bonus to damage roll when attacking after a Dash is nothing to scoff at. Remember, when you turn Level 2 you have a very powerful feature called Reckless Attack that freely gives you an Advantage. Use this to your advantage (pun intended). Charge immediately to that weak mage or assassin and slap your great ax to their faces. Don’t mind the consequences. You’re not a Monk. You’re a Barbarian.

What Charger Is Useful For:

• Explosive damage after a Dash, good for approaching
• VERY GOOD when combined with the feats Alert, Crusher, and Mobile

8. Crusher

Why You Should Consider This

Because you have an unlimited number of times to benefit from Advantage, it is much easier for you to score a critical hit. This is where Crusher is most useful. Your goal is to initiate the debuff by fishing for a crit against a huge and powerful enemy. Once the debuff activates, let your entire team focus fire on that target to take advantage of the free Advantage.

What Crusher Is Useful For:

• Battlefield control since you can push targets after a hit
• Giving your team Advantage against one target for massive damage

7. Fighting Initiate

Why You Should Consider This

If you intend to use a two-handed weapon (which is preferable), taking this feat and learning the Fighting Style: Great Weapon Master is a solid choice because it will surely increase your damage potential. Another Fighting Style you can choose are the Dueling and Two-Weapon Fighting. Both still increase your damage potential.

What Fighting Initiate Is Useful For:

• Increasing your overall damage-dealing

6. Heavily Armored

Why You Should Consider This

The game rules about the Barbarian heavily lean towards melee combat. Although an archer or a throwing weapon Barbarian is doable, his Rage feature only functions during melee attacks. Since you are mostly in the front of combat, having heavy armor for a solid high AC is always welcome. This feat is particularly good if: one, you did not invest in your Dexterity score at all; and two, you are the only defender in your team.

What Heavily Armored Is Useful For:

• Increasing your survivability by letting you become more difficult to hit

5. Lucky

Why You Should Consider This

The power to reroll any undesired d20 result three times a day is simply magnificent. Remember, your Relentless Attack, although powerful, is a double-edged sword. This feat allows you to reroll your enemy’s attack roll should they score a critical hit against you because of the Advantage granted by your feature. In fact, it is strongly suggested that you use this feat defensively, instead of offensively.

What Luck Is Useful For:

• Rerolling any enemy critical hit against you, increasing your survival rate

4. Mobile

Why You Should Consider This

The only time you should consider taking this feat is when you have the Charger feat. Unlike the Monk, or the Rogue, you’re not squishy. You can withstand punishment. So, running around will just waste your time. But unless you have Charger, this feat becomes a powerhouse. Remember Charger is so painful after a Dash since it gives a flat +5 to damage. With this feat, you can run away after attacking your target to prepare for another charge attack. You’re like a football player.

What Mobile Is Useful For:

• Taken as a partner to the Charger feat, and nothing else

3. Orcish Fury

Why You Should Consider This

Only consider this when your Barbarian is a Half-Orc. The power of this feat only activates when you score a critical hit and since you’re a Barbarian, that job is easy. Half-Orcs already have a much stronger critical hit attack due to their Savage Attacks trait, with this feat you can further that potential. For example, you're carrying a great axe. It deals 1d12 damage. During a critical hit, activate the extra damage part of this feat and you’ll be rolling a total of 5d12 tons of damage. That’s surely going to split some skulls!

What Orcish Fury Is Useful For:

• Useful for mega burst of damage in one attack
• This is much stronger if paired with the Piercer feat

2. Piercer

Why You Should Consider This

The only time you should consider this feat is when you’re using a Pike as your weapon and you’re a Half-Orc with the Orcish Fury feat. The goal here is to fish for critical hits since the extra dice from Half-Orcs plus the critical bonus from Piercer really works together. If you also invest 3 levels in Fighter to get the Champion subclass, your ability to critical hit increases greatly. Here’s a sample calculation: use Reckless Attack and crit on roll of 19, activate Orcish Fury and roll a total of 6d10 piercing damage. That’s not bad at all!

What Piercer Is Useful For:

• To augment the power of Orcish Fury

1. Tavern Brawler

Why You Should Consider This

With your high Strength score and the Advantage to Strength checks during Rage, you’re a perfect grappler. This feat allows you to do a grapple check as a bonus action. So, you can do the Shove + Grapple combo where you Shove as an Action to knock your target prone then as a bonus action pin them down for your team to gang up.

What Tavern Brawler Is Useful For:

• Grappling and pinning down enemies to give allied melee attackers Advantage

Closing

What do you think? Do you agree with the feats suggested here?

Let us know in the comments!

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