Wildheart Barbarian Build and Guide
Through their connection to nature and its beasts, Wild Heart Barbarians are able to harness the powers of different animals to enter their rage.
Their high melee damage and front-line potential, coupled with their high Constitution and Armor Class (AC), will make them a terror on any battlefield.
With access to many different Bestial Hearts, changing the way their Rage manifests itself, there’s a lot of customization for this class.
This Wildheart Barbarian build guide will go until Level 6 and will be updated as I reach higher levels.
Find out where the Barbarian ranks in our Baldur’s Gate 3 class tier list.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Insanely high damage output
- Tough due to high Constitution
- Very powerful additional abilities during Rage due to Bestial Hearts
Cons
- Very few ranged abilities
- Cannot cast magic during Rage
- Less supportive than Wild Magic Barbarians
Wild Heart Barbarians are able to alter and/or gain new abilities during their Rage. For example, if you choose Bear Heart as your Bestial Heart, then you gain access to Unrelenting Ferocity and Resistance to all damage except Psychic damage during your Rage.’
At Level 3, you can choose from 5 different Bestial Hearts. You’re able to change your Bestial Heart at any time you level up or through Withers. All these different options allow Wild Heart Barbarians to play however you’d like, with almost limitless potential.
Unlike the Berserker subclass, Wild Heart Barbarians don’t get the Bonus Actions Frenzied Strike or Enraged Throw. This can make their damage feel weaker when compared to other subclasses.
Even though they can oftentimes feel weaker than the Berserker subclass, they also lack the supportive capabilities of Wild Magic Barbarians with their Bolstering Magic abilities. However, they do gain access to Speak with Animals. Overall, Barbarians don’t have much out-of-combat utility, as their Charisma and Intelligence are low.
Races
The best Wild Heart Barbarian race is any that increases their survivability and tankiness.
- Half-Orc
- Relentless Endurance, Savage Attacks, and Darkvision
- Gold Dwarf
- Dwarven Toughness, Darkvision, and Dwarven Resilience
- Zariel Tiefling
- Hellish Resistance, Darkvision, Legacy of Avernus: Searing Smite, and Legacy of Avernus: Branding Smite
I recommend choosing either a Half-orc or Gold Dwarf. As a Half-Orc, you gain access to the race traits Relentless Endurance and Savage Attacks. Relentless Endurance makes it so that when you’re reduced to 0 hit points, you can drop to 1 hit point instead.
This effect is not valid if your character is pushed into a chasm or somewhere that renders their body unrecoverable. This can turn the tides of many battles, as you’re able to retreat and heal up instead of dying outright.
Savage Attacks triggers when you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack. It lets you roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one more time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit. This can help with raw melee damage output, which you’ll be doing a lot as a Barbarian.
If you’d like to be more tanky, choosing Gold Dwarf is the better option. Their sub-race trait, Dwarven Toughness, gives you an additional 1 HP every time you level up. Dwarven Resilience gives them an advantage on saving throws against Poison, and you have resistance against Poison damage. Both of these races are equally good, so just choose depending on which one you like more.
Choosing a Zariel Tiefling as your race is a solid choice due to their trait, Hellish Resistance, lowering the damage taken from fire damage. However, Legacy of Avernus: Searing Smite and Legacy of Avernus: Branding Smite are both considered spells, so you can’t use them while enraged.
While this is a drawback, it does provide you with higher damage abilities to use if you don’t have any charges of Rage left. No matter what race you pick, choose to have a +2 in Strength and +1 in Constitution in your Ability Points.
Stats, Backgrounds, and Proficiencies
As a Barbarian, Strength is your most important ability by far. It allows you to hit enemies more often and for more damage, which allows your Rage to continue. Your second most important Ability Score is Constitution.
This will help with your tankiness, as you’re unable to wear Heavy Armor. Barbarians gain access to Unarmored Defense, which adds their Constitution Modifier to their Armour Class if they’re not wearing armor. It’s up to you on if you’d like to make use of this passive, as some people enjoy putting their Barbarians in Medium Armor and gear.
Either way, it’s important for you to have at least 14 Dexterity, since it’ll add a +2 to your AC if you’re wearing Medium Armor and help you hit enemies more often. Your Ability Points should look something like this.
The best Barbarian backgrounds provide Strength skills for your character.
- Recommended backgrounds
- Outlander: Athletics and Survival
- Soldier: Athletics and Intimidation
When choosing your skills, selecting anything with Strength or Wisdom/Dexterity will be optimal. I recommend choosing Survival, Insight, Athletics, or Perception.
Recommended Abilities
Level 1
At Level 1, you’re going to gain access to a Barbarian’s main ability: Rage. This Bonus Action is a Barbarian’s bread and butter and will be the main thing you focus on doing during combat.
Rage gives you a +2 extra damage with any melee weapons you wield, an Advantage on Strength Checks and Saving Throws, and resistance to Bludgeoning, Slashing, and Piercing Damage. An important note about Rage is in order to keep it going, you must attack an enemy or be damaged each turn. Otherwise, your Rage will end early.
Level 2
Once you reach Level 2, you’ll gain Reckless Attack and Danger Sense. Reckless Attack gives you Advantage on Attack Rolls until your next turn, but enemies also have Advantage against you. However, due to your high Constitution and defense from Rage, this ability lets you rip and tear through enemies very easily.
Danger Sense gives you Advantage on Dexterity Saving Throws against traps, spells, and surfaces if you aren’t blinded or incapacitated. This will help with exploration, as you’ll be able to find traps easier.
Level 3
You’re able to choose your sub-class at Level 3. For Wild Heart Barbarians, you’ll be able to choose your Bestial Heart.
- Bear Heart
- While in Rage, you can use Unrelenting Ferocity, and have Resistance to all damage except psychic damage. Unrelenting Ferocity lets you heal yourself for 1d8 HP while in Rage.
- Eagle Heart
- While in Rage you can use Diving Strike, enemies will have Disadvantage on Opportunity Attacks against you, and you can use Dash as a bonus action. Diving Strike lets you leap onto an enemy without taking fall damage, and knock them Prone. However, you need to have the high ground in order to use it.
- Elk Heart
- While in Rage, you can use Primal Stampede, and your Movement Speed increases by 4.5m. Primal Stampede lets you charge forward, attacking all hostile creatures in your way. It deals 1d4+2 Bludgeoning damage and knocks enemies Prone.
- Tiger Heart
- While in Rage, you can use Tiger’s Bloodlust, and your jump distance increases by 4.5m. Tiger’s Bloodlust lets you lash out to attack up to 3 enemies at once and make them Bleed, dealing 2 Slashing damage each turn.
- Wolf Heart
- While in Rage, you can use Inciting Howl, and your allies have an Advantage on melee Attack Rolls against enemies within 2m of you. Inciting Howl lets you buff any ally in earshot, letting them move an additional 3m during their turn.
Whenever you Level Up, you’re able to either keep your current Bestial Heart or swap it out for a different one. I recommend choosing from Eagle Heart, Elk Heart, or Bear Heart. Eagle and Elk Heart both help with Movement Speed, which is great if you chose a race that has a low base Movement Speed. You’ll also always be in melee range, which is where any Barbarian thrives.
Primal Stampede and Diving Strike are also very strong abilities, as you’ll be able to knock difficult enemies prone. While Bear Heart doesn’t help your Movement Speed, it’ll make you a lot more tanky. You gain Resistance to all damage except for psychic and are able to heal yourself. I recommend choosing whichever seems most interesting to you or what would help your team comp the most.
Level 4
When choosing your Feat at Level 4, I recommend picking Ability Improvement. This will allow you to bring your Strength to 18 and Constitution to 17. It’s not really worth choosing any other Feat at this point, as raising your Ability Points will boost your overall power considerably.
Level 5
At Level 5 you gain Fast Movement and Extra Attack. Fast Movement increases your Movement Speed by 5 while not wearing Heavy Armour.
This lets you gap close very quickly, especially if you chose Elk or Eagle Heart, and run down any enemies in your way. Extra Attack lets you make a second weapon attack, allowing you to finish enemies off easier or just boosting your general damage output.
Level 6
Once you reach Level 6, you’ll be able to choose an Aspect of the Beast.
- Aspect of the Bear
- Your carrying capacity is doubled, and you have Advantage on Strength Checks.
- Aspect of the Chimpanzee
- You gain Resistance to falling damage, and throwing camp supplies Blinds targets.
- Aspect of the Crocodile
- Your movement speed increases by 3m while standing in water-based surfaces. On slippery surfaces, you also have Advantage on Saving Throws against being knocked Prone.
- Aspect of the Eagle
- You can see in the dark up to 12m, and gain Advantage on Perception Checks.
- Aspect of the Elk
- You can use Aspect of the Elk, granting yourself and nearby allies a +1.5 bonus to movement speed
- Aspect of the Honey Badger
- If you’re Poisoned, Frightened, or Charmed at the start of your turn, you have a 50% chance to begin Raging without expending a Rage Charge.
- Aspect of the Stallion
- Dashing grants you temporary hit points equal to twice your level. However, you can only have temporary hit points from one source at a time.
- Aspect of the Tiger
- You add an additional Strength Modifier to Attack Rolls against Bleeding or Poisoned targets, and gain Proficiency in Survival.
- Aspect of the Wolf
- You gain Proficiency in Stealth, and can use Aspect of the Wolf. The spell Aspect of the Wolf lets you add your Dexterity modifier as a bonus to Stealth Checks.
- Aspect of the Wolverine
- When you attack a Bleeding or Poisoned target, you also Maim it for 1 turn, giving the enemy a Disadvantage on Constitution, Dexterity, and Strength saving throws and ability checks.
I recommend picking Aspect of the Bear, as having a higher carrying capacity and Advantage on Strength Checks is extremely important when exploring. You could also pick Aspect of the Eagle if you’re playing a character who doesn’t have Darkvision.
Equipment
From what I’ve played so far, the best weapon for a Wild Heart Barbarian is Commander Zhalk’s Everburn Blade. You get this sword by killing Commander Zhalk on the Nautiloid. It deals both Slashing and Fire Damage and has very high DPS.
If you weren’t able to get this sword, then I’d recommend picking any two-handed weapon with a bonus.
The best Medium Armor is a Githyanki Half Plate or Scale Mail. Both of these are very good Medium Armor options, and you’re able to find both easily. You can find a Githyanki Half Plate by killing the Githyanki Patrol in Act 1 or “stealing” Lae’zel’s.
Scale Mail can be found on corpses and is also sold by traders.
If you decide to take advantage of Unarmored Defense, then I recommend wearing the Bloodguzzler Garb since it provides you with +1 bonus damage with melee weapons for one turn, provided you take damage. You can obtain it after defeating the Bulette in the Underdark.
Conclusion
Wildheart Barbarians are a solid choice for anyone looking for high-damage output and a reliable frontline. They offer more versatility and customization to the class than is normally available for the Barbarian class.
Check back soon for higher levels of this Wildheart Barbarian build guide!
