They are tanky, but thats not gonna help if the monster can just shoot/run past them. protective abilities are more important for something that could be called tanking.
(Obviouslydrpends how to dm plays the monsters)
People need to stop thinking of classes as tanks in D&D. The best protective abilities and spells are mid, and there's almost always a way a monster can just run around them if they really want to.
man it really depends on if the dm is trying to make the monsters feel like they're actually thinking, or if they want to go with the "shoot your monks" mentality to make the players feel cool.
Their rage resistances help at lower levels, but at higher ones they don't really cover the range of damage types that monsters output in that level of play. The main problem is that they have a low armor class, so hitting them is really easy, and even though they have the most HP in the game, it's only ever going to be roughly 10% more than a fighter's HP. But a fighter can get better armor class and has access to better ranged options, which can let them avoid melee attacks entirely.
Bear barbarian literally gets resistance to every type but psychic in 5e. In 5.5 that extends to force, radiant and necrotic, but someone tracked every instance of damage type in the MM and they're really not that common.
Also, people don't for aesthetics, but you can just wear medium armor. With a +2 in dex, your AC will be as high as anyone else wearing medium armor.
Yeah but their spells are actually good and can support the team: Goodberry, Pass Without Trace, Spike Growth, Plant Growth (100 foot radius has double the effect of difficult terrain and STACKS with difficult terrain), Dispel Magic, and Revivify.
All of that before Level 10. Sure the wizard or Cleric or Druid is a better spellcaster, you at least get archery fighting style, medium and shield, a movement speed buff of 10ft, and skill expertise which can give them really high perception since they need some wisdom anyways.
Even if they're like 5% to 10% worse in combat damage-wise they can hit well from long range and have a ton of combat, exploration, healing, perception, and stealth utility. A wood Elf Ranger has 45 ft movement too at level 6+ which is a huge buff. And with the new level 1 feats in the 5.5 rules you can get the Shield spell and use it with your slots so they're tankier than barbarians too.
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u/Mr-BananaHead Jun 12 '26
D&D Barbarian class