Rage Fiend: Giant Barbarian in DnD 5E

Author: Quetzalcoatlus

The Rage Fiend takes a different path to the usual optimized Barbarian, which would multiclass in Fighter and Gloom Stalker in order to greatly boost their nova (as highlighed in our DnD Quick Builds: Melee and Ranged Martials article). This build, on the other hand, focuses on a higher survival capability while punishing monsters that choose to target you (as you’re still quite squishy when compared to optimized casters). For that end, we will be making use of a multiclass into the Fiend Patron Warlock, for the various defensive bonuses and spells that the class and subclass provide, while also providing way greater out of combat utility than Barbarian usually has. While your nova capabilities are inferior to other optimized Barbarians, you’ll still enjoy plenty of DPR potential with a more dynamic build. 

If you want to enjoy a more robust nova while venturing into this build path, you may want to delay the Fiend multiclass by 3 levels in order to get a dip into Battlemaster. You might also want to make this change if being in melee is more lethal in your game. (Although we would not recommend you play this build in any game in which melee is highly risky, such as High OP games).

For this build, we will be using oversized weapons, so clear their usage up with your DM before showing up to a table with it. You might want to consider picking Path of the Zealot instead of Path of the Giant if they’re not allowed at your table.

Race: Custom Lineage

Ability Score Increases – +2 Strength. Strength is very important for a character focused on using heavy melee weapons.

Size – Medium. This is a requirement, as the weapons we will be using all share the heavy property, and this allows us to grapple larger targets

Feat – Polearm Master. This more than doubles the number of attacks we make in tier 1, and will be essential in order to keep our damage up to a good standard.

Variable Trait – Darkvision. It’s usually more useful to have Darkvision than to have proficiency in another skill.

Languages – Common, Abyssal. We are picking Abyssal in order to communicate with our summons later on. You might want to pick something else; consider your campaign and select a language commonly spoken by enemies that are least likely to also speak Common. Alternatively, sharing a rare language amongst all members of your party can allow you to speak freely amongst NPCs without your plans being divulged. It is not incredibly important what language you pick here.

Class: Barbarian

Skills – Athletics, Perception. These are two of the skills with the most impact. We use Athletics to grapple, shove, or escape enemy grapples, and we use Perception to avoid being surprised by monsters.

Rage – Our bread and butter with this class: it greatly boosts our survivability while aiding in our damage and in our ability to grapple or shove. As we are later multiclassing into a fullcaster, we will need to work around the no-concentration restriction this imposes onto us. We only have 2 uses of it per long rest so far and we only make it to a maximum of 4 with this build, so a good deal of foresight is needed to evaluate combats and decide whether or not Rage is necessary to survive them in your very first turn.

Unarmored Defense – This feature means we start out with 14 AC instead of 12, but it’s still worse than wearing scale mail for 16 AC. It helps us when we are naked bairns, if we should come across a great number of Dexterity or Constitution boosting items, or if we rolled amazing stats, but in usual play this ability has negligible impact.

Ability Scores

14+2 Str, 14 Dex, 14 Con, 8 Int, 9 Wis, 13 Cha

Strength is our biggest focus since we are a melee damage build, 14 in Dexterity and Constitution grant us decent AC and hit points, 13 Cha is a requirement to multiclass into Warlock and Intelligence and Wisdom are both dump stats. You do want to have the 9 in Wisdom, however, as you’ll eventually round it up with Resilient Wisdom (unless your campaign is planned to end before level 10, in which case you might want to leave the last point in Intelligence just in case you encounter an Intellect Devourer)

Background (Custom)

Skills – Arcana, Stealth. We eventually will use Arcana to make scrolls of our spells, bonus points if there’s a Wizard in the party that can copy them later. Stealth is one of the most important skills in the game, being used to attempt to surprise enemies or Hide.

Tools – Mason’s tools, thieves’ tools. Proficiency in mason’s tools will allow us to have a +5 on passive Perception involving stone structures (the most common material for dungeons!) and proficiency in thieves’ tools will result in a +5 bonus against traps. Obviously the latter will also be somewhat useful in dealing with locks and traps, though both of those challenges were likely circumventable already by just a little bit of critical thinking involving ten foot poles, crowbars, or unseen servant spells. We detail both proficiencies in our Complete Guide to Tools in DnD 5E. If neither of these options feels appropriate or accessible in your game, feel free to pick another listed option that seems good.

Feature – Researcher. We might not often be the smartest person in the room, but we certainly know where to find the information we need! This background feature funnily enough comes up more the less knowledgeable you are. Maybe you are a fraud who got through college by sheer luck, who knows.

Creator’s Note – Making a custom background is RAW, as page 125 of the PHB states: “The sample backgrounds in this chapter provide both concrete benefits (features, proficiencies, and languages) and roleplaying suggestions. To customize a background, you can replace one feature with any other one, choose any two skills, and choose a total of two tool proficiencies or languages from the sample backgrounds.” Using this, we are making a custom background and using the Researcher feature.

Equipment

Barbarian starting equipment

• A glaive, which will be our main weapon
• A light crossbow
• An explorer’s pack and 4 javelins

Investigator Starting Equipment

• A magnifying glass.
• Black thread, item 47 off the Horror Trinkets table
• A set of common clothes.
• 10 gp.

Purchasing goals

• Scale mail as quickly as humanly possible, and then eventually replace it with half plate.
• A supply of bolts for our light crossbow, although you want to substitute it for a longbow at level 5 at the latest, which entails buying arrows instead.
• A healthy number of javelins, especially since our subclass will make us better than normal at tossing them.
• Bullseye lantern, a directional light source.
• Silvered weapons, as it allows us to bypass the resistance/immunity of some monsters to our damage, notably devils and lycanthropes.
• Magic weapons (if that is available in your game) as we head into higher levels to keep at least our own damage relevant against creatures with resistance or immunity to non-magical attacks. Prioritize a magical glaive or halberd.
• A warhorse/riding horse, to both carry our cargo and serve us as a mount in battle.
• An adamantine maul, in order to break objects and exploit bludgeoning vulnerability in skeletons if that comes up

Level 1 Strategy

Our strategy at this level is about as simple as it possibly gets: attack twice with your glaive using the 10 ft reach and back out so the monster provokes an Opportunity Attack when it closes in to attack you whenever possible. Use Rage in an especially tough encounter that would’ve killed you otherwise. Sell the magnifying glass from your background equipment for half price in order to buy scale mail immediately.

Level 2: Barbarian

Danger Sense – Advantage on Dexterity saves against traps and spells that we can see is pretty nice to have when it comes up.

Reckless Attack – An easy source of advantage of which we will make plenty of use, especially when raging. Even when we’re not, this may be worth it to kill an opponent quickly and thus avoid their damage. It’s our main way of getting around the -5 to hit penalty from Great Weapon Master, although you may want to be conservative with it before getting that feat, especially if fighting monsters which already have low AC, as the consequences of giving enemies in melee with you advantage to hit your already mediocre AC can be devastating even for a single round.

Level 3: Barbarian

We gain another use of our Rage feature per long rest.

Primal Path – Giant. The newest Barbarian subclass at the time of this article, we choose it for the extra damage and reach it gives us, not to mention the lower dependency on melee combat.

Giant’s Havoc – The crux of this subclass with one subfeature being a lot better than another:

• Giant Stature – The big feature for the level, allowing us to grow to Large size and extend our reach by 5ft., which we will use in order to wield a large sized polearm and greatly boost our damage (since this feature doesn’t make anything we are carrying or wielding become Large, we will need to acquire a Large sized weapon by way of ordering it or picking them up from a monster’s corpse and restoring it). 
• Crushing Throw – This makes us do marginally more damage with thrown weapon ranged attacks, which is a small but welcome addition.

Giant Power – Another language we can speak and a flavor cantrip. We will be picking thaumaturgy as it has the best utility out of the 2 options provided: open any unlocked door even if we are somehow too weak to!

Primal Knowledge (Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Optional feature) – Intimidation. We pick Intimidation since we’re the one Barbarian build that has +1 Charisma.

Level 3 Strategy

Giant stature means that we have an extra 5ft of reach and therefore can approach a monster with 15ft reach, attack it and back away with the intent to force it to walk towards us to fight back and provoke an Opportunity Attack in the process. That’s significant because 10ft reach monsters eventually get pretty common. We also get another effective 5 feet of reach due to being Large, but this is not relevant for the above interaction.

Level 4: Barbarian

Ability Score Improvement (Feat) – Great Weapon Master. Combining this with Reckless Attack, Rage, Giant’s Havoc and Polearm Master makes us the kings of melee damage during tier 1 and 2. Keep in mind that since we are using oversized weapons, our base weapon damage is higher during Rage and therefore the -5 penalty hits us more harshly than a regular Barbarian, making it so that against an opponent with a very high AC, it may be worth it to not use the -5+10 property of this feat.

Level 5: Barbarian

Extra Attack – Now we can attack twice with our attack action, for a total of three attacks per round when we use Polearm Master.

Fast Movement – An extra 10 feet of movement speed is excellent to make you reach opponents who need swift death delivered to them on the first round of some combats or in between one kill and the next target, making this an effective DPR increase.

Level 6: Barbarian

We gain another use of our Rage feature per long rest.

Elemental Cleaver – This will not only allow us to bypass non-magical bludgeoning, piercing and slashing resistance/immunity from monsters by substituting that damage with elemental damage of our choice, but it also deals extra elemental damage on every hit of our infused weapon. Combined with Polearm Master that leaves us at up to 3d6 per turn (not to mention, it works on our opportunity attacks made from 15 feet away thanks to Giant’s Havoc and our glaive). Not only that, it infuses our main weapon with the thrown property and makes them return to our hand after hitting or missing a target, meaning it is very difficult for us to lose Rage because of a lack of targets to attack.

Level 6 Strategy

Our Rage gives us Large size, 15 foot reach while wielding our glaive, which also has the thrown property. The normal range to throw it is now 20 feet, which will not impose disadvantage but will not allow us to benefit from the Polearm Master bonus action attack, Great Weapon Master, or Reckless Attack. If you still have nothing in your 20 foot range, you can throw your glaive with a long range of 60 feet, imposing disadvantage. Still, attacking is better than not, and the combination of these features gives this build much greater capacity to stay able to melee foes than most. An interesting consideration for this level is that since our base damage increases during Rage, the AC range in which it is worth using Great Weapon Master in decreases, so keep that in mind when fighting high AC creatures.

Level 7: Warlock (Barbarian 6/Warlock 1):

Otherworldly Patron – Fiend. We pick a solid subclass which offers tons of defensive features to keep us alive and some nice non-concentration options we will gladly make use of.

Dark One’s Blessing (Fiend Patron feature) – The amount of temporary hit points this provides is pitiful at this level, but this doesn’t consume a resource and can trigger multiple times in a combat, not to mention it scales with every level we take and has increased value while we Rage, since the damage resistance from Rage also applies to the temporary hit points this feature grants us. If you’re out of spell slots or don’t feel like using them and there’s a combat closeby, just kill a small animal and you’re good to go. Talk with your DM about what they would consider to be a “hostile creature”, and otherwise just use this as a buffer that comes up in combat.

Pact Magic – We will be picking spells that either aid in our role as a melee damage dealer or making it so we can be of some use in out of combat scenarios.

Armor of Agathys – One of this build’s signature spells. 5 Temporary hit points is very little for this level, but combine it with the resistance from Rage, and the fact that this scales by 5 every 2 levels and it quickly starts to build up. The damage enemies will be facing when trying to attack us may also discourage them from trying, leaving us free to do damage for an extended period of time. If they do attack us, we’ll at least be able to make the temporary hit points last twice as long while simultaneously raising our DPR to match enemy aggression.

Expeditious retreat – For whenever you need to reach opponents on your first turn and they’re too far away even with Fast Movement, this could potentially buy you 2 more melee attacks than you would have had otherwise. Alternatively, it also helps to kite with your longbow if a melee foe has proven too dangerous to approach.

Level 7 Strategy

This is the first level in which there is any significant change in strategy for this build, and that’s the way we’re going to manage our temporary hit points. We’re going to be using armor of Agathys before fights in which we plan to Rage, and although they will run out quickly, we will get tidbits of backup with Dark One’s Blessing as we start to kill enemies. Short rest whenever you need and are able to in order to maximize the usage of your pact slots.

Level 8: Warlock (Barbarian 6/Warlock 2)

Eldritch Invocations – Devil’s Sight, Fiendish Vigor.

Devil’s Sight – In case people from your party are using darkness (or you’re casting it starting next level), this will entail a dramatic increase of your survivability, being able to output the same DPR as before but imposing disadvantage to hit you rather than advantage from Reckless Attack. Alternatively, this will help us against any monsters that use darkness and avoid disadvantage on Perception checks while in an area of darkness that creatures with darkvision usually face.

Fiendish Vigor  – For now, this will offer more temporary hit points than armor of Agathys while being resource-free, and we will gladly take the trade for now. Once armor of Agathys scales with our spell slots, and we have more interesting invocation picks to choose from, we will substitute this for something else.

Spell changes: +unseen servant.

Unseen servant – Create a mindless, shapeless force which acts at your command within 60 feet of you for an hour. This can solve a lot of problems and prevent a lot of headaches. Even though it is a ritual spell, and thus better cast by ritual casters, like a Bard or a Wizard, we still take it as there is not much of an opportunity cost with the Warlock’s quite barren 1st level spell list. Use it to carry mobile cover such as a wooden plank, or give it standing orders of administering health potions to allies at 0hp.

Level 9: Warlock (Barbarian 6/Warlock 3):

Pact Boon – Pact of the Blade. We are hitting people with an oversized weapon, and magical oversized weapons are a pretty big uncertainty regarding this build if your DM hasn’t agreed to give them out to you. Therefore, we’re making our own, and simultaneously opening up a path towards invocations that make us better at hitting things.

Pact of the Blade – Since we can use this Pact Boon in order to produce an oversized magical halberd or glaive, this will greatly aid us in situations in which the enemy has resistance to non-magical slashing or bludgeoning damage.

Eldritch Invocations – Devil’s Sight, Eldritch Mind, Fiendish Vigor.

Eldritch Mind – We actually have a few concentration combat spells that we may use in combat when we aren’t raging, and we want to be able to concentrate on those when that happens.

Spell changes: +darkness, +misty step, -unseen servant.

Darkness – A 15-foot radius sphere of magical darkness is just what we need to use Devil’s Sight with as an alternative to Rage, while also defending ourselves against effects that require the user to see the target. Keep in mind, this will also affect our party mates, so make sure they’re either also buying into this strategy or only use it on combats in which there’s a good chance the negative consequences won’t come up, such as when the enemy has a powerful spellcaster that you would like to defend yourself from while most of your party is fighting with precast spells such as pass without trace, spirit guardians or conjure animals. Do note that, with a 10 minute duration and the possibility of casting it on an object, you can precast this spell fairly easily and carry the object in a bag in order to stop the darkness from spreading, and simply use an object interaction when needed to uncover the object (maybe cast it on your glaive’s blade and wrap it in cloth until the right moment). In case that’s not possible, losing your first round to cast darkness might still be worth it. Simply evaluate the impact it will have on you and your party’s survivability and damage output

Misty step – A bonus action teleport when you really need it is super useful, even if it doesn’t come up all the time. This will be your only way out of a wall of force and can also grant you the ability to attack an enemy 70 feet away.

Level 10: Warlock (Barbarian 6/Warlock 4):

Ability Score Improvement – +2 Strength. This brings us to 18 Strength, which helps us do more damage. If you are making a ton of Wisdom saves and suffering, take Resilient Wisdom instead.

Spell changes: +invisibility, +spider climb, +prestidigitation, –expeditious retreat.

Invisibility – Invisibility is a situationally useful spell but very useful in the appropriate situations. Unfortunately, most casters will skip this spell for better or more universally applicable spells, but since our slots come back on a short rest, we can afford to pick it up without losing out on our spell slots for the entire day.

Spider climb –  When the ceiling height of a room is high enough, this works very similarly to flying in terms of default kill potential. Cast this on the coolest ranged attacker in the party, let them solo the room the Wizard’s familiar just confirmed is a bunch of melee brawlers in a room with a 20 foot high ceiling, and after it’s over take your time to take a short rest. 

Level 11: Warlock (Barbarian 6/Warlock 5):

Eldritch Invocations – Devil’s Sight, Eldritch Smite, Eldritch Mind, Tomb of Levistus.

Eldritch Smite – On a hit, we can choose to spend a pact slot to deal an extra 4d8 damage and knock that creature Prone without a save. This is both useful nova and useful control. Critical hits are also a good opportunity to use it.

Tomb of Levistus – You don’t have the low level slots or leeway due to Rage to use the defensive reaction spells, so this will help us avoid certain doom when faced with a massive amount of damage.

Spell changes: +fireball, +fly, -spider climb.

Fireball – You know what this is and you know how it works. Limited time offer: enjoy your fireball slots returning on a short rest. See a Fiend patron near you for details! Bear in mind fireball isn’t always the answer, but in most scenarios (at this level) it’s a very good one. Also, don’t worry about your low Charisma, if you hit a bunch of monsters, it’s going to cause big damage regardless.

Fly – Most full casters are going to skip over fly because there are better third level picks, but since your class will auto-upcast and regain slots on a short rest, this can be extremely handy. You can use this spell to participate in three dimensional combats, or for getting around obstacles in dungeons and exploration, or defeat melee-only enemies with ease (which somehow remain common even at high levels). We’re letting spider climb go to learn this spell because it is basically just an improved version of it.

Level 11 Strategy

Having 3rd level slots mean a big power spike to us, as fireball gives us a way to deal with mobs we previously lacked and armor of Agathys scaling to 15 temporary hit points per cast means we might actually have it last more than one hit while raging, especially against mobs of lower CRs which might trigger the retribution damage many times. Fly and Eldritch Smite offer a way for us to ground Huge or smaller flyers without offering a saving throw, which is huge (no pun intended) against adult dragons.

Level 12: Warlock (Barbarian 6/Warlock 6):

Dark One’s Own Luck – We can now add a d10 to a saving throw (or less likely an ability check) we make before any of the roll’s effects occur once per short rest, in order to make us a bit more resilient to failing saves when we really need to pass.

Spell changes: +counterspell, +dispel magic, -darkness. 

Counterspell – Using one of your two precious spell slots on a counterspell is rarely going to feel good, but eating an enemy’s fireball/web/slow/hypnotic pattern/etc. would absolutely feel worse. Don’t save your slots to make sure you can cast this on demand but don’t hesitate to use it when you know something nasty is coming your way. This spell automatically upcasts as our slot level increases, which is very nice.

Dispel magic – Like counterspell, using a slot on dispel magic won’t be fun, but we’re at the level where nasty spells like upcast spirit guardians or wall of stone are being thrown our way and getting rid of those spells is important. Cast it to solve any magic trap/ambush/spell problems and then rest up to get the slots back.

Level 13: Warlock (Barbarian 6/Warlock 7):

Eldritch Invocations – Eldritch Mind, Eldritch Smite, Improved Pact Weapon, Tomb of Levistus

Improved Pact Weapon – Our magical weapon is now a +1 weapon, which is obviously useful for a build which utilizes Great Weapon Master.

Spell changes: +fire shield, +summon greater demon, –counterspell.

Fire shield – Resistance to either fire or cold damage, which are very common, and 2d8 damage of the opposite type it grants resistance to every time a creature within 5 feet of us hits us with a melee attack. 

Summon greater demon – A very nice single target summon that as a bonus becomes non-concentration in case you lose control of the demon. Your prime options in combat are either a Barlgura or a Babau. You can let this baby loose behind the enemies on round 1 of a combat and Rage on round 2 losing concentration and making them attack the nearest non-demons, which are the monsters you planted them right next to. Obviously, don’t attack the same monster they do, otherwise you’re going to kill it and suddenly you’re the nearest non-demon. 

Level 13 Strategy

This level we get yet another useful tool to use in conjunction with Rage and armor of Agathys: fire shield. Using it will require a good deal of foresight on our part, as we need to decide whether a combat is worth dedicating 2 slots to with a bit of anticipation, but there are usually very clear signs of a difficult combat ahead (such as when you’re entering the final section of a dragon or frost salamander’s lair) and it will help us survive the covered damage types, and punish enemies with an average of 29 damage (in conjunction with armor of Agathys, of course) for every time we’re hit, discouraging monsters to try it in the first place. 

Level 14: Warlock (Barbarian 6/Warlock 8):

Ability Score Improvement (Feat) – Resilient Wisdom. Wisdom saves are very dangerous, and monster DC scales too much for us to stand a chance to pass with a -1, and since this also rounds off our 9 Wisdom, we now have a +5 to Wisdom saves which is very much necessary for our survival.

Spell changes: +counterspell, +dimension door, -misty step.

Dimension door – A good “back pocket” option to get away from danger, or to get into a location you want to be in. Note that unlike lower level teleportation spells like misty step and thunder step, dimension door doesn’t require you to be able to see your destination, just describe it. You will also see more use to this than usual if you need it to infiltrate somewhere and can rest it up afterwards.

Level 15: Warlock (Barbarian 6/Warlock 9):

Eldritch Invocations – Devil’s Sight, Eldritch Mind, Eldritch Smite, Improved Pact Weapon, Tomb of Levistus.

Spell changes: +contact other plane, +synaptic static, -fireball.

Contact other plane – If you can succeed a DC 15 Intelligence saving throw, gain the chance to ask a knowledgeable extraplanar entity 5 questions to which they will respond with one-word answers. We don’t have proficiency in Intelligence saving throws, but with a Paladin in the party, we are pretty likely to succeed. Even if you don’t, there’s no reason not to cast this every night or very early morning, potentially multiple times, since the negative effects of the spell wear off after a long rest.

Synaptic static – Fireball, but with an Intelligence saving throw, psychic damage, and an ongoing debuff to attack rolls and ability checks. Very nice non-concentration option even with low Charisma.

Level 15 Strategy 

Having access to 5th level spells means we can now take 3 people into the sky at once to fight a flying target. We can also make 4 party members invisible, which in combination with a Druid or Ranger’s pass without trace can easily complete difficult Stealth infiltrations or ignore multiple combats in a row. Armor of Agathys is now a 25 temporary hit points buff with 25 cold damage petty revenge damage per hit on us, and even Dark One’s Blessing will grant us additional 10 temporary hit points whenever we kill something. Our AoE capabilities are also upgraded with synaptic static and we acquired some information gathering skills to boot. All in all, our options are diverse and scaled way better than taking more Barbarian levels.

Level 16: Warlock (Barbarian 6/Warlock 10):

Fiendish Resilience (Fiend Patron feature)  – We can now choose a damage type to have resistance to every short or long rest. Since we have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing whenever it really matters already, and already have a spell to turn us resistant to cold or fire, force is the type we’re going with as a default (even more so because of how many more monsters deal force damage ever since Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse). Whenever you know you’re going against something specific, just change the type with a short rest before venturing into that creature’s domain.

Spell changes: +blade ward.

Blade ward – Resistance to non-magical bludgeoning, piercing and slashing for one round at the cost of an action competes with Dodge, and it is sometimes better and sometimes worse. It does help us preserve armor of Agathys temporary hp while still dealing its damage when not raging.

Level 17: Warlock (Barbarian 6/Warlock 11):

Mystic Arcanum – 6th. A second set of spell slots to track. We’ll list our Mystic Arcanum choices each level as Spells Known, but remember you are completely restricted to using only these spells and slots. 

Spell changes: +conjure fey, +wall of fire.

Conjure fey – A single summon spell we can use to conjure a fey or beast of CR 6 or lower for up to 1 hour. Since we never get to upcast this spell, our best options are going to be the dusk hag, the hobgoblin devastator, the annis hag, the mammoth, the giant goose (in order to farm some magic items in our downtime) and the titanothere.

Wall of fire – The classic “push people into things” spell with great flexibility. While it allows for a save to take half damage when the wall appears, after this the wall does not allow any saves. You are guaranteed 6d8 fire damage whenever another creature enters the wall on a turn, or ends its turn within 10 feet of the side you designated to emit heat. Although the spell says nothing about the wall having to be a straight line (normally walls aren’t restricted as such), which would in fact allow us to bend our wall of fire, Jeremy Crawford seems to think otherwise. There is some ambiguity here, so check with your DM. Note that, because you’re concentrating on a spell, if you’re in melee range with a monster next to the wall, using Reckless might prove too dangerous and so shoving them into the wall is actually a damage gain.

Level 17 strategy

Tier 4 has come and you’re quite behind the true casters in terms of firepower, but still leagues above other martials in things you can do, having varied options both in and out of combat. We get our 3rd spell slot this level, which means you can go on longer without having to take a short rest, or nova harder if truly necessary.

Level 18: Warlock (Barbarian 6/Warlock 12):

Ability Score Improvement – +2 Strength. It helps us do more damage and that’s what we do. We now have 20 Strength, celebrate with a very conservative amount of joy.

Eldritch Invocations – Devil’s Sight, Eldritch Mind, Eldritch Smite, Ghostly Gaze, Improved Pact Weapon, Tomb of Levistus

Ghostly Gaze – For an action and concentration, we get to see through solid objects for a minute, which can be mighty useful for finding hidden passages, traps, loot and hidden enemies. Great out of combat utility.

Level 19: Warlock (Barbarian 6/Warlock 13):

Mystic Arcanum – 7th. This has the same restrictions as the previous Mystic Arcanum.

Spell changes: +forcecage, +teleportation circle.

Forcecage – Create a box or cage of indestructible force which can’t be dispelled. This isn’t so much of a game changer as wall of force, but forcecage doesn’t use concentration, making it possible for us to Rage if the combat proves challenging enough even after its use, and can hold slightly larger creatures, so it makes for an even more powerful option. Oh, and creatures who attempt to escape using teleportation or interplanar travel have to make a Charisma saving throw or waste the use of the spell or effect. It also doesn’t allow for escape using non-magical means such as amorphous or gaseous form, which is certainly funny by itself.

Teleportation circle – At this stage in the game you’ll want a reliable way to get around the world quickly and this provides an option that recharges on a short rest. Full casters might forgo this spell because they chose wall of force, wall of stone, animate objects, transmute rock, etc. but once again short rest slots come in handy with the utility options.

Level 20: Warlock (Barbarian 6/Warlock 14):

Hurl Through Hell (Fiend Patron feature) – Hurl Through Hell is a pretty good feature. Note the damage isn’t anything to write home about although it does help to bring enemies down quicker together with our Attack action. The enemy is thrown through a different plane until the end of your next turn and there’s no saving throw, which is great. At this point in your campaign you’ll likely be encountering some very powerful enemies like vampires, dragons, gith or drow leaders, liches, etc. Delete one of their turns when you hit them with your glaive and give your party a round of set up or a round to clean up the mooks. Legendary Resistance can’t ignore this as there is no saving throw tied to it. Handy and reliable.