Is fighter better than barbarian?

[Valerie]

I'm currently in Act 3 with a friend, and been using Karlach as a barbarian the whole time, but it kind of feels like Barbarian isn't that good? Every level up is essentially just more HP with little to no new abilities.

My friend said Fighter can attack up to 3 times and he even swapped to it after level 8 barbarian, and I'm level 11... So aside from just being a lot of health is Barb really worth it?

[Moonbane]

Sounds like you need to check out the subclasses for the Barbarian, in particular Wildheart.
https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Barbarian

[FunkyMonkey]

Barbarian is a lot more survivable and has on average higher hit chance thanks to reckless attack. Fighter has more attacks and on average does a little more damage and has some other options in combat thanks to battle master or eldritch knight.

Barbarian is good, just depends what you're looking for.

[Valerie]

Originally posted by Moonbane:

Sounds like you need to check out the subclasses for the Barbarian, in particular Wildheart.
https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Barbarian

Thank you for the help. I did go wild magic first. I'm still new to DnD stuff so a lot of this is hard to know if it'll be good when I select it compared to how I was with Divinity.

[Manimal]

Fighter is a consistent class you know what you getting, Barbarian on the other hand is more of a wild card. You can either wreck stuff FAST or get wrecked fast. Its all about how you like to play. Also Barbarian is way more mobile than fighter.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Valerie:

Is fighter better than barbarian?
I'm currently in Act 3 with a friend, and been using Karlach as a barbarian the whole time, but it kind of feels like Barbarian isn't that good? Every level up is essentially just more HP with little to no new abilities.

My friend said Fighter can attack up to 3 times and he even swapped to it after level 8 barbarian, and I'm level 11... So aside from just being a lot of health is Barb really worth it?

Barbarian is worth it. By the end of the day it depends on how you play it.

[Doomvora]

Comparing the 2 depends on the subclasses you're looking at.

[Moonbane]

Originally posted by Valerie:

Originally posted by Moonbane:

Sounds like you need to check out the subclasses for the Barbarian, in particular Wildheart.
https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Barbarian

Thank you for the help. I did go wild magic first. I'm still new to DnD stuff so a lot of this is hard to know if it'll be good when I select it compared to how I was with Divinity.

Infact you picked the worst of the 3 subclasses for barb. Little wonder its not appealing well to you, but you can respec at Withers.

[OrangeGills]

In terms of pure Damage per turn? Fighter wins.
Barbarian has some upsides, mostly being that you are really very hard to kill. Regardless, the DPR difference between fighter and barbarian is negligible, both will really kill whatever they approach.

A solid barbarian build if you're trying to maximize damage output is to grab the great weapon master feat, that way your hits do lots of damage and you can mitigate the hit penalty via reckless attack.
Don't forget that raging does extra damage, which helps balance against the fighter's 3rd attack.

[Kernest]

Originally posted by Moonbane:

Infact you picked the worst of the 3 subclasses for barb. Little wonder its not appealing well to you, but you can respec at Withers.

Yep.

Wildheart has more support abilities (with options like extra carry weight or giving other melee fighters advantage while raging)

Berserker is about the Barbarian doing more damage, getting that 3rd big attack per turn.

Wild Magic is just kinda bad.

[AsianGirlLover]

Mix both. 6 Battlemaster Fighter, 6 Berserker Barbarian gets you 3 feats, superiority dice, and 3+ attacks per turn with advantage.

You could also do 4 Thief Rouge and 8 Berserker Barbarian for 4 attacks thanks to 2 bonus actions.

[Valerie]

Originally posted by Kernest:

Originally posted by Moonbane:

Infact you picked the worst of the 3 subclasses for barb. Little wonder its not appealing well to you, but you can respec at Withers.

Yep.

Wildheart has more support abilities (with options like extra carry weight or giving other melee fighters advantage while raging)

Berserker is about the Barbarian doing more damage, getting that 3rd big attack per turn.

Wild Magic is just kinda bad.

Yeah I went wild magic as it seemed pretty simple to understand and easy to use, but feels like the benefits are too random and even the better abilities I can get aren't that great.

[Husker_85]

The other really popular Barbarian build revolves around the Tavern Brawler feat and thrown weapons. Enemies are dropping hand axes and javelins all the time in act 1, and by acts 2 and 3 you can get some really nice thrown weapons (just pick them up when you're done). Unlike bows, thrown weapons go off of strength for attack and damage and with the tavern brawler feat you add you strength bonus to the attack twice. Plus there's a good chance of knocking enemies back and/or prone with these throws. A frenzy Barb can throw 3 times per round for very respectable damage, or if you mix in a few levels of fighter or thief you can throw a ridiculous number of times. Thief frenzy barbs are pretty dangerous, as are Fighter wildheart barbs.

[Edstyles]

Originally posted by Valerie:

I'm currently in Act 3 with a friend, and been using Karlach as a barbarian the whole time, but it kind of feels like Barbarian isn't that good? Every level up is essentially just more HP with little to no new abilities.

My friend said Fighter can attack up to 3 times and he even swapped to it after level 8 barbarian, and I'm level 11... So aside from just being a lot of health is Barb really worth it?

Yes fighter is better.

Why? Simple. Almost anything the barbarian does can be achieved in other ways.
Advantage? np there is a glove that gives you 10 turns of advantage.
physical resistance? np cleric has you covered with blade ward heals. With that said I like the mobility of wildheart eagle but thats about it.

[jonnin]

Frenzy gives you 2h weapon attacks as a bonus attack. Pair with rogue level 3 and you can do a 2h weapon attack 4 times, though there is a hit chance penalty on the frenzied attacks and it requires rage. Fighter can do his thing without sleep, but barb needs rage sleep resets. Throw works too, and there are a LOT of weird items in this game that enhance throw directly or indirectly even just a little ways into act 2 you have at least 4 of them.

On the other side, your orc fighter can crit on a 19/20 instead of only 20, and do 3 times the damage (race perk) instead of 2 times. There are other ways to get crit chance reduced farther (eg specific weapons can reduce this 1 more so 18-20 to crit, 15% chance!) and adding in 3 or 4 (haste, etc) attacks per round that becomes relevant. With 4 attacks per round and 15% chance to crit, you will crit once every other round or every third round on the average, every 4th or 5th if your luck is really bad.

A lot of the +crit stuff is late game, though. Don't expect to see any at all in act 1? There are enough items to drive it down to 17 or lower, someone said 13 with lots of potions and buffs and special circumstances but talking every swing, every battle stuff, 16-17 may be as far as it goes in this game.

[Baldurs_Gate_2]

Barb is definitely better in the beginning with great weapon master, because of reckless attack you will just hit many more hits than a fighter.