Barbarian
Barbarian — The Encounter
Bare-chested raider who fells beasts with a single axe-fall · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Barbarian
He answers to no banner and keeps no roof. Among the frost-bitten clans they tell of a wanderer who walks alone into the haunts of beasts that warbands flee, and walks out wearing their hides. They say a god of slaughter never claimed him; rather he wagered that he could fell the deep-things barehanded if he must, and the axe is only mercy for the beast. When the killing-fury takes him his eyes go pale and the pain of wounds becomes a stranger to him; spears glance from a body that simply refuses the news of its own injury. He prizes nothing but the next worthy kill and the story carried home, and he scorns sorcerers and crowns alike. Where serpents nest in drowned ruins and scaled leviathans drag fishermen under, villages still leave an axe and a haunch of meat at the cairn, hoping the beast-feller passes their way before the beast does.
Run Barbarian in Sixty Seconds
- He has no save-or-suck so he is pure pressure, do not expect crowd control, expect a body that keeps swinging.
- Open with Rage plus Reckless on turn one, charge the lowest-AC backliner, and take advantage on both Greataxe swings while accepting advantage against him.
- Kill-priority is him last, control him first, while raging he resists all weapon damage, so restrain, push, or grapple him rather than trading blows.
- When bloodied he does not slow down, the rage and resistance mean half-HP is not a turning point, plan to burst him in one round or lock him down.
- Three ways to run him, frontline enforcer beside a caster boss, lone duelist against a single melee PC, or beast-slayer thrown at the party's biggest summon.
Barbarian
Medium humanoid (human), chaotic neutral
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEReckless. At the start of its turn, the barbarian can gain advantage on all melee weapon attack rolls it makes during that turn, but attack rolls against it have advantage until the start of its next turn.
Rage (Recharges after a Short or Long Rest). As a bonus action, the barbarian enters a rage for 1 minute. While raging it has resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage, deals an extra 4 (Brutal Strike) damage with melee weapon attacks (included below), and has advantage on Strength checks and saving throws. The rage ends early if the barbarian is knocked unconscious or ends its turn without having attacked a hostile creature or taken damage since its last turn.
Beast-Feller. Signature. The barbarian has advantage on melee attack rolls against any creature of size Large or larger, and scores a critical hit against such creatures on a roll of 19 or 20.
Actions
Multiattack. The barbarian makes two Greataxe attacks.
Greataxe. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (2d12 + 4) slashing damage, or 22 (2d12 + 4 plus 4) slashing damage while raging.
Handaxe (Thrown). Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d6 + 4) slashing damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Wrathful Riposte (Reaction). When a creature the barbarian can see hits it with a melee attack while it is raging, the barbarian makes one Greataxe attack against that creature.
A bare-chested raider caught mid-roar, two-handed axe wrenched overhead, one boot planted on the coiling, scaled bulk of a tentacled beast he has just brought low. Sweat, scars, and a wolf-skin sash mark a man who hunts monsters for sport.
Barbarian, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEPack Fury (signature). Barbarian has advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one of the barbarian's allies is within 5 feet of the creature and not incapacitated.
Actions
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d6 + 5) piercing damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Reactions
Guard the Brother. When the barbarian within 10 feet of Barbarian is hit by an attack, Barbarian can move up to its speed toward the attacker; if it ends adjacent, the attacker has disadvantage on its next attack before the start of Barbarian's next turn.
A grey dire-wolf with a torn ear, bound to the wanderer by nothing but shared blood spilled on a hundred hunts.
Guideline numbers — formula-tuned and read from the miniature's design, not yet table-proven. Tell us how it ran in the comments.
How It Fights — by Tier
Same creature, scaled threat. The traits never change; only the numbers move.
Open by raging on turn one and charging the squishiest target with Reckless for advantage. If clustered, he wades into the thickest knot so Wrathful Riposte punishes every melee swing back at him. Pair him with a couple of berserker minions; he is the muscle, not the brain.
Rage immediately, run him at the party's healer or caster, and use Reckless every turn for advantage on both Greaxe swings. Bloodied means nothing here, his resistance keeps him standing, so make the party commit to dropping him while Wrathful Riposte taxes their melee. Run him as the enforcer beside a warlord or beast handler.
Lead with rage and Reckless and dive straight at the back line, Beast-Feller making him brutal against any large summons or mounts. Lean on his damage resistance and Riposte to grind through frontliners; he has no ranged answer, so keep handaxes for stragglers. Pair him with a bigger threat and a screen of minions, he is a hammer, not a centerpiece.
Put Barbarian on the table
Download the presupported STL and run the fight tonight — the model, and the encounter that comes with it.
Get the STL on MyMiniFactory →Clay Cyanide Companion Rules v1
How a bound creature acts
- A companion acts on its owner's initiative, immediately after the owner.
- It uses the Companion block above — roughly ×0.6 HP and damage, no recharge abilities, and at most one reaction trait.
- It moves freely; it takes its Action only while its owner is conscious.
- At 0 HP a companion is broken, not dead — restored on a long rest unless your table rules otherwise.
Original Clay Cyanide material © Clay Cyanide LLC — explicitly not the non-SRD official sidekick rules.
Questions, Asked at the Table
What CR is Barbarian?
Natively CR 6 (Tier 2, a level 5-10 challenge). Scaled stat blocks are provided for Tier 1 (levels 1-4) and Tier 3 (levels 11-15); only the numbers move, the traits and tactics stay identical.
Can Barbarian be a companion or ally?
Yes. He works well as a hired sellsword or an NPC raider who joins the party for a hunt. Drop his Reckless trait and let the players control his Rage if you want him as a true ally, and bring Skarn the Wolf-Brother along as a bonded mount-sized companion.
Why is he not solo_capable?
He has no legendary actions and only a single reactive riposte, so a four-PC party simply out-acts him in the action economy. He shines as the muscle beside a smarter boss, not as a lone centerpiece encounter.
Tell Us How It Ran
This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 ("SRD 5.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC and available at dnd.wizards.com/resources/systems-reference-document. The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available at creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.
Clay Cyanide Miniatures is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC. This content is compatible with the fifth edition of the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game. Companion rules, lore, names, and original mechanics © Clay Cyanide LLC.
Technical Specifications
32mm, 75mm
STL, Pre-supported STL
Standard or ABS-like resin, 0.05mm layer height
Yes — ready to print, optimized supports included
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