Barbarian Handbook: PF2 Class Guide – RPGBOT (2025)

Introduction

The Barbarian is all about getting angry and hitting stuff. Depending on your choice of Instinct, there are some thematic options which go a bit beyond “get mad and hit stuff”, but the majority of the class is absolutely fixated on getting into a fight, getting really angry, and just absolutely wrecking everything in your way. The Barbarian is easily compared to the Fighter, and where the Fighter is a master of martial arms and armor, focusing on using the right techniques at the right time, the Barbarian is often more of a blunt instrument, often addressing problems with a simple mindset. In many ways the Barbarian is a one-trick pony, but when so many of your problems are nails it helps to have a really nice hammer.

I don’t normally discuss the fluff text at the beginning of class entries, but I really want to call attention to the Barbarian’s entry because it’s such a perfect explanation of the class. During combat encounters: angry and violent. During social encounters: angry and terrifying. While exploring: watching intently for an opportunity to become angry and violent. In downtime: carousing.

Mechanically, the barbarian is a Defender and Striker similar to the Fighter. However, unlike the Fighter you’re largely locked into melee combat, so your role in the party is fairly limited. You have very little needs from your skills, leaving you ample opportunity to fill skill-based roles in your party, provided that your ability scores can support them. You’re unlikely to be a Face, but the Barbarian has several excellent options related to Intimidation.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Disclaimer
• Barbarian Class Features
• Subclasses – Barbarian Instincts
  • Animal Instinct
  • Dragon Insinct
  • Fury Instinct
  • Giant Instinct
  • Spirit Instinct
  • Supersistion Instinct
• Ability Scores
• Ancestries
• Backgrounds
• Skills and Skill Feats
• Feats
  • Barbarian Feats
    • 1st Level
    • 2nd Level
    • 4th Level
    • 6th Level
    • 8th Level
    • 10th Level
    • 12th Level
    • 14th Level
    • 16th Level
    • 18th Level
    • 20th Level
  • General Feats
• Weapons
  • Uncommon Martial Weapons and Advanced Weapons
• Armor
• Magic Items
  • Other Magic Items
• Archetypes

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks.

• Red: Bad, useless options, or options whichare extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
• Orange: OK options, or useful optionsthat only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
• Green: Good options. Useful often.
• Blue: Fantastic options, often essentialto the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

Barbarian Class Features

Key Ability: Strength. Unsurprisingly, a class about getting angry and hitting things depends on Strength.

Hit Points: More hit points than anyoneelse.

Initial Proficiencies: A broad range ofproficiencies give you everything that you need to succeed as a barbarian, andit’s easy to expand some of those options with feats.

• Perception: You start at Expert, puttingyou ahead of most characters for a long time, but you don’t improve toMaster until 17th level.
• Saving Throws: Expert in both Fortitudeand Will, and you have a mountain of hit points to deal with failing Reflexsaves, which frequently only deal damage.
• Skills: Standard starting skills (4+total). You’re locked into Athletics, but you can get quite a bit out ofAthletics so it’s a great choice anyway.
• Attacks: Trained in simple, martial, andunarmed. Not terribly exciting, but you’ve got a full range of options andyou may be able to access Uncommon weapons using racial feats. Barbariansadvance their weapon proficiencies at the same rate as most martial classes,falling just behind the Fighter.
• Defenses: Trained in everything up tomedium armor. Unfortunately, your proficiency improves slower than otherfront-line martial class like the Fighter and the Ranger, so your AC willlag behind other front-line martial classes at several points. You mighteven consider spending a feat to get Heavy Armor Proficiency, then retrainit around 12th level before your armor proficiency increases beyond Trained.
• Class DC: There aren’t many barbarian options which relyon your class DC, but many of the ones that do are very good.

Rage: The Barbarian’s most definingcapability. While raging you’ll deal additional damage and gain some temporaryhit points, but you’ll take a minor penalty to AC (it’s only -1; you’ll befine) and you can’t use actions with the Concentrate trait, which prevents youfrom doing things that require a lot of mental focus.

Instinct: See “Subclasses – Barbarian Instincts”, below.

Barbarian Feats: See Barbarian feats, below.

Skill Feats: Standard for everyone except the Rogue.

Deny Advantage: The Barbarian is fairlygood at perception, but this provides a nice insurance policy. This makes youvery effective against ambushes, and against enemies which rely on flankinglike NPC rogues.

General Feats: Standard.

Skill Feats: Standard for everyone except the Rogue.

Ability Boosts: Standard.

Ancestry Feats: Standard.

Brutality: More proficiency with yourattacks is great, and Critical Specializations Effects can really add a lot.You only get the Critical Specialization Effects while raging, but if you’refighting and not raging you’re either in a fight than went way too long oryou’re not taking the fight seriously.

Juggernaut: More Fortitude saves is great,and you hit Master before any other class.

Weapon Specialization: More damage is alwaysgreat.

Lightning Reflexes: Better saves neverhurts, but you never go beyond Expert. You might consider Canny Acumen at highlevel to raise your Reflex Saves to Master.

Raging Resistance: When you get this, youshould reasonably expect to have 18 Constitution, and 7 points of damageresistance is really good. You’ll likely max out at 8, but that’s stillsignificant. The usefulness of this ability is defined by your Instinct, andthe effects vary signficiantly.

Mighty Rage: In many ways, this makes Ragefree. You’ll need to have at least one feat which gives you an action with theRage trait, but considering how many good options are available that’s not aproblem.

Greater Juggernaut: The Barbarian is theonly class to reach Legendary in Fortitude saves.

Medium Armor Expertise: Finally, your ACimproves! Your armor proficiencies improve at the absolute slowest rate,putting the Barbarian on part with the Wizard and similarly non-martialclasses. Fortunately, you have d12 hit points and temporary hit points fromRage to compensate.

Weapon Fury: Always helpful, and theBarbarian matches the weapon proficiency progression of most martialclasses.

Greater Weapon Specialization: Moredamage!

Indomitable Will: Better saves is alwaysgreat.

Heightened Sense: Despite starting withunusually good Perception, this is the first time your Perception proficiencyincreases.

Quick Rage: A full turn is nothing. You canmanage to be just baseline angry for 6 seconds between bouts of violentfury.

Armor of Fury: More AC never hurts, butthis is very late for a martial class.

Devastator: Ignoring 10 points of resistanceis a lot of extra damage against creatures which normally resist damage fromyour weapons.

Subclasses – Barbarian Instincts

Animal Instinct

Animal Instinct Barbarians are the monks of barbarians. They rely on unarmed attacks, gaining powerful new unarmed attack options based on their chosen animal. Nearly every unarmed attack granted by Animal Instinct exceeds most Monk unarmed attack options, and between Rage and strict reliance on Strength you’ll often find that your unarmed attacks are more lethal, though without Flurry of Blows you’ll perform less attacks than a Monk would. To address this, consider taking the Monk multiclass archetype feats. This is especially easy to do because the Animal Instinct-specific Barbarian Class Feats are awful.

When you select Animal Instinct, you must also select a type of animal. This determines the unarmed attack(s) you gain when you Rage, and can be a significant part of your build if you choose to rely upon your unarmed attacks. These attacks are often as good as or better than any one-handed weapon you could find, and they rarely require a free hand, so you’re free to use a shield and to use your free hand for special attacks like grappling and shoving. Becuase you’re not using a manufactured weapons, expect to invest in Handwraps of Mighty Blows like a monk would. Your choice of animal also affects how Animal Rage works, but Animal Rage is garbage, so don’t worry about that.

• Ape: Grappling is a great option, andhaving the Grapple trait on your unnarmed strikes means that you can add thebonus from Handwraps of Mighty Blows to your Athletics checks to grapple.
• Bear: Having an Agile secondary weaponmeans that your additional attacks will be more effective, but using anAgile weapon halves the bonus damage from Rage, and when your Rage bonusdamage is 12 per hit that’s a lot of damage to lose for a minor reduction inyour Multiple Attack penalty. Unfortunately, access to Agile claws costs youan interesting property on your bite. Animal Rage gets you essentially
• Bull: Shove is neat, but verysituational. You’ll get more mileage from Grapple or Trip, and in the raresituations where you need to Shove you can Shove just like everyoneelse.
• Cat: Idnetical to the Bear.
• Deer: The same damage as the Ape, and youget 10 ft. reach at 7th level. You also don’t need a hand to make theattack, so you can use your hands for other stuff like high-fives andshields. Gaining reach and not needing to use your hand is a massiveimprovement over the Ape. Note that theerrata replaced the Chargetrait with the Grapple trait and raised the printed damage from d8 to d10,so if you’re looking at the first printing Core Rulebook the text isincorrect.
• Frog: Combining the interesting parts ofthe Bear/Cat and the Deer, the Frog gets a secondary Agile attack andeventually gets 10 ft. reach (at level 7, of course) with that attack, butdoesn’t have a useful trait on its primary attack. You’re free to use jawsas your primary attack, then use your tongue when you can’t or don’t want toget within 5 ft. of your target.
• Shark: Mostly the same as Ape, but sincejaws don’t use your hand your hands are free, much like the Deer. Also, ifyou take Animal Rage you gain the ability to breath underwater whileraging.
• Snake: All the same benefits as theShark, but you can’t take Animal Rage to breath underwater. It’s technicallyworse than the Shark, but Animal Rage is awful so realistically there’slittle difference.
• Wolf: Trip is an absolutely fantastictrait.

• Anathema: Be kind to animals. Not allanimals; just ones of the type you picked. You can be a jerk to therest.
• Instinct Ability: Bestial Rage: Theunarmed attacks granted by Betial Rage are fantastic, matching the effectsof many two-handed weapons without requiring the use of your hands. However,since you’re going to be so dependent on these attacks you’ll be in a lot oftrouble if you’re in a fight and not raging.
• Specialization Ability: More damage, andthe Deer and Frog both get some reach on their attacks.
• Raging Resistance: The two most commontypes of weapon damage. This is absolutely spectacular for a character whospends as much time in melee as the Barbarian does.

Dragon Insinct

Dragon Instinct is easily comparable to other Instinct options, but what sets it above other options is the Instinct-specific feats. Though there are only three feats, they’re all good and they’re all usable in any combat situation. Other Instinct options generally only have a handful of good feat options, and their best options frequently come with problematic limitations like the fact that you can’t grow to Huge size in a 10-foot wide corridor. Dragon Instinct feats give you a breath weapon (both one of the Barbarian’s best ranged attacks and one of the Barbarian’s best ways to deal with crowds), easy access to flight, and eventually the ability to fully turn into a dragon while raging. However, you may find that you face issues with relying on a single type of energy damage which is determined by your selected type of dragon.

Your choice of patron dragon is an interesting choice. A less-common damage type like acid or lightning will be more usable offensively, but also less useful as a resistance. You also need to choose between a dragon which gives you a cone or a line, and you need to consider how your Anathema will interact with that type of dragon. I think everything balances out in the end, so you’re probably fine selecting whichever dragon suits you.

• Anathema: One of the more complicated options, youmust also select whether you abhor (hate) or respect your dragon type. Ifyou hate them, failing to defeat dragons of your chosen type isanathema. Conveniently, your Anathema doesn’t compel you to confront, fight,or intentionally oppose them, and as long as you never try you can neverfail. If you choose to respect your dragon type, merely defying dragons ofyour type is Anathema, so if a dragon of your type shows up your charactermay accidently become a slave.
• Instinct Ability: Draconic Rage: Extradamage is always great, and the energy damage will frequently bypassresistances to physical damage. If you encounter an enemy which is resistantto your dragon’s damage type, don’t forget that you can choose to not useDraconic Rage when you initiate a rage and fall back on the normal Ragedamage bonus.
• Specialization Ability: More damage isalways nice.
• Raging Resistance: Piercing damage iscommon from bites and similar attacks.

Fury Instinct

The most generic of options, Fury Instinct works fine, but doesn’t do anything expecially exciting. If you just want an uncomplicated barbarian, you’ll do well with Fury Instinct.

• Anathema: You don’t get one.
• Instinct Ability: : You don’t get one.Instead, you gain an extra 1st-level Barbarian feat, which is nice.Unfortunately there aren’t many options to choose from and you may not beable to use all of them in a meaningful way. As more options are published,this will become more useful.
• Specialization Ability: More damage isgreat, but since it’s all you get it would be nice if the bonus were bigger.By comparison, Spirit Instinct does 1 more damage, and it’s an interestingdamage type too.
• Raging Resistance: Broadly useful, butsince it only applies to weapon damage it won’t protect you from things likeunarmed attacks (claws, teeth, etc.).

Giant Instinct

Giant Instinct’s initial draw is that you get to use a gigantic weapon. That’s neat, but not actually impactful from a mechanical perspective. The real draw here is the Instinct-specific feats. As you progress, you’ll gain the ability to increase your size when you rage, as well as increasing your reach. Look at complementary options like reach weapons and the Whirlwind Attack feat, and be cautious pursuing this Instinct if your GM likes to use lots of dungeons with small rooms and narrow corridors where you won’t be able to grow in size.

• Anathema: You must face any “personal challenge ofStrength”. The text isn’t totally clear what that entails, but I think ifsomeone were to say “I bet you can’t drink that whole barrel of wine” you’reobligated to at least try, even if you’re certain to fail. Hopefully yourparty isn’t a bunch of jerks, or they might abuse this to convince you tojump into pits and attempt other suicidal activities.
• Instinct Ability: Titan Mauler: You gainaccess to one weapon of a larger size. You still need to buy ityourself out of your starting money, and you only get access to one so you’dbetter not lose it or break it. You’re Clumsy 1 while using this weapon,which essentially means that you’re taking a -1 AC penalty to get 4 extradamage from Rage. That’s probably a fine trade, but be sure to focus onimproving your durability to compensate.
• Specialization Ability: Even moredamage!
• Raging Resistance: An interestingcombination of options. Bludgeoning damage is the least common type ofdamage typically dealt be weapons, but you get Fire as an option, and Fireis extremely common. If you already have resostance to Fire damage, get Coldinstead.

Spirit Instinct

Spectacular against undead, and still perfectly functional against other foes, but not especially exciting. You do get access to some Instinct-specific feats like Spirit’s Wrath, but they’re not good enough to set Spirit Instinct ahead of other options.

• Anathema: Disrespecting the dead is easyto avoid. Even looting, skinning, and eating a corpse can be donerespectfully.
• Instinct Ability: Spirit Rage: A littlebit more damage than normal, and you can make it Positive or Negativedamage, which means that few enemies will be able to resist it. You alsogain the effects of the Ghost Touch weapon rune, which is great. Ghost Touchis powerful and inexpensive, so it’s a staple of melee builds, but it alsoeats one of your limited slots for property runes.
• Specialization Ability: More damage isalways nice.
• Raging Resistance: Negative damage israre, and while resisting all damage from undead is great it’s also only onecreature type.

Supersistion Instinct

Do you hate spellcasters? Do you hate having friends who are spellcasters? Do you hate being buffed by spells? Healed by spells? Do you hate the ability to travel long distances via teleportation? If you’ve answered “yes” to any of these questions you should consider the Superstition Instinct and know that you and I will never be friends.

Jokes aside, this is a bad subclass. It’s good at killing spellcasters and literally nothing else, and since you give up the ability to benefit from buff spells you’re reduced to items and the core barbarian class features unless you’re facing an enemy spellcaster. Unless your campaign is all about fighting spellcasters, you’ll spend most encounters feeling disappointed that you can’t use the vast majority of your subclass features.

This subclass seriously needs help. As a quick fix: allow the damage bonus against targets under the effect of a beneficial spell, and improve Raging Resistance to apply to all spells. That’s probably still not enough, honestly.

• Anathema: Disallowing buff spells ormagical healing takes a lot of really import options off the table.
• Instinct Ability: Superstitious Resilience: Aside from the healing (which is nice), the benefits are situational.While there are many enemies which can cast spells, they;re still a subsetof all enemies so you’re giving up most of your Instinct Ability in mostencounters.
• Specialization Ability: You get a littlebetter at killing spellcasters, but literally nothing against othercreatures.
• Raging Resistance: It’s reallyfrustrating that this doesn’t just apply to all magic. As it stands, you getto resist damage from roughly 50% of spells since you cover twotraditions.

Ability Scores

There is almost no variation in Ability Score spread between barbarian builds. Unsurprisingly, you need a ton of Strength, some Dexterity to fill our your medium armor’s Dex Cap and raise your poor Reflex saves, Constitution to improve your hit points, and Wisdom for Perception and Will Saves.

Str: Your defining ability. Start at 18 andboost it at every opportunity.

Dex: How much Dexterity you need variesonly slightly by build. Most barbarians will be in Breastplate, so you’ll needno more than 12 Dexterity. Animal Instinct barbarians will need as much as 16once they take Animal Skin at 6th level, but you can start with 14 andincrease it at 5th level if you want to put your boosts elsewhere at level 1.

Con: You need as much as you can get. Startat 16, and boost it at least until you hit 20.

Int: You get 4+ skills, but can onlymaximize three at most. Dumping Intelligence to 8 is fine if you don’t needadditional skills, and you can always use a Skill Feat to take Skill Trainingif you need to broaden your skill set.

Wis: Perception and Will Saves.

Cha: If you plan to use Intimidation orCharisma-based options like Demoralize or Intimidating Howl, you’ll want alittle bit of Charisma to make them effective. If you’re okay avoiding thoseoptions, you can dump Charisma.

Ancestries

Strength and extra hit points are crucial, so a race that can give you both a Strength Boost and a Constitution Boost are great, and high starting hit points never hurts. If your race offers you the option, you might enjoy access to some Uncommon weapons, but you’ll do fine without them. Also look for other ways to make yourself more durance, like racial damage resistances or racial feats which can further raise your maximum hit points. Finally, Darkvision is a fantastic option because it opens up Acute Scent without requiring you to waste a feat on Acute Vision.

Catfolk: The Catfolk offers the Barbarianvery little. The Ability Boosts don’t line up, 8 base hit points, and few (ifany) of the Catfolk’s feats complement the Barbarian. It’s not unplayable (putyour Free Boost into Strength, then take the Cat’s Luck feat chain), but it’snot great.

Dwarf: Constitution, Wisdom, and the FreeBoost goes into Strength, Darkvision, and maximum starting hit points.Ancient-Blooded, Forge, and Strong-Blooded all improve your durabilityfurther. Unfortunately, Dwarf Ancestry Feats offer very little that we want.Dwarven Weapon Familiarity is tempting for a free-hand build if you want touse a Dwarven War Axe instead of a Bastard Sword, and Mountain’s Stoutnessoffers additional hit points and helps you stabilize while dying, both ofwhich are helpful for barbarians. I strongly recommend Adopted Ancestry to getbroader Ancestry Feat options, and definitely take Toughness to get thecombined effect with Mountain’s Stoutness. Since the Dwarf has such poor basespeed, consider the Fleet general feat, or the Fast Movement Barbarian ClassFeat.

Elf: The lowest starting hit points, aConstituion Flaw, and we don’t care about either Ability Boost. The Elf’sAncestry Feats offer nothing that the Barbarian cares about.

Gnome: Possible, but very difficult. TheStrength Flaw needs to be address with the Voluntary Flaw rules, and there isvery little to be gained the Gnome’s Ancestry Feats. One notable exception isthe Gnome Flickmace, which you can make into a Martial weapon with a the GnomeWeapon Familiarity feat. If you want to go that route, I would still suggestAdopted Ancestry and using a different Ancestry to get the feat.

Goblin: You might be able to manage aDragon Instinct build, and capitalize on the Charisma Boost to useIntimidation and possible other Face skills, but the Goblin has the lowestpossible starting hit points and few Ancestry Feats that we care about. EvenBurn It! isn’t helpful since it only applies to spells and alchemical items.Unbreakable Goblin can raise your hit points from your ancestry, and JunkTinker can make it easier to craft oversized weapons for Giant Instinctbuilds, but that’s not enough to make the goblin broadly appealing. A dwarfwith the Fleet General Feat or the Fast Movement Class Feat will match theGoblin’s speed and you can use your Heritage to get something more interestingthan 4 hit points. If you really want Junk Tinker, take Adopted Ancestry.

Halfling: I recommend using the VoluntaryFlaw rules to get an extra Free Ability Boost so that you can boost bothStrength and Constitution, but otherwise the Halfling is a decent option.There aren’t many useful Ancestry Feat options, but there are enough that youdon’t absolutely need Adopted Ancestry. Hillock Halfling offers a way to getsome extra healing out of Treat Wounds, which is great on a class that’snotorious for burning through a huge pile of hit points.

Human: Humans, especially half-orcs, are agreat option. Natural Ambition will get you some extra options at 1st level,and beyond 1st level you have lots of ways to customize and expand yourcapabilities.

Kobold: The Ability Boosts aren’t helpful,the Constitution Flaw is a huge problem, and you get just 6 hit points. Iwould love to see a kobold barbarian simply for the novelty, but it’s not agood build.

Orc: Good Ability Boosts, no Ability Flaw,10 hit points, and numerous feat options that work well for the Barbarian.

Ratfolk: A Strength Flaw and 6 base hitpoints are too much to overcome without significantly hampering the rest ofyour build.

Tengu: The Ability Boosts work, but aren’tespecially helpful, and none of the feats obviously add to the Barbarian.

Backgrounds

Boosts to Strength and Constitution are too important to accept anything else, which can severely limit your options, but there are still plenty of great options to choose from. Avoid backgrounds which give you skill feats in Charisma-based skills, even though this rules out options like Guard and Warrior which fit the class thematically.

If you’re having trouble deciding, here are some suggestions:

• Bounty Hunter
• Laborer (you get to replace Athletics since you get it as a Barbarian at 1st level)
• Miner

Skills and Skill Feats

You get Skill Increases at 3rd and 5th level to raise skills to Expert, increases at 7th, 9th, 11th, and 13th level to raise skills to Master, and increases at 15th, 17th, and 19th level to raise skills to Legendary. That means that you can maximize at most three skills, and the rest of your skills might not advance beyond Trained.

You get Skill Feats at even-numbered levels, giving you a total of 10 Skill Feats (and maybe another from your Background) by 20th level. Generally, you want to invest these feats in the same skills which you are choosing to maximize, though in some cases you may want to grab feats from skills which don’t require that you be more than Trained.

• Acrobatics (Dex): Too situational, and lessuseful since you don’t have a built-in way to fly.
• Arcana (Int): Best left to someone equippedto do something about magic beyond responding with violence.
• Athletics (Str): Used for grappling andshoving, and you get it automatically.
  • Assurance: Assurance in Athleticsoffers you a lot of wonderful options, but it’s not a perfect solution.See myPractical Guide to Assurancefor more information.
  • Titan Wrestler: If you plan to relyheavily on grappling, this is essential.
• Crafting (Int): Typically best left tosomeone smarter than you, but crafting can be a fun and interesting way toenjoy the Downtime rules.
• Deception (Cha): You are not a Face.
• Diplomacy (Cha): You are not a Face.
• Intimidation (Cha): Intimidation is agreat option for a front-line melee character. Demoralize is a great optionwhen you have extra Actions and don’t want to deal with a potentially highMultiple Attack Penalty.
  • Lore (Int): A possibility if youdidn’t dump Intelligence.
  • Medicine (Wis): Your Wisdom isdecent, and this is one of your only options for additional healingbeyond resting.
    • Battle Medicine: Despite theTemporary Hit Points granted by Rage and your massive pool of hitpoints, an easy way to heal yourself may still be a good idea. TheBarbarian tends to burn through hit points rapidly due to theirrelatively poor AC, and a way to heal yourself in combat can be abig help. The amount healed can rise as you improve your proficiencywith Medicine, keeping this a relevent and useful option as yourmaximum hit points rise steadily over time.
  • Nature (Wis): You have the Wisdom tomake it work.
  • Occultism (Int): Knowledge skillsare always helpful, but I would only take this if noone else in theparty has it for some reason.
  • Performance (Cha): You are not aFace.
  • Religion (Wis): You have the Wisdomto make it work.
  • Society (Int): Knowledge skills arealways helpful, but I would only take this if noone else in the partyhas it for some reason.
  • Stealth (Dex): A possibility if yourDexterity is decent.
  • Survival (Wis): You have enoughWisdom to be passable, but skip it if your party has a Druid or aRanger.
  • Thievery (Dex): A possibility ifyour Dexterity is decent.

Feats

Barbarian Feats

1st Level

• Acute Vision: Helpful, but until yourage you’re either stumbling around in the dark, carrying a light source, oryou already have Darkvision. This effect isn’t bad; the problem is just thatyou can only use it while raging, which requires someone to inflict violenceupon for it to remain in effect.
• Adrenaline Rush: Too situational and thebenefits are too small.
• Draconic Arrogance: Situational, butEmotion effects include many enchantments, fear effects, and otherannoyances.
• Moment of Clarity: It’s too easy to avoidoptions with the Concentrate trait to justify a feat and an Action to usethis.
• Raging Intimidation: If you’re buildingwith enough Charisma to use Intimidation, this is essential so that you cancontinue to enjoy Intimidation while raging.
• Raging Thrower: Put a Returning rune on a weaponand you’re good to go. Of course, most barbarians won’t have more than 12 or14 Dexterity, so ranged attacks aren’t typically a good go-to option. If youintend to rely on throwing things, be sure to use a weapon with the Thrownproperty like the Trident.
• Sudden Charge: If you’re going to Strideand Strike (a combination of actions which you’ll do frequently throughoutyour career), you might as well get some more distance out of your twoActions.

2nd Level

• Acute Scent: Imprecise Scent is theBarbarian’s best option for handling hidden and invisible foes.
• Bashing Charge: Too situational.
• Furious Finish: Garbage. Absolute garbage.The damage bonus is small and will become irrelevant quickly as you gainlevels and acquire additional damage bonuses.
• No Escape: A great way to keep enemies inmelee with you, but it may also pull you out of position to protec yourallies. If you take this, consider retraining it once you can get Attack ofOpportunity since they both trigger on the same effect and you still onlyget one Reaction per round.
• Second Wind: A great fallback option, andwith the prevalence of Focus Spells you’re likely to spend 10 minutes afterevery fight standing around while your allies Refocus. Once you get QuickRage at high levels this becomes redundant, so be sure to retrain it.
• Shake it Off: Frightened goes down by 1automatically at the end of every turn, and you can already attempt anAction to reduce your Sickened level. This makes that Action much moreeffective, but that’s far too situational to justify a feat.

4th Level

• Barreling Charge: Pushing past front-lineenemies to reach vulnerable enemies behind them can put in a great tacticalposition. However, be careful about abandoning your own vulnerable allies torush off into combat by yourself.
• Fast Movement: More movement is alwayshelpful for a class that functions almost exclusively in melee. Thisprovides a Status bonus while raging, so it might not stack with spells andsimilar effects, but it stacks with the Fleet feat.
• Oversized Throw: This is really fun, but areal weapon will typically be more effective, especially once you’veenchanted it, and making a Strike with a weapon only takes 1 Action.
• Raging Athlete: Climb and Swim speedsallow you to move easily in a variety of environments, allowing you toovercome many obstacles which normally require magic or struggling alongwith Athletics checks.
• Spiritual Guides: Only works once perday, and only on Perception checks and skill checks. You can’t use this forInitiative since you can’t fail initiative rolls.
• Supernatural Senses: Situational, butworth considering if your allies like to employ effects which hampervision.
• Swipe: A great way to handle groups ofweaker foes, which is normally difficult for martial characters. While it’stechnically situational, it’s a common situation to be in. If you take this,I strongly recommend a weapon with the Swipe trait.
• Wounded Rage: A great way to saveyourself an Action on your next turn. Sadly the Temporary Hit Points fromRage don’t apply until you’ve already taken the damage.

6th Level

• Animal Skin: This works out to +1 ACcompared to other barbarians, but you need to be unarmored and raging, whichmakes you susceptible to ambushes and further exacerbates Animal Instinct’sissues fighting while they are unable to rage. However, if you multiclassinto Monk you may be able to combine this with Mountain Style to have aridiculously high AC. That’s hard to do because you’ll need to spend twoActions to get set up at the beginning of combat, but it may be worth it tomake yourself so difficult to kill.
• Attack of Opportunity: Almost too powerfulto forgo. Pathfinder 2e doesn’t allow you to respond to moving enemies bydefault, so they are often free to walk right past you to attack yourless-durable allies.
• Brutal Bully: If you’re going to usespecial attacks like grapple and trip anyway, more damage never hurts.
• Cleave: Great, but possibly redundantwith Swipe, and the Multiple Attack Penalty works as normal, and your eatingyour Reaction so you won’t be able to use Attack of Opportunity if you haveboth feats.
• Dragon’s Rage Breath: Barbarians get veryfew options for handling crowds of enemies. This will keep pace with thedamage of spells until extremely high levels, and the save DC will be highbecause your Strength will be so high. The limitation on one usage per rageand the 1-hour cooldown on the full damage are both disappointing, but thisis still really good. Even against single foes, the amount of damage you cando to a single target can easily exceed the damage you would do by swinginga weapon with the same two Actions.
• Giant’s Stature: -1 to AC is probably theonly drawback that you care about from Clumsy. Large size makes you take upa 10 ft. square, and combined with the additional 5 ft. of reach you cancontrol a much larger portion of the battlefield. Of course, this isconsiderably more useful if you take Attack of Opportunity first, andunfortunately they both become available at the same level.
• Inner Strength: Too situational. Enfeebledis one of a very long list of negative status conditions on Pathfinder 2eand you can’t afford a feat and an Action to address every one of them.
• Mage Hunter: Too situtional, and it’s onlyavailable to the Superstition Instinct which is already too specialized infighting spellcasters.
• Nocturnal Sense: Scent and Darkvision areboth really good.
• Scouring Rage: A bit of free damage forthe instincts which can use it. Not essential, but a good way to handlegroups of foes if you can postpone starting your Rage until you’re alreadyin melee.
• Spirits’ Interference: Situational, buta 20% miss chance on all ranged attacks against you can be really usefulagainst archers, spellcasters, and other creatures that fight at range.

8th Level

• Animal Rage: The only benefits you get arethe movement types (which are worse than Raging Athlete in most cases), andpotentially the ability to breath water if your animal type is Shark.Absolutely not worth a feat.
• Disarming Assault: Situational becausenot all enemies use weapons, but still a useful tactical option againstthose which do.
• Follow-up Assault: Effectively a +1 toyour attack and +1 damage per weapon damage die. Not a huge difference, andmany great weapons for barbarians already have one or both traits.
• Friendly Toss: If you have other meleeallies this is a fantastic tactical option to get them closer to vulnerableenemies. However, it can also isolate your allies away from the party, so becareful about throwing your allies into a dangerous position.
• Furious Bully: +2 is a good bonus in PF2.Assurance can do a lot to make Athletics reliable against lower-level foes, but if you wantAthletics to be a consistent part of your tactics, don’t pass this up.
• Instinctive Strike: If you’re using scentto help handle enemies which you can’t see, this removes the problemsimposed by the Flat Check to hit then. However, you may find thatSupernatural Sense reduced the Flat Check DC enough that making two Strikesis a better use of the same 2 Actions.
• Renewed Vigor: By this level, the extratemporary hit points are insignificant. Enemies will go through them tooquickly to matter. You would be better served by spending your Action onnearly anything else.
• Share Rage: Potentially useful if you haveanother similar martial character in the party, the +2 damage per attackfrom your ally almost certainly won’t match whatever damage you could dowith the same Action. By this level you’ll reasonably have a Striking runeon your weapon and you have Weapon Specialization, so you could easily bedoing 2d8+2+Strength damage. With 19 Strength (expected at this level),that’s 2d8+6 damage, averaging 15 damage (assuming that you hit, of course).Your ally needs to hit at least 8 times before your Rage ends to justify theAction. Your damage from your attacks will continue to improve as you gainlevels, but Share Rage won’t because Rage never actually improves. Your ownbonuses improve, abd you get Mighty Rage, but Share Rage doesn’t spreadthose benefits.
• Sudden Leap: An interesting way to handleflying enemies, but it’s very situational, and by this level magical flightis easily accessible by your party’s spellcasters.
• Thrash: A decent, safe us for an Action.Grapple has the Attack trait, so Multiple Attack Penalties become a problem.Thrash isn’t an attack, so it’s nearly-guaranteed damage. You’ll do moredamage with a weapon if you hit, but Thrash is a helpful choice if you’realready looking at a steep Multiple Attack Penalty. Unfortunately, as youadd better Striking runes, your weapon damage will significantly outpace thedamage from Thrash. Note that errata corrected the text “FerociousSpecialization” to “Weapon Specialization”, so your Weapon Specializationdamage bonus applies. Unfortunately, nothing specifies what level ofproficiency you use to determine your damage bonus in this case. I assumeit’s the one for Unarmed Strikes, but your proficiencies are all the sameunless you got access to Advanced Weapons somehow.

10th Level

• Come and Get Me: This is a big gamble,and I’m not certain that it pays off. Use with caution. There are nearly no“taunt” mechanics in Pathfinder 2e, so this may be worthwhile solely becauseit motivates enemies to attack you instead of your allies.
• Determined Dash: Situational by design,but for a class that can’t provide magical solutions to these sorts ofproblems this could be a helpful option.
• Furious Sprint: Too situational. Get ahorse instead.
• Great Cleave: Too situational. Unless yourGM loves to throw hordes of weak enemies at you, you’ll nearly never see abenefit from this.
• Impressive Landing: Situational. Youmight be able to use this by using Spider Climb to walk on ceilings beforedropping onto unsuspecting foes below, but you’ll likely need to invest inStealth to do so.
• Knockback: Not worth the feat. If you careenough to take this, use a weapon with the Shove trait and put some effortinto Athletics.
• Overpowering Charge: Barrelling Charge isan tactical option which you occasionally employ to address a singlespecific problem. It is not something you should be doing every turn. Bythis level you have a Rune of Striking, and you might get another in thenext couple levels. Using your Actions to attack will yield considerablymore damage output. I would only take this if you already find yourselfusing Barreling Charge constantly.
• Resounding Blow: Situational and not veryeffective. It can be helpful for some enemies which rely on hearing fortheir senses or against spellcasters, but casting spells while deafenedstill only applies a small chance to fail to cast a spell. The onlyredeeming quality is that there’s no save, but that’s not nearly enough tojustify two Actions when Silencing Strike is the same level.
• Silencing Strike: Oh wow, how is this nota Flourish or something? This should replace every plain Strike that youever make. Keep in mind that it has the Incapacitation trait so creatures ofa higher level than you will be hard to affect, but the chance to Stun othercreatures by doing nothing except hitting them is sinply too good to passup.
• Terrifying Howl: Demoralize everythingwithin 30 feet. Every target is immune to Terrifying Howl for 1 minute, butyou can still use Demoralize etc. afterward. Note that errata changed thetext from “every creature” to “every enemy” so you no longer need to worryabout scaring your allies.
• Tangle of Battle: Decent if you’re builtfor grappling, but even then not essential, and you need to score a CriticalHit to trigger it.

12th Level

• Dragon’s Rage Wings: Free,easily-accessible flight! Absolutely essential at high levels.
• Embrace the Pain: If you have a free hand (AnimalInstinct often fights unarmed), grapplingyour attacked as a Reaction is fantastic. Barbarians are well-suited to buildingaround Athletics, which makes grappling an easy choice. The disarm option won’talways be useful because such a small minority of enemies rely on weapons, but disarming an enemyon their first Strike is a great way to ruin the rest of their turn.
• Furious Grab: Grappling is reallyhelpful, but if you enjoy grappling you’re already deeply invested inAthletics, so this will only rarely have a better result than spending anAction to grapple your target in the normal manner.
• Predator’s Pounce: Similar to SuddenCharge, but since it’s a single Action it’s more flexible. Unfortunately,you need to be unarmored or in light armor. The assumption is that AnimalInstinct barbarians will rely on Animal Skin, but Animal Skin is terrible.If you plan to take this, boost your Dexterity to 16 to max out lightarmor.
• Spirit’s Wrath: An absolutely respectableranged attack option for a class which is notoriously terrible at fightingat range. Your damage almost certainly won’t match your weapon damage, butyou can’t swing a sword at something 120 ft. away.
• Sunder Spell: A great way to handleproblematic magical effects, including buffs, debuffs, area control effects,etc.. You can techically use this on allies, but you should try to do bypunching them rather than hitting them with your +2 Greater Striking pointystick in order to minimize the damage. Tragically, this is limited to theSuperstition Instinct.
• Titan’s Stature: More size and morereach! You may have some trouble in closed spaces like dungeons, but ifthere’s room to get big you can easily dominate entire rooms.
• Unbalancing Sweep: Too situational and theAction cost is too high.

14th Level

• Awesome Blow: This would be totallyworthless if you couldn’t also Trip the target. If you’re invested inAthletics (Assurance, increased the skill as early as possible, etc.) youcan reliably Shove and Trip enemies with a single action without incurring aMultiple Attack Penalty beyond the initial successful Strike. Of course, ifyou don’t benefit from the Shove, you would do just as well simply making aTrip action and saving the two feat spent on Knockback and awesome Blow.
• Giant’s Lunge: More reach never hurts,but if you’re building for reach you’ve likely gotten very attached topolearm by now. But if you really want to use a shield, having 10 ft. reachwith one-handed weapons may be enough to justify the feat.
• Impaling Thrust: This seems strictly worsethan grappling, and the persistent damage is pitifully small.
• Sunder Enchantment: Intelligent enemieswill frequently use magic items, especially powerful options like weaponsand armor. Reducing those items temporarily to mundane items willsignificantly weaken them. However, many enemies aren’t intelligent andwon’t use magic items, and this feat is limited to the SuperstitionInstinct.
• Vengeful Strike: Good enough to make Comeand Get Me a go-to option.
• Whirlwind Strike: Imagine combining thiswith Titan’s Stature. It’s three Actions so you’ll need to be in position atthe start of your turn, but if you can hit at least three enemies it’sconsiderably more effective than making single strikes. Strongly consider aweapon with the Sweep trait in conjunction with this feat.

16th Level

• Collateral Thrash: This doubles the totaldamage output from Thrash without changing the action required. This makesThrash an interesting alternative to Swipe, and since it’s not an attack(and therefore doesn’t impost a Multiple Attack Penalty) it makes a gratfollow-up to a Strike or two. Or you could just thrash two or three times inone turn if you find that it’s working well for you.
• Dragon Transformation: You get a lot fromthis. Flight, scent, darkvision, powerful unarmed attacks, a breath weapon,and possibly other movement types like a burrow speed or a swim speed.However, since you’re making unarmed attacks you’re giving up the benefitsof your well-enhanced magic weapons. Consider putting some gold into a cheapset of Handwraps of Mighty Blows for an easy attack bonus. Your attack bonuswith Unarmed Strikes should be +22+Strength, easily exceeding the flat +22provided by the spell, and any extra bonus on top of that just adds to howeffective this is. Normally polymorph spells let you use the higher of yourown attack bonus or that provided by the spell, but Dragon Transformationforces you to use your own. Of course, that’s not a problem because you’reall but guaranteed to have a higher attack bonus anyway.

  It’s unclear how or if Runes of Striking interact with the spell, but forsimplicity I would assume that they don’t. Note that errata corrected thefinal paragraph of the feat: You no longer get a fixed DC of 30. Instead,you always use your Class DC for the breath weapon.

• Furious Vengeance: Critical hits are goingto happen. Getting a free Strike in response will lead to a huge amount ofextra damage output.
• Penetrating Projectile: Really cool, butyou likely don’t have a decent weapon to back this up, and it’s hard to getmore than two enemies in a straight line.
• Reckless Abandon: This is a big gambleto make when you’re already injured. Attack bonuses are significant, but youtake an equivalent penalty to AC and a penalty to saves, so you’re likely toincrease the amount of damage you take faster than the amount of damage youdeal. Still, you might combine this with Come and Get Me and Vengeful Striketo really draw attention to yourself, and rely on the temporary hit pointsfrom Come and Get Me to keep you alive.
• Shattering Blows: Too situational. Ifyou’re really worried about breaking items, buy an Adamantine Weapon.

18th Level

• Brutal Critical: A single extra damagedie on a critical hit is nothing at this level. Your Strength is above 20,and your attacks should deal 3 or 4 dice of damage (Rune of Major Strikingis a 19th-level item, so you probably don’t have one yet but they’re rightaround the corner). The real benefit is the two dice of bleed damage. Ifyou’re swinging a weapon that deals d10 or d12 damage, that will add upquickly.
• Perfect Clarity: Will Saves are yourweakest save, and the ability to reroll them makes you dramatically moreresilient. You’ll end your Rage prematurely, but you got Quick Rage at level17, so you’ll only go without raging for one turn. Considering this couldeasily save your life, giving up Rage for one turn seems like a fairtrade.
• Vicious Evisceration: This is for monstersand NPCs. Unless you plan to fight the same creature multiple times in thecourse of the same day with ample time for everyone to heal between fights,this will effectively deal extra damage equal to the target’s level (doubleits level if you scroe a critical). This costs two Actions. Instead, youcould make two Strikes, and assuming you’re using something at least asdamaging as a longsword you should be doing at minimum 3d8+11 (+5 Str, +6Greater Weapon Specialization; Avg. 24.5), and that doesn’t account for Rageor additional damage from property runes or other effects. Unless thetarget’s level significantly exceeds your average damage or the target hassome way to heal to full health, I don’t see a scenario where this is worthsuch a high-level feat.

20th Level

• Contageous Rage: You’re unlikely to usethis more than once or twice in a single rage, depending on your party. Bythis level you have Quick Rage, and since this action has the Rage trait youcan use the same Action to make yourself and an ally Rage. Your ally gets tochoose whether or not to accept your Anathema, but they would need to be ain a truly bizzarre circumstance to decline. I think your party can manageto behave themselves for a minute at a time, especially with a fight todistract them. The exact benefits of this decision vary depending on yourInstinct. If you selected Animal Instinct, your ally is unlikely to benefitfrom the improve unarmed attack unless they are a Monk. If you chose Giantinstinct, your ally is almost certainly unable to benefit because they areunlikely to use a “larger weapon” unless they are also a Giant InstinctBarbarian.
• Quaking Stomp: An 8th-level spell, and youcan use it at half the normal Action cost (1 Action instead of 2 Actions)every 10 minutes.
• Unstoppable Juggernaut: By this level youshould probably have 20 Constitution, so 8 points of damage resistance toall damage. That’s a significant increase to your durability. It’s not goingto change your tactics, but it’ll keep you alive in very difficultencounters. This is probably a better default option than anything in thecore rulebook.

General Feats

• Armor Proficiency: You are only Trainedin medium armor until 13th level, giving you 12 full levels at which thisfeat will let heavy armor match your proficiency with medium armor. Youcould take this at low levels, enjoy heavy armor for a long time, thenretrain the feat at level 12 or 13 and switch to medium armor if you want todo so. That also gives you time to increase your Dexterity at levels 5 and10 if you need to do so.
• Canny Acumen: A great way to improve yourproficiency in Perception or your weakest save, but you don’t get to Masteruntil 17th level so it’s easy to delay.
• Shield Block: A shield can add a lot toyour durability, and considering the Barbarian’s relatively poor AC that maybe enough to justify the feat.
• Toughness: You already have more hitpoints than anyone, but the Barbarian tends to have worse AC than otherfront-line melee characters, so you need hit points to compensate.

Weapons

Because your options for weapons are so broad, it’s difficult to make specific recommendations. Instead, I’ll offer some general advice on common Martial Weapons, and I’ll discuss some Uncommon and Advanced Weapons which offer some interesting options to the characters who can access them.

Your first decision is whether you will use one-handed weapons and a shield, two-handed weapons, or a one-handed weapon and a free hand so that you can use your free hand to grapple and perform other special attacks. Animal Instinct Barbarians will largely disregard this decision in favor of making unarmed attacks, but be sure to pick up a ranged weapon which you can throw.

If you choose a one-handed weapon and a shield, you’re choosing to improve your durability at the expense of offensive capability. Consider feats like Shield Block to make the best possible use of your shield, and consider multiclassing into Fighter to get extra options for your shield. You can still use weapons with traits like Trip and Shove to perform those special attacks without a free hand, so consider weapons like the Flail if you plan to make use of special attacks on a regular basis. If your party doesn’t have good options for dealing with crowds of weak enemies, look for weapons with the Sweep trait like the BAttle Axe. If you’re not sure, the Longsword is a perfectly fine option.

If you choose to use two-handed weapons, you’re choosing to focus on damage output over durability. This is generally an expectation for the Barbarian, but if you’re going this route be sure that your party has adequate healing options available. Consider feats like Toughness, and consider the Medicine skill and related Skill Feats if your party can’t constantly supply you with magical healing. Your choice of weapons is very similar to one-handed weapons, but you have the option of a weapon with Reach. If you really enjoy special attacks, the War Flail combines several excellent traits. If you just want to hit stuff, go for a Greatsword.

If you choose to fight with an open hand, any one-handed will do fine, but you might also consider the Bastard Sword. The Bastard Sword, when used two-handed, deals a much damage as the Greatsword, but you have the option to use it one-handed so that you can use your other hand to grapple or hold items or whatever else. However, if you don’t intend to Grapple you’ll be better server by using a weapon with the appropriate Trait so that you can apply your weapon’s Item Bonus to your checks.

Uncommon Martial Weapons and Advanced Weapons

• Gnome Hooked Hammer: Great for anempty-hand build becuase you can use it two-handed for extra damage, and italso has the Trip property so you can get the Item Bonus to checks to tripthings.
• Horsechopper: Basically a Guisarme, butit does less damage in exchange for Versatile. That would be a fine trade ifit didn’t also cost feats to get access to the Horsechopper.

Armor

• Padded Armor: Good starting armor if youplan to rely on Animal Skin exclusively for your AC, but otherwise go formedium armor.
• Hide: Your likely starting armor.
• Breastplate: Probably your permanentchoice of armor.
• Half Plate/Full Plate: If you decide togo for heavy armor, you’ll probably still start with Hide because heavyarmor is so expensive. If you have 12 Dexterity and plan to eventuallyreturn to medium armor once your proficiency improves, stick to half plate.Otherwise, consider spending the extra gold on full plate.

Magic Items

Other Magic Items

• Berserker’s Cloak: Putting runes onHandwraps of Mighty Blows is more cost-effective for Animal InstinctBarbarians, and using a weapon is more effective for everyone else.
• Handwraps of Mighty Blows: As crucial forAnimal Instinct Barbarians as a weapon is for every other type ofbarbarian.

Archetypes

In general, avoid archetypes which provide spellcasting. The inability to use actions with the Concentrate trait during a rage makes spellcasting difficult to rely upon, especially in combat when your feats are most important.

• Alchemist: Conceptually tempting, sincemutagens seem like a fun way to supplement Rage, but the benefits are mostlyredundant. Animal Instinct Barbarians are likely to consider BestialMutagen, but the unnarmed attacks will be worse than what you get whileraging. Juggernaut Mutagen also looks tempting, but you get more TemporaryHit Points from Rage. Both mutagens grant items bonuses, but they won’tstack with essential items like Handwraps of Mighty Blows and fundamentalrunes on your armor. You might gain some benefit from crafting elixirs, butif you just need cheap healing it’s
• Fighter: The Fighter has a lot of greatoptions for the Barbarian, and since so few Fighter feats have theConcentrate trait, almost all of the Fighter’s feats are options for you.Feats which take a single Action to make a Strike and gain some otherbenefit like grabbing or shoving the target can help maximize your actioneconomy, allowing you to use your favorite special attacks without costingpotential Strikes. Fighter Class Feats also make two-weapon fighting buildsa possibility, but I’m not certain that they’re worth the feat investment.Avoid Power Attack; Rage’s damage bonus applies to each hit, so you’ll getbetter damage output from making extra Strikes. Similarly, be wary of Stancefeats, as the Action investment to both Rage and start a Stance at thebeginning of a fight can cut into crucial damage output early in a fightwhen it’s most impactful.
• Monk: Absolutely stellar for AnimalInstinct barbarians. Powerful Fist is helpful when you’re unable to rage,and many Monk Feats offer fantastic ways to complement your unarmed attacks.Stance feats can be a hard choice because spending two actions to get set upin the first round of combat can be hard until you have options like QuickRage and Predator’s Pounce. Take Monk’s Flurry as soon as possible so thatyou can get even more mileage out of your absurdly powerful unarmed attacks.Barbarians with instincts other than Animal will likely be better served bythe Fighter.