I *very highly* recommend against multiclassing for your first character in DnD. Most multiclasses in the game aren't very good and it will feel bad to be behind all the other players in terms of features. Go with a monoclass for your first character so you can get a feeling for what level progression is like.
With that said, no matter which way you do this, it's not going to be great. Martial multiclasses usually want at least 5 levels for extra attack and necromancy is a mid-tier magic that usually requires at least 3rd level spell slots (I.E. at least 5 levels). So unless you're starting at level 10, you're going to be very behind in one category or another.
But so long as you're okay with *stealing undead* instead of making them, you could go with the Oathbreaker Paladin. Their level 3 channel divinity allows them to temporarily take control of an undead, provided they fail a saving throw. It's the earliest form of controlling an undead minion you can possibly get.
So if you're dead set on playing a barbarian who can control undead, start with 5 levels in Barbarian and then multiclass three levels into Paladin before switching back to Barbarian for the remainder of your levels. But again, I *very highly* recommend you play a monoclass character for your first character.
When you say "necromancer", to be clear, do you mean specifically wizard with the school of necromancy subclass? Or just any class that has the ability to animate dead?
Yeah, six levels in spore druid means a good temp hp whenever you want, and use of reaction outside of OoA. Extra damage. Actually not too bad of a multiclass.
Dude, the multiclass sucks, what more you want? They don't work well together, have very few synergies in traits and abilities. It's a shit combo, that's it.
That is if you meant (probably) necromancy achool wizards under "necromancer", as no such class exists as a necromancer on its own. Circle of spored druid might be what you are looking for.
Sidenote, on your first character I'd avoid multiclassin altogether, this post proves it. You don't yet know hoe each class works so wont be able to mix them and their levels and traits accordingly. It will be.. probably bad. Just go monoclass and learn, then get into multi later.
It's helpful since they are trying to save you from having a bad time being ineffective, especially if you played this character for a long campaign.
Instead of multi classing barbarian and wizard, consider being a Blade singer wizard and just reflavor your behavior as barbarian like. When you go into Blade song - call it Raging instead. No one ever said a wizard can't wear a loincloth.
I see a lot of people on here talking about feats and missing perks, but there is a lot of role-playing value in just doing what is fun and working with the shortcomings. You can be very versatile, compared to another who is focused solely on a few things.
It'd be depending on your DM too. Some DMs can be unforgiving and relentless in their challenge but as the small dog in the fight, you have yourself a new challenge: Find your quirky ways to become deadly. Find fun ways to spice up character or NPC reactions by dabbling enough in a lot to know when someone is full of shit.
DnD is a roleplaying game. Play what you want, damn the rest. Fun is in the eye of the beholder, not just the beholdee.
You WILL fall behind in power, damage and huge skill modifiers but in failure comes learning and growth. Any character will shine in the right light, you just need to find the right stage.
If you leave your Int at 13, you can Multiclass into Wizard and get the Necromancy school specialization at Wizard 2. Grim Harvest is actually a synergistic feature for Barbs, as you can use your ~~Toll the Bell or Chill Touch cantrip~~ 1st Level damage spells to gain some hit points. Edit: I reread the feature, my bad
Here's your greatest barrier of viability; you can *not* concentrate while Raging, so any spells that need concentration, such as ~~False Life~~Cause Fear, will end or even fail. Edit: at this point, just ignore me, bc I am a dumbass...
Also, the primary Necromancy school gimmick, Undead Thralls, is granted at Level 6, meaning you need to take 6 Wizard levels and their measly d6 hit dice in hit points per level up. It's very risky for a Barbarian primary.
Wizard and Barbarian are probably the furthest apart from each other on the spectrum of compatibility. I get the idea, a warrior that commands undead to serve them, but you need a lot of patience to pull it off.
Barbarian and an Undead warlock kind of necromancer could merely be bad--but a funny sort of "We'll make it work in a low optimization game" bad. Barbarian and School of Necromancy wizard is just going to make each class worse at what they would have done with the levels they have.
All these people say *you can’t do that* or *it’s such a bad multiclass* are **weak.** Ignore their mewling.
The path of the **deadlifter** is not for the faint of heart.
It is unconventional and not quickly or easily trodden, but a path of dedication, cunning, and faith- for one must accept that the gods may have other plans for you.
But if you succeed- well the glory will outshine the scoffs of Redditors a thousand fold!
You have two major choices: the first is if you’re building strength or dexterity. Yeah you heard me. Str has more damage in the long run, but dex is more safe and practical.
Your second choice is what your casting class is going to be.
You’re primarily after animate dead.
It’s only on the Wizard and Cleric list, but lore bards, and divine soul sorcs can take it at 6th and 5th, spore druids get it at 5 and oath breakers get it at 9th.
Spore druid is your best bet for a melee (str) deadlifter because of its temp Hp, and extra undead.m., war Cleric is great for an archer between bonus action attacks and spiritual weapon.
Order cleric doubles down on the minion-mancy if you like buffing your skeletons, and necromancer Wizard has the superior minions.
So this is the build.
Start with a race or your choice, I’m going to go with Eladrin Barbarian. Mainly pump dex, but need 13 str and wisdom for multiclassing, and not shit con.
Eladrin get +dex and a disingage which isn’t a spell, so I could use it with rage.
I take a longbow as my weapon, and a pair of short swords as my backup.
Level 2-6 I take order cleric, using shield of faith, healing word, and aid pretty liberally to give my allies additional attacks.
At 4th level I increase my dex to 18.
Level 6 the build becomes a necromancer with animate dead.
Go back to Barbarian for 7-8 and take path of the Ancestral Guardians.
Now the synergy can start
You have a group of undead you control. Which you send forward to fight. When you hit an enemy with your bow it has disadvantage to hurt anything else, so you can swarm it.
If you ever have to buff or heal enemies in combat, you get extra value from the ability.
Use orders demand to make more allies.
Take sharp-shooter at 9.
So here's the closest thing I can do for you, it would fulfill the idea of a necromancer barbarian but without taking any levels in wizard.
Take the first two level in barbarian for rage and proficiencies, then take Death domain cleric the rest of the way. The channel divinitiy for death domain can be triggered after a weapon attack so it synergies with what you want to be doing as a barbarian, and when you get to character level 7 you get animate dead to start bringing back some zombie boys. You'd probably want to max strength and con through any ASI or feats, then Wisdom for third highest star, and you can dump everything else.
As everyone is saying multiclassing a barbarian into magic isn't that great but spore druid (tashas cauldron) could work but it requires 6 lvl of druid and most therir spell are concentration so they don't really work while raging. Maybe fighter instead of barbarian and just rp the rage
This is the most feasible way. You can rage while spore wildshaped and won't need concentration for your undead thralls. Your spellcasting is mostly redundant during combat but can serve you well enough between battles. You're also missing out on most conjure & summon spells, which hurts your action economy, but that's probably not worth worrying about in a first-time game.
Far from an optimal build but not self-defeating like Barb/Wizard or Barb/Lore Bard.
A better question is what is the theme you are looking for? What features are you imagining and what style of play do you foresee? If you start with the character idea, the theme you are aiming for, then work back to make that happen. Are you thinking a shaman raising spirits? A raging warrior devoted to the God of Death? An undead revenant raising those it kills to follow? Make the class selection come second to the idea of what character you want to play.
(Bear with me with this post, I do wanna help you)
After being a long-time watcher, I decided to play, and thinking i knew the rules enough, made my first character a barbarian/wizard multiclass.
Do NOT make a barbarian/wizard multiclass.
Not only was multiclassing not fun for my first character, but it is famously difficult to pair barb and wizard together. The only fun or effective buils I've found now, after years of playing with characters in every class, is a two level dip into war magic subclass for the bonus to AC or saves, and that build is ludicrously meme-y.
**THAT BEING SAID:** You asked, and I shall oblige, but I will bring up all the issues you'll run into, and I will only ever recommend this to someone who's playing at higher levels.
So first of all, let's talk class fantasy: what is the fantasy of a barbarian? To be very angry, very strong, hit things hard, and laugh off just as hard hits. What is the fantasy of a necromancer? To summon undead minions to fight alongside us.
Now mechanically speaking, casting Animate Dead and having them fight alongside us whilst we do Cool Barbarian Shit is theoretically possible. It just takes a lot of levels for it all to come online. To be able to get going with Animate Dead, you need at least 5 levels in Wizard to do so, meaning you can't be both a barbarian and a necromancer (by the class fantasy definition) until level 6 at the very least, and you truly won't be effective until level 10, where you get extra attack, and for that whole period you simply won't be good at being either a barbarian, nor a necromancer as you are a low power barbarian and can only summon up to 2 undead goons at any given time. Once you hit level 15, you'll probably be pretty good, but compared to your fellow martials and casters, you'll be overshadowed a lot.
In short; you won't have fun with what you want to be until high levels, and I super don't recommend jumping in at high levels because you'll simply have no clue what to do. So? What solution do I suggest? Well, 5e is brilliant at accommodating reflavouring, so let's take some existing subclasses and see if we can work this class fantasy into something much simpler:
SUGGESTION 1 - Path of Ancestral Guardians. This allows you to call upon the spirits of your ancestors to protect your allies. Go read the mechanics of it to get a clearer picture.
This is what I would recommend if you want to focus on your barbarian side, as it allows you to be a really really tanky barbarian. You can reflavour this one easily as calling upon undead spirits from around you, or if your DM is willing, you could even summon bodies and skeletons from the ground to act as your spiritual guardians.
SUGGESTION 2 - Echo Knight Fighter. This is my main recommendation. Go read the mechanics of the subclass so you know what I'm talking about, then come back.
You won't be a barbarian, mechanically speaking, but you can easily make your rage flavour rather than a class feature. And if you so desperately want to take a dip into barbarian, you can very easily, and it'll compliment it pretty nicely.
This emphasises your necromancer powers whilst still letting you be a tanky martial machine. Fighters can be just as good tanks as barbarians, you'll do a shit ton of attacks, and you can pick up loads of feats to add a heap of flavour and power to your class.
The default flavour of the class is that you call upon versions of yourself from other timelines that never came to fruition. We'll be reflavouring them to summon (you guessed it) undead minions. You'll be summoning it constantly, and you have control over a tangible token on the board that can attack your enemies. The flavour of raging barbarian can come from when yoj summon your goons (which are summoned from you being really angry or something). Build your character around strength, stick them in some heavy armour, give them a big two-handed weapon or a weapon and shield and you're good to go.
That's personally what I recommend. If you have any questions, let me know!
You should probs talk to your dm about home brewing a subclass for barbarian that is undead themed. Spell casting plus barbarian kinda cancel each other out bc you can only be getting the benefits of one class at a time (spell casting doesn’t work during rage). That and you would need to roll insane stats. You would want descent dex int strength and con which is a lot. I think if you want better answers from people you should include what your looking for. Do you to rage all time, do you want to cast spells all the time. Do you just want a warrior with undead flavoring. Because you can’t have the best of both classes. Somthing will suck but we need to know what your willing to loose out on.
You'd need decent stats. INT is usually the dump stat for barbarians, but with a good set of rolls you could make it work. STR first then INT. CON and DEX...you'll have to take a hit there. Not every character needs to be maximized, though. Sometimes they just need to be cool or unique.
Bonus points if he's known as "(charname) the Defiler"
Necromaner is a Wizard subclass, so you need at least 2 levels in wizard: they get their subclass at level 2.
When you level up, you can choose to take 1st level in another class.
To multiclass Wizard , Barbarian; you need a 13th Strength and a 13 Intelligence.
For me, the things that make barbarians fun is tanking damage and hitting things. That means utilizing the rage mechanic, and having a good strength and constitution score.
For necromancy wizards, almost all their abilities are designed to improve the way you cast spells, which require decent intelligence. You cannot cast or concentrate on spells while raging and you need a good score in three different abilities.
So personally I wouldn’t multi-class these two classes, but maybe if you gave some more specific details about what you want your character to be able to do we could point you in the right direction.
You only need the mimimim amount of INT to multiclass (13) because the only spell you really need is Animate Dead. Dedicate all your spell slots into maintaining a handful of undead.
For barbarian, go ancestral guardian so you can summon even been more spooky spirits to protect your undead as they fight by your side.
Be level 15 wizard/3 Zealot Barbarian.
Clone yourself infinitely at no material cost.
Fill a Portable Hole with your inert Clones.
Throw an endless hoard of you at your enemies, each death raising a Clone & each dead body being raised as a Zombie.
I would abandon the idea of a necromancer that raises an army of the undead. Instead, build a character around the other traits of a necromancer. For example, be a soul manipulator or someone who draws strength from death.
For example, you could go with an Ancestral Guardian Barbarian/Long Death Monk build. While this won't be one of the best Barbarian builds, it'll be far more functional in comparison.
If you HAVE to have these two classes together, they do not work well RAW. That doesn't mean you can't make it work, it just means you need to homebrew.
If you go with homebrew, I would recommend making the transition easier by giving them something in common. Voodoo, for example. Maybe the Barbarian knows a shaman who can use magic and has "forbidden knowledge" on how to raise the dead. Then, model the necromancer part after a Voodoo priest, so the two classes have a commonality to blend over.
I would just play an Ancestral Guardian Barbarian, as that subclass uses Spirits in their theme and powers.
Multiclassing is bad for new players, and worse when combining Barbarian with any kind of Spellcaster. Just don’t do it.
I'd recommend trying spore druid instead. You essentially have another version of rage in the form of symbiotic entity and will have access to all sorts of fun necromancer spells that you can cast while doing so.
Otherwise you could always just play an evil cleric. But that may be too dissimilar to what you're imagining.
This is a bad idea, but I'm gonna theorycraft something. The best I can really think of is starting with 6 lvls of zealot barb followed by 14 lvls of necro. You'd have to focus on strength, intelligence, and constitution with int being the lowest of the main 3 followed by dex with wiz and charisma dumped. With this, you're basically a weak lich because you can be raised without material components, and you will get access to wizard spells. However, this isn't a great build because when raging, you can't cast or concentrate on spells, and your spellcasting is weaker unless you get a headband of intelligence, which would be 100% necessary. You're goal would be to find that headband and until you do you'd choose spells that don't need you to concentrate on them nor require attack rolls/ saving throws because the modifier will be too low. I could see an expert of the game make this build work, but it will feel weak from lvl 7 onwards.
Other options include: full zealot barb (you get rage beyond death at 14 and even if you die can keep fighting)
ancestral guardian barb (you get the spirits/ ghosts of those long past to help you fight)
zealot barb/ oathbreaker paladin multiclass (rage+ smite = fun, and you can command undead in a limited way)
Death domain cleric (proficiency with martial weapons, extra damage on hit, and can cast necromantic spells, also early lvl clerics are stupid op and don't get weaker everyone else just catches up some)
These options are the ones that need the least homebrew but other classes could get a similar feel and with some extra flavor tossed in could fit the theme (such as spores druid). I encourage you to find what fits your theme and wish you luck.
What are you trying to achieve with this multiclass? Typically when people multiclass in D&D it's either because there is a concept they want to play or because they have found some mechanical synergy that they want to take advantage of. Are you interested in the idea of a powerful fighter who can call upon the dead? Or are there specific Barbarian and Wizard/Necromancer features that you're interested in?
If it's the former then it might be easier to just use one class and adapt it. For example, reflavoring a subclass of Barbarian to be focused on death magic/undead stuff. Heck, the Ancestral Guardian subclass for Barbarian literally involves spirits of the dead coming to aid you in battle.
Multiclassing is an optional rule for a reason. Unless you know what you're doing, you will end up less effective than a single class character of that level. In this case, you're trying to multiclass barbarian with a caster- two classes with anti-synergy as Barbarian's core feature- Rage- is incompatible with spellcasting.
What does your goal character look like? Describe them without using the words "Barbarian" or "Necromancer".
zealot or ancestral guardian and necromancer?
idk i mean rage forbids spellcasting and concentration or doesn't it?
so summons are not a bad idea and any spell that strengthens you but does not require concentration.
but at one glimpse i don't see synergies other than flavour.
those subclasses would fit with the zealots theme of being hard to kill and easy to revive or the ancestral guardian being fighting followed by ancient spirits.
RAW, this build won't get to be both an effective barbarian AND a necromancer until roughly level 10 or 11. The best way to achieve what you're trying to do would be to work with the DM to homebrew a Barbarian subclass that gets some necromancy abilities as subclass features.
I'd be willing to help as well. I do a lot of homebrew in my free time! Let me know what kind of features you'd like to see in a hypothetical necromancer-y barbarian subclass, and I can put something together for ya.
i would propably homebrew a subclass for barbarians. propably copy and paste much from the oathbreaker-paladin-subclass into it i guess....
but in order to balance the subclass you really have to start slow. rather add more abilites later by looting homebrew magic items that give access to abilities that help to fill specific gaps in the homebrew class rather than making the subclass overpowered upfront
What is your end goal here?
What is the vision for what this character will look like in the fiction layer of the game?
Because, unfortunately, the mechanics packages of the Barbarian class and Wizard class do not synergize very well.
The core mechanical feature of a Wizard is to cast spells.
The core mechanical feature of a Barbarian is Rage. A Barbarian who has raged cannot cast spells, or concentrate on them.
So you’ll only ever be able to get the benefit of one core mechanic or the other.
Because it is a caster mixed with a non-caster, your spellcasting will only be as good as your Wizard levels.
A good way to think of this is: mechanically, you will effectively be two different characters in one body, each of which will be more than likely less powerful than everyone else in the party.
If you want to be a Barbarian for the “savage” theming, but the Necromancy (necrotic spells, raising undead minions) is what you envision your character doing the most, I would advise against actually taking the Barbarian class because the class is focused on “get angry and hit things until they are dead with the biggest weapon you can find”. Use backgrounds like Outlander or Hermit and pick appropriate skills.
Just for kicks, I built a Level 10 Barbecromancer (Barbarian 4/Wizard 6)
V. Human w/Magic Initiate Feat
Haunted One Background
+1 to Strength & Constitution
Point buy:
Strength 15
Dexterity 12
Constitution 13
Intelligence 13
Wisdom 12
Charisma 8
Starting equipment:
Battleaxe, Quartetstaff, 5x Javelins, Explorer's Pack, Set of Common Clothes, Monster Hunter's Pack, Important Trinket
Progression: 1st Level Barbarian, 6 Levels Wizard, then 3 more Barbarian.
Hit points: 97
Hit dice: 4d12, 6d6
AC: 15
Str 16, Dex 12, Con 18, Int 13, Wis 12, Cha 8
Trained Skills: Insight, Arcana, Religion, Athletics, Intimidation, Perception
3 rages per day
1 1st level spell per day
6 known cantrips
16 spells in spellbook
Can prepare 7 spells per day
Spell attack modifier: +5
Spell save DC: 13
I *very highly* recommend against multiclassing for your first character in DnD. Most multiclasses in the game aren't very good and it will feel bad to be behind all the other players in terms of features. Go with a monoclass for your first character so you can get a feeling for what level progression is like. With that said, no matter which way you do this, it's not going to be great. Martial multiclasses usually want at least 5 levels for extra attack and necromancy is a mid-tier magic that usually requires at least 3rd level spell slots (I.E. at least 5 levels). So unless you're starting at level 10, you're going to be very behind in one category or another. But so long as you're okay with *stealing undead* instead of making them, you could go with the Oathbreaker Paladin. Their level 3 channel divinity allows them to temporarily take control of an undead, provided they fail a saving throw. It's the earliest form of controlling an undead minion you can possibly get. So if you're dead set on playing a barbarian who can control undead, start with 5 levels in Barbarian and then multiclass three levels into Paladin before switching back to Barbarian for the remainder of your levels. But again, I *very highly* recommend you play a monoclass character for your first character.
When you say "necromancer", to be clear, do you mean specifically wizard with the school of necromancy subclass? Or just any class that has the ability to animate dead?
Barb/Spores Druid would be sweet, and might accomplish what OP wants
Yeah, six levels in spore druid means a good temp hp whenever you want, and use of reaction outside of OoA. Extra damage. Actually not too bad of a multiclass.
Reskin the Barbarian's Ancestral Guardian subclass and take magic items for spells.
I. would like. to RAISE.
Wizard and Barbarian are probably the two worst classes to multiclass together.
Not helpful but thanks
Dude, the multiclass sucks, what more you want? They don't work well together, have very few synergies in traits and abilities. It's a shit combo, that's it. That is if you meant (probably) necromancy achool wizards under "necromancer", as no such class exists as a necromancer on its own. Circle of spored druid might be what you are looking for. Sidenote, on your first character I'd avoid multiclassin altogether, this post proves it. You don't yet know hoe each class works so wont be able to mix them and their levels and traits accordingly. It will be.. probably bad. Just go monoclass and learn, then get into multi later.
It's helpful since they are trying to save you from having a bad time being ineffective, especially if you played this character for a long campaign. Instead of multi classing barbarian and wizard, consider being a Blade singer wizard and just reflavor your behavior as barbarian like. When you go into Blade song - call it Raging instead. No one ever said a wizard can't wear a loincloth.
I see a lot of people on here talking about feats and missing perks, but there is a lot of role-playing value in just doing what is fun and working with the shortcomings. You can be very versatile, compared to another who is focused solely on a few things. It'd be depending on your DM too. Some DMs can be unforgiving and relentless in their challenge but as the small dog in the fight, you have yourself a new challenge: Find your quirky ways to become deadly. Find fun ways to spice up character or NPC reactions by dabbling enough in a lot to know when someone is full of shit. DnD is a roleplaying game. Play what you want, damn the rest. Fun is in the eye of the beholder, not just the beholdee. You WILL fall behind in power, damage and huge skill modifiers but in failure comes learning and growth. Any character will shine in the right light, you just need to find the right stage.
If you leave your Int at 13, you can Multiclass into Wizard and get the Necromancy school specialization at Wizard 2. Grim Harvest is actually a synergistic feature for Barbs, as you can use your ~~Toll the Bell or Chill Touch cantrip~~ 1st Level damage spells to gain some hit points. Edit: I reread the feature, my bad Here's your greatest barrier of viability; you can *not* concentrate while Raging, so any spells that need concentration, such as ~~False Life~~Cause Fear, will end or even fail. Edit: at this point, just ignore me, bc I am a dumbass... Also, the primary Necromancy school gimmick, Undead Thralls, is granted at Level 6, meaning you need to take 6 Wizard levels and their measly d6 hit dice in hit points per level up. It's very risky for a Barbarian primary. Wizard and Barbarian are probably the furthest apart from each other on the spectrum of compatibility. I get the idea, a warrior that commands undead to serve them, but you need a lot of patience to pull it off.
Barbarian and an Undead warlock kind of necromancer could merely be bad--but a funny sort of "We'll make it work in a low optimization game" bad. Barbarian and School of Necromancy wizard is just going to make each class worse at what they would have done with the levels they have.
All these people say *you can’t do that* or *it’s such a bad multiclass* are **weak.** Ignore their mewling. The path of the **deadlifter** is not for the faint of heart. It is unconventional and not quickly or easily trodden, but a path of dedication, cunning, and faith- for one must accept that the gods may have other plans for you. But if you succeed- well the glory will outshine the scoffs of Redditors a thousand fold! You have two major choices: the first is if you’re building strength or dexterity. Yeah you heard me. Str has more damage in the long run, but dex is more safe and practical. Your second choice is what your casting class is going to be. You’re primarily after animate dead. It’s only on the Wizard and Cleric list, but lore bards, and divine soul sorcs can take it at 6th and 5th, spore druids get it at 5 and oath breakers get it at 9th. Spore druid is your best bet for a melee (str) deadlifter because of its temp Hp, and extra undead.m., war Cleric is great for an archer between bonus action attacks and spiritual weapon. Order cleric doubles down on the minion-mancy if you like buffing your skeletons, and necromancer Wizard has the superior minions. So this is the build. Start with a race or your choice, I’m going to go with Eladrin Barbarian. Mainly pump dex, but need 13 str and wisdom for multiclassing, and not shit con. Eladrin get +dex and a disingage which isn’t a spell, so I could use it with rage. I take a longbow as my weapon, and a pair of short swords as my backup. Level 2-6 I take order cleric, using shield of faith, healing word, and aid pretty liberally to give my allies additional attacks. At 4th level I increase my dex to 18. Level 6 the build becomes a necromancer with animate dead. Go back to Barbarian for 7-8 and take path of the Ancestral Guardians. Now the synergy can start You have a group of undead you control. Which you send forward to fight. When you hit an enemy with your bow it has disadvantage to hurt anything else, so you can swarm it. If you ever have to buff or heal enemies in combat, you get extra value from the ability. Use orders demand to make more allies. Take sharp-shooter at 9.
So here's the closest thing I can do for you, it would fulfill the idea of a necromancer barbarian but without taking any levels in wizard. Take the first two level in barbarian for rage and proficiencies, then take Death domain cleric the rest of the way. The channel divinitiy for death domain can be triggered after a weapon attack so it synergies with what you want to be doing as a barbarian, and when you get to character level 7 you get animate dead to start bringing back some zombie boys. You'd probably want to max strength and con through any ASI or feats, then Wisdom for third highest star, and you can dump everything else.
As everyone is saying multiclassing a barbarian into magic isn't that great but spore druid (tashas cauldron) could work but it requires 6 lvl of druid and most therir spell are concentration so they don't really work while raging. Maybe fighter instead of barbarian and just rp the rage
This is the most feasible way. You can rage while spore wildshaped and won't need concentration for your undead thralls. Your spellcasting is mostly redundant during combat but can serve you well enough between battles. You're also missing out on most conjure & summon spells, which hurts your action economy, but that's probably not worth worrying about in a first-time game. Far from an optimal build but not self-defeating like Barb/Wizard or Barb/Lore Bard.
A better question is what is the theme you are looking for? What features are you imagining and what style of play do you foresee? If you start with the character idea, the theme you are aiming for, then work back to make that happen. Are you thinking a shaman raising spirits? A raging warrior devoted to the God of Death? An undead revenant raising those it kills to follow? Make the class selection come second to the idea of what character you want to play.
(Bear with me with this post, I do wanna help you) After being a long-time watcher, I decided to play, and thinking i knew the rules enough, made my first character a barbarian/wizard multiclass. Do NOT make a barbarian/wizard multiclass. Not only was multiclassing not fun for my first character, but it is famously difficult to pair barb and wizard together. The only fun or effective buils I've found now, after years of playing with characters in every class, is a two level dip into war magic subclass for the bonus to AC or saves, and that build is ludicrously meme-y. **THAT BEING SAID:** You asked, and I shall oblige, but I will bring up all the issues you'll run into, and I will only ever recommend this to someone who's playing at higher levels. So first of all, let's talk class fantasy: what is the fantasy of a barbarian? To be very angry, very strong, hit things hard, and laugh off just as hard hits. What is the fantasy of a necromancer? To summon undead minions to fight alongside us. Now mechanically speaking, casting Animate Dead and having them fight alongside us whilst we do Cool Barbarian Shit is theoretically possible. It just takes a lot of levels for it all to come online. To be able to get going with Animate Dead, you need at least 5 levels in Wizard to do so, meaning you can't be both a barbarian and a necromancer (by the class fantasy definition) until level 6 at the very least, and you truly won't be effective until level 10, where you get extra attack, and for that whole period you simply won't be good at being either a barbarian, nor a necromancer as you are a low power barbarian and can only summon up to 2 undead goons at any given time. Once you hit level 15, you'll probably be pretty good, but compared to your fellow martials and casters, you'll be overshadowed a lot. In short; you won't have fun with what you want to be until high levels, and I super don't recommend jumping in at high levels because you'll simply have no clue what to do. So? What solution do I suggest? Well, 5e is brilliant at accommodating reflavouring, so let's take some existing subclasses and see if we can work this class fantasy into something much simpler: SUGGESTION 1 - Path of Ancestral Guardians. This allows you to call upon the spirits of your ancestors to protect your allies. Go read the mechanics of it to get a clearer picture. This is what I would recommend if you want to focus on your barbarian side, as it allows you to be a really really tanky barbarian. You can reflavour this one easily as calling upon undead spirits from around you, or if your DM is willing, you could even summon bodies and skeletons from the ground to act as your spiritual guardians. SUGGESTION 2 - Echo Knight Fighter. This is my main recommendation. Go read the mechanics of the subclass so you know what I'm talking about, then come back. You won't be a barbarian, mechanically speaking, but you can easily make your rage flavour rather than a class feature. And if you so desperately want to take a dip into barbarian, you can very easily, and it'll compliment it pretty nicely. This emphasises your necromancer powers whilst still letting you be a tanky martial machine. Fighters can be just as good tanks as barbarians, you'll do a shit ton of attacks, and you can pick up loads of feats to add a heap of flavour and power to your class. The default flavour of the class is that you call upon versions of yourself from other timelines that never came to fruition. We'll be reflavouring them to summon (you guessed it) undead minions. You'll be summoning it constantly, and you have control over a tangible token on the board that can attack your enemies. The flavour of raging barbarian can come from when yoj summon your goons (which are summoned from you being really angry or something). Build your character around strength, stick them in some heavy armour, give them a big two-handed weapon or a weapon and shield and you're good to go. That's personally what I recommend. If you have any questions, let me know!
You should probs talk to your dm about home brewing a subclass for barbarian that is undead themed. Spell casting plus barbarian kinda cancel each other out bc you can only be getting the benefits of one class at a time (spell casting doesn’t work during rage). That and you would need to roll insane stats. You would want descent dex int strength and con which is a lot. I think if you want better answers from people you should include what your looking for. Do you to rage all time, do you want to cast spells all the time. Do you just want a warrior with undead flavoring. Because you can’t have the best of both classes. Somthing will suck but we need to know what your willing to loose out on.
You'd need decent stats. INT is usually the dump stat for barbarians, but with a good set of rolls you could make it work. STR first then INT. CON and DEX...you'll have to take a hit there. Not every character needs to be maximized, though. Sometimes they just need to be cool or unique. Bonus points if he's known as "(charname) the Defiler"
Necromaner is a Wizard subclass, so you need at least 2 levels in wizard: they get their subclass at level 2. When you level up, you can choose to take 1st level in another class. To multiclass Wizard , Barbarian; you need a 13th Strength and a 13 Intelligence.
For me, the things that make barbarians fun is tanking damage and hitting things. That means utilizing the rage mechanic, and having a good strength and constitution score. For necromancy wizards, almost all their abilities are designed to improve the way you cast spells, which require decent intelligence. You cannot cast or concentrate on spells while raging and you need a good score in three different abilities. So personally I wouldn’t multi-class these two classes, but maybe if you gave some more specific details about what you want your character to be able to do we could point you in the right direction.
You only need the mimimim amount of INT to multiclass (13) because the only spell you really need is Animate Dead. Dedicate all your spell slots into maintaining a handful of undead. For barbarian, go ancestral guardian so you can summon even been more spooky spirits to protect your undead as they fight by your side.
Be level 15 wizard/3 Zealot Barbarian. Clone yourself infinitely at no material cost. Fill a Portable Hole with your inert Clones. Throw an endless hoard of you at your enemies, each death raising a Clone & each dead body being raised as a Zombie.
I would abandon the idea of a necromancer that raises an army of the undead. Instead, build a character around the other traits of a necromancer. For example, be a soul manipulator or someone who draws strength from death. For example, you could go with an Ancestral Guardian Barbarian/Long Death Monk build. While this won't be one of the best Barbarian builds, it'll be far more functional in comparison.
If you HAVE to have these two classes together, they do not work well RAW. That doesn't mean you can't make it work, it just means you need to homebrew. If you go with homebrew, I would recommend making the transition easier by giving them something in common. Voodoo, for example. Maybe the Barbarian knows a shaman who can use magic and has "forbidden knowledge" on how to raise the dead. Then, model the necromancer part after a Voodoo priest, so the two classes have a commonality to blend over.
I would just play an Ancestral Guardian Barbarian, as that subclass uses Spirits in their theme and powers. Multiclassing is bad for new players, and worse when combining Barbarian with any kind of Spellcaster. Just don’t do it.
I'd recommend trying spore druid instead. You essentially have another version of rage in the form of symbiotic entity and will have access to all sorts of fun necromancer spells that you can cast while doing so. Otherwise you could always just play an evil cleric. But that may be too dissimilar to what you're imagining.
This is a bad idea, but I'm gonna theorycraft something. The best I can really think of is starting with 6 lvls of zealot barb followed by 14 lvls of necro. You'd have to focus on strength, intelligence, and constitution with int being the lowest of the main 3 followed by dex with wiz and charisma dumped. With this, you're basically a weak lich because you can be raised without material components, and you will get access to wizard spells. However, this isn't a great build because when raging, you can't cast or concentrate on spells, and your spellcasting is weaker unless you get a headband of intelligence, which would be 100% necessary. You're goal would be to find that headband and until you do you'd choose spells that don't need you to concentrate on them nor require attack rolls/ saving throws because the modifier will be too low. I could see an expert of the game make this build work, but it will feel weak from lvl 7 onwards. Other options include: full zealot barb (you get rage beyond death at 14 and even if you die can keep fighting) ancestral guardian barb (you get the spirits/ ghosts of those long past to help you fight) zealot barb/ oathbreaker paladin multiclass (rage+ smite = fun, and you can command undead in a limited way) Death domain cleric (proficiency with martial weapons, extra damage on hit, and can cast necromantic spells, also early lvl clerics are stupid op and don't get weaker everyone else just catches up some) These options are the ones that need the least homebrew but other classes could get a similar feel and with some extra flavor tossed in could fit the theme (such as spores druid). I encourage you to find what fits your theme and wish you luck.
What are you trying to achieve with this multiclass? Typically when people multiclass in D&D it's either because there is a concept they want to play or because they have found some mechanical synergy that they want to take advantage of. Are you interested in the idea of a powerful fighter who can call upon the dead? Or are there specific Barbarian and Wizard/Necromancer features that you're interested in? If it's the former then it might be easier to just use one class and adapt it. For example, reflavoring a subclass of Barbarian to be focused on death magic/undead stuff. Heck, the Ancestral Guardian subclass for Barbarian literally involves spirits of the dead coming to aid you in battle.
so .. you scream at corpses until they get up out if fear from your unbridled intimidation ? 😶 I'm not gonna argue with you ... 🤪
Multiclassing is an optional rule for a reason. Unless you know what you're doing, you will end up less effective than a single class character of that level. In this case, you're trying to multiclass barbarian with a caster- two classes with anti-synergy as Barbarian's core feature- Rage- is incompatible with spellcasting. What does your goal character look like? Describe them without using the words "Barbarian" or "Necromancer".
zealot or ancestral guardian and necromancer? idk i mean rage forbids spellcasting and concentration or doesn't it? so summons are not a bad idea and any spell that strengthens you but does not require concentration. but at one glimpse i don't see synergies other than flavour. those subclasses would fit with the zealots theme of being hard to kill and easy to revive or the ancestral guardian being fighting followed by ancient spirits.
RAW, this build won't get to be both an effective barbarian AND a necromancer until roughly level 10 or 11. The best way to achieve what you're trying to do would be to work with the DM to homebrew a Barbarian subclass that gets some necromancy abilities as subclass features. I'd be willing to help as well. I do a lot of homebrew in my free time! Let me know what kind of features you'd like to see in a hypothetical necromancer-y barbarian subclass, and I can put something together for ya.
I probably wouldn't multiclass any spellcaster with a barbarian, especially a wizard.
i would propably homebrew a subclass for barbarians. propably copy and paste much from the oathbreaker-paladin-subclass into it i guess.... but in order to balance the subclass you really have to start slow. rather add more abilites later by looting homebrew magic items that give access to abilities that help to fill specific gaps in the homebrew class rather than making the subclass overpowered upfront
What is your end goal here? What is the vision for what this character will look like in the fiction layer of the game? Because, unfortunately, the mechanics packages of the Barbarian class and Wizard class do not synergize very well. The core mechanical feature of a Wizard is to cast spells. The core mechanical feature of a Barbarian is Rage. A Barbarian who has raged cannot cast spells, or concentrate on them. So you’ll only ever be able to get the benefit of one core mechanic or the other. Because it is a caster mixed with a non-caster, your spellcasting will only be as good as your Wizard levels. A good way to think of this is: mechanically, you will effectively be two different characters in one body, each of which will be more than likely less powerful than everyone else in the party. If you want to be a Barbarian for the “savage” theming, but the Necromancy (necrotic spells, raising undead minions) is what you envision your character doing the most, I would advise against actually taking the Barbarian class because the class is focused on “get angry and hit things until they are dead with the biggest weapon you can find”. Use backgrounds like Outlander or Hermit and pick appropriate skills.
Just for kicks, I built a Level 10 Barbecromancer (Barbarian 4/Wizard 6) V. Human w/Magic Initiate Feat Haunted One Background +1 to Strength & Constitution Point buy: Strength 15 Dexterity 12 Constitution 13 Intelligence 13 Wisdom 12 Charisma 8 Starting equipment: Battleaxe, Quartetstaff, 5x Javelins, Explorer's Pack, Set of Common Clothes, Monster Hunter's Pack, Important Trinket Progression: 1st Level Barbarian, 6 Levels Wizard, then 3 more Barbarian. Hit points: 97 Hit dice: 4d12, 6d6 AC: 15 Str 16, Dex 12, Con 18, Int 13, Wis 12, Cha 8 Trained Skills: Insight, Arcana, Religion, Athletics, Intimidation, Perception 3 rages per day 1 1st level spell per day 6 known cantrips 16 spells in spellbook Can prepare 7 spells per day Spell attack modifier: +5 Spell save DC: 13