There’s a total of 41 Feats available inBaldur’s Gate 3adapted fromDungeons & Dragons 5th Edition,so choosing the correct one from such a long list is its own Feat. Some of these Feats benefit stealth and covert builds, but others reward the untethered rage thata Barbarian can unleash.
Barbarians will learn a new feat at levels four, eight, and twelve, providing a total of three opportunities to build the class over the course of the game.Whether playing as Karlach, or as a unique Tav or Durge, here are the best Feats available to Barbarians inBG3.
Updated Jul 14, 2025, by Kristy Ambrose:Building the perfect Barbarian can be sophisticated or simple. There are many different ways a pure Barbarian can be customized, including themany multiclass optionsavailable, the number of weapons they can use, and the armor they can wear. One of the key aspects that define a build in this game is which Feat players choose. With the additions incoming in Patch 8, the Barbarians will also get a new subclass, the Path of Giants, giving players yet another choice when it comes to playing a Barbarian.
12Alert
Stay On Top Of Initiative
Alert is a fantastic feat that works well on most any character inBaldur’s Gate 3, but this class will especially benefit from the massive +5 bonus to initiative rolls, which can ensure a Barbarian is acting first in combat especially in the early game. This can be crucial as a Barbarian to ensure they are able to quicklydispatch a key enemyor enter a rage and reduce incoming damage, acting as a defender for the party.
Initiative works a little differently inBaldur’s Gate 3than it does in the tabletop game, rolling only a d4 instead of a d20, making this feat all the more valuable. This Feat also prevents enemies from surprising the character, meaning that sneaky foes won’t be able to get a devastating surprise round before the Barbarian can intervene.
Going first becomes even more valuable against enemies like the Mud Mephits, who can summon more of their brethren if given half the chance. Additionally, since Barbarians typically like to live on the edge between life and death, they’re often prone to being at low health, more so than other classes. High Initiative means that they’re less likely to die prematurely.
11Mobile
More Mobility Is Always Better
Barbarians have some movement buffs anyway, such as the extra attack they get at level 5. Mobile gives them even better options. It increases their movement speed by 10 feet and gives them two abilities that are handy for both exploration and battlefield organization.
Evade Difficult Terrain means that the Barbarian’s Dash ability won’t be slowed by Grease, Spikes, Twisting Vines, or a variety of other conditions that can affect an area of the ground. If a Barbarian wants to move away from a target in combat after a melee attack, they can do so without opening themselves up to an easy hit thanks to Evade Opportunity Attack.
10Martial Adept
Increase Flexibility In Combat
Martial Adept is an excellent feat for any character who gets up close and personal with their enemies. A Barbarian wants to dish out as much damage and disrupt as many enemies as possible, making this feat a great choice to add to a repertoire of options available in combat.
Martial Adept allows a Barbarian to learn two maneuvers fromthe Battle Master subclassand provides one Superiority Die that is replenished on neither a short nor long rest. These maneuvers allow Barbarians extra options in combat not typically available to them, such as Distracting Strike, granting allies Advantage on their next attack roll, which can be used to allow the party Rogue to follow up with a deadly Sneak Attack or Sweeping Attack to finish off multiple enemies at once.
Commander’s Strike is useful for situations where the Barbarian has no answer to any enemy but another party member does. Evasion Footwork becomes a lifesaver by imposing Disadvantage on melee attacks for a round, allowing the Barbarian to live just a little bit longer.
9Resilient (Wisdom)
Become Adept At Handling Spellcasters
Due to the way their optimal stats are spread, Barbarians usually have innately low Wisdom. Since it is not one of the preferred stats it’s almost always going to be hovering somewhere around 10, but most control spells in the game require a Wisdom saving throw to survive. This makes it easy to lead a Barbarian around during a combat encounter without having to pierce their high durability.
While this doesn’t often happen during Act 1, starting from Act 2 andleading up to Act 3, more and more spellcasters start appearing among enemy ranks, making a Barbarian’s worst nightmares come true. To counteract this, the Resilient feat increases the Resilient ability score by 1 and, more importantly, allows Barbarians to add their proficiency bonus to their saving throws, giving them a fighting chance against control spells.
8Tavern Brawler
Benefit From The Surrounding Environment
Barbarians are typically strong, hulking beings who can physicallyshape their environment to suit them, making the Tavern Brawler feat a fantastic choice for any player who wants to really embrace the raging Barbarian archetype. This feat allows a Barbarian to use improvised weapons, exploding barrels, or whatever they find within reach during combat. Their strength modifier is doubled and then added to both damage and attack rolls.
This makes Barbarians who are prone to throwing a large object into a crowd of enemies as a means to knock them down a force to be reckoned with. Not only will their attacks hit more frequently, but they’ll also be dishing out much more damage. Additionally, this feat grants a +1 bonus to either Strength or Constitution, which gives an in-built opportunity to buff damage output with this feat even more.
Combined with Barbarian’s inherent Rage, players can opt to fully lean into throwing things as their primary damage source, creating a behemoth that rampages through the battlefield, flinging anything and everything that catches their eye. In later Acts, powerful throwing weapons like Dwarven Thrower become available, bringing this build fully online.
7Savage Attacker
Get The Most Out Of Frenzied Attacks
Savage Attacker is a very simple feat that provides an extremely powerful bonus that can really start to rack up over the course of aBaldur’s Gate 3playthrough. This feat rolls damage dice twice for every attack and uses the higher roll, effectively granting Advantage on every damage roll. This is a ridiculously powerful feat that really starts to pay off as characters level up and gain additional attacks.
A Barbarian will usually be able to make around three attacks in every round of combat, twice with their action after level 5 and once with their Bonus Action. If they are in a Rage inthe Berserker subclassthen gaining Advantage on each of these damage rolls will ensure that when enemies get hit, they stay down.
If a Barbarian has a Wizard or Sorcerer with Haste in their party, they can increase the effectiveness of this already broken feat even further by gaining an extra Action on top of everything else. It’s a truly broken combo that can be exploited to make some of thehardest fights inBaldur’s Gate 3much easier.
6Mage Slayer
Extra Resilience In The Face Of Magic
Barbarians are tough enough to stand up to nearly any type of physical punishment, especially with their abilities that grant resistance to physical damage when raging. One area where they tend to lack a little firepower is against spellcasters.
Control and AoE spellsare big problems for Barbarians, especially if they’re the target of debuffs or damage-dealing spells. This is where the Mage Slayer feat excels, allowing Barbarians to put up a fight against even the most formidable spellcasters.
This feat grants Advantage on the saving throw of any spell cast within melee range of a Barbarian, and they can also spend their reaction to make a counter-melee attack. This is fantastic as it provides an early opportunity to break the concentration of any spell that could be a problem for the party.
Combined with the ability from this feat to impose Disadvantage on concentration saving throws when a spellcaster is hit, Mage Slayer becomes a no-brainer. Barbarians who are still struggling against spellcasters, even with Mage Slayer, can invest in the Resilient, Wisdom feat mentioned above to go the full counter-control spell build.
5Athlete
Boost Stats And Maximize Movement
Barbarians will benefit greatly from the Athlete feat, which allows players to increase their Strength or Dexterity by one. Increasing Strength may seem the natural choice for Barbarians, but this Feat would not go to waste if the Dexterity bonus was selected instead.
It also reduces the amount of movement a player needs to recover from the prone position to just 1.5 meters, leaving a lot of movement speed left to attack enemies, and increases their jump distance by a whopping 50%. This allows a Barbarian far more maneuverability in combat, ensuring they can stand between a powerful enemy and their squishy allies.
For melee fighters like Barbarians, who don’t typically have access to spells likeMisty Step, jumping is the main way they have to close the distance between themselves and their target.
4Polearm Master
New Weapon Choices
One of the thingsBaldur’s Gate 3does extremely well is thevariety and uniqueness of its weapons. From Rapiers to Longswords, Flails, and Warhammers, there are a ton of powerful options from which to choose.
The natural downside is players finding a cool new weapon only to find out none of their characters have the necessary proficiency to use it effectively. Polearm Master allows Barbarians to use their high Strength modifiers to take full advantage of five new weapon types: Glaive, Pike, Quarterstaff, Halberd, and Spear. Not only that, but this Feat gives the character the option to use their Bonus Action to attack with the blunt side of their Polearm.
There are some incredible weapons that fall into this category and are extremely suitable for Barbarians. Of special note is The Dancing Breeze, a glaive that can be purchased in Act 3 that gives the character that wields it the ability to use Whirlwind, the iconic Barbarian ability.
3Ability Score Improvement (Strength)
Improve Core Skills
A Barbarian is nothing without Strength, and as such, it’s one of the most important skills that should be addressed sooner rather than later. The Ability Score improvement Feat allows a player to improve one of their core skills by two points or two of the skills by one point.
A Barbarian must get their Strength stat to 20 to give the +5 modifier, which is crucial to attack rolls, as soon as possible. That makes this Feat an excellent means to achieving that goal. The class benefits from the unarmored defense feature which adds their Constitution bonus to their armor class and their Dexterity.
This is a great feat to potentially increase the modifier for each of those skills by one, granting a neat +2 AC bonus in the early game. Despite being one of the most commonly taken and perhaps most accessible feats, theAbility Score Improvementoption is severely underrated.
