You Might Be an Ancestral Guardian | Barbarian Subclass Guide for DND 5e (2014)

My ancestors are now my stands eh, so let's say I multi class with Monk
(Jortaro's theme playing in the background)

This plus echo knight making you the ultimate you attack you protect and you wreck

The only actual Tank in DnD!

One of my favorite characters recently was an Ancestral Guardian Barbarian Monk. It was really fun.

Spirit Bard and Ancestral Barbarian would be good friends, I think.

Ok but imagine deagonborn ancestral barbarian who summons a ghost dragon(just flavor not actual mechanical impact) whenever they get pissed enough

Okay, okay, here's an idea: Your Ancestral Guardian is the descendant of King Leonidas.

The AG is another fave of mine. Barb is my fave class overall, but still. This one is more conceptial than anything, but Ive been planning a Goblin Barbarian who isnt haunted by family so much as the previous holders of the position their in... which is how they discover from the oldest spirits that Maglubyat wasnt always in charge and lies to them. Leading them to rebel and seek a way to take down the Goblinoid god.

Which all huilt feom the fact that a Free Disengage with the Goblin works really well with the spirit guardians

The first long term character I played was a Leonin ancestral guardian and I miss him dearly.

Loved the flavor of this subclass.
Hope they add it to 2025, even though its pretty much been replaced by World Tree

Probably my third favorite barb sub.

An idea for a character I have is the child of a slaughtered samurai clan whose rage is a quiet rage, but still potent enough to compels their ancestors and dead family to aid them in bringing honor back to their family name. They help compel people to fight you by making your teammates less viable options for combat

I’m play an Ancestral Guardian Barb in a Curse of Strahd game. We’ve themed the spirits that help my Barbarian as the spirits of the heroes that Strahd has killed over the years.

I've seen this multiclassed with Astral Self Monk. It's really cool.

Oathbreaker Paladin pls

"Scantily clad Barbarian that's a little too close to their relatives"
Advice - put on safe search before googling that....

Ancestral Guardian to the Spirits Bard: Stop trying to chat up my forebears....

Fighters are the boring as dirt ones. Barbarians actually have some fun class features and flavor.

A three level ancestral guardian dip is pretty good for a rogue. The ability to attack from a distance, hide and then leave your opponent with disadvantage against your party which also has resistance to your opponent's attack after your own. Pair it with phantom rogue for the extra theming.

My absolute favorite subclass, my first ever character was a harengon ancestor barbarian. Because I had this I was going toe to toe with a turtle dragon. The only thing hurting my team was it's AOE. This is the I ain't hear no bell meme. I miss those days.

Do not feel shame for simping for Karlach. We all do!!

Y’all think level 5 is too late for extra attack, too?

"maybe your guardians are a swarm of bees" that is exactly what me and a friend convinced another friend to do lmao tho without ranger dipping, they're just playing a thri-kreen xd

This subclass is peak ❤️‍🔥 easily top three subclasses for barbarian 👻

🎵ancestors, here my plea...🎵

A party w/ an Ancestral Guardian, an Echo Knight, an Astral Self, & a Shepherd Druid is a party that definitely goes on bizarre adventures.

Some subclasses give me immedate character ideas

Day 15 of asking for arch fey warlock

I once made a fighter/ancestral guardian warforged who reflavoured the spirits as drones.

Incredible timing! Yesterday I became an uncle for the first time and had my first visit with him today. So this being very family themed is unexpected.

Barbarians are quickly becoming a new favorite of mine, you can use reckless attack to cancel out thrown weapons long range disadvantage, make it so an enemy can't really hurt your teammates while staying out of range yourself

As one of 11 siblings the vibes this the class could bring could be hilarious

Played AG barb in a elden ring themed campaign. My Crystalian (Reflavored Earth Genasi) with conections to the alabaster lords was the absolute tank who kept us all alive for 19 levels via brue tstrgenth, spritualinsight, and barb abilites reflavored as ancestral gravity minipulation while fighting most of the from softwear boss roster. I love this sucblass.

I haven't gotten to play it yet, but want to do a warforged reskin with ancestral guardian. Basically his tribe used to ritually bury their warriors who died in battle so their spirits can protect the tribe in the afterlife. Well a couple of hundred years later, something wakes him up. But his tribe is nowhere to be found. So his goal is to find where his people have gone, hopefully resolve the danger that woke him in the first place, and then return to his rest until he's needed again. He's going to be like half tree root and half peat mummy with like bronze armor, shield, and spear.

A G Barbarian named: Dominoco Toredo

If you multi-class into Echo Knight, you get your family AND your Shadow In-Laws to fight for you.

Tortle, with the old sword and shield and this class 😎

i dare you to make EK 2024 version

Played a AG barb as a undead captain of a battalion, that was basically used as bait and killed to the man. the guardians were not ancestors but the other fallen soldiers

Once played an ancestral guardian in a oneshot where we were lvl 6. The dm ended up sending a lich after us and he had to send both a power word stun and a power word kill at my barbarian just to be able to deal any decent damage to the party and it was such a compliment to have someone feel the need to kill my character THAT BAD.

While it wouldn't be an optimized multiclass, I'm seeing potential in an Ancestral Guardian Barbarian/Spirit Bard combo, if only for RP.

Was that a mostly ghostly movie reference??

I just love Barbarians with a Spiritual/Nature-coded extra flavor, they show how much deeper the "Stupid Bonking Rage-Gremlin" can be as a character
Big Stick, Big Muscle, Big Damage, Smallest Brain and even smaller Patience is just SO Overdone as a Stereotype

for 13th Age I built a reserve char following a similar concept, Beast-Blood-Barbarian with Lycanthropy (triggers on Raging) and Spirit Guardian Talent (Owlbear Spirit "Mama Bear")
the Guardian can perceive Supernatural Dangers and I can either Infuse myself with it (works like a Druid Transformation) or summon it as an Ally in Battle (like a Rangers Animal Companion)
Lorewise my Char comes from a Lycanthrope Clan that lives in a Clearing of an enchanted Forest, where the Nature Spirits which took in the clan Ages ago live in a central standing Tree and watch over the Clan to protect them. Something sinister is happening in the world and threatens not only the Forest, but the entire Life on this Plane as we know it, so "Mama Bear" came down to my Char in a dream, telling him of a Quest to rise to more Power and stop the Evil before it is to late, merging with him and starting off my Chars travels

Nice job

This race or class l don't know is the power of friendship

This one making a multi-class wth the astral self monk sounds really crazy if you think it

An Ancestral Guardian saved my character from getting downed after getting shot three times (one with a crit). I would have had all 51 of my HP gone but instead only took 5 damage.

This is my personal favorite barb. I actually did exactly what you suggested, I had a warforged barb whose 'ancestors' were hard light holograms.

I wanna try this character as like an Aztec based dragonborn that can manifest his fallen tribe that live on in his warded tattoos and talismans it seems like a really fun character to go off on