Yeah ok, I may have gone a bit overboard with the 'guide his arrow' thing, that's not guidance. I'd probably allow someone to do "my guy casts guidance every sixty seconds" roleplayable as "as we walk I chant the song of brother eagle, that he may guide us", but don't you dare try to pretend that you're going to stealth while you do it. I think I remember reading that in the early days of America, a tribe of indians was singing quietly while walking through the woods to attack settlers...and got spotted, attacked, and killed because of it, so it's roleplayable.

Thunderwave does half damage on a successful save, there really isn't another source of AOE for a barbarian other than magic items.

The dex vs str analysis is here buried in the comments: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?389546-I-ll-NEVER-Die!-%28A-Guide-to-the-5E-Barbarian%29

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18571620&postcount=14

The math presented shows that str based gets a bit more DPR, and takes substantially more incoming damage. Max Con/Dex, hope you find a magic item of +str, and get the best of both worlds. Other math here in /dndnext shows pretty clearly that a barbarian's output is inferior to a fighter, even when optimized for str.

The core argument I'm making is that the trade-offs between a dex-based and a strength-based barbarian are minor at best (substantially better survivability, slightly worse output), and that something which enters into the analysis, and in my opinion, sways it, is that the dex based barbarian can take maximum advantage of a tremendously awesome magic item that is made for "the big dumb guy at the front", while there is no equivalent dexterity item that could give the barbarian the AC he loses by not going Dex.