For the past few weeks, Wizards Of The Coast has rolled out video updates on the upcoming changes coming in the 2024 Player’s Handbook of the popular tabletop roleplaying game, Dungeons & Dragons. Opening with an overview of the changes coming out in the playbook, the company has given a more in-depth review of the changes coming to each of the classes. Jeremy Crawford, lead designer for Dungeons & Dragons, shared in an interview about the changes coming to the Barbarian class.

Anyone that knows me knows that the Barbarian class is by far my favorite in Dungeons & Dragons (I currently have 6 barbarian characters built out of 9). And like any player of the game, there are aspects of the class that I love and ones that I wished the game would improve. So when they made the announcement of the changes coming to the power-hitting class, I had to check it out immediately.

If you want to see a list of all the changes coming to the Barbarian class, check out the comparison guide by Wizards Of The Coast.

After reviewing the 2024 class changes, here are my biggest takeaways from the announcement.

Brutal Critical Is Now Brutal Strike

Probably the change that has had the most response from players and DMs alike is the change to the Brutal Critical feature. Currently, a Barbarian can get this feature starting at 9th level, which allows them to add an extra damage die to their damage roll when they roll a critical success (natural 20 in majority of the cases) on their attack. They also get to add more dice when they reach certain levels, eventually being able to add 3 damage dice. However, this feat is rarely used given that the changes of someone rolling a natural 20 on their attack is 5%.

In the upcoming 2024 Players Handbook, this class feature will be renamed Brutal Strike and will allow the barbarian to utilize their Reckless Attack feature more. When a barbarian uses Reckless Attack, they can roll an attack with advantage (meaning they roll 2d20s and take the highest number they rolled) but in return, every creature will have advantage on their attacks against them until the start of their next turn. If they want to use Brutal Strike, they will need to use Reckless Attack but forego using the advantage for their attack roll (but everyone will still have their advantage attacks against them). The trade off is, if they succeed in their attack, they can add a d10 to their damage on their first successful attack during their turn. There’s no limit on how often they can do this now, and the fact that they receive this at level 9 means that they will more than likely hit their enemies anyways. So trading in an ability that happens very rarely for something that is used more frequently (but will more than likely take more damage than before) is an exciting upgrade.

They Finally Fixed Frenzy Strike

One of the things that I absolutely loathed about one of my favorite barbarian paths is the Frenzy Strike ability that the barbarian receives at level 3. Currently, when the player enables Frenzy Strike, they get to use their bonus action for an additional attack (so at level 5, they could be dealing out 3 attacks per turn!) but the issue is once you are done with your rage, you have to take a level of exhaustion. If you’re not familiar with what this does, it impacts what you can do (e.g. at first level of exhaustion, all of your ability checks are rolled with disadvantage), and you have to either take a long rest with food and drink or have someone cast Greater Restoration to remove it (and it only removes one level at a time). So this always left me not wanting to use it unless it was clear that we needed to smash our way out of a situation.

The 2024 rule set fixes this issue. Now with Frenzy Strike, you no longer get a bonus attack, but you do get to add a number of d6s to your damage dice equal to your Rage Bonus for your first successful attack (so at level 3, you’ll add 2d6s). In addition, they have removed the level of exhaustion after your rage ends. So this ability will now get to see it played out more often, and thus hopefully have more people wanting to play this subclass as well!

Path Of The Totem Warrior Is Now Path Of The Wild Heart

This path of the barbarian focuses on connecting with nature and animals, tapping into your rage that is fueled by a beast kinship you have. When a barbarian selects this path, they can choose from a list of animals and gain certain benefits as well. One of the challenges, though, is that players for the longest time thought you had to stay with one animal you chose at level 3 for the next path ability (which isn’t the case).

In 2024 (and also previewed in the video game Baldur’s Gate 3, the path will be changed to Wild Heart (which should have been done a long time ago given its problematic origins), and allows more fluidity with the animal mentor you can choose, switching them out more often at long rests now. This is a great path to choose if you want to have a druid feel to your barbarian.

Path Of The Zealot Is Now Focused On Living Rather Than Dying

This barbarian path is a really cool way to be a paladin-lite barbarian without having to multiclass, but some of its features did suffer from a lack of utilization for the character, such as Warrior Of The Gods which eliminated the need for a spell caster to have material components if they are trying to cast “Raise Dead” on you, and Rage Beyond Death which basically only gets enabled if you hit 0 hit points, which just allows you to continue to attack during your rage while you do your death saving throws.

With the 2024 update, the Zealot now gets a pool of healing dice to use as a bonus action for their Warrior Of The Gods, and Rage Beyond Death is replaced with Rage of the Gods, which now gives you flight speed, damage resistances, and opportunities to help prevent yourself and your party members from dropping to 0 hit points. This upgrade allows the barbarian on this path to be more versatile and allows more roleplay opportunities as well. So instead of a path that relies on you trying to die every single time to use your ability, you’re able to tap into the divine more often to be a scarier, more brutal tank.

Introducing A New Subclass, Path of the World Tree

The new subclass that Wizards of the Coast will introduce for the 2024 Barbarian is a really exciting one, called Path of the World Tree. Imagine if you got a combination of Nightcrawler and Groot for powers; you can teleport and stretch your arms out for a longer reach. By tapping into Yggdrasil, the barbarian can now have powers to be able to attack with a longer reach, transport themselves and others, and give temporary hit points. Recall how in Avengers: Infinity War Thanos would appear from a portal by using the Space Stone? Imagine that happening in your Dungeons And Dragons campaign with your barbarian, appearing out of nowhere and ready to strike!

Needless to say, there are some great upgrades coming to the Barbarian class. The new Player’s Handbook releases September 17, the Dungeon Master’s Guide on November 11, and the Monster Manual on February 18 of next year. Pre-orders are available now, and local gaming stores will also sell these books with alternative covers.