When I attended GenCon this year, I was lucky enough to get invited to the Press Event that Wizards of the Coast hosted the Wednesday before the convention. There, they gave everyone in attendance an early copy of the 2024 Player’s Handbook as a thank you gift for attending the event.

Anyone who knows me or at least follows me on social media knows that I am all about the Barbarian class. You may not know that I am also a slow reader so reading the entire handbook in the next month or so is going to be a challenge for me. But I did want to check out the new updates to my favorite class and I have to say, the new changes do not disappoint!

Check out this article from Wizards Of The Coast if you want to read the detailed breakdown of the new changes for the 2024 Barbarian class.

Rather watch a video version of this article? Check out the YouTube video below!

First Impression Of The Book

Before I jump in to talk about the 2024 Barbarian, I did want to mention a few things I noticed with the book that I wanted to share. One of the things I noticed right away is that the book has a lot more art than the previous handbook. For the section on the Barbarian class, they had a gorgeous artwork that takes up the entire page of a Goliath woman barbarian, then each path has artwork of its own. I absolutely loved looking at all of them and would love to have a printed version of these. My only critique in this is I wished they put the artist credit with the image itself.

They also redesigned the book to be less narrative compared to 2014. Every section of the 2014 handbook had some sort of character description or scenario to help give readers an idea of what they’re about to read. In the 2024 version, they forego that in favor of giving the reader a more direct read, which I personally prefer. I think the 2014 was a good way to try to connect readers to a class if you’ve never played it before, but this definitely makes it less daunting to read now with this new approach.

The layout and design of the pages have definitely improved to make it more readable and enjoyable. When I started reading the book, I didn’t have that an overwhelming feeling when I opened the page like I did with 2014. And they also added in a section about multiclassing in the classes as well so you can think of those things ahead of time instead of trying to find a separate section later on.

Reimagining The Class

In reading the Barbarian section in the 2024 Player’s Handbook, it’s clear that the designers are trying to give players more creative opportunities for playing this class, both mechanically and narratively. First, all attack descriptions are now phrased as Strength-based attacks and Unarmed Strikes, as opposed to 2014’s weapon melee attacks. At first glance this may seem like a small detail that doesn’t change much. However, the Unarmed Strike does allow more options to have special features apply to it and rephrasing melee attacks to “Strength-based attacks” now includes ranged attacks, which allows more opportunities for the Barbarian to do more on the battlefield.

The main narrative change with the Barbarian is how they now describe Rage for this class. In 2014, the Player’s Handbook states:

These barbarians, different as they might be, are defined by their Rage: unbridled, unquenchable, and unthinking fury. More than a mere emotion, their anger is the ferocity of a cornered predator, the unrelenting assault of a storm, the churning turmoil of the sea.

It’s also worth mentioning that in the 2014 Player’s Handbook, they provided 3 short descriptive paragraphs of what a barbarian character could look like.

However, with the 2024 Player’s Handbook, they eliminated those descriptive paragraphs, probably in favor of having the book as a whole be more player friendly from a UX perspective as well as wanting to remove framing the Barbarian in the typical archetype that people know them for. In addition, Rage is now described differently:

Barbarians are mighty warriors who are powered by primal forces of the multiverse that manifest as a Rage. More than a mere emotion – and not limited to anger – this Rage is an incarnation of a predator’s forcity, a storm’s fury, and a sea’s turmoil.

I personally loved the addition of “not limited to anger” because it allows players to be able to play Barbarians in a wider capacity from a roleplaying and storytelling perspective. The Path of the Zealot can flavor their Rage to be more about their connection with the divine rather than divine anger. The Path of the Wild Heart can be more about their protective role as a guardian of nature and animals rather than tapping into the Rage of the bear. Path of the World Tree is more about their connection with the cosmic entities. Although anger will still be the most popular option for fueling Rage, it is no longer an expectation for it to be its driving force.

Rage Fuels The Barbarian Even More

Whether it’s through anger or some other driving force, the Barbarian’s Rage has been redesigned to do even more for the heavy-hitting tank class. Now, Barbarians can enjoy the following benefits when it comes to their source of power:

• Gain 1 expended use of Rage after a Short Rest (previously you only get all of them back after a Long Rest)
• Rage damage now includes any Strength-based attack (e.g. ranged javelin attacks or throwing that dead goblin at another live goblin)
• A Rage now lasts up to 10 minutes (vs. 2014’s 1 minute)
• Primal Knowledge (new Barbarian trait at level 3) allows you to use your Strength modifier while your Rage is active to apply to Acrobatics, Intimidation, Perception, Stealth, or Survival checks (Imagine roleplaying the Stealth check. “I look at the dwarf in the eye and say ‘I’m invisible!’” – which could be intimidation as well, so I say you get advantage for either for creativity)
• You can use a bonus action to maintain your Rage (but they did remove taking damage as a trigger)
• Reckless Attacks now applies to all Strength-based attacks (e.g. ranged weapons)
• When you enter into Rage, you can move up to half your speed
• Relentless Rage at level 11 now allows you to gain hit points twice the level of Barbarian (so minimum 22) if you drop to 0 hit points and succeed on a Constitution saving throw (DC 10)
• Persistent Rage at level 15 previously allows you to be in Rage all the time unless you were unconscious or dead. Because of the new changes to Rage, you instead can Rage for 10 minutes without needing to enable your bonus action to extend it, and you regain all of your epxended uses of Rage when you roll Initiative.

These changes definitely gives the Barbarian Rage a huge boost, and fixes some issues that players had with the class, such as not being able to use their Strength modifier for Intimidation, which logically makes sense (and many Dungeon Masters allow barbarians in a lot of situations to do that anyways).

Also, the new rule for using a bonus action to extend your rage may seem like it’s tedious at first. But I think practically what will just happen is DMs and players will assume that they’ll extend it automatically unless they decide to use a different bonus action and then determine if they were able to extend it by one of the other conditions (attack or causing a saving throw), so at the end of the day it won’t be that cumbersome.

Paths Are Even Stronger

At Level 3, the Barbarian chooses a subclass, called a Path, that allows them to have more specialized abilities that are tied to the source of their rage. In the 2024 Player’s Handbook, there are 3 updated Paths and 1 brand new path:

• Path of the Berserker (updated)
• Path of the Wild Heart (updated; formerly Totem Warrior)
• Path of the World Tree (new)
• Path of the Zealot (updated)

One of my favorite paths, the Berserker, received only a few but major updates that makes it more fun to play now. The 2014 Barbarian’s Frenzy attack at level 3 allowed you to use a bonus action for another attack but the trade off was that using so gave the Barbarian a level of exhaustion after your rage ends. This required Barbarians to plan to use this feature when they know they have a long rest coming up or have a potion of vitality on hand. With the update, Berserkers no longer get a bonus attack but they now get to add more damage to the first target they hit on their turn, resulting in a damage set of d6s equal to their Rage Damage bonus (at this level, it would be 2d6s) and you no longer suffer exhaustion using this. Some may see this as downgrading the ability, but in the long run it’s going to be used more frequently for sure so the amount of damage in the long haul will add up.

Path of the Wild Heart received a name change, which is a good move on the part of Wizards of the Coast. The major update they received is streamlining this path to be more useful and less confusing. Game Designer Jeremy Crawford had said that the 2014 version allowed Barbarians to select a different animal path at the various levels but players still thought they had to pick what they chose at level 3. So they reworded it to make it clearer. Each subpath level now has a unique set of animals (so you’re only picking bear at level 3), and you select which animal benefit you can use when you rage or long rest, depending on the ability (instead of a one time only decision). There are fewer options for this path, but it also gives more applicability in common scenarios than the 2014 version had.

Path of the World Tree is the new path introduced into the 2024 edition. I describe it as a “If Nightcrawler and Groot Had A Baby Barbarian” path. Using the cosmic tree, Yggdrasil, this barbarian is going to be able to help their party (and themselves) by shelling out temporary hit points, teleport enemies within 30 feet of you to a space within five feet of you and reduce their speed to 0 as a reaction (if they fail a Strength saving throw), extend their reach to 10 feet and use the Push or Topple property in addition to the master property of their weapon, and teleport themselves and their party. I will say that the reaction power to be able to transport someone near you and reduce their speed to 0 is going to be a major power move that I think Dungeon Masters are going to hate very quickly.

The last path, Path of the Zealot, was a subclass I never had an interest in because the traits you gained was not that useful in my opinion, and in the words of Jeremy Crawford, it was a subclass that really relied on the barbarian dying to use its features. The updated version of the Zealot, however, has improved so significantly that this will probably be the first path and character I’ll create when I play a 2024 rules game. At level 3, Warrior Of The Gods now gives you a pool of 4d12s that you can use as a bonus action to heal yourself once per long rest, and level 14’s Rage Of The Gods now allows you to fly equal to your speed and can hover. This last ability is a drastic change but given that you now get healing as a bonus action it makes sense for this feature to change as well.

Overall, I think there’s something to be excited about in each of these subclasses.

The (Dis)Advantage of Reckless Attacks

One of the more popular features of the Barbarian is Reckless Attacks, which allows you to attack with advantage but the trade off is that everyone that attacks you also have advantage until the start of the Barbarian’s next turn. The 2024 rules set has not changed this feature, but there have been some other changes that may make this a little different to enjoy now, particularly with the Great Weapon Master feat and Brutal Strike (formerly Brutal Critical).

One of the common strategies for playing a Barbarian is for the character to gain the Great Weapon Master feat, which allows the Barbarian to gain another melee attack as a bonus action if they hit with a critical or reduce an enemy’s hit points to 0. It also allows the character to take a -5 attack penalty and if they still hit their attack, they can deliver an additional 10 points of damage. When you pair this feat with a Barbarian (who can easily have a +5 or more to their attack) that uses Reckless Attack, it was very likely that the attack would still succeed and would deal major damage.

That, however, is no longer the case.

Great Weapon Master has been changed:

• Ability Score Increase – increase your Strength score by 1, to a maximum of 20
• Heavy Weapon Mastery – When you hit a creature with a weapon that has the Heavy property as part of the Attack action on your turn you can cause the weapon to deal extra damage to the target. The extra damage equals your Proficiency Bonus.
• Hew – Immediately after you score a Critical Hit with a Melee weapon or reduce a creature to 0 Hit Points with one, you can make one attack with the same weapon as a bonus action.

This is a major change that will get a lot of Barbarian fans up in arms. This has essentially taken away a major damage delivering feature that Barbarians love to use and is now limited to a Proficiency Bonus for damage. It does make up for it with the increase Strength score and removing the attack penalty, but our damage tanks love dealing out damage. So now the Reckless Attack doesn’t feel like it gives as big of a boost as it did with 2014. I think if it gave the option for Barbarians to use either their Proficiency Bonus or their Strength modifier, whichever is higher, that could be more palpable and players would be a bit happier (not by much) with it. But I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Barbarians skip this feat until level 8 at the earliest now.

The other drawback is the new Brutal Strike. Instead of the 2014 Brutal Critical, which only allowed extra damage dice when the Barbarian rolled a Critical Hit, Brutal Strike is a feature that can be used on every turn if they wish for one of their attacks:

If you use Reckless Attack, you can forgo any Advantage on one Strength-based attack roll of your choice on your turn. The chosen attack roll mustn’t have Disadvantage. If those chosen attack roll hits, the target takes an extra 1d10 damage of the same type dealt by the weapon or Unarmed Strike, and you can cause one Brutal Strike effect of your choice (Forceful Blow and Hamstring Blow)

The trade-off now is, using Brutal Strike more frequently means giving the enemies advantage on the Barbarian with Reckless Attack in the hope that your attack will succeed without Advantage to get that bonus damage. Although I appreciate that it’s being used now instead of a feature that had a 5% change of succeeding, this does seem like a change that makes it more challenging to use.

So at first look, it seems like Reckless Attack is really not worth using. But taking a step back, here’s what to think about:

• Great Weapon Master no longer imposes a penalty for an attack, so each successful attack adds damage still
• Brutal Strike is limited to only one attack. When Barbarians gain this feature at level 9, they get 2 attacks per action
• New feats and weapon mastery can help mitigate enemies having advantage against the Barbarian

This honestly feels like the designers wanted to make sure that the barbarians were improved but not overpowered, and that they designed it in a way where reckless attack, brutal strike, and great weapon master worked in conjunction with one another. Strategically as a player, I would still take on the Great Weapon Master at level 4 to get the added Strength score and bonus attack option (especially since Berserker doesn’t have that anymore), and when I get to level 9, I would use Reckless Attack on my first attack as normal. If it hits, I go ahead and enable the Brutal Strike feature since I know I already did damage and so if I miss, at least it wasn’t at a complete loss. But if my first attack was a miss, I forego on using Brutal Strike and keep my advantage for the second attack in the hopes that it hits. And if you get the added bonus of getting a Critical Hit or hitting someone down to 0 hit points, you enable your bonus attack and you can use Brutal Strike then.

So at the end of the day, it’s definitely a huge shift in strategy on how to best utilize the Barbarian for maximum damage, but in the long run I think it’s a positive improvement because the player can consistently deliver more damage more likely than it had before – they’re just going to be more frequently short spurts instead of massive one-timers (which was pretty rare in 2014 anyways).

Caging The Barbarian With Background & Feats

Although the changes so far has been fantastic and absolutely needed, in my opinion, there is a change that is adjacent to the class that I am the most concerned about (and will more than likely be a common homebrew change for all characters, not just Barbarian), and that is the new Background & Feats.

If you’re not familiar, the 2024 edition changed character creation a bit where your ability score increases no longer come from your species (formerly race, which is a positive change) and now comes from your Background. When I first heard this, I applauded this change because for me, it made a lot more sense for ability scores to be tied to the character’s background. If someone has spent their life as a thief and wants to play a Goliath, then it would make sense for them to bump scores in those areas as a Rogue than using the standard racial ability scores (Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything gave the option for allowing players to choose which Ability scores to bump with a 2-1 or 1-1-1 option, which a lot of games utilized). This allowed a lot more versatility, diverse character options, and, quite honestly, less barriers to create interesting characters.

So imagine my surprise when I saw that with the new Backgrounds, they more or less kept the same restrictions. When you select a background(w, it comes with three predetermined ability scores you can choose to increase; again, either a 2-1 option or increase all levels by 1. New to the 2024 edition, choosing a background also comes with an Origin Feat. Many of these are existing ones from 2014 but are updated and have this tag (meaning that these are the only ones you can use as part of your Origin; you can add these when you level up as well). Each background comes with a specific feat that you can add to your character.

Here’s where the Barbarian starts to get caged.

When you’re creating a Barbarian, you typically want to increase your physical traits on some level, depending on what kind of rolls you have and how you play the game. The rulebook does provide a table to let you know which backgrounds have what abilities listed in it, which is helpful. And they did include some new backgrounds as well too, such as Guard (which I personally like). But now it reinforces the stereotypical Barbarian being associated with a common backstory that it doesn’t provide an opportunity to create a natural origin story for the character you want to play.

Let me give you an example.

One of the ideas I’ve had is having a Barbarian who is also a librarian. I think this is a funny, challenging, and interesting character to play that you don’t see too often. Now, will I bulk the Barbarian up with intelligence because of this? No, because I still need to play the tanky character and being librarian doesn’t specifically means you’re abnormally intelligent, either. But to make this character, it would make sense for me to pick the Sage background since it specifically mentions that this background is associated with libraries. Now, the abilities associated with a Sage is still beneficial since it includes Constitution as an option (oddly enough) but the feat, Magic Initiate (Wizard), is clearly meant for a Wizard or Wizard-like character to take that background. Or for my Barbarian Path of the Zealot, it would make sense for an option for that character to take Acolyte with its connection to the divine but all of the ability options are mental and the feat is Magic Initiate (Cleric).

Now I can argue that I could just technically take the background and write my backstory to make it fit with whatever character I want to choose as just a vague frame that doesn’t really have to play into it. But again, you have to make it fit into your story because of a mechanical requirement. Because of this, I would not be surprised if we see a common trend of Dungeon Masters making a homebrew rule (or just being Tasha inspired) where players can pick any background, any original feat, and any ability they want to improve of their choosing so they can create the character and tell the story they wish to tell. We will always have the Barbarian that will be a soldier or guard (I have two of those), but we want those Barbarians who don’t fit the common mold, either!

Overall Outlook For the 2024 Barbarian

Although I have a couple of concerns and frustrations with some of the changes with my favorite class, I think the benefits far outweighs them. There are such great improvements for the Barbarian that will make it new again, and you can also implement more strategies in combat and encounters beyond “can I kill it now?” With any change, there’s going to be growing pains and if I truly didn’t think I was going to enjoy the new changes, I wouldn’t even attempt to try the new rules. But I think we’re going to see a lot of people saying that they enjoy playing the Barbarian class that werent interested in before.