Barbarians inDungeons & Dragonsare all about strength, rage, and throwing caution to the wind. The revised version of barbarians in the 2024 Player’s Handbook keeps this aspect very much alive, giving the class new uses for their primal power while still maintaining its identity.
In practical terms, barbarians didn’t lose much in their transition to their 2024 incarnation. In fact, they gained plenty of new features. From intimidating foes with your muscles to keeping your rage going without hitting anything, you’ll find all the major changes 2024 brought right here.
7Simpler Danger Sense
Use All Your Senses To Avoid Danger
Barbarians have always beengood at using Strength, but their Dexterity can often be lacking. This is where danger sense comes in, giving them the proper agility a primal warrior should have by giving them advantage on Dexterity saving throws at level two.
This, however, came with a lot of limitations that might leave a barbarian unprotected when facing certain dangers, especially if they were blinded or deafened. The 2024 rules removed nearly all restrictions, making barbarians have this advantage unless they are incapacitated.
6Weapon Mastery
A New Mechanic For A Lot Of Classes
Plenty of martial classes,like rangers and fighters, got access to a new mechanic in the 2024 Player’s Handbook, one known as weapon mastery. This lets characters use weapons for added strategies, like hitting multiple enemies with a single swing or giving them disadvantage on their next attack.
Barbarians also get to play with these new toys, giving them a chance to strategize their attacks beyond just running in and raging. They can, for example, throw a handaxe at a faraway enemy, giving them advantage on their next attack as they close the gap on their following turn.
5Expanded Primal Knowledge
Not Just About Proficiency
Primal Knowledge was an optional feature for barbarians that, in the 2024 Player’s Handbook, has been made a core part of the class. It still gives the old benefit (proficiency in a barbarian skill of your choice), but now it lets you use Strength in certain skill checks if you are raging.
The skills in question are Acrobatics, Intimidation, Perception, Stealth, and Survival. The idea is that primal powers are aiding you to succeed in these checks, but we have to wonder how exactly a barbarian uses their muscles to be more stealthy.
4Feral Instinct No Longer Affects Surprises
But The Surprise Mechanic Has Been Completely Changed
Feral instinct was an important aspect of barbarians higher than level seven since it meant that they couldn’t be surprised by enemies. As a whole, the feature gave barbarians advantage on initiative rolls, and if they rage as their first action on a turn, they can ignore the surprise round.
The 2024 Player’s Handbook removes the surprise immunity, but only because surprise as a mechanic has changed. It now only gives disadvantage on initiative rolls to the surprised party, meaning that a barbarian with feral instincts would roll initiative normally.
3Brutal Strike
It Replaces Brutal Critical
At ninth level, barbarians learned brutal critical, adding more and more damage when they scored a critical hit. The 2024 Player’s Handbook replaces that mechanic with brutal strike, an ability that can still deal more damage while having some added effects.
Instead of depending on a critical hit, brutal strike revolves around reckless attacks and the advantage they give. You can forgo this advantage to deal with more damage should the attack land. Plus, it lets you add some other effect, like pushing the enemy around or lowering their speed.
2You Can Use A Bonus Action To Maintain Your Rage
For A Maximum Of Ten Minutes
Rage for barbarians was always strictly related to combat since if they failed to take damage or attack a creature, they would lose their rage. In the 2024 Player’s Handbook, barbarians can now extend the rage for up to ten minutes, simply by using a bonus action to do so.
This puts the other rage updates like primal knowledge in a whole new perspective, since ten minutes can be a very long time. you may rage during social encounters, intimidating some guards to let you pass, and already have all the benefits of your core mechanic should negotiations go south.
1No More Infinite Rage
But It Has Been Buffed Overall
In older renditions of the class, when a barbarian hits level 15, their rage would essentially last until deactivated. This has been removed from the 2024 version, but there are still ways to recover it, as well as the general uses of the mechanic having been buffed.
For starters, you’re able to regain one expended use of rage after a short rest as early as level one, pushing players into being more liberal in their use of the mechanic. At level 15, you can gain all the expended uses when rolling initiative (once per long rest), and you can maintain it for the full ten minutes without the constant bonus actions.
The real buff to the mechanic comes at level 11, with relentless rage. you’re able to gain hit points with a Constitution saving throw whenfalling to 0 hit points, but instead of gaining only one, you gain a hit point total that equals your barbarian level times two.
