Which barbarian subclasses are best and what are they good at?
Barbarians are rage-filled martials, capable of epic feats of strength and endurance. But these primal warriors are not all built the same. Yes some are frenzied berserkers filled with a terrifying urge to maim and destroy, but others are protectors and noble warriors with a deep affinity with nature.
These different traits are exemplified by the subclass your barbarian takes (also known as a path). New and refreshed paths have been created for D&D 2024 and these are:
- Path of the berserker – Frenzied warriors that recklessly attack with little care for life or limb.
- Path of the wild heart – These barbarians take on aspects and enhancements of the animal life they revere.
- Path of the world tree – Protectors of the multiversal world tree they draw teleportation capabilities from Yggdrasil’s well of power.
- Path of the zealot – Devotees of divinity that draw upon the powers of the gods to enhance their primal abilities.
Not all subclasses are built equally though, and you might wonder, which subclass is best? And at what things is each subclass best?
Fortunately, my guide below is here to answer exactly that, analysing each of the barbarian subclasses released for D&D 2024.
Path of the berserker
What are they?
Barbarians that channel their fury into a frenzied bundle of rage. These barbarians are more angry and violent than even your average barbarian, hacking and slashing with reckless abandon.
Key abilities
- Frenzy (lv3) – Deal extra damage once per turn when you use reckless attack.
- Mindless rage (lv6) – Gain immunity to the charmed and frightened conditions while raging.
- Retaliation (lv10) – Make an attack as a reaction against a creature within 5ft of you that deals you damage.
- Intimidating presence (Lv14) – Use a bonus action to attempt to frighten creatures within 30ft of you.
What are they good at?
Dealing lots of damage and scaring people. Between heightened damage on reckless attacks and consistent reaction attacks, berserkers should be managing to deal more damage to their foes than most other barbarians.
How effective are they?
Berserkers are pretty straightforward, damage-dealing machines. The extra damage on reckless attacks is decent and scales nicely, starting at an average of 7 extra damage per turn, until it becomes 14 by level 16. This is a fair bit better than the extra damage that most subclasses get, but does require making themselves more vulnerable through reckless attack.
Retaliation should be easy enough to come by if you’re charging into the fray, creating another source of regular damage.
Immunity to charmed and frightened is good as these are common conditions. And a 30ft radius for frightening others is quite large and should be especially effective against crowds of enemies.
Solid, simple and effective with the only downside being their slightly increased vulnerability (due to regular reckless attacks), especially from ranged attacks. This makes the berserker a pretty solid subclass.
Score: 4/5
Path of the wild heart
What are they?
Wild heart barbarians have a deep affinity with the animals of the world. They take on aspects of these creatures that enhance their capabilities and can even speak with, and work with these creatures through the use of rituals. The path of the wild heart also provides some much needed utility to the barbarian class.
Key abilities
- Animal speaker (lv3) – You can cast beast sense and speak with animals as a ritual.
- Rage of the wilds (lv3) – Gain an extra benefit when you rage, including extra damage resistances, dash and disengage as a bonus action or giving advantage to allies against enemies you’re close to.
- Aspect of the wilds (lv6) – Have active either darkvision, a faster climb speed or a faster swim speed which you can change each long rest.
- Nature speaker (lv10) – Cast commune with nature as a ritual.
- Power of the wilds (Lv14) – Either, gain a fly speed, impose disadvantage on nearby foes not targeting you or knock creatures prone when you hit them while raging.
What are they good at?
Utility and adapting to a given situation. These barbarians can fly, climb and swim adeptly. They can also speak to animals to gain information and even see through their senses for scouting. On top of this are a bunch of changeable combat options that can make you more resilient, enemies less potent or allies more potent.
How effective are they?
Wild heart barbarians manage to combine utility with standard barbarian combativeness quite nicely, making them a solid explorer and scout. While they won’t deal as much damage as a berserker, some handy defensive features ensures you last long enough to kill plenty of enemies. There’s also a bit of support for allies too ensuring they land more hits.
Part of the appeal of the wild heart is that they can get involved in aspects of the game outside of combat. You can fly, swim or climb to scout around or access usually unreachable locations. You’ve got darkvision if you didn’t already have it and you can even convince animals to scout for you (you could grab a familiar through the ritual caster feat and look through their eyes too).
While none of this is overwhelmingly powerful, it does add a lot of breadth to the barbarian’s capabilities. And with adaptable features too, you can alter the benefits you have to your circumstances. All of this makes the wild heart a very solid subclass.
Score: 4/5
Path of the world tree
What are they?
Protectors of the multiverse and traverses of Yggdrasil, the world tree. They can manifest teleportation powers to keep their enemies at arm’s length.
Key abilities
- Vitality of the tree (lv3) – Grant yourself and allies temporary hit points while raging.
- Branches of the tree (lv6) – Use your reaction to attempt to teleport another creature next to you and make their speed 0.
- Battering roote (lv10) – Heavy and versatile weapons have an extra 10ft reach and you can add the topple or push mastery to your weapon attacks.
- Travel along the tree (lv14) – Teleport 60ft as a bonus action and teleport allies once per rage.
What are they good at?
Getting creatures in the places you want them. Whether that’s bringing enemies next to you, moving allies around, or teleporting yourself. They’re also great team players with increased resilience, which they share with others.
How effective are they?
World tree barbarians are hugely effective, easily moving around the battlefield and closing down enemies. Their steady flow of temporary hit points not only means that they survive longer, but so do allies.
Being able to get enemies where you need them is even better. Teleport pesky wizards next to you and keep archers at arms length (which happens to be much longer than for most).
This all means the world tree barbarian is very hard to escape and very easy to get into the right places.
Score: 5/5
Path of the zealot
What are they?
Allied with priests and other divine devotees, zealot barbarians also draw upon the powers of the gods. But rather than gaining spellcasting, they channel their rage with divine power to aid them in combat.
Key abilities
- Divine fury (lv3) – Deal extra damage with one attack each turn while raging.
- Warrior of the gods (lv3) – Use your bonus action to heal yourself using a pool of healing dice.
- Fanatical focus (lv6) – Reroll a failed saving throw once per rage.
- Zealous presence (lv10) – Once per long rest, you can give up to 10 creatures advantage on attack rolls and saving throws for a round.
- Rage of the gods (lv14) – For 1 minute, you can fly, have 3 damage resistances and can prevent allies from dropping to 0HP.
What are they good at?
A bit of everything. They hit harder, aid allies, are more resilient and even have a bit of utility through temporary flight.
How effective are they?
Normally when a subclass does a lot of things, it tends to perform in their niche more poorly than more focused subclasses. However, the zealot barbarian doesn’t really suffer here. And primarily, it’s because their features relate to helping the barbarian do what it already does well, but across the board.
Their extra damage scales nicely, the healing is pretty strong and an entire turn of advantage for yourself and allies can make that turn very effective.
With so much going for them, it’s hard to view the path of the zealot as anything but a top tier subclass.
Score: 5/5
Which Barbarian subclass is best?
The barbarian is blessed with 4 strong subclasses in D&D 2024. Each one represents a good option.
In making a choice of subclass, you might want to choose the subclass that best fits the character you want to build. I’d say each subclass is best for different things:
- Path of the berserker: Best for pure damage dealing.
- Path of the wild heart: Best at utility.
- Path of the world tree: Best at controlling the battlefield and helping allies.
- Path of the zealot: Less of a specialist and more just improves on all the core aspects of being a barbarian.
Despite this, I do think that there is one barbarian subclass that stands taller than the rest; and that’s the path of the world tree. It has some phenomenal battlefield control features through its teleportation and extra resilience alongside the flexibility to support allies too. A barbarian that can get at anyone, anywhere, is a fairly terrifying proposition. This makes the world tree barbarian the best barbarian subclass in my opinion.
Which barbarian subclass do you think is the best? Let me know about it in the comments below.
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