Path of the Elements Barbarian: D&D 2024 (5.5e) Optimisation Guide

Harness elemental energy to strike down your foes.

At a glance

What’s changing?

The path of the elements is originally based on the path of the storm herald, as confirmed in this interview with James Wyatt (principle game designer on D&D: World of Warcraft), but has also been completely rebuilt from the ground up.

The storm herald utilised elemental aspects of the environment but had very different features that revolved around an aura. The elements barbarian is completely different to the point of being unrecognisable. As such, there’s no point listing what’s changed because literally everything has changed. There is nothing the same here, not even the name!

Path of the elements features

Totems (Lv3) – 2/5

Replaces barbarian’s primal knowledge feature when playing as a shaman

This gives a few different effects in a 30ft emanation from your totem and only takes a bonus action to plant.

I think the most useful one here is the charmed and frightened immunity. The problem with speeding up allies and slowing down enemies is that their movement may take them of the emanation quite quickly so it may not impact things for too many turns.

Having said that, even a one round speed boost could be useful, but I do think the condition protection is stronger and the kind of thing you could maybe use and just keep in play for a lot of the battle and it might encompass where a lot of the melee is happening anyway.

I think the primal knowledge totem is odd as it can only be used once per long rest (without expending rage), kind of replaces the primal knowledge feature, but you need to use a bonus action to plant a totem and then go and do some stealth or perception or acrobatics which are often mobile things. Imagine being in a social situation and you’re about to use intimidation so you just plant your totem first and then yell at them. You might flavour it as a cultural thing, but personally, I just think you should be able to use strength for intimidation regardless.

There’s no limitations on uses with this, but I think it can be good, I just don’t like it for the primal knowledge side of things. The problem is, the path of the elements has a much better use for their bonus action in their raging elements so I expect this to only be used when you really need to tackle charmed or frightened and basically no other times which really diminishes its value.

Raging elements (Lv3) – 5/5

This basically gives you a bonus action elemental attack. You have 3 options and they cause different amounts of damage. Icefury has the highest damage, then lightning bolt and then lava burst. However, icefury deals no damage on a miss, but the other 2 deal half damage on a successful saving throw. They also grant bonus damage when you use the correct elemental damage in the next round.

When you factor in average damage including half damage, you get the damage in the table below. I’ve added total damage with bonus damage from using the right subsequent damage type in parenthesis too. Note that for the saving throws, the bonus damage is guaranteed so just uses the average roll, but with icefury, the attack can miss so this is factored into the calculation. Just remember that a successful save won’t apply a damage boost to thenext elemental attack:

Elemental rage	+2 rage bonus	+3 rage bonus	+4 rage bonus
Icefury	5.9 (8.1)	8.8 (11.1)	11.7 (14)
Lava blast	4.1 (9.6)	6.2 (11.7)	8.3 (13.8)
Lightning bolt	5.8 (10.3)	8.8 (13.3)	11.6 (16.1)

There’s a few ifs and buts in this, but without the damage boost, lava burst is the weakest so you shouldn’t start with this element type. Instead, you should aim to focus fire on a single target, probably starting with icefury (which is affected less by the damage boost) and cycling through the elements each turn in order.

On a power level, this is basically an extra attack for a barbarian with their bonus action. The only issue is this will compete with totems for your bonus action and I’d expect this to win 9/10 which diminishes the impact of totems.

Echo of the elements (Lv6) – 2/5

Mainly you’re getting some utility out of these spells, but it’s mostly quite situational utility (daylight for the darkness spell and vampires, water walk for crossing water etc).

Wind wall can be useful in combat except for 2 big obstacles; it actually relies on a strong wisdom to be effective, which barbarians will struggle with, and they can’t use the spell in combat while their rage is active. Not using rage in combat so you can use wind wall isn’t a great idea making this practically useless. So what we end up with is some situational spells and no way to use the non-situational spell in combat. Sadly, this wasn’t the spellcasting shaman/barbarian approach we were hoping for.

Primordial bond (Lv10) – 4/5

3 more damage resistances is great for your resilience as the tankiest tank around. That’s at least 6 resistances which is a lot!

Elemental overload (Lv14) – 5/5

Some really big buffs to your elemental rage here. Icefury reduces the target’s damage for an attack, lava blast’s burning means D4 extra damage for a few creatures each round unless they waste an action and lightning bolt basically doubles total damage by hitting another target.

I don’t think it changes what you do tactically, just adds on to these effects. They all happen to be pretty universally great too.

How good is the path of the elements subclass?

When the path of the elements focuses on doing what barbarians do best (smashing and tanking), it’s excellent. Boosted damage output is high and there’s a lot of resistances there. The rotating damage types is a fun little extra too and encourages you to use all 3 options.

Where it tends to fall down is when it tries to be a utility subclass. Totems will rarely be used because of raging elements and the echo of elements spells fall short because they’re either too situational, or rely on wisdom. At best, we can say the subclass has a bunch of options.

I don’t think it would have been too much to give them burning hands as an AoE option a few times per day or even a once per day lightning bolt. Could we have also had the spells fuelled by constitution or strength rather than wisdom too and allowed rage casting just for those spells?

It’s a bit of a missed opportunity, but realistically, the good outweighs the bad on this subclass and it ends up being pretty solid despite its drawbacks.

4/5

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Building a path of the elements barbarian

Despite some spellcasting capabilities, the path of the elements plays and builds in a similar way to other barbarians. You want to build for power and resilience and hit as hard as you can. I wouldn’t even optimise for wisdom as your spellcasting practically has no need for it.

I also don’t think this subclass needs to be exclusive to the Warcraft setting so will share options from other books as well for building your character.

Ability scores

Recommended options

• Strength: Damage dealing is one of your biggest priorities and strength is best as rage relies on strength attacks.
• Constitution: You’ll need to be really resilient, as you’ll be the focal point of many attacks and reckless attack will make you more vulnerable. This also affects your unarmoured defense making constitution extra important for you.
• Dexterity: Unarmoured defense is better than medium armor if you can get your dexterity and constitution high enough. In the meantime, you can wear medium armor, but even that needs a 14 dexterity to be properly effective so you’ll want to invest here.

Options to avoid

• Wisdom: This is your spellcasting ability for your meager supply of spells. However, only 1 relies on a decent wisdom and that is practically useless in combat anyway as you can’t cast it while raging so I don’t think it’s worth investing in wisdom, not do you have the space for it.
• Intelligence: Dump, you don’t need this.
• Charisma: Of no use to a barbarian and you can use a totem to enhance your intimidation If you need to convince someone of something.

Ability Score	Point Buy	Standard Array
Strength	15	15
Dexterity	15	13
Constitution	15	14
Intelligence	8	8
Wisdom	8	12
Charisma	8	10

Skills

Recommended options

• Athletics: Solid for a lot of physical skill checks you might need to take.

• Perception: Always a useful skill as it’s often used by multiple party members and barbarians can fill in as scouts when necessary.
• Intimidation: The primal knowledge totem lets you use strength for this ability check now (while raging). And those big muscles really are intimidating!

Species/race

There are a couple of things to consider when choosing a species for a path of the elements barbarian:

• Resilience: Damage resistances will protect your tank even more, especially as reckless attack will make you more vulnerable.
• Don’t bother with innate spellcasting: Innate spellcasting can be useful for out of combat spells, but is pointless for spells you might use in combat (as you’ll likely be raging and not have a great spellcasting ability).
• Dealing damage: Any species that can enhance your damage dealing will help. You’ll likely be in the thick of combat so AoE damage can certainly help as barbarians naturally don’t really get this.

Recommended options

• Aasimar: Resistance to necrotic and radiant damage is handy as you don’t get either of these. You also get extra damage from celestial revelation which works really well for any barbarian. I’d primarily look to inner radiance as your charisma will likely be a bit low for necrotic shroud. Flight can be useful for getting to hard to reach enemies.
• Bariaur (DDB): Enhance some unarmed strikes when you charge at opponents allowing you to damage and shove (but only once per turn). Extra speed will help you close down enemies in melee quicker too.
• Dragonborn: An AoE breath weapon with scalable damage that only takes up a single attack is great if you want to deal damage to the masses (and lets be honest, you definitely do)! On top of that, you get a resistance and temporary flight which is always a useful option.
• Dwarf: An extra hit point per level is great for a tank and for even more resilience, you have resistance against poison and advantage on saving throws against the poisoned condition.
• Earthen (WoW): Like a Dragonborn, they have an AoE option that replaces an attack, but it can both heal and damage. Great for barbarians dealing with crowds. Poison resilience is helpful too and more hit points recovered during short rests is a little boost to resilience too.
• Forsaken (WoW): Necrotic resistance will help your resilience. There’s also a once per day damage boost and resilience against charmed and frightened. You could use a totem to help here, but this may save you doing so.
• Goliath: The quintessential barbarian species! Faster movement makes you even better at traversing the battlefield. Your giant ancestry grants some very useful options too. You can go for extra durability with stone giant ancestry or more damage from fire giant but there are a bunch of useful options here.
• Lupin (RHW): Great on an unarmed build for damage and shove on the same attack and can use howl to invoke fear in your enemies.
• Mechagnome (WoW): A few improved d20 tests is always useful, some healing when becoming bloodied and poison resilience are great on a barbarian.
• Orc: Relentless endurance stacks with relentless rage to make you last even longer in combat. Adrenaline rush is good for a few extra temporary hit points and to get around more quickly.
• Pandaren (WoW): Resistance to fall damage is sometimes useful, as is improved healing during short rests but you’re mainly here for quaking palm which will let you move around combat more easily without provoking opportunity attacks.
• Troll (WoW): Advantage on attack rolls while bloodied saves using reckless attack and you’ll last longer while bloodied too. Improved short rest healing is nice for resilience too.
• Warforged (FotA): +1 AC and poisoned resilience make for an extra hardy barbarian.
• Worgen (WoW): Faster speed, necrotic resistance and temporary hit points will help you reach enemies quicker and last a bit longer.

Backgrounds

Backgrounds are much more important now with D&D 2024 as the ability score increases previously tied to your race/species are now linked to your background. You also get an origin feat too.

For an elements barbarian, you’ll want to get strength, constitution and/or dexterity increases. Below are probably your best options:

Name	Ability scores	Origin feat	Skill proficiencies	Tool proficiency
Chondathan freebooter (HoF)	Strength dexterity, wisdom	Skilled	Athletics, sleight of hand	Weaver’s tools
Criminal	Dexterity, constitution, intelligence	Alert	Sleight of hand, stealth	Thieves tools
Farmer	Strength, constitution, wisdom	Tough	Animal handling, nature	Carpenter’s tools
Flaming fist mercenary (HoF)	Strength, constitution, charisma	Tough	Intimidation, perception	Smith’s tools
Ice fisher (HoF)	Strength, dexterity, constitution	Alert	Animal handling, athletics	Woodcarver’s tools
Rashemi wanderer (HoF)	Strength, constitution, charisma	Tough	Intimidation, perception	Cartographer’s tools
Soldier	Strength, dexterity, constitution	Savage attacker	Athletics, intimidation	One kind of gaming set
Zhentarim mercenary (HoF)	Strength, dexterity charisma	Zhentarim ruffian	Intimidation, perception	Forgery kit

Feats

Origin feats

• Alert – Going earlier in combat means you can strike enemies first and knock them out of combat sooner. Your high dexterity will make you even quicker here too.
• Lucky – Giving yourself advantage and others disadvantage is powerful and really useful for anyone.
• Musician – Heroic inspiration for most or all allies is really useful and can be granted each short or long rest. That’s a lot of rerolls! This works great on any class.
• Savage attacker – Decent enough extra damage and you should be making weapon attacks most turns. Just don’t take it if you’re going for an unarmed build. Smaller dice work better here so a greatsword will benefit more than a greataxe for example.
• Tough – Some decent extra resilience that’s good for everyone, but will go further for barbarians who have plenty of resistances.
• Zhentarim ruffian (HoF) – The initiative boost is quite nice, especially if you have easy access to heroic inspiration (say if an ally has the musician feat). The improved opportunity attacks are really good if you have a way of getting lots of opportunity attacks (like by using the sentinel feat or Zhentarim tactics).

General feats

• Bloodlust (ABoH) – Some decent mid-combat healing that doesn’t eat into your action economy plus better healing through your hit point dice. Your constitution should be high anyway so the healing should be decent and healing from an attack will be better than healing during a short rest, partly because the need for healing will be higher, but also because you get the constitution boost.
• Defensive duelist – Quite good extra resilience, but only works on a sword and shield or dual wielding build. You can use strength for attacks with finesse weapons, so get clobbering with that rapier.
• Grappler – Barbarians can be really good at grappling and this makes that even more viable as you can both damage and grapple in the same attack. Works best alongside tavern brawler or, if you take a multiclass dip, with the unarmed fighting style for better damage and other benefits.
• Great weapon master – Some strong bonus damage just from normal attacks. The bonus action attack from critical hits is probably no good as you’re already using raging elements for bonus action attacks.
• Mage slayer – Great for breaking concentration on spellcasters and having basically a use of legendary resistance every rest.
• Polearm master – The bonus action attack is no good for the path of the elements, but the much easier reaction attacks certainly are.
• Sentinel – Great way to get more attacks per round and keep enemies close or attacking you. Which is perfect for the party tank!
• Shield master – A free effort at a push or prone each round and turning a successful dexterity saving throw into no damage is particularly good on barbarians who have advantage on this. Your high strength will also be great for knocking prone/pushing too.
• Speedy – Faster movement is useful for a class that really needs to make sure they’re in close combat fast. Disadvantage from opportunity attacks will make it easier for you move across the battlefield a little more safely.
• Zhentarim tactics (HoF) – Easy opportunity attacks is great to increase your barbarian’s damage output. Expertise in a changeable skill is good too, but works better on a more skill focused class. It’s still handy though.

Weapons

You can go for a couple of approaches when choosing your weapon:

• Damage: the biggest damage dealers are those that do d12 or 2d6 damage. These include a greataxe (d12), maul and greatsword (2d6). 2d6 edges things on average damage (7 Vs 6.5) but the difference is negligible.
• Protection: Alternatively, you can trade off that extra damage for extra protection by going the sword and shield route and wielding a one handed weapon instead. We’re looking at the likes of longswords, battle-axes, spears and warhammers here.

Dual wielding could be an option, but as your bonus action is already occupied with attacks, even with nick, I think you’re better off going for something harder hitting or a shield.

I’d also make sure you grab some thrown weapons for when you need to attack at range. Tridents, then spears and javelins, offer the best damage output at range.

Part of your decision with weapons though, will come down to the weapon mastery property you want to be using.

Armor

You can go one of 2 ways with armor:

• Unarmoured defense: This has the most potential for AC, but you’ll need to invest heavily in dexterity and constitution to achieve that.
• Medium armor: If you’d prefer to have only decent armor but without the heavy dexterity investment, you can go for medium armor. You might start with medium armor and eventually progress to unarmored defense at some point.

You can also throw in a shield if you want to go higher on defense and lower on damage. Importantly, shields don’t count as armor for the purposes of unarmoured defense.

I’d be very tempted to opt for a high defense style as you already deal a lot of damage because of raging elements.

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