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

Call upon nature spirits to grant protective and offensive powers.

At a glance

What’s changing?

The oath of the spiritual guardians is a renamed and updated version of the path of the ancestral guardian for 5e 2014. Most of the changes are great, but I actually think the level 14 feature is worse than than the 2014 version of the subclass which is a shame.

I’ve summarised all the changes below:

• Ancestral protectors: Now called spiritual protectors. Has 3 options for how the protectors aid your attacks and they work on every attack, not just the first target you hit. Hinder now causes disadvantage on attacks rolls against others instead of resistance to that damage. There are also options for additional damage and slowing enemies down.
• Spirit shield: The amount of protection is now tied to your rage bonus so 3d6 kicks in a level earlier, but 4d6 starts 2 levels later.
• Spirits’ fury replaces vengeful ancestors: Now sometimes gain an extra attack whereas previously, using spirit shield would also result in damage to the attacker.

Path of the spirit guardian features

Totems (Lv3) – 3/5

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 only problem is the path of the spiritual guardian tends to favour a dual wielder with as many attacks as possible. It depends on your build, but you may want to be taking the dual wielder feat for some bonus action attacks which means it competes with this for uses. The effects here are OK, but a little situational.

Spiritual protectors (Lv3) – 5/5

I think the hinder option is the weaker of the 3 here. Once you’ve closed down an enemy, slowing them down usually isn’t a priority. Even if they move away, usually you can reach them after. It’s maybe a little better when combined with the slowdown of your totems, but it’s often not as useful.

Fortunately, the other 2 are pretty great. Barbarians want to keep enemy attacks focused on them so distract can be a great option for helping the durability of others. Strike is more universally useful and is basically your default option. You can mix and match between options too so could distract with one attack and strike with another.

One thing to note is these work on every hit, so the more attacks you get, the more the impact is magnified. With extra attack and dual wielding, you can be making 3-4 attacks per turn (assuming you use nick mastery and the dual wielder feat). You could add in a feat that grants easy opportunity attacks like sentinel or Zhentarim tactics and you can have up to 5 attacks per round for a potential 5d4 boost, but spirit shield at level 6 is a strong use of your reaction anyway so I’d stick with that.

Spirit shield (Lv6) – 5/5

2-4d6 damage reduction per round for an ally is really good. Reactions don’t get used an awful lot and this doesn’t have a restriction in uses. That means an average of 7-14 less damage per round for an ally. That’s a great use of your reaction and a great way to keep allies safe.

Consult the spirits (Lv10) – 3/5

Augury and clairvoyance are really solid information gathering spells that can often be useful. Note that you don’t know these spells, so can’t cast them additional times as rituals, but once per rest should be plenty.

As these are out of combat spells, they won’t conflict with your rage. They use wisdom for spellcasting, but your spellcasting ability makes no difference to the success of the spells so you don’t need to worry about this either.

Spirits’ fury (Lv14) – 3/5

15% chance per attack to get another attack is decent. With extra attack, there’s about a 28% chance of one of the d20s rolling an 18-20. With advantage, which is easy to get through reckless attack or weapon masteries, those odds increase.

The wording of this feature is important. First of all, it doesn’t work with unarmed strikes which seems like an odd omission and I wonder if it’s a mistake. Secondly, this only works for attacks that are part of the attack action. That means bonus action attacks and attacks of opportunity don’t count. However, attacks made using the nick mastery do because they are made as part of the attack action, so dual wielding barbarians can have 3 opportunities to get this additional attack.

If we work out the odds of landing this under the most favourable conditions (dual wielding using nick for 3 attacks with the attack action and using reckless attack for advantage) we have 6 d20 rolls where only 1 needs to roll an 18-20 to make the extra attack. That’s about a 62% chance of making another attack each round. Of course, in game situations may not be so favourable. You may have disadvantage or not want to use reckless attack, but there’s potential for decent odds on this one.

For the purposes of scoring, I’m going to think of it like half an extra attack (the in game odds will vary), which is decent, but not amazing.

How good is the path of the spiritual guardian subclass?

Early game features for the spiritual guardian are generally excellent. There’s a pretty decent damage boost, some strong protection and a bit of utility too. It fades at later levels though, nothing is bad about it, but the features are only decent.

I’d also say that the most optimal build is going to be competing for use of your bonus action between attacks and totems. This does depend on your build (whether you’re using the dual wielder feat) but if you’re dual wielding, I’d really recommend it for this subclass.

It’s worth pointing out that as a shaman, this subclass just isn’t great. 2 information gathering spells and some OK totems just doesn’t do enough to fulfill that spellcasting fantasy. But as a barbarian, this largely succeeds and does quite well as a protector build too. I just wish they’d kept the old level 14 feature which was great and I don’t think needed changing.

4/5

---

Building a path of the spirit guardian barbarian

Despite some spellcasting capabilities, the path of the spirit guardian 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 has no need for it (even though that’s your spellcasting ability).

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, especially as you draw attacks towards you with spiritual protectors. 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, none of these rely on a decent wisdom so I don’t think it’s worth investing in wisdom, nor 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 spirit guardian 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.
• 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.
• 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 a spirit guardian 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

With a lot of barbarians, feats that aid unarmed attacks and those that help you gain more opportunity attacks can be a good choice. The spirit guardians barbarian is a bit of an exception here as their level 14 feature doesn’t work with unarmed strikes and should be using their reaction a lot for spirit shield. For that reason, I’ve not recommended feats like grappler and sentinel in this section.

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.

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.
• Dual wielder – If you’re dual wielding and using the nick mastery, then you can use this for a bonus action attack which will add another D4 to your attack damage too from spiritual protectors.
• Great weapon master – Some strong bonus damage just from normal attacks. The bonus action attack from critical hits can be a decent boost and gets the D4 boost from spiritual protectors too.
• Mage slayer – Great for breaking concentration on spellcasters and having basically a use of legendary resistance every rest.
• 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.

Weapons

You can go for a few different approaches when choosing your weapon:

• Dual wielding: Grab a nick weapon and the dual wielder feat and you can get a couple of extra attacks. Great if you want to be getting more effects from spiritual protectors.
• 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.

I’d be inclined to go with a dual wielder on the spirit guardian for the extra boost from spiritual protectors, but other options can work too.

I’d also make sure you grab some thrown weapons for when you need to attack 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, but won’t work with a dual wielder.

More from D&D: World of Warcraft