Barbarian Feat Guide For D&D 2024 (5.5e)

Evaluating which feats work well for a barbarian and which are best.

Barbarians are rage-filled martial warriors with a decent amount of survival instincts. They also happen to have a bunch of limitations for things like spellcasting and armor that mean you need to build them with a bit of care.

With feats being a modular addition to your core class capabilities, these need to be carefully considered on a barbarian to make sure they fit your abilities. Because of this, I’ve gone through every single feat released for D&D 2024 so far and analysed how good an option it is for a barbarian to help you make your choice.

How it works

I’ve evaluated every feat based on how well I think it fits the barbarian class, scoring each feat out of 5. I’ve also provided some explanation for why I’ve given this score. All builds are different though, so use this as a guide, but not an absolute authority on what feats you should take and which you shouldn’t.

As D&D 2024 expands, so do the feat options. I’ll try to keep updating this guide as this happens. When a feat comes from a source outside of the Player’s Handbook, I’ve also used abbreviations to indicate which source it’s from. These abbreviations stand for:

HoF: Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerun
ABoH: Astarion’s Book of Hungers
LFL: Lorwyn First Light

Barbarian origin feats

Goliath barbarian — Barbarian: Wizards of the Coast

Alert (4/5) – Always useful to go earlier in combat and being able to swap initiative with an ally makes for something quite tactical if the dithering wizard wants to fireball your foes before you charge into the fray. With this tactic, barbarians are particularly good here as they get advantage on initiative rolls for even higher initiative. If you go earlier, you get the benefit of getting rage defences up early too.
Child of the sun (1/5) – LFL – Advantage against blinded for you and nearby allies is situationally good, but faerie fire is of zero value to you.
Crafter (2/5) – Maybe decent if you want to do a lot of crafting, or to buy cheaper gear, but considering the cheaper gear is non-magical, I just don’t feel you get enough from this and crafting isn’t of much value unless you’re making magical things (scrolls and items).
Cult of the dragon initiate (1/5) – HoF – Causing frightened for a single turn to a single enemy isn’t that great for the whole action it requires, even with the bonus heroic inspiration. This gets even worse for a barbarian that’ll be low on wisdom so unlikely to succeed.
Emerald enclave fledgling (1/5) – HoF – Speak with animals is fine and OK on a barbarian as it’s a utility spell that doesn’t rely on your spellcasting ability. But there are much better ways to use your action in combat than using the help action, even if you can slightly move an ally out of danger and you into it. A bit too niche and lacking in impactful abilities.
Harper agent (1/5) – HoF – Ranged help actions are OK, but your action is much better used with attacks. Everything else is a ribbon feature. Just not a good feat. The only way you might consider this is if you’re playing a hobgoblin that can use a bonus action for the help action.
Healer (1/5) – An action to do worse healing than a potion of healing or healing word. Granted you can’t cast spells while raging and potions cost money, but I’d say that barbarians just aren’t the right people for healing and this is subpar for classes that should be healing in better ways anyway.
Lords alliance agent (3/5) – HoF – Inspiring strike might happen in 1 out of 3 4 round encounters which isn’t a lot. If you have a couple of martial allies, you may find decent use out of reassert honor. This feat is just about OK because you’re a reasonably high attack martial class.
Lucky (5/5) – Giving yourself advantage and others disadvantage is powerful and really useful for anyone.
Magic initiate (1/5) – Great feat that’s really poor for a barbarian that neither has a strong spellcasting ability or the ability to cast spells in combat (because of rage). The best you can do here is grab some utility spells that aren’t dependent on your spellcasting ability. Even then, I’d suggest leaving spellcasting to others.
Musician (5/5) – 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.
Purple dragon rook (3/5) – HoF – The skills aren’t great for a barbarian and the heroic inspiration you grant is much less than the musician feat so I’d just take that. Technically this is an alright feat, but musician does a similar thing so much better.
Savage attacker (3/5) – 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.
Shadowmoor hexer (1/5) – LFL – You have no use for the hex spell making this completely useless.
Skilled (3/5) – Barbarians aren’t necessarily your best option for a skillful build, but they’re often good at dexterity which gives you a few scouting and stealth options you may want to grab.
Spellfire spark (4/5) – HoF – Sacred flame is no use to a barbarian, but the damage reduction certainly is. It’s once per turn too, not just once per round so that damage reduction can stack up.
Tavern brawler (2/5) – Useful if you go for an unarmed build, but you need to do a lot to make that effective (like a multiclass dip in fighter for the unarmed fighting style). On its own, this just means you can push and do less damage than you could with a weapon. For most barbarians, without multiclassing, this is difficult to justify.
Tireless reveler (4/5) – ABoH – Lots of heroic inspiration to bounce off one another. Especially good if you have easy ways of replenishing heroic inspiration, like the musician feat or someone else with tireless reveler. A bit more situational if you don’t have that.
Tough (4/5) – Some decent extra resilience that’s good for everyone, but will go further for barbarians who have plenty of resistances.
Tyro of the gauntlet (1/5) – HoF – Both really situational effects that I just don’t see you getting the benefit of very often.
Vampire hunter (3/5) – ABoH – Technically 2 situational options, but being grappled or in restraints is reasonably common. Necrotic damage will depend on your campaign. Against lots of undead, you can get a fair bit of use from this, but other campaigns could see it a bit wasted.
Vampire’s plaything (4/5) – ABoH – A free healing potion each long rest is really nice and dash and disengage as bonus actions will go a long way to making you more maneuverable. This means getting to foes quicker and moving to the right parts of the battlefield easily too.
Zhentarim ruffian (3/5) – HoF – The initiative boost is quite nice, especially if you have easy access to heroic inspiration (say if an ally has the musician feat). Exploit opening is like savage attacker but only for opportunity attacks. This makes it quite situational. It’s better with something like sentinel that gives you more opportunity attacks or Zhentarim tactics which I guess you’re supposed to combine with this. On its own, this is probably too situational but if you can build into it, this is alright.

Barbarian general feats

Berserker barbarian DnD 2024 — Barbarian: Wizards of the Coast

Actor (1/5) – Barbarians have little need for charisma or the ability to impersonate others. Not worth getting.
Athlete (2/5) – A climb speed is handy, less movement getting up from prone is situational, as are shorter run ups for jumping. It’s maybe OK if you really want a climb speed, but a few species can grant this too.
Bloodlust (4/5) – 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.
Bomber (2/5) – ABoH – You probably won’t throw flasks or vials much, but you may use thrown weapons a decent bit. They are notoriously short-ranged so removing disadvantage at long range is nice. I’m unsure how much you’ll use this as a barbarian though, considering the need to take creatures on in melee, so while a decent option, you may get limited use from it unless you work to tactics not usually designed for a barbarian (ranged fighting), which loses it a point.
Charger (3/5) – Deal more damage or push when moving before an attack can be handy. Making this happen is the hard part. You should get this easily enough a couple of times an encounter. Making it happen more often takes some effort like getting bonus action disengage. Dashing won’t be that common for you, but the extra range is welcome.
Chef (3/5) – A bit of extra healing on a short rest for the whole party and treats that grant a few temporary hit points. How good this is depends on the length of your adventuring days. I suspect this will feel more impactful at lower levels and less so at higher levels.
Cloying mists (1/5) – ABoH – Not great for anyone (a single level 1 spell you can’t choose is significantly worse than similar feats like magic initiate, fey touched and shadow touched) but even worse for a barbarian. Poor choice of ability scores and spellcasting that you won’t usually be able to use.
Cold caster (1/5) – HoF – Only good for spellcasters which makes it a terrible option for the very anti-spell barbarian.
Crossbow expert (2/5) – Decent enough feat, but most barbarians won’t want to be fighting with ranged weapons except as a last resort because they make stronger attacks with strength. With that in mind, you likely don’t want to be investing in crossbow combat.
Crusher (3/5) – Push is decent on one attack per turn and can stack with push or other weapon masteries. Critical hits aren’t common enough to rely on regularly, but it’s a decent enough bonus when it occurs.
Defensive duelist (4/5) – 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.
Delicious pain (1/5) – ABoH – Rage already gives you these resistances for much longer so this is pointless on a barbarian.
Dragonscarred (2/5) – HoF – A resistance is good and attempting to frighten with a bonus action is handy too. Sadly, this attempt at frightening relies on a strong wisdom, which isn’t much good for a barbarian. Plus you need to take a subpar origin feat to make this work.
Dual wielder (4/5) – Great for a dual wielding barbarian, particularly to get an extra attack in when combined with nick mastery.
Durable (4/5) – The self healing is mainly what you want from this. Barbarian bonus actions usually aren’t under high strain and staying standing as the party tank is usually very important. Improved death saving throws is a nice little bonus.
Elemental adept (1/5) – Not a great feat for anyone, but it happens to be even worse on barbarians who don’t need to improve any of these ability scores and can’t cast spells anyway.
Enclave magic (1/5) – HoF – Technically beast sense is workable for a barbarian, but influencing animals is not their thing and they don’t have a pet to sense through so could also be situational. On top of this, the ability score increase isn’t great for you, neither is the origin feat that’s required.
Fairy trickster (3/5) – HoF – Disengaging into difficult terrain is going to be rare, especially for a class that tends to stay at the heart of combat, rather than escape it. Flustering strike is quite good though, which compensates.
Fey touched (1/5) – Poor options of ability scores for a barbarian and you can’t cast spells while raging anyway.
Genie magic (1/5) – HoF – Gaining a spell and increasing a spellcasting ability score are often little use to a barbarian.
Grappler (4/5) – 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 (5/5) – Some strong bonus damage just from normal attacks, plus you can grab a bonus action attack when landing a critical or killing an enemy. That should be reasonably often and barbarians often have space for other bonus action uses. Really strong option for barbarians using two handed weapons.
Harper teamwork (1/5) – HoF– There’s rarely a good reason to use help in combat rather than making an attack, even with the extra benefit here. Frightened and paralyzed saving throw successes are unlikely to be common enough to benefit much from either when it needs to affect multiple party nembers, plus you have to pick up a bad origin feat to grab this too. The exception here is maybe if you happen to be playing a hobgoblin, who can use the help action as a bonus action.
Heavily armored (1/5) – You can’t use heavy armor and rage (as well as a few other things), so taking this is pointless.
Heavy armor master (1/5) – Again, you can’t use heavy armor and rage (as well as a few other things), so taking this is pointless.
Inspiring leader (3/5) – The ability is excellent for anyone, but the ability score choices are poor for a barbarian. I think that evens out as an average feat for a barbarian, but personally, I would see if someone more appropriate can take this feat instead.
Keen mind (1/5) – Barbarians shouldn’t be investing in intelligence or knowledge skills. Not great on a barbarian.
Light bringer (1/5) – ABoH – The healing is alright, but you might as well grab bloodlust for better healing as everything else about this is poor for a barbarian including a spell and spellcasting ability scores.
Lightly armored (1/5) – You already have training with light armor and shields. Pointless for a barbarian.
Lordly resolve (3/5) – HoF – An option for decent resilience/recovery against 3 types of conditions and possession is decent.
Love bites (1/5) – ABoH – Charmed will stop a creature attacking you, but probably not from attacking your allies. You probably usually want attacks focused against yourself so I’m not sure this is that great for a barbarian.
Mage slayer (5/5) – Great for breaking concentration on spellcasters and having basically a use of legendary resistance every rest.
Martial weapon training (1/5) – You already have proficiency with martial weapons so this is pointless.
Medium armor master (2/5) – There’s possibly a niche range where this could be useful. Medium armor normally maxes out at 17AC (with 14 dexterity) and 18 with this feat. Unarmored defense maxes out at 20AC, but you need 20 in dexterity and constitution while also investing in strength. 18 in both or 16 in one and 20 in the other will also get you to 18AC. This fits somewhere before you reach that point, but later progression might render this pointless. I’d be more tempted to invest in constitution to improve AC and HP.
Moderately armored (1/5) – You already have medium armor training so this is pointless.
Mounted combatant (3/5) – Great if you have easy access to a mount, especially for advantage on attacks. Most barbarians won’t though.
Mythal touched (1/5) – HoF – The magical effects you might create here are not spells so you can cause them. But the saving throws will be poor and you must take a spellcasting ability score so still not great for a barbarian.
Observant (1/5) – Perception is a decent skill for a barbarian, but the rest aren’t great. The ability score increases are poor for you. If you want perception proficiency, there are better ways to grab it like through your background, species or the skilled feat.
Order’s resilience (2/5) – HoF – This is OK. Quicker after being knocked prone feels like a ribbon effect. Advantage on strength saving throws is decent, but you also have to be next to an ally. This is a kind of situational feat that requires taking a very situational origin feat which isn’t great. I don’t think it’s worth it.
Piercer (3/5) – Rerolling damage when using a piercing weapon is decent if that’s the kind of weapon you’re using. Improved criticals will be rarer, but the extra damage is welcome too.
Poisoner (3/5) – 2-6 doses of poison for 50gp is alright if you have lots of money. The extra damage and short poisoned condition are quite good and you have the spare uses of your bonus action available to apply this. Ignoring poison resistance makes this more workable. It’s pretty good without the gold cost and alright with it if you have gold to spare.
Polearm master (5/5) – Great for extra uses of your bonus action and reaction to ensure you’re attacking more often. This works out to quite a lot of extra damage.
Purple dragon commandant (4/5) – HoF – Removes the need for reckless attacks while bloodied which is solid and bonus action temporary hit points for allies is really handy. You can also grant these ahead of combat.
Putrefy (1/5) – ABoH – As a barbarian, you probably won’t be dealing necrotic damage very often so this is likely pointless unless you have some magical greataxe.
Rebuke (1/5) – ABoH – You probably won’t be dealing radiant damage very often if at all making this a bit pointless.
Resilient (3/5) – The only ability score worth taking here is dexterity as you already have strength and constitution proficiency and you won’t want to increase your wisdom, intelligence or charisma ability scores.
Ritual caster (3/5) – Technically about as good on a barbarian as anyone else surprisingly as ritual spells tend to be cast outside of combat and don’t rely on a strong spellcasting ability. If you want spells on a barbarian, this is probably the way to do it.
Sentinel (5/5) – Great way to get more attacks per round and keep enemies close or attacking you. Which is perfect for the party tank!
Shadow touched (1/5) – Invisibility is a utility spell that is often cast out of combat while not requiring a good spellcasting ability. This makes it a viable spell for a barbarian. I still wouldn’t recommend this for a barbarian though. You’ll need to grab another spell and will be limited on viable options while the ability score increase is useless for you.
Sharpshooter (1/5) – Barbarians aren’t built for making ranged attacks. Usually your best option is a thrown weapon so you can benefit from your rage bonuses etc. This isn’t worth it for the rare moment you might need something with more range like a longbow.
Shield master (5/5) – 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. This makes this ideal for a shield wielding barbarian.
Skill expert (3/5) – Solid if you want to be an expert at a skill.
Skulker (3/5) – You probably won’t be hiding during combat, making 2 thirds of this feat a little obsolete. Blindsight is situational, but very useful when the need arises. Blindsight is the main attraction here though, so this is decent enough if you want some always on capabilities for dealing with blindness and invisibility.
Slasher (3/5) – Speed reduction is basically an extra weapon mastery effect each turn. Improved criticals is decent, but won’t happen loads. It’s decent enough for a martial class.
Speedy (4/5) – 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.
Spellfire adept (1/5) – HoF – Only a good option for spellcasters so no good for a barbarian.
Spell sniper (1/5) – You won’t be casting spells and don’t need an ability score increase from any of the options here. Not great for a barbarian.
Street justice (3/5) – HoF – You’re probably not trying to influence many people, but if you’re a grapple build, this can be a decent-ish buff, but you’ll need to grapple a lot and need allies that will be making those attacks rolls.
Telekinetic (1/5) – Mage hand could be alright as it’s an out of combat utility spells that doesn’t require a strong spellcasting ability. Sadly, telekinetic shove does and the ability score increase is no good either. I’d avoid this one for a barbarian.
Telepathic (1/5) – Telepathic communication is decent enough for a barbarian, but the ability score increase is no good and detect thoughts needs a decent spellcasting ability, which is a problem for a barbarian.
Treacherous allure (1/5) – ABoH – Spells and spellcasting ability increases aren’t useful for a barbarian.
Vampire touched (1/5) – ABoH – Gaining spells and spellcasting ability score increases are not great for a barbarian.
War caster (1/5) – All the benefits here are only useful for spellcasters, which barbarians definitely are not.
Weapon master (2/5) – You probably have enough weapon mastery properties for your needs, but if you want to swap weapons a bit, you could go this route. Generally I’d say barbarians don’t need this though.
Zhentarim tactics (4/5) – 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. Still handy for you though.

Barbarian epic boon feats

Wild heart barbarian — Barbarian: Wizards of the Coast

Boon of blazing dawn (3/5) – ABoH – Barbarians can really benefit from a different damage type for their attacks. Immunity to radiant damage is nice too.
Boon of bloodshed (3/5) – HoF – The advantage should happen a fair bit which is handy. Extra damage when bloodied is decent, but only a small amount once per turn.
Boon of bountiful health (2/5) – HoF – The extra temporary hit points are not a lot at this level. It kind of works if you have a regular source of temporary hit points, but it doesn’t feel like enough. The improved healing is great for long adventuring days. A few feats (like bloodlust) will use your hit point dice making this quite good in conjunction with these, but not great without. Add an extra point to this score if you have a feat like bloodlust
Boon of combat prowess (5/5) – An automatic hit once per round is really good for a class that is often trying to hit stuff. It also makes brutal strike more appealing as if you miss because of the lack of advantage, you can just make it a hit anyway.
Boon of communication (2/5) – HoF – This is OK, but barbarians aren’t your main source of influence. You’re better off giving this to a bard.
Boon of desperate resilience (5/5) – HoF – Resistance to everything other than force is really good on a tank and you still have a lot of hit points once bloodied. Combine this with the boon of recovery (if playing at levels beyond 20) to basically have your full hit points while in a state of being bloodied.
Boon of dimensional travel (5/5) – Really easy to move around the battlefield to wherever you need to be and there’s no action economy cost either.
Boon of energy resistance (3/5) – More damage resistances is useful for a tank and reaction attacks will be occasionally useful. You’re likely better off getting reaction attacks from something more reliable like sentinel or polearm master, but this damage will likely outperform those at least. This could be a bit situational as you only gain the benefits when facing the right enemies but you can change the resistances each long rest.
Boon of exquisite radiance (1/5) – HoF – You’ll almost never deal radiant damage and creatures becoming undead that you kill is almost never an issue.
Boon of fate (5/5) – Regular manipulation of d20 rolls is good for anyone and once per rest is definitely nice.
Boon of fluid forms (5/5) – HoF – Most creatures you could transform into won’t be worth it as they’ll reduce your capabilities (other than some utility). However, a few creatures, like a froghemoth, are worth transforming into. If you pick your forms wisely, this can be really good and a bundle of extra hit points to survive with.
Boon of fortitude (3/5) – Some decent extra resilience and because you have some resistances from rage, those hit points will often go further too. If you pair this with something like bloodlust, that will let you heal yourself more regularly, or if you have a cleric in the party, then this gets even better.
Boon of fortune’s favour (4/5) – HoF – Reroll a saving throw every round. Really great resilience feature.
Boon of irresistible offense (4/5) – Could be very useful at this level for a class that is mostly tied to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage (beyond what magic weapons you can grab) and with plenty of monsters with resistance to this type of damage. The extra damage isn’t that appealing as it won’t occur that often.
Boon of looming shadows (5/5) – ABoH – Dodge as a bonus action is great for resilience. The 10ft extra reach is really handy for keeping more enemies in melee range too.
Boon of misty escape (1/5) – ABoH – Just a terrible feat and the wrong ability score increases for you too.
Boon of poison mastery (2/5) – HoF – Poison damage and the poisoned condition are reasonably common, but barbarians dealing poison damage are rare. If you’re just here for resilience, there are better resilience epic boons.
Boon of recovery (5/5) – Loads of extra resilience here. I think this is much better than the boon of fortitude as your hit points will be high enough to recover to more than 40HP, by quite a bit. The healing option is also really handy.
Boon of revelry (1/5) – HoF – Not a great spell and you won’t be able to use it while raging anyway. Pointless for you.
Boon of skill (2/5) – You probably already have skills you specialise in and others will have the same. Even with proficiency, at this level, you probably won’t be the best at many of these things. Not sure proficiency in all skills is necessary but it can still be useful.
Boon of speed (4/5) – More speed is great, escaping grapples is handy but situational. I like the boon of dimensional travel better as the speed is the same but teleportation will get you out of grapples and reach without disengaging. This does have the benefit of being used whenever you like on your turn rather than after you take the attack action though.
Boon of spell recall (1/5) – This isn’t great anyway, but you don’t cast spells so this is pointless.
Boon of terror (1/5) – HoF – Being immune to frightened is alright, but causing frightened reliably is tricky. A berserker can do this, but is already immune to the frightened condition. Even then, you need to use your charisma modifier for the saving throw, which won’t be great.
Boon of the bright sun (5/5) – HoF – Loads of extra temporary hit points for the whole party is just excellent.
Boon of the furious storm (1/5) – HoF – Lightning and thunder damage isn’t common enough to take this for the resistances alone and you won’t be casting these types of spells (or any spells for that matter) so I’d avoid.
Boon of the night spirit (3/5) – The invisibility isn’t really what a barbarian wants in combat, you want to be the target of attacks. You already have reckless attacks if you want it to grab advantage. Out of combat it’s useful for stealth and the resistances are handy. It is only this way in shadow though.
Boon of the soul drinker (4/5) – HoF – A couple of decent resistances and some pretty big healing. Creatures dying around you shouldn’t be a problem. Good resilience boon.
Boon of truesight (4/5) – Really good when you face something you can’t see or illusions but that won’t be all the time. It’s important someone can deal with this stuff and this is the most profound way to do it, just be aware you won’t use it often.