All Barbarians pull from the primal power of the world around them to fuel their Rage. But while Rage often manifests in pure chaotic emotion, Barbarians themselves need not be mindless attackers. Many Barbarians serve as the stalwart protectors of their people, and channel their Rage in defensive ways as quickly as they might go on the attack.

With the new Path of the World Tree subclass, a Barbarian can pull from the ancient and powerful branches that tie the very multiverse together. This subclass allows you to mix a little bit of support in with your Barbarian, while still boosting the martial prowess that makes them a terrifying force to be reckoned with. It also allows them to tap into the World Tree’s power to traverse the battlefield in a heartbeat.

Let’s take a look at the Path of the World Tree Barbarian subclass in the 2024 Player’s Handbook!

• Vitality of the Tree — Level 3
• Branches of the Tree — Level 6
• Battering Roots — Level 10
• Travel Along the Tree — Level 14

Changes to Rage in the 2024 Player’s Handbook

As with the other Barbarian subclasses, the Path of the World Tree’s features mostly come into play while your Rage is active. Luckily, the Barbarian in the 2024 Player's Handbook gives you a lot more chances to use your Rage. Since you can now expend a Bonus Action to maintain your Rage, you can keep the World Tree’s gifts active even if you don’t deal or take damage before your next turn.

With this change, plus new ways to regain expended Rage uses, if you weren’t already chomping at the bit to use your Rage-empowered features as a Barbarian before, you should now feel even more emboldened to do so.

Path of the World Tree Barbarian Features

Artist: Marcela Medeiros

Vitality of the Tree — Level 3

As the World Tree begins to take root within you, your Rage allows you to channel its life force through your fury.

Feel the Surge

The first benefit of Vitality of the Tree is one for yourself. Whenever you activate your Rage, Vitality Surge grants you a seedling of protection in the form of Temporary Hit Points equal to your Barbarian level. Since this scales as you level up, it goes from being a relatively minor benefit to one that could keep you on your feet when you’re tanking on the front lines.

Leaf No One Behind

Most Barbarians might reasonably feel that the best way to support their allies is to slice your axe through your enemies. But the Path of the World Tree Barbarian gives you the power to keep your allies on their feet while you chop through those enemies.

With Life-Giving Force, at the start of each of your turns while your Rage is active, you can choose to grant Temporary Hit Points to another creature within 10 feet of you. To determine how many Temporary Hit Points you can grant, roll a number of d6s equal to your Rage Damage bonus, and add them together. These Temporary Hit Points vanish when your Rage ends.

Branches of the Tree — Level 6

When you reach level 6 with your Path of the World Tree Barbarian, your Rage can conjure spectral branches of Yggdrasil. When your Rage is active, if a creature you can see starts its turn within 30 feet of you, you can use your Reaction to summon spectral limbs of the World Tree to move that creature. If the target fails a Strength saving throw, you can teleport it to an unoccupied space you can see within 5 feet of you, or the nearest unoccupied space you can see. This feature also allows you to reduce the creature's Speed to 0 until the end of the current turn.

Like Life-Giving Force, this feature gives your Barbarian a support option while staying true to your role as a tank and damage dealer. In this case, you tap into a crowd control role, allowing you to move a potential threat from a more vulnerable ally to within melee range of you.

Battering Roots — Level 10

This level 10 feature is the most martial of the Path of the World Tree Barbarian’s specific set of talents. With Battering Roots, you’re a little less Thor and a little more Groot as tendrils of Yggdrasil spring forth from you on your turn, increasing your reach by 10 feet when wielding any Melee weapon that has the Heavy or Versatile property. Not just when your Rage is active, either. Every turn.

In addition, when you hit with the weapon that benefits from this feature, you not only get the mastery property of the weapon you’re using, but you also can activate the Push or Topple property. So reach out and crush someone.

Travel Along the Tree — Level 14

Now it’s time to tap into the World Tree’s gifts for dimensional travel. With this feature, you can teleport up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space that you can see. You can use this feature when you activate your Rage, but also again as a Bonus Action on future turns while your Rage is active. Between Travel Along the Tree, the extended reach offered by Battering Roots, and the Barbarian class feature Instinctive Pounce, your enemies will soon feel like there is truly nowhere on the battlefield that is safe from you.

There’s more, too. Once per Rage, you can extend this feature's teleport range to 150 feet. You can also bring up to six willing creatures who are within 10 feet of you along for the jump. You can move each creature to an unoccupied space of your choosing within 10 feet of your destination space.

It’s easy to imagine how this powerful, versatile ability would come into play. You could be rushing to escape a collapsing platform. You could be trying to get allies away from an oncoming dragon attack. Or if running isn’t your style, you could be moving yourself and your allies into closer range of your enemies to lay some hurting blows down on them as a team.

Don’t Need to Go Out on a Limb Here

The 2024 Player’s Handbook is now available on the D&D Beyond marketplace, which means it's time to set out on new adventures with fresh or familiar characters!

The 2024 Player’s Handbook has boosted the brawn of the Barbarian. The updates to the base Barbarian class allow these heavy hitters to do more brutal damage, to stay up and engage in combat longer, and to enter into a more sustainable Rage. With the Path of the World Tree Barbarian, you can extend some of that durability to your allies, and use your unique subclass features to ensure everyone on the battlefield is where you want them as you start laying down the damage.

We’re delighted to share with you the changes to fifth edition D&D that appear in the 2024 Player’s Handbook. Make sure to keep an eye out on D&D Beyond for more useful guides on using the wealth of new options, rules, and mechanics found in the 2024 Player's Handbook!

Riley Silverman (@rileyjsilverman) is a contributing writer to D&D Beyond, Nerdist, and SYFY Wire. She DMs the Theros-set Dice Ex Machina for the Saving Throw Show, and has been a player on the Wizards of the Coast-sponsored The Broken Pact. Riley also played as Braga in the official tabletop adaptation of the Rat Queens comic for HyperRPG, and currently plays as The Doctor on the Doctor Who RPG podcast The Game of Rassilon. She currently lives in Los Angeles.