I'm not super familiar with Path of the Zealot for Barbarians but it seems like they made a couple changes with the 2024 PHB release:
Divine Fury (3rd level) is the same
Warrior of the Gods (3rd level) used to be a thing where you could be raised from the dead without spell components but instead they just gave you a bunch of d12s you can use to heal yourself as a bonus action
Fanatical Focus (6th level) is the same
Zealous Presence (10th level) is the same except that they allow you to burn one of your Rage slots to give you another use of this power before your Long Rest if you want
Rage of the Gods (14th level, previously Rage Beyond Death) is a totally different power. Now when you Rage you gain a Fly speed, you get resistance to Radiant, Necrotic, and Psychic damage, and whenever a friend near you drops to 0 HP you can expend a use of your Rage as a Reaction to give them back HP equal to your Barbarian level.
I miss Rage Beyond Death because it was so fucking metal, but a flying Barbarian is honestly maybe just as scary??
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the new 2024 PHB includes a new Barbarian subclass called Path of the World Tree and it's kind of fucking wild
at 3rd level you're like a fire hose of Temp HP, at 6th level you do a Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat and tell dudes to GET OVER HERE, at 10th level I think your reach becomes 15ft at minimum and you get the Push and Topple weapons masteries for free??
and then at 14th level you can send u and six of your best friends 150ft anywhere for free once per Rage, and you personally can just teleport 60ft whenever you want as a bonus action if you're Raging
like.......... again, as a player this sounds fucking sick, but as a DM I'm sweating, that's a lot of unmitigated teleporting
aaah I like the changes the 2024 PHB made to the Path of the Wild Heart (previously called Path of the Totem Warrior gee I wonder why they changed it /sarcasm) subclass
first and foremost they took out all of the fucking flavor text about how you had to like, carve a fucking animal totem at every subclass level to wear on your person in order to get your powers, or your spirit animal showing up at every turn when you use a spell; I'm fine with a book suggesting ways to flavor the class, but don't force your weird appropriative motif on my character just 'cause I wanted resistance to more types of damage
ANYWAY
Animal Speaker (3rd level, previously called Spirit Seeker) is the same.
Rage of the Wilds (3rd level, previously called Totem Spirit) has changed significantly in that now you pick which option you want whenever you Rage instead of one-and-done forever. There are only three options at the start, Bear, Eagle, and Wolf.
They've nerfed the Bear a little in that you no longer have resistance to Necrotic, Radiant, Force, or Psychic damage, but we all knew it was OP before so I ain't even that mad.
The Eagle option now lets you Dash AND Disengage at the same time as a bonus action.
The Wolf option has not changed.
Aspect of the Wilds (6th level, previously Aspect of the Beast) has also changed to only have three options, but they're all 1) different animals from before and 2) you can change which one you have every time you Long Rest.
The Owl option gives you Darkvision, and if you already have Darkvision it extends it by 60ft.
The Panther option gives you a Climb speed.
The Salmon option gives you a Swim speed.
Nature Speaker (10th level, previously Spirit Walker) is exactly the same mechanically
Power of the Wilds (14th level, previously Totemic Attunement) again has been changed so you get three options you can pick between whenever you Rage.
The Falcon option gives you a fly speed.
The Lion option is what would have previously been the Bear option (enemies have Disadvantage to hit everyone but you) except it doesn't have the bit about enemies being immune if they can't see you/can't be frightened.
The Ram option is what would have previously been the Wolf option (knock enemies prone when you attack them) except it doesn't cost your Bonus Action anymore, it happens automatically.
okay looking at the 2024 PHB changes to the Berserker subclass for Barbarian today.
Frenzy (3rd level) has changed pretty significantly; instead of doing Reckless Attack, getting an extra attack as a bonus action for the rest of your Rage, and then being exhausted, now you can just do some d6 bonus damage on your first attack whenever Reckless Attack is active with no exhaustion penalty.
Mindless Rage (6th level) now clearly ends the Charmed/Frightened condition instead of weirdly suspending it while Rage is active.
Retaliation has moved from 14th level to 10th level (holy mackerel) but is otherwise the same.
Intimidating Presence has swapped places with Retaliation (now at 14th level instead of 10th) and I think I can see why; it used to be pretty useless because it took your whole action, only affected one target, and the save DC was based on Charisma. Now it takes a bonus action, affects a 30-foot emanation around you, and the DC is based on Strength which is most likely already your best attribute. The affect also lasts for 1 minute instead of it previously lasting until the end of your next turn.
let's look at the changes they made to the Barbarian core class in the 2024 PHB (subclasses will be separate). lots of words behind the cut.
OKAY for one thing they've made class descriptions a lot shorter, which I think is good. gives you just enough flavor to get started but doesn't imply how they must be within a world setting.
"Rage" is now being flavored as more of a strong internal power than literally you getting mad which is good for those of us who play barbarians who don't get mad, they get even.
LEVEL 1
Still got that Rage, though now you get get one of your Rages back on a Short Rest and the rest back on a Long Rest per usual
Rage damage now applies to Unarmed Strikes as well as melee
Rage duration has changed; it used to last for 1 minute and ended early if you were knocked Unconscious, or if you go a whole round without either taking damage or attacking a hostile creature. Now Rage lasts up to 10 minutes so long as you either 1) attack an enemy on your turn, 2) force an enemy to make a saving throw on your turn, or 3) use your Bonus Action to extend your Rage. It ends early if you are Incapacitated, which is different from Unconscious and frankly more likely to happen. Forcing an enemy to make a saving throw is probably so that things like Grappling, Shoving, and some of your later abilities clearly still count towards keeping your Rage active.
Unarmored Defense has not changed.
You get Weapon Mastery on two weapons which means a level 1 Barbarian is now exponentially more terrifying
LEVEL 2
Danger Sense now just applies to all Dex saves, not just Dex saves for effects you can see. You can still do this even if you are Blinded or Deafened, but not if you're Incapacitated.
Reckless Attack has not changed.
LEVEL 3
You can still pick your subclass at this level.
Someone already made a great post about this they added this wacky thing where now at 3rd Level now called Primal Knowledge where while they are raging, Barbarians can use their Strength score instead of the normal attribute for Acrobatics, Intimidation, Perception, Stealth, or Survival. That's right, your muscles are so powerful that they let you see better, sneak better, and not get lost better. It's weird. Previously it was an alternative feature from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything (TCoE) but it just gave you proficiency in one skill.
LEVEL 4
You can still raise your ability scores or take a feat here.
LEVEL 5
Extra Attack has not changed.
Fast Movement has not changed.
LEVEL 7
Feral Instinct is mostly the same except they took out that stuff about if you're Surprised on the first round of combat because Surprise works differently now.
They brought in Feral Pounce from TCoE so now all 7th level barbarians can move up to half their speed for free when they Rage.
LEVEL 9
Brutal Critical has changed to Brutal Strike; it used to be that when you crit on an attack you got an extra damage die. NOW, whenever you Reckless Attack, you can choose to forgo your Advantage and if you hit, you deal an extra 1d10 damage AND you can either push them 15ft back and follow them for free OR reduce their speed by 15ft until the start of your next turn. Wow. Insane. Wow.
LEVEL 11
Relentless Rage has changed, instead of popping back up with 1 HP you pop up with a number of HP equal to twice your Barbarian level. So now you actually have a chance of surviving a second attack and not immediately going back down.
LEVEL 13
There used to be a dry spell between 11th and 15th level, but now here at 13th you get Improved Brutal Strike, which gives you two new ways to fuck people over when you use your Brutal Strike.
LEVEL 15
Persistent Rage now lets you, once per long rest, regain all uses of your Rage when you roll initiative. Your Rage also now lasts for 10 minutes for free, and it only ends early if you drop Unconscious, not if you become Incapacitated.
LEVEL 17
There used to be nothing fun at Level 17 but now your Brutal Strike damage turns into 2d10 and you can use TWO of your crazy Brutal Strike abilities at once.
LEVEL 18
Indomitable Might has not changed.
LEVEL 19
The new thing is that at 19th everyone gets an Epic Boon. You can take whatever Epic Boon you want but they suggest one that gives you an extra like 20 damage every time you hit and all your bashing, slashing, and piecing damage ignores Resistance.
LEVEL 20
Primal Champion has only changed a little in that the Ability Score cap is now 25 instead of 24.
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Wow gang, the Barbarian class is still very much a tank and their damage output has only gotten crazier, but I think the biggest change is in how much power Barbarians now have to push enemies around on the battlefield, either away from their friends, into corners, over cliffs, etc.
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in a twist that I certainly wasn't expecting, the 2024 PHB has brought back the alignment chart.
and I... actually love it? I've always secretly liked the alignment chart even though it's kind of stupid. being able to place your character on a grid is a tradition that itches the same part of my brain as picking an enneagram type or a hogwarts house or whatever. and I think they did a really good job of explaining 1) just because characters have an alignment doesn't mean they act like that 100% of the time, 2) the definitions of the alignments themselves and 3) that you need to ask your DM before playing an evil-aligned character.
on top of that, I did like the ideals, bonds, and flaws system, but outside of helping guide baby's first roleplay, I feel like they're quickly forgotten and sometimes aren't even applicable for more than a couple levels because of the nature of character arcs and improvisational play. it looks like if you're building a character on D&D Beyond they still have them available to help build out your character's personality, but they're totally optional. And then in the PHB itself they seem to have been replaced with some pretty good basic questions they want you to answer about your character like WHERE ARE THEY FROM and WHY DO THEY ADVENTURE
and then as a fun plus, the alignment chart section makes it clear we can play true neutral characters now and what it would look like! this may actually be something my brain keeps holding on to from earlier editions but I think true neutral used to be the "animal" alignment and you couldn't really be true neutral if you were like, a humanoid with thoughts and feelings.
So here's the thing about languages in the 2024 PHB rules.
There are now two language tables, one of languages that are commonly spoken throughout the multiverse and one of languages that are "rare" and therefor not as easy to pick up. They added Common Sign Language in the "common" table and I think that's awesome. Shit like Primordial is in the "rare" table, which... good.
In theory, I like the divide. I think it's helpful, especially to new players, to be like "here are the ones you might run into and here are the ones you will probably never run into unless the plot goes there".
HOWEVER, none of the core species have a language baked in to their description anymore. Tieflings don't automatically speak Infernal, aasimar don't automatically understand Celestial, etc.
This in itself isn't inherently an issue but it gets kind of sucky when you get to the "pick your languages" section and learn that you can only pick two languages off the common table and that is it.
Infernal and Celestial are both on the rare table. Which means that unless your tiefling or aasimar specifically took a background/feat that lets them learn a rare language, they CANNOT speak those languages off the bat. WHICH IS REALLY WEIRD FOR TIEFLING, ESPECIALLY, because the species description specifically starts with "Tieflings are either born in the lower planes or..." and yet they can't have picked up Infernal or Abyssal at some point?? The main languages spoken in the lower planes??
I would not be quite as annoyed by this if all the species had their sort lineage-themed-language blocked by the rare table but dragonborn can pick up Draconic because it's on the common table, SO BOO
YES, I can easily homebrew a change here but I find it very weird that they've completely blocked off the rare languages unless you've taken a specific feat that lets you learn one. I feel like it would have been very easy to let people pick either 2 common languages or 1 common and 1 rare language. In blitzing through the PHB I'm actually not even sure if there is a background or feat that lets you learn a rare language at lvl 1. It's a bizarre choice.
ok since there may be a couple people following my 2024 PHB rules posts for a breakdown of how the rules have changed, let me explain how character creation works now
it used to be:
pick your species
pick your class
pick a background and your ideals/bonds/flaws
determine your ability scores
pick your equipment
and now it is:
pick your class
pick your background (which give you stats instead of your race)
pick your starting equipment
pick your species (which just gives u a couple extra traits)
pick your languages
determine your ability scores
choose a character alignment
I have lots of thoughts about all the nitty gritty stuff in the new process but generally the new way of building characters is both 1) necessary and 2) makes way more sense. class is the most important part of a PC so of course it should come first.
