Summary
Of the various classes inDungeons & Dragons, none have such the fearsome reputation that the barbarian has. With muscles fueled by rage, they wade into battle to mow down enemies with some of the largest weapons available to adventurers. The skills they have are some of the deadliest, and the hardest to choose from.
Not all of these choices happen at the beginning of making your character. Inyour character’s last levels, you’ll gain access to epic boons. They’re similar to feats, but some of them have game-changing abilities that can completely alter how your character approaches a challenge. You don’t get them often, which makes it a tough choice to pick which epic boon is best for your barbarian.
This list includes both epic boons from the 2024 edition of Dungeons & Dragons and some previous editions as well. Make sure to talk to your DM about which boons are available to you.
10Boon Of Speed
Fast & Deadly
The various maps and battlefields that your character will fight in come in all shapes and sizes. Moving across those battlefields can be the cornerstone of being helpful to your team in combat.
The Boon of Speed gives you an additional 30 feet of movement speed, and also gives you the ability to use your bonus action to Disengage. This means you’re able to attack, Disengage and then move to another enemy (probably 60 feet from you) tocontinue your Ragein the next round. Meaning you may avoid those dreaded turns where you’re too far away from an enemy to do anything.
Most epic boons also include an ASI, much like normal feats do.
9Boon Of Luck
No Rabbit’s Foot Needed
Rolling low is something that never goes away, no matter how high of a level your character is. Sure, your proficiencies and bonuses add up over time, but the dreaded natural ones and similar rolls can still be devastating.
The Boon of Luck can be a great choice to help you out in those situations where the dice don’t want to help. With this boon, you get a d10 to add to one d20 roll of your choosing per short rest. This means any low attack, save, or check can potentially be a resounding success. It loses out for being once per short rest, and you still have to trust that the d10 treats you well too, but every little bit helps.
Combining this with the Lucky feat can be a great way to hedge your bets even further.
8Boon Of Irresistible Offense
No Choice But To Hit
Barbarians love doing damage, that’s just a fact of the class. It’s something that gets harder to do as your enemies get stronger along with your character. Well-made armor, thick skin, and magical defenses are all things that can reduce the damage of your weapons when you go in for a hit.
The Boon of Irresistible Offense seeks to make all your attacks hit as hard as they can. With this boon, your normal bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage ignores enemy resistances, meaning you don’t have to focus on magical or elemental weaponry for every encounter. In addition, when you roll a 20 on an attack roll, you get to add the modifier of the ability score you improved with the ASI of this boon.
7Boon Of Fortitude
Harder To Take Down
The barbarian class has the highest natural HP maximum of any of the classes in D&D, which makes sense as you wade into combat time and time again. But, it’s not always enough when enemies focus their attacks on you or get a lucky hit in.
The Boon of Fortitude greatly improves your HP maximum, adding 40 points to it outright. Additionally, once per round when you are healed, you gain additional health equaling your Constitution modifier. This means you won’t need healing as often, and when you do get healed, you will heal faster too. No barbarian would scoff at more health for taking on their enemies.
6Boon Of Undetectability
The Stealthy Barbarian
Most of the time, parties will leave their stealthy escapades to the rogue or the ranger of the group, but that doesn’t always cut it. Whether you want to try out a rogue-barbarian multi-class, or you just want help with group stealth checks, more ability sneaking around doesn’t hurt.
Barbarians don’t have to be the loud and brash type in a fight, especially not with the Boon of Undetectability. When you fall into the Hidden condition, you’re able to no longer be found by magical or non-magical means, thanks to this boon. It’s an all-encompassing boon that will make even the non-stealthy barbarians able to hide given the right circumstances.
5Boon Of Combat Prowess
Master Of Combat
Of the major facets of Dungeons & Dragons, it’s an easy argument that the barbarian class really stands out in its combat role. This isn’t to say that barbarians can’t make good explorers or don’t add anything to roleplay, but it isn’t a bad idea to really bulk up the combat abilities of your barbarian.
The Boon of Combat Prowess helps that immensely. It adds the ability to, once per turn, choose to hit an attack you would have otherwise missed. Barbarians at high levels have multiple attacks per turn, so it’s not an end-all to combat, but one hit per turn being a guaranteed hit can take out a lot of stress for combat scenarios, especially if you time them right.
4Boon Of Dimensional Travel
World Traveler
Moving across the battlefield doesn’t always have to fall to walking, running, or flying. Magical means of transportation are available, and are often quite handy in a pinch.
The Boon of Dimensional Travel gives your barbarian a magical upper-hand, even if they haven’t used magic prior to that moment. With this boon, you are able to teleport to any open space within 30 feet of your character after using the attack or magic action. Teleportation doesn’t trigger reaction attacks, which makes it great for keeping your Rage active as you teleport from one enemy to another.
3Boon Of Recovery
Heal Or No Heal
Even with the large amount of health that barbarians have, sooner or later you will end up at zero HP and forced to roll someDeath Saving Throws. This is easily one of the most stressful experiences in D&D.
With the Boon of Recovery, you can avoid this experience for a bit longer. It makes it to where, once per long rest, when you are reduced to zero HP, you instead stabilize at one HP and then regain half of your HP maximum. In addition, you get a pool of ten d10 that you can use to heal yourself, which also resets after a long rest. If used wisely, you can really avoid being knocked unconscious, and save some of your party’s healing abilities for other teammates too.
2Boon Of The Night Spirit
A Deadly Combo
Stealth is an option that really shouldn’t be overlooked by any class, even the often large and imposing barbarian class. It can serve your party for everyone to have some way of staying unseen, and magical ways are often just a better route to do so.
The Boon of the Night Spirit will keep your barbarian hidden for quite some time. With it, as a bonus action, you’re able to enter the Invisible state in darkness or dim light. While hidden in this way, you are also resistant to all damage except psychic and radiant. You don’t exit this state unless you take an action, reaction, or bonus action. It’s similar to the older Boon of Undetectability, with some added bells and whistles too.
1Boon Of Truesight
Honed-In
Higher-level enemies have plenty of abilities to make fighting them more difficult. One such way is by hiding; either in plain sight with shape-changing powers, or by hiding in the dark corners of the map.
Regardless, the Boon of Truesight helps you look past such abilities. The boon works the same way as theTrue Seeing spell, allowing you to see through magical illusions, and through magic and non-magical darkness. Seeing the battle map for what it really is is the first step to mastering the battlefield, something that gets more and more important as your DM seeks to challenge you further.
