Each class in the Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Player's Handbook gets a "capstone feature" at level 20. These features are incredibly powerful, and either boost the strength of existing class features, or provide new ways for characters to interact with the world. And most of the options here are entirely new within this handbook, replacing or modifying existing features.
But even so, there are some massive power imbalances in what characters get at max level. These capstone abilities should incentivize players to keep getting stronger and more proficient in what they do, yet some classes will receive more motivation than others. It may take a long time for players to reach level 20 in many games, but they should still take a look at the power in store for them, priming themselves for excitement or disappointment.
12 The Ranger Suffers From Too Much Focus On A Particular Spell
Hunter's Mark Both Makes And Breaks This Class
In a sea of great abilities and powerful buffs, the ranger stands out as having the only capstone feature that most would consider objectively bad. There isn't even that much to say. At level 20, the damage from a ranger's hunter's mark increases from 1d6 to 1d10.
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Subclasses are now all reserved for level three, making a one or two level dip into certain classes much less valuable.
This is bad, and not just because it relies on rangers constantly using a first-level spell to increase their damage. The damage increase, an average of two points, is borderline insulting. At this same level, wizards can cast wish, or stop time, and this 2 point damage increase is a drop in the bucket of a high-level monster's health pool.
11 The Warlock Gets More Spell Slots, But Too Late In The Game
A Feature That Would Have Been More Exciting At Earlier Levels
Right away, the warlock capstone feature is miles better than the ranger's, though still not terribly exciting. It buffs their magical cunning feature, which allows warlocks to recover spell slots over a minute of concentration. Before, it restored half of a pact magic slots; now, it restores them all.
Warlocks have always had an interesting relationship with spell slots, only getting a few at a time, but recovering them on a short rest. That has not changed, but this magical cunning feature can be used much quicker once per day. This is nice to have, but the times when a party can rest for a minute in safety but not an hour are fewer than one may think, and this likely won't come up that often.
10 The Druid Receives A Mix Of Strong And Symbolic Abilities
Some Bark And Some Bite
Druids get a few different abilities combined in their capstone feature. They can recover a wild shape charge at the start of combat, convert wild shape charges into spell slots, and they now age much more slowly.
This ability combines several things that the druid had previously, though in a watered-down form, since before, a level 0 druid could wild shape at will as much as they wanted.
The aging feature is more of a ribbon than anything, but the first two bits are quite helpful. Wild shape is a druid's main ability, aside from spellcasting, and this lets them do it slightly more. However, the wild shape to spell slot conversion only gives lower-level slots and burns up that resource quickly. Often, it will not be a good trade.
9 The Bard Draws On The Strength Of The Spoken Word
Unique Versions Of Some Powerful Spells
Bards get permanent access to two iconic ninth-level spells: power word kill and power word heal. Casting classes don't get to learn a ton of this high-level magic, so adding two to their sheet is pretty good. In addition, bards can cast these spells to affect two targets instead of one.
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The 2024 Player's Handbook introduces 10 completely new spells, all of which seem like they could be fun for the right character concept.
This is ittedly pretty powerful, especially since power word kill got an upgrade in the 2024 PHB. But it's worth noting that bards still have to cast these spells with ninth-level slots, and they still only get one of those per day. This feature has potential, but by no means changes the game.
8 The Wizard Takes On Some New Signature Spells
A Feature That Favors Endurance Over Strength
Wizards get a new version of their signature spell ability, now letting them add two third-level spells to that list. Wizards can cast signature spells without a slot, and always have them prepared. The more spells a wizard has prepared, the more powerful they are, and there are some great third-level options like blink and fireball to choose from.
Unfortunately, this version doesn't work quite like it does at level 18, when wizards get it for first-and-second-level spells. These third-level choices can only be cast without a slot once per short rest, which is a bit more limiting. Plus, certain spells like counterspell that would once have been clear choices have gotten serious debuffs.
7 The Rogue Builds On Their Skill Expertise
Combining Luck And Talent For A Powerful Boost
Rogues get a feature that, much like their reliable talent ability, allows them to subvert the rules of chance in favor of sheer skill. Once per short rest, when a rogue fails a check, they can choose to instead turn that check into a critical success. This means automatic critical hits for weapon attacks, assured saving throws, and in general, more skill prowess than before.
This feature is reminiscent of the portent ability that diviner wizards get, which is typically considered one of the best features available to players. However, this version cannot be used to affect the rolls of nearby creatures.
Granted, the ability can only be used sparsely, but it is powerful enough to make that not much of an issue. The only real problem is that the ability might conflict with reliable talent, since the rogue needs to fail a check to use this, and reliable talent makes failure rare. Still, if the only issue is they aren't failing enough, that seems like a good issue to have.
6 The Sorcerer Can Make More Use Of Their Spell-Changing Metamagic
Upgrades To Several New Sorcerer Abilities
The sorcerer's capstone feature is reliant on two of their earlier abilities, innate sorcery and metamagic. Innate sorcery is new in this handbook, but effectively, lets sorcerers enter a state of enhanced magic energy to buff their spell save DC and spellcasting in general. Now, while in this form, sorcerers can use one metamagic ability per turn without spending any sorcery points.
This is already good, but is made better when one considers an earlier feature, sorcery incarnate. This lets sorcerers spend two sorcery points to activate their innate sorcery, rather than just being able to use it twice per long rest. In other words, as long as this state lasts more than one or two turns, the sorcerer can save points in every single fight or encounter.
5 Fighters Keep Building On Their Combat Prowess
More Attacks Than Any Other Class
The fighter's capstone feature is very simple, but very effective. It gives them an additional attack on their turn, bringing their total per turn up to four with extra attack. Taking four attacks on a turn, every turn, without any resource cost, is great. The potential for stacking damage buffs and breaking enemy concentration is huge.
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Fighters may still struggle to keep up with the damage output of spellcasters using area-of-effect spells like fireball. But this makes them incredibly formidable when it comes to single-target damage and quickly wearing out a powerful opponent.
4 Barbarians Get Some Basic Stat Improvements
An Effective But Uninspired Upgrade
The barbarian is one of two classes whose capstone feature is a simple ability score increase. In this case, barbarians receive a +4 bonus to their strength and constitution scores, up to a maximum of 25. Obviously, an additional eight points to ability scores is phenomenally powerful, and boosts a barbarian's health, AC, and damage.
The downside here only comes if the barbarian already has insanely high stats, such as 29 strength from a belt of storm giant strength. At max level, it is possible for characters to have this legendary gear, which may render this ability score boost useless.
3 Monks Get A Similar Ability Score Boost
Faster And Wiser Than Before
The monk gets a similar boost to the barbarian, with a +4 bonus to their dexterity and wisdom scores. Much like with the barbarian, this feature is super strong, but it has a couple factors to give it a leg up.
For one, there aren't as many items that provide huge bonuses to dexterity and wisdom as there are that buff strength and constitution. It's less likely that monks will have stats that are already higher than 25. In addition, a monk's dexterity and wisdom synergize in certain ways, such as both boosting their AC and certain subclasses using wisdom to boost damage.
