The Giant Barbarian: D&D Build
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ส.ค. 2024
- I love the new Path of the Giant Barbarian! And... it also makes me really angry! Come see why :).
Check out Summoning Stone here! apps.apple.com/us/app/summoni...
I'd appreciate it if you'd consider supporting the channel by becoming a member!
/ @dnddeepdive
Merch Store! www.etsy.com/shop/d4DnDDeepDive
Also: if you'd like to purchase content through my Amazon affiliate link, it would be another way to help support the channel :) - www.amazon.com/shop/d4dddeepd...
Follow me on Twitter (X): / colbypoulson
Check out Randall Hampton here:
Twitter: / randall_hampton
Instagram: / randallhampton
Website: www.randallhamptonart.com/
Twitch: / randall_hampton
Intro 0:00
Summoning Stone 5:18
Level 1 7:17
Level 2-6 11:41
Level 7-9 23:12
Level 10-13 29:06
Level 14-17 36:22
Final Thoughts 41:01
Outtakes 44:09
Math/Graph for this episode: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Master Sustained Damage Comparison (5 tabs):
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Thanks to LudicSavant for the amazing DPR calculator! forums.giantitp.com/showthrea...)
Music Credits:
Achaidh Cheide - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/
Angevin 120 loop by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/
Celtic Impulse - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/
Fiddles McGinty by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/
Lord of the Land by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/
Master of the Feast by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com - บันเทิง
![Ep.2 เบสไวน์ รวมคลิปฮา SS4 - [ พากย์นรก ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ihk-LzEbox0/mqdefault.jpg)
Errata: Brutal Critical adds one (or later, two) more weapon dice. In my excitement, I was thinking about it like "add one more of each of your weapon's damage dice" and not just "add one more damage die from your weapon, and if your weapon has two different damage dice, pick which one to add" but the latter is surely the correct reading. It's a small difference to the numbers: at level 17 we're talking 2 or 3 points of damage, total, but still. Hopefully, the DMs of the world will acknowledge how bad Brutal Critical is and allow the extra d6 as well ;).
> Hopefully, the DMs of the world will acknowledge how bad Brutal Critical is
Hi, I'm from the future. I have good news for you.
@@life-destiny1196 😂
Monkey DM did a good homebrew subclass to make it worht it@@life-destiny1196
Did you know that Jeremy Crawford basically insulted anyone who thinks that Brutal critical isn’t good because Reckless attack sets it up, in the latest playtest video?
@@AtelierGod I did hear him talk about that and kinda rolled my eyes a bit. It’s like, no, Jeremy, we didn’t think it was good because… it’s not. We weren’t missing anything. Still, as long as they buff it, I don’t care too much :).
If a player told me “I’m thinking of playing a raging thunder loxodon that throws battle axes with their trunk if you let reckless attack apply.” I’d give them whatever they needed to make it happen
While, rules as written, the Loxodon's trunk can't be used to wield a weapon or shield, I'd probably rule it to be able to wield Light weapons. It can do unarmed strikes, but if you're not using the Unarmed Fighting style or being a Monk, that doesn't do a whole lot.
100% agree.
I played a one shot about a week ago when I was a dragonborn path of the giant barbarian, dm gave us some magic items for the session, and I took a potion of growth and a potion of flying. I was a gargantuan dragon flying around the battlefield, bashing foes with my tail and raining down fire with my breath attacks. Most fun I've had in a long time in dnd
I'd let that man have the world
ME TOOOOO!!!
Best part of this subclass is you can use the small races without losing out because it doesn't increase your size category by 1, but sets it to Large.
I'm currently playing this with a small sized fairy and having a barbarian flying around throwing greataxes while being in the air out of reach and having them return has been super fun.
@@tjrawesomeAntman?
@@tjrawesomeKinda thinking of getting a kobold with a maul, but he stays the same size. The large creature category space would be from him flailing around that maul in such a crazy way that he makes it impossible to get close to him
Maybe the thrown property works better for crowd control? Throw enemy A into enemy B, and both take damage and are prone.
I've got a player in one of my games combining small Tortle, with monk and path of giants barbarian. Super fun 🎉
Played a Bugbear Giant Barbarian in a one shot recently. Took one level of GOO Warlock to flavor it as mutant Intellect Devourer in a Bugbear, and when raging tentacles contributed to it's insane 20 foot reach, dripping with acid damage. Felt like a resident evil monster
I'm starting to see comments pop up on this so let's discuss: What about Oversized weapons? Yes, the DMG has rules for weapons doing more damage if they're made for larger creatures. However, those rules specifically talk about Monsters. Not PCs. I think the game has made it pretty clear that when *you* grow, your weapons grow, and additional damage is thus accounted for (an extra d4 with the enlarge/reduce spell, an extra d6 here, etc.) - I don't think the oversized weapons stuff from the DMG applies to characters, RAW; certainly your DM may rule otherwise in which case, knock yourself out!
They don't apply RAW. However, everyone saying that is coming from the video Pack Tactics made about oversized weapons and this subclass. He does some rhetoric justification about how PCs are also monsters to make it work. Hey, maybe that'll work on a few DMs but I certainly won't allow it at my table.
"I need all the damage I can get"
Elemental Cleaver changes the weapon damage to lighting. A dip into storm Cleric lets you max out that damage on a critical hit.
"Tell me in the comments below if your barbarian has gone down"
This campaign with my Path of the Giant / Storm Cleric it has been every session but my party members are not optimized and I'm trying to keep them from dying.
I actually made my own house rules regarding oversized weapons just for the sheer fact that the rules for monsters vs PCs don’t make sense.
Why do weapons that are manufactured for large creatures / monsters get double the damage dice vs a just an additional d4 for players and their gear that “grow” to a large size?
Lack of experience being that size? Balance? Design flaw?
Who knows the reason (though I would say balance)?
Regardless - I am the DM. I disagreed with the RAW and wrote my own. The players loved them.
And I still appreciate the designers for, overall, making a really great game.
@@JohnDoe-nj4gx2 levels in cleric so your 1d6 guarantees a 6 once per rest? Bruh you get an extra 2.5 damage average once per rest.
I at least wish I could use my two handed weapons with one hand while embiggened. It'll let me keep a hand free for grappling and still hammer away with a maul.
In the playtest Barbarians can apply reckless attack to thrown weapons so hopefully when the new core books are released that sticks and the Giant Barbarian will fill the fantasy concept.
Absolutely!
I came here to say this, of course Chris already said it lol!
@@DnDDeepDive My playgroup is allowing this and it is awesome. With the weapon masteries thrown in, I'm planning on multiclassing into rogue and fully diving into the throwing abilities with thrown weapon fighting style.
Came for the build. Stayed for the singing. Didn't expect you to go so far into barbarian... Nice to see that every once in a while.
Echo knight with giant barbarian is cool because you get 2 large or huge creatures and an extra attack (con mod per day) every time you take the Attack action. So you get the reach from 2 big areas and can make 2 attacks normal action 1 per bonus action 1 from echo from attack action and then 2-3 more with action surge. Level 20 you're pretty consistently doing over 200 damage during you're nova round or over 100 damage per round after that.
Could you not also throw an enemy upwards, have your echo 30 feet above you (which is 40 ft high if you are huge), let the echo attack them a bunch of times after you throw the enemy at it, then they fall to the floor prone.
That seems fun
I still have confused feelings about yt shorts, but I have to admit the way you used one as a teaser for this video, got me for real excited to watch
Congratulations on 150. Can't wait to watch the next 150.
I hadn't even heard of this subclass!! When did it come out?? I'm so pumped to learn about it!!
AND see what Colby has come up with!!!!
Bigby's Glory of the Giants book is a few months old now, actually :). Just took me awhile to get to it...
No one has realized you could probably multiclass a Thor build from this subclass
Like, maybe mark of the storm half elf with tempest cleric?
I'm thinking paladin would be the better multiclass here. Smites, auras, paladin goodies, and it'll come off as Thor
@@wallapi1188tru but smites dont work on thrown weapons sadly :/
I built an Arificer Barb with the Returning Infusion on Light Hammers once before. Was a lot of fun
@@wallapi1188 I mentioned tempest cleric primarily for the subclass features here (Thinking God of War Thor as opposed to MCU Thor here)
Unfortunately a lot of their spells require concentration, so Paladin might be the better pick here. Or maybe even sorcerer for those non conc spells.
Maybe Storm Sorcerer too?
Really really fun build!! Love this subclass, and I actually came up with a way to make the thrown weapon thing work: Take 3 levels of armorer artificer to literally throw hands, soft taunting multiple different enemies from a range with your thunder gauntlets
Had a similar one with Armorer + Rune Knight all because I just want to play a giant mech pilot goblin. Not really good but does it feels good
I’d like to see Colby run this the next time he plays a one shot with Monty and Kelly.
I was recently working on an adjacent concept. It wasn’t giant but still barbarian mixed with artificer. The problem I had is with armorer you’re wanting to use your intelligence for your attacks, and if you’re using Int you don’t get the rage bonuses and that felt bad to me.
You can still use your strength but then you won’t be able to have as high of an Int score and that felt bad too. The benefit though is you can use heavy armor so you can go with a lower Dex.
What I landed on was two options for my concept, both use Reborn as the race and Undead Warlock. One build would use Armorer and the other would would use either Zealot or Giant Barbarian
Of course if your DM is ok with bending the rules a little then that doesn’t matter.
Another concept I had,(actually where the other concept started) was basically Dr Jekyll. But it starts with convincing the DM to let Alchemist Elixirs be administered to conscious characters. My concept is a Homunculus that has an injector and it can use its action to inject someone with an elixir. That’s also where the rages come from, he’s injected with a special serum that only works on him.
If that all works out I would try to convince the DM to let me swap Str and Int when entering a rage 😂 so they’re normally scrawny and super intelligent, but when raging they become a hulking dumb brute. Maybe a trade off is he can’t end rages early, so they’re just stuck like that till it wears off
Given this is build 150, next build needs to be an update to the Pokémon Trainer
Lmao perfect
I'm legit angry I understand that as a reference to there being 151 pokemon in the original pokedex.
Another Tuesday, another great build! Happy Thanksgiving Colby and the d4 army
And happy Wednesday for those affected by the powerful, but imaginary, International Date Line!
I love this subclass so much, ever since it came out, I've been dying to play a halfling path of giant barbarian. Maybe take a few battlemaster levels. I'm glad this build came out. Might give it a whirl in an upcoming high level one shot.
Been a while since I learnt something COMPLETELY new from these videos, feels like coming home and putting on a warm blanket. Great stuff!!
Should clarify, been watching since either ep1 or ep2 and you taught me literally everything I know about building characters in 5e. Been watching less as I've been playing less DnD and BG3 in recent months. This new subclass reminded me of the days when every one of your videos would blow my mind, as opposed to the (albeit still amazing) "comfort food" they are now. Much love, as always ❤
I’m currently playing a fairy path of the giant! It’s flavored as a magical girl transformation ala sailor moon. So her rage has her pull out an axe like a magical staff and do a fun call out before transforming in a shimmer of light. It’s been great having a very strong girly girl character flying around who can’t use her heavy weapons until she changes over.
I have a build ready like this but aiming to use a Lance with the fairy, as this might be the best way to counter the lance downside of disadvantage within 5 ft.
Oh yeah, I had the same idea. Multiclass with the Genie Warlock, some fringe concept on Glyph of Warding Enlarge in the Vessel.
Reflavor the vessel as a transformation device and boom, Ultraman
So...monstergirl?
Great episode again! The thing i think you may have forgotten is that the 30ft up in the air is just a measurement of the height/distance a thrown person would travel if thrown straight up. It is the force distance you would throw them. Throwing that same person into a brick wall would still do the 3D6 because that is the force at which you can throw that person/monster. The distance thrown is the calculation of force applied from your STR stat and thus throwing into a wall does the same damage out our D&D table! THX
Saw a shirt from this: haven’t watched the whole thing yet, but in response to the short about Barbarian scaling etc- Path of the Giant was written with 5 Revised/1DND in mind. So look at that 10 minute Rage and recovering 1/SR in addition to your normal daily limits, and Giant Barb may be leagues beyond what it is even now. Particularly at L14.
Okay, I REALLY wanna see you cover a Strength-based dart build with this subclass now.
Since darts are throwing and ranged AND finesse, they would let you benefit from the Giant barbarian throwing-weapon rage damage (so long as you use Strength) as well as the Archery and thrown-weapon fighting styles and, of course, Sharpshooter. By taking some Battlemaster Fighter levels (which you would want for the fighting styles anyway), you can pick up Quick toss, letting you spend a Menuver die to make a bonus action dart throw (with some extra damage to boot).
Not sure how this stacks up damage-wise to a standard GWM build (I know you lose Reckless attack, but you do get Archery to compensate), but I still think it would be potent in its own right, and very fun!
Alright, rant over lol. Love the build as always, thanks for the amazing content 😁
This was honestly my original plan - I just got so mad about reckless attack I scrapped it :). One day!
I played around a bit with that idea of a build based on The Needler. It has its ups and downs, but I do wish you could Reckless Attack.
@DnDDeepDive Yeah, I was definitely bummed when I saw that too. I suppose it might not look as pretty on the spreadsheet, I just like the tactical advantage of a Barbarian with a reliable 60 ft. of range.
Plus the idea of a large creature standing in the center of the battlefield throwing toothpicks is endlessly amusing to me lol
@geoffreypincus-brimble875 one of the best parts of a dart build for me is that there's nothing stopping you from using a shield with it. Obviously, being harder to hit doesn't exactly encourage enemies to attack your tanky barbarian, but I'm a big selfish player who likes a high AC lol
So unironically the best barbarian for a tier 3+ campaign is berserker, as its the only one that addresses barbarians weaknesses, saving throws.
A zealots insane dpr, bear totems endurance, beasts maneuverability all mean shit when you're stuck in dragons fear, or worse charmed by the enemy. Berserker in not as optimal on combat, but its 100% more relevant than a frightened barb and even more than that than a charmed one.
Spot on for the sound effects and edit ins for (officially) video #150! Keep em coming!
Im playing a giant barb in a RAW westmarch discord server and I’ve found that using a double bladed scimitar actually out damages the greatsword and the greataxe from level 6 onward
Thought I should add it’s because of the extra bonus action attack every turn combined with the elemental clever ability
I want to multiclass giant barbarian with an artillerist artificer so I can use the protector cannon to get temp hit points every turn. Growing into a giant seems like it should get a damage increase and temp hit points.
Thanks Colby, love your D&D builds! ❤
Thanks for putting this together! I’m about to play this build at a table of newer players. I think it’s going to be super chill power wise so I dropped PaM and went Goliath for story reasons. Really looking forward to throwing people around with my bonus action every turn, sure it’s less damage but it’s super fun I think.
What a fun build! I would like to see a throwing build someday down the road!
Thanks for the video & the warm & kindly vibes, Colby!
I think you could prolly convince your DM that letting Reckless Attack apply to thrown melee weapons wouldn't be a big stretch for an additional subclass feature, especially if it wasn't playtested as such... then subsequently removed for balance purposes.
With how WotC is... you could infer that it's likely an oversight.
Anyways... Happy Thanksgiving!
Interesting build. I might mix a few elements of this into my Duergar Rune Knight Fighter. All of the jumbo-size.
Great video as always! Thank you for your honesty and sharing those videos! Hello from Quebec City, QC, Canada!
Flavor your polearm as a giant spatula. Take Battle Master instead of Champ. Trip attack to knock prone. Bonus action to slide the spatula underneath and pop the enemy 30 feet up. Pushing attack when he lands to knock him 15 feet forward. You must shout "Order up!" as your battle cry when you do this. Maybe call the build Lobs Burgers.
I love this subclass! I paired it with Sharpshooter and Thrown Arms Master (Tal'Dorei Reborn) to get truly impressive range out of thrown weapons. As far as I can tell, it makes Giant the only ranged barbarian out there, which means it's an automatic A+ in my book.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family, Colby!
Colby, since I found your channel, I'm finding your efforts totally suited to what I wanted for Khor. (A setting with rules for fast combat & appealing to min-maxers) Our lore compliments the upscaled mechanics. We're working on 1/2 giant classes now. Our giants have a metallic origin & we have many "1/2 races". We want players to feel that surge of energy when they know they're gonna hit & do loads of damage. With that said, our unique monsters have been upscaled as well. We're pumped for getting these campaign modules out now & you're guilty if that!😅
I had a fun Barbarian Giant/Monk Simic Hybrid that just does unarmed attacks with tentacles and turns into a kaiju later. Pretty much the best fun I've had with a theorycraft
Massive U2 fan. Was just in Dublin doing a lot of rock n roll tours seeing where they recorded a lot of their music. The wife and I will be seeing them in Vegas in December. Keep up the great work.
The Genie Warlock also adds extra damage with every attack. It's less then a d6 until you get your prof bonus to 4 but it's IMO the only other one that does it.
Only once per turn 😉
ohhhh right lol@@DnDDeepDive
I thought a cool build for this subclass would be to get Barb to 10 like you have here but take 2 lvls of Paladin for Smites and the rest as a Tempest Domain Cleric for some of that Thor action. That channel divinity could be real nice@@DnDDeepDive
Love this build. I had the same high hopes you did for it, but I think you've done a great job with it! Would love to see you do a build for the Path of the Old Gods from the Drakenhiem book. One of my favorite subclasses for any class to date.
I have done incredible things with my winged Tiefling giant barbarian genie warlock. The ability to be large or huge that can fly has made grappling so fun. I dropped an umber hulk from 200 feet the other day.
Oh and the genie stuff is nice too. I grow large, pick up large things and bring them into my genie vessel just to drop them from the sky as an airborne bombardment.
Barbarians are my comfort class for sure.
Completely agree!
Holy wow bud. 150 D&D builds. Congrats!!!!
Love it as always, thank you Colby! I feel like level for level and feature by feature this subclass is very comparable to rune knight. Obviously size, but the runes vs the elemental damage and throwing, it would be great to have both in a campaign and watch them go. Did you consider going straight Barbarian and picking up “Gift of the Chromatic Dragon” at lv 16? I’m curious how the damage weighs out vs the gain from fighter levels. Imagine a straight Barbarian that maintained a high tier 2 placement for damage. Love your face, happy thanksgiving!
Yes, so many new subclasses to play with from Glory of the Giants and El Tadorei 🎉🎉
Made a similar build with the bugbear race because my DM gives us a free feat and made him a giant wall for our wizard . Took sentinel instead of GWM at lvl 4 and then took GWM at lvl 8. Also took the tunnel fighter style from fighter for the unlimited attacks of opportunities. Sadly only made it to 20ft of reach because our table only goes to lvl 10 but 8 barb and 2 fighter lvls still made for a fun build.
this sounds insane! Im starting a new campaign this Friday and im definetly playing this
I’ve been playing a giant barbarian for a while now… it’s so awesome! My character is an earth Genasi who was enslaved and forced to work in a mine, when his home town was occupied by a band of orcs lead by a cruel Giant. In the mines he learnt to fight using his long ass pike, which will become his weapon of choice (it’s a homebrew weapon).
Of course i use polearm master as well as great weapon master, dealing tons of damage.
His hobby is collecting rocks and crystals, and he is a miner in heart. I connected the primal powers of the giants with his Genasi heritage, which is preety cool imo. We are now at level 11, and my dm gave him the belt of giants strength which goes so well with the theme of the build. He spends his days chasing the Giant who ruined his village, while slowly realizing he might become the monster he hates so much…
The mention of potential fighter subclasses for when you take a 3rd level there in this build made me think of samurai….
Then I realized not only would that be flavorful if you want to be an Oni giant barbarian, you’d be able to get advantage on three thrown weapon attacks per rest, which helps elevate some of that issue. (Plus temp hp to be even tankier)
This might be the angriest we've ever seen Colby get. Given it's a Barbarian it feels on point!
Love hearing your thoughts on the game design elements of the game!
I played a giant barb in a recent campaign with a few levels of echo knight fighter and thrown weapon fighting style. It was a fun character to play, mechanically.
I'm currently playing an Alchemist 3/Barbarian 1 that will be a Path of the Giants Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde build. I plan on only using the thrown weapon ability to maintain rage. All of the throwing abilities seem to be thematic abilities more than anything else. I don't see it as a primary means of doing damage, just a better alternative to carrying javelins around to maintain rage. It probably won't be necessary at higher levels because at level 15 you would be making melee attacks to anyone in a 55' diameter circle! If you can't get an enemy in that area with a 40' move speed, the chances are that combat has effectively ended.
It's become an injoke in our spelljammer campaign (for the characters as well as for the players) that our barbarian is immortal. The reason for this is we were trying to get to a desert temple and didn't want to do the overland travel, so instead our party of six jumped out of the spelljammer at 33,000 feet, five of us used a feather fall, and our Minotaur barbarian survived the fall using relentless endurance, and finished his short rest before we landed to have 65 hp when we got there.
So to answer your question, no: he has never gone down.
lol!
Now that there is third party stuff on dnd beyond, you could use the thrown weapon master feat from Taldorei Reborn and make this an excellent thrown weapon build
I just played a giant barb last weekend for a one shot. It was a crazy amount of fun. Something I’m surprised he didn’t bring up yet (as of 27:29) is oversized weapons. If your DM allows it you can add another weapon damage die for every size category since your weapon grows with you. Also the ability to throw an enemy to an unoccupied space 30ft straight up. It’s a good why to give your other members advantage.
aye - pinned a comment on Oversized weapons yesterday (replaced it with something else but the comment should still be near the top).
You could argue, that when you throw a creature upwards, you would throw them 10 feet from the ground (VGM goliath is almost 8 feet tall at maximum height and his arm would be at least 3 feet long, so arm extended upwards the release point would be more than 10 feet from the ground). When you grow to large that essentially doubles, and when huge it triples, so the damage of the bonus action throw would actually be medium 4d6, large 5d6 and huge 6d6. Plus you could always throw your victim so it lands on another creature, so it would take some damage from the falling one. :)
First of all: Runic Juggernaut (the Rune Knight capstone) lets you grow to huge and can be combined with Enlarge/Reduce, so Demiurgic Colossus plus Enlarge/Reduce isn't the only way you can get to gargantuan size.
Also, I like the idea of using a verdan for this subclass (or the Rune Knight, to be honest). The whole "start small, get a growth spurt and increase to medium at level 5" aspect is kind of awesome for this build. Like, maybe flavor it as partially raging all the time.
"That's my secret... I'm ALWAYS angry."
Little late to the party on this one, but what would really help the Giant Barb sub class, outside of changing Reckless attack to work with thrown weapons... If they made Tavern Brawler have the BG3 added bonus to thrown weapons. Then it would give people greater options for feat choices outside PAM/GWM for Melee Throwing. It would be a "simple" change, but if tuned better then BG3, could be really fun and open loads of build options for future builds.
I was JUST looking to see if your video this week was posted, and i got the note that it was JUST posted at the same time! Woo! Haha
Finally! Another Champion build and its a big champion! Also. If you ever make a grappling giant Barbarian build, i hope youll consider calling the build "Andre the Giant" or some variation of that! Great build Colby!
I'm definitely planning on using this in a build one day. I'd love to see a "Magical Gunslinger" build, someone that casts spells through their firearm of choice. I could see a Sorlock working for this or an arcane archer, but not sure.
I like the idea of a moon druid giant barbarian multiclass. Just imagining a guy turning into a grizzly charging at someone while growing in size and having Raiden eyes or flaming eyes (and maybe claws)
The Giant Barb is great to combo with Rogue.
Take Bugbear as your race and whip as your weapon. You have 15 ft reach.
Make it 20 ft when you rage and become Large.
This means that you are quite far away from your target when you use reckless attack + sneak attack, and a lot of movement to flee afterwards.
Built a path of the Giants autognome. Basically a transformer when it rages and transforms from small to large.
The Tabaxi Barbarian is surprisingly effective and works great even at level 1!
There is one thing that Barbs wanna do and that is to get in the enemy's face on the first round of combat. A 40 ft movement speed, coupled with the Feral Instinct feature from Tasha's and Feline Agility means that you can do that in nearly every battle you will face. That's 40 + 20 x 2.
That's a 120 ft movement speed and you're still able to attack (60 at lvl 1).
Their latest iteration in Volo's also gives them a climbing speed equal to their walking speed. So even if the enemy is up high, you can still reach them. Throw in the two most crucial skills in the game and you are golden!
Here's the description and backstory of my Gladiator barbarian:
Before you stands a massive, rough looking tabaxi. He has a beard of braids that have turned into dreadlocks and green eyes. His face has several massive scars, one of which is still healing and he is missing a few teeth. He keeps an eye on his surroundings with a sharp kind of alertness. If anything he looks like a feral street cat ready to pounce, complete with tattered ears and matted hair. On his armor vicious spikes are covered in what looks like dried up blood. He is casually leaning on his greataxe, which is resting with its head on the ground. And though the axehead looks like it has seen a lot of battle, someone who pays attention would know that the edge is well kept.
Bares Shining Teeth (Shiny for short) was the kind of kid that always got into trouble. With the law, with local shopkeeps, with other folks in bars. His ruthless fighting style attracted the eye of someone who ran an underground fighting ring and within a few weeks he was a crowd favorite. This turned into gladiatorial fights and eventually travelling around to find new challenges.
Friend took this subclass for a campaign we are in. He is a harringon so it's funny seeing a 2ft tall rabbit armed with a war hammer rage and grow to large... then I come in a smuggler themed character hit him with enlarge/reduce.... rabbit went huge.... had a taste of power and he wants more... it was hilarious as a litteral kaiju battle happened with him and an enemy as my guy just had a cigar sat down and said 'let them fight...' casting a healing spell now and then as he watched.
So, consider this, I'm about to embark on a new campaign. I'm going to play a Giant Barbarian, Bugbear race and take the Giant Foundling background so I get the Strike of the Giant's feat. I just can't decide which Giant type to pick. I like the stone giant feature the best but the Hill giant is the only one that is not limited. That said, Fire Giant is probably best for the spreadsheet, despite being terrible damage. Edit: Just had a thought, Take a Maul or great club and take crusher. Now you can move them 5 feet into the air. Take Stone giant strike of the giants and now you move them another 10 feet, so in theory you're now golfing enemies 10 feet away and 10 feet into the air (hypotenuse) so they take an extra d6, land prone and you can take one step to close and now get an advantage attack, assuming you didn't already, and the rest of the team gets to pounce on them.
So many ways that they could have legitimately enhanced strength based thrown weapons, but it never gets properly addressed. My favorite is probably to somehow transform your attack into a single powerful attack throw, maybe something like:
Power Throw: Instead of the attack action, you may instead make a Power Throw Attack. When you do this you may draw a thrown weapon as part of the attack and the normal attack range is equal to the long attack range of your thrown weapon. The damage of this attack includes your rage damage and is equal to your calculated thrown damage x 2 (at 15th level it becomes x 3)
-If you choose to reduce your movement to 5 feet this turn, the damage multiplier instead become 1 higher
-You may make this attack recklessly
-You apply brutal critical on a critical hit
Very interesting. though when bringing up the reckless attack being only for melee weapons attacks and the such. as well as the rages damage bonus. Made me think of a couple table rules I tend to follow. 1: Rage and reckless attack and other thematically similar abilities work with mighty attacks, which to me is just any weapon or unarmed attack that uses strength bonus, it just seems more accurate to theme and such. 2: its not a huge buff, but there are alot of places it seems dnd could just use proficiency bonus (in my mind I like to call it effectiveness level), rage damage being one of them and adding rage damage based on prof bonus, just seems so much more appropriate and follows an actual pattern thats easy to see though does almost follow 1/2 prof +1 pattern but level 16 breaks that (a lot of things could be based on prof bonus really) . Though I tend to be a bit of a homebrew fiend, I like to fiddle with the ruleset and make huge and small changes and see how things work out.
I just love your videos so much Colby, thanks for making them.
Fantastic subclass. It has a clear fantasy which appeals. It delivers on that fantasy and is viable and appealing mechanically. Since GWM+PAM won't function the same in OD&D it is probably better not to balance against it to avoid powercreep.
I've recently finished a campaign playing as a Halfling Armorer Artificer / Rune Knight, and I'm surprised how many similarities there are in this class, and the choices I made throughout my build. From specific feats like Alert, and infusions like gauntlets of ogre power, to runes and Giant's Might abilities.
Super psyched to try out this subclass sometime in the future and save myself some hassle.
Giant barbarian + doublesided scimitar = both good mechanics and style
I have a giant barbarian/moon druid im playing as in a campaign that is super fun; though its not something that can be done at any other table. We're playing a very homebrewed game with some of the things that benefit my build being:
Level cap 30 (class caps a 20 still)
You can stack size increases/decreases as long as they are from different sources
Our table has highly customizable wild shape tables based on size, unlocking the ability to become huge at 11th level.
With that in mind i made a goliath (newest version of the race) barb/druid with the goal to become as BEEG as possible. I recently acquired the titanstone knuckles from critical role fame in their dormant state so once i eventually become a 14 barb/11 druid my size will be looking something like this:
Base- 1x1 space
Wildshaped (huge)- 3x3 space
Rage- 5x5 space
Goliath's enlarge feature- 6x6 space
Titanstone knuckles- 7x7 space
Potion of growth- 8x8 space
And if someone can cast enlarge on me- 9x9 space
Combine that with the extra range giant barbs get i can potentially threaten a 12x12 space with melee attacks. I dream of the day i can german suplex a tarrasque haha.
Also worth noting is that with the 15ft reach you have, you essentially only lose out on 5ft of range from a 20ft normal range throwing weapon - so it's not quite so bad when you look at it like that.
Nice video man. Good job making these.
Great weapon fighting is great for this build. Especially if youre using a great sword and even something like flane tongue. When 1s & 2s ate 1/3 of the numbers on five your damage avg gors uo considerably.
I personaly with this build i become an impaler, just put my pike on the ground toss enemies in to the air and witness how they fall in to it. I know that is inpractical couse you loose your weapon and blablabla and maybe is a dexterity saving trow if they actualy land on it. But i will say if it happens the creature will be crippled, if it doesnt die, and all others have to make a wisdom saving trow to be feared.
And an idea to what kind of an unique characteristic 4 the barbarian could get at lvl 11 could get is "take apart". Escencialy each turn you can choose a part of the body to criple with your weapon. For example: if you choose the arms of the enemy they will have - 2 (im not using 1 d4, d6 or disadvantage to not be compared with another debuff like Exe) on strength saving trows and each attack could stack but only last 1 turn. This will ad some utility to the combat estrategy intead of "i neeed more damage". Even so this could be randomize if you r raging. Also since is kinda complex could be more like a feat and i will call it "torturer.
Just toos an idea to the air feel free to take it.
Love the content and the ambience. Tk. ❤❤❤
2 years of Out of the Abyss campaign. Barbarian was knocked probably once no matter how deadly encounters are (they all deadly now). Beefiest beef I ever seen. 222 hp on level 14, 26 AC, 10+1d6 temp hp from twilight cleric, 3 basis resistances, poison (dwarf), fire (from magic shield), acid (after transforming into a true dragon for eating a fruit from bag of beans), psychic (all in the group get it after Astral plane events) which means this barbarian has 7 out of 13 resistances and he is NOT a totem bearbarian.
So, this dwarf is unkillable taunting machine with spear and shield to protect and destroy. Also he got the most critical wounds, lost his both of his eyes (even prostetic one), nose, break both arms, got his lungs pierced twice, got lingering wound that slowly killed him and dozens scars. Oh boy, Underdark is crazy this time of year (all the seasons lol)
also I allow throwing recklessly (and dnd one probably too)
You always make these so absorbable and a pure delight!
U2, saw them in Seattle a long time ago. It was pretty much a sing along with Bono as the entire arena was singing most songs. Pretty cool.
So I’m playing this subclass right now. I did take 1 level in fighter for the great weapon fighting style. Some of this subclasses feature give me a lot more dice to roll than per attack so I use a double bladed scimitar to try and increase my average damage dealt.
I’m also playing a fairy and my DM did let me be tiny. I wanted to cover as many sizes as possible.
Ok Barbarian getting downed story time!
We are just about to finish our level 3-20 game that's been going on for 3.5 years at this point, in which I've been playing a Storm Herald Barbarian. Illis has rolled notoriously well, and I mean obscenely well, on her hp throughout the entire campaign. So she is really hard to kill. (At level 20 with 24 con and Tough and her insane rolls put her at 387 max hp.) There were two times that I can think of that she got downed. The first time we were fighting a boss at I think level 9 or 10 and they cast Blade of Disaster took two swings at me and crit one of them so I got hit for like 150 in a turn. Got healed right back up but that was painful. The other time, and the only time I properly died during this campaign was at level 11 or 12, we were in this town that got a massive infestation of Quori (from the Eberron book) and they have possession abilities, one of which is from the CR 19 Kalaraq Quori which is a DC 21 Charisma save to not get possessed. It phased through a wall from out of line of sight and tried to possess me, I got a nat 20, but charisma was my dump stat so I still failed. Then because possession is one of the least fun mechanics in the game due to there being practically no counters, my possessed body sparred with my party until I got downed to get the Quori to come out, and then before someone could heal me, it went for the coup de grace.
Actually Im playing a 16 Giant 4 Rune knight (Group wanted to do a short campaign as level 20 characters) The rune knight isnt that redundant in terms of role pay as it adds a ton more out of combat things that giant bar was lacking. The Rune Knights giant form while weaker, its perfect for out of combat interactions and great way to inject more giantiness for roleplaying.
My friend played a Totem Warrior Barbarian from 5th to 20th level. Never dropped to 0 hp. However, mind controlled or crowd controlled a lot :D
I think it's actually pretty clear why they didn't add the reckless attack thing into the feature here. Reckless attack is supposed to be a tradeoff: more damage dealt for more damage taken. But if you're throwing weapons from afar, not only are you less likely to get hit with advantage, you're less likely to get hit at all.
Was it the right choice? I don't know, but it's certainly understandable to me.
Edit: Never mind, you addressed this in the next sentence xD
Yesss, i was waiting for this. I knew that it was coming. Amazing job.
Im thankful my table usually does free feats, so doing a bugbear for this is a very tempting option on this build
Hey Cody. Got the build for you!
May I introduce you to:
THE YEETUS DELETUS
race: bugbear
+2 str +1 con
type: humanoid (goblinoid)
size: Medium
speed: 30
dark vision 60ft
Fey ancestry: adv vs charmed
long limbed: +5ft reach
powerful build
sneaky: stealth profiencie
surprise attack: +2d6
languages: common +1
point buy:
str 17 (+2)
dex 14
con 16 (+1)
int 6
wis 13
cha 7
back ground: giant foundling
feat: strike of the giants
(cloud) prof/LR
DC 8 + prof + str (or con)
prof: intimidation + survival
languages: giant +1
classes:
barbarian giant 14
fighter battlemaster 4
cleric tempest 2
feats: 4
1 guile of the cloud giant
2 sharpshooter
3 piercer
4 +2asi
(or gwm for melee)
***can melee pike 30ft
***can throw 90ft & ignore cover
levels:
1 barbarian 1- rage
2 barbarian 2- reckless
3 barbarian 3- path of giants feature 1
4 barbarian 4- F1 guile of the cloud giant (+1 str)
5 barbarian 5- extra attack
6 barbarian 6- path of giants feature 2
7 fighter 1- style (quick toss)
8 fighter 2- action surge
9 fighter 3- battlemaster 1
10 fighter 4- F2 sharpshooter
11 cleric 1- tempest 1
12 cleric 2- channel divinity
13 barbarian 7- feral + pounce
14 barbarian 8- F3 piercer
15 barbarian 9- brutal crit +1
16 barbarian 10- path of giants feature 3
17 barbarian 11- relentless rage
18 barbarian 12- F4 ASI
19 barbarian 13- brutal crit +2
20 barbarian 14- path of giant feature 4
initive:
feral (advantage) + ambush (d8)
Nova:
BA rage + pounce
action toss x2
action surge toss x2
damage:
----------------------
throw norm- (all thunder damage)
3d10+2d6+2d6+1d4+3+5+10
pike-cleaver-suprise-cloud-rage-str-SS
(makes invisible for advantage)
throw !!crit!! (all thunder damage)
6d10+4d6+4d6+2d8+1d10+2d10+3+5+10=172 (destructive wrath)
pike-cleaver-suprise-menacing-piercer-brutal-rage-str-SS.
sustained:
2 attack throw + BA quick toss with 5d8 & 1d6 battlemaster dice
items to shoot for:
1 ascendant dragon wrath pike (thunder)
2 cloak of invisibility
3 boots of haste
*potion of giants strength
*storm girdle (alternative)
item effects:
double movement speed
+2 ac
+3 to attack and damage
all throws made with advantage
throws on nova go to 6 from 4
normal throw +3d6
crit throw +6d6
potion: +4 to hit and damage
sage: (weapon damage for size)
Double the weapon dice if the creature is Large, triple the weapon dice if it's Huge, and quadruple the weapon dice if it's Gargantuan. For example, a Huge giant wielding an appropriately sized greataxe deals 3d12 slashing damage (plus its Strength bonus), instead of the normal 1d12.
A cute way to scale the thrown enemy range: It might be fun to make the thrown range equal to your jump distance.
Another buff that eould make it more likely to be used is make it usable as an attack of opportunity. Then you could prevent folks from getting past you with it. "Do not pass go, do not collect 300gp"
Love this build, reminds me of Broly from Dragon ball film, raging and enlarging himself to fight
"Great Weapon Master" is "GWEM" at my table. Good ol PAM and GWEM.
I have been looking into how best to build the thrown weapon barbarian. Just found Treantmonk mentioned that the Dueler and thrown weapon fighting styles stack. Hadn't realised this before but apparently Crawford confirmed it.
I wonder if this could be used to good effect with say, a battle axe in a fighter/ giant barbarian build.
Also.. My beloved Barbarian actually died!
Simic Hybrid is a cool option. You can have two extra appendages that you can grapple with. So you can grapple up to four enemies. Or grapple a couple and still attack.
I just don’t like the way it messes with action economy on the Simic Hybrid. I wish they were just appendages you could use to grapple with. Full stop. Might be too powerful though…
@@DnDDeepDive yeah, I can see that. To me the part about using an action to grapple doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t make any sense to me that it would have separate rules from normal grappling.
I’m currently playing a Giant Barbarian Simic Hybrid and we just play it using the normal grappling rules. So far it hasn’t seemed too powerful.
I just wrapped a campaign using this class. Guile of the Cloud Giant saved my bacon many, many times. Also I got to drop an iron golem off a cliff with Mighty Impel.
Sorry for the late post but I am slowly trying to recreate my AL characters using OneD&D and am now working on my Giant Barbarian. Reckless now works with all attacks rolls. (Pending release)
18:50 For those wondering, when in doubt, ordering those damage types by the ones monsters are least resistant/immune to:
Slashing with Magical Weapon > Thunder > Acid > Electric > Cold or Fire > Slashing with Nonmagical Weapon
The Giant Barbarian: D&D Build #150
Level 1 (see above) [barbarian 1, race & feat]
Level 2 (see above) [barbarian 2]
Level 3 (@13:23) [barbarian 3]
Level 4 (@17:22) [barbarian 4 & ASI]
Level 5 (@18:11) [barbarian 5]
Level 6 (@18:29) [barbarian 6]
Level 7 (see above) [barbarian 7]
Level 8 (@23:27) [barbarian 8 & ASI]
Level 9 (@26:26) [barbarian 9]
Level 10 (see above) [barbarian 10]
Level 11 (@32:11) [barbarian 11]
Level 12 (@33:25) [barbarian 12 & ASI]
Level 13 (@33:46) [fighter 1]
Level 14 (see above) [barbarian 13]
Level 15 (@36:54) [barbarian 14]
Level 16 (@38:29) [fighter 2]
Level 17 (@39:06) [fighter 3 & subclass]
Not certain why you didn't go straight barbarian until 15th level then switch.
With Barbarian I was knocked unconcious twice - once around level 4 facing some kind of giant and tanking. I even went that far not to attack reclessly and dodged as an action. Second time was after failed CON save for spell (rolled 1, rerolled 3 by lucky feat) and ended up 1 HP... after several turns, something got me :-D
So I had to make a character for a 5 level party for dungeons mad mage.
I took a variant human giant barbarian, and I went all in on throwing.
Taking duelist with variant human and thrown weapon expert at 4th level, it’s just hilarious at those levels.
I would say if your DM is feeling generous, the cape of enlargement from the phandelver and below campaign would be a perfect magic item for this build. A 3 charge cape that increase your size by one size up. Advantage on strength checks and saves, and you can add your Proficiency bonus to weapon or unarmed strikes you make. Lasts for 10 minutes and refreshes 1d3 per long rest.