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 ;).
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.
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
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.
@@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
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.
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.
@@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.
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
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
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
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
@@JoshuaKing1215 I like it. I'm currently playing a Goliath, Path of the Giant - Echo Knight in a Tyranny of Dragons campaign. My intent was to get the Perfect Landing Feat from the Humblewood book. The intent was to float the echo anywhere between 30-60' in the air above more than one enemy. Then trade places with it and fall onto them in large or huge form. Hoping to do some damage to those I fall on and knock them prone. The failure is in RAW for fall damage. The only damage those you fall onto take, is half the damage you take. Perfect Landing gives you no damage for the first 30' and the damage die turns from 1d6 to 1d4 per 10'. So those you fall onto will only take half of 3d4 damage. Makes it a lot less worth it. All though putting multiple people prone could be. Especially since my party aside from my guy is 2 fighters, 1 paladin, 1 cleric, and 1 rogue/sorc. So 4 martials could benefit from a bunch of prone people. Would need my DM to homebrew the rules for it.
@@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.
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 ❤
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
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 😁
@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
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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!😅
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!
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.
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've been watching a lot of your videos basically since BG3 came out and you started making build videos for it, and I just want to say two things: 1) You always come across as so incredibly wholesome, and I love it! You really seem like a genuinely good guy. 2) Your channel name is very clever, and I appreciate it every time I see it. Lol
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.
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. :)
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.
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…
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.
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
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."
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 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.
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.
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.
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"
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 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)
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
About what you talk in 15:30 for me the Rune knight is a better grappler, both subclasses get large/huge and get advantage on athletic checks, but with a fighter you get more attacks and that means more chances to do grapple+shove and also get more feats so it's easier to get skill expert, tavern brawler or other useful feats for grappling. I Think Rune knight being better at grapple+shove and with all the runes it is better at controlling the battlefield and protecting the party, but the Giant barbarian is much better on damage output. Anyway, I would love to see a party with a Rune knight and a path of the giant barbarian, I think it would be totally hilarious having 2 giant dudes ripping enemies apart.
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.
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.
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.
bugbear, Giant barb 6, Tempest cleric 2, assassin Rogue 9, gunner feat, throwing a musket. 1d12+1d6+7 on two attacks, one of which adds 5d6 sneak attack damage. If you get surprise, auto crit, channel divinity. 24+12+24+12+60+48+7. 194 damage burst, still decent sustained
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.
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
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.
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.
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!
When it comes to a grapple build for Giant Barbarian Thri Kreen could be good. They can hold a shortsword in one of the little hands and then grapple stab everything. That would work well with both rogue dips and fighter battlemaster dips.
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.
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'm playing a fairy path of the giant. Take the giant foundling background! It gives you the strike of the giant feat for free! Free bonus damage, or even the ability to turn invisible after landing a hit.
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!
For those of you who want to deal damage as well as grapple going Polarm Master Vuman with the SPEAR allows for grappling with one hard and still making 3 attacks dealing great damage (if you are not grappling you can use the versatile property for d8 damage) and since you gain reach when raging you don't lose much going this route!!
going loxodon would allow to grapple two targets in this way but slows your damage progression bc youd take PaM at lvl 4 but it's a great way to utilize your size :3
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.
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.
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)
Great build as always! Personally, I don't like the idea of reckless attack thrown weapons that much. I just don't feel like it works with the flavor or the themes. I feel like its kinda hard to say you are being reckless when you are kiting people with ranged attacks, which would be an optimal playstyle.
Bear Totem Barbarian, level 3, first combat of the campaign: Narrowly looses initiative and gets one-shotted by a crit from a Giant Shark. Gets yo-yo healed but is right after the shark in initiative so never gets to rage nor attack in the longest slugfest of a fight, where the Bard and Druid slowly chops away at the shark while using Healing Word to bring the Barbarian back up as bait. Barb got some scars.
I do think that outside of a vacuum, depending on initiative order and your other party members, tossing your enemies up and then having them land prone, on top of taking a little bit of damage, could be mechanically better than the extra pole arm master attack. At least if it gives advantage to your parties, hexblade warlock, paladin, or fighter.
Hello there!I jsut wanted to say thank you for your videos, your advices and always kind and really "Home" atmosphere) Every time Im hearing "Im glad you here" and other things, my heart just melts) Thank you again!) P.S. Sorry for mistakes, English not my language
Commenting because I was told to: our barbarian has NEVER been knocked unconscious... BECAUSE of Relentless Rage. It has come up at least a dozen times. At least once of which prevented a TPK. It's one of my favorite Barbarian abilities
Also a good thing to note if you are a size large creature you'll be at least 2 squares tall. So a bug bear with a pole arm could theoretically reach 20 feet into above itself, so essentially a 25ft reach in the air. A huge creature we can assume would be a 15' cube plus you're 25' reach so essentially a 35fr reach above you head so it'll make hitting flying creature easier plus you can always throw if needed.
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.
About the "how many times have you been knocked down as a Barbarian" question, in my dnd group of 3 years I played barbarian and we had no healers. I was defiantly the one that got nocked down the least but it was still almost every combat encounter that I did :,)
Hey Colby, I know you don’t really do third party subclass builds (or if you have, I’ve missed them!) but juuuust as a thought experiment, I would LOVE to see your take on the Cantrip Adept - Wizard subclass from Kobold Press’ Tome of Heroes
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.
Having finished the video, I definitely want to see you try out a Path of the Giant throwing build. Because Reckless Attack can't be a thing, I can't see any way to make it viable without going with elf or half-elf and taking the Elven Accuracy feat.
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 🎉
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.
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
Congratulations on 150. Can't wait to watch the next 150.
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
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
@@JoshuaKing1215 I like it. I'm currently playing a Goliath, Path of the Giant - Echo Knight in a Tyranny of Dragons campaign. My intent was to get the Perfect Landing Feat from the Humblewood book. The intent was to float the echo anywhere between 30-60' in the air above more than one enemy. Then trade places with it and fall onto them in large or huge form. Hoping to do some damage to those I fall on and knock them prone. The failure is in RAW for fall damage. The only damage those you fall onto take, is half the damage you take. Perfect Landing gives you no damage for the first 30' and the damage die turns from 1d6 to 1d4 per 10'. So those you fall onto will only take half of 3d4 damage. Makes it a lot less worth it. All though putting multiple people prone could be. Especially since my party aside from my guy is 2 fighters, 1 paladin, 1 cleric, and 1 rogue/sorc. So 4 martials could benefit from a bunch of prone people. Would need my DM to homebrew the rules for 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?
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.
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
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...
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 ❤
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
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.
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
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!
Spot on for the sound effects and edit ins for (officially) video #150! Keep em coming!
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.
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
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.
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?
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).
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!😅
Colby! 2024 giant barb, pretty please! ❤
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!
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.
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've been watching a lot of your videos basically since BG3 came out and you started making build videos for it, and I just want to say two things:
1) You always come across as so incredibly wholesome, and I love it! You really seem like a genuinely good guy.
2) Your channel name is very clever, and I appreciate it every time I see it. Lol
@@MarkovChains223 thanks!
Thanks Colby, love your D&D builds! ❤
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.
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. :)
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.
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…
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.
What a fun build! I would like to see a throwing build someday down the road!
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
Great video as always! Thank you for your honesty and sharing those videos! Hello from Quebec City, QC, Canada!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family, Colby!
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."
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!
Interesting build. I might mix a few elements of this into my Duergar Rune Knight Fighter. All of the jumbo-size.
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.
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.
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.
Barbarians are my comfort class for sure.
Completely agree!
Holy wow bud. 150 D&D builds. Congrats!!!!
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
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"
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 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)
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.
Yes, so many new subclasses to play with from Glory of the Giants and El Tadorei 🎉🎉
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.
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'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.
About what you talk in 15:30 for me the Rune knight is a better grappler, both subclasses get large/huge and get advantage on athletic checks, but with a fighter you get more attacks and that means more chances to do grapple+shove and also get more feats so it's easier to get skill expert, tavern brawler or other useful feats for grappling.
I Think Rune knight being better at grapple+shove and with all the runes it is better at controlling the battlefield and protecting the party, but the Giant barbarian is much better on damage output.
Anyway, I would love to see a party with a Rune knight and a path of the giant barbarian, I think it would be totally hilarious having 2 giant dudes ripping enemies apart.
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.
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!
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.
bugbear, Giant barb 6, Tempest cleric 2, assassin Rogue 9, gunner feat, throwing a musket. 1d12+1d6+7 on two attacks, one of which adds 5d6 sneak attack damage. If you get surprise, auto crit, channel divinity. 24+12+24+12+60+48+7. 194 damage burst, still decent sustained
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.
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
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.
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.
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!
When it comes to a grapple build for Giant Barbarian Thri Kreen could be good. They can hold a shortsword in one of the little hands and then grapple stab everything. That would work well with both rogue dips and fighter battlemaster dips.
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.
Loved watching you give your frustrated rant about the reckless attack issues..."Look at me I'm molting!" 🤣
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'm playing a fairy path of the giant. Take the giant foundling background! It gives you the strike of the giant feat for free! Free bonus damage, or even the ability to turn invisible after landing a hit.
this sounds insane! Im starting a new campaign this Friday and im definetly playing this
Built a path of the Giants autognome. Basically a transformer when it rages and transforms from small to large.
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!
For those of you who want to deal damage as well as grapple going Polarm Master Vuman with the SPEAR allows for grappling with one hard and still making 3 attacks dealing great damage (if you are not grappling you can use the versatile property for d8 damage) and since you gain reach when raging you don't lose much going this route!!
going loxodon would allow to grapple two targets in this way but slows your damage progression bc youd take PaM at lvl 4 but it's a great way to utilize your size :3
I just love your videos so much Colby, thanks for making them.
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.
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.
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.
I liked their original stuff, then Bono became a lame woke democrat loving activist.
Giant barbarian + doublesided scimitar = both good mechanics and style
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)
Love this build, reminds me of Broly from Dragon ball film, raging and enlarging himself to fight
Great build as always!
Personally, I don't like the idea of reckless attack thrown weapons that much. I just don't feel like it works with the flavor or the themes. I feel like its kinda hard to say you are being reckless when you are kiting people with ranged attacks, which would be an optimal playstyle.
Im thankful my table usually does free feats, so doing a bugbear for this is a very tempting option on this build
Bear Totem Barbarian, level 3, first combat of the campaign: Narrowly looses initiative and gets one-shotted by a crit from a Giant Shark. Gets yo-yo healed but is right after the shark in initiative so never gets to rage nor attack in the longest slugfest of a fight, where the Bard and Druid slowly chops away at the shark while using Healing Word to bring the Barbarian back up as bait. Barb got some scars.
Solid Aladdin reference, didn't think I'd get that today
I do think that outside of a vacuum, depending on initiative order and your other party members, tossing your enemies up and then having them land prone, on top of taking a little bit of damage, could be mechanically better than the extra pole arm master attack. At least if it gives advantage to your parties, hexblade warlock, paladin, or fighter.
Nice video man. Good job making these.
"Great Weapon Master" is "GWEM" at my table. Good ol PAM and GWEM.
Hello there!I jsut wanted to say thank you for your videos, your advices and always kind and really "Home" atmosphere) Every time Im hearing "Im glad you here" and other things, my heart just melts) Thank you again!)
P.S. Sorry for mistakes, English not my language
Commenting because I was told to: our barbarian has NEVER been knocked unconscious... BECAUSE of Relentless Rage. It has come up at least a dozen times. At least once of which prevented a TPK. It's one of my favorite Barbarian abilities
Also a good thing to note if you are a size large creature you'll be at least 2 squares tall. So a bug bear with a pole arm could theoretically reach 20 feet into above itself, so essentially a 25ft reach in the air. A huge creature we can assume would be a 15' cube plus you're 25' reach so essentially a 35fr reach above you head so it'll make hitting flying creature easier plus you can always throw if needed.
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.
About the "how many times have you been knocked down as a Barbarian" question, in my dnd group of 3 years I played barbarian and we had no healers. I was defiantly the one that got nocked down the least but it was still almost every combat encounter that I did :,)
Hey Colby, I know you don’t really do third party subclass builds (or if you have, I’ve missed them!) but juuuust as a thought experiment, I would LOVE to see your take on the Cantrip Adept - Wizard subclass from Kobold Press’ Tome of Heroes
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.
Having finished the video, I definitely want to see you try out a Path of the Giant throwing build. Because Reckless Attack can't be a thing, I can't see any way to make it viable without going with elf or half-elf and taking the Elven Accuracy feat.