D&D 5E New Unearthed Arcana Today: Giant Themed Class Options and Feats

A new Unearthed Arcana dropped today, focusing on giant-themed player options. "In today’s Unearthed Arcana, we explore character options related to the magic and majesty of giants. This playtest document presents the Path of the Giant barbarian subclass, the Circle of the Primeval druid subclass, the Runecrafter wizard subclass, and a collection of new feats, all for use in Dungeons & Dragons."

Giant Options | Unearthed Arcana | Dungeons & Dragons

Explore character options related to the magic and majesty of giants! This playtest document presents new subclasses for the barbarian, druid, and wizard, and a collection of new feats, all for use in Dungeons & Dragons.

dnd.wizards.com

New Class options:

• Barbarian: Path of the Giant
• Druid: Circle of the Primeval
• Wizard: Runecrafter Tradition

New Feats:

• Elemental Touched
• Ember of the Fire Giant
• Fury of the Frost Giant
• Guile of the Cloud Giant
• Keeness of the Stone Giant
• Outsized Might
• Rune Carver Apprentice
• Rune Carvwr Adept
• Soul of the Storm Giant
• Vigor of the Hill Giant

WotC's Jeremy Crawford talks Barbarian Path of the Giant here:

 

[Tonguez]

Still no Large PC race? Thats unfortunte but Hulkbarian looks okay and eeew Druids riding Wooly Rhinos!

 

[Faolyn]

The subclasses are decent but not hugely exciting. The Feats are similar, though one of them is basically "be a Goliath", which is quite a thing. I'm kind of wondering who these would be accessible to - if it's "all characters" that would simply be bizarre.

You say that like having a pleistocene megafauna or being a Huge kobold isn't totally amazing in and of itself.

 

[Kobold Stew]

I actually think this is one of the more coherent and compelling UAs for some time.

The subclasses are all things I would want to play.

1. Path of the Giant. As has been noted -- this lets you Hulk out. Level 6 and 14 features presume that you would still be using your (M-sized) weapon. Has this been clarified? Does going from M to L mean that you get benefits of a growth spell? Or is it the double-damage-dice seen in the MM? I've houseruled that you can wield oversize weapons, but not with proficiency (I think that's a house-rule). But unpacking what this means, clearly, would be something I don't think I've seen.

I love that it does NOT say your clothes and equipment grow with you -- constantly tearing your clothes should be the result of this subclass. Absolutely would play.

2. Primeval Druid. This is great, and gives a clear druid analogue to the updated Beastmaster Ranger, the Drake warden, and the Artificer that has a pet. It seems to be a bit stronger, which is good for a less combat-focused class. Absolutely would play.

3. Runecrafter. So there's really good imagery here, and it feels very coherent. It does seem a bit odd that the abilities are seperate from the Runecarver feats, which provide a different (and arguably more compelling) ability. Probably would play.

Elemental Touched is a really powerful feat, and will be desirable to many even with the uses/long rest limitation.

Soul of the Storm Giant: Free Divination once per day (4th level spell) -- I suspect my god would be bored of me pretty quickly (hey Odin, does this tie go with this sweater?)

Ember of the Fire Giant: the chance to blind your opponent is quite powerful.

Rune Carver feats: quite cool, and good flexibility for 1 spell/long rest. That balances fairly with the PHB feat that gives cantrips.

 

[Laurefindel]

I actually think this is a hint to an entirely new setting, one that was heavily hinted in Fizban's.... the "First World."

For one thing, I believe the First World will be heavily focused around the Dragon vs. Giant conflict, back in the ye old days when giants ruled the Material Plane. Plus, although two of three of these subclasses are very giant-themed, the Druid subclass is very PREHISTORIC themed.

View attachment 249290

So my guess, this is for the new setting the "First World," which is at least partly dominated by Giant Kingdoms/Empires. There have been a couple 3rd-parties that tackled this concept, best probably being Planegea.

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PS check out Prehistoric Avengers for how I'd build a D&D party....

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Ok, I admit I didn't expect to see a prehistoric version of Ghost Rider riding a Wooly Mammoth on fire!

 

[Weiley31]

Really wasn't expecting another UA so soon. And it being Giant focused. But in DND, Giants and Dragons have waged war against each other.

As for the classes, bit neutral on them. The Druid Primeval subclass seems to invoke the idea of how Druids used to have a main feature where they got an Animal Companion. Now instead of the Tasha's "free find animal familiar option," or giving a house rule where you give the Druid the use of the Tasha's Beasts of... upgrade, your actually getting a Druid with a ACTUAL animal companion. (still prefer the Tasha's house rule route in that regard, but hey, Huge pets now.)

Which is actually interesting as now, outside of the Rune Knight, we're kinda getting player options where sizes PAST Small/Medium are happening. No clarification on rules on how your sizes are treated in regard to various things though. (since, ya know, WoTC is still trying to "avoid" technical headaches.)

But the Feats? HOOOOO BOY I'm liking em. Especially in the way that I allow racial feats. Like, you could totally allow these feats as Racial Feat options for Dwarves (bloodline link to Giants/Runes), Genasi (we got all the Elements covered), ANY Giant/Giant-Kin related races (Firbolg, Oni/Ogre Mages, etc, etc, *note: that's a refluffing thing but whatever), Aarakocra (aside from being flying/wing related, remember in older editions four or more could summon an Air Elemental) or even Tiefling (Fire with fire feat.)

 

[TwoSix]

There were several in the the Dragonlance UA as well. There, I think they were needed to prevent a level 1 variant human with a background feat from having access to second level spells through a feat chain. Here, where most of the feats in question are stand-alone, I'm not sure it makes as much sense. If the feats are the same power level as other feats, the level prerequisite isn't necessary. If they're stronger, then that turns "normal" feats into trap choices for higher level characters.

To be fair, variant humans have had access to 2nd level spells at first level since Tasha's.

 

[LadyElect]

You say that like having a pleistocene megafauna or being a Huge kobold isn't totally amazing in and of itself.

See, I'm something of a One-and-a-Halfling.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Still no Large PC race? Thats unfortunte but Hulkbarian looks okay and eeew Druids riding Wooly Rhinos!

while it annoys me that this druid's companion is so much better than the ranger's, I do like the idea of using this as a Talenta (Eberron) Halfling, riding a juvenile threehorn or something.

 

[darjr]

 

[Shiroiken]

cross-ass abilities

Not a fan of these abilities