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:

 

[Faolyn]

I'm still mad people think Hades is evil.

He's neutral and doing a thankless job of running the underworld which wasn't even his original domain and patronage.
Lets not forget he is the oldest brother but let his sex maniac youngest brother be the leader of the pantheon.

Well, Hades did kidnap and rape Persephone. That's pretty evil to me.

(None of the Greek Pantheon are particularly good.)

 

[Minigiant]

Well, Hades did kidnap and rape Persephone. That's pretty evil to me.

(None of the Greek Pantheon are particularly good.)

Hey.
He only kidnapped her. No one knows what happens after that except for the pomegranate thing because they were dead.

 

[Faolyn]

Hey.
He only kidnapped her. No one knows what happens after that except for the pomegranate thing because they were dead.

The myth is called "The Rape of Persephone." Even using the original meaning of the word ("to seize"), I have a very hard time believing that there wasn't anything sexual going on in there.

But anyway, as I said, all of those gods are pretty awful.

 

[Micah Sweet]

My players used to say they liked randomness too. Until they rolled a 1 on their hp rolls. Or didn't get above a 13 ability score. Or rolled 20 starting gold and had a sling, spear and leather while the other fighter has chainmail and a greatsword. Everyone loves randomness when it benefits them with higher scores, more gold, and high hit points. They are less favorable when it means they start out behind the 8-ball while their colleagues are exceptional. It used to lead to bitterness, cheating, and yolo un-aliving runts to get another shot at those sweet "random" high rolled PCs.

And before you say it: yes some people liked or at least didn't care about being on the low end of the standard deviation. But even some of them had their patience tested after several substandard characters while their buddies played godlike characters.

Once randomness was removed from my game, the urge to cheat dropped significantly. The only grousing I hear now are the occasional lamenting that their character isn't as OP as when we rolled and they had nearly max HP or no score below a 14.

Ymmv, and if it works for you then great.

We let one person roll, and everyone using their statline, arranged as desired.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

More eighties than seventies for me, but otherwise I am much the same. Like I would expect a cafe to serve coffee, but probably only two types (black and white). The more modern* establishments with twenty-seven different coffees I do not understand and (usually) terrible tea are "coffee houses" to me, not "cafés".

_
glass.

* At least they feel that way to me, even though they may be closer to traditional historical cafes.

That’s…backwards, if anything.

Cafés have had espresso drinks (most of this drinks are just different rations of espresso and milk) for a long long time before Starbucks was founded.

 

[Parmandur]

That’s…backwards, if anything.

Cafés have had espresso drinks (most of this drinks are just different rations of espresso and milk) for a long long time before Starbucks was founded.

I think they are saying that in the U.K. in the 80's, the term Café was used for something more like greasy diners in the U.S. More Dennys than Starbucks.

 

[Kurotowa]

Okay everyone, here's a challenge for you. What's the most cool or thematic Primeval Druid companion you can come up with that isn't just "I have a dinosaur"? Dinosaur answers are acceptable if you can incorporate them into a particularly thematic build, but I want to see what other ideas people can throw out. There's no reason not to grab at cave bears and giant sloths and other large beasts.

My most thematic idea so far isn't anything crazy. Just a yuan-ti with a giant snake. It's a classic for a reason, and I think you could make an interesting background around trying to escape the demon snake gods and create a more natural and druidic snake magic tradition.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Never has an issue, across multiple editions.

I have. Across just a single edition. Plenty of people hate rolling because it often creates problems at their tables. If you haven't, good for you.

 

[Parmandur]

Okay everyone, here's a challenge for you. What's the most cool or thematic Primeval Druid companion you can come up with that isn't just "I have a dinosaur"? Dinosaur answers are acceptable if you can incorporate them into a particularly thematic build, but I want to see what other ideas people can throw out. There's no reason not to grab at cave bears and giant sloths and other large beasts.

My most thematic idea so far isn't anything crazy. Just a yuan-ti with a giant snake. It's a classic for a reason, and I think you could make an interesting background around trying to escape the demon snake gods and create a more natural and druidic snake magic tradition.

Wooley rhino.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Okay everyone, here's a challenge for you. What's the most cool or thematic Primeval Druid companion you can come up with that isn't just "I have a dinosaur"? Dinosaur answers are acceptable if you can incorporate them into a particularly thematic build, but I want to see what other ideas people can throw out. There's no reason not to grab at cave bears and giant sloths and other large beasts.

Giant Snapping Turtle for a Tortle, IMO.