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:

 

[darjr]

@Parmandur you beat WotCs Twitter account!

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Crossover with Attacks of the Titans confirmed! oh, sorry!

But why not a dark domain in Ravenloft where the towns are attacked by meneating no-sentient giants?

---

Now, seriously this sounds more like a future sourcebook about dinosaurs, ice age and Prehistory, like Hollow World from Mystara setting. . Maybe it is one of the future planes of Magic the Gathering, or Kaldheim.

Could an artificer to create an Vertical Maneuvering Equipment to fight against giants? But these only would be useful in certain places. Or some "steampunk/magitek exosuit" to fight giants. How would be a magitek D&D version of mecha franchises (Ultraman, Robotech/Macross, Gundman, Mazinger Z, Evangelion, Voltron, Robotek, Escaflowne, Code Geass..).

Giants aren't enough popular to publish a theme sourcebook only about them. I like the giants as kaiju-hunters and natural enemy of dragons. D&D heroes fighting againt giants should be epic in the big screens in the cinemas. Some times I imagine martial adepts channeling ki for a martial maneuver as "jump" spell to attack giants. I guess Hasbro is thinking about something like a D&D version of "King Kong vs Godzilla".

Could giants be riders of megafaun? for example mammoths, or indricothere.

 

[darjr]

I ask this again, has Luis been right all this time?!?!

 

[ersatzphil]

I ask this again, has Luis been right all this time?!?!

...what did Luis predict?

 

[darjr]

...what did Luis predict?

A strange new world of wild licensing and mash up settings.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Awwww C'mon! No second try for the Giant Origin sorcerer?

I guess they are going for a Dragons vs Giants in a primeval world theme for their First World.

Put me in the camp of ''not super interested of Giants'', but I think they could be made interesting in a focused book ala Fizban's. Maybe going back to elemental titans and dwarven/gnome slaves from 4e?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

A strange new world of wild licensing and mash up settings.

The plan since Essentials has been to create a version of DnD where "edition" comes to mean the same sort of thing as the "lord of the rings edition" of monopoly, so yeah, probably.

I really hope feats remain optional in 5.5 but it looks like that won’t be happening.

I don't think we've seen any strong evidence of that. I'd be willing to bet feats are still optional in 2025.

That barbarian subclass straight up unlocks size large PCs. I like it. Very Hulk smash!

The Giant Sorcerer already unlocked large PCs. (edit: nevermind that never made it out of UA apparently. Weird.)

 

[Parmandur]

Are these the first level-locked feats we've seen in 5e? I wonder if feats will expand into a warlock style invocations abilities for each class in 5.5e.

Strixhaven and Dragonlance. Per Crawford's videos on the Dragonlance UA, these limited Feat chains and Level 1 Feats are prov8jg popular.

Feats with level pre-reqs definitely solidifies that they're looking at feats as a major axis of character definition for the revision.

Yup.

So - any speculation about the upcoming product that this is tied to? A 5e version of "Giantcraft" (like Fizban's is the 5e version of the Draconomicon) would probably be the most obvious guess. But are there any MtG worlds that are focused on giants and runes?

The most important aspect is which book project lead is in the byline, I think: James Wyatt. A Fizban's for Giants would allow them to fully retire Volo's Guide, actually, though it could also be a new Setting. Or a bit of both?

I suspect that the negative reaction to feat chains is leading them to try to explore other options for keeping power levels in check across levels. Level requirements is a better choice than feat chains IMO.

Crawford has said they received positive feedback about the Feat chain tests, though, not negative. I take this as a sign that they are actually popular.

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.

If they are allowing Levle 1 Feats broadly, they might want to limit certain abilities.

Agreed. WotC is weirdly attached to the Ordning-style giants, which are among their least interesting concepts.

They proved very popular in the Next flavor playtests, IIRC.

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.

View attachment 249291

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

View attachment 249292

Yes, we do know that they have two Settongs I'm the works, and Wyatt has extensive Setting experience in 5E and previous editions.

@Parmandur you beat WotCs Twitter account!

My power grows daily....

 

[Parmandur]

Awwww C'mon! No second try for the Giant Origin sorcerer?

I guess they are going for a Dragons vs Giants in a primeval world theme for their First World.

Put me in the camp of ''not super interested of Giants'', but I think they could be made interesting in a focused book ala Fizban's. Maybe going back to elemental titans and dwarven/gnome slaves from 4e?

I mean, it may ride again in whatever product this is for...they just might not need a new test.

 

[Micah Sweet]

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.

View attachment 249291

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

View attachment 249292

I really hate the First World. So glad its easy to ignore (for now).