This is my first homebrew work, and I was hoping for some thoughts on it. I developed this subclass as a response to the Giant Soul sorcerer, which I loved the idea of but was unimpressed by the execution. I haven't playtested it or done a lot of math to balance it, so let me know your thoughts on if it's overpowered or anything I should change.
Path of the Jotunkin Some barbarians come from tribes that have close ties to giants. Perhaps they actively trade with a group of giants, or perhaps they practice lost arts that their ancestors learned from giants of old. Barbarians who follow the Path of the Jotunkin learn to harness the strength of giants and grow to incredible sizes.
Jotun Build Starting when you choose this path at 3rd level, you begin to gain giantlike qualities. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.
Jotun Training Starting when you choose this path at 3rd level, you can speak, read, and write Giant. Additionally, select one of the giant types below. You learn fighting techniques associated with your choice, shown below.
Hill giant: Any creature you grapple that is at least one size smaller than you is automatically restrained. When you are raging, you can make an attack to slam a grappled creature into the ground or walls for 1d6 bludgeoning damage even when you do not have a free hand. You use your Strength modifier for the attack and damage rolls.
Stone giant: You gain proficiency with all thrown weapons, including improvised, and the range on thrown weapons doubles for you. When you are raging, you deal 1d6 extra damage on thrown weapon attacks.
Frost giant: When you are raging, as a bonus action you can gain temporary hit points equal to your barbarian level as an icy coating protects your vital areas. Additionally, when you make an attack of opportunity against a creature, that creature's speed is halved until the beginning of its next turn.
Fire giant: When you are raging, as a bonus action you may create a five foot cube of fire in a space within 5 feet of you. This fire lasts for a number of turns equal to your strength modifier and deals 1d6 fire damage to any creature that moves into the fire's space or starts its turn there.
Cloud giant: When you are raging, you can make a running long jump or a running high jump after moving only 5 feet on foot, rather than 10 feet. Additionally, you can take the attack action during or at the end of a jump or fall, and you deal an extra 1d4 damage per 5 feet traveled.
Storm giant: When you are raging, as a bonus action you can cause all other creatures of your choice within 10 feet of you to take 1d4 lightning damage each.
Strength of the Jotunkin
At 6th level, you can take on giantlike proportions. As a bonus action, or as part of entering rage, you can increase your size by one category—from Medium to Large, for example. Your size doubles in all dimensions, and your weight is multiplied by eight. If there isn’t enough room for you to double your size, you attain the maximum possible size in the space available. Everything you are wearing and carrying changes size with you. Any item you drop returns to normal size at once. This size increase lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if you die or are incapacitated. You can also end it early on your turn as a bonus action. Until it ends, you enjoy the following benefits:
Your reach increases by 5 feet.
Your walking speed increases by 5 feet.
You have advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws.
You gain a bonus to the damage rolls of your attacks; the bonus equals your Constitution modifier (minimum of +1).
You can use this feature a number of times equal to the number of rages you have. While you are using this feature, you may expend additional uses to extend the time this feature is active, without expending any action, but size increases from additional uses are not cumulative. You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Elemental Might At 10th level, you begin to reflect the elemental affinities of the giants. You gain abilities based on the giant type you chose at 3rd level.
Hill giant: You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance against poison damage. You also gain proficiency in either the Intimidation skill or the Survival skill.
Stone giant: You gain proficiency with the mason's tools. Additionally, you can hide by standing still against natural or worked stone. When you hide like this, you are considered proficient in the Stealth skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus.
Frost giant: You gain resistance to cold damage, and you don't suffer the effects of extreme cold. Moreover, as an action, you can touch water and turn a 5-foot cube of it into ice, which melts after 1 minute. This action fails if a creature is in the cube.
Fire giant: You gain resistance to fire damage, and you don't suffer the effects of extreme heat. Moreover, as an action, you can touch a flammable object that isn't being worn or carried by anyone else and set it on fire.
Cloud giant: Your jump distance and height are doubled, and you can use your reaction when you fall to reduce any falling damage you take by an amount equal to two times your barbarian level.
Storm giant: You gain resistance to lightning damage, and you can breathe underwater. You also gain a swimming speed equal to your movement speed.
Strength of the All Father At 14th level, when you use your Strength of the Jotunkin feature, you may expend two uses to grow up to two size categories larger. When you use this feature in this way, your increases to reach, walking speed, and damage rolls are doubled.
I like the idea, and have also experimented with new options that make grappling more viable. I have a few thoughts.
-The 3rd-level feature is redundant for goliaths, which would dissuade them from taking the class.
-The 3rd-level hill giant feature is very powerful, eclipsing the restraining ability of the Grappler feat. With this power you can potentially grapple two creatures and have advantage on each attack you make against them (unarmed strikes/headbutts with extra damage), while imposing disadvantage on all their attacks. Also, you could simplify the description by simply altering the unarmed damage die for attacks you make against a creature you have grappled.
-I like the 6th-level ability. It mimics the effects of the enlarge/reduce spell. I would consider simplifying the explanation. No need to repeat the benefits already provided by the barbarian rage (advantage on STR checks and saves). Also, consider treating it like the path of the berserker's frenzy ability, which can be activated during any rage rather than being tied to a separate number of uses.
-One point to be careful about--in 5e a weapon of one size category larger than usual delivers twice the number of base damage dice:
Big monsters typically wield oversized weapons that deal extra dice of damage on a hit. Double the weapon dice if the creature is Large, triple the weapon dice if it’s Huge, and quadruple the weapon dice if it’s Gargantuan. For example, a Huge giant wielding an appropriately sized greataxe deals 3d12 slashing damage (plus its Strength bonus), instead of the normal 1d12.
So a barbarian that can wield a large-sized greatsword during any rage by nature of their larger size will be able to deal 4d6 base damage (14 on average) with each hit (before strength/magic weapon/rage/etc. bonuses). That's a huge advantage. With the brutal critical feature, critical hits will be absolutely devastating. If you'd like to press forward with the concept, consider requiring the barbarian to expend two uses of rage to activate the enlarge ability.
-For the 14th-level ability, you don't need to mention reach, since it's built into the size categories. Also, based on my suggestion above, consider having the ability cost two uses of rage or more. Note that any barbarian has unlimited uses of rage at 20th level, removing this constraint. Just remember that with a huge-sized weapon, the barbarian can be dealing 3x the number of base damage dice. Our barbarian in the previous example with a huge greatsword will be dealing 6d6 base damage (21 on average) with each hit before adding other modifiers.
I have thought about moving the Jotun Build feature to be the Hill Giant's Elemental Might feature, as 3rd and 6th levels are already quite powerful.. As for overlapping with goliaths, I think they could potentially stack, but that's a good thing to note.
As for the grappling ability, I wanted it to overshadow the Grappler feat because the Grappler feat isn't very good. It might be too powerful though. I'll think about altering the language.
For Strength of the Jotunkin, I copied much of the wording from the Enlarge/Reduce spell and the Giant Soul sorcerer ability (the recent Unearthed Arcana). I removed the hp increase that sorcerers got, because I thought it would be excessive on a barbarian. I retained the advantage on Strength Checks because I wanted this ability to be used outside of combat, and therefore outside of rage. It would simplify it to have it tied to rage, but it would reduce its usefulness for things like lifting heavy objects. I've been debating that myself, and I'm not sure what's better.
As for your point about large weapons, that applies to monsters, but not PCs. The Enlarge/Reduce spell is an example of this. The 1d4 extra damage is supposed to account for the increase in size. In Strength of the Jotunkin, the Con bonus to damage is meant to account for the extra size.
I also cannot find anything in the rules about size already including reach. Could you point me to that?
I am concerned that I may be adding too much combat utility. I love some of the ideas I have come up with for each giant type, Jotun Training may be too much on top of Strength of the Jotunkin. Do you think the design is too crowded with trying to fit in both the size increases and the Giant type-based abilities?
I just started using this subclass and I absolutely love it. It gives a significant damage boost, but without some of the drawbacks that other paths give in exchange for said damage. I'm also playing it as a dwarf, so its pretty funny to grow from ~4ft tall to over 8ft.
Gaining your barbarian level in bonus HP every round is insanely powerful. At higher levels, you're gaining a staggering boost to durability. That ability should be something that only occurs at the beginning of a rage, at most.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Gaining your barbarian level in bonus HP every round is insanely powerful. At higher levels, you're gaining a staggering boost to durability. That ability should be something that only occurs at the beginning of a rage, at most.
I know that seems like a ton, but look at it this way: A young red dragon, CR 10, does 3 attacks per round, for 20 + 13 + 13 = 46 damage. At level 10, a frost giant barbarian will block 10 of that damage. At level 20, it will block 20. Either of those is still less than a bear totem barbarian, which gets resistance to all damage. So it's actually not as much as it sounds like.
I just started using this subclass and I absolutely love it. It gives a significant damage boost, but without some of the drawbacks that other paths give in exchange for said damage. I'm also playing it as a dwarf, so its pretty funny to grow from ~4ft tall to over 8ft.
I’m glad to hear it! I haven’t ever gotten a chance to actually play it, so I’m glad someone is! What giant type have you been using?
Gaining your barbarian level in bonus HP every round is insanely powerful. At higher levels, you're gaining a staggering boost to durability. That ability should be something that only occurs at the beginning of a rage, at most.
I know that seems like a ton, but look at it this way: A young red dragon, CR 10, does 3 attacks per round, for 20 + 13 + 13 = 46 damage. At level 10, a frost giant barbarian will block 10 of that damage. At level 20, it will block 20. Either of those is still less than a bear totem barbarian, which gets resistance to all damage. So it's actually not as much as it sounds like.
That's more than you might think. The only other barbarian paths that gain the ability to grant themselves temporary HP are the Battlerager with Reckless Abandon, which gives you temp HP equal to your Con modifier but only when you use Reckless Attack, and the Tundra Storm Soul, which uses a bonus action and only gives HP equal to your proficiency modifier.
I'm not exactly sure on how it goes with RAW, but every GM I've ever played with has ruled that damage resistances are applied before Temporary HP, not after. And even without that, gaining your level in temp HP every round with no limit is better than any other source of temporary HP in the game. That is just a crazy boost in durability.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I just started using this subclass and I absolutely love it. It gives a significant damage boost, but without some of the drawbacks that other paths give in exchange for said damage. I'm also playing it as a dwarf, so its pretty funny to grow from ~4ft tall to over 8ft.
I’m glad to hear it! I haven’t ever gotten a chance to actually play it, so I’m glad someone is! What giant type have you been using?
I'm using storm giant. I love being able to do a little bit of damage to anyone near me every turn. I always hate missing attacks and then not doing any damage on my turn, but that 1d4 lightning guarantees I can hurt at least a little bit.
I would play the "expletive" out of a hill giant version of this, pretty much has everything I want for a grappler; can reach huge size, unarmoured defence, unarmed attacks, able to restrain, melee resistances.
Not sure it's balanced but doesn't seem too bad apart from frosts temp hp generating ability.
Gaining your barbarian level in bonus HP every round is insanely powerful. At higher levels, you're gaining a staggering boost to durability. That ability should be something that only occurs at the beginning of a rage, at most.
I know that seems like a ton, but look at it this way: A young red dragon, CR 10, does 3 attacks per round, for 20 + 13 + 13 = 46 damage. At level 10, a frost giant barbarian will block 10 of that damage. At level 20, it will block 20. Either of those is still less than a bear totem barbarian, which gets resistance to all damage. So it's actually not as much as it sounds like.
That's more than you might think. The only other barbarian paths that gain the ability to grant themselves temporary HP are the Battlerager with Reckless Abandon, which gives you temp HP equal to your Con modifier but only when you use Reckless Attack, and the Tundra Storm Soul, which uses a bonus action and only gives HP equal to your proficiency modifier.
I'm not exactly sure on how it goes with RAW, but every GM I've ever played with has ruled that damage resistances are applied before Temporary HP, not after. And even without that, gaining your level in temp HP every round with no limit is better than any other source of temporary HP in the game. That is just a crazy boost in durability.
Oh, you know, I forgot to account for the fact that you're already getting resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing, so this is actually quite powerful. I think my initial reasoning comparing it to Storm Herald was that the Storm Herald is giving temp hp to every creature within 10 feet, and frost giant is only giving it to one person. However, that much hp to one person is probably more beneficial than a similar amount distributed to multiple people, especially considering the damage resistance. Perhaps just giving a boost equal to prof. bonus would be better?
I would play the "expletive" out of a hill giant version of this, pretty much has everything I want for a grappler; can reach huge size, unarmoured defence, unarmed attacks, able to restrain, melee resistances.
Not sure it's balanced but doesn't seem too bad apart from frosts temp hp generating ability.
Yeah, hill giant is one of the ones I'm more proud of/excited about, because there really aren't great grappling option in RAW. I want to be able to wrestle a dragon, dangit! I hope you can find an opportunity to try it!
Gaining your barbarian level in bonus HP every round is insanely powerful. At higher levels, you're gaining a staggering boost to durability. That ability should be something that only occurs at the beginning of a rage, at most.
I know that seems like a ton, but look at it this way: A young red dragon, CR 10, does 3 attacks per round, for 20 + 13 + 13 = 46 damage. At level 10, a frost giant barbarian will block 10 of that damage. At level 20, it will block 20. Either of those is still less than a bear totem barbarian, which gets resistance to all damage. So it's actually not as much as it sounds like.
That's more than you might think. The only other barbarian paths that gain the ability to grant themselves temporary HP are the Battlerager with Reckless Abandon, which gives you temp HP equal to your Con modifier but only when you use Reckless Attack, and the Tundra Storm Soul, which uses a bonus action and only gives HP equal to your proficiency modifier.
I'm not exactly sure on how it goes with RAW, but every GM I've ever played with has ruled that damage resistances are applied before Temporary HP, not after. And even without that, gaining your level in temp HP every round with no limit is better than any other source of temporary HP in the game. That is just a crazy boost in durability.
Oh, you know, I forgot to account for the fact that you're already getting resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing, so this is actually quite powerful. I think my initial reasoning comparing it to Storm Herald was that the Storm Herald is giving temp hp to every creature within 10 feet, and frost giant is only giving it to one person. However, that much hp to one person is probably more beneficial than a similar amount distributed to multiple people, especially considering the damage resistance. Perhaps just giving a boost equal to prof. bonus would be better?
That would be better.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I'm using storm giant. I love being able to do a little bit of damage to anyone near me every turn. I always hate missing attacks and then not doing any damage on my turn, but that 1d4 lightning guarantees I can hurt at least a little bit.
Nice! Glad you're enjoying it.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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This is my first homebrew work, and I was hoping for some thoughts on it. I developed this subclass as a response to the Giant Soul sorcerer, which I loved the idea of but was unimpressed by the execution. I haven't playtested it or done a lot of math to balance it, so let me know your thoughts on if it's overpowered or anything I should change.
Path of the Jotunkin
Some barbarians come from tribes that have close ties to giants. Perhaps they actively trade with a group of giants, or perhaps they practice lost arts that their ancestors learned from giants of old. Barbarians who follow the Path of the Jotunkin learn to harness the strength of giants and grow to incredible sizes.
Jotun Build
Starting when you choose this path at 3rd level, you begin to gain giantlike qualities. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.
Jotun Training
Starting when you choose this path at 3rd level, you can speak, read, and write Giant. Additionally, select one of the giant types below. You learn fighting techniques associated with your choice, shown below.
Hill giant: Any creature you grapple that is at least one size smaller than you is automatically restrained. When you are raging, you can make an attack to slam a grappled creature into the ground or walls for 1d6 bludgeoning damage even when you do not have a free hand. You use your Strength modifier for the attack and damage rolls.
Stone giant: You gain proficiency with all thrown weapons, including improvised, and the range on thrown weapons doubles for you. When you are raging, you deal 1d6 extra damage on thrown weapon attacks.
Frost giant: When you are raging, as a bonus action you can gain temporary hit points equal to your barbarian level as an icy coating protects your vital areas. Additionally, when you make an attack of opportunity against a creature, that creature's speed is halved until the beginning of its next turn.
Fire giant: When you are raging, as a bonus action you may create a five foot cube of fire in a space within 5 feet of you. This fire lasts for a number of turns equal to your strength modifier and deals 1d6 fire damage to any creature that moves into the fire's space or starts its turn there.
Cloud giant: When you are raging, you can make a running long jump or a running high jump after moving only 5 feet on foot, rather than 10 feet. Additionally, you can take the attack action during or at the end of a jump or fall, and you deal an extra 1d4 damage per 5 feet traveled.
Storm giant: When you are raging, as a bonus action you can cause all other creatures of your choice within 10 feet of you to take 1d4 lightning damage each.
Strength of the Jotunkin
At 6th level, you can take on giantlike proportions. As a bonus action, or as part of entering rage, you can increase your size by one category—from Medium to Large, for example. Your size doubles in all dimensions, and your weight is multiplied by eight. If there isn’t enough room for you to double your size, you attain the maximum possible size in the space available. Everything you are wearing and carrying changes size with you. Any item you drop returns to normal size at once. This size increase lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if you die or are incapacitated. You can also end it early on your turn as a bonus action. Until it ends, you enjoy the following benefits:
Your reach increases by 5 feet.
Your walking speed increases by 5 feet.
You have advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws.
You gain a bonus to the damage rolls of your attacks; the bonus equals your Constitution modifier (minimum of +1).
You can use this feature a number of times equal to the number of rages you have. While you are using this feature, you may expend additional uses to extend the time this feature is active, without expending any action, but size increases from additional uses are not cumulative. You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Elemental Might
At 10th level, you begin to reflect the elemental affinities of the giants. You gain abilities based on the giant type you chose at 3rd level.
Hill giant: You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance against poison damage. You also gain proficiency in either the Intimidation skill or the Survival skill.
Stone giant: You gain proficiency with the mason's tools. Additionally, you can hide by standing still against natural or worked stone. When you hide like this, you are considered proficient in the Stealth skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus.
Frost giant: You gain resistance to cold damage, and you don't suffer the effects of extreme cold. Moreover, as an action, you can touch water and turn a 5-foot cube of it into ice, which melts after 1 minute. This action fails if a creature is in the cube.
Fire giant: You gain resistance to fire damage, and you don't suffer the effects of extreme heat. Moreover, as an action, you can touch a flammable object that isn't being worn or carried by anyone else and set it on fire.
Cloud giant: Your jump distance and height are doubled, and you can use your reaction when you fall to reduce any falling damage you take by an amount equal to two times your barbarian level.
Storm giant: You gain resistance to lightning damage, and you can breathe underwater. You also gain a swimming speed equal to your movement speed.
Strength of the All Father
At 14th level, when you use your Strength of the Jotunkin feature, you may expend two uses to grow up to two size categories larger. When you use this feature in this way, your increases to reach, walking speed, and damage rolls are doubled.
I like the idea, and have also experimented with new options that make grappling more viable. I have a few thoughts.
-The 3rd-level feature is redundant for goliaths, which would dissuade them from taking the class.
-The 3rd-level hill giant feature is very powerful, eclipsing the restraining ability of the Grappler feat. With this power you can potentially grapple two creatures and have advantage on each attack you make against them (unarmed strikes/headbutts with extra damage), while imposing disadvantage on all their attacks. Also, you could simplify the description by simply altering the unarmed damage die for attacks you make against a creature you have grappled.
-I like the 6th-level ability. It mimics the effects of the enlarge/reduce spell. I would consider simplifying the explanation. No need to repeat the benefits already provided by the barbarian rage (advantage on STR checks and saves). Also, consider treating it like the path of the berserker's frenzy ability, which can be activated during any rage rather than being tied to a separate number of uses.
-One point to be careful about--in 5e a weapon of one size category larger than usual delivers twice the number of base damage dice:
So a barbarian that can wield a large-sized greatsword during any rage by nature of their larger size will be able to deal 4d6 base damage (14 on average) with each hit (before strength/magic weapon/rage/etc. bonuses). That's a huge advantage. With the brutal critical feature, critical hits will be absolutely devastating. If you'd like to press forward with the concept, consider requiring the barbarian to expend two uses of rage to activate the enlarge ability.
-For the 14th-level ability, you don't need to mention reach, since it's built into the size categories. Also, based on my suggestion above, consider having the ability cost two uses of rage or more. Note that any barbarian has unlimited uses of rage at 20th level, removing this constraint. Just remember that with a huge-sized weapon, the barbarian can be dealing 3x the number of base damage dice. Our barbarian in the previous example with a huge greatsword will be dealing 6d6 base damage (21 on average) with each hit before adding other modifiers.
I have thought about moving the Jotun Build feature to be the Hill Giant's Elemental Might feature, as 3rd and 6th levels are already quite powerful.. As for overlapping with goliaths, I think they could potentially stack, but that's a good thing to note.
As for the grappling ability, I wanted it to overshadow the Grappler feat because the Grappler feat isn't very good. It might be too powerful though. I'll think about altering the language.
For Strength of the Jotunkin, I copied much of the wording from the Enlarge/Reduce spell and the Giant Soul sorcerer ability (the recent Unearthed Arcana). I removed the hp increase that sorcerers got, because I thought it would be excessive on a barbarian. I retained the advantage on Strength Checks because I wanted this ability to be used outside of combat, and therefore outside of rage. It would simplify it to have it tied to rage, but it would reduce its usefulness for things like lifting heavy objects. I've been debating that myself, and I'm not sure what's better.
As for your point about large weapons, that applies to monsters, but not PCs. The Enlarge/Reduce spell is an example of this. The 1d4 extra damage is supposed to account for the increase in size. In Strength of the Jotunkin, the Con bonus to damage is meant to account for the extra size.
I also cannot find anything in the rules about size already including reach. Could you point me to that?
I am concerned that I may be adding too much combat utility. I love some of the ideas I have come up with for each giant type, Jotun Training may be too much on top of Strength of the Jotunkin. Do you think the design is too crowded with trying to fit in both the size increases and the Giant type-based abilities?
I just started using this subclass and I absolutely love it. It gives a significant damage boost, but without some of the drawbacks that other paths give in exchange for said damage. I'm also playing it as a dwarf, so its pretty funny to grow from ~4ft tall to over 8ft.
Gaining your barbarian level in bonus HP every round is insanely powerful. At higher levels, you're gaining a staggering boost to durability. That ability should be something that only occurs at the beginning of a rage, at most.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I know that seems like a ton, but look at it this way: A young red dragon, CR 10, does 3 attacks per round, for 20 + 13 + 13 = 46 damage. At level 10, a frost giant barbarian will block 10 of that damage. At level 20, it will block 20. Either of those is still less than a bear totem barbarian, which gets resistance to all damage. So it's actually not as much as it sounds like.
I’m glad to hear it! I haven’t ever gotten a chance to actually play it, so I’m glad someone is! What giant type have you been using?
That's more than you might think. The only other barbarian paths that gain the ability to grant themselves temporary HP are the Battlerager with Reckless Abandon, which gives you temp HP equal to your Con modifier but only when you use Reckless Attack, and the Tundra Storm Soul, which uses a bonus action and only gives HP equal to your proficiency modifier.
I'm not exactly sure on how it goes with RAW, but every GM I've ever played with has ruled that damage resistances are applied before Temporary HP, not after. And even without that, gaining your level in temp HP every round with no limit is better than any other source of temporary HP in the game. That is just a crazy boost in durability.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I'm using storm giant. I love being able to do a little bit of damage to anyone near me every turn. I always hate missing attacks and then not doing any damage on my turn, but that 1d4 lightning guarantees I can hurt at least a little bit.
I would play the "expletive" out of a hill giant version of this, pretty much has everything I want for a grappler; can reach huge size, unarmoured defence, unarmed attacks, able to restrain, melee resistances.
Not sure it's balanced but doesn't seem too bad apart from frosts temp hp generating ability.
Oh, you know, I forgot to account for the fact that you're already getting resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing, so this is actually quite powerful. I think my initial reasoning comparing it to Storm Herald was that the Storm Herald is giving temp hp to every creature within 10 feet, and frost giant is only giving it to one person. However, that much hp to one person is probably more beneficial than a similar amount distributed to multiple people, especially considering the damage resistance. Perhaps just giving a boost equal to prof. bonus would be better?
Yeah, hill giant is one of the ones I'm more proud of/excited about, because there really aren't great grappling option in RAW. I want to be able to wrestle a dragon, dangit! I hope you can find an opportunity to try it!
That would be better.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Nice! Glad you're enjoying it.