So first you choose Orc, or an other race that gives you doubled carry capacity and take +2 Strengh +1 Con.
Point Buy 15 in Strengh, Con and Wisdom.
When you get your ASI get Resilient wisdom for good wisdom saves and a 16 in wisdom.
Tavern Brawler +1 Strengh, you'll see why tavern Brawler in a second.
Skill Expert for expertise in Athletics and another +1 in Strengh and Crusher for your last +1 in Stengh.
With the rest of your feats you go Alert, Mobile and Tough for example although you don't need to it is just what I go for.
You now have 20 Str and +11 Strengh saves 16 Wisdom with +9 and 16 Con with another +9.
Now let's make it dumb.
You can start your game as an orc with a height of 8 feet. It is an average height for them.
At level 10 you get 3d4 additional feet in height because of your giant statue. So if you roll 12 you are now 20 feet in height while still being considered Medium Rules as Written(I know it is dumb, but there are other posts about it explaining in detail why that is the case and I don't care as this makes this build stronger).
Now grow using your ability to become Huge. Your height got multiplied by 4. So now you are 80 feet tall.
Drink an uncommon potion of growth or have a friend or npc cast enlarge on you, either way easy for you.
You are now officially 160 feet tall Gargantuan Orc.
Technically it is just your height so you can raise your arm to reach higher. I say for simplicity that your hand can reach up to 200 feet from the ground, you could argue more, but where we are going this is all we will need.
Now look at a creature, any creature really, as you are capable of grappling anything and nobody can stop you as you have +17 and advantage on Athletics.
The creature you grapple you raise it to the 200 feet and then let it fall, it takes 20d6 damage(Exactly the max fall damage a creature can take). This doesn't work against Monks, Hovering Enemies and those that have Feather Fall. (Funnily Enough it works against normal flying creatures like Dragons as if you grapple them they technically have 0 movement speed so they fall after you let the go)
You can grapple plebs 4 times a turn because of multiattack. That is 80d6 damage without a save = 280 damage.
But that is not all. Technically You are now Gargantuan and larger creatures have oversized weapons that deal extra damage dice according to their size. For example large creatures do twice the normal damage dice, huge 3 times and Gargantuan 4 times.
This is why we took Tavern Brawler.
It is specifically stated that everything you are wearing becomes larger with you in the Giants Might feature, but technically some might argue that your weapons don't do the same as you are technically not wearing them but wielding them.
But your shield is totally a thing you are wearing as it is technically a part of your equipment. So you use your now massive shield as an improvised weapon because of Tavern Brawler, Your DM determines the Improvised damage of a shield. My DM allowed me to go for a d6 but yours may argue 1d4 either way it doesn't matter as either way now that your shield is massive it still does 4d6+5 or 4d4+5 per hit. And because of tavern Brawler you can still squeeze in that fourth grapple as a bonus action even though you spend one attack bashing a guy with your abroximately 50 feet long shield.
Additionally, with the once per turn d10(yeah, I still don't get why only the first attack gets the damage boost from Giants Might, you litterally are huge. How your other attacks don't get the bonus aswell I dont get, but that is irrelevant as you technically need only that one attack as the rest of the time you are going to be recking people with grappling) that is an additional damage of 1d10+4d6+5 or 24.5 damage assuming it hits.
Here is how it will hit: You are going to take the Blind Fighing fighting style and use the ever smoking bottle and take alert so creatures outside of the smoke don't get advantage when they attack you. Mobile is here so you don't get out run and because you are an Orc you can dash as a bonus action. With normal armor and a shield your AC is 20(26 if magical) and people have disadvantage at attacking you.
The other benefit of having a shield as a weapon is that your other hand is completely free and as per rules of grappling you need at least one free hand to grapple a creature. And not to forget your carry capacity is 9600 pounds so you can carry almost anything (sadly no instant fortress dropping for 30 by 30 feet 10d10 pulverization damage(Ultra Fireball, no spell slot used and thr damage type although bludgeoning is not weapon damage and thus most creature aren't resistant or immune to it).
And you still have the other crazy benefits of your runes to play around and a great wisdom stat of 16 to have good role play opportunities. Also if your DM allows it learn diffrent tools as you have automatic expertise with those once you learn them because of Fire Rune.
This build is technically possible, and I don't even think that it is that game breaking as you can completely counter it with Feather Fall a very common and powerful first level spell, or being a being with hover speed so be scared of beholders they still woop your ass(not if you use your eversmoking bottle).
Another weakness is being destroyed by Dexterity saves. You only have 224 Hp if you take average and Tough so a wizard is still killing you with fireballs and teleporting away out of range and you won't be able to do nothing about it as your max movement is 120 feet.
Overall it is still a very strong late game build, it only becomes viable after level 10 as you get that passive height boost as you deal 1 fourth of 280, meaning 70 damage a turn at level 10 and have a spike at level 11, dealing 105 damage, level 18 dealing 210 damage and finally reaching your full potential at level 20.
Before level 10 it is trash, just play a spell caster melee is overrated.
Everybody knows that, I play mostly spell casters, this build is the only build in my eyes that even remotely competes in terms of power and role-playing opportunities with casters.
And I know that this is still weaker than a wizard that is litterally immortal after they get clone or summoning unlimited magen, but in terms of countering many conventional monsters like Dragons and Tarrasques I think it is a build worth playing for fun of playing a guy called Frodo the Fortress Slinger.
You can start your game as an orc with a height of 8 feet. It is an average height for them.
At level 10 you get 3d4 additional feet in height because of your giant statue. So if you roll 12 you are now 20 feet in height while still being considered Medium Rules as Written(I
At level 10 you get an additional 3d4 inches to your height so your orc (if they roll 12) is now 9ft.
Larger creatures having oversized weapons that deal extra damage does not apply to PCs, Giant's Might is the PC version of this. I stopped reading at that point.
Thanks for the reply. Ok, first recalculate that would be 9 times 8 equals 72 feet height so if you raise your foe above your head that would be 10d6 so the overall damage output is now halved. Well it is now 140 damage per round which isn't that impressive anymore, but still fun. As for the oversized weapons, it is actually possible, watch the video Pack Tactics made on the subject.
Thanks for the reply. Ok, first recalculate that would be 9 times 8 equals 72 feet height so if you raise your foe above your head that would be 10d6 so the overall damage output is now halved. Well it is now 140 damage per round which isn't that impressive anymore, but still fun. As for the oversized weapons, it is actually possible, watch the video Pack Tactics made on the subject.
I am not going to post everything that is wrong with this, but I don't know where you get this doubling of height for each change in size. All the DMG says is Medium creatures control 1 (5ft) square, Large creatures control 4 (2*2), huge creatures 9 (3*3) and gargantuan 16 or more. There is no mention of height (which makes 3d combats a bit unclear).
The main thing is that the DM is the final arbiter of the rules, if a feature is totally overpowered it is not a good feature dispite what people like Pack Tactics say about it. While some of the things posted by such peple are RAW other are based on a misinterpretation (a classic here is to assume the lungs are an "open container" so a 1st level spell (create or destroy water) can kill any enemy by filling their lungs with water). Players should work with the DM to create a fun story with challenging combat not work against them to try and find a cheat code to press the "I win" button.
Echoing Jegpeg's sentiments, I'm not seeing anything in the rules that supports the alleged enormous increase in a rune knight's height. For example, all giants are huge creatures, but the tallest of them all--the storm giant--reaches only 26' in height. The image below is taken from the Monster Manual.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
So first you choose Orc, or an other race that gives you doubled carry capacity and take +2 Strengh +1 Con.
Point Buy 15 in Strengh, Con and Wisdom.
When you get your ASI get Resilient wisdom for good wisdom saves and a 16 in wisdom.
Tavern Brawler +1 Strengh, you'll see why tavern Brawler in a second.
Skill Expert for expertise in Athletics and another +1 in Strengh and Crusher for your last +1 in Stengh.
With the rest of your feats you go Alert, Mobile and Tough for example although you don't need to it is just what I go for.
You now have 20 Str and +11 Strengh saves 16 Wisdom with +9 and 16 Con with another +9.
Now let's make it dumb.
You can start your game as an orc with a height of 8 feet. It is an average height for them.
At level 10 you get 3d4 additional feet in height because of your giant statue. So if you roll 12 you are now 20 feet in height while still being considered Medium Rules as Written(I know it is dumb, but there are other posts about it explaining in detail why that is the case and I don't care as this makes this build stronger).
Now grow using your ability to become Huge. Your height got multiplied by 4. So now you are 80 feet tall.
Drink an uncommon potion of growth or have a friend or npc cast enlarge on you, either way easy for you.
You are now officially 160 feet tall Gargantuan Orc.
Technically it is just your height so you can raise your arm to reach higher. I say for simplicity that your hand can reach up to 200 feet from the ground, you could argue more, but where we are going this is all we will need.
Now look at a creature, any creature really, as you are capable of grappling anything and nobody can stop you as you have +17 and advantage on Athletics.
The creature you grapple you raise it to the 200 feet and then let it fall, it takes 20d6 damage(Exactly the max fall damage a creature can take). This doesn't work against Monks, Hovering Enemies and those that have Feather Fall. (Funnily Enough it works against normal flying creatures like Dragons as if you grapple them they technically have 0 movement speed so they fall after you let the go)
You can grapple plebs 4 times a turn because of multiattack. That is 80d6 damage without a save = 280 damage.
But that is not all. Technically You are now Gargantuan and larger creatures have oversized weapons that deal extra damage dice according to their size. For example large creatures do twice the normal damage dice, huge 3 times and Gargantuan 4 times.
This is why we took Tavern Brawler.
It is specifically stated that everything you are wearing becomes larger with you in the Giants Might feature, but technically some might argue that your weapons don't do the same as you are technically not wearing them but wielding them.
But your shield is totally a thing you are wearing as it is technically a part of your equipment. So you use your now massive shield as an improvised weapon because of Tavern Brawler, Your DM determines the Improvised damage of a shield. My DM allowed me to go for a d6 but yours may argue 1d4 either way it doesn't matter as either way now that your shield is massive it still does 4d6+5 or 4d4+5 per hit. And because of tavern Brawler you can still squeeze in that fourth grapple as a bonus action even though you spend one attack bashing a guy with your abroximately 50 feet long shield.
Additionally, with the once per turn d10(yeah, I still don't get why only the first attack gets the damage boost from Giants Might, you litterally are huge. How your other attacks don't get the bonus aswell I dont get, but that is irrelevant as you technically need only that one attack as the rest of the time you are going to be recking people with grappling) that is an additional damage of 1d10+4d6+5 or 24.5 damage assuming it hits.
Here is how it will hit: You are going to take the Blind Fighing fighting style and use the ever smoking bottle and take alert so creatures outside of the smoke don't get advantage when they attack you. Mobile is here so you don't get out run and because you are an Orc you can dash as a bonus action. With normal armor and a shield your AC is 20(26 if magical) and people have disadvantage at attacking you.
The other benefit of having a shield as a weapon is that your other hand is completely free and as per rules of grappling you need at least one free hand to grapple a creature. And not to forget your carry capacity is 9600 pounds so you can carry almost anything (sadly no instant fortress dropping for 30 by 30 feet 10d10 pulverization damage(Ultra Fireball, no spell slot used and thr damage type although bludgeoning is not weapon damage and thus most creature aren't resistant or immune to it).
And you still have the other crazy benefits of your runes to play around and a great wisdom stat of 16 to have good role play opportunities. Also if your DM allows it learn diffrent tools as you have automatic expertise with those once you learn them because of Fire Rune.
This build is technically possible, and I don't even think that it is that game breaking as you can completely counter it with Feather Fall a very common and powerful first level spell, or being a being with hover speed so be scared of beholders they still woop your ass(not if you use your eversmoking bottle).
Another weakness is being destroyed by Dexterity saves. You only have 224 Hp if you take average and Tough so a wizard is still killing you with fireballs and teleporting away out of range and you won't be able to do nothing about it as your max movement is 120 feet.
Overall it is still a very strong late game build, it only becomes viable after level 10 as you get that passive height boost as you deal 1 fourth of 280, meaning 70 damage a turn at level 10 and have a spike at level 11, dealing 105 damage, level 18 dealing 210 damage and finally reaching your full potential at level 20.
Before level 10 it is trash, just play a spell caster melee is overrated.
Everybody knows that, I play mostly spell casters, this build is the only build in my eyes that even remotely competes in terms of power and role-playing opportunities with casters.
And I know that this is still weaker than a wizard that is litterally immortal after they get clone or summoning unlimited magen, but in terms of countering many conventional monsters like Dragons and Tarrasques I think it is a build worth playing for fun of playing a guy called Frodo the Fortress Slinger.
At level 10 you get an additional 3d4 inches to your height so your orc (if they roll 12) is now 9ft.
Larger creatures having oversized weapons that deal extra damage does not apply to PCs, Giant's Might is the PC version of this. I stopped reading at that point.
Thanks for the reply. Ok, first recalculate that would be 9 times 8 equals 72 feet height so if you raise your foe above your head that would be 10d6 so the overall damage output is now halved. Well it is now 140 damage per round which isn't that impressive anymore, but still fun. As for the oversized weapons, it is actually possible, watch the video Pack Tactics made on the subject.
I am not going to post everything that is wrong with this, but I don't know where you get this doubling of height for each change in size. All the DMG says is Medium creatures control 1 (5ft) square, Large creatures control 4 (2*2), huge creatures 9 (3*3) and gargantuan 16 or more. There is no mention of height (which makes 3d combats a bit unclear).
The main thing is that the DM is the final arbiter of the rules, if a feature is totally overpowered it is not a good feature dispite what people like Pack Tactics say about it. While some of the things posted by such peple are RAW other are based on a misinterpretation (a classic here is to assume the lungs are an "open container" so a 1st level spell (create or destroy water) can kill any enemy by filling their lungs with water). Players should work with the DM to create a fun story with challenging combat not work against them to try and find a cheat code to press the "I win" button.
Echoing Jegpeg's sentiments, I'm not seeing anything in the rules that supports the alleged enormous increase in a rune knight's height. For example, all giants are huge creatures, but the tallest of them all--the storm giant--reaches only 26' in height. The image below is taken from the Monster Manual.