D&D: Bigby’s New Feats Are Designed With 2024 in Mind
The new feats in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants are built with the next edition of D&D in mind. Here’s a closer look at how.
Over the weekend, WotC took a deeper dive into the new feats introduced in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants. Revealing more details about how the new feats work, the video also pointed out an interesting development, many of the new feats are designed with the next iteration of D&D begins.
How does that manifest? Well, for the most part, it seems to be in new ways that these feats can be unlocked, beyond just the Background.
Bigby’s Feats Showcase the New Direction of the Rules
In the new video, WotC dives deeper into the feats. And the deeper they go, the more it becomes clear that many of the feats in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants first debuted in the Wonders of the Multiverse UA back in 2022. Of particular interest are the two sorts of foundational feats, Rune Shaper and Strike of the Giants.
First up, Rune Shaper, a feat that is like a very focused Magic Initiate that sows the seeds of building upon itself. Mechanically, the feat allows you access to spells depending on what Rune you know. New additions include Burning Hands, Goodberry, Thunderwave, Fog Cloud, and Inflict Wounds, which join the original selections of Chromatic Orb, Disguise Self, Speak with Animals, Longstrider, Command, Entangle, and Sanctuary. But what makes the feat interesting is that you can get it as part of the Rune Carver background or if you have the Spellcasting Feature.
Strike of the Giants has a similar update. It comes with the Giant Foundling background or can be by a character with Martial Weapon Proficiencies. The new feat can also be taken more than once, so you can pick a different type of Giant Strike, which includes Frost Strike, Stone Strike, et al.
We’ve seen WotC dabbling in Feat Trees before. But what makes these “forwards compatible?” It seems to be the prerequisites: you have Martial weapon proficiency or Spellcasting. Which makes a kind of sense, even if it is limiting. A Fighter couldn’t learn Runes without knowing Spellcasting first, essentially, unless they had the Rune Carver background. But, perhaps that’s WotC’s way of trying to make Backgrounds matter more.
What do you think? Would you consider using these feats?
