D&D: ‘Glory of the Giants’s New Barbarian Subclass Makes a Change Everyone’s Been Waiting For
The new Path of the Giant Barbarian subclass in Glory of the Giants gives Barbarians an ability they should have had since day one.
Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants has a single, solitary new subclass: the Path of the Giant for Barbarians. That’s down from the three that were originally playtested in the Giant Options Unearthed Arcana released last year. Gone are the Wizard and Druid subclasses. And while few will be sad to see the Runecrafter Wizard subclass gutted, replaced with Runecarver feats that are much more flexible instead; we weep for the cool dinosaur companion Druid.
But the Path of the Giant is here, and it’s largely unchanged from the Unearthed Arcana. Which means some of this might be familiar. But if you’re new to the subclass, in a nutshell, it’s about being big. And also making thrown weapons work the way they should have from the beginning.
Path of the Giant Barbarian – Hurling Barbarians Into the Future
This is an interesting book because it’s a transitional one. You can see the old design of 5E coming up and blending into the new design of One D&D. And in this book, it seems to be most apparent with the Path of the Giant Barbarian.
Here we get a look at the D&D team looking at some of the limits of the Barbarian and then working to improve them. I’m talking specifically about the feature Giant’s Havoc, which Path of the Giant Barbarians gains at 3rd level. Giant’s Havoc is the bread-and-butter mechanic of the new Barbarian subclass. Its primary draw is supposed to be that it turns Barbarians big.
But being Large doesn’t do much for the Barbarian, except make them a bigger target (easier to hit in an AoE attack) and grant them five extra feet of reach. Which is nice when you’re looking to deal extra damage.
But Giant’s Havoc also has a feature called Crushing Throw, which allows the Barbarian to deal their Rage Damage when making a Ranged Attack with a thrown weapon using Strength. A change that playtesters seemed to like so much that’s just how things will work in One D&D.
As of the most recent One D&D playtest, Barbarians can just do exactly that normally when they Rage. This is great, but that means if you’re truly trying to be backward compatible, there’s little incentive to take this subclass when you could just play a 2024 Barbarian instead.
Large Doesn’t Mean in Charge, But Elemental Damage Does
Aside from the Giant’s Havoc being a bit lackluster, there’s some juice to the Giant Barbarian. At 6th level, they gain the ability to sheathe their weapons in elemental energy, dealing an extra d6 of acid, fire, cold, lightning, or thunder damage. And they can swap out which type as a bonus action.
And at 10th level, they gain Mighty Impel, which lets a Barbarian throw a medium or smaller creature around the battlefield while raging. As a Bonus Action. Which is just terribly fun. Especially since the Barbarian can use this to throw enemies out of a window or off a cliff. This feels like an ability that should have come much earlier.
Finally at 14th level, with Demiurgic Colossus, Barbarians can become Huge, gaining 10 extra feet of reach, 2d6 extra elemental damage, and the ability to throw Large or smaller creatures around.
And that’s the Path of the Giant Barbarian in a giant-sized nutshell.
